WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will meet at the White House on Tuesday as the U.S. administration&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-ukraine-6bdcc5dde4dadb48b43ace75b5a55242">steps up the pressure</a>&nbsp;on Congress to provide&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">billions more in aid to Kyiv</a>&nbsp;in its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">war with Russia</a>.

The visit is intended “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion,” the White House said in a statement Sunday. “As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment.”

Zelenskyy's office confirmed that he had accepted Biden's invitation. He also has been asked to speak to a meeting of all senators.

Biden has asked Congress for a $110 billion package of wartime funding for Ukraine ($61.4 billion) and Israel, along with other national security priorities. But the request is caught up in a debate over U.S. immigration policy and border security.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-argentina-cape-verde-496dc646174e1b89a145826963bb8bb3">Zelenskyy traveled to Buenos Aires</a>&nbsp;to witness&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/argentina-milei-inauguration-president-46b73d6a705e1c4652303022a37dbbb0">the swearing-in</a>&nbsp;on Sunday of Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei. The Ukrainian leader had been scheduled to address U.S. senators by video last week, but had to cancel the appearance, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Congress already has allocated $111 billion to assist Ukraine, and Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2023/12/04/letter-to-congressional-leadership-regarding-the-need-for-urgent-action-to-support-ukraines-defense/">said in a letter</a>&nbsp;this past week to House and Senate leaders that the U.S. will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, which would “kneecap” Ukraine on the battlefield.

“It’s time to cut a deal that both sides can agree to,” Young said Sunday.

The stakes are especially high for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during two television interviews Sunday, given that “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-military-assistance-economy-557cbced7f7c1242ea08c52dadefc33b">we are running out of funding</a>&nbsp;” for the Ukrainians. “This is a time to really step up because if we don’t, we know what happens. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will be able to move forward with impunity and we know he won’t stop in Ukraine.”

Earlier, he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-us-emergency-sale-tank-ammunition-war-d3e9b41528433f2da9814d3293996cd5">defended the emergency sale</a>&nbsp;to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition and also called for quick congressional approval of the foreign assistance. Blinken said the needs of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel's military operations in Gaza</a>&nbsp;justify the rare decision to bypass Congress. “Israel is in combat right now with Hamas,” he said. “And we want to make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Hamas."

The tank ammunition and related support constitute only a small portion of military sales to Israel, Blinken said, and that the rest remains subject to congressional review. "It’s very important that Congress‘ voice be heard in this,” he said.

The decision to proceed with the sale of more than $106 million for tank shells came as the administration's larger aid package is caught up in a larger immigration debate.

Blinken noted that Biden has said he is willing to make&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">significant compromises</a>&nbsp;to get the aid package moving. ``It’s something the president is fully prepared to engage on," Blinken said.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said there is bipartisan agreement that something has to be done to address record numbers of migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.

“We want to solve that, to secure the border. I just saw the president of the United States say that we’ve got to secure the border. He’s right. So, any effort that doesn’t do that will be rejected by Republicans,” Romney said.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said the administration has yet to justify additional aid to Ukraine. “So what we’re saying to the president and really to the entire world is, you need to articulate what the ambition is. What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn’t?” Vance said.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the money would make a difference because Russia is struggling to fund its war effort. “It can change the outcome of this war,” Murphy said. “Because at the very same time that we are making a renewed commitment to Ukraine, Russia’s ability to continue to fight this war is in jeopardy.”

Romney said he also supports the aid to Ukraine. “My own view is that it’s very much in America’s interest to see Ukraine successful and to provide the weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself. Anything other than that would be a huge dereliction of our responsibility, I believe, to the world of democracy but also to our own national interest,” he said.

Blinken appeared on ABC's “This Week” and CNN's “State of the Union.” Romney and Murphy were on NBC's “Meet the Press.” Vance was on CNN. Young was on CBS' “Face the Nation.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-zelenskyy-border-security-8592ddcb1627fc6d0b43349bac3fe329">changes</a>&nbsp;to America's immigration and border policies.

After the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">Democratic president said</a>&nbsp;this past week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest proposal, from the lead GOP negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday afternoon. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats will seriously oppose, throwing new obstacles in the difficult negotiations.

Biden is facing the prospect of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ukraine-israel-budget-3762a0bdf00653e3c8a38175d3c3d3cb">cornerstone of his foreign policy</a>&nbsp;— repelling Russian President Vladimir Putin from overtaking Ukraine — crumbling as U.S. support for funding the war wanes, especially among Republicans. The White House says a failure to approve more aid by year's end could have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-military-assistance-economy-557cbced7f7c1242ea08c52dadefc33b">catastrophic consequences</a>&nbsp;for Ukraine and its ability to fight.

To preserve U.S. backing, the Biden administration has quietly engaged in Senate talks on border policy in recent weeks, providing assistance to the small group of senators trying to reach a deal and communicating what policy changes it would find acceptable.

The president is trying to satisfy GOP demands to reduce the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-mexico-border-crossings-asylum-immigration-def50446bc397ebfba36ab272dbc0a27">historic number of migrants</a>&nbsp;arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border while alleviating Democrats' fears that legal immigration will be choked off with drastic measures.

As talks sputtered to a restart this past week, Democrats warned Republicans that time for a deal was running short. Congress is scheduled to depart Washington in mid-December for a holiday break.

“Republicans need to show they are serious about reaching a compromise, not just throwing on the floor basically Donald Trump’s border policies,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday before Republicans made their counteroffer.

But the new Republican proposal dug in on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-immigration-border-security-asylum-872a1e126677d7e203bb51bdb23a7975">policy changes</a>&nbsp;that had led Democrats to step back from the negotiations, according to the person familiar with the talks. The GOP offer calls for ending the humanitarian parole program that's now in place for existing classes of migrants — Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians. That idea had been all but dashed before.

Additionally, those groups of migrants would not be allowed to be paroled again if the terms of their stay expire before their cases are adjudicated in immigration proceedings.

GOP senators proposed monitoring systems such as ankle bracelets for people, including children, who are detained at the border and are awaiting parole. Republicans want to ban people from applying for asylum if they have transited through a different country where they could have sought asylum instead. GOP lawmakers also want to revive executive powers that would allow a president to shut down entries for wide-ranging reasons.

Further, after migrant encounters at the border recently hit historic numbers, the GOP proposal would set new guidelines requiring the border to be essentially shut down if illegal crossings reach a certain limit.

Lankford declined to discuss specifics after the Thursday meeting, but said he was trying to “negotiate in good faith." He said the historic number of migrants at the border could not be ignored. The sheer number of people arriving at the border has swamped the asylum system, he said, making it impossible for authorities to adequately screen the people they allow in.

"Do you want large numbers of undocumented individuals and unscreened individuals without work permits, without access to the rest of the economy?” Lankford said.

The lead Democratic negotiator, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, did not quickly respond to the GOP proposal.

Senators had made some progress in the talks before Thursday, finding general agreement on raising the initial standard for migrants to enter the asylum system — part of what’s called the credible fear system. The administration has communicated that it is amenable to that change and that it could agree to expand expedited removal to deport immigrants before they have a hearing with an immigration judge, according to two people briefed on the private negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Immigration advocates and progressives in Congress have been alarmed by the direction of the talks, especially because they have not featured changes aimed at expanding legal immigration.

Robyn Barnard, director of refugee advocacy with Human Rights First, called the current state of negotiations an “absolute crisis moment.” She warned that broadening the fast-track deportation authority could lead to a mass rounding up of immigrants around the country and compared it to the situation during the Trump administration. “Communities across the country would be living in fear,” she said.

