Mexico arrests 3 soldiers for ties to missing students case

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Three members of Mexico’s army have been arrested for alleged connection to the disappearance of 43 students in southern Mexico in 2014, the government announced Thursday.

Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said that among those arrested was the commander of the army base in Iguala, Guerrero in September 2014, when the students from a radical teacher’s college were abducted. Mejía said a fourth arrest was expected soon.

Mejía did not give names of those arrested, but the commander of the Iguala base at that time was Col. José Rodríguez Pérez. Last month, a government truth commission re-investigating the case issued a report that named Rodríguez as being allegedly responsible for the disappearance of six of the students.

Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who led the commission, said last month that six of the missing students were allegedly kept alive in a warehouse for days then turned over to Rodríguez who ordered them killed.

The report had called the disappearances a “state crime,” emphasizing that authorities had been closely monitoring the students from the teachers’ college at Ayotzinapa from the time they left their campus through their abduction by local police in the town of Iguala that night. A soldier who had infiltrated the school was among the abducted students, and Encinas asserted the army did not follow its own protocols and try to rescue him.

“There is also information corroborated with emergency 089 telephone calls where allegedly six of the 43 disappeared students were held during several days and alive in what they call the old warehouse and from there were turned over to the colonel,” Encinas said. “Allegedly the six students were alive for as many as four days after the events and were killed and disappeared on orders of the colonel, allegedly the then Col. José Rodríguez Pérez.”

Numerous government and independent investigations have failed to reach a single conclusive narrative about what happened to the 43 students, but it appears that local police pulled the students off several buses in Iguala that night and turned them over to a drug gang. The motive remains unclear. Their bodies have never been found, though fragments of burned bone have been matched to three of the students.

The role of the army in the students’ disappearance has long been a source of tension between the families and the government. From the beginning, there were questions about the military’s knowledge of what happened and its possible involvement. The students’ parents demanded for years that they be allowed to search the army base in Iguala. It was not until 2019 that they were given access along with Encinas and the Truth Commission.

Shortly after the truth commission report, the Attorney General’s Office announced 83 arrest orders, 20 for members of the military. Then federal agents arrested Jesús Murillo Karam, who was attorney general at the time.

Doubts had been growing in the weeks since the arrest orders were announced because no arrests had been announced. The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has also formed a closer public bond with the military than any in recent memory.

The president pushed to shift the newly created National Guard under full military authority and his allies in congress are trying to extend the time for the military to continue a policing role in the streets to 2029.

On Thursday, Mejía also dismissed any suggestion that José Luis Abarca, who was mayor of Iguala at the time, would be released from prison after a judge absolved him of responsibility for the student’s abduction based on a lack of evidence. Even without the aggravated kidnapping charge, Abarca still faces other charges for organized crime and money laundering, and Mejía said the judge’s latest decision would be challenged. The judge similarly absolved 19 others, including the man who was Iguala’s police at the time.

‘Torment of hell:’ Ukraine medic describes Russian torture

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER

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Ukrainian medic Yuliia Paievska, known to Ukrainians by the nickname Taira, speaks during an appearance before U.S. lawmakers on the Helsinki Commission, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A volunteer Ukrainian medic detained in Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol told U.S. lawmakers Thursday of comforting fellow detainees as many died during her three months of captivity, cradling and consoling them as best she could, as male, female and child prisoners succumbed to Russian torture and untreated wounds.

Ukrainian Yuliia Paievska, who was captured by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held at shifting locations in Russian-allied territory in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, spoke to lawmakers with the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote international compliance with human rights.

Her accounts Thursday were her most detailed publicly of her treatment in captivity, in what Ukrainians and international rights groups say are widespread detentions of both Ukrainian noncombatants and fighters by Russia’s forces.

Known to Ukrainians by the nickname Taira, Paievska and her care of Mariupol’s wounded during the nearly seven-month Russian invasion of Ukraine received global attention after her bodycam footage was provided to The Associated Press.

“Do you know why we do this to you?” a Russian asked Paievska as he tortured her, she recounted to the commission. She told the panel her answer to him: “Because you can.

Searing descriptions of the suffering of detainees poured out. A 7-year-old boy died in her lap because she had none of the medical gear she needed to treat him, she said.

Torture sessions usually launched with their captors forcing the Ukrainian prisoners to remove their clothes, before the Russians set to bloodying and tormenting the detainees, she said.

