MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has become the first U.S. state to ban paraquat, one of the most commonly used herbicides, with lawmakers citing a possible link between the weed killer and Parkinson’s disease.

The ban has been widely celebrated by advocates who hope Vermont’s move will prompt similar action in other states to prevent the neurologic disease that robs people of control over their movements and affects about 1 million Americans.

“Vermont took the step to be the leader in this, and that’s significant because it shifts the conversation,” said Dan Feehan, with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research. “Now, ‘will your state be the last to ban it?’ becomes the question.”

However, for some farmers, the ban could potentially threaten their already slim profit margins. Attempts to prohibit paraquat’s use in other states where the chemical is more heavily used have repeatedly stalled.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the safety of paraquat after saying there’s no clear link between the herbicide and Parkinson’s.

Syngenta, a Swiss chemicals company that has made paraquat for years, announced earlier this year that it would stop global manufacturing or selling of the chemical, but also defended the herbicide’s safety. Other companies continue to sell it.

“Despite decades of investigation and more than 1,200 epidemiological and laboratory studies of paraquat, no scientist or doctor has ever concluded in a peer-reviewed scientific analysis that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease,” the company said.

First introduced in the U.S. in 1964, paraquat became a popular weed killer for farmers.

It’s known as an extremely toxic chemical that is fatal if ingested and can cause chronic health problems on contact. Farmworkers are at particular risk, which has led the EPA to require special training for certified applicators of paraquat. The roughly hourlong training requires applicators to pass a 15-question quiz, and must be completed every three years.

It’s commonly used for protecting soybean, cotton and corn crops, but also for apples and grapes, according to the United States Geological Survey. As of 2018, the USGS reported more than 10 million pounds (4.5 million kilograms) of paraquat was used in the U.S., largely concentrated in the South, Midwest and California.

Despite its popularity, dozens of countries have banned the substance. The European Union and the UK banned paraquat in 2007. China banned domestic use of paraquat in 2017, along with Vietnam and Malaysia. Thailand issued a similar ban in 2019.

Defenders of using paraquat say the chemical is quickly absorbed by weeds, meaning that if rain falls — even after 30 minutes of application — it won’t wash off into the soil. Companies like Syngenta say paraquat becomes immobilized once it touches soil. Yet there’s disagreement over its harmful effects, with the Parkinson’s community warning that people living near where paraquat is applied have increased risk of getting the disease.

Whether it causes Parkinson’s disease has been heavily debated and studied for years.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, an epidemiologist who directs a global health program at Boston College and has campaigned against human exposure to toxic chemicals, said multiple studies have shown that environmental factors, including exposure to pesticides like paraquat, can increase the risk for Parkinson’s disease.

The Parkinson’s community considers the Vermont ban a significant victory.

“No matter how you slice and dice it, there’s no safe way to use paraquat,” said Ron McConnell, a Vermonter who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after getting exposed to a different toxic substance at his work in 2017. “This law that Vermont just passed really is protecting the farmers that use it and the farmworkers that use it.”

The ban goes into effect Nov. 1, but the statute gives farmers using paraquat on fruit-producing orchards, berries and small fruit crops until 2030 to transition away from using the herbicide.

Greg Burtt, owner of a family apple orchard and Republican Vermont lawmaker, considers paraquat a “critical tool” in his operation.

He says he believes the ban will place farmers like him at a competitive disadvantage to growers in other states who can continue using the more budget-friendly paraquat. There are alternative herbicides, but some farmers warn that those could involve chemicals that risk killing the plant if not applied carefully. Mechanical tilling, crop rotation and hand weeding are also options, but come with separate downsides, notably increased labor costs.

“There’s a reason why it’s an industry standard,” said Burtt, who’s used paraquat for 20 years.

He’s not worried about getting Parkinson’s because he interpreted the research on the herbicide to be inconclusive.

“I wanna be the first person to make sure that it’s safe because I don’t wanna die young over farming,” Burtt said. “And so if anybody’s had to wrestle with these questions, it’s me.”

___

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife decades ago is set to be executed Thursday evening.

Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen.

If carried out, this would be Florida’s ninth execution to date this year following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

Court records show Spencer was arrested after choking and threatening to kill Karen Spencer in December 1991. While in jail, Dusty Ray Spencer called his wife and warned her that when he got out, he was going to finish what he started.

On Jan. 18, 1992, Spencer beat his wife’s teenage son with a clothes iron when the boy tried to stop Spencer from attacking his mother, officials said. Then about a week later, the son responded to a commotion outside their home and found Spencer hitting his mother in the head with a brick, according to officials.

