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On October 16, Liam Payne, a former member of One Direction, fell from his third-floor hotel room and died. Within days, headlines in TMZ, ABC News, and the Guardian announced that he had “pink cocaine” in his system.On August 10, 24-year-old Instagram model Maecee Marie Lathers killed two people in a car crash in Miami. Topless, vomiting, and screaming, Lathers told police officers that she was under the influence of a drug called “tusi,” a pink powder that’s gaining popularity in the US. A toxicology report later found that while she hadn’t been drinking, there were several other drugs in her system — but nothing called tusi.“Tucibi” — also called tusi or pink cocaine — is a Spanish phonetic play on 2C-B, a California-born synthetic psychedelic originally popular amongst Gen X psychonauts and ravers seeking a euphoric, trippy high. However, despite either of its names, pink cocaine rarely contains 2C-B or cocaine at all.In the 2000s, 2C-B made its way from European nightclubs to Colombia, where it devolved into something else entirely: a pink powdered cocktail of every type of party drug you might find at Coachella. It’s essentially a Gen Z speedball: Rather than blending cocaine and heroin, pink cocaine mixes ketamine with stimulants like MDMA and even caffeine. It can also include a chaotic sprinkling of methamphetamine, DMT, and oxycodone, among other substances.Largely through artful cartel marketing portraying tusi as pretty, fun, and accessible, this blend of cheap drug leftovers has become the substance of choice for Colombian DJs and Mexican rappers, a wolf in sheep’s clothing for European ravers, and a source of confusion for everyone else. Tusi is making its way across the world, and it’s increasingly important that potential users know what it is. The global war on drugs was originally organized around the production and trafficking of plant-based drugs like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. But in recent years, drug manufacturers have turned to synthetic drugs like MDMA, ketamine, and fentanyl, which are easier to mass produce and smuggle across borders. Pink cocaine is everything new all at once — easy money for producers, a cheap Instagrammable high for users, and a massive headache for law enforcement. The biggest problem: like playing a game of Russian roulette, only luck decides whether you’ll have fun — or die.How 2C-B became tucibi 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine, or 2C-B, was first synthesized in the 1970s by Californian biochemist and psychonaut Alexander Shulgin, who is best known for introducing MDMA to the world of psychotherapy. Of the over 100 psychedelics Shulgin created, 2C-B was his favorite — in his words, “one of the most graceful, erotic, sensual, introspective compounds I have ever invented.”The effects of 2C-B are often described as an MDMA-LSD hybrid, giving users both a heightened, vibrant sensory experience and a feeling of euphoria and openness. In many ways, Shulgin viewed 2C-B as a counterpart to MDMA, which has been touted for its therapeutic potential for 40 years, well before it became popular as a club drug. Not only are the two drugs chemically similar, but their psychoactive effects complement each other. “Once the MDMA has shown you where your problems are,” Shulgin wrote, “the 2C-B opens up the emotional, intuitive, and archetypal area of your psyche to help you solve them.”Anecdotally, many people report that 2C-B’s psychedelic effects are relatively mild and short-lived. Trips last a few hours, unlike the full-day trip provided by LSD. Like other hallucinogens, 2C-B generally doesn’t cause a next-day hangover, according to users interviewed by Vice. It can also have less fun side effects like anxiety, nausea, headaches, or elevated heart rate, any of which can get dangerous in situations where users are dancing — and likely not drinking enough water — in crowded, hot spaces.In the 1980s and early 1990s, 2C-B was legally manufactured and sold in adult bookstores and dance clubs as a libido-enhancing drug. That changed when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) listed 2C-B as a Schedule I drug in 1995, pushing it underground, where it remained a relatively niche drug for rave-goers.But over the past decade, it’s become an increasingly popular party drug in Latin America, Europe, and the US. The 2019 Global Drug Survey of over 120,000 people from more than 30 countries reported that darknet purchases of 2C-B and other drugs have been on the rise since 2014.In the early 2000s, wealthy young people smuggled small amounts of 2C-B from Europe to Colombia, where it quickly became popular in Colombia’s elite club scene. By 2012, models, politicians, and actors were shelling out 130,000 pesos (about $71 at the time) for a gram of 2C-B — over 10 times the price of cocaine. “The media positioned it as an elite drug,” said Julian Quintero, a sociologist, drug researcher, and director of the Technical Social Action Corporation (ATS), a Colombian drug policy nonprofit. “Very few could access it.”While 2C-B was considered high-class, it wasn’t much to look at. It was usually sold as a plain-looking pill or an off-white, bitter powder that hurts to snort. To make the drug more appealing, narcos started mixing the powder with sweet pink food coloring. Soon, demand outpaced the supply of 2C-B available in Latin America, so Colombian dealers cut the powder with cheaper, longer-lasting, and more abundant European imports like MDMA and ketamine.People began calling the pink powder “tusi,” a Spanish spelling of the English pronunciation of “2C.” In the early 2010s, Quintero said, tusi still