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  • I let ChatGPT analyze a decade of my Apple Watch data. Then I called my doctor.

    I let ChatGPT analyze a decade of my Apple Watch data. Then I called my doctor.

    ChatGPT now says it can answer personal questions about your health using data from your fitness tracker and medical records. The new ChatGPT Health claims that it can help you “understand patterns over time — not just moments of illness — so you can feel more informed.”

    Like many people who strap on an Apple Watch every day, I’ve long wondered what a decade of that data might reveal about me. So I joined a brief wait list and gave ChatGPT access to the 29 million steps and 6 million heartbeat measurements stored in my Apple Health app. Then I asked the bot to grade my cardiac health.

    It gave me an F.

    I freaked out and went for a run. Then I sent ChatGPT’s report to my actual doctor.

    Am I an F? “No,” my doctor said. In fact, I’m at such low risk for a heart attack that my insurance probably wouldn’t even pay for an extra cardio fitness test to prove the artificial intelligence wrong.

    I also showed the results to cardiologist Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Institute, an expert on both longevity and the potential of AI in medicine. “It’s baseless,” he said. “This is not ready for any medical advice.”

    AI has huge potential to unlock medical insights and widen access to care. But when it comes to your fitness tracker and some health records, the new Dr. ChatGPT seems to be winging it. That fits a disturbing trend: AI companies launching products that are broken, fail to deliver, or are even dangerous. It should go without saying that people’s health actually matters. Any product — even one labeled “beta” — that claims to provide personal health insights shouldn’t be this clueless.

    A few days after ChatGPT Health arrived, AI rival Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare that, similarly, promises to help people “detect patterns across fitness and health metrics.” Anyone with a paid account can import Apple Health and Android Health Connect data into the chatbot. Claude graded my cardiac health a C, relying on some of the same analysis that Topol found questionable.

    OpenAI and Anthropic say their bots can’t replace doctors or provide diagnosis and include contextual disclaimers. Yet both products willingly provided detailed analysis of my cardiac health. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

    The companies also say their health bots are in early testing phases, but didn’t specify how they planned to improve their ability to provide personal analysis of body data. Apple says it didn’t work directly with either AI company on these products.

    The more I used ChatGPT Health, the worse things got.

    How ChatGPT misread my charts

    The whole premise of ChatGPT Health involves a leap of faith: handing over your most intimate health information to a data-gobbling AI company. People are right to be cautious about AI privacy.

    OpenAI says its Health mode takes extra steps to protect your privacy: it won’t use your data to train its AI or mingle it with other chats, and it encrypts the data. Still, it’s essentially a pinkie promise: ChatGPT isn’t a healthcare provider, so it isn’t covered by the federal health privacy law known as HIPAA.

    After I connected ChatGPT to Apple Health, I asked the bot to share what health recommendations it had for me, and to call out any red flags. It said I should talk with my doctor about a “notable increase” in my resting heart rate, but congratulated me on my sleep and activity levels.

    Then I asked the bot to “give me simple scores for heart health and longevity.” That’s when it handed me an F.

    I asked ChatGPT: “You really think my heart health and longevity deserve failing grades?”

    It responded: “Short answer: no — I don’t think you’re a lost cause, and I’m sorry the raw letter grades felt harsh. They were a blunt, heuristic readout from device-only data.” It said it could give me a more useful score if I also connected the medical records stored by my doctor’s office.

    So I did that, and asked it again to “give me a simple score (A-F) for my cardiovascular health over the last decade.” The grade ticked up to D.

    Topol was appalled when I showed him the bot’s analysis.

    Despite having access to my weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol, ChatGPT based much of its negative assessment on an Apple Watch measurement known as VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can consume during exercise. Apple says it collects an “estimate” of VO2 max, but the real thing requires a treadmill and a mask. Apple says its cardio fitness measures have been validated, but independent researchers have found those estimates can run low — by an average of 13%.

    ChatGPT’s evaluation also emphasized an Apple Watch metric called heart-rate variability, which Topol said has lots of fuzziness. “You sure don’t want to go with that as your main driver,” he said.

    When I asked ChatGPT to chart my heart rate over the decade, I spotted another problem: There were big swings in my resting heart rate whenever I got a new Apple Watch, suggesting the devices may not have been tracking the same way. (Apple says it keeps making improvements to those measurements.) But once again, ChatGPT treated a fuzzy data point like a clear health signal.

    Claude’s C grade for me was less panic-inducing, but it also wasn’t sufficiently critical about the VO2 max data (which it graded a D+). Anthropic says there’s no separate health-tuned version of Claude, and it can only provide general context for health data, not personalized clinical analysis.

