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.

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

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.

The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack — amounts to genocide.

The Palestinians, their supporters and international human rights groups make that claim, and the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel.

But in Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government’s strongest critics have largely refrained from making such accusations.

That’s because of the deep sensitivities and strong memories of the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews, and because many in Israel view the war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the country’s history and not an attempt at extermination.

Shattering a taboo in Israel

The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Guy Shalev, director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the Jewish-Israeli public often dismisses accusations of genocide as antisemitic or biased against Israel.

“Perhaps human rights groups based in Israel, and coming to this conclusion, is a way to confront that accusation and get people to acknowledge the reality,” he said.

Israel asserts that it is fighting an existential war and abides by international law. It has rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic.

It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice, and it has rejected the International Criminal Court’s allegations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza. Both face international arrest warrants.

Israel’s government on Monday didn’t immediately comment on the reports by B’Tselem and PHRI. Israeli officials largely blame civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses civilians as shields by embedding militants in residential areas.

The reports echo international claims

The rights groups, in separate reports released jointly, said Israel’s policies in Gaza, statements by senior officials about its goals there and the systematic dismantling of the territory’s health system contributed to their conclusion of genocide.

Their claims echoed those of previous reports from international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Like other rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have not been allowed into Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on testimonies, documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts.

Hamas’ attack on Israel that started the war sparked a shift in the country’s policy toward Palestinians in Gaza from “repression and control to destruction and annihilation,” B’Tselem said.

The group has long been outspoken about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It halted cooperation with the military nearly a decade ago, saying the army’s investigations into wrongdoing weren’t serious, and it has accused Israel of being an apartheid state.

The PHRI report was a detailed, legal-medical analysis focusing on what it called the step-by-step dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems including electricity, clean water and access to food.

Its report says Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, including “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The Israeli rights groups said repeated statements by Israeli officials and the military endorsing the total destruction, starvation and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with policies on the ground, have demonstrated that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy Palestinian society.

A ‘painful’ conclusion

The term “genocide” strikes a chord in Israel, where Israelis grow up learning about the Holocaust and hearing survivors’ harrowing stories, while promising it would never happen again.

The 1948 Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews. It defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

“As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, it’s very painful for me to be reaching this conclusion,” said Shalev from PHRI. But after growing up in a society where the Holocaust was so important, it demands some kind of responsibility, he said.

Until now, Israeli criticism of the war in Gaza has been focused on Netanyahu and whether his wartime decision-making has been politically motivated and delayed the return of hostages — 50 of them still in Gaza.

Broader scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been limited for multiple reasons. Despite the vast destruction and death in the territory and Israel’s growing international isolation, most Israelis have believed for much of the war in its righteousness.

And with most Jewish Israelis serving in the army, it’s difficult for most people to fathom that their relatives in uniform could be carrying out genocide. Some soldiers, however, have refused to fight in the war.

Jeffrey Herf, a historian who has published much on antisemitism, said the allegation of genocide doesn’t take into account that there is a war between two parties. He said it ignores Hamas as a military force and Israel’s right to defend itself.

Israelis’ focus is on the hostages, not Palestinians

After groups like B’Tselem in recent years accused Israel of apartheid, more mainstream voices in Israel also picked up the claim, although in less sweeping ways.

Israeli historian Tom Segev said he’s not sure the new reports and their allegations will have an impact on the public.

“The major thing for Israelis is a question of the hostages, not necessarily the fate of the population in Gaza,” he said. But he said what’s happening in Gaza is undermining the ideological and moral justification for the existence of Israel.

The rights groups said the international community hasn’t done enough to protect Palestinians and are calling on the world, including Israelis who have stayed silent, to speak up.

“We have an obligation to do everything we can to speak the truth about this, to stand by the victims,” said Sarit Michaeli, the international director for B’Tselem.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — U.S. President Trump met on Monday at one of his Scottish golf courses with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who pressed him on the U.S. taking a larger role in helping quell a growing food crisis in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the territory.

