World

Five years ago, America was listening.

That was the year in which George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were killed by police officers.

That was also the year in which the Dodgers refused to take the field for a late August game to protest racial injustice in the wake of a police shooting of a 29-year-old Black man in Wisconsin.

The summer of racial reckoning, and the Dodgers’ modest role in it, feels like something from the distant past.

Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy kneeled before a game against the Giants in July 2020 to protest racial injustice.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Rather than continue to stimulate important conversations, the Dodgers are back to whistling past America’s graveyard, pretending there is nothing hypocritical about visiting President Trump one week and celebrating Jackie Robinson Day the next. Conservative Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham wanted athletes to “shut up and dribble,” and the Dodgers are doing the baseball equivalent of just that.

The opportunity for the Dodgers to regain their stature as agents of change has come and gone, their salute to Robinson on Tuesday reverting to its previous form as a cynical exercise in stealing the valor of a previous generation.

This shift in social climate was subtly pointed out by Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts earlier this month when he explained his decision to visit the Trump White House after declining to do so with the Boston Red Sox in 2019.

“At the time,” Betts told reporters, “the world was a different place.”

The world was in even more of a different place in 2020. Most of the country was in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Major league teams played 60-game regular seasons in which no fans were allowed in stadiums.

Baseball clubhouses are traditionally white and politically conservative spaces. The pandemic didn’t change that. What changed in the Dodgers locker room was a willingness to listen.

On Aug. 23 of that year, a Black man named Jacob Blake was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., leading to demonstrations around the country. Two days later, at a protest in Kenosha, white 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people.

The Dodgers were at Oracle Park on Aug. 26 when they received word of boycotted games in the NBA, as well as Major League Baseball. The only African American player on the team knew what he had to do.

“In my shoes,” Betts said at the time, “I couldn’t play.”

Manager Dave Roberts and third base coach George Lombard also ruled themselves out.

Betts told his teammates he would support them if they played the San Francisco Giants that day. They wouldn’t hear it. They joined his protest.

Starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw said: “As a white player on this team … how can we show support? What is something we can do to help our Black brothers on this team? Once Mookie said he wasn’t going to play … we felt the best thing to do to support him was not playing.”

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw stood by Mookie Betts, joining his boycott of a game in 2020.

(Associated Press)

Betts was moved by the gesture.

“I’ll always remember this day,” he said. “I’ll always remember this team just having my back.”

Five years later, as Betts said, the world is a different place. Civil rights violations don’t inspire the same amount of outrage as they once did, particularly in baseball clubhouses. Trump’s casual racism has become normalized to such a degree that even former outspoken critic Snoop Dogg was convinced to perform at a pre-inauguration event.

Still the Dodgers’ lone African American player, Betts said earlier this month about his decision to join his team at the White House: “It comes with the territory, being Black in America in a situation like this. It’s a tough spot to be in.”

Tough, presumably, because he didn’t know how his teammates would react if he shared his thoughts. Tough, presumably, because he wondered if he would divide the team by taking a stand.

Reflecting on his refusal to visit Trump with the Red Sox, Betts said, “I regret that because I made it about me. This isn’t about me.”

In other words, this time around, he prioritized the well-being of his team over his personal convictions. The choice was understandable. Betts is a baseball player before he is an activist. His primary objective at this stage of his life is to win another World Series, and creating the perception of a divided team would be counterproductive to that.

Which was why Dodgers owner Mark Walter or president Stan Kasten should have stepped in and told the players they wouldn’t visit the White House, that something more important than baseball was in play. They didn’t, of course. Kasten saying the Dodgers accepted Trump’s invitation because the players wanted to is the kind of spineless buck-passing that has become standard procedure for this front office.

Walter and Kasten had the power to restart a necessary dialogue at a time when the Trump administration not only sent a brown-skinned man without a criminal record to a Salvadoran prison by mistake but also defied a Supreme Court order to facilitate his return. They didn’t. Their silence was a betrayal, both to the Dodgers and their history.

It was found that Google paid advertising revenue to Android makers as part of its contract deals. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

April 15 (UPI) — The Japanese Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday issued Google a cease-and-desist order for violating anti-monopoly law by allegedly striking deals with Android manufacturers to preinstall Google apps.

“By binding smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers, Google has made it difficult for other competing search engine applications to be used on Android phones,” stated Saiko Nakajima, a JFTC senior investigator for digital platform operators.

It’s the first time Japan has ever issued such an order on any major U.S.-based tech giant like like Google with its other contemporaries like Apple, Meta, Amazon or Microsoft.

According to Japan’s FTC, Google allegedly struck deals with at least six Android smartphone manufacturers that produce about 80% of Android’s in Japan to install Google Play and Google Chrome apps and put them in home screen locations easy for users to access.

In addition, it was found in the investigation starting October 2023 that Google paid advertising revenue to Android makers as part of its contract deals.

“In the process of this investigation, the JFTC exchanged information with overseas competition authorities that investigated Google LLC’s act similar to this case,” the commission’s cease-and-desist order states.

The commission says this took place at least from July 2020 to the present day.

“Google’s conduct in this case has created a risk of impeding fair competition concerning transactions — thus, we have determined that this is an act in violation of the Antimonopoly Act,” added the JFTC’s Nakajima.

The Japanese authority’s cease-and-desist order bars Google from asking companies to preinstall its apps, calls for a compiling of guidelines for compliance action and instructs the global tech leader to stop committing acts in violation of Japanese anti-monopoly laws.

The commission previously said Google already owns about a 90% share of the search market.

JFTC officials hope it will encourage greater competition in Japan’s search engine market for its more than 123 million citizens.

Google is liable to a fine if it does not adhere to the order.

In August, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta called Google a “monopolist” in a similar ruling, saying it “has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

Meanwhile, the order comes as a Japanese delegation led my Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa is set to visit Washington to talk over U.S. President Donald Trump‘s sweeping global tariffs.

April 15 (UPI) — Singaporeans will need to vote for a new parliament after the nation’s president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, dissolved it Tuesday.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced he advised the president to dissolve parliament while alluding to the current economic upheavals related to the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

“We are witnessing profound changes in the world. It is becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable. The global conditions that enabled Singapore’s success over the past decades may no longer hold,” Wong said.

“That is why I have called this General Election. At this critical juncture, Singaporeans should decide on the team to lead our nation, and to chart our way forward together.”

The Elections Department Singapore then confirmed on social media that Shanmugaratnam has issued the Writ of Election for General Election 2025, and that Nomination Day for candidates will be April 23, and that the election will take place May 3.

The current-ruling People’s Action Party, or PAP, won 83 out of 93 seats during the last election in 2020, but it also saw the opposition Workers’ Party win ten seats, which was that party’s largest victory since Singapore gained independence in 1965.

However, the PAP is generally expected to maintain its majority, with now 97 parliamentary seats in play. Voting is mandatory for all of Singapore’s 2.75 million eligible citizens.

Concacaf president Victor Montagliani has criticised a proposal to expand the 2030 men’s World Cup to 64 teams.