reliably contained about 10 percent 2C-B, mixed in with the MDMA and ketamine. But by the mid-2010s, the 2C-B component disappeared. Removing the priciest ingredient, Quintero told me, was the “magic formula.” Today, a gram of tusi costs $10, not $100, making it accessible to just about anyone who can afford a night out.Joseph Palamar, a drug use epidemiologist at New York University and deputy director of the National Drug Early Warning System, said that the homophones — “tusi” and “2C-B” — initially confused old school ’90s ravers, who only knew of the original 2C-B and likely thought that’s what they were taking. But, he said, “new school people probably don’t know the difference.”One surprising thingDespite the flurry of headlines announcing that, according to an anonymous tip, Liam Payne’s autopsy found pink cocaine in his system, there’s no chemical test for pink cocaine. You can only test for its common ingredients, like ketamine and MDMA. If both of those substances are found at once, it might be pink cocaine — but there’s no way to know for sure.“Those who use cocaine represent the old. Those who use tusi represent the new”Calling the powder “pink cocaine,” or polvo rosa, has even less to do with the drug’s contents. “The name ‘pink cocaine’ is one of many fantasies invented by the police to name things they don’t understand,” Quintero said.Much of polvo rosa’s rise in the club scene can be attributed to its Instagram-ready aesthetic. “The fact that it’s a pretty color draws a lot of people in,” Palamar said.It’s a brilliant marketing strategy: transform a bland-looking, expensive, exclusive synthetic drug into an Instagram-worthy accessory that almost any partygoer can afford — simply by changing just about everything in it. If tusi had a standard recipe — something potential users could make informed decisions about — this wouldn’t be as big a deal. But as tusi became more popular, the color told users increasingly little about what they were ingesting.“The thing is,” Palamar said, “anyone could dye any powder pink.”The initial rise of tusi in Latin America was part of a broader trend: Coca and opium production declined between 2007 and 2012 for a number of factors, including increased seizures of heroin exported to the US and evolving drug preferences. At the same time, the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs like 2C-B, MDMA, and ketamine grew. La Empreza, a street gang claiming to be the first to make and sell tusi in Colombia, told Vice in 2022 that in addition to MDMA, ketamine, and caffeine, their recipe for the drug includes synthetic methamphetamines, LSD, and fentanyl, among other chemicals.A batch of tusi is essentially made by tossing assorted drugs into a pan, adding a dash of pink food coloring, and stirring the mixture by hand. This isn’t even a great way to make a salad — the dressing won’t be evenly distributed across the greens, and some bites will wind up with more toppings than others. When mixing a powder and liquid drug salad, it’s nearly impossible to ensure that each dose of the final product will contain the same ratio of ingredients. When preparing non-toxic food, perfectly even distribution isn’t usually a concern, but a gram of powder that may contain a mystery dose of a powerful sedative like ketamine — or even the far deadlier fentanyl — is dangerous.The fact that tusi is so easy to make doesn’t just make it risky — it’s making it more popular. Because tusi is synthetic, lacks a standard recipe, and doesn’t require special equipment beyond kitchenware to make, nearly anyone can prepare it themselves. “Tusi not only emerged as a new drug for a new generation, but also popularized the idea that you can make your own drugs at home,” Quintero said.As of a couple years ago, tusi was the fifth most popular drug in Colombia. Pink cocaine has become synonymous with Colombian guaracha, a style of electronic house music often referencing the drug in the lyrics. In the song “Magia Rosa” by DJ Goozo, Massianello, and NesBunny, featured vocalist Paulette sings: “Quiero magia rosas que me ponga poderosa.” In English, this roughly translates to “I want pink magic to become powerful.” Quintero told me that the rise of tusi paralleled the rise of reggaeton, guaracha, small-scale drug dealers, and sexual tourism to Colombia, lending the drug a distinct cultural ethos for a younger generation. “Those who use cocaine represent the old,” he said. “Those who use tusi represent the new.”Perhaps nowhere outside Colombia is tusi more celebrated in pop culture than Mexico. While tusi isn’t often mentioned by the Mexican government or mainstream news media, it frequently appears in corridos tumbados — a genre of Mexican regional music blending the vibrant accordions, plucky bass lines, and quintessential trumpets of traditional corridos with hip-hop and reggaeton. Peso Pluma, a 25-year-old Mexican rapper, skyrocketed to global stardom last year with the love song “Ella Baila Sola,” a collaboration with regional group Eslabon Armado. But a large swath of corridos tumbados are considered narcocorridos, or songs centered around the plight of cartels or drugs. Three of his songs — “Lady Gaga,” “Rosa Pastel,” and “Las Morras” — mention using pink cocaine as part of a glamorous lifestyle, and music videos for those three songs alone have racked up over 500 million views combined. (Sometimes, the glamorous lifestyle isn’t so glamorous: Peso Pluma had to cancel and reschedule concerts last year because of death threats from a cartel.)