The Triangle's Rock 92.9

Lawmakers visit ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ after being blocked

By JENNIFER PELTZ and ALEXANDRIA RODRIGUEZ Associated Press

OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after visiting Saturday, describing it as crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested. Republicans on the same tour said they saw nothing of the sort at the remote facility that officials have dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz.”

The state-arranged tour came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. So many state legislators and members of Congress turned up Saturday that they were split into multiple groups.

“There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, told reporters after visiting the agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings. “This place is a stunt, and they’re abusing human beings here.”

The first group of immigrants has arrived at the center in the Florida Everglades. It was built in eight days and could eventually hold 3,000 people. (AP Video: Rebecca Blackwell)

Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) in a housing area entranceway and 85 (29 Celsius) in a medical intake area, and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and her fellow Florida Democrats said.

Although the visitors said they were not able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, also a Democrat, said one called out “I’m an American citizen!” and others chanted “Libertad!,” Spanish for “freedom.”

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Florida, countered that he had seen a well-run, safe facility where the living quarters were clean and the air conditioning worked well.

“The rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality,” said Ingoglia, who said he toured in the same group as Wasserman Schultz. Ingoglia said a handful of detainees became “a little raucous” when the visitors appeared, but he did not make out what they were saying.

State Sen. Jay Collins was in another group and said he also found the detention center to be clean and functioning well: “No squalor.”

Collins, a Republican, said he saw backup generators, a tracking system for dietary restrictions and military-style bunks with good mattresses. The sanitation devices struck him as appropriate, if basic.

“Would I want that toilet-and-sink combination at my bathroom at the house? Probably not, but this is a transitional holding facility,” Collins said by phone.

Journalists were not allowed on the tour, and lawmakers were instructed not to bring phones or cameras inside.

Messages seeking comment were sent to the state Division of Emergency Management, which built the facility, and to representatives for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best highlighted one of Ingoglia’s upbeat readouts on social media.

Across the state in Tampa, federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that of the Everglades detention center that “any issues that were there have been addressed.” She added that she has talked with five unnamed Republican governors about modeling other facilities on it.

DeSantis and fellow Republicans have touted the makeshift detention center, constructed in days as an efficient and get-tough response to President Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations. The first detainees arrived July 3, after Trump toured and praised the facility.

Described as temporary, it is meant to help the Republican president’s administration reach its goal of boosting migrant detention capacity from 41,000 people to at least 100,000. The Florida facility’s remote location and its name — a nod to the notorious Alcatraz prison that once housed federal inmates in California — are meant to underscore a message of deterring illegal immigration.

Ahead of the facility’s opening, state officials said detainees would have access to medical care, consistent air conditioning, a recreation yard, attorneys and clergy members.

But detainees and their relatives and advocates have told The Associated Press that conditions are awful, with worm-infested food, toilets overflowing onto floors, mosquitoes buzzing around the fenced bunks, and air conditioners that sometimes shut off in the oppressive South Florida summer heat. One man told his wife that detainees go days without getting showers.

Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Stephanie Hartman called those descriptions “completely false,” saying detainees always get three meals a day, unlimited drinking water, showers and other necessities.

“The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,” she said.

Five Democratic state lawmakers tried to visit the site July 3 but said they were denied access. The state subsequently arranged Saturday’s tour.

The lawmakers have sued over the earlier denial, accusing the DeSantis administration of impeding their oversight authority. A DeSantis spokesperson has called the lawsuit “dumb.”

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Peltz reported from New York, and Rodriguez reported from Ochopee.

Trump says he’s considering ‘taking away’ Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is considering “taking away” the U.S. citizenship of a longtime rival, actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government.

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. He added that O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January, should stay in Ireland “if they want her.”

The two have criticized each other publicly for years, an often bitter back-and-forth that predates Trump’s involvement in politics. In recent days, O’Donnell on social media denounced Trump and recent moves by his administration, including the signing of a massive GOP-backed tax breaks and spending cuts plan.

It’s just the latest threat by Trump to revoke the citizenship of people with whom he has publicly disagreed, most recently his former adviser and one-time ally, Elon Musk.