The result was some “prisoners in cells screaming for weeks, and then dying from the torture without any medical help,” she said. “Then in this torment of hell, the only things they feel before death is abuse and additional beating.”

She continued, recounting the toll among the imprisoned Ukrainians. “My friend whose eyes I closed before his body cooled down. Another friend. And another. Another.”

Paievska said she was taken into custody after being stopped in a routine document check. She had been one of thousands of Ukrainians believed to have been taken prisoner by Russian forces. Mariupol’s mayor said that 10,000 people from his city alone disappeared during what was the monthslong Russian siege of that city. It fell to Russians in April, with the city all but destroyed by Russian bombardment, and with countless dead.

The Geneva Conventions single out medics, both military and civilian, for protection “in all circumstance.” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and co-chair of the Helsinki Commission underscored that the conditions she described for civilian and military detainees violated international law.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

“It is critical that the world hear the stories of those who endured the worst under captivity,” Wilson said. “Evidence is essential to prosecution of war crimes.”

Before she was captured, Paievska had recorded more than 256 gigabytes of harrowing bodycam footage showing her team’s efforts to save the wounded in the cut-off city. She got the footage to Associated Press journalists, the last international team in Mariupol, on a tiny data card.

The journalists fled the city on March 15 with the card embedded inside a tampon, carrying it through 15 Russian checkpoints. The next day, Paievska was taken by pro-Russia forces. Lawmakers played the AP’s video of her footage Thursday.

She emerged on June 17, thin and haggard, her athlete’s body more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) lighter from lack of nourishment and activity. She said the AP report that showed her caring for Russian and Ukrainian soldiers alike, along with civilians of Mariupol, was critical to her release, in a prisoner exchange.

Paievska previously had declined to speak in detail to journalists about conditions in detention, only describing it broadly as hell. She swallowed heavily at times Thursday while testifying.

Ukraine’s government says it has documented nearly 34,000 Russian war crimes since the war began in February. The International Criminal Court and 14 European Union member nations also have launched investigations.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says it has documented that prisoners of war in Russian custody have suffered torture and ill-treatment, as well as insufficient food, water healthcare and sanitation.

Russia has not responded to the allegations. Both the United Nations and the international Red Cross say they have been denied access to prisoners.

Paievska, who said she suffered headaches during her detention as the result of a concussion from an earlier explosion, told lawmakers she asked her captors to let her call her husband, to let him know what had happened to her.

“They said, ‘You have seen too many American movies. There will be no phone call,’” she recounted.

Her tormentors during her detention would sometimes urge her to kill herself, she said.

“I said, ‘No. I will see what happens tomorrow,”’ she said.

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Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.

Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Inuits plead for priest’s return to Canada over abuse claims

From the left, Inuit delegation members Aliku Kotierk, Jesse Tungilik , Tanya Tungilik and Steve Mapsalak attend a press conference in Lyon, central France, Thursday, Sept.15, 2022. A priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Inuit children when he missioned in their Canadian Arctic community has told alleged victims and relatives who traveled to France to confront him that he won't go back to Canada to be questioned. (AP Photo/Nicolas Vaux-Montagny)


LYON, France (AP) — A priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children when he missioned in their Canadian Arctic community has told alleged victims and relatives who traveled to France to confront him that he won’t go back to Canada to be questioned.

The 10-member Inuit delegation met this week with the Rev. Joannes Rivoire, hoping to persuade the 92-year-old to return with them to Canada, where they want him to face justice. Canadian police are also seeking his arrest on a sexual assault charge.

But the Oblate priest refused and denied wrongdoing, delegation members said Thursday at a news conference in Lyon, the southeastern French city where Rivoire lives in a care home.

The daughter of one of the priest’s late alleged victims described the meeting as like coming face-to-face with “the monster.”

Tanya Tungilik said she blames the priest for her father’s death. She said her father also suffered from alcoholism and recurrent nightmares.

“He has no remorse,” she said of Wednesday’s meeting with Rivoire. “I left. I didn’t want to hear his lies.”

France traditionally does not extradite its citizens – a policy reiterated by the French Justice Ministry in Paris when the Inuit delegation also traveled there for a meeting this week.

At the Lyon news conference, the delegation and their lawyer urged French authorities to make an exception in this case. The Canadian government has previously said that it, too, has asked France to extradite Rivoire.