But Republican senators,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-immigration-asylum-border-congress-7507034034ba49a8f170777600cad46e">sensing that Biden, who is campaigning for a second term, wants to address</a>&nbsp;the historic number of people coming to the border, have taken an aggressive stance and tried to draw the president directly into negotiations.

“The White House is going to have to engage particularly if Senate Democrats are unwilling to do what we are suggesting be done,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., at a news conference Thursday.

The White House has so far declined to take a leading role in negotiations. “Democrats have said that they want to compromise. Have that conversation,” said White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre.

After every GOP senator this past week voted not to move ahead with legislation that would provide tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance for Ukraine, many in the chamber were left in a dour mood. Even those who held out hope for a deal acknowledged it would be difficult to push a package through the Senate at this late stage.

Even if senators reach a deal, the obstacles to passage in the House are considerable.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-border-security-zelenskyy-bf932727abd5e8ff3cf5c9c848a3cf78">Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has signaled</a>&nbsp;he will fight for sweeping changes to immigration policy that go beyond what is being discussed in the Senate. Also, broad support from House Democrats is far from guaranteed, as progressives and Hispanic lawmakers have raised alarm at curtailing access to asylum.

“Trading Ukrainian lives for the lives of asylum seekers is morally bankrupt and irresponsible,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as part of a coordinated campaign by Hispanic Democrats.

The unwieldy nature of the issue left even Lankford, who was one of the few senators optimistic that a deal could be reached this year, acknowledging the difficulty of finding an agreement in the coming days.

“There’s just a whole lot of politics that have been bound up in this,” he said as he departed the Capitol for the week. “Thirty years it hasn’t been resolved because it’s incredibly complicated."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/9/1695327062140.png" alt="Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a September visit with President Biden-photo White House" />
 <figcaption>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a September visit with President Biden-photo White House</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will meet at the White House on Tuesday as the U.S. administration&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-ukraine-6bdcc5dde4dadb48b43ace75b5a55242">steps up the pressure</a>&nbsp;on Congress to provide&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">billions more in aid to Kyiv</a>&nbsp;in its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine">war with Russia</a>.The visit is intended “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion,” the White House said in a statement Sunday. “As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment.”<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Border first. America first. <a href="https://t.co/vvQSuLkYVM">pic.twitter.com/vvQSuLkYVM</a>&mdash; Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/1733596885028655521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Zelenskyy's office confirmed that he had accepted Biden's invitation. He also has been asked to speak to a meeting of all senators.Biden has asked Congress for a $110 billion package of wartime funding for Ukraine ($61.4 billion) and Israel, along with other national security priorities. But the request is caught up in a debate over U.S. immigration policy and border security.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-argentina-cape-verde-496dc646174e1b89a145826963bb8bb3">Zelenskyy traveled to Buenos Aires</a>&nbsp;to witness&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/argentina-milei-inauguration-president-46b73d6a705e1c4652303022a37dbbb0">the swearing-in</a>&nbsp;on Sunday of Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei. The Ukrainian leader had been scheduled to address U.S. senators by video last week, but had to cancel the appearance, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.Congress already has allocated $111 billion to assist Ukraine, and Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2023/12/04/letter-to-congressional-leadership-regarding-the-need-for-urgent-action-to-support-ukraines-defense/">said in a letter</a>&nbsp;this past week to House and Senate leaders that the U.S. will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, which would “kneecap” Ukraine on the battlefield.“It’s time to cut a deal that both sides can agree to,” Young said Sunday.The stakes are especially high for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during two television interviews Sunday, given that “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-military-assistance-economy-557cbced7f7c1242ea08c52dadefc33b">we are running out of funding</a>&nbsp;” for the Ukrainians. “This is a time to really step up because if we don’t, we know what happens. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will be able to move forward with impunity and we know he won’t stop in Ukraine.”Earlier, he&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-us-emergency-sale-tank-ammunition-war-d3e9b41528433f2da9814d3293996cd5">defended the emergency sale</a>&nbsp;to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition and also called for quick congressional approval of the foreign assistance. Blinken said the needs of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">Israel's military operations in Gaza</a>&nbsp;justify the rare decision to bypass Congress. “Israel is in combat right now with Hamas,” he said. “And we want to make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Hamas."The tank ammunition and related support constitute only a small portion of military sales to Israel, Blinken said, and that the rest remains subject to congressional review. "It’s very important that Congress‘ voice be heard in this,” he said.The decision to proceed with the sale of more than $106 million for tank shells came as the administration's larger aid package is caught up in a larger immigration debate.Blinken noted that Biden has said he is willing to make&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">significant compromises</a>&nbsp;to get the aid package moving. ``It’s something the president is fully prepared to engage on," Blinken said.Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said there is bipartisan agreement that something has to be done to address record numbers of migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico.“We want to solve that, to secure the border. I just saw the president of the United States say that we’ve got to secure the border. He’s right. So, any effort that doesn’t do that will be rejected by Republicans,” Romney said.Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said the administration has yet to justify additional aid to Ukraine. “So what we’re saying to the president and really to the entire world is, you need to articulate what the ambition is. What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn’t?” Vance said.Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the money would make a difference because Russia is struggling to fund its war effort. “It can change the outcome of this war,” Murphy said. “Because at the very same time that we are making a renewed commitment to Ukraine, Russia’s ability to continue to fight this war is in jeopardy.”Romney said he also supports the aid to Ukraine. “My own view is that it’s very much in America’s interest to see Ukraine successful and to provide the weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself. Anything other than that would be a huge dereliction of our responsibility, I believe, to the world of democracy but also to our own national interest,” he said.Blinken appeared on ABC's “This Week” and CNN's “State of the Union.” Romney and Murphy were on NBC's “Meet the Press.” Vance was on CNN. Young was on CBS' “Face the Nation.”------------------------WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-zelenskyy-border-security-8592ddcb1627fc6d0b43349bac3fe329">changes</a>&nbsp;to America's immigration and border policies.After the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-aid-military-russia-002fde812843fc1fc0e969b653ce83a8">Democratic president said</a>&nbsp;this past week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.The latest proposal, from the lead GOP negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday afternoon. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats will seriously oppose, throwing new obstacles in the difficult negotiations.Biden is facing the prospect of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ukraine-israel-budget-3762a0bdf00653e3c8a38175d3c3d3cb">cornerstone of his foreign policy</a>&nbsp;— repelling Russian President Vladimir Putin from overtaking Ukraine — crumbling as U.S. support for funding the war wanes, especially among Republicans. The White House says a failure to approve more aid by year's end could have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-congress-military-assistance-economy-557cbced7f7c1242ea08c52dadefc33b">catastrophic consequences</a>&nbsp;for Ukraine and its ability to fight.To preserve U.S. backing, the Biden administration has quietly engaged in Senate talks on border policy in recent weeks, providing assistance to the small group of senators trying to reach a deal and communicating what policy changes it would find acceptable.The president is trying to satisfy GOP demands to reduce the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-mexico-border-crossings-asylum-immigration-def50446bc397ebfba36ab272dbc0a27">historic number of migrants</a>&nbsp;arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border while alleviating Democrats' fears that legal immigration will be choked off with drastic measures.As talks sputtered to a restart this past week, Democrats warned Republicans that time for a deal was running short. Congress is scheduled to depart Washington in mid-December for a holiday break.“Republicans need to show they are serious about reaching a compromise, not just throwing on the floor basically Donald Trump’s border policies,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday before Republicans made their counteroffer.But the new Republican proposal dug in on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-immigration-border-security-asylum-872a1e126677d7e203bb51bdb23a7975">policy changes</a>&nbsp;that had led Democrats to step back from the negotiations, according to the person familiar with the talks. The GOP offer calls for ending the humanitarian parole program that's now in place for existing classes of migrants — Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians. That idea had been all but dashed before.Additionally, those groups of migrants would not be allowed to be paroled again if the terms of their stay expire before their cases are adjudicated in immigration proceedings.GOP senators proposed monitoring systems such as ankle bracelets for people, including children, who are detained at the border and are awaiting parole. Republicans want to ban people from applying for asylum if they have transited through a different country where they could have sought asylum instead. GOP lawmakers also want to revive executive powers that would allow a president to shut down entries for wide-ranging reasons.Further, after migrant encounters at the border recently hit historic numbers, the GOP proposal would set new guidelines requiring the border to be essentially shut down if illegal crossings reach a certain limit.Lankford declined to discuss specifics after the Thursday meeting, but said he was trying to “negotiate in good faith." He said the historic number of migrants at the border could not be ignored. The sheer number of people arriving at the border has swamped the asylum system, he said, making it impossible for authorities to adequately screen the people they allow in."Do you want large numbers of undocumented individuals and unscreened individuals without work permits, without access to the rest of the economy?” Lankford said.The lead Democratic negotiator, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, did not quickly respond to the GOP proposal.Senators had made some progress in the talks before Thursday, finding general agreement on raising the initial standard for migrants to enter the asylum system — part of what’s called the credible fear system. The administration has communicated that it is amenable to that change and that it could agree to expand expedited removal to deport immigrants before they have a hearing with an immigration judge, according to two people briefed on the private negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Immigration advocates and progressives in Congress have been alarmed by the direction of the talks, especially because they have not featured changes aimed at expanding legal immigration.Robyn Barnard, director of refugee advocacy with Human Rights First, called the current state of negotiations an “absolute crisis moment.” She warned that broadening the fast-track deportation authority could lead to a mass rounding up of immigrants around the country and compared it to the situation during the Trump administration. “Communities across the country would be living in fear,” she said.But Republican senators,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-immigration-asylum-border-congress-7507034034ba49a8f170777600cad46e">sensing that Biden, who is campaigning for a second term, wants to address</a>&nbsp;the historic number of people coming to the border, have taken an aggressive stance and tried to draw the president directly into negotiations.“The White House is going to have to engage particularly if Senate Democrats are unwilling to do what we are suggesting be done,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., at a news conference Thursday.The White House has so far declined to take a leading role in negotiations. “Democrats have said that they want to compromise. Have that conversation,” said White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre.After every GOP senator this past week voted not to move ahead with legislation that would provide tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance for Ukraine, many in the chamber were left in a dour mood. Even those who held out hope for a deal acknowledged it would be difficult to push a package through the Senate at this late stage.Even if senators reach a deal, the obstacles to passage in the House are considerable.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-border-security-zelenskyy-bf932727abd5e8ff3cf5c9c848a3cf78">Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has signaled</a>&nbsp;he will fight for sweeping changes to immigration policy that go beyond what is being discussed in the Senate. Also, broad support from House Democrats is far from guaranteed, as progressives and Hispanic lawmakers have raised alarm at curtailing access to asylum.“Trading Ukrainian lives for the lives of asylum seekers is morally bankrupt and irresponsible,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as part of a coordinated campaign by Hispanic Democrats.The unwieldy nature of the issue left even Lankford, who was one of the few senators optimistic that a deal could be reached this year, acknowledging the difficulty of finding an agreement in the coming days.“There’s just a whole lot of politics that have been bound up in this,” he said as he departed the Capitol for the week. “Thirty years it hasn’t been resolved because it’s incredibly complicated."___