But O’Donnell’s situation is notably different from Musk, who was born in South Africa. O’Donnell was born in the United States and has a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship. The U.S. State Department notes on its website that U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization may relinquish U.S. nationality by taking certain steps – but only if the act is performed voluntary and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship.

Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, noted the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the Fourteen Amendment of the Constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.

“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born U.S. citizen,” Frost said in an email Saturday. “In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”

O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win his second term. She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage.

Responding to Trump Saturday, O’Donnell wrote on social media that she had upset the president and “add me to the list of people who oppose him at every turn.”

Osprey came back from the brink once. Now chicks are dying in nests, and some blame overfishing

By PATRICK WHITTLE and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press

GLOUCESTER POINT, Va. (AP) — Stepping onto an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered, guano-spattered platform. It’s a failed osprey nest, taken over by diving terns.

“The birds never laid here this year,” said Watts, near the mouth of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. “And that’s a pattern we’ve been seeing these last couple of years.”

The osprey in and around Chesapeake Bay made a stunning comeback after now-banned pesticides almost wiped them out. Now, dying chicks and empty nests have some wondering if human overfishing is driving them back to the brink. (AP Video/Allen G. Breed)

Watts has a more intimate relationship with ospreys than most people have with a bird — he has climbed to their nests to free them from plastic bags, fed them by hand and monitored their eggs with telescopic mirrors.

The fish-eating raptor known for gymnastic dives and whistle-like chirps is an American conservation success story. After pesticides and other hazards nearly eliminated the species from much of the country, the hawk-like bird rebounded after the banning of DDT in 1972 and now numbers in the thousands in the U.S.

But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds, which breed in many parts of the U.S., are failing to successfully fledge enough chicks around their key population center of the Chesapeake Bay. The longtime biologist blames the decline of menhaden, a small schooling fish critical to the osprey diet. Without menhaden to eat, chicks are starving and dying in nests, Watts said.

Osprey are an environmental indicator

Watts’s claim has put him and environmental groups at odds with the fishing industry, trade unions and sometimes government regulators. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fish meal and agricultural food as well as bait.

U.S. fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds of menhaden every year since 1951. Members of the industry tout its sustainability and said the decline in osprey may have nothing to do with fishing.

But without help, the osprey population could tumble to levels not seen since the dark days of DDT, said Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

“The osprey are yelling pretty loudly that, hey, there’s not enough menhaden for us to reproduce successfully,” Watts said. “And we should be listening to them to be more informed fully on the fisheries side, and we should take precaution on the fisheries management side. But that hasn’t won the day at this point.”

Decline linked to menhaden in studies

Watts, who has studied osprey on the Chesapeake for decades, has backed his claims of population decline by publishing studies in scientific journals. He said it boils down to a simple statistic — to maintain population, osprey pairs need to average 1.15 chicks per year.

Osprey were reproducing at that level in the 1980s, but today in some areas around the main stem of the Chesapeake, it’s less than half of that, Watts said. In particularly distressed areas, they aren’t even reproducing at one-tenth that level, he said. And the decline in available menhaden matches the areas of nesting failure, Watts said.

Also called pogies or bunkers, the oily menhaden are especially important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey “reproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance” of menhaden, Watts wrote in a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Conservationists have been concerned for years, saying too many menhaden have been removed to maintain their crucial role in the ocean food chain. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far as to title his 2007 book on menhaden “The Most Important Fish In The Sea.”

Fishing industry pushes back

Menhaden help sustain one of the world’s largest fisheries, worth more than $200 million at the docks in 2023. Used as bait, the fish are critical for valuable commercial targets such as Maine lobster. They’re also beloved by sportfishermen.

The modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a Reedville, Virginia, company that is a subsidiary of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke. The harvesting of the menhaden is performed by an American company, Ocean Harvesters, which is based in Reedville and contracts with Omega, which handles processing. The companies pushed back at the idea that fishing is the cause of osprey decline, although they did acknowledge that fewer menhaden are showing up in some parts of the bay.

Federal data show osprey breeding is in decline in many parts of the country, including where menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, an Omega spokesperson. Climate change, pollution and development could be playing a role, said Landry and others with the company.

Blaming fishing “just reeks of environmental special interest groups having an influence over the process,” Landry said.