The delegation booked an extra seat for their planned return to Canada, hoping that the priest would fly back with them.

The group alleges that the priest abused 50-60 children when he was stationed in their community from the 1960s to the 1990s.

The priest has previously denied allegations of abuse.

From the left, Inuit delegation members Jesse Tungilik , Tanya Tungilik and Steve Mapsalak attend a press conference in Lyon, central France, Thursday, Sept.15, 2022. A priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Inuit children when he missioned in their Canadian Arctic community has told alleged victims and relatives who traveled to France to confront him that he won't go back to Canada to be questioned. (AP Photo/Nicolas Vaux-Montagny)

A Lyon-based lawyer for the priest did not immediately respond Thursday to an Associated Press phone message seeking comment and the lawyer’s office said he was in court for another matter.

The Inuit delegation also met in Lyon with the Rev. Vincent Gruber, a representative of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The delegation said Gruber told them that he has started a procedure to expel Rivoire from the church.

Canadian authorities issued an initial arrest warrant for the priest in 1998 on accusations of several counts of sexual abuse.

Canadian police said Thursday, in response to questions from AP, that they also received a complaint in 2021 “of sexual assaults that occurred approximately 47 years ago involving one female victim.”

Police said that following an investigation, Rivoire was then charged with sexual assault in February this year and a Canada-wide warrant issued for his arrest.

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AP journalist John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.

Swiss police investigate fake ad campaign on energy wasting

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss police are investigating a fake advertising campaign that appeared on social media and shows a poster urging people to snitch on their neighbors if they heat their homes too much this winter — when an energy crunch is expected to hit Western Europe.

The bogus ad, which appears to be in public such as on a bus stop shelter, offers 200 Swiss francs (about $200) for anonymous tips that point the finger at people who heat their homes more than 19 C (66 F) this winter. Pictures of the poster reportedly turned up on the Russian social media platform Telegram.

The ad shows a young woman on a mobile phone above the message: “Is your neighbor heating his home above 19 degrees? Please inform us,” above a phone number — reportedly of the Swiss federal energy department. At top left is the Swiss Confederation’s coat of arms — a logo unmistakable to nearly all Swiss.

On its website, the department warned against the “false” message and called it a “manipulation.” Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported that pictures of the poster appeared on Russian Telegram channels, were picked up by Belarus’ Belta news agency, and the Russian television channel RT recently ran a fake report on fines for people who heat their homes excessively in Switzerland.

The Swiss federal police said Thursday they had received a complaint for “abusive use” of the coat of arms and other possible misdemeanors, and were investigating.

The Swiss government has launched a campaign encouraging the Swiss not to waste energy amid the expected energy crunch linked to reduced supplies of oil and gas from Russia in the wake of its war in Ukraine. Consumers have been advised to take measures such as lowering the thermostat, covering pots and pans while cooking, and turning off lights and appliances when not in use.

'Love in midst of horror': the Auschwitz wedding

Author: AFP|

Update: 15.09.2022 


Tragic lovers: the Friemels on their wedding day in Auschwitz / © Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP

The two newlyweds have dressed up for the picture, but they are not smiling. And for good reason: their union was sealed at Auschwitz -- the only wedding known to have taken place in the death camp.

The yellowed photo of Rudolf Friemel, an Austrian communist who resisted the Nazis, and his Spanish wife Margarita Ferrer Rey, is now on show in his home town Vienna.

It is the centrepiece of an exhibition, "The Wedding of Auschwitz", which uses papers donated by their family to tell the couple's heart-breaking story.

Friemel met Ferrer Rey in Spain after going there to fight with the International Brigades in 1936 against General Franco's fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

He was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 after returning home.

In the camp he was set to work repairing SS vehicles, and was held in "better conditions than other prisoners", according to Vienna's Social Democratic mayor, Michael Ludwig, who wrote the introduction to the catalogue.

But why the Nazis granted the Friemels -- their bitter enemies -- "such an unique privilege to be able to marry remains a mystery to this day," Ludwig added.

- Escape attempt -

The couple's son was also allowed to attend the marriage in the death camp / © Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP

"What I find most interesting is that we see that there was love in the midst of horror," the couple's grandson, Rodolphe Friemel, told AFP from his home in southern France.

He wondered if "maybe my grandparents did all this just to see each other again," with Margarita allowed to travel to Auschwitz from Vienna for the wedding with their son -- who was born in 1941 -- and Friemel's father.