Court records show the teen tried to shoot Spencer with a rifle, but the gun misfired. Spencer threatened the teen with a knife, and the boy ran away to get help. When police arrived, they found Karen Spencer dead with several stab wounds to the chest.

Spencer was initially sentenced to death in 1992 after being convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. In 1994, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing after finding that the trial court had mishandled evaluating aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Spencer was resentenced to death the next year, and subsequent appeals have been denied.

Last week, the state Supreme Court rejected Spencer’s appeals. His attorneys had argued that he has health issues such as liver disease that pose a heightened risk of pain and suffering and argued that executing him at his advanced age would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

A final appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.

Another execution is scheduled in Florida for July 14. Dennis Sochor, 74, was convicted of killing a woman just hours into 1982 after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

All Florida executions are carried out by lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than 40 years, sketches by American illustrator Norman Rockwell of scenes from the White House visitor’s lobby graced the walls of the West Wing, where every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump had seen them.

Now, they’re going on public display for the first time after a nonprofit organization paid a whopping sum of more than $7 million for the sketches after they ended up on an auction block following a family dispute over their ownership.

The four 1940s-era sketches titled “So You Want to See the President!” show people from all walks of life waiting to see President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. They depict U.S. senators, members of the military, the press and even a Miss America biding their time in the West Wing reception area, as they wait to be shown to the Oval Office.

The White House Historical Association spared no expense for the sketches to prevent them from being “lost forever,” such as to a private art collection, its president Stuart McLaurin told The Associated Press. The public will be able to see them through June 2027 at the historical association’s “The People’s House” education center near the White House, he said.

“And since they had been seen by the eyes of so many presidents and first ladies and senior White House staff and important visitors from around the world, we wanted the American people to see them. So we acquired them,” McLaurin said.

The sketches had been put up for sale by a grandson of the White House official who received them as a gift from Rockwell.

Rockwell, who became famous for his illustrations of everyday American life that graced covers of the Saturday Evening Post, spent hours at the White House people-watching from a chair in the West Wing lobby, McLaurin said.

But after his sketches were consumed by a fire that destroyed Rockwell’s art studio in Vermont, he went back to the White House to collect more material.

“So it’s really a combination of his memories from that first visit, the memories of the second visit,” McLaurin said. “And it is an array of these people representing the military and White House staff and members of Congress and the press corps and all kinds of people that literally, to this day, go through that space in the West Wing.”

The first of Rockwell’s colorful sketches opens with scenes of the entrance gate, photographers waiting outside the White House entrance on West Executive Avenue and Stephen Early, a former AP journalist who became the third White House press secretary under Roosevelt, in a huddle with a group of journalists. Seated on red leather chairs and reading papers are members of the press and Rockwell, with a pipe in his mouth and legs outstretched.

The next scene shows Miss America — identified as Rosemary LaPlanche, the 1941 titleholder — in a yellow dress and her sash, sitting on a red sofa alongside her publicity man. A kilt-wearing Scottish officer also sits nearby as a Secret Service agent hovers.

U.S. Sens. Tom Connally, D-Texas, and Warren Austin, R-Vt., face each other in conversation as they sit on a red couch in the third sketch while a U.S. Navy “WAVES” officer looks on from a nearby chair. Gens. Joseph W. “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell and Edwin M. “Pa” Watson shake hands while being photographed, and an aide pushing Roosevelt’s lunch cart is chased by Fala, the president’s dog.

The final sketch shows more uniformed U.S military members huddled in conversation and, finally, an aide opening the door to the Oval Office, where the president is glimpsed.

“It’s such a little aquarium of these people and we’re like a fly on the wall as to what it was like at that particular period of time,” McLaurin said of the sketches.

Rockwell made the sketches for Early and gave them to him after they appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in November 1943, during World War II, McLaurin said.

Early, who died in 1951, had displayed them on the wall in his West Wing office and then kept them for many years after. In 1978, a family member turned the sketches over to the White House, where they were on display throughout the West Wing for more than four decades, sometimes in a hallway between the press offices that are mere steps from the Oval Office.

The family’s ownership dispute began in 2017 when Thomas Early, one of the press secretary’s sons, saw them on a wall in the White House while watching a television interview with President Donald Trump, according to court records.

William Elam III, a grandson of Stephen Early, said his mother received the drawings as a gift from her father, the press secretary, before he died, and that ownership had later passed to him.

The illustrations had gone to the White House in 1978 under an agreement that required they be returned to Elam upon request. The White House gave back the drawings in 2022.

A federal appeals court settled the dispute in May 2025, upholding a lower-court ruling in favor of Elam, according to court records. Elam put them up for sale.