The plans, put forward by South American governing body Conmebol, have also drawn opposition from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The tournament will be hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, after the opening matches are held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The 2026 World Cup, which will take place across the United States, Mexico and Canada, has already been expanded from 32 to 48 teams.

But Conmebol said it wanted to add more participants to mark the competition’s 100-year anniversary.

“I don’t believe expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams is the right move for the tournament itself and the broader football ecosystem, from national teams to club competitions, leagues, and players,” Montagliani said in response.

“We haven’t even kicked off the new 48-team World Cup yet, so personally, I don’t think that expanding to 64 teams should even be on the table.”

Concacaf is the governing body of football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Verstappen had a difficult race in Bahrain including delays at both pit stops, one with the pit-lane traffic light system and one with fitting a front wheel.

At one stage he was running last, and he managed to snatch sixth place from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly only on the last lap.

Verstappen said that the hot weather and rough track surface had accentuated Red Bull’s problems.

He said: “Here you just get punished a bit harder when you have big balance issues because the Tarmac is so aggressive.

“The wind is also quite high and the track has quite low grip, so everything is highlighted more.

“Just the whole weekend struggling a bit with brake feeling and stopping power, and besides that also very poor grip. We tried a lot on the set-up and basically all of it didn’t work, didn’t give us a clear direction to work in.”

Verstappen has said this year that he is “relaxed” about his future.

He and his management – his father Jos Verstappen and Dutchman Raymond Vermeulen – have open minds and are waiting longer to see how this season develops.

Any decision about moving teams for 2026 is complicated by the fact that F1 is introducing new chassis and engine rules that amount to the biggest regulation change in the sport’s history, and it is impossible to know which team will be in the best shape.

But it is widely accepted in the paddock that Mercedes are looking the best in terms of engine performance for 2026.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has made no secret of his desire to sign Verstappen.

The two parties had talks last season but have yet to have any discussions this season about the future.

April 14 (UPI) — Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa won re-election, based on preliminary results in the country’s presidential election held Sunday.

With 90% of the ballots counted Sunday, National Electoral Council president Diana Atamaint declared Noboa the winner, as she announced a turnout of 83.76%, “exceeding the percentage from the first round.”

Voting is mandatory in Ecuador.

Leftist lawyer Luisa González, Noboa’s closest challenger, has rejected the results and demanded a recount. She had also lost to Noboa in the 2023 election.

The conservative Noboa has made the defeat of gangs and drug traffickers one of his chief goals and has used both the military and legislation to make inroads. Among his moves was the start of construction on a new maximum-security prison and the declaration of several states of emergency since his win in the last election, a snap content held in 2023. Government figures show there have been over 1,000 murders since the start of 2025 in Ecuador.

Noboa has also sought the aid of foreign companies and governments, especially from the United States. He announced in March that Ecuador “established a strategic alliance” with Erik Prince, founder of Constellis, the private defense contractor formerly known as Blackwater, “to strengthen our capabilities in the fight against narcoterrorism.”

Noboa’s government has prepared to host American military forces at a new naval base on the Ecuadorian coast and has proposed the lift of a ban on foreign military bases that was established when Ecuador revised its constitution in 2008, CNN reported.

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, April 14 (UPI) — Archives documenting an early Cold War-era massacre on a South Korean island and the decadeslong truth-finding process seeking reconciliation that followed has been selected by UNESCO for preservation, recognizing the Jeju Massacre documents as world heritage that belongs to all.

The Executive Board of UNESCO made the decision to inscribe “Revealing Truth: Jeju 4.3 Archives” onto its Memory of the World Register on Thursday during a meeting in Paris, according to both the South Korean and Jeju Island governments.

The archives detail not only the Jeju Massacre — known as Jeju 4.3 in Korean, when an estimated 30,000 people were killed on Jeju Island during the newly founded South Korean government’s suppression of a communist revolt between 1947-54 — but also the grassroots truth-finding movement that followed.

It consists of 14,673 items, including nearly 14,000 documents, more than 500 videos, 94 audio recordings, 25 postcards, 20 booklets, 19 books and one epitaph.

They include documents from the time of the massacre, including judicial trial records and reports and memorandums by the U.S. military government and advisory group, as well as those produced afterward through testimonies of survivors and findings by non-governmental organizations.

Jeju Gov. Oh Young-hun celebrated the archive’s adoption into UNESCO’s Memory of the World as a collective accomplishment made possible by islanders, bereaved families, government officials, scholars and civil society “who have worked together over many years to uncover the truth of 4.3.”

“Thanks to your efforts, Jeju 4.3 will now be passed down as a legacy for the world,” he said in a statement. “To all the citizens who have walked this long path with us, Jeju 4.3 has become a global history that awakens the values of reconciliation, coexistence, peace and human rights.”

Created in 1992, the Memory of the World Program seeks to preserve and protect the world’s documentary heritage.

Jeju submitted its application for inclusion in the program in November 2023, with the campaign having officially begun in 2018 though discussions surrounding the possibility of adoption in the program date back to 2013.

Ban Youngkwan, manager of the research department at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, which was behind the application, told UPI in a recent telephone interview, that inscription into UNESCO’s Memory of the World program represents international recognition of not only the massacre but the democratic movement to preserve it.

“We would like to believe that it is a kind of acknowledgement of the solution … not just about the past atrocity, but also the solution of Jeju April 3, which is like a bottom-up project,” he said.

Though the atrocity resulted in the deaths of 10% of Jeju’s population in the years following Korea’s liberation from Japan and razed tens of thousands of homes and hundreds of villages, it was little known even in South Korea as victims were silenced for generations due to stigma and government reprisals.

Only through the perseverance of activists, academics and the Jeju people was the history of the massacre collected and preserved, leading to the government eventually initiating investigations following democratization, culminating in the adoption of “The Jeju 4.3 Incident Investigation Report” in 2003.

That report, based on the documents in the archive, prompted South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Oct. 31, 2003, to issue a formal apology to the Jeju people.

“These records underscore the global significance of human rights and provide a meaningful example of how the people of Jeju have addressed a painful history through a spirit of reconciliation and mutual coexistence,” the Korea Heritage Service said in a statement.

Ban explained that in their application to UNESCO they state that these documents are a unique example of a truth and reconciliation movement initiated by civil society.

“That’s the key idea of our application,” he said ahead of UNESCO making its decision. “If they accept it, we would like to believe that they acknowledge those facts.”

With inclusion in the program, Ban suggested that it could mean more funding for preservation projects dedicated to Jeju 4.3 and it could have an educational effect, which could help the foundation’s movement — and that of the island — to make the massacre better known throughout the world.

Though it can be seen as mainly symbolic, the adoption as a Memory of the World is important recognition for bereaved families and activist and sends a message to those currently being victimized by state violence, Ban said.

“We would like to give them some kind of hope — [that] your dog days will pass and you can bring the truth [to light] like we did,” he said.

“We would like to give them so hope and also to teach new models over how you can [uncover] the truths and also rebuild their community after that, after state violence.”

