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A US federal judge ordered a temporary pause on Thursday to further construction of the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in a case filed by conservation groups.District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.The detention center, built on the site of an abandoned airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve, can continue to house immigration detainees, but the Miami-based judge ordered an immediate two-week halt to new construction while the suit proceeds.Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity are arguing that the detention center threatens the sensitive Everglades ecosystem and was hastily built without conducting the required environmental impact studies.President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the center last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards. The name “Alligator Alcatraz” is a reference to Alcatraz Island, the former prison on an island in San Franciso Bay that Trump recently said he wanted to reopen.The conservation groups that filed the lawsuit welcomed the judge’s ruling.”We’re pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility,” Eve Samples, executive director at Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement.Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was a “relief that the court has stepped in to protect the Everglades’ sensitive waters, starry skies and vulnerable creatures from further harm while we continue our case.””We’re ready to press forward and put a stop to this despicable plan for good,” Bennett said.The ruling was also welcomed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which joined the case.”The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people,” tribal chairman Talbert Cypress said. “While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland.”The detention center is also the subject of a lawsuit filed in another federal court claiming that detainees are not being given access to attorneys and are being held without charges.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is revising past editions of the nation’s premier climate report — its latest move to undermine the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.The decision, announced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a CNN appearance Tuesday night, follows the government’s revocation of the Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that underpins a host of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins why previous editions of the National Climate Assessment were no longer available online, former fracking company CEO Wright responded: “Because we’re reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those.”First published in 2000, the National Climate Assessment has long been viewed as a cornerstone of the US government’s understanding of climate science, synthesizing input from federal agencies and hundreds of external experts.Previous editions warned in stark terms of mounting risks to America’s economy, infrastructure, and public health if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed. But in April, the administration moved to dismiss the hundreds of scientists working on the sixth edition.Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the government is legally obligated to deliver the climate assessment to Congress and the president.Trump’s administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have pressed forward with their pro- fossil fuel agenda — dismantling clean energy tax credits through the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” and opening more ecologically sensitive lands to drilling.Last month’s proposed revocation of the Endangerment Finding by the Environmental Protection Agency was accompanied by the release of a new climate study from the Department of Energy, authored by climate change contrarians.The study questioned whether heat records are truly increasing and whether extreme weather is worsening.It also misrepresented the work of cited climate scientists, according to several who spoke to AFP, and suggested that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide could be a net benefit for agriculture.

Americans still get most of their calories from ultra-processed foods, but consumption is trending down among both adults and children, official data showed Thursday.The survey results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention come as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promotes diet reform — and suggest that awareness of the risks around burgers and sodas may already have been taking hold before he came to office.Between August 2021 to August 2023, the mean percentage of total calories consumed from ultra-processed foods (UPFs) among those aged one year and older was 55 percent.That still places the United States at or near the top of the table globally, alongside countries like the United Kingdom and Canada.Among Western nations, Italy consistently records lower UPF consumption — less than 20 percent, according to a paper published in 2021 in Public Health Nutrition that credited the Mediterranean diet.Breaking down the new US results by age, the percentage of energy consumed from UPFs was 61.9 percent for youths aged one to 18, and 53.0 percent for adults — a decline from 65.6 percent and 56.0 percent respectively during the last survey period, 2017–18.Former first lady Michelle Obama spearheaded a campaign in the 2010s to encourage healthier eating and more exercise, while a landmark 2019 study in Cell Metabolism found people ate more calories when exposed to ultra-processed foods.Ultra-processed foods tend to be “hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fat,” according to the CDC.They have been linked with ill health effects including higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.A study published in Nature this week randomized 55 adults in the UK who were overweight or obese to eat either minimally-processed food (MPF) diets or UPF — with significantly greater weight loss in the MPF group after eight weeks.Sandwiches, including burgers, topped the list of UPFs for both US youth and adults, followed by sweet bakery products such as donuts. Sweetened beverages were high up on both lists.Since taking office, Kennedy has launched a pressure campaign on industry to remove synthetic food dyes, which appears to be paying dividends, with cereal maker Kellogg’s one of the latest brands to sign on. A dozen states meanwhile have moved to restrict access of people with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — known colloquially as food stamps — to junk food at grocery stores. 