Historians at the association have researched the people in the drawings to learn their stories, McLaurin said, and the exhibit will include a digital component that uses modern technology to bring the characters in the sketches to life.

The association is still figuring out what happens to the sketches after the exhibit ends in June 2027. They may be shown in other venues, and may eventually end up back in the White House, McLaurin said.

When the association learned the sketches were for sale, “our board affirmed that this is an acquisition that we should make,” he said.

McLaurin said the privately funded association, which was founded in 1961 by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and receives no taxpayer dollars, had feared the sketches would sell for even more than the $7.25 million it paid for them. That is the most the association has ever paid for a work of art for the vast collection it holds as part of its mission to help the White House collect and display artifacts that represent American history and culture.

“In our view, these are priceless works,” McLaurin said.

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. security apparatus is keeping watch at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, whose blue color has been fouled by green algae after being newly renovated at President Donald Trump’s request.

National Guard troops patrol the area around the roughly 2,000-foot-long basin on Washington’s National Mall in groups of threes and fours. Solar-powered light towers illuminate the area at night and roughly a half-dozen mobile security stations outfitted with surveillance cameras ring the perimeter.

The stepped-up security measures follow a $14.7 million refurbishment of the Reflecting Pool. Trump has blamed dark-of-night saboteurs for the issues with the project, but has presented no evidence to support his claims. Green algae has been a persistent problem in the pool.

The security presence unnerved Mary Jane Willard, a tourist from Seattle, Washington.

“It’s very sad to come here and see all the fences, to see all the National Guard here, to see all the cameras,” Willard said on Wednesday. “It just shouldn’t be here.”

Three weeks ago, the Trump administration declared victory in completing work to repaint the landmark pool, which stretches from the Lincoln Memorial nearly to the Washington Monument. The color was “American flag blue” for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence on July 4. 

In the days since, the pool has been beset by problems including blooms of algae, a long-running scourge that has tinted the water a vibrant green, and chips of blue paint peeling off the bottom.

Days before the National Mall will host U.S. 250th anniversary celebrations, the Reflecting Pool has become the latest symbol of Trump’s Washington: a test of his attempts to bend reality in his favor and command law enforcement to his personal whims.

FEW DETAILS ON VANDALISM ARRESTS

Trump has shown a personal interest in the Reflecting Pool project, one of a series of ways he has sought to put his stamp on Washington’s monumental core.

Trump has alleged, without providing evidence, that vandals cut a 250-foot or perhaps a 350-foot gash in the pool, causing the chipped paint, and poured chemicals into the water to generate algae growth.

Trump, pressed on the lack of evidence to support the allegations, told reporters on Monday, “at the right time, you’ll see it. You’ll see it in court.”

The Department of the Interior said in a social media post on Tuesday that six people have been arrested for alleged vandalism at the Reflecting Pool and seven more were issued federal citations. The department said it is also investigating the “gash” that Trump spoke about though no evidence has emerged to support those claims.

Neither the Department of the Interior nor the U.S. Park Police has disclosed the names of those charged or the offenses they are facing. Neither agency responded to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Local and federal court records show no cases in recent days involving vandalism at the Reflecting Pool. Those arrested may not show up in local Washington, D.C. court records unless the U.S. Attorney’s Office decides to bring a case.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally, told Fox News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that those charged “will face the criminal justice system.”

OLYMPIC CYCLIST HANDCUFFED

One of those arrested was former U.S. Olympian David Hearn. Video posted on social media by conservative journalist Emily Miller showed Hearn, who was cycling near the pool, being approached by National Guard troops and later handcuffed by police.

Hearn, in an interview with The Washington Post, denied destroying or removing any property but said he reached into the pool and grabbed a partially detached piece of the peeling pool liner.

“Treating ordinary conduct as criminal diverts attention from the real questions of how this project was managed,” Norm Eisen, a lawyer representing Hearn who has been involved in a series of lawsuits against the Trump administration, said in a statement. “Using the criminal justice system to target innocent people as a form of distraction is textbook authoritarian behavior.”

Hearn is due to appear in local Washington, D.C. court on July 9.

Despite the stepped-up surveillance, the atmosphere near the Reflecting Pool was mostly relaxed on Wednesday as tourists enjoyed a sun-soaked early summer morning in Washington.

“I came down to check it out for myself, but I actually think I was expecting something a little different. It looks pretty good to me,” said Joanna Walling, who was visiting from Merritt Island, Florida. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s out here vandalizing today.”

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; additional reporting by Brad Heath, Editing by Michael Learmonth and David Gregorio)

By Deena Beasley

June 25 (Reuters) – Launch prices for prescription medicines approved by U.S. regulators in 2025 fell from the previous year, but remained high at a median of $216,000 due to expensive drugs for rare diseases, a new analysis shows.