With the inclusion of “Revealing Truth: Jeju 4.3 Archives,” South Korea how has 20 Memory of the World-registered documents.

LIMA, Peru — Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel literature laureate and a giant of Latin American letters for decades, has died, his son said Sunday. He was 89.

“It is with deep sorrow that we announce that our father, Mario Vargas Llosa, passed away peacefully in Lima today, surrounded by his family,” read a letter signed by his children Álvaro, Gonzalo and Morgana and posted by Álvaro on X.

The letter says that his remains will be cremated and that there won’t be any public ceremony.

“His departure will sadden his relatives, his friends and his readers around the world, but we hope that they will find comfort, as we do, in the fact that he enjoyed a long, adventurous and fruitful life, and leaves behind him a body of work that will outlive him,” they added.

He wrote such celebrated novels as “The Time of the Hero” (“La Ciudad y los Perros”) and “Feast of the Goat.”

A prolific novelist and essayist and winner of myriad prizes, Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel in 2010 after being considered a contender for many years.

Vargas Llosa published his first collection of stories, “The Cubs and Other Stories” (“Los Jefes”) in 1959. But he burst onto the literary stage in 1963 with his groundbreaking debut novel, “The Time of the Hero,” a book that drew on his experiences at a Peruvian military academy and angered the country’s military. A thousand copies of the novel were burned by military authorities, with some generals calling the book false and Vargas Llosa a communist.

That, and subsequent novels such as “Conversation in the Cathedral” (“Conversación en la Catedral”) in 1969, quickly established Vargas Llosa as one of the leaders of the so-called Boom, or new wave of Latin American writers of the 1960s and 1970s, alongside Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes.

Vargas Llosa started writing early, and at 15 was a part-time crime reporter for La Crónica newspaper. According to his official website, other jobs he had included revising names on cemetery tombs in Peru, working as a teacher in the Berlitz school in Paris and briefly on the Spanish desk at Agence France-Presse in Paris.

He continued publishing articles in the press for most of his life, most notably a twice-monthly political opinion column titled “Piedra de Toque” (“Touchstones”) that was printed in several newspapers.

Vargas Llosa came to be a fierce defender of personal and economic liberties, gradually edging away from his communism-linked past, and regularly attacked Latin American leftist leaders he viewed as dictators.

Although an early supporter of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro, he grew disillusioned and denounced Castro’s Cuba. By 1980, he said he no longer believed in socialism as a solution for developing nations.

In a famous incident in Mexico City in 1976, Vargas Llosa punched fellow Nobel Prize winner and former friend García Márquez, whom he later ridiculed as “Castro’s courtesan.” It was never clear whether the fight was over politics or a personal dispute, as neither writer ever wanted to discuss it publicly.

As he slowly turned his political trajectory toward free-market conservatism, Vargas Llosa lost the support of many of his Latin American literary contemporaries and attracted much criticism even from admirers of his work.

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa was born March 28, 1936, in the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, high in the Andes at the foot of the Misti volcano.

His father, Ernesto Vargas Maldonado, left the family before he was born. To avoid public scandal, his mother, Dora Llosa Ureta, took her child to Bolivia, where her father was the Peruvian consul in Cochabamba.

Vargas Llosa said his early life was “somewhat traumatic,” pampered by his mother and grandmother in a large house with servants, his every whim granted.

It was not until he was 10, after the family had moved to the coastal city of Piura, Peru, that he learned his father was alive. His parents reconciled, and the family moved to Peru’s capital, Lima.

Vargas Llosa described his father as a disciplinarian who viewed his son’s love of Jules Verne and writing poetry as surefire routes to starvation, and feared for his “manhood,” believing that “poets are always homosexuals.”

After failing to get the boy enrolled in a naval academy because he was underage, Vargas Llosa’s father sent him to Leoncio Prado Military Academy — an experience that was to stay with Vargas Llosa and led to “The Time of the Hero.” The book won the Spanish Critics Award.

The military academy “was like discovering hell,” Vargas Llosa said later.

He entered Peru’s San Marcos University to study literature and law, “the former as a calling and the latter to please my family, which believed, not without certain cause, that writers usually die of hunger.”

After earning his literature degree in 1958 — he didn’t bother submitting his final law thesis — Vargas Llosa won a scholarship to pursue a doctorate in Madrid.

Vargas Llosa drew much of his inspiration from his Peruvian homeland but preferred to live abroad, residing for spells each year in Madrid, New York and Paris.

His early novels revealed a Peruvian world of military arrogance and brutality, of aristocratic decadence, and of Stone Age Amazon Indians existing simultaneously with 20th century urban blight.

“Peru is a kind of incurable illness and my relationship to it is intense, harsh and full of the violence of passion,” Vargas Llosa wrote in 1983.

After 16 years in Europe, he returned in 1974 to a Peru then ruled by a left-wing military dictatorship. “I realized I was losing touch with the reality of my country, and above all its language, which for a writer can be deadly,” he said.

In 1990, he ran for the presidency of Peru, a reluctant candidate in a nation torn apart by a messianic Maoist guerrilla insurgency and a basket-case, hyperinflation economy.

He was defeated by a then-unknown university rector, Alberto Fujimori, who resolved much of the political and economic chaos but went on to become a corrupt and authoritarian leader who would eventually be sent to prison.

Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Vargas Llosa’s longtime friend, later confessed that he had rooted against the writer’s candidacy, observing: “Peru’s uncertain gain would be literature’s loss. Literature is eternity, politics mere history.”

Vargas Llosa also used his literary talents to write several successful novels about the lives of real people, including French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin and his grandmother, Flora Tristan, in “The Way to Paradise” in 2003 and 19th century Irish nationalist and diplomat Roger Casement in “The Dream of the Celt” in 2010. His last published novel was “Harsh Times” (“Tiempos Recios”) in 2019 about the U.S.-backed coup d’etat in Guatemala in 1954.

He became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy in 1994 and held visiting professor and resident writer posts in more than a dozen colleges and universities across the world.

In his teens, Vargas Llosa joined a communist cell and eloped with a 33-year-old Bolivian, Julia Urquidi — the sister-in-law of his uncle. He later drew inspiration from their nine-year marriage to write the hit comic novel “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” (“La Tía Julia y el Escribidor”).

In 1965, he married his first cousin, Patricia Llosa, 10 years his junior, and together they had three children. They divorced 50 years later, and he started a relationship with Spanish society figure Isabel Preysler, former wife of singer Julio Iglesias and mother of singer Enrique Iglesias. They separated in 2022.

Vargas Llosa is survived by his children.

Briceño and Giles write for the Associated Press and reported from Lima and Madrid, respectively.

April 13 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized Friday in relation to a 2018 wound from when he was stabbed during a campaign rally ahead of his election.

“Hello friends, I’m at the Rio Grande hospital here in Natal. Yesterday, I received emergency treatment at the hospital in Santa Cruz, Rio Grande do Norte,” Bolsonaro said in a video message on social media on Saturday.