Ukraine's leader returning to Washington for more financial aid

KANSAS CITY (AP) —Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo’s daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her “fat” and “ugly.” Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed.

For Valerie Aguirre’s daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school “friend drama” escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely.

Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/education-health-pandemics-teens-cd01cd672539d6a3dbada46bfa47203a" target="_blank">soaring mental health struggles</a>&nbsp;among American youth.

Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million.

The growth reflects a booming new business born from America’s youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies.

As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it’s meeting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mental-health-crisis-schools-768fed6a4e71d694ec0694c627d8fdca" target="_blank">a massive need</a>. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home.

“This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks,” said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California.

Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader’s bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. “What’s wrong?” the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: “It’s NOTHING, Mom.”

Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don’t give anyone else that control.

“She learned that it’s OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help,” Ishoo said.

The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district’s coordinator of counselors.

Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days.

“Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that’s not always possible,” said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program.

Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily.

Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/teens-girls-mental-health-social-media-928d45094e94fccb81e1fa9aca30fcdf" target="_blank">youth depression, anxiety and suicide</a>. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs.

Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it’s getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn’t helping.

“We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them,” said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours.

The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services.

“As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered,” he said.

One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states.

The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years.

Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George’s and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel.

Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line.

“We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we’re using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can,” Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. “Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no.”

Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text.

Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/missing-children/index.html" target="_blank">not in school at all</a>.

“I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people,” Vasan said.

Many of Hawaii’s referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-fires-timeline-maui-lahaina-road-block-c8522222f6de587bd14b2da0020c40e9" target="_blank">deadly August wildfires</a>, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year.

One of them was Valerie Aguirre’s daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, “she felt better,” Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended.

In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year.

“She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She’s a different person. She’s older and wiser. She reassures her sister,” Ishoo said. “I heard her say, ‘If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.’”

KANSAS CITY (AP) —Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo’s daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her “fat” and “ugly.” Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed.For Valerie Aguirre’s daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school “friend drama” escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely.Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/education-health-pandemics-teens-cd01cd672539d6a3dbada46bfa47203a" target="_blank">soaring mental health struggles</a>&nbsp;among American youth.Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million.The growth reflects a booming new business born from America’s youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies.As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it’s meeting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mental-health-crisis-schools-768fed6a4e71d694ec0694c627d8fdca" target="_blank">a massive need</a>. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home.“This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks,” said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California.Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader’s bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. “What’s wrong?” the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: “It’s NOTHING, Mom.”Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don’t give anyone else that control.“She learned that it’s OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help,” Ishoo said.The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district’s coordinator of counselors.Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days.“Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that’s not always possible,” said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program.Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily.Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/teens-girls-mental-health-social-media-928d45094e94fccb81e1fa9aca30fcdf" target="_blank">youth depression, anxiety and suicide</a>. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs.Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it’s getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn’t helping.“We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them,” said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours.The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services.“As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered,” he said.One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states.The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years.Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George’s and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel.Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line.“We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we’re using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can,” Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. “Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no.”Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text.Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/missing-children/index.html" target="_blank">not in school at all</a>.“I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people,” Vasan said.Many of Hawaii’s referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-fires-timeline-maui-lahaina-road-block-c8522222f6de587bd14b2da0020c40e9" target="_blank">deadly August wildfires</a>, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year.One of them was Valerie Aguirre’s daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, “she felt better,” Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended.In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year.“She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She’s a different person. She’s older and wiser. She reassures her sister,” Ishoo said. “I heard her say, ‘If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.’”

US schools turn to the booming business of online therapy

LONDON (AP) — European Union negotiators clinched a deal Friday on the world's first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules, paving the way for legal oversight of AI technology that has promised to transform everyday life and spurred&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risks-uk-summit-regulation-ce89e842a176e55e46b6cc493cd515a5">warnings of existential dangers to humanity</a>.