    My real doctor said to do a deep dive on my cardiac health, we should check back in on my lipids, so he ordered another blood test that included Lipoprotein (a), a risk factor for heart disease. Neither ChatGPT Health nor Claude brought up the idea of doing that test.

    An erratic analysis

    Both AI companies say their health products are not designed to provide clinical assessments. Rather, they’re to help you prepare for a visit to a doctor or get advice on how to approach your workout routine.

    I didn’t ask their bots if I have heart disease. I asked them a pretty obvious question after uploading that much personal health data: How am I doing?

    What’s more, if ChatGPT and Claude can’t accurately grade your heart health, then why didn’t the bots say, “Sorry, I can’t do that?”

    The bots did decline to estimate at what age I might die.

    There was another problem I discovered over time: When I tried asking the same heart longevity-grade question again, suddenly my score went up to a C. I asked again and again, watching the score swing between an F and a B.

    Across conversations, ChatGPT kept forgetting important information about me, including my gender, age, and some recent vital signs. It had access to my recent blood tests, but sometimes didn’t use them in its analysis.

    That kind of randomness is “totally unacceptable,” Topol said. “People that do this are going to get really spooked about their health. It could also go the other way and give people who are unhealthy a false sense that everything they’re doing is great.”

    OpenAI says it couldn’t replicate the wild swings I saw. It says ChatGPT might weigh different connected data sources slightly differently from one conversation to the next as it interprets large health data sets. It also says it’s working to make responses more stable before ChatGPT Health becomes available beyond its wait list.

    “Launching ChatGPT Health with wait-listed access allows us to learn and improve the experience before making it widely available,” OpenAI vice president Ashley Alexander said in a statement.

    When I repeated the same query on Claude, my score varied between a C and B-. Anthropic said chatbots have inherent variation in outputs.

    Should you trust a bot with your health?

    I liked using ChatGPT Health to make plots of my Apple Watch data, and to ask more narrow questions such as how my activity level changed after I had kids.

    OpenAI says more than 230 million users already ask ChatGPT health and wellness questions every week. For those people, a more private way to import information and have chats about their bodies is a welcome improvement.

    But the question is: Should we be turning to this bot for those answers? OpenAI says it has worked with physicians to improve its health answers. When I’ve previously tested the quality of ChatGPT’s responses to real medical questions with a leading doctor, the results ranged from excellent to potentially dangerous. The problem is ChatGPT typically answers with such confidence it’s hard to tell the good results from the bad ones.

    Chatbot companies might be overselling their ability to answer personalized health questions, but there’s little stopping them. Earlier this month, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency’s job is to “get out of the way as a regulator” to promote AI innovation. He drew a red line at AI making “medical or clinical claims” without FDA review, but both ChatGPT and Claude insist they’re just providing information.

    Scientists have worked for years to analyze long-term body data to predict disease. (In 2020, I participated in one such study with the Oura Ring.) What makes this kind of AI work so difficult, Topol told me, is that you have to account for noise and weaknesses in the data and also link it up to people’s ultimate health outcomes. To do it right, you need a dedicated AI model that can connect all these layers of data.

    OpenAI’s Alexander said ChatGPT Health was built with custom code that helps it organize and contextualize personal health data. But that’s not the same as being trained to extract accurate and useful personal analysis from the complex data stored in Apple Watches and medical charts.

    Topol expected more. “You’d think they would come up with something much more sophisticated, aligned with practice of medicine and the knowledge base in medicine,” Topol said. “Not something like this. This is very disappointing.”

    Geoff’s column hunts for how tech can make your life better — and advocates for you when tech lets you down.

  • Letters to the Editor | Jan. 28, 2026

    Letters to the Editor | Jan. 28, 2026

    Whitewashing slavery

    Authoritarians try to rewrite history, fashioning a story that reflects well on them. That’s why the Trump regime ordered the removal of the President’s House exhibits that tell the story of the people George and Martha Washington enslaved. Donald Trump denounced any public interpretation of our history that “inappropriately disparages” the United States.

    But it’s not the historians and community activists who insult the white founders. They did that themselves, fighting for their own freedom while enslaving, raping, and torturing others. Washington continually rotated the people he enslaved out of Philadelphia, so as to evade the city’s six-month limit on owning other people. He went so far as to try multiple times to kidnap and re-enslave Ona Judge after she liberated herself in 1796.

    This is Black history, but it is also white history. It is American history. I myself am descended from Virginia enslavers. I know the knots my people tied themselves in, trying to soften and justify what they did. But there it is in my great-great-grandfather’s diary, after he describes the weather: “This day my overseer beats my negro Shadrick for sleeping in.” My ancestors and other enslavers committed a grave crime against humanity. Only by telling this truth and facing it can we hope to even begin to redress the consequences of their crimes.