“There’s a very good chance I’ll be taken to Brasilia to continue treatment and possible surgery. I would like to thank all the doctors and nurses at these two hospitals for their attentive care.”

Bolsonaro, 70, later shared video footage of him walking out of the hospital and waving to a large crowd of cheering supporters. Attached to him was some sort of tubing to the nasal area of his face.

His son, Carlos Bolsonaro, said Sunday that the former president was undergoing his “seventh life-threatening surgery” after the alleged assassination attempt.

Jair Bolsonaro served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2023, winning office on a far-right platform after nearly three decades in Congress. A former army captain, he campaigned as an anti-establishment figure promising to stamp out corruption and revive the economy.

But his presidency was fraught with criticism of his weakening of environmental protections, especially in the Amazon, where deforestation surged under his watch. He was also criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his close relationship with President Donald Trump during his first term in office.

In 2022, Bolsonaro lost re-election to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a narrow runoff. He refused to immediately concede and questioned the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system without evidence.

He now faces several investigations, including probes into his conduct after the election and his alleged role in encouraging an alleged 2023 coup attempt by his supporters who rioted in Brasília after losing the 2022 election.

Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously decided there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Bolsonaro for the alleged coup attempt.

SAN JOSÉ — Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.

The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of President Trump’s first term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive joined them.

Last weekend was Lyons’ second protest, also against Trump, but it had a very different feel.

The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San José on April 5 was another tech worker who would not give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles — made by White House advisor Elon Musk’s company — which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several had joined Trump at his January inauguration.

To Lyons, 54, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the last quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.

“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money-first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.

Political gap emerges

The tech industry’s political allegiances remain divided. But as some in the upper echelons of Silicon Valley began shifting to the right politically, many of the industry’s workers have remained liberal — but also increasingly nervous and disillusioned. Their mood is in stark contrast to the prominent tech leaders who have embraced a conservative populist ideology.

“I think you’re seeing a real gap between the leadership elite here in Silicon Valley and their workforce,” said Ann Skeet, who helps run a center at Santa Clara University studying the ethics of the tech industry.

“The shift hasn’t been for a lot of people,” said Lenny Siegel, a former mayor of Mountain View and longtime liberal activist in the Silicon Valley. “It’s a handful of people who’ve gotten the attention.”

The biggest example of that is Musk, the world’s richest person and chief executive of the best-known electric car company who has taken on a prominent role slashing federal agencies in Trump’s administration. Musk has been joined by several tech billionaires, including investor David Sacks, who helped fundraise for Trump’s campaign and became the White House’s artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, and venture capitalist Marc Andreesen. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington.

Zuckerberg began praising Trump after the then-candidate, angered over money Zuckerberg steered toward local election offices in some states in 2020 during the COVID-19 emergency, threatened last summer to imprison him. Zuckerberg also donated $1 million to the president’s inauguration fund and co-hosted an inauguration reception for billionaire Republican donors.

Trump has filled a number of his administration’s posts with billionaires, and his support from wealthy tech leaders led then-President Biden to warn that the United States risked becoming an oligarchy ruled by elites. During Trump’s first term, the Silicon Valley and its leaders were a bulwark of resistance to the Republican, especially over immigration, given that the industry draws its workforce from around the globe.

It’s against that backdrop that thousands of people attended the recent rally at a downtown San José park to protest the actions of Trump and Musk.

Silicon Valley has leaned Democratic, but with an unusual mix

Santa Clara County, which constitutes most of Silicon Valley, swung 8 percentage points toward Trump in November’s election against Democrat Kamala Harris, matching the shift across California. Even with that swing, the county voted 68% to 28% for Harris and remains a Democratic stronghold.

“We’re still in the belly of the beast,” said Dave Johnson, the new executive director of the Santa Clara GOP, who said the party has gained some new members in the county but few from the tech industry. “If the lake was frozen, there’s a little glimmer on top. I would not say there are cracks in the ice.”

The valley has long leaned Democratic, but with an unusual political mix: a general dislike of getting too involved in Washington’s business coupled with an at-times contradictory mix of libertarian individualism, Bay Area activism and a belief in the ability of science to solve the world’s problems.

That has persisted even as the tech industry has changed.

The tech boom was fueled by scrappy startups that catered to their workers’ dreams of changing the world for the better. Google’s motto was “don’t be evil,” a phrase it removed from its code of conduct by 2018, when it and other companies such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, had grown into multinational behemoths. The companies have had layoffs in recent years, a shock to an industry that not long ago seemed poised for unlimited growth.

Entrepreneurs once dreamed of building startups that would change the world, said Jan English-Lueck, a San José State University professor who has been studying Silicon Valley culture for more than 20 years.

“Now,” she said, “if you’re part of a startup, you’re hoping you’ll be absorbed in a way that’s profitable.”

Discontent about industry’s direction

Even before some prominent tech leaders shifted toward Trump, there was mounting discontent among some in the industry over its direction. IdaRose Sylvester runs a business promoting a Silicon Valley-style approach to entrepreneurs in other countries.

“I feel sick to my stomach now,” she said.

Sylvester was already disenchanted with the growing inequality in the valley and the environmental cost of all the energy needed to power cryptocurrency, AI and data centers. She took part in protests against Trump in 2017, but felt that energy fade once he lost the 2020 election to Biden.

“I saw a lot of people get out of politics once Biden won. There was a feeling it was all OK,” Sylvester said. “It was not all OK.”

It is worse now, she said. She helped organize one of several demonstrations across the Silicon Valley last weekend during a national day of protest against the new administration.

At first glance, the one in downtown San José could have been a typical anti-Trump protest anywhere. A large crowd of largely middle-aged and older people carried signs against Trump and Musk while chanting against oligarchs.

But it was clearly a Silicon Valley crowd, one still reeling not only from Trump’s challenges to the country’s system of checks and balances but also from the actions of the valley’s top executives.

“The money is all shifting to the wealthiest, and that terrifies me,” said Dianne Wood, who works at a startup. “Unfortunately, you’ve got the Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world who are taking that over.

“Just coming here, everyone’s saying turn off the facial recognition on your phone,” Wood added. “We’re all scared.”

Kamal Ali, who works in AI, said he felt betrayed by that shift.

“The trust is broken. A lot of employees are very upset by what’s going on,” he said. “It’s going to be different forever.”

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Sarah Parvini in Los Angeles and video journalist Haven Daley contributed to this report.

April 13 (UPI) — Following a lengthy hospital stay for a critical respiratory problem, Pope Francis greeted parishioners gathered for Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

“Happy Palm Sunday and Happy Holy Week,” the pontiff said following the ceremony as he waved to the throngs of congregants. He greeted the crowd for about 10 minutes from a wheelchair.

An estimated 4,000 people were gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News — the press arm of the Holy See. The new release from the Vatican said the pontiff “is limiting his exposure to the elements in order to continue recovery from his respiratory conditions.”

“Sisters and brothers, I thank you very much for your prayers,” Francis said while delivering the Angelus prayer Sunday.