US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered officials to work on a new census excluding undocumented immigrants, as the White House presses Republican states to draw more favorable voter maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump called for a “new and highly accurate” census that he wanted based on unspecified “modern day facts and figures” gleaned from the 2024 election.”People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” he said in the social media post.The US Constitution since 1790 has required a census every 10 years that counts the “whole number of persons in each state” — including people in the country illegally.The next one is not due until 2030, although preparations for the enormous task are already underway.Trump did not make clear if he was referring to the regularly scheduled population count or if he wanted a special survey undertaken earlier.The census is used to determine how many members of Congress are elected from each state, and the Pew Research Center estimates that ignoring unauthorized migrants in 2020 would have deprived California, Florida and Texas of one House seat each.It is also used for apportioning votes in the state-by-state “electoral college” that decides presidential elections and for allocating trillions of dollars in federal funding.Trump attempted similar moves in his first term, including the addition of a citizenship question to the census, but was blocked by the Supreme Court.The justices declined to rule on whether the millions of people in the country without legal status should be excluded.Trump’s call for a new census comes with state-level lawmakers and officials in Texas locking horns over a new electoral map that would likely net Republicans up to five extra House seats in 2026.- Threats to lawmakers -More than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers have fled to multiple Democratic states in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session.Texas Republicans have threatened to arrest them, and US Senator John Cornyn announced he had successfully petitioned the FBI to help state and local law enforcement locate them.Republican governors in several other states are exploring new maps in a bid to protect the party’s razor-thin majority in the House, which would flip next year with three Democratic gains.Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to visit Indiana on Thursday to discuss redistricting with Governor Mike Braun and press local Republicans to eke out another seat for the party.Politico reported that Republicans could draw as many as 10 new seats ahead of the midterms and are targeting Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.In Indiana, Braun said any redistricting conversation would be “exploratory,” as the state’s maps were drawn fairly in 2021, Indianapolis public broadcaster WFYI reported.Democrats have vowed to retaliate with their own proposals, possibly in New York and California, the country’s largest states.Texas legislators were evacuated from their suburban Chicago hotel on Wednesday morning following an unspecified threat.Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker authorized state police to guard the group, and insisted that the FBI — which investigates federal crime — and Texas authorities had no power to return them.”They’re all allowed to visit Chicago or Illinois and take in the great view of our lake and our city and enjoy the the the great restaurants that we have,” he told the leftist MeidasTouch podcast. “But they won’t be taking anybody home with them or away from the state. We are protecting those Texas House Democrats, and they are protecting, frankly, the entire country, in what they do.”

OpenAI released a keenly awaited new generation of its hallmark ChatGPT on Thursday, touting “significant” advancements in artificial intelligence capabilities as a global race over the technology accelerates.ChatGPT-5 is rolling out free to all users of the AI tool, which is used by nearly 700 million people weekly, OpenAI said in a briefing with journalists.Co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman touted this latest iteration as “clearly a model that is generally intelligent.”Altman cautioned that there is still work to be done to achieve the kind of artificial general intelligence (AGI) that thinks the way people do.”This is not a model that continuously learns as it is deployed from new things it finds, which is something that, to me, feels like it should be part of an AGI,” Altman said.”But the level of capability here is a huge improvement.”Industry analysts have heralded the arrival of an AI era in which genius computers transform how humans work and play.”As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a recent memo.”I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity.”Altman said there were “orders of magnitude more gains” to come on the path toward AGI.”Obviously… you have to invest in compute (power) at an eye watering rate to get that, but we intend to keep doing it.”Tech industry rivals Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s xAI have been pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence since the blockbuster launch of the first version of ChatGPT in late 2022.Chinese startup DeepSeek shook up the AI sector early this year with a model that delivers high performance using less costly chips.