[Media: https://youtu.be/3Wnso2A4PZE?feature=shared]Europe, home to hard-partying tourist destinations like Ibiza, isn’t a stranger to trippy, risky drugs. Combinations of ketamine and MDMA have been trending among festivalgoers across the world lately, priming the club scene for tusi’s arrival. The drug first arrived in Europe sometime within the last decade or so. Claudio Vidal, a director at Energy Control, a drug harm reduction nonprofit in Spain, told me that while the first big pink cocaine drug bust happened in 2016, Energy Control first analyzed samples of pink powder in 2011. In 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported tusi popping up at music festivals in Austria, Switzerland, and the UK, in addition to party scenes in Spain and Italy. That same year, a survey of nearly 1,500 recreational drug users at European EDM festivals found that about 20 percent had tried tusi in the last 12 months. And this summer, pink cocaine started to gain traction in US states like New York and California for many of the same reasons it blew up in Colombia: it’s relatively affordable, theoretically fun, and pink.But, Vidal said, we don’t know enough yet to tell exactly where tusi is most popular, or who exactly is using it. The biggest challenge in studying pink cocaine is that, despite its rising prevalence in pop culture, it’s hard to rigorously study a drug that’s largely defined by what it isn’t. “We do not have enough data,” Vidal said.How dangerous is it, really?Given the lack of research examining pink cocaine specifically, no one knows how many people are having bad reactions to it yet.Drugs like ketamine and MDMA are unlikely to cause physical dependence — people aren’t generally using these substances to relieve withdrawal symptoms, like one might if they were addicted to opiates. That doesn’t mean they can’t create a kind of psychological dependence — as Palamar said, “A lot of people become accustomed to their world on ketamine,” which can make it hard to stop using it.Vidal hasn’t seen a tusi-related spike in demand for treatment at addiction treatment centers in Spain — at least not yet. More research will be necessary to see whether tusi users aren’t checking into treatment centers because they don’t have a substance use disorder, or because they’re avoiding treatment out of fear, stigma, or something else.But that may change as tusi itself changes. In its 2023 report, Energy Control found that Colombian manufacturers were starting to add addictive substances like benzodiazepines to batches of tusi. Quintero suspects they are also adding opioids like heroin, morphine, and oxycodone “with the aim of creating dependency.”Cases of pink cocaine being contaminated with fentanyl have yet to be reported in the US, but that hasn’t stopped Palamar from worrying about it. Over the past several years, potentially fatal doses of fentanyl have been found in samples of fake prescription pills, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Given its rising popularity, it’s reasonable to think that pink cocaine could be next. But, at least for now, the biggest risks with pink cocaine don’t seem to be addiction or fatal overdose. Taking a mystery drug cocktail — especially if it’s mixed with alcohol on a night out — can get someone far more intoxicated than they planned for.Unlike opioids, which can cause severe, potentially deadly respiratory depression, “pink cocaine and the things that are in it generally don’t stop people from breathing, which is good,” said Maryann Amirshahi, a DC-based ER doctor and co-medical director of the National Capital Poison Center. The most risky thing, Quintero said, “is that young people making it at home don’t know chemistry, and are adding any substances or medications they find in their houses.” Imagine going to a rave for your friend’s birthday. (For the sake of this thought experiment, you’re in your mid-20s, you’ve all been drinking, and you’ve vowed to dance until the sun comes up.) While waiting in line for the bathroom, a kind stranger offers your friend a pink powder, saying it’ll be fun. She goes for it, assuming it’s an upper. Before too long, she’s throwing up and struggling to stand — and she winds up spending the rest of her birthday spaced out on a couch.If someone uses a stimulant like cocaine or MDMA (which, despite being commonly labeled as a psychedelic, is an amphetamine derivative), it can cause side effects ranging from mild nausea to something as potentially deadly as heart failure. Still, people generally remain tethered to reality.Palamar cautioned that being exposed to ketamine, a powerful drug that numbs pain and warps perception, after drinking is nothing like trying a little cocaine.“It’s not a happy drug,” he said. “If you do enough of it, you feel like you’re on another planet.” While it doesn’t stop breathing, it does dramatically reduce one’s awareness of their surroundings, especially when mixed with alcohol — which increases the risk of doing something embarrassing, getting injured, or being sexually assaulted.Of course, as we probably all learned in high school drug education, the best way to minimize these risks is to not do drugs. But if you’re going to use drugs, Palamar urges users to act with intention: Know what your drugs are made of, and dose with caution. All of the experts I spoke with strongly discourage people from trying unknown blends like pink cocaine, because intentional, risk-minimizing use is basically impossible.The biggest thing to worry about with pink cocaine is accidentally taking too much ketamine. If you think you might be exposed to ketamine, don’t drink, and don’t place yourself in unfamiliar social situations without support. “You’ve got to be around people you trust,” Palamar said, “because you could become very vulnerable.”One common misconception is that mixing uppers and downers, like MDMA and