A day in the life, in photos, of one family's search for food in Gaza

A day in the life, in photos, of one family's search for food in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) —The Sobh family lives in a seaside refugee campwest of Gaza City after being displaced multiple times during the war between Israel and Hamas. The family of eight spends its days searching for food and water. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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August 01, 2025

A day in the life, in photos, of one family's search for food in Gaza

A day in the life, in photos, of one family's search for food in Gaza DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) —The Sobh family lives in a seaside...

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Appeals court keeps in place restrictions on immigration stops in L.A. based on language, job

Appeals court keeps in place restrictions on immigration stops in L.A. based on language, job

LOS ANGELES — An appeals court on Friday kept in place aLos Angeles federal judge's ruling thatbars immigration agents from using a person's spoken language or job, like day laborer, as the sole pretext to detain people. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals in its ruling said that there seemed to be one issue with U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong's temporary restraining order, but it did not overturn it as the government sought. The appeals court said that one part of the July 11 temporary restraining order did appear to be vague. "Defendants, however, are not likely to succeed on their remaining arguments," the court ruled, referring to the U.S. government. Frimpong, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, issued the temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by people who claimed they were detained by immigration officers without good reason. Three people were waiting at a bus stop for jobs when they were detained by immigration officials, and two others are U.S. citizens who claim they were stopped and aggressively questioned despite telling agents they were citizens. Other organizations, including the United Farm Workers, also sued. Frimpong wrote in the temporary restraining order ruling that the people suing were "likely to succeed in proving that the federal government is indeed conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers." The July 11 restraining order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent "has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law." It says they may not base that suspicion solely on a person's apparent race or ethnicity; the fact that they're speaking Spanish or English with an accent; their presence at a particular location like a bus stop or a day laborer pickup site; or the type of work one does. Los Angeles has been targeted by the Trump administration for immigration raids that the city's mayor has decried as a campaign to terrorize residents. The lawsuit that led to the temporary restraining order was filed against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others. Kyle Harvick, the deputy incident commander for the government's immigration action in Los Angeles, said that "certain types of businesses, including carwashes" were chosen by immigration agents "because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations," according to the appeals court ruling. The appeals court found that "the four enumerated factors at issue — apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent, particular location, and type of work, even when considered together — describe only a broad profile and 'do not demonstrate reasonable suspicion for any particular stop.'" The appeals court panel said that the government did not dispute constitutional issues when trying to get the temporary restraining order stayed. "They did not meaningfully dispute the district court's conclusion that sole reliance on the four enumerated factors, alone or in combination, does not satisfy the constitutional requirement of reasonable suspicion," the appeals court panel wrote. Mark Rosenbaum, senior special counsel for strategic litigation at Public Counsel, which is among the groups representing the people who sued, said Friday that the actions by immigration agents in the Los Angeles operation were unconstitutional. "Today's ruling sends a powerful message: the government cannot excuse illegal conduct by relying on racial profiling as a tool of immigration enforcement," Rosenbaum said. "These raids were unconstitutional, unsupported by evidence, and rooted in fear and harmful stereotypes, not public safety." The appeals court did find that part of Frimpong's temporary order was vague, relating to "except as permitted by law" in the clause about detaining people based on the four factors of race, speaking Spanish, a location or type of work. But it otherwise denied the government's motion for a stay. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, called the appeals court ruling a victory. "Today is a victory for the rule of law and for the City of Los Angeles," shesaid in a statement."The Temporary Restraining Order that has been protecting our communities from immigration agents using racial profiling and other illegal tactics when conducting their cruel and aggressive enforcement raids and sweeps will remain in place for now." The immigration raids launched in Los Angeles in June resulted inlarge protests in the city, some of which turned violent. The Trump administration sent National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in a move that was condemned by Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday about the appeals court ruling.

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August 01, 2025

Appeals court keeps in place restrictions on immigration stops in L.A. based on language, job

Appeals court keeps in place restrictions on immigration stops in L.A. based on language, job LOS ANGELES — An appeals court on Friday kept ...