The marriage was registered at 11 a.m. on March 18, 1944, as the slaughter at the camp reached its peak.

Some one million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as homosexuals, prisoners of war and others persecuted by Germany's Nazi regime.

Friemel, 48, gave the wedding documents, including congratulations messages from other prisoners, to the Vienna City Library early this year to ensure their preservation.

His grandfather was allowed to wear civilian clothes and let his hair grow for the occasion, and a cell was made available to the couple for their wedding night in the camp brothel.

But the respite was shortlived. Rudolf Friemel was hanged in December 1944 for helping to organise an escape attempt. The camp was liberated a month later.


A wedding card from other prisoners wishing the couple a 'happy and child-rich future' / © Wienbibliothek im Rathaus/AFP

All his wife and child -- who moved to France after the war -- were left with were his heartbreaking letters and poems.

Margarita died in 1987.

The show runs at Vienna City Library until the end of the month.

Booker T. Jones performs at Stax, ahead of milestone

By ADRIAN SAINZ

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Booker T. Jones performs in "Studio A" at the Stax Museum's on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022 in Memphis. A performance by the master keyboardist highlighted an announcement by the Stax Museum of American Soul Museum of events centered on the museum’s 20th anniversary next year in Memphis, Tennessee. Jones’ was followed by a video spotlighting events scheduled throughout 2023 to celebrate the museum’s birth two decades ago at the site of the former Stax Records. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Wearing a blue suit, black hat and multi-colored socks, master keyboardist Booker T. Jones leaned away from the Hammond B3 organ, tilted his head back and worked the keys and foot pedals as he played the funky and familiar hit “Green Onions” for a head-bobbing, toe-tapping crowd at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

The intimate performance by Jones and a tight backup band Wednesday was part of an event at the Memphis, Tennessee, museum that previewed its yearlong 20th anniversary celebration planned for 2023.

Built on the site of the former Stax Records, the museum celebrates the influential soul music born from the studio where Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and others recorded some of American popular music’s most memorable songs.

“Right here in this space, you are on hallowed ground,” said Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which oversees the museum.

Jones’ rousing renditions of “Hip Hugger,” “Time is Tight,” “Soul Limbo,” and the 60-year-old “Green Onions” followed a video announcing events celebrating the museum’s opening two decades ago. They include a year’s worth of free field trips for students, a concert series featuring performances by national acts, and a mobile “pop-up” vehicle that will take Stax music, merchandise and more to locations like Austin’s SXSW, Nashville’s Americana Fest and New Orleans’ Essence Festival.

A Memphis native, Jones, 77, said he feels fortunate to have been able to develop his musical talent just a few blocks from his house, at Stax. Jones said he feels “an openness” when he walks into the Stax building.

“I guess you can say that there are locations on the Earth, some more conducive to art than others,” Jones told reporters before his performance. “This is a location that is conducive to art.”

The museum is a top attraction in Memphis, where Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street and the Memphis Rock N’ Soul Museum also treat tourists to the music created in the Mississippi River city.

Stax fostered a raw sound born from Black church music, the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. It featured tight rhythm sections, powerful horn players, and singers who could be sexy and soulful in one tune, loud and forceful in another.

Some of Stax’s musicians grew up near the studio, which moved into the old Capitol Theatre in 1960. They called it “Soulsville U.S.A.” — a name that stuck to the surrounding working class neighborhood, now called Soulsville.

Jones was a member of Booker T. and the M.G.s, a biracial quartet that served as the recording studio’s house band, backing up many of the studio’s hitmakers. Along with the multiracial Memphis Horns, they provided the foundation for songs that became to soul music what Motown was to rhythm and blues.

“Working at Stax was like giving a daily sermon to the world, of being open with loving emotions to others regardless of who they were or looked like,” said David Porter, who wrote hits such as Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man.”

A historical marker and a marquee show the location of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Memphis, Tenn. Built on the site of the former Stax Records, the museum celebrates the influential soul music born from the studio where Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and others recorded some of American popular music’s most memorable songs. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Stax Records enjoyed massive success into the late 1960s. But Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays died in a plane crash in 1967, and the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 intensified racial division in Memphis and around the country.

By the mid-1970s, Stax was out of business due to financial turmoil and legal problems. The building that housed the studio was demolished.