In August,&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly directed Executive Branch agencies in Kansas to adopt a statewide generative AI policy.&nbsp; Click&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZ292ZXJub3Iua2Fuc2FzLmdvdi93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyMy8wOC9QODIwMC4wMC1HZW5lcmF0aXZlLUFydGlmaWNpYWwtSW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLVNpZ25lZC5wZGYiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjMwODE3LjgxMjg2MDMxIn0.hokEvcv46zzbzO_okmiCBJ5v6Br8rs1-U1zG2oosPqw/s/1303160919/br/224431701019-l" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp;to view the full policy

Negotiators from the European Parliament and the bloc's 27 member countries overcame big differences on controversial points including generative AI and police use of face recognition surveillance to sign a tentative political agreement for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-talks-artificial-intelligence-regulation-e2bb57eef7ba6d2b0c85ef757fcd3bb0">Artificial Intelligence Act</a>.

“Deal!” tweeted European Commissioner Thierry Breton just before midnight. “The EU becomes the very first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI.”

The result came after marathon closed-door talks this week, with the initial session lasting 22 hours before a second round kicked off Friday morning.

Officials were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-artificial-intelligence-regulation-europe-06ab334caa97778770f5f57f4d904447">under the gun to secure a political victory</a>&nbsp;for the flagship legislation. Civil society groups, however, gave it a cool reception as they wait for technical details that will need to be ironed out in the coming weeks. They said the deal didn't go far enough in protecting people from harm caused by AI systems.

“Today’s political deal marks the beginning of important and necessary technical work on crucial details of the AI Act, which are still missing,” said Daniel Friedlaender, head of the European office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a tech industry lobby group.

The EU took an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tech-ai-artificial-intelligence-europe-eu-15ac394679519084478e15217c156abc">early lead in the global race</a>&nbsp;to draw up AI guardrails when it unveiled the first draft of its rulebook in 2021. The recent boom in generative AI, however, sent European officials scrambling to update a proposal poised to serve as a blueprint for the world.

The European Parliament will still need to vote on the act early next year, but with the deal done that’s a formality, Brando Benifei, an Italian lawmaker co-leading the body’s negotiating efforts, told The Associated Press late Friday.

“It’s very very good,” he said by text message after being asked if it included everything he wanted. “Obviously we had to accept some compromises but overall very good.” The eventual law wouldn’t fully take effect until 2025 at the earliest, and threatens stiff financial penalties for violations of up to 35 million euros ($38 million) or 7% of a company's global turnover.

Generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have exploded into the world's consciousness, dazzling users with the ability to produce human-like text, photos and songs but raising fears about the risks the rapidly developing technology poses to jobs, privacy and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-copyright-artificial-intelligence-b456fa19dd90bea87533f97f043a31bc">copyright protection</a>&nbsp;and even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risk-of-extinction-ai-54ea8aadc60d1503e5a65878219aad43">human life itself</a>.

Now,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ai-artificial-intelligence-executive-order-cb86162000d894f238f28ac029005059">the U.S.</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risks-uk-summit-kamala-harris-9e01b9d35ec1541755a273c07dfa4c71">U.K.</a>, China and global coalitions like the Group of 7 major democracies have jumped in with their own proposals to regulate AI, though they’re still catching up to Europe.

Strong and comprehensive rules from the EU “can set a powerful example for many governments considering regulation,” said Anu Bradford, a Columbia Law School professor who's an expert on EU law and digital regulation. Other countries “may not copy every provision but will likely emulate many aspects of it.”

AI companies subject to the EU's rules will also likely extend some of those obligations outside the continent, she said. “After all, it is not efficient to re-train separate models for different markets," she said.

The AI Act was originally designed to mitigate the dangers from specific AI functions based on their level of risk, from low to unacceptable. But lawmakers pushed to expand it to foundation models, the advanced systems that underpin general purpose AI services like ChatGPT and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-bard-gmail-youtube-maps-1229638b82d19afb5226c913821fa1ad">Google’s Bard chatbot</a>.

Foundation models looked set to be one of the biggest sticking points for Europe. However, negotiators managed to reach a tentative compromise early in the talks, despite opposition led by France, which called instead for self-regulation to help homegrown European generative AI companies competing with big U.S rivals, including OpenAI's backer Microsoft.

Also known as large language models, these systems are trained on vast troves of written works and images scraped off the internet. They give generative AI systems the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-hollywood-writers-strike-artificial-intelligence-dc71c4cabcca0ee1b1afe0050d392a36">ability to create something new</a>, unlike traditional AI, which processes data and completes tasks using predetermined rules.

The companies building foundation models will have to draw up technical documentation, comply with EU copyright law and detail the content used for training. The most advanced foundation models that pose “systemic risks” will face extra scrutiny, including assessing and mitigating those risks, reporting serious incidents, putting cybersecurity measures in place and reporting their energy efficiency.

Researchers have warned that powerful foundation models, built by a handful of big tech companies, could be used to supercharge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-hamas-israel-misinformation-ai-gaza-a1bb303b637ffbbb9cbc3aa1e000db47">online disinformation and manipulation</a>, cyberattacks or creation of bioweapons.

Rights groups also caution that the lack of transparency about data used to train the models poses risks to daily life because they act as basic structures for software developers building AI-powered services.

What became the thorniest topic was AI-powered face recognition surveillance systems, and negotiators found a compromise after intensive bargaining.

European lawmakers wanted a full ban on public use of face scanning and other “remote biometric identification” systems because of privacy concerns. But governments of member countries succeeded in negotiating exemptions so law enforcement could use them to tackle serious crimes like child sexual exploitation or terrorist attacks.

Rights groups said they were concerned about the exemptions and other big loopholes in the AI Act, including lack of protection for AI systems used in migration and border control, and the option for developers to opt-out of having their systems classified as high risk.