Starmer and his wife, Victoria, arrived at Trump’s Turnberry course on the southern coast, and the Republican president spent several minutes chatting with them and proudly pointing out key aspects of the property. But the prime minister didn’t wait until they were inside to insist that Gaza would be a key topic in their meeting, calling what’s occurring there “a desperate situation.”

Trump expressed concern about the humanitarian situation and urged Israel’s leader to take action as images of emaciated children have emerged.

Trump was asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated and replied, “I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

Starmer was far more forceful: “I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens.”

Trump said Israel “has a lot of responsibility” for what’s happening but said the country is hampered by considerations of the remaining hostages it wants to see kept alive and freed.

“I think Israel can do a lot,” Trump said, without offering more information.

Trump has multiple Scottish golf courses

The prime minister is meeting with Trump at Turnberry but also plans to travel north, to outside Aberdeen, where the president’s family has a second golf course and is holding a ribbon-cutting for a third one on Tuesday.

The events allow Trump to try and make good on a post from his first term in 2019, when he wrote of his Turnberry property, “Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!”

Starmer is famously not a golfer, but toggling between Trump’s Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name — and on golf’s ability to shape geopolitics.

Still, Monday’s talks also covered far more serious issues.

The prime minister wants Washington’s help in convincing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and attempting to end what Downing Street called “the unspeakable suffering and starvation” while pushing for a ceasefire.

Britain, along with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for “withholding essential humanitarian assistance” as hunger spreads in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will take part in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions.

But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has “the leverage” to make a real difference in the conflict. Trump spoke before the meeting with Starmer about wanting to help starving children, but he has also repeatedly complained about the U.S. not getting enough credit for organizing past food aid into Gaza.

“Nobody said even thank you,” he said. “Somebody should say thank you.”

Palestinian state questions and Ukraine also being discussed

Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move both Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but it must be “part of a wider plan” for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Trump, however, said Monday of Starmer doing so, “I don’t mind him taking a position.”

Also on Monday’s agenda are efforts to promote a possible peace deal to end fighting in Russia’s war with Ukraine, particularly trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table within a 50-day window Trump set earlier this month.

Trump said before the meeting with Starmer that he’d work to reduce the “50 days to a lesser number” and urged Russia to agree to a deal.

Trump in the past sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to express enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking a similar tack he’s now adopting when it comes to aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks.

Trump’s new golf course near Aberdeen opens to the public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already for sale — with the course betting that a presidential visit can help boost sales. Protesters have planned a demonstration in Balmedie, near Trump’s existing Aberdeen golf course. That follows protests across Scotland on Saturday decrying the president’s visit as he was out golfing.

Refining past trade agreements

While China initially responded to Trump’s tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach.

He’s gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May.

Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement during the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.’s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to reduce them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the amount of U.S. beef it pledged to import.

“The U.K. is very well-protected. You know why? Because I like them — that’s their ultimate protection,” Trump said of U.S. tariff policy during the G7.

Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework that will put 15% tariffs on most goods from both countries, though many major details remain pending.

The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits around the globe and sees tariffs as a way to try and close them in a hurry. But the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last year, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this year indicate that the surplus could grow.

There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it continues to face a 25% levy.

U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that “negotiations have been going on on a daily basis” and “there’s a few issues to push a little bit further today,” though he downplayed expectations of a resolution.

The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, has urged Trump to lift the current 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit’s “uniqueness” justified an exemption.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London and Michelle L. Price and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire starting at midnight, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Monday, a significant breakthrough to resolve five days of deadly border clashes that have killed dozens and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai hailed the outcome of the meeting and shook hands along with Anwar at the conclusion of the brief press conference in Malaysia.

The fighting began Thursday after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. Both sides blamed each other for starting the clashes, that have killed at least 35 people and displaced more than 260,000 people on both sides.

Hun Manet and Phumtham have agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” with effect from midnight local time, Anwar said as he read out a joint statement.

Anwar, who hosted the talks as annual chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc, said both sides have reached a common understanding to take steps to return to normalcy following what he called frank discussions.