The museum opened in May 2003. It offers self-guided tours and includes a film detailing the studio’s history, exhibits chronicling the origins and development of Memphis soul music, listening stations and memorabilia such as Hayes’ flashy Cadillac car.

Adjacent to the museum is the Stax Music Academy, an after-school program where teenagers from some of Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods learn how to dance, sing and play instruments. The Soulsville Foundation operates the museum, the academy and a charter school.

Porter, who co-wrote “Hold On I’m Comin” after songwriting partner Isaac Hayes called for him to hurry up while Porter was in the bathroom, is among several Stax ambassadors for the anniversary. Others include guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper, former Stax Records executive and owner Al Bell and singer-songwriter Eddie Floyd, of “Knock on Wood” fame.

New atlas of bird migration shows extraordinary journeys

By CHRISTINA LARSON

Two bird watchers photograph thousands of snow geese at the Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area on March 24, 2017, outside Fairfield, Mont. A new online atlas of bird migration, published on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, draws from an unprecedented number of scientific and community data sources to illustrate the routes of about 450 bird species in the Americas.

 (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)/

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bay-breasted warbler weighs about the same as four pennies, but twice a year makes an extraordinary journey. The tiny songbird flies nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) between Canada’s spruce forests and its wintering grounds in northern South America.

“Migratory birds are these little globetrotters,” said Jill Deppe, the senior director of the migratory bird initiative at the National Audubon Society.

A new online atlas of bird migration, published on Thursday, draws from an unprecedented number of scientific and community data sources to illustrate the routes of about 450 bird species in the Americas, including the warblers.

The Bird Migration Explorer mapping tool, available free to the public, is an ongoing collaboration between 11 groups that collect and analyze data on bird movements, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, the U.S. Geological Survey, Georgetown University, Colorado State University, and the National Audubon Society.

For the first time, the site will bring together online data from hundreds of scientific studies that use GPS tags to track bird movements, as well as more than 100 years of bird-banding data collected by USGS, community science observations entered into Cornell’s eBird platform, genomic analysis of feathers to pinpoint bird origins, and other data.

“The past twenty years have seen a true renaissance in different technologies to track bird migrations around the world at scales that haven’t been possible before,” said Peter Marra, a bird migration expert at Georgetown University who collaborated on the project.

The site allows a user to enter a species — for instance, osprey — and watch movements over the course of a year. For example, data from 378 tracked ospreys show up as yellow dots that move between coastal North America and South America as a calendar bar scrolls through the months of the year.

Luke DeGroote holds a Tennessee warbler for a closeup after getting caught in a long net at the Powdermill Avian Research center on May 8, 2018, near Rector, Pa. A new online atlas of bird migration, published on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, draws from an unprecedented number of scientific and community data sources to illustrate the routes of about 450 bird species in the Americas. 

(Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP, File)

Or users can enter the city where they live and click elsewhere on the map for a partial list of birds that migrate between the two locations. For example, ospreys, bobolinks and at least 12 other species migrate between Washington, D.C. and Fonte Boa, Brazil.

As new tracking data becomes available, the site will continue to expand. Melanie Smith, program director for the site, said the next phase of expansion will add more data about seabirds.

 
Avian ecologist and Georgetown University Ph.D. student Emily Williams releases an American robin, too light to be fitted with an Argos satellite tag, after gathering samples and data and applying bands on April 28, 2021, in Cheverly, Md. A new online atlas of bird migration, published on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, draws from an unprecedented number of scientific and community data sources to illustrate the routes of about 450 bird species in the Americas. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

An osprey flies over the Chesapeake Bay on March 29, 2022, in Pasadena, Md. A new online atlas of bird migration, published on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, draws from an unprecedented number of scientific and community data sources to illustrate the routes of about 450 bird species in the Americas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Washington, D.C. resident Michael Herrera started birdwatching about four months ago and was quickly hooked. “It’s almost like this hidden world that’s right in front of your eyes,” he said. “Once you start paying attention, all these details that were like background noise suddenly have meaning.”

Herrera said he’s eager to learn more about the migratory routes of waterbirds in the mid-Atlantic region, such as great blue herons and great egrets.

Georgetown’s Marra hopes that engaging the public will help spotlight some of the conservation challenges facing birds, including loss of habitat and climate change.