LONDON (AP) — European Union negotiators clinched a deal Friday on the world's first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules, paving the way for legal oversight of AI technology that has promised to transform everyday life and spurred&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risks-uk-summit-regulation-ce89e842a176e55e46b6cc493cd515a5">warnings of existential dangers to humanity</a>.In August,&nbsp;Governor Laura Kelly directed Executive Branch agencies in Kansas to adopt a statewide generative AI policy.&nbsp; Click&nbsp;<a href="https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZ292ZXJub3Iua2Fuc2FzLmdvdi93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyMy8wOC9QODIwMC4wMC1HZW5lcmF0aXZlLUFydGlmaWNpYWwtSW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLVNpZ25lZC5wZGYiLCJidWxsZXRpbl9pZCI6IjIwMjMwODE3LjgxMjg2MDMxIn0.hokEvcv46zzbzO_okmiCBJ5v6Br8rs1-U1zG2oosPqw/s/1303160919/br/224431701019-l" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp;to view the full policyNegotiators from the European Parliament and the bloc's 27 member countries overcame big differences on controversial points including generative AI and police use of face recognition surveillance to sign a tentative political agreement for the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-talks-artificial-intelligence-regulation-e2bb57eef7ba6d2b0c85ef757fcd3bb0">Artificial Intelligence Act</a>.“Deal!” tweeted European Commissioner Thierry Breton just before midnight. “The EU becomes the very first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI.”The result came after marathon closed-door talks this week, with the initial session lasting 22 hours before a second round kicked off Friday morning.Officials were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-artificial-intelligence-regulation-europe-06ab334caa97778770f5f57f4d904447">under the gun to secure a political victory</a>&nbsp;for the flagship legislation. Civil society groups, however, gave it a cool reception as they wait for technical details that will need to be ironed out in the coming weeks. They said the deal didn't go far enough in protecting people from harm caused by AI systems.“Today’s political deal marks the beginning of important and necessary technical work on crucial details of the AI Act, which are still missing,” said Daniel Friedlaender, head of the European office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a tech industry lobby group.The EU took an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tech-ai-artificial-intelligence-europe-eu-15ac394679519084478e15217c156abc">early lead in the global race</a>&nbsp;to draw up AI guardrails when it unveiled the first draft of its rulebook in 2021. The recent boom in generative AI, however, sent European officials scrambling to update a proposal poised to serve as a blueprint for the world.The European Parliament will still need to vote on the act early next year, but with the deal done that’s a formality, Brando Benifei, an Italian lawmaker co-leading the body’s negotiating efforts, told The Associated Press late Friday.“It’s very very good,” he said by text message after being asked if it included everything he wanted. “Obviously we had to accept some compromises but overall very good.” The eventual law wouldn’t fully take effect until 2025 at the earliest, and threatens stiff financial penalties for violations of up to 35 million euros ($38 million) or 7% of a company's global turnover.Generative AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have exploded into the world's consciousness, dazzling users with the ability to produce human-like text, photos and songs but raising fears about the risks the rapidly developing technology poses to jobs, privacy and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-copyright-artificial-intelligence-b456fa19dd90bea87533f97f043a31bc">copyright protection</a>&nbsp;and even&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risk-of-extinction-ai-54ea8aadc60d1503e5a65878219aad43">human life itself</a>.Now,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-ai-artificial-intelligence-executive-order-cb86162000d894f238f28ac029005059">the U.S.</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risks-uk-summit-kamala-harris-9e01b9d35ec1541755a273c07dfa4c71">U.K.</a>, China and global coalitions like the Group of 7 major democracies have jumped in with their own proposals to regulate AI, though they’re still catching up to Europe.Strong and comprehensive rules from the EU “can set a powerful example for many governments considering regulation,” said Anu Bradford, a Columbia Law School professor who's an expert on EU law and digital regulation. Other countries “may not copy every provision but will likely emulate many aspects of it.”AI companies subject to the EU's rules will also likely extend some of those obligations outside the continent, she said. “After all, it is not efficient to re-train separate models for different markets," she said.The AI Act was originally designed to mitigate the dangers from specific AI functions based on their level of risk, from low to unacceptable. But lawmakers pushed to expand it to foundation models, the advanced systems that underpin general purpose AI services like ChatGPT and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-bard-gmail-youtube-maps-1229638b82d19afb5226c913821fa1ad">Google’s Bard chatbot</a>.Foundation models looked set to be one of the biggest sticking points for Europe. However, negotiators managed to reach a tentative compromise early in the talks, despite opposition led by France, which called instead for self-regulation to help homegrown European generative AI companies competing with big U.S rivals, including OpenAI's backer Microsoft.Also known as large language models, these systems are trained on vast troves of written works and images scraped off the internet. They give generative AI systems the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-hollywood-writers-strike-artificial-intelligence-dc71c4cabcca0ee1b1afe0050d392a36">ability to create something new</a>, unlike traditional AI, which processes data and completes tasks using predetermined rules.The companies building foundation models will have to draw up technical documentation, comply with EU copyright law and detail the content used for training. The most advanced foundation models that pose “systemic risks” will face extra scrutiny, including assessing and mitigating those risks, reporting serious incidents, putting cybersecurity measures in place and reporting their energy efficiency.Researchers have warned that powerful foundation models, built by a handful of big tech companies, could be used to supercharge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-hamas-israel-misinformation-ai-gaza-a1bb303b637ffbbb9cbc3aa1e000db47">online disinformation and manipulation</a>, cyberattacks or creation of bioweapons.Rights groups also caution that the lack of transparency about data used to train the models poses risks to daily life because they act as basic structures for software developers building AI-powered services.What became the thorniest topic was AI-powered face recognition surveillance systems, and negotiators found a compromise after intensive bargaining.European lawmakers wanted a full ban on public use of face scanning and other “remote biometric identification” systems because of privacy concerns. But governments of member countries succeeded in negotiating exemptions so law enforcement could use them to tackle serious crimes like child sexual exploitation or terrorist attacks.Rights groups said they were concerned about the exemptions and other big loopholes in the AI Act, including lack of protection for AI systems used in migration and border control, and the option for developers to opt-out of having their systems classified as high risk.

World's first comprehensive AI rules approved

WASHINGTON (AP)— President Joe Biden's administration has approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million as it intensifies its military operations in the southern Gaza Strip, the State Department said Saturday.

The department said it had notified Congress of the sale late Friday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that “an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale” of the munitions in the U.S. national security interest.

The emergency determination means that the purchase will bypass the congressional review requirement for foreign military sales. Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented, when administrations see an urgent need for weapons to be delivered without waiting for congressional approval.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the department said in a statement. “Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense.”

The sale is worth $106.5 million and includes 13,981 120 mm High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer tank cartridges as well as U.S. support, engineering and logistics.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 17,700, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Israel’s ground offensive in southern Gaza Strip intensified on Saturday with further airstrikes and artillery fire, a day after the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-un-resolution-ceasefire-humanitarian-6d3bfd31d6c25168e828274d96b85cf8">blocked a U.N. resolution</a>&nbsp;calling for a cease-fire.

Israel says 97 of its soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-attack-military-war-a8f63b07641212f0de61861844e5e71e">raided southern Israel</a>&nbsp;on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hostages-gaza-b6ffc286ca7d4b48caaada43e9c6e411">about 240 hostages.</a>

Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter Gaza freely. With only a trickle of humanitarian aid reaching a small portion of Gaza, residents have reported severe food shortages.

Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden’s administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel. The administration approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million, the State Department said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1697623831480.png" alt="File-President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -White House photo" />
 <figcaption>File-President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP)— President Joe Biden's administration has approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million as it intensifies its military operations in the southern Gaza Strip, the State Department said Saturday.The department said it had notified Congress of the sale late Friday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that “an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale” of the munitions in the U.S. national security interest.The emergency determination means that the purchase will bypass the congressional review requirement for foreign military sales. Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented, when administrations see an urgent need for weapons to be delivered without waiting for congressional approval.“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the department said in a statement. “Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense.”The sale is worth $106.5 million and includes 13,981 120 mm High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer tank cartridges as well as U.S. support, engineering and logistics.Meanwhile, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 17,700, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.Israel’s ground offensive in southern Gaza Strip intensified on Saturday with further airstrikes and artillery fire, a day after the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-un-resolution-ceasefire-humanitarian-6d3bfd31d6c25168e828274d96b85cf8">blocked a U.N. resolution</a>&nbsp;calling for a cease-fire.Israel says 97 of its soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-attack-military-war-a8f63b07641212f0de61861844e5e71e">raided southern Israel</a>&nbsp;on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hostages-gaza-b6ffc286ca7d4b48caaada43e9c6e411">about 240 hostages.</a>Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter Gaza freely. With only a trickle of humanitarian aid reaching a small portion of Gaza, residents have reported severe food shortages.Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden’s administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel. The administration approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million, the State Department said.

Biden approves emergency tank ammunition sale to Israel 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania’s president has resigned&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/harvard-mit-penn-campus-antisemitism-20b8513293ee2dbaee053a6fd3f8ce7a">amid pressure from donors and criticism</a>&nbsp;over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

The chairman of the Ivy League school's board of trustees, Scott Bok, also resigned, the university said Saturday evening, just hours after Bok announced Liz Magill's departure as president in just her second year.

The university said Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the university’s Carey Law School. She has agreed to keep serving as Penn’s leader until the university names an interim president.