New rules could be on the way

The menhaden fishery is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that crafts rules and sets fishing quotas. Prompted by questions about ospreys, it created a work group to address precautionary management of the species in the Chesapeake Bay.

In April, this group proposed several potential management approaches, including seasonal closures, restrictions on quotas or days at sea, and limitations on kinds of fishing gear. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, fishery management plan coordinator with the commission.

The osprey population has indeed shown declines in some areas since 2012, but it’s important to remember the bird’s population is much larger than it was before DDT was banned, Boyle said.

“There are big increases in osprey population since the DDT era,” Boyle said, citing federal data showing a six-fold increase in osprey populations along the Atlantic Coast since the 1960s.

Environmentalists says bird’s decline could worsen

To a number of environmental groups, any decline is too much. This irritates some labor leaders who worry about losing more jobs as the fishing industry declines.

Kenny Pinkard, retired vice president of UFCW Local 400’s executive board and a longtime Virginia fishermen, said he feels the industry is being scapegoated.

“There are some people who just don’t want to see us in business at all,” he said.

But Chris Moore, Virginia executive director for Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the country risks losing an iconic bird if no action is taken. He said Watts’s studies show that the osprey will fail without access to menhaden.

“Osprey have been a success story,” Moore said. “We’re in a situation where they’re not replacing their numbers. We’ll actually be in a situation where we’re in a steep decline.”

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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Trump announces 30% tariffs against EU, Mexico to begin Aug. 1, rattling major US trading partners

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he’s levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico starting Aug. 1, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners.

Trump detailed the planned tariffs in letters posted to his social media account. They are part of an announcement blitz by Trump of new tariffs with allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades.

In his letter to Mexico’s leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump added.

Trump in his letter to the European Union said that the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.

“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”

The letters come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade. Trump in April imposed tariffs on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, Trump began sending his tariff letters to leaders but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks.

If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy.

EU members and Mexico respond

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded by noting the bloc’s “commitment to dialogue, stability, and a constructive transatlantic partnership.”

“At the same time, we will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required,” von der Leyen said in a statement.

Von der Leyen added that the EU remains committed to continuing negotiations with the U.S. and coming to an agreement before Aug. 1. Trade ministers from EU countries are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss trade relations with the U.S., as well as with China.

European leaders joined von der Leyen in urging Trump to give negotiations more time and warnings of possible new tariffs on Washington.

“With European unity, it is more than ever up to the Commission to assert the Union’s determination to resolutely defend European interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement posted on X.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said “it would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic.”

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told broadcaster DR that Trump was taking a “pointless and a very short-sighted approach.” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned in an interview with SVT that “everyone loses out from an escalated trade conflict, and it will be U.S. consumers who pay the highest price.”

The Mexican government said it was informed during high-level talks with U.S. State Department officials Friday that the Trump letter was coming. The delegation told Trump officials at the meeting it disagreed with the decision and considered it “unfair treatment,” according to a Mexican government statement.

Trump, as he has in previous letters, warned that his administration would further raise tariffs if the EU attempts to hike its own tariffs on the United States.

With the reciprocal tariffs, Trump is effectively blowing up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffs, but under the “most favored nation’’ approach, they couldn’t charge one country more than they charged another.

The Mexico tariff, if it goes into effect, could replace the 25% tariffs on Mexican goods that do not comply with the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

Trump’s letter did not address if USMCA-compliant goods would still be exempt from the Mexico tariffs after Aug. 1, as the White House said would be the case with Canada. Trump sent a letter to Canada earlier this week threatening a 35% tariff hike.

Higher tariffs had been suspended

With Saturday’s letters, Trump has now issued tariff conditions on 24 countries and the 27-member European Union.

European leaders had held out hope that they would avoid receiving a Trump tariff letter, and that a deal would be worked out. The European Union’s chief trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said earlier this week that a trade deal to avert higher tariffs on European goods imported to the U.S. could be reached “even in the coming days.”

The bloc collectively sells more to the U.S. than any other country. U.S. goods imports from the EU topped $553 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director and president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the letters were evidence that serious trade talks were not taking place over the past three months. He stressed that nations were instead talking amongst themselves about how to minimize their own exposure to the U.S. economy and Trump.