“This is a vital first step towards de-escalation and the restoration of peace and security,” Anwar said.

As part of the ceasefire deal, military commanders from both sides will hold talks Tuesday to defuse tensions while Cambodia will host a border committee meeting on Aug. 4. he said. The foreign and defense ministers of Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand have also been instructed to “develop a detailed mechanism” to implement and monitor the ceasefire to ensure sustained peace, he added.

Hun Manet said he hoped that bilateral ties could return to normal soon so that some 300,000 villagers evacuated on both sides could return home.

It is “time to start rebuilding trust, confidence and cooperation going forward between Thailand and Cambodia,” he said.

Phumtham said the outcome reflected “Thailand’s desire for a peaceful resolution.”

The Malaysian meeting followed direct pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned that the United States may not proceed with trade deals with either country if hostilities continue. The joint statement said that the U.S. is a co-organizer of the talks, with participation from China. The Chinese and American ambassadors to Malaysia attended the meeting that lasted over two hours.

In a press statement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was involved in arranging the meeting, applauded the ceasefire declaration. Rubio said he and President Trump “are committed to an immediate cessation of violence and expect the governments of Cambodia and Thailand to fully honor their commitments to end this conflict.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted news of the ceasefire on X and wrote: “President Trump made this happen. Give him the Nobel Peace Prize!”

Phumtham said after his return to Bangkok that Trump had called to offer congratulations for making a move toward peace and said that Thailand’s talks with Washington to set tariff levels on Thai exports could now proceed and that he would seek to make them as favorable as possible.

The violence marks a rare instance of open military confrontation between ASEAN member states, a 10-nation regional bloc that has prided itself on non-aggression, peaceful dialogue and economic cooperation. Both countries recalled their ambassadors and Thailand shut all border crossings with Cambodia, with an exception for migrant Cambodian workers returning home.

News of the ceasefire brought relief and hope to evacuees from both sides. Some women at a crowded evacuation shelter in Surin, Thailand, shouted for joy.

“I’m happy about that, and feeling a bit relieved,” said Usa Dasri, a vendor and farmer. “We miss our home. There are many small things I’m worried about, livestock and rice fields. I don’t know what might’ve happened to them. I want to go home, so I’m happy. I also think about our soldiers at the frontline. I want them to be safe and have a good sleep like us.”

She also credited outside diplomacy for the breakthrough.

“Without them, our two countries would have had a hard time negotiating — both sides have quite a hard time talking and understanding each other,” she added.

Cambodian evacuees echoed the sentiment.

Chhuot Nhav, 42, who fled her home in Oddar Meanchey province, a frontline for the fighting, said she was happy but also wary.

“I am happy because I can go home and take care of my pig, dog, chickens and my kids can now go back to school,” said Chhuot Nhav, from under a series of green tarps that stretched out to the length of a school bus. But she said she will “wait until the fighting really stops” before heading back.

Another farmer Kong Sin, however said he would head back home Tuesday if the ceasefire took place as agreed.

The 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier between Thailand and Cambodia has been disputed for decades, but past confrontations have been limited and brief. The latest tensions erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thailand’s domestic politics.

Jintamas reported from Surin, Thailand, and Sopheng Cheang from Samrong, Cambodia. Associated Press writers Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

According to three lawsuits filed recently in Baltimore County District Court, Vistant owes each of the foreign aid workers about $20,000 to $29,000 for work they did before the end of January, when the Trump administration froze USAID funding and issued stop-work orders.

Vistant’s founder, Walter Barnes III, of Potomac, is among four men who pleaded guilty in a decade-long bribery scheme involving USAID contracts. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Barnes resigned as Vistant’s president and chairman in 2023, according to federal documents, and the current CEO, George Washington, declined to comment in an email to The Baltimore Sun.

The contractors who sued Vistant are Alanna Shaikh, Amjad Hamza and Noor Majdalani. They say they were not paid for their work and expenses incurred in programs under contract to the company in December and January.