    Sarah Browning, Philadelphia

    . . .

    As longtime educators (35 years) in Philadelphia, we are outraged and saddened that references to slavery at Independence National Historical Park have been removed. We cannot change history, but we can learn from it. Can we come together as people in Philadelphia to find a private location close to Independence Park to display these panels with the help of grants from foundations, such as the William Penn Foundation? Can we show visitors that we are proud citizens of a city that values brotherly and sisterly love? America was and is great. Let’s celebrate our Semiquincentennial while addressing the reality of our treatment of enslaved people and Native Americans.

    Joseph T. and Barbara R. Devlin, Telford

    . . .

    The Trump administration’s removal of educational slavery exhibits from the President’s House site at Independence National Historical Park was apparently done on the basis that they “inappropriately disparage Americans, past or living.” Generations of Americans have learned of our history through such exhibits at national parks all around the country. This move to censor our true history serves no “Americans, past or living.”

    Mark Baum Baicker, Carversville

    . . .

    After the National Park Service dismantled all of the displays memorializing the enslaved people at the President’s House, a call went out to Philly artists to contribute creative work to the now dismantled memorial.

    As I headed out to the site with some artwork, I learned that federal officers had killed a protester in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse.

    Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio, Russell Vought, et al. can’t find another country to invade that won’t bring down the condemnation of the international community. Instead, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court, the GOP, and a handful of billionaires, they are waging war on the United States of America. We are on the receiving end of a deliberate form of cultural erasure, disappearing references about the brutality of slavery at the same time that the good people of this country are being abducted, beaten, incarcerated, and now, killed.

    Cindy Maguire, Merion Station

    . . .

    I am outraged that the National Park Service removed the exhibits documenting slavery at the President’s House. Erasing those parts of our history that make us uncomfortable does not make “America Great Again.” What can make America great is the acknowledgment of its failures (past and present) with a firm commitment to righting those wrongs and making life better for everyone who lives here, regardless of where they come from, what color they are, whether they are rich or poor, or whether they are citizens or not. We seem to be drifting further and further away from any semblance of what makes a country great, from being an example for others to emulate. I wonder how future exhibits of this period in our nation’s history will be depicted — or if they will also be erased.

    Kathleen Coyne, Wallingford

    . . .

    I am writing to urge that references to slavery not be removed from our national parks and historic sites. These places exist to tell the full American story, not a sanitized version of it.

    Slavery is a painful and shameful part of our history, but it is also central to understanding who we are and how far we have come. Erasing or softening that history does not honor the past; it diminishes it. When visitors encounter honest accounts of slavery, they also encounter the reality of progress — the long struggle toward freedom, equality, and justice, and the fact that our nation ultimately rejected slavery as incompatible with its ideals.

    National parks are uniquely positioned to educate. They should present history in context, with care and accuracy, showing both the wrongs that were committed and the moral courage it took to overcome them. Facing difficult truths helps us appreciate the progress that was made and reminds us why it mattered.

    Preserving these references is not about assigning guilt to the present, but about understanding the past. An honest history strengthens our national character and ensures that the lessons of slavery — and the achievement of overcoming it — are not forgotten.

    Martha Weinar, Cherry Hill

    . . .

    President Donald Trump and his administration, including the National Park Service, are wrong and foolish to remove the true story of slavery from the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park.

    The President’s House is historic because it shares with only the White House in Washington, D.C., the distinction of being the official residence of two or more presidents. The President’s House was also at the center of America’s original sin of slavery, as George Washington lived there with enslaved people, and John Adams, an abolitionist, lived there without captives.

    Trump and his followers are wrong to try to whitewash our national history. We must acknowledge our past, warts and all, and resolve to do better. And Trump is foolish. His censorship only draws more attention to what he is trying to deny. Americans are smarter than he is.

    As another president famously said, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

    Joseph Hoeffel, current volunteer ranger, Independence National Historical Park

    The writer is a former member of Congress.

    . . .

    My grandmother, Margaret Washington, descendant of George Washington, and my grandfather, George Robins, descendant of Bishop William White, are probably rolling in their graves in the Christ Church graveyard over the removal of the signage at the President’s House nearby.

    As a retired public schoolteacher and a Washington and White family descendant, I’m appalled at the removal of the exhibit signs about the people Washington enslaved. Included was one sign with images of the Rev. Absalom Jones and the Rev. Richard Allen.

    Bishop White ordained Absalom Jones as our first African American Episcopal minister of St. Thomas Church.

    I supported the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition’s work to bring the exhibits to the President’s House 20 years ago, and we need to continue to do so today.