In the past 50 years, the population of birds in the U.S. and Canada has dropped nearly 30%, with migratory species facing some of the steepest declines.
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Follow Christina Larson on Twitter at @larsonchristina.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

USDA to fund push to store carbon in New England forests

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding a major push to try to store more carbon in New England’s forests.

The agency said Wednesday that the New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project will include large commercial producers as well as small woodlot owners with a goal of storing more carbon in forests. The project could receive as much as $30 million.

The USDA said the project will seek to “build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials.” The New England Forestry Foundation is serving as the lead partner on the project.

Other partners on the project include Robbins Lumber, the University of Maine and the Mass Tree Farm Program.

The funding is part of up to $2.8 billion the USDA is providing to dozens of projects around the country as part of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. The partnership takes proposals seeking funding from $5 million to $100 million.

After cancellation, Dems look to reduce future student debt

By COLLIN BINKLEY

President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Aug. 24, 2022, in Washington. Building Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, House Democrats on Thursday, Sept. 15, proposed new legislation that would increase federal student aid, lower interest rates on loans and take other steps to make college more affordable. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Building on President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, House Democrats on Thursday proposed new legislation that would increase federal student aid, lower interest rates on loans and take other steps to make college more affordable.

The bill is being pushed as a complement to Biden’s plan, which promises to wipe away student debt for millions of Americans but does little to help future students avoid heavy levels of debt. Democrats say their plan would tackle the root causes behind America’s $1.6 trillion in federal student debt.

“Simply put, by making loans cheaper to take out and easier to pay off, the LOAN Act will help improve the lives of student loan borrowers — both now and in the future,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.

But similar to Biden’s loan cancellation plan, the proposed legislation does not address the rising cost of college itself, which has continued to increase for decades.

Much of the proposal focuses on expanding federal Pell Grants, which are given to low-income students but have failed to keep pace with inflation and tuition rates. When the Pell program was started in the 1970s, the grants covered nearly 80% of tuition, fees and housing at a typical public university, according to federal data. Today, they cover about a quarter of those costs.

The legislation would double the maximum Pell Grant, to $13,000, over a five-year span, and then make sure it stays even with inflation. Families that receive food stamps or Medicaid would automatically get an additional $1,500 per year. And students would be able to use Pell Grants for up to 18 semesters, up from 12 now.

Interest rates on new federal student loans would be lowered starting in July 2023 to match the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, and all federal student loans would be capped at a 5% interest rate. Current caps vary depending on the type of loan but can reach as high as 10.5%. Older loans would be eligible for refinancing at the lower interest rates.

Democrats also aim to permanently relax the rules for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created to help public servants get their student debt forgiven but has been marred by complex rules.

The proposal would allow public workers to get their debt cancelled after making 96 monthly payments, down from 120, and it would allow certain periods of non-payment to count, including military service or time in the Peace Corps. The Education Department recently loosened some rules during the pandemic, but the changes are set to expire at the end of October.

Several of the bill’s components are perennial aspirations for Democrats, who have long sought to increase Pell Grants and fix the loan forgiveness program. But those goals have been thwarted by a deeply divided Congress — Biden has repeatedly sought to double Pell Grants but had to settle for a $400 increase this year as part of a bipartisan budget bill.

The legislation faces an unclear path to passage, but at minimum it spells out Democratic priorities as both parties vow to address the nation’s ballooning student debt. House Republicans unveiled their own proposal in August, looking to scale back lending — especially for costly graduate school programs — and rein in debt forgiveness.

The Republican legislation would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program entirely, and allow students to borrow no more than $100,000 in federal student debt for graduate school, down from an existing $138,500 cap. Additionally, it would allow students to use Pell Grants for short-term programs that focus on job training.

In a direct shot at the Biden administration, the GOP bill also sought to limit the education secretary’s ability to cancel student debt.

Biden’s cancellation plan, announced last month, promises to forgive $10,000 in federal student debt for individuals with incomes less than $125,000 a year or families below $250,000. Those who received Pell Grants to attend college get another $10,000.

The Education Department says an application will be available by early October. Whether borrowers actually see the relief depends on whether the plan survives legal challenges that are almost certain to come.

Although the broad details of the plan have been available for weeks, many with student debt have been left to wonder about exactly how it will be carried out.

Long before Biden announced his plan, the Education Department said borrowers could get refunds for payments made during the pandemic. But could borrowers undo those payments and then apply to get the debt canceled? Officials didn’t say, sowing confusion about what borrowers should do.

