Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: no-latest

  • Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., America’s health department is in the business of promoting Kennedy

    Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., America’s health department is in the business of promoting Kennedy

    As health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wields one of the louder megaphones the federal government has. Yet he insists he doesn’t want to impose his opinions on Americans.

    “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” Kennedy told a Democratic congressman in May.

    Kennedy once expressed different views — for example, about the need to proselytize about exercise. As he said on a podcast, he wants to use the “bully pulpit” to “obliterate the delicacy” with which Americans discuss fitness and explain that “suffering” is virtuous.

    “We need to establish an ethic that you’re not a good parent unless your kids are doing some kind of physical activity,” Kennedy told the podcaster in September 2024.

    RFK Jr.’s pointless dismantling of the nation’s public health system places us all at risk | Editorial

    The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with communicating information to protect and improve the health and well-being of every American. It provides reminders about vaccinations and screenings; alerts about which food is unsafe; and useful, everyday tips about subjects such as sunscreen and, yes, exercise.

    Under Kennedy’s watch, though, HHS has compromised once-fruitful campaigns promoting immunizations and other preventive health measures. On Instagram, the agency often emphasizes Kennedy’s personal causes, his pet projects, or even the secretary himself. Former agency employees say communications have a more political edge, with “Make America Healthy Again” frequently featured in news releases.

    Interviews with over 20 former and current agency employees provide a look inside a health department where personality and politics steer what is said to the public. KFF Health News granted many of these people anonymity because they fear retribution.

    One sign of change is what is no longer, or soon will not be, amplified — for instance, acclaimed anti-smoking campaigns making a dent in one of Kennedy’s priorities, chronic disease.

    Another sign is what gets commemorated. On the official HHS Instagram account this year, out were posts saluting Juneteenth and Father’s Day. In, under Kennedy, were posts marking President Donald Trump’s birthday and Hulk Hogan’s death.

    Commenting on such changes, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email that “DEI is gone, thanks to the Trump administration.”

    Some elected officials are pointedly not promoting Kennedy as a source of healthcare information. Regarding the secretary’s announcement citing unproven links between Tylenol and autism, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) told MSNBC (now called MS NOW) that, “if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking, you know, advice from RFK or any other government bureaucrat, for that matter.” (Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

    At least four polls since January show trust in Kennedy as a medical adviser is low. In one poll, from the Economist and YouGov, barely over a quarter of respondents said they trusted Kennedy “a lot” or “somewhat.”

    The department’s online messaging looks “a lot more like propaganda than it does public health,” said Kevin Griffis, who worked in communications at the CDC under President Joe Biden and left the agency in March.

    Transition to a new administration

    The new administration inaugurated dramatic changes. Upon arrival, political appointees froze the health agency’s outside communications on a broader scale than in previous changeovers, halting everything from routine webpage updates to meetings with grant recipients. The pause created logistical snafus: For example, one CDC employee described being forced to cancel, and later rebook, advertising campaigns — at greater cost to taxpayers.

    Even before the gag order was lifted in the spring, the tone and direction of HHS’ public communications had shifted.

    According to data shared by iSpot.tv, a market research firm that tracks television advertising, at least four HHS ads about vaccines ended within two weeks of Trump’s inauguration.

    “Flu campaigns were halted” during a season in which a record number of children died from influenza, Deb Houry, who had resigned as the CDC’s chief medical officer, said in a Sept. 17 congressional hearing.

    Instead of urging people to get vaccinated, HHS officials contemplated more-ambivalent messaging, said Griffis, then the CDC’s director of communications. According to Griffis, other former agency employees, and communications reviewed by KFF Health News, Nixon contemplated a campaign that would put more emphasis on vaccine risks. It would “be promoting, quote-unquote, ‘informed choice,’” Griffis said.

    Philadelphia scientists will receive more than $6 million in funding from RFK Jr.’s new autism research center

    Nixon called the claim “categorically false.” Still, the department continues to push anti-vaccine messaging. In November, the CDC updated a web page to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism.

    Messaging related to tobacco control has been pulled back, according to Brian King, an executive at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as well as multiple current and former CDC employees. Layoffs, administrative leaves, and funding turmoil have drained offices at the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration focused on educating people about the risks of smoking and vaping, King said.

    Four current and former CDC employees told KFF Health News that “Tips From Former Smokers,” a campaign credited with helping approximately a million people quit smoking, is in danger. Ordinarily, a contract for the next year’s campaign would have been signed by now. But, as of Nov. 21, there was no contractor, the current and former employees said.

    Nixon did not respond to a question from KFF Health News regarding plans for the program.

    “We’re currently in an apocalypse for national tobacco education campaigns in this country,” King said.

    Kennedy’s HHS has a different focus for its education campaigns, including the “Take Back Your Health” campaign, for which the department solicited contractors this year to produce “viral” and “edgy” content to urge Americans to exercise.

    An earlier version of the campaign’s solicitation asked for partners to boost wearables, such as gadgets that track steps or glucose levels — reflecting a Kennedy push for every American to be wearing such a device within four years.

    The source of funds for the exercise campaign? In the spring, leadership of multiple agencies discussed using funding for the CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign, employees from those agencies said. By the fall, the smoking program had not spent all its funds, the current and former CDC employees said.

    Nixon did not respond to questions about the source of funding for the exercise campaign.

    Food fight

    At the FDA, former employees said they noticed new types of political interference as Trump officials took the reins, sometimes making subtle tweaks to public communications, sometimes changing wholesale what messages went out. The interventions into messaging — what was said, but also what went unsaid — proved problematic, they said.

    Early this year, multiple employees told KFF Health News, Nixon gave agency employees a quick deadline to gather a list of all policy initiatives underway on infant formula. That was then branded “Operation Stork Speed,” as if it were a new push by a new administration.

    Marianna Naum, a former acting director of external communications and consumer education at the FDA, said she supports parts of the Trump administration’s agenda. But she said she disagreed with how it handled Operation Stork Speed. “It felt like they were trying to put out information so they can say: ‘Look at the great work. Look how fast we did it,’” she said.

    Nixon called the account “false” without elaborating. KFF Health News spoke with three other employees with the same recollections of the origins of Operation Stork Speed.

    “Things that didn’t fit within their agenda, they were downplayed,” Naum said.