    Teaching the truth and supporting ongoing public education have been long-held values in our democracy as it progresses through time. We cannot erase historic harms. My grandchildren are the seventh generation of their family’s Philly ancestry, and we need to work now to stand up for the truth and our democracy for our unborn citizens in seven generations to come. We the People need to demand the return of the signs now and stand in truth together, protecting the birthplace of our democracy in our nation’s 250th anniversary year.

    Peggy Hartzell, Glenmoore

    . . .

    Regarding the removal of the slavery exhibits at the President’s House, could the displays be recreated by either the city of Philadelphia or even a private organization with a GoFundMe page? Surely somebody must have photographs of those panels that were taken down. Set them up on public, private, or city-owned property nearby so they can still be seen, and the information contained therein is not removed from the public domain.

    Doug Smithman, Dresher

    Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.

  • Dear Abby | Woman prefers a wipe-down and dry shaving to a shower

    DEAR ABBY: I am a longtime divorcee and a retiree with grown kids. What is troubling me is I’ve always had an issue with taking a shower and all the oil and dirt flowing down my body. I think it’s gross, so I usually wash my hair in the kitchen sink. I also don’t get in the shower to wash my body. I hate getting out of the shower and feeling cold, or trying to get dressed partially wet.

    When I’ve been in relationships, I force myself to shower or wipe down with hospital-type wipes. (I still wash up this way, just not regularly, and I know it’s gross.) I dry shave my legs and underarms when needed, but this is really an issue for me. I brush my teeth twice a day. I use a light perfume and often get compliments, but I know from reading your advice that seniors lose their sense of smell and I could be ripe.

    I don’t know how to overcome this, and, for obvious reasons, I don’t have a friend I can float this by. I’m healthy and, like everyone, struggle with depression, but I don’t feel it’s bad enough to seek professional help. I’m on a fixed income.

    Just curious as to what your thoughts are on this. It’s been a good six weeks since I’ve had a proper shower, and I find no justification for it other than I don’t enjoy it.

    — UNSHOWERED IN ILLINOIS

    DEAR UNSHOWERED: If I thought your quirk could be solved as easily as buying a portable heater for your bathroom, I would suggest it. You state that you suffer from depression “like everyone else.” From the mail I receive, people do have problems interacting with interpersonal relationships, workplace issues, etc., but they do NOT “all” suffer from depression.

    Although you live on a fixed income, you could benefit from discussing your issue with a licensed psychotherapist. Help is available on a sliding financial scale through your county’s department of mental health or your local university with a department of psychology. While medication might help you overcome your depression, getting to the root of your shower avoidance will likely happen once you start talking.

    ** ** **

    DEAR ABBY: My question is about dating among older adults. I have been on a dating website for a while now. Most of the profiles are fake. I finally encountered a legitimate profile of a nice-looking man, and we are now talking. After one week, we are finally going to meet for dinner. I’m thrilled, but he stated that he has “baggage.” When I asked him what kind, he replied, “It’s physical.” What does that MEAN?

    We have discussed being intimate and, at our age, we are no longer virgins. I intend to go on the date and be gracious and kind, but I am more than a little confused. What are your thoughts? I thought we clicked or I wouldn’t be going on a date with him. What did I miss?

    — PERPLEXED IN FLORIDA

    DEAR PERPLEXED: The nice-looking man who has made a date with you could have been alluding to any number of physical problems. He might be missing a limb or need assistance getting around, or he may be impotent. Because he didn’t give you the laundry list he included in his “baggage,” you are just going to have to find out for yourself and take this a step at a time.

  • Horoscopes: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026

    ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’ve been around hard people and known the cold pain of emotional indifference. Your capacity for kindness has been earned with firsthand experience of emotionally barren situations. Now your warmth changes everything for someone.

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Questions arise. What’s the cost of attention, approval and affection? It’s different in different relationships. Sometimes it seems much more expensive than it’s worth. Often the currencies are subtle. Does the trade itself negate the presence of real love?

    GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Don’t waste time where red flags are flying. There are so many people of stellar character you haven’t met yet. Keep moving. You deserve to be around people who support, uplift and inspire your trust on every front.