ketamine, will balance each other out. “The problem is, you can’t always time that,” Amirshahi said. If the downer lasts longer than the upper, “you may end up on the floor in a coma,” she said. Vice versa, and you risk experiencing an “emergence reaction” — a psychotic break upon leaving the “k-hole,” an intense out-of-body experience brought on by high doses of ketamine. “You don’t know how much or what you’re getting, so it’s really hard to titrate, or make that balance.”Although according to experts, the risk of accidental fentanyl exposure appears relatively low in the US, it’s potentially deadly and worth taking seriously. You don’t have to be a professional chemist to run basic drug safety tests — harm reduction organizations like FentCheck and DanceSafe work with bars, nightclubs, and festivals to distribute relatively low-cost drug tests to potential users. Low-cost paper fentanyl test strips can detect fentanyl in drug samples. They work like at-home Covid-19 antigen tests, where you place a nasal swab on a strip of paper and wait for a line to appear if the virus is detected. For a fentanyl test, instead of a nasal swab, you’d add a few milligrams of your drug of choice. While these tests are relatively effective, they don’t work as well when MDMA is present, and can report false positives when testing an MDMA-containing drug blend like pink cocaine.Liquid reagent kits, like those provided by DanceSafe, contain chemicals that change colors in the presence of a range of different drugs. However, Vidal cautions that these tests also don’t work very well on tusi. Because the reagent usually provided for ketamine also reacts to MDMA, if both drugs are present (as they usually are), it’s hard to interpret the results. And as a general rule, Amirshahi recommends always having naloxone, an opioid overdose-reversing nasal spray, on hand — and being prepared to administer it.In Spain, Vidal said the drug is continuing to evolve — not just chemically, but aesthetically. Powders with other colors and flavorings — not just pink — made of the same general stuff are also being marketed as “tusi.” Pink cocaine appears to be riding on the back of ketamine’s meteoric rise in popularity, mostly because it’s cheap and easy to make. But it may also be the case that pink cocaine offers both social capital and a means of escape. With this powder, anyone can project an image of enviable glamour on social media, and take an affordable trip to another planet, if only for a couple hours — at least, that’s the image cartels are projecting. In reality, it’s a bottom-of-the-barrel powder that’s not that special. It’s just pink.Mr Donald Trump’s (left) transition team has signed a long-awaited agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration. WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s transition team has signed a long-awaited agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration to begin the formal process of bringing the president-elect’s nominees into federal government agencies. But Trump is still rebuffing many of the standard procedures of a transition. He will not use government facilities or email accounts, and instead will raise private funds, his team said. “After completing the selection process of his incoming Cabinet, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition,” Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a statement on Nov 26. “This engagement allows our intended cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power.” The agreement allows the formal transition process to begin ahead of Trump’s second inauguration on Jan 20, 2025. It also allows for the transition team to conduct Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks on Trump appointees, but the president-elect’s team suggested it won’t use them. “The transition already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight,” it said in a statement. The Trump transition said it also has a legally required ethics plan in place. The General Services Administration, the main agency that oversees the logistics of presidential transitions, posted the document on its website shortly after the agreement was announced. The plan covers individuals working on the transition, who pledge to avoid conflicts of interest and safeguard both classified and confidential information. They can’t be registered to lobby while working for the transition, or work for a foreign government or political party. They also agree to a six-month cooling-off period after their work for the transition ends, and not lobby any federal agency over specific matters they worked on while helping assemble Trump’s team. Trump has gotten an unusually early jump on announcing his picks for the cabinet and other top posts, but delayed a formal agreement with the Biden administration that would allow those picks and their “landing teams” to enter federal agencies and receive briefings. By law, those agreements were supposed to be in place by Oct 1. The campaign of Vice-President Kamala Harris , Trump’s general-election rival, signed one in September. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowRuben Amorim says he is “the smiling one” but Manchester United’s new head coach warned he can be ruthless when he needs to be. The 39-year-old takes charge for the first time in Sunday’s Premier League trip to promoted Ipswich having been confirmed as Erik ten Hag’s successor at the beginning of November. Amorim has made a positive impression since starting work at the United in an international fortnight that ended with an impressive first appearance in front of the media. 🆚 Ipswich Town.🏟️ Portman Road.⏰ 16:30 GMT. 