“At this time of physical weakness, they help me to feel God’s closeness, compassion and tenderness even more. I, too, am praying for you, and I ask you to entrust all those who suffer to the Lord together with me.”

Francis, 88, is recovering from double pneumonia, which left him hospitalized and, at times, in critical condition on a mechanical ventilator, for 38 days.

He made his first public appearance a week ago while receiving supplemental oxygen via a nasal cannula. This week, there was no oxygen tube.

The pontiff’s Palm Sunday appearance came against the backdrop of an Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza, which drew condemnation from Christians. Francis addressed conflict in war-torn countries, including “Palestine.”

A statement from the Israeli Defense Forces claimed the targeted attack took out a Gazan military “command and control center.”

April 13 (UPI) — A hospital in Gaza was intentionally hit by the Israeli military on Palm Sunday prompting widespread condemnations from Christian groups in the Middle East.

The Israeli Defense Forces claimed in a statement Sunday that it had dismantled an alleged Hamas “command and control center” operating inside the al-Ahli Hospital.

Without publishing evidence, the IDF claimed Hamas fighters used the hospital to “plan and execute terror attacks” against Israel. Israel’s previous claims that hospitals have been used by Hamas have been refuted by authorities and questioned by the media.

“Despite the IDF repeatedly stating that military activity within medical facilities in Gaza must stop, Hamas continues to blatantly violate international law and abuse the civilian population,” Israel claimed Sunday.

The hospital is administered by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, a regional diocese of the Anglican Communion representing Anglican and Episcopal Christians across the Middle East. The church condemned Israel’s attack on the hospital.

“The twin strikes demolished the two-story genetic laboratory and damaged the pharmacy and the emergency department buildings. It also resulted in other collateral damage to the surrounding buildings, including the church building of St. Philip’s,” the diocese said.

The diocese said Israel ordered the evacuation of the hospital just 20 minutes before the bombing and that one child who suffered a prior head injury died during the evacuation process.

“The Diocese of Jerusalem is appalled at the bombing of the hospital now for the fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023-and this time on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week,” it said in its statement.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, one of the world’s oldest and most important Christian institutions, likewise condemned the attack.

“The al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza, a place consecrated to healing and long rooted in the Christian vocation of mercy, was struck by an Israeli air assault that rendered its emergency and other critical departments inoperative,” the patriarchate said.

The patriarchate said the hospital “stood as one of the last beacons of medical hope in Gaza” while institutions have been “systematically destroyed.”

“Yet even amidst devastation, the light of faith remains unextinguished. In Gaza’s Zaytun Quarter, within the heart of the Old City, the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius held Palm Sunday prayers — quiet, steadfast, and full of grace — affirming that the witness of Christ’s peace endures, even when sorrow surrounds the sanctuary,” the patriarchate said.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, which operates in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, joined in the condemnations and went further to condemn the “disastrous blocking of humanitarian aid, especially as we begin Holy Week.”

The Roman Catholic Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which holds the authority of the Vatican in the Holy Land, has not directly addressed Israel’s latest attack, but has long vocalized support for Gaza.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy also decried Israel’s “deplorable” actions and noted Sunday that Israel has “repeatedly” attacked the hospital since the war began with such attacks on medical facilities leading to “degraded access to healthcare in Gaza.”

“These deplorable attacks must end,” Lammy said. “Diplomacy not more bloodshed is how we will achieve a lasting peace.”

Scotland bounced back from defeat by Pakistan to earn a 58-run victory over Thailand in Lahore and strengthen their hopes of qualifying for the Women’s World Cup.

Captain Kathryn Bryce led from the front with a 58-ball 60 and was well supported by 57 from Megan McColl as the Scots made 206.

Rachel Slater then made an immediate impact with the ball, removing the top three batters in a superb spell of three for nine from six overs to leave Thailand struggling on 46 for three and they never recovered.

Natthakan Chantham’s 63 was the only resistance as Katherine Fraser and Abtaha Maqsood claimed three wickets each, with Thailand bowled out for 148 in 31.3 overs.

Scotland now have two wins from their matches as they pursue a top-two finish to secure a place in the tournament.

April 12 (UPI) — More than 100 nations in the International Maritime Organization have agreed to fuel standards for ships and fees for carbon emissions offenders, which the Trump administration opposes.

In London on Friday, the United Nations agency members agreed on a draft to be formally adopted in October in an effort to cut down on global carbon emissions.

If adopted, it would go into effect in 2027 for ocean-going vessels over 5,000 gross tonnage, which collectively account for 85% of carbon dioxide emissions from the marine shipping fleet. They did not, however, agree on a levy on carbon dioxide usage, which would net roughly $60 billion a year.

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships has 108 parties, covering 97% of the world’s merchant shipping fleet by tonnage, and already has some mandatory efficiency requirements for ships.

The new draft proposal was agreed upon by the Marine Environment Protection Committee during its four-day session.

IMO has 176 member states and was established in 1948 and met for the first time in January 1959. Most non-member states are landlocked countries, including Afghanistan, Laos, South Sudan and Uzbekistan.

IMO set a goal for shipping to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization earlier this month, saying the United States would reciprocate against any fees imposed on U.S. ships. The White House and State Department yet commented on the draft proposal.

Major oil-producing states, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Russia, also oppose the measure, as do several small island states who abstained on the final vote. A levy for all carbon dioxide emissions was opposed by those nations as well as Brazil, China and the European Union.

In the agreed-upon plan, there would be a new standard for the volume of emissions per unit of energy used by the ship. Ship owners that do not meet certain emission targets will have to offset their emissions or pay into the IMO net-zero fund, a measure that is forecast to raise about $10 billion.

The fund will be used to reward ships with low emissions, support clean energy research, further the IMO’s greenhouse gas reduction initiatives and support places vulnerable to climate change. The plan is reduce emissions about 8% by 2030. There was a 20% reduction required by the IMO’s climate strategy in 2023.

Ships have been encouraged to use low carbon dioxide fuels and to operate more efficiently, including slowing down.

“The approval of draft amendments to MARPOL Annex VI mandating the IMO net-zero framework represents another significant step in our collective efforts to combat climate change, to modernize shipping and demonstrates that IMO delivers on its commitments, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said.

“Now, it is important to continue working together, engaging in dialogue and listening to one another, if we are to create the conditions for successful adoption.”

According to The Washington Post, some of the opposition to the plan is that “2030 is less than 5 years away … As a matter of scientific, engineering and technical reality it will not be possible to reduce emissions beyond 6% within that time frame for all ships, leading to unnecessary penalization that will result in significant impacts on trade, food and energy security and our beloved sector.”

Environmental groups also would like to see better ways to hit the targets.

“While the targets are a step forward, they will need to be improved if they are to drive the rapid fuel shift that will enable the maritime sector to reach net zero by 2050,” said Jesse Fahnestock, director of decarbonization at the Global Maritime Forum, a nonprofit focused on decarbonization in the maritime shipping industry, told The Washington Post.