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Appeals court keeps order blocking Trump administration from indiscriminate immigration sweeps

Appeals court keeps order blocking Trump administration from indiscriminate immigration sweeps

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday night to uphold a lower court's temporary order blocking theTrumpadministration from conducting indiscriminateimmigrationstops and arrests in Southern California. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing Monday afternoon at which the federal government asked the court to overturn atemporary restraining orderissued July 12 by Judge Maame E. Frimpong, arguing it hindered their enforcement of immigration law. Immigrant advocacy groups filed suitlast month accusing President Donald Trump's administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. The lawsuit included three detained immigrants and two U.S. citizens as plaintiffs. In her order, Frimpong said there was a "mountain of evidence" that federal immigration enforcement tactics were violating the Constitution. She wrote the government cannot use factors such as apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence at a location such as a tow yard or car wash, or someone's occupation as the only basis for reasonable suspicion to detain someone. The Los Angeles region has been a battleground with the Trump administration over its aggressive immigration strategy that spurred protests and thedeployment of the National Guardsand Marines for several weeks. Federal agents have rounded upimmigrantswithout legal status to be in the U.S. from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops,and farms, many who have lived in the country for decades. Among the plaintiffs is Los Angeles resident Brian Gavidia, who was shown in a video taken by a friend June 13 being seized by federal agents as he yells, "I was born here in the states, East LA bro!" They want to "send us back to a world where a U.S. citizen ... can be grabbed, slammed against a fence and have his phone and ID taken from him just because he was working at a tow yard in a Latino neighborhood," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Mohammad Tajsar told the court. The federal government argued that it hadn't been given enough time to collect and present evidence in the lawsuit, given that it was filed shortly before the July 4 holiday and a hearing was held the following week. "It's a very serious thing to say that multiple federal government agencies have a policy of violating the Constitution," attorney Jacob Roth said. He also argued that the lower court's order was too broad, and that immigrant advocates did not present enough evidence to prove that the government had an official policy of stopping people without reasonable suspicion. He referred to the four factors of race, language, presence at a location, and occupation that were listed in the temporary restraining order, saying the court should not be able to ban the government from using them at all. He also argued that the order was unclear on what exactly is permissible under law. "Legally, I think it's appropriate to use the factors for reasonable suspicion," Roth said The judges sharply questioned the government over their arguments. "No one has suggested that you cannot consider these factors at all," Judge Jennifer Sung said. However, those factors alone only form a "broad profile" and don't satisfy the reasonable suspicion standard to stop someone, she said. Sung, a Biden appointee, said that in an area like Los Angeles, where Latinos make up as much as half the population, those factors "cannot possibly weed out those who have undocumented status and those who have documented legal status." She also asked: "What is the harm to being told not to do something that you claim you're already not doing?"

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August 01, 2025

Appeals court keeps order blocking Trump administration from indiscriminate immigration sweeps

Appeals court keeps order blocking Trump administration from indiscriminate immigration sweeps LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court ru...

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DeSantis set a Florida record for executions. It's driving a national increase