In 2024, the median annual list price of a new drug was over $370,000, up from $300,000 in 2023 and $222,000 in 2022.

Drug pricing experts attributed the dip to the mix of types of drugs approved rather than a significant shift in pricing strategy or government policies aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. The Food and Drug Administration last year approved five cell and gene therapies versus seven in both 2024 and 2023. Gene therapies, which are given once, can have prices in the millions of dollars.

Many new medicines target serious, complex diseases with few or no treatment options, and it is “misleading” to compare those prices to other drug types, trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in an email.

More than 67% of FDA approvals in 2025 were for small- molecule drugs, such as pills, which are made from chemicals, rather than costly, complex biologics derived from living cells. That number was up from 2024, when small molecules accounted for 62% of approvals, and 2023, when it was 57%.

New biologics are often first-in-class and do not have competitors, allowing drugmakers to charge high prices, said Richard Frank, director at the Brookings Institution’s Center on Health Policy.

The average launch price for a drug approved in 2025 was $416,000, as lower-cost products like $1,050 for LENZ Therapeutics’ Vizz eye drops for blurry vision and $5,400 cholesterol drug Lerochol from LIB Therapeutics offset expensive treatments for rare genetic disorders like Mighty Therapeutics’ Forzinity for Barth syndrome, priced at nearly $800,000 a year.

POLITICS PLAYS A ROLE

“It is hard to make a lot of assessments about trends based on a single year,” said Dr. Benjamin Rome, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who researches drug prices, adding that “2025 was an odd year.”

He said the FDA was buffeted by Trump administration reorganization efforts, including staff cuts and leadership changes. The agency rejected several gene therapies, leading to a backlash from patient advocates and political controversy. Earlier this year, the FDA said it would take a more flexible approach.

Drugmakers came under pressure from President Donald Trump, who has sought to claim victory in tackling high U.S. pharmaceutical prices with the TrumpRx platform for direct-to-consumer sales, and deals with large companies to bring U.S. prices in line with those in other developed nations.

Those agreements are unlikely to last beyond the current administration, said Brookings’ Frank.

Rome also said that without legislation, the agreements will not significantly impact pricing decisions.

“There’s been this broad trend to say look what I’m doing to lower drug prices,” but a lot of it is “performative,” said Geoffrey Joyce, director at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

NEW DRUGS FOR CANCER, RARE DISEASES

The FDA approved 51 new drugs last year, 46 at its main division and the five cell and gene therapies. The agency approved 57 new drugs in 2024 and 55 in 2023. Those tallies do not include imaging agents, blood testing reagents or vaccines.

The analysis of 42 drug prices compiled by 3 Axis Advisors also excluded drugs used intermittently like antibiotics and products that have not yet launched commercially.

Cancer drugs remained the most represented therapeutic area, accounting for about a third of 2025 FDA approvals.

As in recent years, more than half of the approvals were “orphan” drugs, meaning they treat conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans. Drugmakers are given incentives to invest in research for rare diseases, including longer market exclusivity, and often charge premium prices for the niche products.

While calling that “wise public policy,” USC’s Joyce noted that drugmakers have “gamed” those incentives.

They can develop a drug that’s effective for a wide range of conditions but seek approval for “a low-prevalence disease… and get all the benefits and all the tax write-offs,” he said. “The logic is to launch (at a price) as high as you think you can get away with.”

Drug companies emphasize that new medicines can offer cost-saving value, including potentially fewer emergency room visits and hospital stays.

The analysis looked only at list prices and did not include the undisclosed discounts and rebates that insurers can receive from manufacturers.

“You’re still paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for most new drugs… irrespective of whether they offer a huge benefit over existing drugs or are sort of novel products that don’t offer much benefit,” Harvard’s Rome said.

(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Liberian oil tanker made its way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday despite threats to shipping from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, using a new route close to Oman’s shore that has been promoted by a U.N. maritime agency.

The transit of the Stoic Warrior and the threats come as tensions rise between Iran and the United States over the terms of their interim accord aimed at permanently ending the Iran war.

From getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf to the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the two nations are increasingly debating the terms of the deal signed last week.

Through the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a 60-day period to iron out these and other details. Until that happens — during private talks — leaders from both countries will also continue to negotiate in public, raising the risks of derailing the shaky ceasefire in the region.

On a trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Thursday with Gulf Arab officials in Bahrain, the island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the Navy’s 5th Fleet, trying to assuage their concerns.