Calls for Magill's firing exploded after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/antisemitism-islamophobia-education-universities-hamas-israel-3ae6f640de936f7228a63331efbb85ad">Tuesday’s testimony</a>&nbsp;in a U.S. House committee on antisemitism on college campuses, where she appeared with the presidents of Harvard University and MIT.

Universities across the U.S. have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-antisemitism-europe-massacre-war-protests-1d26266dfd9b2b8dd4c795f420abab47">fears of antisemitism worldwide</a>&nbsp;and fallout from Israel’s intensifying&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">war in Gaza</a>, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/unrwa-lazzarini-gaza-israel-hamas-war-95ce3c409bd8566ed26d60aa75223546">Palestinian death toll</a>.

The three presidents were called before the committee to answer those accusations. But their lawyerly answers drew renewed blowback from opponents, focused particularly on a line of questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Penn’s code of conduct.

“If the speech turns into conduct it can be harassment, yes,” Magill said. Pressed further, Magill told Stefanik, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”

Criticism of Magill rained down from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, members of Congress and donors. One donor, Ross Stevens, threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Magill was replaced.

A day later, Magill addressed the criticism, saying in a video that she would consider a call for the genocide of Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that Penn’s policies need to be “clarified and evaluated.”

In a statement Saturday, Stefanik said Magill's “forced resignation” is the “bare minimum of what is required" and said Harvard and MIT should follow suit.

“This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America,” Stefanik said.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Magill’s resignation allows Penn to “chart a new course in addressing antisemitism on campus.”

Even before Tuesday's hearing, Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall. Some also had called for the resignation of Bok, who had defended Magill amid criticism over the university’s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism.

That included allowing a Palestinian literary arts festival to be held on its campus in September featuring speakers whose past statements about Israel had drawn accusations of antisemitism.

A former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, Magill, 57, is the daughter of a retired federal judge and was dean of Stanford University’s law school and a top administrator at the University of Virginia before Penn hired her as its ninth president last year.

Bok is chairman and CEO of investment bank Greenhill &amp; Co.

Earlier Saturday, New York's governor called on the state's colleges and universities to swiftly address cases of antisemitism and what she described as any “calls for genocide” on campus.

<a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/SchoolsV2.pdf">In a letter</a>&nbsp;to college and university presidents, Gov. Kathy Hochul said her administration would enforce violations of the state's Human Rights Law and refer any violations of federal civil rights law to U.S. officials.

Hochul said she has spoken to chancellors of the State University of New York and City University of New York public college systems who she said confirmed “that calling for genocide of any group” or tolerating antisemitism violates codes of conduct on their campuses “and would lead to swift disciplinary action.”

The governor's letter doesn't address any specific incidents. Her office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

A popular chant at pro-Palestinian rallies at Penn and other universities has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-israel-hamas-ucla-penn-genocide-057006125279">falsely misrepresented</a>&nbsp;in recent months as claiming to call for “Jewish genocide.”

Experts and advocates say the chant, “Israel, we charge you with genocide,” is a typical refrain heard at pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish and Palestinian supporters both acknowledge protesters aren’t saying “We want Jewish genocide.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702170245592.png" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania’s president has resigned&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/harvard-mit-penn-campus-antisemitism-20b8513293ee2dbaee053a6fd3f8ce7a">amid pressure from donors and criticism</a>&nbsp;over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill resigned Saturday after facing backlash from her congressional testimony earlier this week on antisemitism on college campuses. Here&#39;s the exchange. <a href="https://t.co/EVrAMy33qh">pic.twitter.com/EVrAMy33qh</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1733607598803292487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The chairman of the Ivy League school's board of trustees, Scott Bok, also resigned, the university said Saturday evening, just hours after Bok announced Liz Magill's departure as president in just her second year.The university said Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the university’s Carey Law School. She has agreed to keep serving as Penn’s leader until the university names an interim president.Calls for Magill's firing exploded after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/antisemitism-islamophobia-education-universities-hamas-israel-3ae6f640de936f7228a63331efbb85ad">Tuesday’s testimony</a>&nbsp;in a U.S. House committee on antisemitism on college campuses, where she appeared with the presidents of Harvard University and MIT.Universities across the U.S. have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-antisemitism-europe-massacre-war-protests-1d26266dfd9b2b8dd4c795f420abab47">fears of antisemitism worldwide</a>&nbsp;and fallout from Israel’s intensifying&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">war in Gaza</a>, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/unrwa-lazzarini-gaza-israel-hamas-war-95ce3c409bd8566ed26d60aa75223546">Palestinian death toll</a>.The three presidents were called before the committee to answer those accusations. But their lawyerly answers drew renewed blowback from opponents, focused particularly on a line of questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Penn’s code of conduct.“If the speech turns into conduct it can be harassment, yes,” Magill said. Pressed further, Magill told Stefanik, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”Criticism of Magill rained down from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, members of Congress and donors. One donor, Ross Stevens, threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Magill was replaced.A day later, Magill addressed the criticism, saying in a video that she would consider a call for the genocide of Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that Penn’s policies need to be “clarified and evaluated.”In a statement Saturday, Stefanik said Magill's “forced resignation” is the “bare minimum of what is required" and said Harvard and MIT should follow suit.“This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America,” Stefanik said.U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Magill’s resignation allows Penn to “chart a new course in addressing antisemitism on campus.”Even before Tuesday's hearing, Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall. Some also had called for the resignation of Bok, who had defended Magill amid criticism over the university’s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism.That included allowing a Palestinian literary arts festival to be held on its campus in September featuring speakers whose past statements about Israel had drawn accusations of antisemitism.A former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, Magill, 57, is the daughter of a retired federal judge and was dean of Stanford University’s law school and a top administrator at the University of Virginia before Penn hired her as its ninth president last year.Bok is chairman and CEO of investment bank Greenhill &amp; Co.Earlier Saturday, New York's governor called on the state's colleges and universities to swiftly address cases of antisemitism and what she described as any “calls for genocide” on campus.<a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/SchoolsV2.pdf">In a letter</a>&nbsp;to college and university presidents, Gov. Kathy Hochul said her administration would enforce violations of the state's Human Rights Law and refer any violations of federal civil rights law to U.S. officials.Hochul said she has spoken to chancellors of the State University of New York and City University of New York public college systems who she said confirmed “that calling for genocide of any group” or tolerating antisemitism violates codes of conduct on their campuses “and would lead to swift disciplinary action.”The governor's letter doesn't address any specific incidents. Her office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.A popular chant at pro-Palestinian rallies at Penn and other universities has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-israel-hamas-ucla-penn-genocide-057006125279">falsely misrepresented</a>&nbsp;in recent months as claiming to call for “Jewish genocide.”Experts and advocates say the chant, “Israel, we charge you with genocide,” is a typical refrain heard at pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish and Palestinian supporters both acknowledge protesters aren’t saying “We want Jewish genocide.”___

🎥University president resigns amid antisemitism testimony firestorm

WASHINGTON (AP) —Regulators on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration said the one-time treatments can be used for patients 12 and older with severe forms of the disease. One, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sickle-cell-gene-therapy-crispr-8ded5e3a35b30bd257ac756f8a223c51">first approved therapy</a>&nbsp;based on CRISPR, the gene editing tool that won&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nobel-prizes-united-states-technology-science-europe-14ba023fa7a90b34df2d7a6d0314c796">its inventors</a>&nbsp;the Nobel Prize in 2020. The other is made by Bluebird Bio and works differently.

“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need," the FDA's Dr. Nicole Verdun said in a statement announcing the approvals. “We are excited to advance the field especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease."

The two gene therapies are the first approved in the U.S. for sickle cell. The FDA has previously OK'd 15 gene therapies for other conditions. Some have list prices in the millions of dollars, and the sickle cell therapies will too.