DeSantis set a Florida record for executions. It's driving a national increase

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — In the final moments of a life defined by violence, 60-year-oldEdward Zakrzewskithanked the people of Florida for killing him "in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible," breathing deeply as a lethal drug cocktail coursed through his veins. With his last breath, strapped to a gurney inside a state prison's death chamber, Zakrzewski paid what Florida had deemed was his debt to society and becamethe 27th personput to death in the U.S. so far this year, the highest number in a decade. Under Republican Gov.Ron DeSantis, Florida has executednine people in 2025, more thanthan any other state, and set a new state record, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Across the country,more people have been put to deathin the first seven months of this year thanin all of 2024. Florida's increase is helping put the U.S. on track to surpass 2015's total of 28 executions. And the number of executions is expected to keep climbing. Nine more people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. Florida drives a national increase in executions After the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in the '70s, executions steadily increased, peaking in 1999 at 98 deaths. Since then, they had been dropping — in part due to legal battles, a shortage of lethal injection drugs, and declining public support for capital punishment, which has prompted a majority of states to either pause or abolish it altogether. The ratcheting up after this yearslong decline comes as Republican PresidentDonald Trumphas urged prosecutors toaggressively seek the death penaltyand as some GOP-controlled state legislatures have pushed to expand thecategory of crimespunishable by death andthe methods usedtocarry out executions. John Blume, director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, says the uptick in executions doesn't appear to be linked to a change in public support for the death penalty or an increase in the rate of death sentences, but is rather a function of the discretion of state governors. "The most cynical view would be: It seems to matter to the president, so it matters to them," Blume said of the governors. 'The only appropriate punishment' In response to questions from The Associated Press, a spokesperson for DeSantis pointed to statements the governor made at a press conference in May, saying he takes capital cases "very seriously." "There are some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty," DeSantis said, adding: "these are the worst of the worst." Julie Andrew expressed relief after witnessing theApril executionof the man who killed her sister in the Florida Keys in 2000. "It's done," she said. "My heart felt lighter and I can breathe again." The governor's office did not respond to questions about why the governor is increasing the pace of executions now and whether Trump's policies are playing a role. Deciding who lives and who dies Little is publicly known about how the governor decides whose death warrant to sign and when, a process critics have called "secretive" and "arbitrary." According to the Florida Department of Corrections, there are 266 people currently on death row, including two men in their 80s, both of whom have been awaiting their court-ordered fate for more than 40 years. Speaking at the press conference in May, DeSantis said it's his "obligation" to oversee executions, which he hopes provide "some closure" to victims' families. "Any time we go forward, I'm convinced that not only was the verdict correct, but that this punishment is absolutely appropriate under the circumstances," DeSantis said. US ranks alongside Iran and Saudi Arabia for executions For years, the U.S. has ranked alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt as among the countries carrying out the highest number of confirmed executions. China is thought to execute more of its citizens than any other nation, although the exact totals are considered a state secret, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. Robin Maher, the center's executive director, says elected officials in the U.S. have long used the death penalty as a "political tool," adding it's "a way of embellishing their own tough-on-crime credentials." Florida executions vary year to year In 2024, DeSantis signed one death warrant. From 2020-2022, Florida didn't carry out a single execution. In 2023, DeSantis oversaw six — the highest number during his time in office until this year. 2023 was also the yearthe governor challenged Trumpfor the Republican presidential nomination. There are a number of reasons why the rate of executions may vary from one administration to the next, said Mark Schlakman, an attorney and Florida State University professor who advised then-governor Lawton Chiles on the death penalty. The availability of staff resources, the tempo of lengthy legal appeals, and court challenges against the death penalty itself can all play a role, Schlakman said, as well as a governor's "sensibilities." 'The one person who can stop this' One execution after another, opponents of the death penalty hold vigils in the Florida capitol, outside the governor's mansion, and near the state prison that houses the death chamber, as people of faith across the state pray for mercy, healing and justice. Suzanne Printy, a volunteer with the group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has hand-delivered thousands of petitions to DeSantis' office, but says they seem to have no effect. Recently, DeSantis signed death warrants for two more men scheduled to die later this month. Still, Printy keeps praying. "He's the one person who can stop this," she said. ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.Report for Americais a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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August 01, 2025

DeSantis set a Florida record for executions. It's driving a national increase

DeSantis set a Florida record for executions. It's driving a national increase TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — In the final moments of a life d...