    CANCER (June 22-July 22). There’s a common belief that focusing on personal goals leads to happiness, yet shared effort and contribution often produce deeper, longer-lasting joy. Helping or collaborating with others will uplift you in the moment, and the good feelings linger.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You like someone. Your goal isn’t just to understand the piece of them you interact with. You already know their work role or public persona. You’re more interested in what motivates them. One thoughtful question can start that deeper connection.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’re doing well, but it’s OK to want to be doing even better. People who have your best interest at heart are fine with this. A transformation is happening now, albeit slowly. Keep focusing on what you want.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). The vague restlessness of the day has you up and out, looking for somewhere to apply your energy that will keep you engaged, responsible and involved. Meaningful tasks will quiet an uneasy feeling and put you back on course.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Power and efficiency go hand-in-hand. Today sees you doing less but doing it well and creating a greater effect than overcomplicating or overextending yourself. Minimalism makes your world simply beautiful and keeps you from getting bogged down.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your internal weather produces states that come and go on their own. To argue with a feeling or force a mood only drains energy without changing much. You conserve energy just watching emotions drift like clouds across your sky inside.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You don’t always stop when you feel tired, because you know you have reserves that will kick in after you’ve spent everything in the tank. When it’s important enough, you can push through, and you’ll be met on the other side.

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). It clicks in. The plan comes together. You love the feeling of finally understanding a complex situation or making sense of the unknown. Your whole being lights up and you feel swept into the wholeness of life itself.

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). The contrast between curiosity and conviction is sharp today. Self-righteousness signals psychological danger. Certainty can harden positions. The most reasonable and accurate arguments are aware of their own ignorance. Stay open.

    TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Jan. 28). Welcome to your Year of Lasting Support. You assemble a network that strengthens every part of your life, giving you more practical help, emotional understanding and an enduring source of mutual encouragement. More highlights: thriving projects, special connections with people of different generations and lifestyle upgrades that favorably affect your day-to-day. Libra and Cancer adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 14, 21, 32, 6 and 41.

  • Russia offers cash bonuses, frees prisoners, and lures foreigners to replenish its troops in Ukraine

    Russia offers cash bonuses, frees prisoners, and lures foreigners to replenish its troops in Ukraine

    For average wage earners in Russia, it’s a big payday. For criminals seeking to escape the harsh conditions and abuse in prison, it’s a chance at freedom. For immigrants hoping for a better life, it’s a simplified path to citizenship.

    All they have to do is sign a contract to fight in Ukraine.

    As Russia seeks to replenish its forces in nearly four years of war — and avoid an unpopular nationwide mobilization — it’s pulling out all the stops to find new troops to send into the battlefield.

    Some come from abroad to fight in what has become a bloody war of attrition. After signing a mutual defense treaty with Moscow in 2024, North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to help Russia defend its Kursk region from a Ukrainian incursion.

    Men from South Asian countries, including India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, complain of being duped into signing up to fight by recruiters promising jobs. Officials in Kenya, South Africa, and Iraq say the same has happened to citizens from their countries.

    Russian numbers in Ukraine

    President Vladimir Putin told his annual news conference in December that 700,000 Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine. He gave the same number in 2024, and a slightly lower figure — 617,000 — in December 2023. It’s unclear if those numbers are accurate.

    Still hidden are the numbers of military casualties, with Moscow having released limited official figures. The British Defense Ministry said last summer that more than 1 million Russian troops may have been killed or wounded.

    Independent Russian news site Mediazona, together with the BBC and a team of volunteers, scoured news reports, social media and government websites, and collected the names of over 160,000 troops killed. More than 550 of those were foreigners from over two dozen countries.

    How Russia gets new soldiers

    Unlike Ukraine, where martial law and nationwide mobilization has been in place since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Putin has resisted ordering a broad call-up.

    When a limited mobilization of 300,000 men was tried later that year, tens of thousands of people fled abroad. The effort stopped after a few weeks when the target was met, but a Putin decree left the door open for another call-up. It also made all military contracts effectively open-ended and barred soldiers from quitting service or being discharged, unless they reached certain age limits or were incapacitated by injuries.

    Since then, Moscow has largely relied on what it describes as voluntary enlistment.

    The flow of voluntary enlistees signing military contracts has remained strong, topping 400,000 last year, Putin said in December. It was not possible to independently verify the claim. Similar numbers were announced in 2024 and 2023.

    Activists say these contracts often stipulate a fixed term of service, such as one year, leading some potential enlistees to believe the commitment is temporary. But contracts are automatically extended indefinitely, they say.

    The incentives

    The government offers high pay and extensive benefits to enlistees. Regional authorities offer various enlistment bonuses, sometimes amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

    In the Khanty-Mansi region of central Russia, for example, an enlistee would get about $50,000 in various bonuses, according to the local government. That’s more than twice the average annual income in the region, where monthly salaries in the first 10 months of 2025 were reported to be just over $1,600.

    There also are tax breaks, debt relief, and other perks.

    Despite Kremlin claims of relying on voluntary enlistment, media reports and rights groups say conscripts — men aged 18-30 performing fixed-term mandatory military service and exempted from being sent to Ukraine — are often coerced by superiors into signing contracts that send them into battle.