    For example, she said, Trump political appointees resisted a proposed news release noting agency approval of cell-cultured pork — that is, pork grown in a lab. Similar products have raised the ire of ranchers and farmers working in typically GOP-friendly industries. States such as Florida have banned lab-grown meat.

    The agency ultimately issued the news release. But a review of the agency’s archives showed it has not put out news releases about two later approvals of cell-cultured meat.

    Wide-ranging layoffs have also hit the FDA’s food office hard, leaving fewer people to make sure news gets distributed properly and promptly. Former employees say notices about recalled foods are not circulated as widely as they used to be, meaning fewer eyeballs on alerts about contaminated ice cream, peaches, and the like.

    Nixon did not respond to questions about changes in food recalls. Overall, Nixon answered nine of 53 questions posed by KFF Health News.

    Pushing politics

    Televised HHS public service campaigns earned nearly 7.3 billion fewer impressions in the first half of 2025 vs. the same period in 2022, according to iSpot data, with the drop being concentrated in pro-vaccine messaging. Other types of ads, such as those covering substance use and mental health, also fell. Data from the marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows similar drops in HHS ad spending online.

    With many of the longtime professionals laid off and new political appointees in place atop the hierarchy, a new communications strategy — bearing the hallmarks of Kennedy’s personality — is being built, said the current and former HHS employees, plus public health officials interviewed by KFF Health News.

    Whereas in 2024, the agency would mostly post public health resources such as the 988 suicide hotline on its Instagram page, its feed in 2025 features more of the health secretary himself. Through the end of August, according to a KFF Health News review, 77 of its 101 posts featured Kennedy — often fishing, biking, or doing pull-ups, as well as pitching his policies.

    By contrast, only 146 of the agency’s 754 posts last year, or about 20%, featured Xavier Becerra, Kennedy’s predecessor.

    In 2024, on Instagram, the agency promoted Medicare and individual insurance open enrollment; in 2025, the agency has not.

    In 2024, the agency’s Instagram feed included some politicking as Biden ran for reelection, but the posts were less frequent and often indirect — for instance, touting a policy enacted under Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, but without mentioning the name of the bill or its connection to the president.

    In 2025, sloganeering is a frequent feature of the agency’s Kennedy-era Instagram. Through the end of August, “Make America Healthy Again” or variants of the catchphrase featured in at least 48% of posts.

    Amid the layoffs, the agency made a notable addition to its team. It hired a state legislative spokesperson as a “rapid response” coordinator, a role that employees from previous administrations could not recall previously existing at HHS.

    “Like other Trump administration agencies, HHS is continuously rebutting fake news for the benefit of the public,” Nixon said when asked about the role.

    On the day Houry and Susan Monarez, the CDC leader ousted in late August, testified before senators about Kennedy’s leadership, the agency’s X feed posted clips belittling the former officials. The department also derisively rebuts unfavorable news coverage.

    “It’s very interesting to watch the memeification of the United States and critical global health infrastructure,” said McKenzie Wilson, an HHS spokesperson under Biden. “The entire purpose of this agency is to inform the public about safety, emergencies as they happen.”

    ‘Clear, powerful messages from Bobby’

    Kennedy’s Make Our Children Healthy Again report, released in September, proposes public awareness campaigns on subjects such as illegal vaping and fluoride levels in water, while reassuring Americans that the regulatory system for pesticides is “robust.”

    Those priorities reflect — and are amplified by — cadres of activists outside government. Since the summer, HHS officials have appeared on Zoom calls with aligned advocacy groups, trying to drum up support for Kennedy’s agenda.

    On one call — on which, according to host Tony Lyons, activists “representing over 250 million followers on social media” were registered — famous names such as motivational speaker Tony Robbins gave pep talks about how to influence elected officials and the public.

    “Each week, you’re gonna get clear, powerful messages from Bobby, from HHS, from their team,” Robbins said. “And your mission is to amplify it, to make it your own, to speak from your soul, to be bold, to be relentless, to be loving, to be loud, you know, because this is how we make the change.”

    The communications strategy captivates the public, but it also confuses it.

    Anne Zink, formerly the chief medical officer for Alaska, said she thought Kennedy’s messaging was some of the catchiest of any HHS director.

    But, she said, in her work as an emergency physician, she has seen the consequences of his health department’s policies on her puzzled patients. Some question vaccines. Children show up with gastrointestinal symptoms Zink says she suspects are related to raw milk consumption.

    “I increasingly see people say, ‘I just don’t know what to trust, because I just hear all sorts of things out there,’” she said.

    KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

  • Philly’s Arts Scene Runs on “Temple Made” Talent

    Philly’s Arts Scene Runs on “Temple Made” Talent

    Philadelphia is home to world-class museums, a nationally recognized public art collection, a celebrated orchestra, renowned dance companies, and a thriving film and theater scene. It is a global arts destination. Many of the people who power this cultural engine share the distinction of being “Temple Made.” They are the artists, storytellers, and cultural leaders who keep the city’s creative life moving forward.

    Across generations, alumni from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, the Boyer College of Music and Dance, and the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts (TFMA) have shaped Philadelphia’s artistic identity. Now, more than 15,000 Temple arts alumni call the region home. They lead cultural institutions, curate cutting-edge exhibitions, and produce prize-winning performances. They work at every level of the creative sector as cultural influencers, independent artists, teachers, clinicians, and community innovators. Together, they are creating new spaces that keep the arts vibrant and accessible. And by fueling the arts in Philly, these Owls are moving Philadelphia forward.

    “The way in which art builds community is critical,” Susan E. Cahan, the dean of Tyler School of Art & Architecture, said. “Art expands what we can imagine, and everything else flows from that: empathy, mutual understanding, and our ability to envision shared futures.”

    Temple’s roots in arts education stretch back more than a century. Today, Tyler, Boyer, and TFMA collectively present hundreds of exhibitions, performances, and productions each year on Temple’s Main Campus. Recently, the university announced a new partnership with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. That collaboration, along with the acquisition of Terra Hall in Center City and the construction of the Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication (scheduled to open in fall of 2027 on Broad Street on Temple’s Main Campus) positions the university as a vital anchor at multiple points along the Avenue of the Arts. Together, these developments are greatly expanding Temple’s creative influence and furthering its mission to combine artistic excellence with public purpose.

    “Philadelphia has a reputation as an arts powerhouse that we’ve had the privilege to build upon, and we take our responsibility to sustain it seriously,” Robert T. Stroker, the Joslyn G. Ewart Dean of Temple’s Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts, said.