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After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo

After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo

NEW YORK (AP) — It would seem the most straightforward of notions: A thing takes place, and it goes into the history books or is added to museum exhibits. But whether something even gets remembered and how — particularly when it comes to the history of a country and its leader — is often the furthest thing from simple. The latest example of that came Friday, when theSmithsonian Institutionsaid ithad removed a referenceto the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of PresidentDonald Trumpfrom a panel in an exhibition about the American presidency. Trump has pressed institutions and agencies under federal oversight, often through the pressure of funding, to focus on the country's achievements and progress and away from things he terms "divisive." A Smithsonian spokesperson said the removal of the reference, which had been installed as part of a temporary addition in 2021, came after a review of "legacy content recently" and the exhibit eventually "will include all impeachments." There was no time frame given for when; exhibition renovations can be time- and money-consuming endeavors. In a statement that did not directly address the impeachment references, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said: "We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness." But is history intended to highlight or to document — to report what happened, or to serve a desired narrative? The answer, as with most things about the past, can be intensely complex. It's part of a larger effort around American stories The Smithsonian's move comes in the wake of Trump administration actions likeremoving the nameof a gay rights activist from a Navy ship, pushing for Republican supporters in Congress todefund the Corporation for Public Broadcastingand getting rid of theleadership at the Kennedy Center. "Based on what we have been seeing, this is part of a broader effort by the president to influence and shape how history is depicted at museums, national parks, and schools," said Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "Not only is he pushing a specific narrative of the United States but, in this case, trying to influence how Americans learn about his own role in history." It's not a new struggle, in the world generally and the political world particularly. There is power in being able to shape how things are remembered, if they are remembered at all — who was there, who took part, who was responsible, what happened to lead up to that point in history. And the human beings who run things have often extended their authority to the stories told about them. In China, for example, references to the June 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square are forbidden and meticulously regulated by the ruling Communist Party government. In Soviet-era Russia, officials who ran afoul of leaders like Josef Stalin disappeared not only from the government itself but from photographs and history books where they once appeared. Jason Stanley, an expert on authoritarianism, said controlling what and how people learn of their past has long been used as a vital tool to maintain power. Stanley has made his views about the Trump administration clear; he recently left Yale University to join the University of Toronto, citing concerns over the U.S. political situation. "If they don't control the historical narrative," he said, "then they can't create the kind of fake history that props up their politics." It shows how the presentation of history matters In the United States, presidents and their families have always used their power to shape history and calibrate their own images. Jackie Kennedy insisted on cuts in William Manchester's book on her husband's 1963 assassination, "The Death of a President." Ronald Reagan and his wife got a cable TV channel to release a carefully calibrated documentary about him. Those around Franklin D. Roosevelt, including journalists of the era, took pains to mask the impact that paralysis had on his body and his mobility. Trump, though, has taken it to a more intense level — a sitting president encouraging an atmosphere where institutions can feel compelled to choose between him and the truth — whether he calls for it directly or not. "We are constantly trying to position ourselves in history as citizens, as citizens of the country, citizens of the world," said Robin Wagner-Pacifici, professor emerita of sociology at the New School for Social Research. "So part of these exhibits and monuments are also about situating us in time. And without it, it's very hard for us to situate ourselves in history because it seems like we just kind of burst forth from the Earth." Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum from 2007 to 2011, presided over its overhaul to offer a more objective presentation of Watergate — one not beholden to the president's loyalists. In an interview Friday, he said he was "concerned and disappointed" about the Smithsonian decision. Naftali, now a senior researcher at Columbia University, said museum directors "should have red lines" and that he considered removing the Trump panel to be one of them. While it might seem inconsequential for someone in power to care about a museum's offerings, Wagner-Pacifici says Trump's outlook on history and his role in it — earlier this year, he said the Smithsonian had "come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology" — shows how important those matters are to people in authority. "You might say about that person, whoever that person is, their power is so immense and their legitimacy is so stable and so sort of monumental that why would they bother with things like this ... why would they bother to waste their energy and effort on that?" Wagner-Pacifici said. Her conclusion: "The legitimacy of those in power has to be reconstituted constantly. They can never rest on their laurels." ___

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August 01, 2025

After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo

After a reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from a history museum, complex questions echo NEW YORK (AP) — It would seem the mos...

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