The flareup of fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has threatened the deal. On Wednesday, Israel launched an airstrike that killed two people in southern Lebanon, the country’s state-run news agency said. It was Israel’s first airstrike on Lebanon since the latest ceasefire took effect on Saturday.

The Stoic Warrior — signaling that it planned to transit the Strait of Hormuz — took off early Thursday morning along the coast of the United Arab Emirates and then Oman.

The vessel then traveled around Oman’s Musandam Peninsula fairly close to the shore, part of a route that Oman laid out alongside the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations that oversees shipping at sea.

North of the route is the Traffic Separation Scheme, the route in the center of the strait that for decades ships moved through freely. The route is used for transport of about a fifth of all the world’s oil and natural gas.

However, there has been the report of at least one mine sighted in the water after the Guard said that it mined the passage during the war that started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. The threat of mines shut off the route.

Even before the deal, some ships had been getting out of the strait, with U.S. military support. But the U.N. agency’s effort is the latest to free trapped vessels. The shipping company Maersk said Thursday that its container ship the Maersk Baltimore and another chartered vessel had also made it out the strait.

The naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard, apparently reacting to the new IMO’s route, issued an angry warning Thursday, carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

“A few hours ago, without notice or coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, some authorities announced a new route for ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is unacceptable and completely dangerous,” the Guard said.

“It is hereby notified to all that the only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian force said. “Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited.”

“Violators will be dealt with,” it added, without elaborating.

There were no immediate reports of any incidents in the strait as the Stoic Warrior passed. Several ships trailed behind it, according to ship-tracking data.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned Iran on Thursday over trying to impede the strait or put fees on vessels plying its waters.

“New geopolitical facts cannot be imposed on the Arab Gulf states as a result of a treacherous aggression against them,” Gargash wrote on X. “It sows new seeds of discord and conflict for the future. And this is precisely what applies to the Strait of Hormuz.”

The U.S. secretary of state met with foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, trying to assure them their interests would be protected in any agreement reached with Iran, including when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz.

“We want to ensure that in any decisions that are made throughout this negotiating process, the interest of our partners and our allies in the region are always taken into account,” Rubio said. “There is no part in this deal that’s undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability of the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region.”

The GCC countries have expressed reservations about the limitation of the U.S.-Iran deal signed last week, including conflicting claims over the strait and the fact that the memorandum of understanding does not specifically cover Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

Thursday’s meeting in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, came ahead of an expected meeting in Oman between the GCC and Iran to discuss maritime security and safety in the strait.

Speaking on behalf of the GCC, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani thanked the U.S. for its support, saying that because of the agreement, “today we see a glimmer of hope for our region” but stressed that Iran must comply with its commitments.

“While this progress is encouraging, it is critically important that Iran adheres to its obligations,” al-Zayani said.

Israel’s military said on Thursday that a reservist soldier was killed and another hurt in southern Lebanon, where troops are occupying swaths of the country. At least 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon or northern Israel during the fighting, as well one civilian defense contractor. Two civilians in northern Israel have also been killed.

Over 4,000 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since this latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in March, two days after the Iran war started and when the Lebanese militant group fired at Israel.

___

Lee reported from Manama, Bahrain. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans who were berated by President Donald Trump over opposition to his war in Iran held a late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease him, rejecting a war powers resolution a day after a similar measure passed.

Trump harangued GOP senators face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber’s business to a halt. He exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure.

Hours later, though, Cassidy was invited to receive a personal briefing on the war at the White House from Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Cassidy then returned to the Capitol to vote against a separate but nearly identical war powers resolution.

“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns,” said Cassidy, who lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, in a post on X.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has repeatedly voted with Democrats to halt the war, voted present this time “to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace,” he said on X. The measure failed 47-50-1 just before midnight on Wednesday, and the Senate then left town for a two-week recess.

It’s unclear whether the move will be enough to appease Trump, who had called the Republicans “losers” for voting against his war and had called Cassidy a “lunatic” at the lunch after their tense exchange. But the vote was a clear signal to the president from Republican senators who still want to placate him, despite increasing tensions in recent weeks and his decision Wednesday morning to reverse himself and delay signing a housing bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and a small group of his Senate GOP colleagues called Trump after the vote. Thune told reporters that the president was “pleased with the outcome.”

Trump later thanked Thune in a social media post and noted that Cassidy and Paul had switched their votes. “This vote puts Iran on notice!” he wrote.

The war powers measure blocked by the Senate on Wednesday was on a separate track from the nearly identical resolution adopted on Tuesday, which had also been passed by the House. Both votes were largely symbolic, and the measures do not carry the full force of law.

Invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to speak at a GOP luncheon in the Capitol, Trump had signaled ahead of time that he would use the closed-door meeting to push senators to pass his proof-of-citizenship voting bill. But the conversation was more focused on Tuesday’s vote on war powers.

Most Republicans stayed quiet. But Cassidy stood up and defended his vote.

“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. “This was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

The two men “went back and forth,” Cassidy said, and he “matched his tone and volume.” Cassidy said that he eventually de-escalated, but he did not want to be bullied.

“I am voting for war powers until I get a briefing,” he said afterward.

Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who was not authorized to discuss it. At one point, the president called the senator a “lunatic.”

Publicly, Trump said afterward that they had “a really great meeting.” But he hinted at the discord.

“We like everyone in the room,” Trump told reporters on his way out. “I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK.”

The luncheon capped weeks of friction between Trump and Senate Republicans and added a new layer of frustration as Tuesday’s vote was the first time the Senate had adopted a war powers resolution on the Iran war. Trump made clear he was in no mood to compromise before it even started, calling off a scheduled signing ceremony on a housing bill that passed both chambers overwhelmingly this week and that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement.

Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But Trump upended their plans when he declared on social media just beforehand that he wouldn’t sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis said as he walked into the luncheon.

Thune said the housing legislation, which aims to lower costs, is “an affordability issue,” and that ”eventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.”

It’s unclear if Trump might veto the legislation or if the late Wednesday night vote will change his outlook. But by rejecting a public bill signing, Republicans worry that Trump is indicating a level of indifference to voters’ affordability concerns heading into November’s midterm elections.

Trump’s move on the housing bill is his latest reversal after weeks of being at odds with Senate Republicans.

Trump has blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.

Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda — Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Both men have become more critical of Trump since losing reelection.

“If we’re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,” Cornyn said ahead of the meeting. “We’re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.”

Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill, even though Thune has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes.

While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear. Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, “it’s just not realistic.”

Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren’t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill.

“I think people at some point have to come to grips with that,” Thune said.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

June 25 (Reuters) – Cal-Maine Foods and other egg suppliers are close to resolving an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and a bipartisan group of states into alleged illegal price coordination, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Here are some more details:

• The Justice Department and participating states are also nearing settlements with Hickman’s Egg Ranch and Versova, Bloomberg reported.

• Under the proposed agreement, the companies would pay several million dollars in civil penalties and donate more than 50 million eggs, while agreeing to stop exchanging prices and other competitively sensitive information, according to the report.

• The Department of Justice, Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Eggs Ranch and Versova did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• The lawsuit filed in April alleged egg producers coordinated using an industry price-benchmarking service, the Wall Street Journal reported.

• U.S. egg producers have been facing a growing wave of class-action lawsuits accusing them of price-fixing amid consumer frustration over rising food costs, including eggs.

• Egg prices in the U.S. have surged in recent years after bird flu outbreaks wiped out millions of laying hens, triggering supply shortages.

(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stepped into the national spotlight this week as an ascendant political force within the Democratic Party.

Democratic leaders aren’t so sure that’s a good thing.

As progressives cheered across the nation, some of the most powerful Democrats in the country, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, downplayed the impact of Mamdani’s victories on Tuesday, when the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor’s slate of congressional candidates defeated three establishment favorites — including two incumbents — in primary contests. He had even more victories in state legislative races, where he successfully backed five other candidates.

It was a stunning sweep for Mamdani, just six months into his first term, that will expand his influence in Washington and Albany. The mayor said Wednesday that he hopes to export his policies and politics to other states, while demanding major changes across the Democratic Party.

“Working people are struggling across the country,” Mamdani said. He added that he hopes to help “write a new chapter in our party’s history, where working people are back at the heart of that struggle. And I I believe that will be key in not just the midterms coming up in November, but also in the years to come.”

The mixed reaction from Democratic leaders as they grappled with the fallout from Mamdani’s success exposed the depth of the divide between the party’s progressive and establishment wings, who are at odds over how Democrats should govern — and how to win elections — over the final two years of the Donald Trump presidency.

Indeed, Democrats hope to avoid an all-out intraparty civil war ahead of the November midterms, especially with Republicans fighting amongst themselves over Trump’s war in Iran, how to address the affordability crunch and the president’s costly efforts to build a massive White House ballroom.

The Mamdani resistance from senior Democrats was not subtle.

“The effort to nationalize New York is going to fail,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. “What’s happening in New York will be really irrelevant by the time of the elections in November.”

Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, a vice chair of the New Democrat Coalition, was similarly dismissive, saying progressives were playing checkers while moderates were playing chess.

“No one in DSA is trying to win in a red-to-blue seat, or in a tough general election matchup,” Veasey said, referring to democratic socialist candidates.