    Here’s how three Temple alumni are stewarding Philadelphia’s cultural infrastructure in order to keep the arts alive, evolving, and rooted in community.

    Valerie Gay

    Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia

    Executive Director, Creative Philadelphia

    Valerie Gay, who goes by Val, oversees one of the nation’s largest and oldest public art collections, which comprises more than 1,000 works including A Quest for Parity: The Octavius V. Catto Memorial and the forthcoming Harriet Tubman monument, by Alvin Pettit at City Hall. In her role with the City of Philadelphia, she also guides citywide cultural programming; exhibitions in City Hall; and major initiatives such as Healing Verse Germantown, a poetry and public art installation; Mural Arts Philadelphia, a nonprofit that supports the creation of public murals; and the city’s first Arts & Culture Master Plan, an initiative by Creative Philadelphia to imagine the city’s cultural future.

    Gay earned her master’s in voice performance from Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance while working full-time. That experience shaped her disciplined, systems-based leadership style. “Temple taught me that structure brings freedom,” she said.

    For Gay, sustaining Philadelphia’s cultural landscape is both a responsibility and a joy. “Philadelphia doesn’t just power the arts,” she said. “The arts power Philadelphia.”

    Lindsay Smiling

    Co-Artistic Director, Wilma Theater

    For Lindsay Smiling, theater has always been a way to explore identity and connection. At the Wilma Theater, one of Philadelphia’s most influential theater companies, he leads with a vision that elevates bold storytelling while ensuring audiences feel invited into the performance.

    “Even when the work is abstract, it shouldn’t feel inaccessible,” he said. After earning his MFA at Temple, Smiling built a wide-ranging acting career before joining the Wilma’s HotHouse Company, known for its collaborative, actor-driven approach. When he later stepped into a leadership role, he was determined to keep artists at the center of the process.

    Now, as part of Temple’s faculty, he’s inspired by the students shaping the future of the field. “I learn from them every day,” he said. For Smiling, seeing Temple alumni across the city reinforces a shared foundation. “We’re coming from something special,” he said.

    Jennifer Zwilling

    Curator and Director of Artistic Programs, The Clay Studio

    Jennifer Zwilling’s work at The Clay Studio helped lay the foundation for Philadelphia’s rise as a national destination for contemporary ceramics. In her role, she leads exhibitions, residencies, and hands-on learning programs that welcome thousands of people, from schoolchildren to working artists, into the studio each year. She has helped to strengthen The Clay Studio’s role as a citywide resource for creativity, connection, and craft.

    A Tyler alum, Zwilling earned her master’s in art history while soaking up the school’s studio culture. Her education shaped her belief that artists and scholars should work side by side. After 14 years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as an assistant curator of American Decorative Arts and Contemporary Craft, she joined The Clay Studio in 2014 and helped guide its 2022 relocation to a new 34,000-square-foot home in Kensington.

    “Art isn’t just something to look at,” she said. “It’s something people deserve to experience and make. That belief drives everything we do here.”

    Owls in the Arts

    Temple alumni play major roles at these Philadelphia arts organizations and more:

    • BlackStar Film Festival
    • City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy
    • Crane Arts
    • Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts
    • The Clay Studio
    • The Wilma Theater

    Read more about how Temple powers the arts in Philly.

  • Hearing in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case sheds new light on his arrest

    Hearing in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case sheds new light on his arrest

    NEW YORK — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, he told an officer he didn’t want to talk, according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday for the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

    Although some video and accounts of police interactions with Mangione emerged earlier in this week’s hearing, Thursday’s proceedings shed new light on the lead-up to and aftermath of his Dec. 9, 2024, arrest in Altoona, Pa.

    Mangione, 27, appeared to follow the proceedings intently, at times leaning over the defense table to scrutinize papers or take notes. He briefly looked down as Altoona Police Officer Tyler Frye was asked about a strip-search of Mangione after his arrest. Under the department’s policy, that search wasn’t recorded.

    It happened after police were told that someone at the McDonald’s resembled the much-publicized suspect in Thompson’s killing. But Frye and Officer Joseph Detwiler initially approached Mangione with a low-key tone, saying only that someone had said he looked “suspicious.” Asked for his ID, he gave a phony New Jersey driver’s license with a fake name, according to prosecutors.

    Moments later, after frisking Mangione, Detwiler stepped away to communicate with dispatchers about the license, leaving the rookie Frye by Mangione’s table.

    “So what’s going on? What brings you up here from New Jersey?” Frye asked, according to his body-camera video.

    Mangione answered in a low voice. Asked what the suspect had said, Frye testified Thursday: “It was something along the lines of: He didn’t want to talk to me at that time.”

    Mangione later added that “he was just trying to use the Wi-Fi,” according to Frye.

    During the roughly 20 minutes before Mangione was told he had the right to remain silent, he answered other questions asked by the officers, and also posed a few of his own.

    “Can I ask why there’s so many cops here?” he asked shortly before being informed he was being arrested on a forgery charge related to his false ID. By that point, roughly a dozen officers had converged on the restaurant, and Mangione had been told he was being investigated and had been handcuffed.

    Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. Before any trials get scheduled, his lawyers are trying to preclude the eventual jurors from hearing about his alleged statements to law officers and items — including a gun and a notebook — they allegedly seized from his backpack.

    The evidence is key to prosecutors’ case. They have said the 9 mm handgun matches the firearm used in the killing, that writings in the notebook laid out Mangione’s disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference, and that he gave police the same fake name that the alleged gunman used at a New York hostel days before the shooting.

    Thursday’s proceedings came on the anniversary of the killing, which UnitedHealthcare marked by lowering the flags at its headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and encouraging employees to engage in volunteering.

    Thompson, 50, was shot from behind as he walked to an investor conference. He became UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in 2021 and had worked within parent UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years.

    The hearing, which started Monday and could extend to next week, applies only to the state case. But it is giving the public an extensive preview of some testimony, video, 911 audio and other records relevant to both cases.

    After encountering Mangione, Detwiler and Frye tried to play it cool and buy time by intimating that they were simply responding to a loitering complaint and chatting about his sandwich. Still, they patted Mangione down and pushed his backpack away from him. About 15 minutes in, officers warned him that he was being investigated and would be arrested if he repeated what they had determined was a fake name.