    Recruitment also extends to prisoners and those in pretrial detention centers, a practice led early in the war by the late mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and adopted by the Defense Ministry. Laws now allow recruitment of both convicts and suspects in criminal cases.

    Targeting foreigners

    Foreigners also are recruiting targets, both inside Russia and abroad.

    Laws were adopted offering accelerated Russian citizenship for enlistees. Russian media and activists also report that raids in areas where migrants typically live or work lead to them being pressuring into military service, with new citizens sent to enlistment offices to determine if they’re eligible for mandatory service.

    In November, Putin decreed that military service was mandatory for certain foreigners seeking permanent residency.

    Some reportedly are lured to Russia by trafficking rings promising jobs, then duping them into signing military contracts. Cuban authorities in 2023 identified and sought to dismantle one such ring operating from Russia.

    Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud told the Associated Press in 2024 that his country asked Russia to return hundreds of Nepali nationals who were recruited to fight in Ukraine, as well as to repatriate the remains of those killed in the war. Nepal has since barred citizens from traveling to Russia or Ukraine for work, citing recruitment efforts.

    Also in 2024, India’s federal investigation agency said it broke up a network that lured at least 35 of its citizens to Russia under the pretext of employment. The men were trained for combat and deployed to Ukraine against their will, with some “grievously injured,” the agency said.

    When Putin hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks in 2024, New Delhi said its nationals who were “misled” into joining the Russian army would be discharged.

    Iraqi officials say about 5,000 of its citizens have joined the Russian military along with an unspecified number who are fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. Officials in Baghdad cracked down on such recruiting networks, with one man convicted last year of human trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.

    An unknown number of Iraqis have been killed or gone missing while fighting in Ukraine. Some families have reported that relatives were lured to Russia under false pretenses and forced to enlist; in other cases, Iraqis have joined voluntarily for the salary and Russian citizenship.

    Foreigners duped into fighting are especially vulnerable because they don’t speak Russian, have no military experience and are deemed “dispensable, to put it bluntly,” by military commanders, said Anton Gorbatsevich of the activist group Idite Lesom, or “Get Lost,” which helps men desert from the army.

    A drain on a slowing economy

    This month, a Ukrainian agency for the treatment of prisoners of war said over 18,000 foreign nationals had fought or are fighting on the Russian side. Almost 3,400 have been killed, and hundreds of citizens of 40 countries are held in Ukraine as POWs.

    If true, that represents a fraction of the 700,000 troops that Putin said are fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

    Using foreigners is only one way to meet the constant demand, said Artyom Klyga, head of the legal department at the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, noting Russian recruitment efforts appear to be stable. Most of those seeking help from the group, which assists men in avoiding military service, are Russian citizens, he said.

    Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said the Kremlin has gotten more “creative” in the last two years with attracting enlistees, including foreigners.

    But recruitment efforts are becoming “extremely expensive” for Russia, which faces a slowing economy, she added.

  • 2 federal officers fired shots during encounter that killed Alex Pretti, DHS tells Congress

    2 federal officers fired shots during encounter that killed Alex Pretti, DHS tells Congress

    WASHINGTON — Two federal officers fired shots during an encounter that killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a Customs and Border Protection official told Congress in a notice sent Tuesday.

    The notice said one Border Patrol officer fired his Glock and a CBP officer fired his, according to a notification to Congress obtained by The Associated Press.

    Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation, the notice said. The agency is required to report in-custody and certain other deaths involving its agents and officers to Congress.

    A Customs and Border Protection official said in the notice that officers tried to take Pretti into custody and he resisted, leading to a struggle. During the struggle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, the official said.

  • Judge issues temporary order barring removal of boy, 5, and father who were detained in Minnesota

    Judge issues temporary order barring removal of boy, 5, and father who were detained in Minnesota

    A federal judge has issued a temporary order prohibiting the removal of a 5-year-old Ecuadoran boy and his father who were detained last week in Minnesota in an incident that further inflamed divisions on immigration under the Trump administration.

    U.S. Judge Fred Biery ruled Monday that any removal or transfer of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, is on hold while a court case proceeds.

    A petition seeking their release was filed Saturday as dozens of immigrant families protested behind the fences of the family detention facility where the father and son are detained in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio.

    A photo of the boy wearing a beanie and a Spiderman backpack has circulated widely on social media, sparking strong reactions.

    “He has become emblematic of the monstrosity of the ICE system and the detention system,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said in a Facebook video. He used the post to announce that he and fellow Texas Democratic, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, would visit the father and son on Wednesday at the Dilley Detention Center.

    Castro added that it was “inhumane to be keeping young kids like that in that place.” Advocates say conditions inside the center include constant illness and insufficient medical access.