Maritime shipping, is responsible for approximately 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The maritime shipping industry would rank sixth if compared to countries that emit the largest volume of greenhouse gases, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

In the U.S., there are approximately 40,000 commercial vessels and 360 commercial seaports in addition to 10.5 million motorized recreational boats.

About 12% of the U.S. population lives near seaports, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, dangerous soil and water quality, and poorer health outcomes, according to the agency.

“The U.S. government has committed to ambitious goals for maritime emissions reduction which will require the resources and expertise of the numerous federal agencies working in concert,” the agency said on its website. “The U.S. Department of Energy and its National Laboratory system have important roles to play in this work, especially on research, development, and demonstration.”

It includes low-carbon liquid and gaseous fuels; hybridization and all-electric drive trains; energy efficiency and optimization; and exhaust treatment and carbon capture.

Cruise ships, while a small percentage of the global fleet, contribute significantly to air pollution and carbon emissions, emitting more pollutants. A medium-sized cruise can emit as much particulate matter as a million cars in a day, according to GreenMatch in Britain.

A daily cruise trip averages 700 to 1,000 pounds of carbon emissions, much higher than flying, driving or a traditional “land” vacation, and the sulphur dioxide emissions from a single cruise ship can equal the emissions from 13.1 million cars per day.

The largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s 9,000-guest Icon of the Seas, is 24% more efficient in carbon emissions but with a maximum of 15 cruises a year, it would emit approximately 2.85 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to GreenMath. This is equivalent to the emissions of about 619,565 average passenger vehicles.

April 12 (UPI) — The U.K. Parliament authorized the government to seize control of the Chinese-owned British Steel plant in Scunthorpe to prevent its closure and the loss of up to 2,700 jobs.

Members of Parliament approved a government takeover of the steel plant that is owned by Chinese firm Jingye during an emergency session Saturday morning to stop its owners from shutting down two blast furnaces and ending steel production in the United Kingdom, the BBC reported.

The British government and Jingye officials had been negotiating to keep the steel plant open, but those talks broke down, which triggered Saturday’s emergency session of Parliament.

King Charles granted royal assent for the government takeover, and steel workers stopped a group of Chinese executives from accessing” critical parts” of the steelworks Saturday morning, The Times reported.

The emergency law was introduced, passed and given assent in one day and authorizes U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds to take control of British Steel and any other steel asset and order materials to keep producing steel while continuing to pay steelworkers and support staff.

The emergency law also allows for the arrest and imprisonment for up to two years of anyone who violates it.

Saturday’s emergency session was only the sixth for the U.K. Parliament since the end of World War II, The Guardian reported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and several cabinet ministers on Friday morning agreed special powers were needed to keep the steel plant open and called on Parliament to convene on Saturday.

U.K. government officials had negotiated with Jingye representatives since July to keep the steel plant open.

The government’s negotiators offered to buy raw materials for the British Steel blast furnaces, but Jingye’s negotiators demanded an “excessive amount” from the government, according to The Guardian.

King Charles granted his assent after the emergency session ended, and Starmer traveled to the steel plant to address its workers.

“You are the people who have kept this going,” Starmer told them. “You and your colleagues for years have been the backbone of British Steel.”

The plant is the last primary maker of virgin steel in the United Kingdom.

Reynolds said Jingye planned to “refuse to purchase the necessary raw material” for the blast furnaces and cancel and refuse to refund payments for existing orders.

April 12 (UPI) — Two days of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces militia Friday and Saturday killed more than 100 people in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

United Nations officials on Saturday announced the RSF and its allied militias attacked refugee camps in Abu Shorouk and Zamzam and North Darfur’s capital city of el-Fasher, CBS News reported.

“This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, told media in a prepared statement.

RSF militia and allies attacked Friday and resumed the attack Saturday, which Nkewta-Salami said killed nine aid workers at one of the few health posts in the area.

The Sudanese military controls el-Fasher and has been engaged in a civil war with its former ally RSF for two years. More than 24,000 people have died during the civil war.

The Zamzam and Abu Shouk shelters are home to more than 700,000 refugees who were forced to leave their homes in the Darfur region due to the civil war, according to the U.N.

The RSF has attacked civilians living in and near el-Fasher since May 2024 and in February attacked the Zamzam camp, Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Watch director for the Horn of Africa, said Friday in an online report.

Bader said the Zamzam camp houses more than 500,000 refugees who have been subjected to famine during the civil war.

“In recent days, hundreds of desperate civilians have arrived in Tawila, a town 60 kilometers west of Zamzam, destitute, hungry and thirsty, reporting that conditions in Zamzam have become unbearable,” Bader said.

She said Sudanese Armed Forces and their allies “claim to be defending the city” but “have not appeared to take all feasible measures … to minimize harm to civilians.”

April 12 (UPI) — The United States and Iran on Saturday began “indirect” negotiations on a new nuclear deal in the Gulf Arab nation of Oman and plan to meet again in seven days.

Before the talks, both sides’ leaders issued warnings. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military strikes and Tehran warned any attack would put the United States into a broader conflict in the Middle East.

It was the first high-level talks between the two nations since 2018 when Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal during his first term as president.

The negotiations were between Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi serving as a mediator.

About three hours after the talks ended, the White House issued a statement, saying “the discussions were very positive and constructive, and the United States deeply thanks the Sultanate of Oman for its support of this initiative.”

The two sides were in separate rooms and gave their views to the mediator in four exchanges. But Araghchi and Witkoff “spoke for several minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister while leaving the negotiations venue,” Iran’s foreign ministry said.

“Special Envoy Witkoff underscored to Dr. Araghchi that he had instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible,” the White House said. “These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome. The sides agreed to meet again next Saturday.”

Iran’s foreign ministry said the talks lasted for 2 1/2 hours and the next session won’t necessarily be in Oman, Al Jazeera reported.

“I think this first session was constructive,” Araghchi said. “It was held in a calm and very respectful environment, and no inappropriate language was used. Both sides showed their commitment to advancing the talks towards reaching a desirable agreement.”

Upon arriving in the Omani capital Muscat, Araghchi said he was seeking an “initial understanding” with the United States that could lead to a negotiations process.

“It is our intention to reach a fair and honorable agreement on equal standing,” he said, according to Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency.

He said it was “too early” to speak about a timetable for the talks and it depends on “sufficient will on both sides.”

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi mediated the “indirect talks” that began between Araghchi and Witkoff, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X.

“Iran’s diplomacy is at work with respect to regional peace and stability,” Baqaei said.

He added that Araghchi will be visiting Jordan, Egypt and Turkey “as part of our diplomatic reach-out to countries of the region to end genocide, atrocity and aggression.”

Baqaei told reporters the talks are “just a beginning” and Tehran did not “expect this round of talks to be very long.”

A member of Iran’s negotiating team told the state-run Iranian Tasnim news agency that the atmosphere has been positive and it was “unlikely that the negotiations will be extended into tomorrow.”

Trump, aboard Air Force One en route to Florida on Friday night, said he has given Iran a two-month deadline for a deal that would reduce its nuclear stockpile or possibly eliminate it entirely.