“It’s very clear people we relied on to do good work overseas are being really mistreated,” said Laura L. Dunn, a New York-based attorney representing the plaintiffs. “We’re sort of leaving them twisting in the wind.”

The suits note that the contractors received “stop work” orders on Jan. 27, which they complied with, but then weren’t paid for work and expenses they were already owed. Vistant terminated their email accounts and their access to the timesheet portal, the suits said.

According to one suit, filed earlier this month, a contractor was given less than a week to leave the job and housing in Morocco after the stop-work order, despite Vistant already having paid for the accommodations through June. The lawsuits also involved USAID programs in Yemen and Syria.

Emails from Vistant, included in the suits, show company officials saying they were trying to see how various directives and rulings in lawsuits challenging the USAID cuts would affect reimbursements to contractors. The company said it was reducing costs, cutting staff and expenses, and urged the contractors to be patient. At least one email from a Vistant senior vice president in April said the company had received “some partial payments” for “activity” prior to the stop-work order.

As the months went by and the contractors remained unpaid, their emails reflect growing desperation for the funds.

“I’m sure you’re aware we’re going through difficult times,” one contractor wrote in March, asking for “updates about the process … even if it’s bad news.”

“My housing situation makes this payment critical,” another contractor wrote in April.

The cases are part of the continuing fallout from the dismantling of the foreign aid programs, or as then-presidential advisor Elon Musk characterized it on his X social media platform, “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” The USAID cuts were felt deeply in Baltimore, home to several humanitarian groups, such as Catholic Relief Services, and global health programs at Johns Hopkins and its affiliates that had received funding from the agency.

The bribery scheme that Vistant was named in was uncovered by USAID’s Office of the Inspector General in 2023 during the Biden administration and had been going on for about 10 years, according to the Justice Department.

The DOJ said that a USAID contracting officer, Roderick Watson, of Woodstock, agreed to receive bribes in exchange for using his influence to award contracts to a Florida man, Darryl Britt, who owned a company called Apprio. Vistant was a subcontractor to Apprio on one of the contracts received via Watson’s influence, the DOJ said, and eventually became a prime contractor.

Britt and Vistant’s Barnes paid bribes to Watson, often concealing them by passing them through Paul Young, of Columbia, another subcontractor, the DOJ said. The bribes also came in the form of laptops and cellphones, suite tickets to an NBA game, a country club wedding, down payments on houses and jobs for relatives, according to the DOJ.

The Justice Department said that while Vistant’s cooperation with the federal investigation was “initially delayed and limited,” it eventually began fully cooperating. The department decided that because the company accepted responsibility for its criminal conduct, and that paying a bigger penalty would threaten its continued viability, it would resolve the case with a deferred prosecution agreement and a civil settlement of $100,000.

In 2022, Vistant, then known as PM Consulting Group, was named the second fastest-growing private company by the Baltimore Business Journal, having tripled its annual revenue since 2019. It had 160 employees and made about $34.19 million in 2021, the Journal reported.

Have a news tip? Contact Jean Marbella at jmarbella@baltsun.com, 410-332-6060 or @jeanmarbella.bsky.social.

LONDON (AP) — Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said Friday that it will stop all political advertising in the European Union by October, blaming legal uncertainty over new rules designed to increase transparency in election campaigns.

The social media giant said in a blog post that it will no longer allow ads for political, electoral and social issues on its platforms, which also include Threads, starting in early October.

The company said it was making the decision because of the 27-nation EU’s “unworkable” Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulations.

The rules introduce “significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties,” Meta said.

It’s not the first Big Tech company to make such a move. Google said last year that it would stop serving EU users political ads before the rules take effect, in an announcement that cited similar reasons.

Under the regulations, which are set to take effect on Oct. 10, platforms will have to label political ads, disclosing who paid for them, and what campaign, referendum or legislative process they’re connected to. Ads will have to be preserved in a database, and they can only be targeted to users under strict conditions.

The rules introduce “significant, additional obligations to our processes and systems that create an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU,” Meta said.