    The boy and his father were taken into custody last week outside their home in Minnesota. Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers used the preschooler as “bait” by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer.

    The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an “abject lie.” It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.

    Ramos’ attorney, Jennifer Scarborough, didn’t immediately respond to phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. The Department of Homeland Security sent a response only reiterating their version of events, insisting they did not arrest or target the child. Their statement did not address the judge’s court order.

    Federal officials have said the father was in the U.S. illegally, without offering details. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said the man entered the country in December 2024.

    The family’s attorney said he had a pending asylum claim allowing him to stay in the country.

    An online court summary shows the case was filed on Dec. 17, 2024, and is assigned to the immigration court inside the Dilley detention center.

    The child’s immigration status may be a critical factor, and it is unclear if the 5-year-old was legally in the United States. If he wasn’t, he may be subject to deportation with one or both parents.

  • Judge finds Virginia Democrats’ redistricting resolution illegal

    Judge finds Virginia Democrats’ redistricting resolution illegal

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia judge ruled Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment letting Democrats redraw the state’s Congressional maps was illegal, setting back the party’s efforts to pick up seats in the U.S. House in November.

    Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. struck down the legislature’s actions on three grounds, including finding that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

    His order also said Democrats failed to approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law.

    As a result, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.

    Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, who was listed in Republicans’ lawsuit over the resolution, said Democrats would appeal the ruling.

    “Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters,” Scott said in a joint statement with other state Democratic leaders.

    Virginians for Fair Elections, a campaign that supports the redistricting resolution, accused conservatives of filing their lawsuit in a known GOP-friendly jurisdiction, saying, “Republicans court-shopped for a ruling because litigation and misinformation are the only tools they have left.”

    President Donald Trump launched an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last summer when he urged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts to help the GOP win more seats, hoping to hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power in midterms.

    So far that battle has resulted in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats hope to fully or partially make up that three-seat margin in Virginia.

    As in Virginia, redistricting is still being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn.

    Other states still could join the fray: Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is pushing for revised districts that could help Democrats win all eight of the state’s U.S. House seats, up from the seven they currently hold, and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to call a special session on redistricting in April.

    Hurley’s ruling comes after lawmakers said they would unveil their proposed new House districts to voters by the end of this week.

    The state is currently represented in the House by six Democrats and five Republicans from districts whose boundaries were imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census.

    Because the commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers have to revise the constitution in order to be able to redraw maps this year. That requires the pass a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between.

    Virginians would have to vote in favor in a referendum.

  • Trump visits Iowa trying to focus on affordability during fallout over nurse’s Minneapolis shooting

    Trump visits Iowa trying to focus on affordability during fallout over nurse’s Minneapolis shooting

    CLIVE, Iowa — President Donald Trump arrived in Iowa on Tuesday as part of the White House’s midterm-year pivot toward affordability, even as his administration remains mired in the fallout in Minneapolis over a second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers this month.

    The Republican president first made a stop at a local restaurant, where he met some locals and sat for an interview with Fox News Channel — in which he said he was attempting to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota. Afterwards, he was scheduled to deliver a speech on affordability at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines.

    The trip is expected to also highlight energy policy, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said last week. It’s part of the White House’s strategy to have Trump travel out of Washington once a week ahead of the midterm elections to focus on affordability issues facing everyday Americans — an effort that keeps getting diverted by crisis.

    The latest comes as the Trump administration is grappling with the weekend shooting death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse killed by federal agents in the neighboring state of Minnesota. Pretti had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Even as some top administration officials moved quickly to malign Pretti, Trump said he was waiting until an investigation into the shooting was complete.

    Trump calls Pretti killing ‘sad situation’

    As Trump left the White House on Tuesday to head to Iowa, he was repeatedly questioned by reporters about Pretti’s killing. Trump disputed language used by his own deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who on social media described Pretti as an “assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.” Vice President JD Vance shared the post.

    Trump, when asked Tuesday if he believed Pretti was an assassin, said, “No.”

    When asked if he thought Pretti’s killing was justified, Trump called it “a very sad situation” and said a “big investigation” was underway.

    “I’m going to be watching over it, and I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself,” he said.

    He also said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was quick to cast Pretti as a violent instigator, would not be resigning.

    Later, as he greeted diners at an Iowa restaurant, Trump weighed in further with comments that were likely to exacerbate frustration among some of his backers who are also strong Second Amendment proponents.

    “He certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said of Pretti.

    He called it a “very, very unfortunate incident but said, ”I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff.”

    Republicans want to switch the subject to affordability

    Trump was last in Iowa ahead of the July 4 holiday to kick off the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary, which morphed largely into a celebration of his major spending and tax cut package hours after Congress had approved it.