Democrats’ left flank said the party’s latest nominees should be welcomed with open arms.

“What I would like to see, and what I think would be actually productive and beneficial, is a congratulations to these people, a commitment to welcome them in, to understanding the perspectives that they bring,” said Rep. Summer Lee, a 38-year-old progressive from Pennsylvania.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who campaigned alongside Mamdani and his allies last week, said New York’s results sent a clear message.

“The American people, in New York and increasingly all over the country, are sick and tired of status quo establishment politics,” he said. “I think you’re gonna continue to see it.”

Trump saw an opportunity to stir the pot from the Oval Office, telling reporters that the Democrats were “going radical left” and Mamdani’s choices are “really communist.”

He marveled at the defeat of Rep. Dan Goldman, a former top lawyer during Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump. Goldman was defeated by Brad Lander, an ally of Mamdani.

“When they go more liberal than Dan Goldman, they’re really into Never Neverland,” he said.

Mamdani backed three anti-establishment congressional challengers in a political gamble that his own team acknowledged was risky. He won them all.

Goldman, a two-term incumbent, was swiftly defeated by Lander, a former city comptroller.

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was toppled by Mamdani’s most polarizing pick, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

Antonio Reynoso, the handpicked successor of U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, lost to another democratic socialist, Assembly Member Claire Valdez.

The entire Mamdani slate promised to “abolish ICE,” condemned Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and vowed to “tax the rich.”

“Voters are just pissed off,” Lander said in an interview. “They want people who show who they’re fighting for, and really get out and fight for things that matter in the lives of working people.”

Cheering the extent of Mamdani’s success, progressive leaders called on the Democratic Party’s leadership in Washington — and its next crop of presidential candidates — to adopt meaningful changes in the weeks and months ahead.

Indeed, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a potential presidential candidate, said it would be “silly” for his party not to draw meaningful conclusions from New York’s results.

“The voters are clearly telling us they want us to be bolder — bolder in the policies we’re proposing and bolder in the tactics we use to fight authoritarians,” he said.

And yet the Mamdani critics within the party were not hard to find.

Jeffries, who is in line to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the House majority this fall, reiterated his opposition to Mamdani’s slate in repeated interviews and media appearances.

“He’s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward,” Jeffries, the No. 1 House Democrat jabbed, even as he said they have a good working relationship.

Giddy House Republican operatives vowed to weaponize Mamdani and his slate to undercut the Democratic brand in competitive midterm elections across the country, while other Republican officials warned their party to pay attention to this pivotal moment in the nation’s politics.

“Republicans need to wake up. What we saw last night in New York can only be called one thing: a socialist uprising sweeping the Democrat Party,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio. “If Republicans don’t act now, we will lose this country as we know it.”

Meanwhile, Trump seemed to worry more about Mamdani’s growing national profile than his democratic socialist policies.

“Mayor Mamdani pulled through 3 solid Communists, and has received loud and universal applause from the Fake News Media. Congratulations Mr. Mayor!” the Republican president wrote on social media. “I went 16-0 last night, helping to elect wonderful American Patriots, and the Media doesn’t say a word.”

Meanwhile, Mamdani dismissed broader concerns that his success would undermine the Democratic Party’s fight to win control of Congress this fall.

“We’ve heard from Republicans time and again that they’re going to try and make these candidates the face of the Democratic Party. To them, I say that we are ready for that,” he said. “For far too long we have been told that it is not possible to fight for working people and win. These candidates have shown that they can.”

And yet some Democrats were clear-eyed about the work that lies ahead to bring the party together as new divisions flared in the wake of Mamdani’s success.

“We have to respect the voters. They made their decision,” said Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont.

“The challenge that we have,” he continued, “is to build the different points of view together, all in service of helping people who are struggling to pay their bills to get more economic security. The challenge of unity is enormous. But that’s our challenge.”

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Brown reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a daily basis — and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC survey.

The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in February, highlights the obstacle course that U.S. adults navigate daily as they screen calls, ignore messages or try to puzzle out if that urgent request from their cellphone provider is legitimate.

A separate survey conducted by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance that was provided exclusively to the AP found that last year alone, about 1 in 10 U.S. adults said they or someone else from their household was deceived by a scammer into losing money or providing access to a financial account, with nearly half saying they lost more than $500.

That leaves many Americans feeling like they’re constantly at risk of falling for a scam, often without a sense of recourse. In both surveys, few victims said they reported the scam to the federal government or local law enforcement. Many victims didn’t report the scam, Gallup found, because they didn’t think it would make a difference in getting money back.