“They’re spending time talking to each other about what the future is going to look like, and we’re left out,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He added that Trump was using the letters to demand attention, but, “In the end, these are letters to other countries about taxes he’s going to levy on his citizens.”

Potential impact is vast

If the tariffs do indeed take effect, the potential impact on Europe could be vast.

The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. were pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits.

Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of the Union of Italian Wines trade association, said Trump’s move could lead to “a virtual embargo” of his country’s wine.

“A single letter was enough to write the darkest chapter in relations between two historic Western allies,” Frescobaldi said. “At this point, our fate and that of hundreds of thousands of jobs are tied to the extra time, which will be crucial, because it is unthinkable to be able to sell these volumes of wine elsewhere in the short term.”

Trump has complained about the EU’s 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more goods from European businesses than the other way around.

However, American companies fill some of the gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services.

The U.S. services surplus took the nation’s trade deficit with the EU down to 50 billion euros ($59 billion), which represents less than 3% of overall U.S.-EU trade.

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AP writers Josh Boak in Washington, Angela Charlton in Paris, Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Dave McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed reporting.

Furor over Epstein files sparks clash between Bondi and Bongino at the Justice Department

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and FBI are struggling to contain the fallout and appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base after the administration’s decision this week to withhold records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

The move, which included the acknowledgment that one particular sought-after document never existed in the first place, sparked a contentious conversation between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at the White House earlier this week that threatened to permanently shatter relations between the two officials and centered in part on a news story that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.

The cascade of disappointment and disbelief arising from the refusal to disclose additional, much-hyped records from the Epstein investigation underscores the struggles of FBI and Justice Department leaders to resolve the conspiracy theories and amped-up expectations that they themselves had stoked with claims of a cover-up and hidden evidence. Infuriated by the failure of officials to unlock, as promised, the secrets of the so-called “deep state,” Trump supporters on the far right have grown restless and even demanded change at the top.

Tensions that simmered for months boiled over on Monday when the Justice Department and FBI issued a two-page statement saying that they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a “client list,” even though Bondi had intimated in February that such a document was sitting on her desk, and had decided against releasing any additional records from the investigation.

The department did disclose a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself in jail, but even that raised the eyebrows of conspiracy theorists because of a missing minute in the recording.

It was hardly the first time that Trump administration officials have failed to fulfill their pledge to deliver the evidence that supporters had come to expect.

In February, conservative influencers were invited to the White House and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified.” But the binders contained information that had largely already been in the public domain.

Afterward, Bondi said an FBI “source” informed her of the existence of thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents and ordered the bureau to provide the “full and complete Epstein files.” She later said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI.

But after a months-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined in the memo Monday that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims, and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

The Trump administration had hoped that that statement would be the final word on the saga, with Trump chiding a reporter who asked Bondi about the Epstein case at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

But Bondi and Bongino had a tense exchange the following day at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Part of the clash centered on a story from the news organization NewsNation that cited a “source close to the White House” as saying the FBI would have released the Epstein files months ago if it could have done so on its own. The story included statements from Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel refuting the premise, but not Bongino.

The news publication Axios was first to describe the conversation.

Blanche sought to stem the fallout Friday with a social media post in which he said he had worked closely with Patel and Bongino on the Epstein matter and the joint memo.

“All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false,” he wrote on X.

Also Friday, far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, posted on X that she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” and had taken the day off to contemplate his future. Bongino is normally an active presence on social media but has been silent since Wednesday.

The FBI did not respond to a request seeking comment, and the White House sought in a statement to minimize any tensions.

“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” said spokesman Harrison Fields. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

Trump tours Texas flood sites and defends officials as questions mount about response

By SEAN MURPHY and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday toured the devastation from catastrophic flooding in Texas and lauded state and local officials, even amid mounting criticism that they may have failed to warn residents quickly enough that a deadly wall of water was coming their way.

Trump has repeatedly promised to do away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of his larger pledges to dramatically shrink the size of government, and he’s fond of decrying officials in Democrat-run states hit by past natural disasters and tragedy.