- ‘PhD-level expert’ -With fierce competition around the world over the technology, Altman said ChatGPT-5 led the pack in coding, writing, health care and much more.”GPT-3 felt to me like talking to a high school student — ask a question, maybe you get a right answer, maybe you’ll get something crazy,” Altman said.”GPT-4 felt like you’re talking to a college student; GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to a PhD-level expert in any topic.”Altman expects the ability to create software programs on demand — so-called “vibe-coding” — to be a “defining part of the new ChatGPT-5 era.”In a blog post, British AI expert Simon Willison wrote about getting early access to ChatGPT-5.”My verdict: it’s just good at stuff,” Willison wrote.”It doesn’t feel like a dramatic leap ahead from other (large language models) but it exudes competence — it rarely messes up, and frequently impresses me.”However Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that his Grok 4 Heavy AI model “was smarter” than ChatGPT-5.- Honest AI? -ChatGPT-5 was trained to be trustworthy and stick to providing answers as helpful as possible without aiding seemingly harmful missions, according to OpenAI safety research lead Alex Beutel.”We built evaluations to measure the prevalence of deception and trained the model to be honest,” Beutel said.ChatGPT-5 is trained to generate “safe completions,” sticking to high-level information that can’t be used to cause harm, according to Beutel.The company this week also released two new AI models that can be downloaded for free and altered by users, to challenge similar offerings by rivals.The release of “open-weight language models” comes as OpenAI is under pressure to share inner workings of its software in the spirit of its origin as a nonprofit.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a summit on Ukraine between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was set for the “coming days” but Putin essentially ruled out including Ukraine’s leader.The Russian president named the United Arab Emirates as a potential location for the summit, but this was not confirmed by Washington. And President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that he had to be involved in any talks.The summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.Trump has been trying since taking office in January to end Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.Three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire. The two sides remain far apart in the conditions they have set to end the more than three-year-long conflict.Trump said on Wednesday that he was likely to meet Putin “very soon”. They last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since the tycoon returned to the White House this year.”Both sides showed interest” in a meeting, Putin told reporters on Thursday. “We have many friends who are willing to help us organise such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” he said, standing next to UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.”Next week has been set as a target date,” said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, adding that both sides have agreed the venue “in principle”, without naming it.However, Washington later denied that a venue or date had been set.”No location has been determined,” a White House official said, while agreeing that the meeting “could occur as early as next week”. – Putin-Zelensky meeting? -Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.At talks in Istanbul, Russian negotiators outlined hardline territorial demands for halting its advance — calling for Kyiv to withdraw from some territory it still controls and to renounce Western military support.Reports of the possible summit came after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.The Russian president had informed his South African counterpart and BRICS partner Cyril Ramaphosa about the details of the talks with Witkoff, days after Washington slapped Pretoria with a 30 percent tariff.    Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting with Zelensky, but Putin appeared to rule out direct talks with the Ukrainian leader.”I have nothing against it in general, it is possible, but certain conditions must be created for this,” Putin told reporters. “Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”The former KGB agent, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, said in June that he was ready to meet Zelensky, but only during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the conflict.Zelensky reiterated that the meeting should be trilateral. “It is only fair that Ukraine should be a participant in the negotiations,” he said in his regular evening address.    The Ukrainian leader spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Commissions President Ursula von der Leyen as he called for the continent to be included in any potential peace talks.”We are also united by the understanding that Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war in Europe and against Europe,” Zelensky said after the calls. “Ukraine is an integral part of Europe — we are already in negotiations on EU accession. Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes,” Zelensky said on social media after the conversation with Merz.He also said that Ukrainian, European and US security advisors would hold an online meeting on Thursday “to align our joint views”.”Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war,” he said.