🫡 We will be there. — Manchester United (@ManUtd) The Portuguese was gregarious, engaging and smiley throughout Friday’s press conference but that warmth comes with a ruthlessness edge if players do not adhere to his approach. “You can be the same person,” head coach Amorim said. “Be a positive person that can understand this is one place to be, then there is the dressing room, there are some places to have fun, there are some places to work hard. “So, I can be ruthless when I have to be. If you think as a team, I will be the nicest guy you have ever seen. If there is someone just thinking about himself, I will be a different person. “I’m not that type of guy that wants to show that he is the boss. “They will feel it in the small details, that I can be the smiling one but then when we have a job to do I will be a different person, and they understand that.” ‘The Smiling One’ follows ‘the Special One’ as United’s second Portuguese manager, with Jose Mourinho one of five managers to try and fail to reach the heights scaled by Sir Alex Ferguson. The Scot retired as a Premier League champion in 2013 and the Red Devils have failed to launch a sustained title bid since adding that 20th top-flight crown. Asked about whether he will lean on Ferguson to understand the history of United and whether he has met him, Amorim said: “No, not yet. I didn’t have that opportunity. “It’s hard to copy someone, so I have to be me. Of course I’m not the best person in here to show the history of Manchester United. “It should be the club first and also me because I’m always paying attention on those details and try to focus our players in the history of the club, not the recent history. “You have to be very demanding. This is a club that needs to win, has to win, so we have to show that to our players but it’s a different time. “I cannot be the same guy that Sir Alex Ferguson was. It’s a different time. “I have to have a different approach, but I can also be demanding with a different approach, so that is my focus.” Like Ferguson in 1986, Amorim starts life at United in the November of a season that started with a paltry points tally. The 39-year-old acknowledges the timing makes “it’s so much harder” for him to imprint his style at a club whose youth foundations look in safe hands. “It’s the project of Manchester United,” Amorim said. “Nowadays, you need young guys, guys from the academy for everything. “To bring that history of the club because they feel the club in a different way. “And also because you have all these rules with financial fair play, when a player from our academy is so much different to the players that we bought and then we sell. “So, everything is connected. I will try to help all the players, especially the young ones.” Amorim’s first match will be a fascinating watch for onlookers, who have kept a particularly close eye on his work during his farewell to Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese managed three final matches after being confirmed as United head coach, including a 4-1 Champions League win against Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s side have dominated English football in recent years and the City boss this week signed a new deal until 2027. “I think it’s a problem for everybody here, but we have so much to do, we cannot focus on anyone,” Amorim said. “We just have to focus on our club, improve our club and not focus on the other clubs, so let’s focus on Manchester United. “It’s amazing (the test) – if you can beat that team it’s a good sign but, like I said, we are focused on Manchester United.”

Germany pledges security inquest into Christmas market attack

How Climate Affects Pressure Washing in Bellevue, WAIsrael and Lebanon's Hezbollah agree to a ceasefire after nearly 14 months of fighting JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire is set to take hold at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Israeli warplanes have carried out the most intense wave of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs since the start of the conflict amid a record number of evacuation warnings. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across Lebanon, according to local authorities. President Joe Biden said his administration now would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. What both sides are saying about the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah A ceasefire deal that could end more than a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group won backing from Israeli leaders. The truce that is set to take effect early Wednesday raised hopes and renewed difficult questions in a region gripped by conflict. Hezbollah leaders also signaled tentative backing for the U.S.-brokered deal, which offers both sides an off-ramp from hostilities But the deal does little directly to resolve the much deadlier war that has raged in Gaza since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel last October. Cheap Ozempic? How millions of Americans with obesity may get access to costly weight-loss drugs WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of obese Americans would get access to popular weekly injectables that would help them shed pounds quickly if a $35 billion proposal from the Biden administration is blessed by President-elect Donald Trump. The rule, unveiled Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Department, would require Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound for a large segment of Americans who are obese. But it’s unclear if the proposal, which would not go into effect until after Trump takes office, will have support from his new administration — including from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an opponent of