“I want them not to have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

Last month, he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, via the United Arab Emirates that he wants a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert possible military strikes by the U.S. and Israel.

The Islamic Republic’s regional power situation has been significantly weakened over the past 18 months by Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas, the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and unprecedented attacks inside its borders.

“They are literally struggling to keep the lights on,” Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.

Iran has said its “red lines” for the talks include “threatening” language, and “excessive demands” regarding Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s defense industry, according to Tasnim.

Tehran has a ballistic missile program.

Trump wants a “stronger” agreement than the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration, which curbed Iran’s nuclear program. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain, plus Germany and the European Union — signed a deal then known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Trump withdrew from the deal, calling it a “disastrous” agreement that gave money to a regime that sponsored terrorism.

While the international community largely does not want Iran to build a nuclear weapon, the country is allowed to have a civilian nuclear energy component under a United Nations treaty.

The Trump administration also wants to engage Iran on a broad range of issues, a senior administration official told CNN.

“Iran would be eager to jump back into something like JCPOA, so the question is: are they willing to put anything else on the table?” the official said.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters: “The very specific thing that needs to be accomplished, which would make the world a much safer place, is to make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Araghchi argued in an editorial on Tuesday in the Washington Post the United States likely would prefer to avoid war with Iran.

“We cannot imagine President Trump wanting to become another US president mired in a catastrophic war in the Middle East — a conflict that would quickly extend across the region and cost exponentially more than the trillions of taxpayer dollars that his predecessors burned in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he wrote.

The supreme leader’s adviser Ali Shamkhani has said Iran is “seeking a real and fair agreement” and “important and implementable proposals are ready. If Washington comes to the talks with sincere intentions and genuine will to reach an agreement, the path to a deal will be clear and smooth.”

Trump, during his meeting Monday with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, disclosed plans for the talks. He said they would be “very big,” but warned it would “be a very bad day for Iran” if they were unsuccessful.

Witkoff also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday.

April 12 (UPI) — Mexico plans to deliver water to farmers in drought-stricken Texas, one day after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs and sanctions for not providing water from the Rio Grande River promised under a 1944 treaty.

The United States’ southern neighbor owes 1.3 million acre-feet of water after sending only 512,604, which is 30% of the required amount every five years.

“For Texas farmers who are requesting water, there will be an immediate delivery of a certain number of millions of cubic meters that can be provided according to the water availability in the Rio Grande,” Sheinbaum told reporters Friday.

On Thursday, Trump brought attention to the issue, which has been boiling since March.

“This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly,” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “Last year, the only Sugar Mill in Texas CLOSED, because Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas Farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed, but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help the Farmers. THAT ENDS NOW!

“I will make sure Mexico doesn’t violate our Treaties, and doesn’t hurt our Texas Farmers. Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until Mexico complies with the 1944 Water Treaty. My Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, is standing up for Texas Farmers, and we will keep escalating consequences, including TARIFFS and, maybe even SANCTIONS, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER THEY ARE OWED!” Trump posted.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reposted Trump’s post and spoke about the issue on his podcast Friday.

Over each five-year cycle since the treaty was signed, Mexico must send 1.75 million acre-feet from the Rio Grande — the latest cycle ended in October. In return, the United States sends 1.5 million acre-feet of water yearly to Mexico from the Colorado River.

An acre-foot of water is about 325,000 gallons, equivalent to an acre of land flooded with water one foot deep.

On Thursday, Sheinbaum posted in Spanish on X that a comprehensive proposal has already been sent to the undersecretary of the U.S. Department of State.

“This has been three years of drought, and to the extent water is available, Mexico has been complying,” she wrote. “The International Boundary and Water Commission has continued its work to identify mutually beneficial solutions. … I am confident that, as with other issues, an agreement will be reached.”

The Rio Grande River is 1,990 miles long and provides water to approximately 6 million people, with nearly 80% of it used for irrigation in the U.S. and Mexico, according to the Rio Gande International Study Center. It is one of the 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the World, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The Rio Grande flows through Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. In Mexico, the basin spans Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

Texas is highly dependent on water for farming, especially as the state has been experiencing a drought. Texas is the third-largest grower of citrus in the country, behind California and Florida.

On March 20, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs denied a request from Mexico to deliver water to Tijuana. The agency is part of the U.S. Department of State.

“Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture — particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley,” the agency posted on X. “As a result, today for the first time, the U.S. will deny Mexico’s non-treaty request for a special delivery channel for Colorado River water to be delivered to Tijuana.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas applauded the decision, and described a water situation as a “man-made crisis.”

“This option is absolutely what the Trump administration needs to pressure Mexico to fulfill its obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty,” Cruz wrote on X. “Texas farmers are in crisis because of Mexico’s noncompliance. I will work with the Trump administration to pressure Mexico into complying and to get water to Texas farmers.”

On March 19, he hosted farmers and ranchers across the Rio Grande Valley with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

“Their situation is dire,” he posted on X. “Mexico is refusing to comply with its obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty to provide water from the Rio Grande to the US, even while we go above and beyond our own obligations to give Mexico water. The effects on Texas have been catastrophic.”

He plans to introduce legislation in the Senate to impose sanctions on Mexico and withhold aid over noncompliance, as he did during the previous Congress.

Last month, Rollins toured the Rio Grande Valley and announced a $280 million federal block grant to help those affected by water shortages.

Chihuahua’s tributaries feed the Rio Grande as it flows toward South Texas. The area has substantially expanded nut tree farms.

“Chihuahua consumes a lot of water,” she said at a news conference. “We need to make irrigation more efficient so that not so much water is used. In fact, they have wells that are unregulated.”

Mexico, like other nations worldwide, has been slapped with tariffs on products shipped to the United States.

Initially, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all exports except those that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. He then narrowed it to steel, aluminum and autos manufactured in Mexico, although he did not impose a 10% baseline like most U.S. trading partners were hit with.

“I think there has been a respectful relationship and that has allowed us to have good communication with the United States and Trump,” Sheinbaum said on Friday. “We always demand respect and offer respect to the United States, and that has allowed for dialogue.”

Britain’s Olympic medallist Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix claimed 10m platform bronze at the Diving World Cup in Canada.

The 20-year-old scored 348.20 as she edged out compatriot Maisie Bond by 23.85 points for third place.

Spendolini-Sirieix won bronze alongside Lois Toulson in the synchronised 10m platform at the Paris Olympics last year.

China led the way in Windsor, Canada, with Yuxi Chen winning gold on 417.55, with Quan Hongchan 10 points behind.

It was the second stop in the three-stage event, which concludes with the Super Final in Beijing from 2 to 4 May.

Spendolini-Sirieix also won bronze in the opening leg in Mexico.

MEXICO CITY — Rawayana, a band composed of Venezuelan émigrés whose trippy, Caribbean-soaked pop has earned it global acclaim, was riding high.