The Swiss government said Thursday it would pursue more talks with the United States after a last-gasp mission to Washington failed to stop a 39-percent tariff blow that businesses described as a “horror scenario”.The government held an emergency meeting after President Karin Keller-Sutter and Economy Minister Guy Parmelin returned home from their trip empty-handed but said it does not plan to retaliate for now.Keller-Sutter said in a press conference that Swiss officials were still in Washington to hold talks that are crucial for industries ranging from watchmaking to industrial machines, cheese and chocolate.”We want a rule-based relationship with the United States… but not at any price,” she said.She said it was hard to know how long the situation would last, as “the final decision rests with the US president”.Trump blindsided the Swiss last week when he announced that the country would be hit by one of the highest tariffs among new duties on imports from dozens of economies that took effect on Thursday.The Swiss rate was higher than Trump’s previous threat of a 31-percent tariff.Keller-Sutter rushed to the US capital with a small delegation earlier this week to seek a friendlier levy, but she only secured a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who does not oversee tariff policy.After Wednesday’s meeting, Keller-Sutter spoke only of “a very friendly and open exchange on common issues”.In a statement after its extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the Swiss government said it “remains firmly committed to pursuing discussions with the US with the aim of reducing these tariffs as swiftly as possible”.”At present, tariff countermeasures in response to the US tariff increases are not being considered, as they would impose additional costs on the Swiss economy –- particularly through higher prices for imports from the United States,” it added.Parmelin said later that any retaliatory measures “would also have financial consequences for the Swiss economy”, adding that ratcheting trade tensions higher with the United States is not in Switzerland’s interest. “The best, I think, is that both parties find an acceptable solution.”- FIFA super sub? -The tariff jeopardises entire sectors of the export-heavy Swiss economy, notably watchmaking and industrial machinery, but also chocolate and cheese.Some politicians have suggested that football governing body FIFA’s Swiss president Gianni Infantino, who has struck up a friendship with Trump, should be recruited to help Switzerland.Infantino is “the right man for the situation”, Roland Rino Buechel, a lawmaker of the hard-right Swiss People’s Party, told SRF television.He said the FIFA boss is “the person in Switzerland with the best access to the American president”.- ‘Horrendous tariff burden’ -Swiss businesses worry that competitors in other wealthy economies will have an edge, with the European Union and Japan having negotiated a 15-percent tariff and Britain securing a rate of 10 percent.”The horror scenario materializes,” Swissmem, the association of the mechanical and electrical engineering industry, said in a statement.”If this horrendous tariff burden remains in place, it will mean the de facto death of the export business of the Swiss tech industry to the USA — in particular given the much lower tariffs for competitors in the EU and Japan.”The group urged the government to continue to negotiate with the United States, “even if the chances of success currently appear to be slim”.Economiesuisse, the federation of Swiss businesses representing some 100,000 companies, warned that the tariffs “put thousands of jobs at serious risk”.Capital Economics, a London-based research group, said the tariffs could reduce Swiss GDP by 0.6 percent in the medium term.Trump justified his action by the fact that Switzerland has a trade surplus of tens of billions of dollars with the United States. Nearly 19 percent of Swiss goods exports went to the United States last year, according to customs data.Switzerland’s pharmaceutical industry, a major exporter, has been exempt so far but Trump has announced plans for tariffs on that sector too.Switzerland has argued that the United States enjoys a significant services trade surplus and that most American industrial goods enter Switzerland tariff-free.