    Republicans are hoping that Trump’s visit to the state on Tuesday draws focus back to that tax bill, which will be a key part of their pitch as they ask voters to keep them in power in November.

    “I invited President Trump back to Iowa to highlight the real progress we’ve made: delivering tax relief for working families, securing the border, and growing our economy,” Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, said in a statement in advance of his trip. “Now we’ve got to keep that momentum going and pass my affordable housing bill, deliver for Iowa’s energy producers, and bring down costs for working families.”

    Trump’s affordability tour has taken him to Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina as the White House tries to marshal the president’s political power to appeal to voters in key swing states.

    But Trump’s penchant for going off-script has sometimes taken the focus off cost-of-living issues and his administration’s plans for how to combat it. In Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Trump insisted that inflation was no longer a problem and that Democrats were using the term affordability as a “hoax” to hurt him. At that event, Trump also griped that immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation.

    Competitive races in Iowa

    Although it was a swing state just a little more than a decade ago, Iowa in recent years has been reliably Republican in national and statewide elections. Trump won Iowa by 13 percentage points in 2024 against Democrat Kamala Harris.

    Still, two of Iowa’s four congressional districts have been among the most competitive in the country and are expected to be again in this year’s midterm elections. Trump already has endorsed Republican Reps. Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Democrats, who landed three of Iowa’s four House seats in the 2018 midterm elections during Trump’s first term, see a prime opportunity to unseat Iowa incumbents.

    This election will be the first since 1968 with open seats for both governor and U.S. senator at the top of the ticket after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst opted out of reelection bids. The political shake-ups have rippled throughout the state, with Republican Reps. Randy Feenstra and Ashley Hinson seeking new offices for governor and for U.S. senator, respectively.

    Democrats hope Rob Sand, the lone Democrat in statewide office who is running for governor, will make the entire state more competitive with his appeal to moderate and conservative voters and his $13 million in cash on hand.

  • Trump sends border czar to Minneapolis as Alex Pretti’s sister speaks out

    Trump sends border czar to Minneapolis as Alex Pretti’s sister speaks out

    The Trump administration deployed border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Tuesday, the day after a lengthy meeting at the White House in which the president expressed frustration with the situation in Minnesota since Alex Pretti was fatally shot by Border Patrol.

    President Donald Trump said Monday he would send Homan to replace Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has been the face of the operation in Minneapolis and previous ones in Los Angeles and Chicago.

    Pretti’s sister issued a statement memorializing her brother and condemning “disgusting lies” she said had been told about him since his death on Saturday. Video footage of Pretti’s killing has raised questions about Department of Homeland Security officials’ immediate account of the incident.

    U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino shouts at protesters, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

    The day Pretti was shot, Bovino suggested he had wanted to “massacre” officers. A Washington Post analysis of the incident’s footage found that agents secured a handgun from Pretti before he was shot multiple times. Local authorities said he was carrying the weapon lawfully.

    The White House in the last 24 hours has adopted a more measured tone in its response to the shooting. Trump showed his dissatisfaction with the situation in Minnesota during an extended meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem late on Monday, according to a personal familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

    Homan is set to meet with local officials in Minneapolis when he arrives there Tuesday.

    Pretti’s sister, Micayla Pretti, in the statement shared by an Associated Press reporter late Monday, described her grief as “a pain no words can fully capture” and expressed a sense of exasperation. “When does this end? How many more innocent lives must be lost before we say enough?” she wrote. It was not immediately clear what falsehoods she was referring to.

    Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was the third person to be shot by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis this month, and the second to be killed.

    In a remarkable filing late Monday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge demanded that Todd M. Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, personally appear in court on Friday to explain what he said were repeated failures to comply with court orders amid ICE’s enforcement efforts in the state.

    The order threatened possible contempt proceedings against Lyons and sets up another potential showdown between federal judges and Trump officials.

    It was not clear Tuesday how Lyons would respond or whether Justice Department attorneys would seek to block the order in court.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said late Monday, after speaking to Trump, that some federal troops would begin leaving the area on Tuesday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said separately that Trump had agreed in a phone call Monday “to look into reducing the number of federal agents” in the state. DHS did not immediately respond to an early Tuesday request for comment. Both Frey and Trump said Homan would speak with the mayor Tuesday.

    First lady Melania Trump called for unity in Minneapolis in a Fox & Friends interview Tuesday morning, saying: “I know that my husband, the president, had a great call yesterday with the governor and the mayor. And they are working together to make it peaceful and without riots. I’m against the violence. So please, if you protest, protest in peace. We need to unify in these times.”

    “Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “It is President Trump’s hope and wish and demand for the resistance and chaos to end today.”