President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter Friday, suggesting she is “evil,” after she asked a question about whether the warning alert system for the devastating floods worked as well as it could have. (AP Video)

But the president struck a far more somber and sympathetic tone while visiting America’s most populous Republican state — highlighting the heartbreak of what happened while effusively praising elected officials and first responders alike.

“The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable,” Trump, seated with officials around a table with emblazoned with a black-and-white “Texas Strong” banner, said at a makeshift emergency operations center inside an expo hall in Kerrville.

He later added, “You couldn’t get better people, and they’re doing the job like I don’t think anybody else could, frankly.”

Since the July 4 disaster, which killed at least 129 people and left more than 170 missing, the president has been conspicuously silent on his past promises to shutter FEMA and return disaster response to the states. Instead, he’s focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred in central Texas’ Hill Country and its human toll.

“We just visited with incredible families. They’ve been devastated,” the president said of a closed-door meeting he and first lady Melania Trump had with the relatives of some of those killed or missing.

Honoring the victims

Trump’s shift in focus underscores how tragedy can complicate political calculations, even though he has made slashing the federal workforce a centerpiece of his administration’s opening months. He spent a lot of time Friday discussing the victims from Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 people were killed.

“They were there because they loved God. And, as we grieve this unthinkable tragedy, we take comfort in the knowledge that God has welcomed those little beautiful girls into his comforting arms in heaven,” Trump said.

The first lady described meeting “beautiful young ladies” from the area who she said gave her a “special bracelet from the camp in honor of all the little girls that lost their lives.” She promised to return to support the camp in the future.

Trump approved Texas’ request to extend the major disaster declaration beyond Kerr County to eight additional counties, making them eligible for direct financial assistance to recover and rebuild.

“All across the country Americans’ hearts are shattered,” he said. “I had to be here as president.”

Despite saying that he didn’t want to talk politics, Trump couldn’t help himself. During the roundtable, he bragged briefly about his administration reducing the cost of eggs around the country and, in a response to a question about Democratic criticisms of the flood response, said, “All they want to do is criticize.”

“They’re getting just absolutely clobbered ’cause everyone sees what an incredible job the governor did,” Trump said of Democrats. “Everybody in this room, everybody at this table in particular.”

In praise of FEMA

He also still insisted “we’ve got some good people” running FEMA. That is nonetheless a far cry from his call mere weeks ago to begin “phasing out” FEMA.

At the White House, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, similarly dodged questions Friday about FEMA’s future. He said that the agency has billions of dollars in reserves “to continue to pay for necessary expenses.”

“We also want FEMA to be reformed,” Vought said. “The president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of us agencies, no different than any other opportunity to have better government.”

On the ground in devastated communities, meanwhile, some state and local officials have faced questions about how well they were prepared and how quickly they acted — including if warning systems might have given more people time to evacuate.

Asked about such concerns during his appearance at the operations center in Kerrville, Trump called a reporter “evil” and said he thought “everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances.”

“I admire you, and I consider you heroes,” Trump said of the officials around him.

He also praised a long list of Texas Republicans and had especially kind words for Rep. Chip Roy, who represents some of the hardest-hit areas. A staunch conservative, Roy initially opposed Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending package but ultimately supported it.

“He’s not easy, but he’s good,” Trump said of Roy. The congressman, for his part, bristled at questions about authorities’ flood response, calling the queries about inadequate flood warnings “ridiculous.”

Seeing the damage close-up

Prior to the roundtable, Air Force One landed in San Antonio and Trump deplaned in a suit while the first lady wore more casual clothing — though both wore ball caps against the heat. The Trumps then boarded a helicopter to Kerrville and saw the flooding aftermath from the air. They later walked close to the Guadalupe River to receive a briefing from officials near an overturned tractor trailer, numerous downed trees and other debris.

Roads in the center of town were shut down, and people lined the streets, some wearing Trump hats and T-shirts and waving American flags. Green ribbons recognizing the lives lost at Camp Mystic were tied around trees, poles and along bridges, and marquees featured slogans such as “Hill Country Strong” and “Thank you first responders.”

Harris Currie, a rancher from Utopia, Texas, near Kerrville, said the flood devastation can be fully understood only by seeing it firsthand.