    After he gave his real one, he was read his rights, handcuffed, frisked again and ultimately arrested on a forgery charge related to his fake ID.

    Mangione’s lawyers argue that his statements shouldn’t be allowed as trial evidence because officers started questioning him before reading his rights. They say the contents of his backpack should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching it.

    Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet detailed their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Federal prosecutors have maintained that the backpack search was justified to ensure there was nothing dangerous inside, and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.

    Many criminal cases see disputes over evidence and the complicated legal standards governing police searches and interactions with potential suspects.

  • A seal walks into a bar … and we don’t mean the Navy kind

    A seal walks into a bar … and we don’t mean the Navy kind

    A seal waddled into a bar — and ordered a drink on the rocks.

    So went one of the many jokes made by patrons at Sprig + Fern, The Meadows, a craft beer pub in New Zealand’s South Island, after a young fur seal walked in the front door on a rainy Sunday, sparking excitement and disbelief.

    Co-owner Bella Evans said she was working behind the bar, putting up Christmas decorations, when the young seal entered shortly after 5 p.m.

    “Everyone was pretty shocked,” Evans said in a phone interview Thursday. “A lot of people thought it was a dog at first, because we are a dog-friendly establishment.”

    “It was a mix of shock, excitement and everything all at once,” she said.

    The seal seemed “pretty relaxed” and was in the pub for around 25 minutes, including visiting the bathroom, Evans said. Video posted online by the bar — and set to the Mission Impossible theme tune — shows the seal waddling between tables as a customer tries to usher it outside.

    “Today we had the cutest unexpected visitor,” the business wrote on Facebook. “It wandered in all on its own for a little look around, absolutely stealing the show.”

    Evans said she was initially worried about the seal getting frightened and the safety of customers, but the pup seemed “really mellow.”

    The seal eventually settled under a dishwasher before staff members managed to lure it into a customer’s dog crate — with the help of some salmon from a pizza special on the menu. Conservation rangers then came to collect it.

    “Everyone was joking it was so popular that even the seal’s heard,” Evans said about the pub’s pizza.

    Helen Otley, a principal ranger for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, said the agency received “numerous” calls Sunday about the young fur seal, known as kekeno in Maori, which had been spotted in the area.

    “The pub staff did a great job keeping the seal safe until the DOC ranger could get there,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post.

    Otley said it was “not unusual” to see young fur seals in the Tasman Bay area, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, as they explore their environment after being weaned. The pub is about a mile from the coast.

    “Seals can wander up to 15 km (9.3 miles) inland, often following rivers and streams. They can turn up in unusual places — like this pub — but this is normal exploratory behavior,” she said, adding that the department generally takes a “hands off” approach to seals.

    “They are capable and resilient and, given time and space, they usually find their way back to the shore,” she said.

    Evans said the surprise visitor delighted customers and staff, and sparked a flurry of jokes about drinks served “on the rocks” and the pub having the “seal of approval.” The seal has also left an intriguing scent for local dogs who have been “sniffing the trail” where it roamed, she said.

    Otley said the seal has since been released at Rabbit Island, a small island in the Tasman Bay area, which she described as “a safe location due to its dog-free status.”

    It’s not the first time animals have turned up in unexpected places in the past couple of weeks, with a raccoon passing out in a bathroom after ransacking a Virginia liquor store and a bear squeezing into a crawl space in a California home.

    For Evans, who took over the pub around three months ago, the animal visitor was followed up by another surprise this week: a customer bringing their bearded dragon for a drink.

    “We’re turning into a zoo,” she joked.

  • Steve Cropper, Memphis soul guitarist with Booker T. & the MG’s, dies at 84

    Steve Cropper, Memphis soul guitarist with Booker T. & the MG’s, dies at 84

    Steve Cropper, an internationally renowned, Grammy-winning guitarist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee who played with luminaries such as Otis Redding, B.B. King, Booker T. & the MG’s and the Blues Brothers, died Dec. 3 in Nashville. He was 84 years old.

    Mr. Cropper’s death was announced on his social media accounts in a statement that called him “a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer.” The cause of death was not disclosed.

    In the earliest days of his decades-long career, Mr. Cropper played guitar as a founding member of the Memphis band the Mar-Keys, which had a national hit with “Last Night” in 1961. He formed the band with his childhood friend, Donald “Duck” Dunn, who became a well-known bassist. The two continued to collaborate for years afterward, notably with the famed Booker T. & the MG’s — a groundbreaking, racially integrated R&B/soul studio band formed by Mr. Cropper in 1962.

    Mr. Cropper performed on many enduring hits, including with Otis Redding on “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” which the two co-wrote, and with Sam & Dave on “Soul Man.”

    He also played on two albums with the Blues Brothers and co-wrote hits such as “In the Midnight Hour” with Wilson Pickett, “Knock on Wood” with Eddie Floyd, and “Green Onions” as part of Booker T. & the MG’s.

    Stephen Lee Cropper was born on a farm near Dora, Mo., on Oct. 21, 1941. He recalled falling in love with music after his family moved to Memphis when he was 9 years old and he started hearing Black gospel songs on local radio stations.

    “I really enjoyed that music. I don’t know what it was. At such a young age, it impressed me,” he recalled in a 1984 interview. “The Black spiritual music … it gave me a whole different attitude about music.”

    At about age 14, he decided he wanted to play guitar and scraped together $20 to order one from a catalog by setting pins at a bowling alley in Memphis — earning about 10 cents a game. He recalled his shock when he opened the box and found that the instrument had not been strung.

    “I went, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t it supposed to be all tuned and all that stuff?’” he said with a laugh. “I really didn’t have a musical background in the family.”

    He taught himself how to play, recalling: “I liked the sound of it. I liked the ring of the notes.”

    In his acceptance speech when Booker T. & the MG’s was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, Mr. Cropper said he was honored to play “with some of the greatest musicians on the planet.”

    “It’s been a great career and it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

    Mr. Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. He won two Grammy Awards, in 1968 for “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” with Redding and in 1994 for “Cruisin’” as part of Booker T. & the MG’s. He was nominated for a Grammy nine times.

    In 1996, British magazine Mojo ranked him as the second-greatest guitarist of all time, behind only Jimi Hendrix.

    “Steve’s influence on American music is immeasurable,” his family said on social media.