Answers started to emerge this week as the Education Department quietly updated a website with details on the plan.

According to the agency, borrowers who made payments during the pandemic will automatically get that money refunded if they apply for Biden’s cancellation — but only if their previous payments left them with a loan balance lower than the $10,000 or $20,000 they’re getting canceled.

The department offers an example: If someone is eligible for $10,000 in cancellation but made a $1,000 payment that left their balance at $9,500, they would get a refund of $500.

Borrowers who paid off their loans during the pause will need to request a refund first, then request cancellation, the department said.

Many Democrats applauded Biden’s plan, but some have said it does little to stop future students from piling on student debt. Even Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, acknowledged the limited scope of a one-time debt cancellation.

Talking to reporters last week, Cardona said it would be “short-sighted” to think the cancellation will solve the student debt problem.

Instead Cardona drew attention to on a new, more generous loan repayment plan that was unveiled alongside the cancellation. Under that proposal, borrowers’ monthly bills would be capped at 5% of their earnings, down from 10% now, and any remaining balance would be forgiven after 10 years, down from 20 years now.

“It’s not as flashy,” Cardona said of the repayment plan, “but it has generational impact.”

Democratic lawmakers agree that cancellation is only part of the solution. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a sponsor of the new bill, said it’s up to Congress to make sure borrowers don’t sink into debt again, especially students of color who are more likely to borrow debt and struggle to repay it.

“This legislation brings together some of the most forward-thinking and innovative proposals into one comprehensive proposal so that this generation is the last to experience America’s student loan debt crisis,” Wilson said.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

TikTok search results riddled with misinformation: Report

By DAVID KLEPPER

yesterday

The TikTok app logo appears in Tokyo on Sept. 28, 2020. TikTok may be the platform of choice for catchy videos, but anyone using it to learn about COVID-19, climate change or Russia's invasion of Ukraine is likely to encounter misleading information, according to a new research report.

 (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)


TikTok may be the platform of choice for catchy videos, but anyone using it to learn about COVID-19, climate change or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to encounter misleading information, according to a research report published Wednesday.

Researchers at NewsGuard searched for content about prominent news topics on TikTok and say they found that nearly 1 in 5 of the videos automatically suggested by the platform contained misinformation.

Searches for information about “mRNA vaccine,” for instance, yielded five videos (out of the first 10) that contained misinformation, including baseless claims that the COVID-19 vaccine causes “permanent damage in children’s critical organs.”

Researchers looking for information about abortion, the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, climate change or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on TikTok found similarly misleading videos scattered among more accurate clips.

The amount of misinformation — and the ease with which it can be found — is especially troubling given TikTok’s popularity with young people, according to Steven Brill, founder of NewsGuard, a firm that monitors misinformation.

TikTok is the second most popular domain in the world, according to online performance and security company Cloudflare, exceeded only by Google.

Brill questioned whether ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, is doing enough to stop misinformation or whether it deliberately allows misinformation to proliferate as a way to sow confusion in the U.S. and other Western democracies.

“It’s either incompetence or it’s something worse,” Brill told The Associated Press.

TikTok released a statement in response to NewsGuard’s report noting that its community guidelines prohibit harmful misinformation and that it works to promote authoritative content about important topics like COVID-19.

“We do not allow harmful misinformation, including medical misinformation, and we will remove it from the platform,” the company said.

TikTok has taken other steps that it says are intended to direct users to trustworthy sources. This year, for example, the company created an election center to help U.S. voters find voting places or information about candidates.

The platform removed more than 102 million videos that violated its rules in the first quarter of 2022. Yet only a tiny percentage of those ran afoul of TikTok’s rules against misinformation.

Researchers found that TikTok’s own search tool seems designed to steer users to false claims in some cases. When researchers typed the words “COVID vaccine” into the search tool, for instance, the tool suggested searches on key words including “COVID vaccine exposed” and “COVID vaccine injury.”

When the same search was run on Google, however, that search engine suggested searches relating to more accurate information about vaccine clinics, the different types of vaccines and booster shots.

TikTok’s rise in popularity has caught the attention of state officials and federal lawmakers, some of whom have expressed concerns about its data privacy and security.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on social media’s impact on the nation’s security. TikTok’s chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, is set to testify alongside representatives from YouTube, Twitter and Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of misinformation at https://apnews.com/hub/misinformation.