“Pictures do not do it justice,” Currie said.

Asked what officials on the ground needed most urgently from federal sources, Kerr County Commissioner Jeff Holt, who also is a volunteer firefighter, stressed the need for repairs to nonworking phone towers and “maybe a little better early warning system.”

Trump himself has suggested that a major warning system should be established, though few details have been offered on what that might eventually entail.

Friday’s visit was far different from the other times the first couple visited natural disaster sites, during Trump’s first weekend back in the White House in January. They toured North Carolina to scope out damage from Hurricane Helene and saw the aftermath of wildfires in Los Angeles, and the president sharply criticized the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden, and officials from deep-blue California.

“The state of Texas, No. 1 they do it right and they’ve done it right for a long time,” Trump said. “And it’s a very special place to me.”

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Weissert reported from Washington.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite pull back from their all-time highs

Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, pulling the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite below the records they set a day earlier. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%. Levi Strauss jumped 11% after the jeans maker easily beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets and raised its full-year forecast, despite expecting higher costs from tariffs. European markets closed broadly lower, and Asian markets closed mixed. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 4.42%.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

U.S. stocks are lower in afternoon trading Friday, pulling the market back from all-time highs, as the Trump administration escalates its tariff threats against Canada.

The S&P 500 was down 0.2% a day after setting a record high. The benchmark index is on pace to post its first weekly loss in three weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 243 points, or 0.6%, as of 3:26 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow is also on track for a weekly loss. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.1% after drifting between small gains and losses. The tech-heavy index climbed to an all-time high on Thursday.

Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.43%, from 4.34% late Thursday.

President Donald Trump said in a letter Thursday that he will raise taxes on many imported goods from Canada to 35%, deepening the rift between the longtime North American allies. The letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is an aggressive increase to the top 25% tariff rates that Trump first imposed in March.

The move is the latest bid by the White House to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe, even historically close trading partners like Canada.

The administration had initially set Wednesday as a deadline for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been now been extended to Aug. 1.

Trump also floated this week that he would impose tariffs of as much as 200% on pharmaceutical drugs and place a 50% tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.

The initial rollout of Trump’s tariff policies in the spring roiled financial markets. But Wall Street has been relatively stable in recent weeks, with stocks steadily rising to record levels That suggests the market has mostly adjusted to the unpredictability of Trump’s rapidly shifting tariffs. Some market watchers, however, aren’t so sure.

The market’s response to Trump’s tariff escalation this week “has been surprisingly muted. Markets appear to believe that Trump will again back down,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote Friday. “We are not so sure.”

Trade policy aside, the market is now set to shift at least some of its focus on companies due to report quarterly earnings over the next few weeks.

On Friday, Levi Strauss jumped 11.3% after the jeans maker easily beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets and raised its full-year forecast, despite expecting higher costs from tariffs.

PriceSmart climbed 6.5% a day after the warehouse club operator delivered solid third-quarter results and said it’s looking into expanding into Chile.

Earnings season shifts into high gear next week with JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup among the big banks due to report their results on Tuesday.

Shares in financial and health care sector companies were the biggest weights on the market Friday.

Visa fell 2.5% and Gilead Sciences dropped 3.5%.

Several airline stocks were down a day after encouraging quarterly results from Delta Air Lines set off a rally in the sector. Delta slipped 0.4%, United fell 4.5% and American gave up 5.2%.

Elsewhere in the market, shares of T-Mobile were little changed after the Justice Department announced Thursday that it would not prevent the company from closing on its proposed $4.4 billion acquisition of U.S. Cellular. That deal, announced more than a year ago, had come under antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department under President Joe Biden’s administration.

U.S. Cellular shares rose 4%.

Shares in aviation company Red Cat Holdings jumped 23.7% after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued orders aimed at ramping up production and deployment of drones.

European stock indexes closed broadly lower following a mostly lower finish in Asian markets.

Meanwhile, bitcoin climbed to another all-time high Friday, briefly eclipsing $118,000 before easing back to around $117,893, according to Coindesk.

Bitcoin’s price jump came amid bullish momentum across risk assets and coincides with Nvidia’s surge to a $4 trillion valuation. It also comes days before the U.S. Congress’ Crypto Week on July 14, where lawmakers will debate a series of bills that could define the regulatory framework for the industry.