    “Every note he played, every song he wrote, and every artist he inspired ensures that his spirit and artistry will continue to move people for generations.”

    Mr. Cropper is survived by his wife, Angel Cropper, and his four children.

  • Trump praises Congo and Rwanda as they sign U.S.-mediated peace deal

    Trump praises Congo and Rwanda as they sign U.S.-mediated peace deal

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump praised the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda for their courage as they signed onto a deal on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the U.S. government and American companies.

    The moment offered Trump — who has repeatedly and with a measure of exaggeration boasted of brokering peace in some of the world’s most entrenched conflicts — another chance to tout himself as a dealmaker extraordinaire on the global stage and make the case that he’s deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. leader hasn’t been shy about his desire to receive the honor.

    “It’s a great day for Africa, a great day for the world,” Trump said shortly before the leaders signed the pact. He added, “Today, we’re succeeding where so many others have failed.”

    Trump welcomed Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, as well as several officials from other African nations who traveled to Washington to witness the signing, in the same week he contemptuously derided the war-torn country of Somalia and said he did he did not want immigrants from the East African nation in the U.S.

    Lauded by the White House as a “historic” agreement brokered by Trump, the pact between Tshisekedi and Kagame follows monthslong peace efforts by the U.S. and partners, including the African Union and Qatar, and finalizes an earlier deal signed in June.

    But the Trump-brokered peace is precarious.

    The Central African nation of Congo has been battered by decadeslong fighting with more than 100 armed groups, the most potent being the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The conflict escalated this year, with M23 seizing the region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu in an unprecedented advance, worsening a humanitarian crisis that was already one of the world’s largest, with millions of people displaced.

    ‘We are still at war’

    Fighting, meanwhile, continued this week in the conflict-battered region with pockets of clashes reported between the rebels and Congolese soldiers, together with their allied forces. Trump, a Republican, has often said that his mediation has ended the conflict, which some people in Congo say isn’t true.

    Still, Kagame and Tshisekedi offered a hopeful tone as they signed onto to the agreement.

    “No one was asking President Trump to take up this task. Our region is far from the headlines,” Kagame said. “But when the president saw the opportunity to contribute to peace, he immediately took it.”

    “I do believe this day is the beginning of a new path, a demanding path, yes. Indeed, quite difficult,” Tshisekedi said. ”But this is a path where peace will not just be a wish, an aspiration, but a turning point.”

    Indeed, analysts say Thursday’s deal also isn’t expected to quickly result in peace. A separate peace deal has been signed between Congo and the M23.

    “We are still at war,” said Amani Chibalonza Edith, a 32-year-old resident of Goma, eastern Congo’s key city seized by rebels early this year. “There can be no peace as long as the front lines remain active.”

    Rare earth minerals

    Thursday’s pact will also build on a Regional Economic Integration Framework previously agreed upon that officials have said will define the terms of economic partnerships involving the three countries.

    Trump also announced the United States was signing bilateral agreements with the Congo and Rwanda that will unlock new opportunities for the United States to access critical minerals–deals that will benefit all three nations’ economies.

    “And we’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” Trump said. He added, “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

    The region, rich in critical minerals, has been of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earths, essential to manufacturing fighter jets, cell phones and more. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing.

    Trump hosted the leaders on Thursday morning for one-on-one meetings at the White House as well as a three-way conversation before the signing ceremony at the Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department announced on Wednesday has been rebranded “the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”

    Later Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host an event that will bring together American business leaders and the Congolese and Rwandan delegations to discuss potential investment opportunities in critical minerals, energy and tourism.

    Ongoing clashes

    In eastern Congo, meanwhile, residents reported pockets of clashes and rebel advances in various localities. Both the M23 and Congolese forces have accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreed earlier this year. Fighting has also continued in the central plateaus across South Kivu province.

    The hardship in the aftermath of the conflict has worsened following U.S. funding cuts that were crucial for aid support in the conflict.

    In rebel-held Goma, which was a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts before this year’s escalation of fighting, the international airport is closed. Government services such as bank operations have yet to resume and residents have reported a surge in crimes and in the prices of goods.

    “We are waiting to see what will happen because so far, both sides continue to clash and attack each other,” said Moise Bauma, a 27-year-old student in rebel-held Bukavu city.

    Both Congo and Rwanda, meanwhile, have touted American involvement as a key step towards peace in the region.

    “We need that attention from the administration to continue to get to where we need to get to,” Makolo said. “We are under no illusion that this is going to be easy. This is not the end but it’s a good step.”

    Conflict’s cause

    The conflict can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and 1 million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people. When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly 2 million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals.

    Rwandan authorities have accused the Hutus who fled of participating in the genocide and alleged that elements of the Congolese army protected them. They have argued that the militias formed by a small fraction of the Hutus are a threat to Rwanda’s Tutsi population.

    Congo’s government has said there can’t be permanent peace if Rwanda doesn’t withdraw its support troops and other support for the M23 in the region. Rwanda, on the other hand, has conditioned a permanent ceasefire on Congo dissolving a local militia that it said is made up of the Hutus and is fighting with the Congolese military.

    U.N. experts have said that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan government forces are deployed in eastern Congo, operating alongside the M23. Rwanda denies such support, but says any action taken in the conflict is to protect its territory.

  • A quiet corner of Arkansas has become a hot spot for U.S. immigration crackdown, AP finds

    A quiet corner of Arkansas has become a hot spot for U.S. immigration crackdown, AP finds

    ROGERS, Ark. — She was already separated from her husband, the family breadwinner and father of her two youngest children, and had lost the home they shared in Arkansas.

    Then Cristina Osornio was ensnared by the nation’s rapidly expanding immigration enforcement crackdown just months after her husband was deported to Mexico. Following a traffic stop in Benton County, in the state’s northwest corner, she was jailed for several days on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, records show, even though she is a legal permanent U.S. resident and the mother of six children.

    Best known as home to Walmart headquarters, the county and the wider region have emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration’s crackdown, according to an Associated Press review of ICE arrest data, jail records, police reports and interviews with residents, immigration lawyers and watchdogs.

    The county offers a window into what the future may hold in places where local and state law enforcement authorities cooperate broadly with ICE, as the Department of Homeland Security offers financial incentives in exchange for help making arrests.

    The partnership in Arkansas has led to the detention and deportation of some violent criminals but also repeatedly turned misdemeanor arrests into the first steps toward deportations, records show. The arrests have split apart families, sparked protests and spread fear through the immigrant community, including people born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Marshall Islands.