“You’ve got to be pretty sophisticated these days,” said Adam Pratter, 42. He has run into problems on dating apps — and once ended up sending money to a person who claimed they were overseas because of a military deployment and needed money to buy food. He realized it was a scam when the requests didn’t stop.

Pratter thinks banks and social media companies have a responsibility to help people who have been scammed, but also believes the government needs to do more.

“If federal regulation wanted to step in and make deals with these companies to get these people their money back, they could,” he said.

Americans are flooded with scam attempts, according to both surveys. More than half, 58%, of U.S. adults in the AP-NORC poll said they receive daily text messages, phone calls, emails, online messages or online advertisements that they suspect are scams, while the Gallup survey found last year that about 4 in 10 experienced attempted scams on a daily basis.

Porschel Smith, 22, gets multiple scam calls every day, and receives even more scam emails. Some of the scams are easy for her to identify. “They mention different types of programs that I know are nonexistent,” she said.

But sometimes she ends up engaging with the scammer before realizing that something is wrong. “Some of them hack your account and pretend as if they’re someone that you know,” she said. “But then I get to asking questions and realize they’re scams.”

Older people are more likely to say they receive scam attempts daily, according to the AP-NORC poll. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults ages 60 and older say they are contacted by a suspected scammer at least once a day, compared to about 4 in 10 Americans under 30.

Among those who have received suspected scam attempts, the AP-NORC poll found that outreach involving package shipments or banking were among the most common methods. About 4 in 10 people who were contacted by scammers say at least one of the attempts they received over the past few years were through Facebook or Facebook Messenger, while about 2 in 10 said they were on WhatsApp, and a similar share said they were on Instagram.

The impact of scams is far-reaching. About half, 51%, of U.S. adults know someone personally — such as a friend or family member — who has ever lost money as the result of a scam, the AP-NORC poll found, while about 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they have personally been scammed into giving away money or personal information.

The Gallup survey found that about 1 in 10 U.S. adults said they or a member of their household was scammed out of money in 2025, with 6% saying they had been personally scammed.

About half of people whose household experienced scams last year reported losing between $125 and $2,000, according to Gallup.

About 1 in 10 U.S. adults have been scammed multiple times, Gallup found.

“It’s not easy. They know what they’re doing,” said Towonna Harris, 50. Her son was once contacted by scammers who promised to give him money for tuition if he authorized a nominal credit card charge, which quickly spiraled into a much bigger set of charges.

She’s experienced other kinds of scams on a smaller scale, too. “I ordered some stuff. I never got it,” she said. “I thought it was a legitimate company. And then I saw all these reviews saying it was a scam.”

Virtually all U.S. adults believe that scams pose a “major” or “minor” threat to individuals in the U.S., but few think the government is doing enough to solve the problem. About 8 in 10 Americans say the government is “definitely” or “probably” doing too little to prevent scams, according to the Gallup survey, including large majorities of Republicans and Democrats.

When people are scammed, both surveys found that victims are much likelier to reach out to financial institutions than the federal government or local law enforcement. About half, 55%, of people who were scammed last year reported to a bank, credit union or other financial institution, the Gallup poll found, but only 18% contacted state or local law enforcement, while 13% reported to either federal law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.

Many victims don’t make a report because they don’t think it will help, or don’t know where to go, Gallup found. Among people who were scammed in 2025, 75% said they didn’t report because they thought it wouldn’t make a difference in getting their money back, while 58% were uncertain where to report.

More broadly, Americans express very low confidence that they’d know how to report a scam to the government if they needed to. According to the AP-NORC poll, most Americans, 55%, say they are “extremely” or “very” confident that if they were scammed, they’d know how to report it to banks or credit card companies, but only about one-quarter are similarly confident that they’d know how to report to federal or state law enforcement.

Only about one-third of U.S. adults said they would know where to make a report if they lost $5,000 in a scam today, Gallup found.

Max Anderson, 23, said that his parents are small business owners who were the victims of a costly and complex scam. “A scammer successfully imitated one of their employees and changed their direct deposit information. This went on for about 3 months. It went to $15,000,” he said.

Eventually, Anderson’s father got help from the FBI, he said.

“I do like that the government stepped in with my parents, and I feel like that’s the way it should be,” he said. “It’s a big enough problem at this point that it falls to the government and companies to do something about it.”

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Associated Press reporters Mary Rajkumar, Juliet Linderman and Erika Kinetz contributed to this report. Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism student Molly Wallace contributed to this report.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,133 adults was conducted Feb. 19-23 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

The Stop Scams Alliance-Gallup poll of 5,173 adults was conducted Jan. 8-Feb. 18 using a sample drawn from Gallup’s probability-based Gallup Panel. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.