Justin Bieber releases ‘Swag,’ his long-awaited seventh album: Hear the best songs

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Never say never! Justin Bieber surprised fans Friday by releasing “Swag,” his seventh studio album, hours after he teased it on billboards and social media posts.

It is his first album since 2021’s “Justice” and his first since becoming a father last year.

“Inspired by his devotion as a husband and father, this new era of music has fueled a deeper perspective and more reflective sound, resulting in some of his most personal music yet,” Def Jam Recordings said of the 21-track album.

Billboards depicting Bieber were found by fans Thursday in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Los Angeles. The singer also shared images of billboards on his official Instagram account along with a tracklist that included song names like “All I Can Take,” “Walking Away,” “Dadz Love” and “Forgiveness.”

Recommendations for an intimate new album

There’s a lot to love across the 21-tracks of the intimate “Swag.” Here are a few choice cuts.

1. “Daises” — The second track on the album may very well be its strongest; an exemplar in Bieber’s slow-burn brand of alternative R&B-pop, now anchored with lo-fi guitar. Here, his sweet voice is pronounced — exactly what his most dedicated fans want to hear.

2. “Devotion” ft. Dijon — Dijon is a rising R&B voice; some fans might be familiar with his 2021 debut album “Absolutely” or his contribution to Bon Iver’s “SABLE, fABLE” from earlier this year. He makes for a standout collaboration on “Swag,” a sweet song about deepening affection.

3. “Go Baby” – Bieber married the model Hailey Bieber (nee Baldwin) in 2018; she’s long been source material for his most loving tracks. “Go Baby” is a standout for that reason. “That’s my baby, she’s iconic,” he opens the track, “iPhone case, lip gloss on it,” referencing her Rhode skincare and beauty brand, which sold to Elf Beauty in a $1 billion deal.

4. “Walking Away” – Marriage isn’t easy; that’s clear on “Walking Away,” a slightly-more-uptempo track where Bieber makes his dedication evident. It’s the perfect song for dancing in the kitchen with your partner.

5. “All I Can Take” – The throwback opener “All I Can Take” has a vintage groove — echoes of Beiber’s early work, now matured to reflect his current adult reality. He sounds as sweet as ever in the pre-chorus, his declaration of “Ooh, baby, don’t it feel good? Baby, don’t it feel nice? / Ooh, baby, don’t it feel good? You don’t have to think twice.”

Bieber before “Swag”

Bieber, the two-time Grammy Award winning singer and Canadian pop idol who revolutionized teen pop and social media fame, is best known for his silky R&B pop lyric tenor, demonstrated on the diamond-selling “Baby,” “Sorry,” and “Stay” with the Kid Laroi. At the beginning of his career, and as a tween, Bieber began working with Usher and the influential music manager Scooter Braun.

In 2023, Bieber sold the rights to his music — all six of his albums, including hits like “Sorry” and “Baby” — to Hipgnosis, a U.K-based music investment company. The deal’s financial details were not disclosed, but Billboard Magazine reports that the sale was worth an estimated $200 million.

In August 2024, Justin and Hailey Bieber announced the birth of their first child, Jack Blues Bieber.

Southern-Style Sweet Potato Pie

This pie is creamy, lightly spiced, and just a touch sweet. It’s a Southern classic that makes holidays or cozy dinners feel extra special.

Ingredients

1 refrigerated pie crust (9-inch)
1 to 2/3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (about 2 large potatoes)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Instructions

1. Prepare the crust
Unroll the pie crust and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the edges and set aside.

2. Mix the filling
In a large bowl, stir together the mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla, and softened butter. Mix until smooth and well blended.

3. Fill the pie
Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and smooth the top with a spatula.

4. Bake
Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the center is set and a knife inserted near the middle comes out clean.

5. Cool and serve
Let the pie cool completely before slicing. Serve at room temperature or chilled, with a dollop of whipped cream if you like.

Mourning begins in Texas where more than 170 are still missing from flash floods

By NADIA LATHAN, SEAN MURPHY, and JOSHUA A. BICKEL Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Shock has turned into grief across Texas where at least 120 people died from flash floods and more were missing as the search for victims moved methodically along endless miles of rivers and rubble Thursday.