A Chicago man arrested for the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in the US capital Washington could potentially face the death penalty if convicted of murder and hate crime charges, officials said Thursday.US Attorney General Pam Bondi will ultimately decide whether to seek the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the May 21 attack, federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro told reporters.Rodriguez, 31, was arrested immediately after the shooting of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his fiancee, Sarah Milgrim, 26, outside the Capital Jewish Museum.Pirro said that in addition to two counts of first-degree murder, a grand jury has charged Rodriguez with hate crimes “because of his bias against the people of Israel.””We have a problem with anti-Semitism in this country,” Pirro said. “It’s a problem and we’re not going to tolerate it.”Rodriguez allegedly shouted “Free Palestine” as he was taken away by police after the shooting and told officers “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”FBI agent Reid Davis said Rodriguez is believed to have acted alone.”Based on his writings and communications, we believe he was a lone wolf actor motivated by anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian ideology with the goal of conducting a mass shooting to call attention to his political agenda,” Davis said.Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, was a researcher at the Israeli embassy, while Milgrim, an American, worked for its public diplomacy department. The couple were engaged to be married.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Ukraine was set for the “coming days” as US-led efforts to broker peace rumble on.The Russian president named the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a potential location for the summit with Trump, but essentially ruled out a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.The Trump-Putin summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021. It comes as the Republican seeks an end to Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.Three rounds of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire. The two sides appear as far apart as ever in the conditions they have set for an end to the more than three-year-long conflict.Trump said on Wednesday that he was likely to meet Putin face-to-face “very soon”. They last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term as US president, but have spoken by telephone several times since the former reality TV star returned to the White House earlier this year.”Both sides showed interest” in a meeting, Putin told reporters on Thursday. “We have many friends who are willing to help us organise such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” he said, standing next to UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Earlier on Thursday, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that the plan to hold a bilateral summit was “at the suggestion of the American side”.”Next week has been set as a target date,” said Ushakov, adding that both sides have already agreed the venue “in principle”, without naming it.However, Washington later on Thursday denied that a venue or date had been set.”No location has been determined,” a White House official said, adding that the meeting “could occur as early as next week”. – Putin-Zelensky meeting? -Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.At talks in Istanbul, Russian negotiators outlined hardline territorial demands if Ukraine wants Russia to halt its advance — calling for Kyiv to withdraw from some territory it still controls and to renounce Western military support.Reports of the possible summit came after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting with Zelensky, but Putin appeared to rule out direct talks with the Ukrainian leader.”I have nothing against it in general, it is possible, but certain conditions must be created for this,” Putin told reporters, adding: “Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”Putin said in June that he was ready to meet Zelensky, but only during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the conflict.Zelensky earlier on Thursday had renewed his call for a meeting with Putin — which he says is the only way to make progress towards peace.”It is necessary to determine the timing for such a format and the range of issues to be addressed,” he wrote on social media.The Ukrainian leader later spoke with two of his European allies, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as he called for the continent to be included in any potential peace talks.”The war is happening in Europe, and Ukraine is an integral part of Europe — we are already in negotiations on EU accession. Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes,” Zelensky said on social media after the call with Merz.He also said that Ukrainian, European and US security advisors would hold an online meeting later Thursday “to align our joint views”.”Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war,” he said.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered officials to work on a new census excluding undocumented immigrants, as the White House presses Republican states to draw more favorable voter maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump called for a “new and highly accurate” census that he wanted based on “modern day facts and figures” gleaned from the 2024 election.”People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” he said in the social media post.The US Constitution since 1790 has required a census every 10 years that counts the “whole number of persons in each state” — including people in the country illegally.The next one is not due until 2030, although preparations for the enormous task are already underway.Trump did not make clear if he was referring to the regularly scheduled population count in 2030 or an earlier survey.The census is used to determine how members of Congress are elected, and the Pew Research Center estimates that ignoring unauthorized migrants in 2020 would have deprived California, Florida and Texas of one House seat each.It is also used for apportioning votes in the state-by-state “electoral college” that decides presidential elections and for allocating trillions of dollars in federal funding.Trump attempted similar moves in his first term but was blocked by the Supreme Court from adding a citizenship question to the census. The court declined to rule on whether the millions of people in the country without legal status can be excluded for the first time.Adding a citizenship question would likely undermine the accuracy of the country’s population counts, a March study in the Journal of Policy Management and Analysis showed.Experts believe it would discourage households with Latino and Asian American residents from self reporting.Trump’s call for a new census comes with state-level lawmakers and officials in Texas locking horns over proposals for a new electoral map that would likely net Republicans up to five extra House seats in next year’s midterms.Republican governors in several other states are exploring new maps ahead of the 2026 elections in a bid to protect the party’s razor-thin majority in the House, which would flip with three Democratic gains. Democrats have vowed to retaliate with their own proposals, possibly in New York and California, the country’s largest states.