the drugs who has been tapped by the president-elect to serve as head of HHS. Trump vows tariffs over immigration. What the numbers say about border crossings, drugs and crime. WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is threatening tariffs on Mexico and Canada as he seeks to portray them as responsible for illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Over its tenure, the Biden administration has struggled with growing numbers of migrants arriving at the southern border. But this year, the number of people crossing the border without documents has actually been falling. That's due in part to stricter enforcement by Mexican authorities as well as asylum restrictions announced earlier this year by the Biden administration. When it comes to fentanyl smuggling, much of the deadly supply comes from Mexico though statistics show more than 86% of those sentenced for fentanyl trafficking crimes in the 12 months ending September 2023 were U.S. citizens. AP finds that a Pentagon-funded study on extremism in the military relied on old data Early this year, Pete Hegseth told a Fox News audience a new, Pentagon-funded study proved that the number of military service members and veterans involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection did not indicate a wider problem in the armed forces. Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick to head the Department of Defense, wasn’t alone. The Wall Street Journal’s opinion page highlighted the same report as evidence that extremists in military communities were “phantoms” created by a “false media narrative.” The X account for Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee posted that the study showed the focus on extremism in the military was a “witch hunt.” But The Associated Press has found that the study relied on old data, misleading analyses and ignored evidence that pointed to the opposite conclusion. How Trump's bet on voters electing him managed to silence some of his legal woes WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith move to abandon two federal cases accusing Trump of endangering American democracy and national security does away with the most serious legal threats Trump was facing as he returns to the White House. It was the culmination of a monthslong defense effort to delay the proceedings at every step and use the criminal allegations to Trump's political advantage, putting the final word in the hands of voters instead of jurors. The move just weeks after Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris underscores the immense personal stake Trump had in the campaign in which he turned his legal woes into a political rallying cry. Walmart's DEI rollback signals a profound shift in the wake of Trump's election victory NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business. The changes announced by the world’s biggest retailer on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Brazil’s Bolsonaro planned and participated in a 2022 coup plot, unsealed police report alleges SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro was fully aware of and actively participated in a coup plot to remain in office after his defeat in the 2022 election, according to a Federal Police report that has been unsealed. Brazil’s Federal Police last Thursday formally accused Bolsonaro and 36 other people of attempting a coup. They sent their 884-page report to the Supreme Court, which lifted the seal. Bolsonaro called a meeting in December 2022, during which he presented a draft decree to the commanders of the three divisions of the armed forces, that would have declared the vote fraudulent, to justify a possible military intervention. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. New rule allows HIV-positive organ transplants People with HIV who need a kidney or liver transplant will be able to receive an organ from a donor with HIV. That's according to a new rule announced Tuesday by U.S. health officials. Previously, such transplants could be done only as part of research studies. The new rule takes effect Wednesday. It's expected to shorten the wait for organs for all, regardless of HIV status, by increasing the pool of available organs. The practice is supported by a decade of research, during which 500 transplants of kidneys and livers from HIV-positive donors have been done in the U.S. Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump's promised crackdown on immigration President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision.In a significant diplomatic development, India and Kuwait have elevated their bilateral relationship, marking it as a strategic partnership. This new alignment was solidified by key agreements, notably a memorandum on defence cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaged in extensive discussions with Kuwaiti leaders, including Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and other top officials. The talks, held as part of Modi's first trip to Kuwait in over four decades, focused on trade, investment, and cultural exchange, with four major agreements signed. These agreements include areas like sports, culture, and solar energy, alongside the crucial defense pact to bolster cooperation in defense industries and collaboration on research and development. The strategic partnership aims to enhance India-Kuwait relations across varied domains such as technology, security, and infrastructure. The move is expected to create new opportunities, fostering deeper economic and cultural linkages between the two nations, as India strengthens its ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council through Kuwait's presidency. (With inputs from agencies.)