Photos of those who have died along with a colorful array of flowers and candles now decorate a fence in Hill Country — a growing tribute that reflects the enormity of the disaster in the region.

Several hundred people gathered for a worship ceremony at a high school stadium in Texas on Wednesday evening to remember the at least 120 people who died in the catastrophic flash floods over the July Fourth holiday, as well the many still missing. (AP Video: Stephen Smith)

The victims include three friends who had gathered for the July Fourth weekend, 8-year-old sisters who were at summer camp and a 91-year-old grandmother known for her sharp wit.

More than 170 people have been reported missing, most in Kerr County, where nearly 100 victims have been recovered. The death toll remained at 120 Thursday, nearly a week since the floods first hit.

Authorities say they have carefully gone over the list of those unaccounted for, but those numbers are often tough to pin down in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

The unrelenting power of the floods forced families to make unnerving escapes with little time to spare in the middle of the night. One woman recounted how she and others, including a toddler, first climbed into an attic and then onto a roof where they heard screams and watched vehicles float past. Photos and videos captured their ordeal.

The aftermath

More than 2,000 local, state and federal workers were involved in the search for victims. Stifling heat and mounds of trees, hunks of lumber and trash made the task more difficult.

At a small shopping center damaged in the floods, people piled debris gathered from the rivers. Officials hope to eventually set aside personal items so residents find their possessions.

A disaster recovery center managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state of Texas and the Small Business Administration opened Thursday at the First Baptist Church in Kerrville, offering survivors a hub to register for federal assistance and other services. Only a few people passed through the quiet church gymnasium in the late afternoon.

“The word’s not out yet, the first few days are always slow,” said Laurie Fried, long term recovery specialist for The Salvation Army in Texas.

A row of brooms and buckets filled with cleaning supplies stood behind the nonprofit Community Council of South Central Texas’ table, where staff were distributing grocery store gift cards for income-qualified households and offering financial assistance for hotel stays and utility bills.

The cleaning kits were for those mucking out flooded homes, but the council’s community service coordinator, Nina Ruiz, said they had only passed out about seven of them that day. “A lot of the people don’t have homes to clean up,” she said.

On Wednesday, hundreds prayed, wept and held one another at a prayer service, among the first of many somber gatherings to come in the weeks ahead.

“Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” said Wyatt Wentrcek, a youth minister.

David Garza drove more than an hour to support his loved ones.

“I’m from here, and I was here in the ’78 flood and the ’87 flood,” Garza said. “I just wanted to be a part of this.”

Some at the service wore green ribbons for the girls from Camp Mystic, the century-old Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died.

Parents of children who were at the many summer camps in Hill Country have credited the teenage counselors with ushering campers to safety and helping keep them calm during the chaos.

Calls for better flood preparation in the future

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on state lawmakers to approve funding for new warning systems and emergency communications in flood prone areas when the Legislature meets later this month. Abbott also asked for financial relief for the response and recovery efforts.

“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

Public officials in the area have come under repeated criticism amid questions about the timeline of what happened and why widespread warnings were not sounded and more preparations were not made.

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha has said those questions will be answered after the victims are recovered.

Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a flood warning system, but concerns about costs and noise led to missed opportunities to put up sirens.

President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover and is planning to visit the state Friday.

Polls taken before the floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters, which are becoming a growing worry. On Tuesday, a deluge in New Mexico triggered flash floods that killed three people.

The devastation in Texas stretched from Hill Country all the way to just outside the state’s capital. At least 15 people died in the Austin area and adjacent counties.

Just north of Austin, floodwaters from the San Gabriel River swamped two RV parks in Georgetown.

Teri Hoffman watched the water lift up her camper with her two dogs inside.

“The camper just kind of goes over on its side and starts floating. And then all the other campers just started crashing into it,” she said.

Rescuers were able to save the dogs and she managed to dig out the last picture she has of her late mother. Everything else from the RV where she lived with her husband and children is gone, she said.

“I couldn’t look at it,” Hoffman said. “I had to walk away.”

___

Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; contributed to this report.