Violations can be hit with fines worth up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue.

The rules are part of Brussels’ wider efforts to counter foreign influence and manipulation in elections, and dovetail with the bloc’s other regulations designed to protect citizens’ privacy and hold platforms more accountable for internet users’ online safety. But those moves clash with President Donald Trump’s administration, which has lashed out at the EU’s digital rulemaking.

Meta said its decision won’t affect users who want to debate politics on its platforms or prevent politicians, candidates and officer holders from “sharing political content organically.”

“They just won’t be able to amplify this through paid advertising,” it said.

LONDON (AP) — Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain’s greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97.

The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday it was “greatly saddened” by the news that “one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away.”

Monica Ferguson, artistic director of The Stables, said Laine “will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered.”

Laine’s career spanned the Atlantic and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten’s “Noye’s Fludde.”

Laine’s life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951, and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82.

In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.

“It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me,” she said when the honor was announced. “It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do.”

Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons.

She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as a movie extra in “The Thief of Bagdad.” Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer.

A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. “Clementina Campbell” was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine.

“John said that when he heard me, I didn’t sound like anyone else who was singing at the time,” Laine once said. “I guess the reason I didn’t get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else.”

Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as “smoky.”

Dankworth, in an interview with the Irish Independent, recalled Laine’s audition.

“They were all sitting there with stony faces, so I asked the Scottish trumpet player Jimmy Deuchar, who was looking very glum and was the hardest nut of all, whether he thought she had something. ‘Something?’ he said, ‘She’s got everything!’”

Offered 6 pounds a week, Laine demanded — and got — 7 pounds.

“They used to call me ‘Scruff’, although I don’t think I was scruffy. It was just that having come from the sticks, I didn’t know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day,” she told the Irish Independent. “And anyway, I didn’t have the money, because they weren’t paying me enough.”

Recognition came swiftly. Laine was runner-up in Melody Maker’s “girl singer” category in 1952, and topped the list in 1956 and 1957.

She married Dankworth — and quit his band — in 1958, a year after her divorce from her first husband, George Langridge. As Dankworth’s band prospered, Laine began to feel underused.

“I thought, no, I’m not going to just sit on the band and be a singer of songs every now and again when he fancied it. So it was then that I decided I wasn’t going to stay with the band and I was going to go off and try to do something solo-wise,” she said in a BBC documentary.

“When I said I was leaving, he said, ‘Will you marry me?’ That was a good ploy, wasn’t it, huh?”

They were married on March 18, 1958. A son, Alec, was born in 1960, and daughter Jacqueline followed in 1963.

Despite her happy marriage, Laine forged a career independent of Dankworth.

“Whenever anybody starts putting a label on me, I say, ‘Oh, no you don’t,’ and I go and do something different,” Laine told The Associated Press in 1985 when she was appearing on stage in New York in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

Her stage career began in 1958 when she was invited to join the cast of a West Indian play, “Flesh to a Tiger,” at the Royal Court Theatre, and was surprised to find herself in the lead role. She won a Moscow Arts Theatre Award for her performance.

“Valmouth” followed in 1959, “The Seven Deadly Sins” in 1961, “The Trojan Women” in 1966 and “Hedda Gabler” in 1970.

The role of Julie in Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat” in 1971 provided Laine with a show-stopping song, “Bill.”

Laine began winning a following in the United States in 1972 with a concert at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. It wasn’t well-attended, but The New York Times gave her a glowing review.

The following year, she and Dankworth drew a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall, launching a series of popular appearances. “Cleo at Carnegie” won a Grammy award in 1986, the same year she was a Tony nominee for “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: “a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste.”

Perhaps Laine’s most difficult performance of all was on Feb. 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed.

“I’m terribly sorry that Sir John can’t be here today,” Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. “But earlier on my husband died in hospital.”

Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that “I was never a complete belter.”

“There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, ‘Don’t do that — it’s not good for you and your voice.’”