In the U.S., an estimated 100,000 people have sickle cell and about a fifth of them have the severe form. Sickle cell is most common among Black people and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html">1 in 365</a>&nbsp;Black babies are born with the disease nationally. Scientists believe being a carrier of the sickle cell trait helps protect against severe malaria, so the disease occurs more often in mosquito-prone regions such as Africa or in people whose ancestors lived in those places.

The disease affects hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A genetic mutation causes the cells to become sickle or crescent-shaped, which can block blood flow, causing excruciating pain, organ damage, stroke and other problems.

Current treatments include medications and blood transfusions. The only permanent solution is a bone marrow transplant, which must come from a closely matched donor and brings a risk of rejection.

No donor is required for the gene therapies, which permanently change DNA in the patient’s blood cells. The goal of the Vertex therapy, called Casgevy, is to help the body go back to producing a fetal form of hemoglobin that’s present at birth — it’s the adult form that’s defective in people with sickle cell disease. CRISPR is used to knock out a gene in stem cells collected from the patient.

Bluebird’s treatment, called Lyfgenia, aims to add copies of a modified gene, which helps red blood cells produce “anti-sickling” hemoglobin that prevents or reverses misshapen cells.

When patients get the treatments, stem cells are removed from their blood and sent to a lab. Before getting the altered cells back, they must undergo chemotherapy. The process requires at least two hospitalizations, one lasting four to six weeks.

Still, many patients say they’d consider gene therapy given the seriousness of the disease.

Jalen Matthews of Louisville, Kentucky, was diagnosed with sickle cell at birth and had her first pain episode at age 9. Three years later, the disease led to a spinal cord stroke that left her with some paralysis in her left arm and leg.

“I had to learn how to walk again, feed myself, clothe myself, basically learn how to do everything all over again,” said Matthews, now 26.

Today, she keeps her sickle cell at bay with transfusions every two months or so, with five units of her blood replaced with healthy cells. She said gene therapy could be a better option and she plans to ask her doctor about it.

“This one-time kind of cure is very much needed,” said Matthews.

The FDA’s approval is the first for Bluebird’s treatment; Vertex has been previously authorized in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sickle-cell-gene-therapy-treatment-uk-first-9bcf7c7d8b8909fb06e137fee17c767c">Britain</a>&nbsp;and Bahrain.

Studies testing the therapies suggest they work well. Of 31 people treated in the pivotal Vertex study with sufficient follow-up, 29 were free of pain crises for at least a year. In the Bluebird study, 28 of 32 patients had no severe pain or organ damage between six and 18 months after the therapy.

But doctors point out there are possible side effects and the long-term outcomes are unknown. For both, the necessary chemotherapy comes with risks such as infertility, hair loss and vulnerability to serious infection.

With the Bluebird therapy, blood cancer has occurred, so the FDA said the label will include a “black box warning” about that risk. With the Vertex therapy, some scientists worry that CRISPR brings the possibility of “off-target effects,” which are unexpected changes to a person’s genome.

“It’s important to be cautious and to be optimistic about this therapy, but also know that there’s still not a ton of experience with it,” said Dr. Benjamin Watkins, director of the pediatric stem cell and cell therapy program at Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

Doctors said they don’t expect every medical center to offer the gene therapies because they require so much equipment and coordination between medical specialists. They also don’t expect lots of people to seek them right away. Watkins said some may want to wait until more people get the treatments.

Experts also warned that cost could be a hurdle. The list price for Bluebird Bio is $3.1 million and for Vertex, $2.2 million. What patients might pay will depend on insurance coverage and other factors. To help cover the cost, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cms.gov/blog/cms-launches-action-plan-sickle-cell-disease-month">announced</a>&nbsp;a plan that aims to establish partnerships with state Medicaid agencies and drug companies.

But eventually, gene therapy “could be transformative and really change the landscape of sickle cell disease,” said Dr. Monica Bhatia, who treats children with the disease at NewYork-Presbyterian.

Matthews, who volunteers with The Sickle Cell Association of Kentuckiana, said she’s hopeful the treatments will have a big impact.

WASHINGTON (AP) —Regulators on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S.The Food and Drug Administration said the one-time treatments can be used for patients 12 and older with severe forms of the disease. One, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sickle-cell-gene-therapy-crispr-8ded5e3a35b30bd257ac756f8a223c51">first approved therapy</a>&nbsp;based on CRISPR, the gene editing tool that won&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nobel-prizes-united-states-technology-science-europe-14ba023fa7a90b34df2d7a6d0314c796">its inventors</a>&nbsp;the Nobel Prize in 2020. The other is made by Bluebird Bio and works differently.“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need," the FDA's Dr. Nicole Verdun said in a statement announcing the approvals. “We are excited to advance the field especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease."The two gene therapies are the first approved in the U.S. for sickle cell. The FDA has previously OK'd 15 gene therapies for other conditions. Some have list prices in the millions of dollars, and the sickle cell therapies will too.In the U.S., an estimated 100,000 people have sickle cell and about a fifth of them have the severe form. Sickle cell is most common among Black people and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html">1 in 365</a>&nbsp;Black babies are born with the disease nationally. Scientists believe being a carrier of the sickle cell trait helps protect against severe malaria, so the disease occurs more often in mosquito-prone regions such as Africa or in people whose ancestors lived in those places.The disease affects hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A genetic mutation causes the cells to become sickle or crescent-shaped, which can block blood flow, causing excruciating pain, organ damage, stroke and other problems.Current treatments include medications and blood transfusions. The only permanent solution is a bone marrow transplant, which must come from a closely matched donor and brings a risk of rejection.No donor is required for the gene therapies, which permanently change DNA in the patient’s blood cells. The goal of the Vertex therapy, called Casgevy, is to help the body go back to producing a fetal form of hemoglobin that’s present at birth — it’s the adult form that’s defective in people with sickle cell disease. CRISPR is used to knock out a gene in stem cells collected from the patient.Bluebird’s treatment, called Lyfgenia, aims to add copies of a modified gene, which helps red blood cells produce “anti-sickling” hemoglobin that prevents or reverses misshapen cells.When patients get the treatments, stem cells are removed from their blood and sent to a lab. Before getting the altered cells back, they must undergo chemotherapy. The process requires at least two hospitalizations, one lasting four to six weeks.Still, many patients say they’d consider gene therapy given the seriousness of the disease.Jalen Matthews of Louisville, Kentucky, was diagnosed with sickle cell at birth and had her first pain episode at age 9. Three years later, the disease led to a spinal cord stroke that left her with some paralysis in her left arm and leg.“I had to learn how to walk again, feed myself, clothe myself, basically learn how to do everything all over again,” said Matthews, now 26.Today, she keeps her sickle cell at bay with transfusions every two months or so, with five units of her blood replaced with healthy cells. She said gene therapy could be a better option and she plans to ask her doctor about it.“This one-time kind of cure is very much needed,” said Matthews.The FDA’s approval is the first for Bluebird’s treatment; Vertex has been previously authorized in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sickle-cell-gene-therapy-treatment-uk-first-9bcf7c7d8b8909fb06e137fee17c767c">Britain</a>&nbsp;and Bahrain.Studies testing the therapies suggest they work well. Of 31 people treated in the pivotal Vertex study with sufficient follow-up, 29 were free of pain crises for at least a year. In the Bluebird study, 28 of 32 patients had no severe pain or organ damage between six and 18 months after the therapy.But doctors point out there are possible side effects and the long-term outcomes are unknown. For both, the necessary chemotherapy comes with risks such as infertility, hair loss and vulnerability to serious infection.With the Bluebird therapy, blood cancer has occurred, so the FDA said the label will include a “black box warning” about that risk. With the Vertex therapy, some scientists worry that CRISPR brings the possibility of “off-target effects,” which are unexpected changes to a person’s genome.“It’s important to be cautious and to be optimistic about this therapy, but also know that there’s still not a ton of experience with it,” said Dr. Benjamin Watkins, director of the pediatric stem cell and cell therapy program at Children’s Hospital New Orleans.Doctors said they don’t expect every medical center to offer the gene therapies because they require so much equipment and coordination between medical specialists. They also don’t expect lots of people to seek them right away. Watkins said some may want to wait until more people get the treatments.Experts also warned that cost could be a hurdle. The list price for Bluebird Bio is $3.1 million and for Vertex, $2.2 million. What patients might pay will depend on insurance coverage and other factors. To help cover the cost, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cms.gov/blog/cms-launches-action-plan-sickle-cell-disease-month">announced</a>&nbsp;a plan that aims to establish partnerships with state Medicaid agencies and drug companies.But eventually, gene therapy “could be transformative and really change the landscape of sickle cell disease,” said Dr. Monica Bhatia, who treats children with the disease at NewYork-Presbyterian.Matthews, who volunteers with The Sickle Cell Association of Kentuckiana, said she’s hopeful the treatments will have a big impact.