    “Nobody is safe at this point because they are targeting you because of your skin color,” said Osornio, 35, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 months old.

    Her odyssey began in September, when an officer in the city of Rogers cited her for driving without insurance and with a suspended license, body cam video shows. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanor case and taken to the Benton County Jail, where an ICE hold was placed on her.

    After four days behind bars, she said she was released without explanation. She called it a “very scary” experience that exacerbated her health conditions.

    Cristina Osornio and her 3-year-old daughter, Valentina, decorate a Christmas tree in their apartment in Rogers, Ark.

    Benton County offers the kind of help ICE wants nationwide

    More than 450 people were arrested by ICE at the Benton County Jail from Jan. 1 through Oct. 15, according to ICE arrest data from the University of California Berkeley Deportation Data Project analyzed by AP. That’s more than 1.5 arrests per day in the county of roughly 300,000 people.

    Most of the arrests were made through the county’s so-called 287(g) agreement, named for a section of immigration law, that allows deputies to question people who are booked into the jail about their immigration status. In fact, the county’s program accounted for more than 4% of roughly 7,000 arrests nationwide that were attributed to similar programs during the first 9 1/2 months of this year, according to the data.

    Under the program, deputies alert ICE to inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, who are usually held without bond and eventually transferred into ICE custody. After a couple of days, they are often moved to the neighboring Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, which has long held detainees for ICE, before they are taken to detention centers in Louisiana and potentially deported.

    ICE now has more than 1,180 cooperation agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, up from 135 at the start of the new administration, and it has offered federal payments to cover the costs of training, equipment and salaries in some circumstances. Arrests under the programs have surged in recent months as more agencies get started, ICE data shows.

    The growth has been particularly pronounced in Republican-led states such as Florida, where new laws encourage or require such cooperation. Earlier this year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law requiring all county sheriffs to cooperate with ICE through either a 287(g) program at the jail or a program in which they serve ICE warrants to expedite detentions and removals.

    ICE arrests have surged in Benton County this year

    Benton County’s partnership with ICE has been controversial off and on since its inception nearly 20 years ago.

    ICE data shows arrests have shot up this year in the county, a Trump stronghold in a heavily Republican state that has a large foreign-born population compared with other parts of Arkansas.

    About half of those arrested by ICE through the program have been convicted of crimes, while the other half have charges pending, according to the data. But the severity of the charges ranges widely.

    Jail records show those on recent ICE holds include people charged with forgery, sexual assault, drug trafficking, theft, and public intoxication. Offenses related to domestic violence and unsafe driving are among the most common.

    Local observers say they have tracked an uptick in people facing ICE detention after traffic stops involving violations such as driving without a license.

    “It just feels more aggressive. We’re seeing people detained more frequently on extremely minor charges,” said Nathan Bogart, an immigration attorney. “They’ve kind of just been let off the leash now.”

    County officials were unwilling to talk about their partnership with ICE. County Judge Barry Moehring, the county’s chief executive who oversees public safety, referred questions to the sheriff’s office.

    Sheriff Shawn Holloway, who has championed the program since his election in 2015, did not respond to several interview requests. The sheriff’s office spokesperson referred questions to ICE.

    A routine traffic stop turns into an ICE hold

    Body cam video shows that police officer Myles Tucker pulled Osornio over on Sept. 15 in a quiet neighborhood of Rogers as she drove to a bank to get change for her job at the retail chain Five Below.

    Tucker said he stopped Osornio because a check of her license plate number indicated that her auto insurance was unconfirmed, and he thought she made a suspicious turn after seeing police.

    In addition to issuing tickets for lacking insurance and driving with a suspended license, the officer learned she had a warrant for failing to appear for a misdemeanor domestic violence case. That case stemmed from a 2023 incident in which she argued and fought with her husband.

    Osornio disputed that she missed a court hearing. She told the officer that her husband had been deported and that she needed to arrange child care for her children.

    During the drive to the jail, Tucker played upbeat Christian-themed music in his patrol vehicle.

    He turned down the music to ask Osornio where she was born, saying the information would be required at the jail. “I ask the question because I have to put it on the form, not because I’m trying to get you in trouble,” he said.

    Osornio said she was baffled about why she was placed on an ICE hold. She offered to show her residency and Social Security cards, but jail staff told her she would have to meet with an immigration agent in a few days. She said that never happened and instead she was told the hold was “lifted.”

    Neither a jail spokesperson nor ICE responded to questions about the matter.

    Cpl. Don Lisi, spokesperson for the Rogers Police Department, said his agency has “nothing to do with” the county’s ICE partnership.

    But jail records show dozens of the department’s recent arrests have turned into ICE detentions once suspects are booked. Advocates for immigrants allege the department and others nearby engage in racial profiling in traffic stops.

    Afraid of racial profiling, local residents take precautions

    In interviews, nonwhite residents said they were afraid to drive in northwest Arkansas regardless of whether they had legal status. Some said they leave home only to go to work, have groceries and food delivered rather than eating out, and avoid other activities.

    “This is a kind of jail, one would say,” said Ernesto, 73, a school custodian born in Venezuela, from his apartment filled with Christmas decorations. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to avoid retaliation.

    One of Ernesto’s adult daughters was recently stripped of her asylum status, and his temporary legal status also recently expired. He recently witnessed authorities “taking away people” from a traffic stop.

    “Don’t just pull over people because they’re Latino or a foreigner,” he said. “I hope that all this is over soon, that the state of Arkansas sees who are the immigrants that are doing good here.”

    Immigration attorney Lilia Pacheco in her vehicle, which has a surveillance camera she installed on the windshield in order to record interactions with police should she be pulled over.

    Rogers-based attorney Lilia Pacheco said she started practicing law in the area during the first Trump administration, and “it’s day and night between the first administration as far as enforcement.” She said Benton County authorities have taken their cooperation with ICE to new heights, stepping up traffic stops, assisting with arrests and welcoming undercover agents.

    “We’re seeing that shift here, and I think that’s given a rise to the arrests and operations in the area,” she said. “It looks like their relationship is a lot closer than what we anticipated that it would be.”

    Pacheco said her husband was recently pulled over in Rogers while taking their daughter to school when he was driving the speed limit and could not understand why. The officer asked for his driver’s license, and he was let go without a ticket, she said.