Late last year the group had just been nominated for a Grammy, been confirmed for this month’s Coachella lineup and was about to release a new album with the beloved Colombian band Bomba Estéreo. And after two years of near nonstop touring around the world, Rawayana was preparing an epic homecoming: celebratory concerts across Venezuela that sold out almost as soon as they were announced.

But in December, days before the tour was to start, the band that has always seen its music as a refuge from Venezuela’s turbulent political landscape was itself embroiled in politics.

Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, whom Rawayana criticized last year after he declared victory in a rigged election, delivered a fiery televised speech in which he lambasted the band and a hit song it had just released, calling it “horrible” and an insult to Venezuelan womanhood.

Venues began disavowing Rawayana, which was forced to cancel its tour.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

(Matias Delacroix / Associated Press)

“Until further notice, this is how we say goodbye to our country,” it wrote on social media.

Band leader Alberto “Beto” Montenegro said he was saddened by Maduro’s attacks, but not surprised. The 36-year-old singer and his bandmates are part of the largest diaspora in the world — among nearly 8 million Venezuelans who have fled dueling political and economic crises over the last decade — and their country’s leaders had long found new ways to disappoint them.

But Venezuelans, they knew, were nothing if not resilient. And so the bandmates picked up their instruments and kept doing what they’ve always done: Look forward, and play songs for far-flung compatriots longing for the sounds of home.

“There are so many ugly things happening in the world,” Montenegro said recently while in Mexico City with Bomba Estéreo frontwoman Li Saumet to promote their new super-group, Astropical. “But we try to stay optimistic and move from love. We hope our music serves to heal.”

Members of Rawayana in Hollywood on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.

(Ringo Chiu/For De Los)

The members of Rawayana — Montenegro, Antonio Casas, Andrés Story and Alejandro Abeijón — were still kids when leftist Hugo Chávez won the presidency in 1998 and began nationalizing Venezuela’s industries and consolidating power.

They started by uploading tracks to the internet in college and quickly gained a following. At a time when the country’s political context was increasingly heavy, their reggae and funk-infused sound was light — dominated by danceable songs about weekends at the beach and cheeky covers of reggaeton hits.

“Music for us was like an escape hatch,” said Montenegro. The band invented the name Rawayana, which it imagined as a remote island far from the real world and its problems. Its first album, in 2011, was called “Licencia Para Ser Libre.” Permission to Be Free.

But as the band grew in popularity, and started collaborating with some of the country’s most accomplished musicians, Venezuela was falling apart. In 2013, Chávez died and Maduro took power. The economy plummeted, homicides soared, and Caracas became one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

The capital’s once thriving nightlife, with its packed salsa and meringue clubs, went dark. After several of the band’s members were briefly kidnapped, they decided to leave.

“There was nothing, no opportunities,” said Montenegro. “The only thing we could do was sing in private concerts for wealthy people who could pay for them, or do government gigs. And we didn’t like either of those paths.”

The band members lived between Miami and Mexico City. Their paths out of the country — aided by record companies that helped procure visas — were easier than those of most Venezuelan migrants, who have scattered around the world in search of opportunity and safety.

Rawayana at the Latin Grammys in 2024.

(Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Latin Recording)

While abroad, Rawayana kept making music for those back home — going back to Venezuela when possible to play free concerts. But they were also becoming, as Montenegro describes it, “the soundtrack for the diaspora.”

The band traveled constantly, playing lively concerts anywhere Venezuelans had settled, from Barcelona to Omaha, Neb. Venezuelan flags flew at every show.

Migrant life is hard, said Orestes Gómez, a Venezeulan-born percussionist who tours with Rawayana. “People want to come and enjoy like they’re back in Caracas.”

“Whenever they play, their music is impeccable, and the vibe is just incredible,” said César Andrés Rodriguez, a music producer from Venezuela who now lives in Miami. “Everybody is enjoying themselves, dancing. I’ve never seen a bad show.”

The band continues to make sunny, funky pop that offers an escapist path. “You don’t need a visa to be happy,” Montenegro and rapper Apache croon on the song High.

But Rawayana has increasingly touched on political themes. One song on their 2021 album, “Cuando Los Acéfalos Predominan” (When the Headless Predominate), offered a veiled critique the corrupt elite that govern Venezuela, describing private parties where waiters serve “champagne bottles worth five times more than your grandmother’s pension.”

Protesters demonstrate against the official election results declaring that President Nicolás Maduro won reelection in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024, the day after the vote.

(Cristian Hernandez / Associated Press)

Last year, with discontent over Maduro at an all-time high, Venezeula’s opposition had high hopes that it would be able to best him in the country’s closely watched presidential election.

Evidence collected by independent observers suggests opposition candidate Edmundo González won handily, but election officials declared Maduro the winner. Venezuelans in and outside the country screamed fraud.

“Venezuela has been living a great fraud for many years … an ideological, moral and ethical fraud,” Montenegro told Billboard. “Unfortunately we are not surprised by another electoral fraud, we have already seen it all.”

Protesters clash with police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, July 29, 2024.

(Matias Delacroix / Associated Press)

The attacks from Maduro came a few months later. His target: a hit song Rawayana made with the artist Akapellah called “Veneka.”

The song, which became one of the most listened-to songs last year in Latin America, sought to assign new meaning to the slur “veneco,” which has been used to describe Venezuelan migrants in neighboring countries such as Colombia.

“Where are the venecan women who represent?” the song asks. “Wherever she goes, the whole world knows she’s the boss.”

“We wanted to use it as a symbol of resilience,” Montenegro said. “It was like, ‘I don’t care what you call me. We are the best. Period.’”

But Maduro slammed it. “The women of Venezuela are called Venezuelans with respect and dignity … not venecas!” he said at a rally. The leader called the song “insulting” and alleged the band was “trying to disfigure our identity.”

In the days after Rawayana was forced to cancel the tour, the band members sunk into depression.

Venezuela’s leaders had already devastated their country. “Now they were trying to take advantage of our success to generate news,” Montenegro said.

But there were good things on the horizon. Such as Rawayana’s big night in February, when they became the first Venezuelan act to win a Grammy for best Latin rock or alternative album.

When they accepted the award, Montenegro named a dozen Venezuelan musicians in a rhymed speech and urged his countrymen to keep their heads up.

Then, there was the surprise announcement to fans of an album with Bomba Estéreo.

Last year, Saumet reached out to Rawayana to collaborate on a single. Things flowed so well in the studio they went on record a full album.

Astropical kicked off a tour in Mexico City last month, and will play the Hollywood Bowl Sept. 7.

While they were working, the musicians bonded over the similarities of their countries — the difficulties Venezuelans face now mirror the violence that plagued Colombia in the 1990s.

And after Rawayana found itself attacked by Maduro, Saumet gave Montenegro some advice.

Success, she said, always comes with difficulties. “The bigger the tree, the bigger the shadow.”

But adversity, she said, often paves the way for art.

“The most impactful music comes from difficult situations,” she said.

For Montenegro, what matters most are the band’s listeners. “We have the support of the people,” he said. “So I don’t mind that much.”