Laine is survived by her son and daughter.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed. AP journalist Robert Barr, the principal writer of the obituary, died in 2018.

TURNBERRY, Scotland (AP) — It may not be typical golf attire, but one of the most ubiquitous outfits seen on U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s golf course Friday ahead of his visit was the reflective yellow vest worn by Scottish police.

The standard issue garb that is far removed from the traditional Turnberry tartan was highly visible on the dunes, the beaches and the grass as thousands of officers secured the course in advance of protests planned during the president’s visit to two of his Scottish golf resorts.

Trump was expected to arrive Friday evening to a mix of respect and ridicule.

His visit requires a major police operation that will cost Scottish taxpayers millions of pounds as protests are planned over the weekend. The union representing officers is concerned they are already overworked and will be diverted from their normal duties and some residents are not happy about the cost.

“Why isn’t he paying for it himself? He’s coming for golf, isn’t he?” said Merle Fertuson, a solo protester in Edinburgh holding a hand-drawn cardboard sign that featured a foolishly grinning Trump likeness in a tuxedo. “It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with public money, either U.S. or U.K.”

Policing for Trump’s four-day visit to the U.K. in 2018 cost more than 14 million pounds ($19 million), according to Freedom of Information figures. That included more than 3 million pounds ($4 million) spent for his two-day golf trip to Turnberry, the historic course and hotel in southwest Scotland that he bought in 2014.

Police Scotland would not discuss how many officers were being deployed for operational reasons and only said the costs would be “considerable.”

“The visit will require a significant police operation using local, national and specialist resources from across Police Scotland, supported by colleagues from other U.K. police forces as part of mutual aid arrangements,” Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond said.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the visit would not be detrimental to policing.

“It’s nonsensical to say it won’t impact it,” said David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, the officers’ union.

Kennedy said he expects about 5,000 officers to take part in the operation.

He said a force reduction in recent years has police working 12-hour shifts. Communities that are understaffed will be left behind with even fewer officers during Trump’s visit.

“We want the president of the United States to be able to come to Scotland. That’s not what this is about,” Kennedy said. “It’s the current state of the police service and the numbers we have causes great difficulty.”

The Stop Trump Scotland group has planned demonstrations Saturday in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfries. The group encouraged people to “show Trump exactly what we think of him in Scotland.”

Trump should receive a much warmer welcome from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is expected to meet with him during the visit. Swinney, the left-leaning head of Scottish government and former Trump critic, also plans to meet with the president.

Melley reported from London. Will Weissert contributed from Edinburgh.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A panel of judges at the International Criminal Court reported Hungary to the court’s oversight organization for failing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest in April, saying the move undercut the court’s ability to bring suspects to justice.

The Israeli leader received a red carpet welcome from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during a state visit, in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant. Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are accused of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

Israel is not a member of the court and staunchly rejects the charges.

In a filing released late Thursday, the three-judge panel wrote that “the obligation to cooperate was sufficiently clear to Hungary” and the failure to arrest Netanyahu “severely undermines the Court’s ability to carry out its mandate.”

The ICC has no police force and relies on countries around the world to execute arrest warrants.

The court’s oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties has limited powers to sanction Hungary. It will consider the next steps during its annual meeting in December.

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, has defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu. During the visit, Orbán said his country’s commitment to the ICC was “ half-hearted ” and began the process to withdraw Hungary from the court.

Orbán signed the Rome Statute, the treaty which created the court, in 2001 during his first term as prime minister.

The court dismissed arguments from Hungary that Parliament never incorporated the court’s statute into Hungarian law, writing “it was Hungary’s responsibility to ensure that such legislation was in place.”

The decision comes as Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians is in a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, now relying largely on the limited aid allowed into the territory. Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and of intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

It’s the third time in the past year that the court has investigated one of its member states for failing to arrest suspects. In February, judges asked Italy to explain why the country sent a Libyan man, suspected of torture and murder, home on an Italian military aircraft rather than handing him over to the court.

In October, judges reported Mongolia to the court’s oversight organization for failing to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visited the Asian nation.