    The family has since installed a dashboard camera in their car so that they can record any future interactions with police after the Supreme Court decision that allowed ICE to racially profile, she said.

    Pacheco said many who live in the area are from the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, and fear deportation because of a rise in violence linked to drug cartels. Those from El Salvador fear prolonged detention in their country, which has swept up innocent people in its crackdown on gangs, she said.

    After husband’s deportation, family has struggled

    Osornio said she has been with her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, for eight years. They got together a couple of years after he illegally crossed the border from Mexico when he was in his late teens.

    They have two children together, a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl. She said her husband worked in construction, and his salary paid the rent and bills in the home they shared in Bentonville.

    Court records show Sanchez-Mendoza was arrested on misdemeanor charges in September 2024 after he was accused of striking one of his teenage stepsons.

    Sanchez-Mendoza told police he was restraining the stepson in self-defense and believed the teen called police to scare him since he was not in the country legally. A Bentonville officer wrote in a report that the sheriff’s office should check “the legality of Edwin’s nationality status.”

    Sanchez-Mendoza was placed on a hold for ICE at the Benton County Jail. The charges were dropped after ICE transferred him elsewhere in January 2025.

    Ultimately, Osornio said her husband ended up at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, where he found the conditions unbearable. He agreed to be deported and was flown last spring to Mexico, where he has since moved back to his rural hometown and helps on the family farm.

    His absence has been devastating financially and emotionally, Osornio said. When they drive past construction sites, their young daughter says, “Look, Mom, Daddy’s working there,” she said.

    The family could no longer afford their house. Osornio got the retail job but has struggled to pay for the apartment where they moved and their bills. She’s getting help from a local advocacy organization and asking for help on GoFundMe.

    She suffers from high blood pressure and said she suffered a stroke days after her release from jail.

    Osornio said Sanchez-Mendoza wants her to move to Mexico, and she and the kids visited him in May. But she’s agonizing over the decision, saying she fears it would put her children in danger of cartel violence and that she knows the U.S. as home.

    She’s anxiously waiting for her new permanent residency card to arrive after receiving a temporary extension earlier this year.

    “Obviously over there it’s the cartels. But here now the scare is with immigration. Now we don’t know even if we are safe here anymore,” she said. “Ever since that happened to me, I don’t go anywhere. I don’t go out of my house.”

  • Putin says there are points he can’t agree to in the U.S. proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine

    Putin says there are points he can’t agree to in the U.S. proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine

    Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.

    President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.

    Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, later Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday in the Kremlin with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.

    Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit. Ahead of the broadcast of the full interview, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti quoted some of his remarks in it.

    Tass quoted Putin as saying that in Tuesday’s talks, the sides “had to go through each point” of the U.S. peace proposal, “which is why it took so long.”

    “This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” he said, with provisions that Moscow was ready to discuss, while others “we can’t agree to.”

    Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session confident that he wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.

    Putin refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.

    “I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime” of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.

    European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as U.S. officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump’s peace drive.

    French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with China’s leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a ceasefire. Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call, but said that “China supports all efforts that work towards peace.”

    Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.

    The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.

    A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

    The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.

    Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.

    Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

    Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.

    Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.

  • Admiral says there was no ‘kill them all’ order in boat attack, but video alarms lawmakers

    Admiral says there was no ‘kill them all’ order in boat attack, but video alarms lawmakers

    WASHINGTON — A Navy admiral commanding the U.S. military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a stark video of the attack left grave questions as Congress scrutinizes the campaign that killed two survivors.

    Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the Capitol as lawmakers conduct an investigation after a report that he ordered the follow-on attack that killed the survivors to comply with Hegesth’s demands. Legal experts have said such a strike could be a violation of the laws of military warfare.

    “Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.

    While Cotton (R., Ark.) defended the attack, Democrats who were also briefed and saw video of the survivors being killed questioned the Trump administration’s rationale and said the incident was deeply concerning.

    “The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

    Smith, who is demanding further investigation, said the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water — until the missiles come and kill them.”

    The classified sessions with Bradley, alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, provided fresh information at a crucial moment as Hegseth’s leadership comes under scrutiny. But they did little to resolve growing questions about the legal basis for President Donald Trump’s extraordinary campaign to use war powers against suspected drug smugglers. So far more than 80 people have been killed in some 20 strikes.

    Lawmakers have not yet specifically authorized the use of military force against the alleged drug boats, and the Republican-controlled Congress has turned back attempts to put a check on Trump’s power to engage in the missile campaign, which Hegseth has vowed will continue. Several Democrats have called for Hegseth to resign.

    Congressional investigation gets underway

    Lawmakers want a full accounting of the Sept. 2 strike, which was the first in what has become a monthslong series of U.S. military attacks on vessels near Venezuela believed to be ferrying drugs. The Washington Post had reported that Bradley ordered the follow-on attack on the survivors.

    But lawmakers who lead the House and Senate’s national security committees in Congress came away with different descriptions of what the two survivors were doing when they were killed.

    Cotton said he saw them “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”

    He said there were “several minutes” between the first and second attacks, which consisted of four missile strikes. He said it was “gratifying” that the U.S. military was taking “the battle” to cartels.

    But Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”

    “You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel,” he said, and who “were killed by the United States.”

    The survivors did not issue any distress call or other communications, though lawmakers were told it appeared the people had a hand raised, “waving” at one point during the attacks, Smith said.

    Smith acknowledged there was likely cocaine on the boat, but he objects to the Republican administration’s rationale for continued attacks on alleged drug runners who may or may not be heading to the United States. “That’s really the core of the problem with all of this,” he said. “That incredibly broad definition, I think, is what sets in motion all of these problems about using lethal force and using the military.”

    Meanwhile, the U.S. conducted yet another strike on Thursday. The U.S. military said it killed four men in a strike on a suspected drug vessel in international waters in the Eastern Pacific, the 22nd such strike.

    “Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific,” the U.S. military said in a statement on Thursday.

    Who is Adm. Bradley?

    At the time of the attack, Bradley was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing coordinated operations between the military’s elite special operations units out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About a month after the strike, he was promoted to commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

    His military career, spanning more than three decades, was mostly spent serving in the elite Navy SEALs and commanding joint operations. He was among the first special forces officers to deploy to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. His latest promotion to admiral was approved by unanimous voice vote in the Senate this year, and Democratic and Republican senators praised his record.

    Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) has described Bradley as among those who are “rock solid” and “the most extraordinary people that have ever served in the military.”

    But lawmakers like Tillis have also made it clear they expect a reckoning if it is found that survivors were targeted. “Anybody in the chain of command that was responsible for it, that had vision of it, needs to be held accountable,” he said.

    What else are lawmakers seeking?

    Underpinning Trump’s campaign against suspected traffickers is his argument that drug cartels amount to armed combatants because their cargo poses a threat to American lives.

    Democrats are demanding the release of the full video of the Sept. 2 attack, as well as written records of the orders and any directives about the mission from Hegseth. None of the written orders or audio of verbal commands was shared with the lawmakers.

    A White House Office of Legal Counsel memo providing a rationale for the strikes was dated after the fact, on Sept. 5. That memo remains undisclosed, and Democrats want it released.

    Obtaining further information, though, will largely depend on action from Republican lawmakers, who have majority control of the committees, a potentially painful prospect for them if it puts them at odds with the president.

    Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that he and the Senate Armed Services Committee chair, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker, have formally requested the executive orders authorizing the operations and the complete videos from the strikes, among other items. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied their requests for basic information about the operation, Reed said.

    Republican lawmakers who are close to Trump have largely stood by Hegseth and the administration’s decision to conduct the strikes.

    Elsewhere, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and others see the U.S. military operation as part of an effort to prompt a government change in the South American country. Maduro on Wednesday acknowledged speaking last month by phone with Trump, who confirmed the call days earlier.

  • FBI makes arrest in investigation into pipe bombs placed in D.C. on eve of Jan. 6 riot, AP source says

    FBI makes arrest in investigation into pipe bombs placed in D.C. on eve of Jan. 6 riot, AP source says

    The FBI on Thursday arrested a man accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack, an abrupt breakthrough in an investigation that for years flummoxed law enforcement and spawned conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021.

    The arrest marks the first time investigators have publicly identified a suspect in an act that has been an enduring mystery for nearly five years in the shadow of the violent Capitol insurrection.

    The suspect was identified as Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Va., but key questions remain unanswered after his arrest on explosives charges, including a possible motive and what connection if any the act had to the assault on the Capitol the following day by supporters of President Donald Trump.

    Law enforcement officials used credit purchases of bomb-making materials, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to zero in on Cole, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. The FBI and Justice Department declined to elaborate on what led them to the suspect, but characterized his arrest as the result of a reinvigorated investigation and a fresh analysis of already collected evidence and data.

    “Let me be clear: There was no new tip. There was no new witness. Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference.

    Calls to relatives of Cole listed in public records were not immediately returned Thursday. Hours after Cole was taken into custody, unmarked law enforcement vehicles lined the cul-de-sac where Cole’s home is while FBI agents helped shoo away onlookers. Authorities were seen entering the house and examining the trunk of a car nearby.

    FBI says the bombs could have killed people

    The pipe bombs were placed on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees. Nobody was hurt before the bombs were rendered safe, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal.

    In the years since, investigators have sought the public’s help in identifying a shadowy subject seen on surveillance camera even as they struggled to determine answers to basic questions, including the person’s gender and motive and whether the act had a clear connection to the riot at the Capitol a day later, when supporters of Trump stormed the building in a bid to halt the certification of the Republican’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

    Seeking a breakthrough, the FBI last January publicized additional information about the investigation, including an estimate that the suspect was about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, as well as previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs.

    The bureau had for years struggled to pinpoint a suspect despite hundreds of tips, a review of tens of thousands of video files and a significant number of interviews.

    Investigative clues

    An FBI affidavit filed in connection with Cole’s arrest lays out a series of circumstantial clues that investigators pieced together.

    Using information from his bank account and credit cards, authorities discovered he purchased materials in 2019 and 2020 consistent with those used to make the pipe bombs, according to court papers. That included galvanized pipes and white kitchen-style timers, according to the affidavit. The purchases continued even after the devices were placed.

    Cole owns a 2017 Nissan Sentra with a Virginia license plate, the affidavit says. About 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, Cole’s vehicle drove past a license plate reader less than a half mile from where the person who placed the devices was first spotted on foot at 7:34 p.m. that night, the document says.

    Lack of evidence spawns conspiracy theories

    In the absence of harder evidence, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media outlets promoted conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs. House Republicans also criticized security lapses, questioning how law enforcement failed to detect the bombs for 17 hours. Dan Bongino, the current FBI deputy director, floated the possibility last year — before being tapped for his job — that the act was an “inside job” and involved a “massive cover-up.”

    The FBI’s top two leaders, Bongino and Director Kash Patel, sought to breathe new life into the investigation despite having openly disparaged the bureau’s broader approach to the Jan. 6 siege and despite Trump’s pardons on his first day back in office of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, including those who violently attacked police with poles and other makeshift weapons.

    In a long Nov. 13 post on X, Bongino wrote that the FBI had brought in new personnel to examine the case and “dramatically increased investigative resources” along with the public reward for information “to utilize crowd-sourcing leads.” He said in the same post, addressed to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that “a week of near 24-hour work on RECENT open source leads in the case has yet to produce a break through.”

    Investigators hunt for clues

    Public attention over the years had centered in part on surveillance video, taken the night before the riot, showing the suspect spending close to an hour moving through the surrounding blocks, pausing on a park bench, cutting through an alley and stopping again as a dog walker passed.

    The person wore a light sweatshirt, dark pants and sneakers, with a dark backpack slung over one shoulder. Investigators have long said the gait suggested the person was a man, but a surgical mask and hood rendered the face all but impossible to see.

    Agents paired their video review with a broad sweep of digital records. They gathered cell tower data showing which phones were active in the neighborhood at the time and issued subpoenas to several tech companies, including Google, for location information.

    Investigators also analyzed credit card transactions from hobby shops and major retailers to identify customers who had purchased components resembling those used in the two explosive devices — each roughly 1 foot long and packed with gunpowder and metal, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

    Another avenue of the investigation centered on the suspect’s shoes, believed to be Nike Air Max Speed Turfs. After learning from Nike that thousands of pairs had been distributed through more than two dozen retailers, agents filed subpoenas for credit card records from Foot Locker and other chains as they worked to narrow down potential buyers. Still, for years, they had no solid breakthroughs.