FDA approves first gene-editing treatment for illness

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/ed-poindexter-who-spent-a-half-century-in-prison-for-a-crime-many-say-he-didnt-commit-died-thursday/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Ed Poindexter, labeled a political prisoner by many civil rights advocates, died Thursday in prison after a lengthy battle with diabetes and more than a half century behind bars.

Poindexter, 79, and David Rice, who died in prison in 2016, were convicted of murder in the 1970 booby-trap bombing that killed Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard.

The pair were members of a Black Panther-like group and their conviction, amid a period of heightened racial tensions in North Omaha, was one of the most controversial in Nebraska history.

Many claimed Poindexter and Rice, who adopted the name Mondo we Langa, had been framed for the bombing because of their political activism.

It was later revealed that the pair were targets of a controversial FBI program, COINTELPRO, to discredit and undermine such activists. Amnesty International had called for a new trial for them, labeling Poindexter and Rice “prisoners of conscience.”

Many claimed that the star witness against the pair, Duane Peak, who planted the suitcase bomb, had lied on the stand to avoid prison.

“Due to the nature of politics, there was never a legitimate chance for him to be free,” said State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Poindexter on Friday.

Kietryn Zychal, a journalist who has&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.noiseomaha.com/resources/2021/5/6/fifty-years-behind-bars-was-it-justice-or-one-monstrous-fraud">written extensively on the case</a>, said the case against Poindexter was “a ridiculous story,” but that the truth might never be revealed.

“I think that this is a mystery that will never be solved, unless someone who knows something comes forward and tells the truth,” Zychal said.

While the Minard family consistently maintained that the pair were rightly convicted, a “Freedom for Ed” movement was active for several years after legal appeals failed.

Last year, the Midwest Innocence Project agreed to take up his case, but was unable to visit with Poindexter, who was recovering from the amputation of a leg due to diabetes.

A year ago, family members called for his release from prison on medical grounds, arguing that the wheelchair-bound inmate was no longer a threat, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But the plea, directed at then Gov.-elect Jim Pillen, was unsuccessful.

Some friends and family members of Poindexter, a Vietnam veteran, were allowed to visit the inmate, who was placed in hospice care earlier this week.

Zychal said that prison officials were very accommodating to visitors of Poindexter, who was very active in counseling other inmates, especially young inmates.

He worked in a prison audio-visual department, and produced motivational rap songs under the name, “Jammer from the Slammer.” Poindexter was also active in Toastmasters and a prison group, the Harambee Association, that combats alcoholism and encourages a healthy mindset in prison.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702065713744.jpeg" alt="A recent effort to have the conviction of Ed Poindexter overturned included this “Freedom for Ed” billboard erected in North Omaha. (courtesy Kietryn Zychal)" />
 <figcaption>A recent effort to have the conviction of Ed Poindexter overturned included this “Freedom for Ed” billboard erected in North Omaha. (courtesy Kietryn Zychal)</figcaption>
 </figure>Paul Hammel<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/ed-poindexter-who-spent-a-half-century-in-prison-for-a-crime-many-say-he-didnt-commit-died-thursday/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Ed Poindexter, labeled a political prisoner by many civil rights advocates, died Thursday in prison after a lengthy battle with diabetes and more than a half century behind bars.Poindexter, 79, and David Rice, who died in prison in 2016, were convicted of murder in the 1970 booby-trap bombing that killed Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard.The pair were members of a Black Panther-like group and their conviction, amid a period of heightened racial tensions in North Omaha, was one of the most controversial in Nebraska history.Many claimed Poindexter and Rice, who adopted the name Mondo we Langa, had been framed for the bombing because of their political activism.It was later revealed that the pair were targets of a controversial FBI program, COINTELPRO, to discredit and undermine such activists. Amnesty International had called for a new trial for them, labeling Poindexter and Rice “prisoners of conscience.”Many claimed that the star witness against the pair, Duane Peak, who planted the suitcase bomb, had lied on the stand to avoid prison.“Due to the nature of politics, there was never a legitimate chance for him to be free,” said State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Poindexter on Friday.Kietryn Zychal, a journalist who has&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.noiseomaha.com/resources/2021/5/6/fifty-years-behind-bars-was-it-justice-or-one-monstrous-fraud">written extensively on the case</a>, said the case against Poindexter was “a ridiculous story,” but that the truth might never be revealed.“I think that this is a mystery that will never be solved, unless someone who knows something comes forward and tells the truth,” Zychal said.While the Minard family consistently maintained that the pair were rightly convicted, a “Freedom for Ed” movement was active for several years after legal appeals failed.Last year, the Midwest Innocence Project agreed to take up his case, but was unable to visit with Poindexter, who was recovering from the amputation of a leg due to diabetes.A year ago, family members called for his release from prison on medical grounds, arguing that the wheelchair-bound inmate was no longer a threat, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But the plea, directed at then Gov.-elect Jim Pillen, was unsuccessful.Some friends and family members of Poindexter, a Vietnam veteran, were allowed to visit the inmate, who was placed in hospice care earlier this week.Zychal said that prison officials were very accommodating to visitors of Poindexter, who was very active in counseling other inmates, especially young inmates.He worked in a prison audio-visual department, and produced motivational rap songs under the name, “Jammer from the Slammer.” Poindexter was also active in Toastmasters and a prison group, the Harambee Association, that combats alcoholism and encourages a healthy mindset in prison.

Ed Poindexter, who spent a half-century in prison for a crime many say he didn’t commit, died Thursday

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night put on hold a judge's ruling that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-abortion-roe-568c09dc8794c341095189362ece9004">approved an abortion for a pregnant woman</a>&nbsp;whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.

The order by the all-Republican court came more than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevents Texas from enforcing the state's ban in her case.

In a one-page order, the court said it was temporarily staying Thursday's ruling “without regard to the merits." The case is still pending.

“While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state’s request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” said Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.

Cox's attorneys have said they will not share her abortion plans, citing concerns for her safety. In a filing with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, her attorneys indicated she was still pregnant.

Cox was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she filed what is believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-dobbs-anniversary-state-laws-51c2a83899f133556e715342abfcface">that overturned Roe v. Wade</a>. The order issued Thursday only applied to Cox and no other pregnant Texas women.

Cox learned she was pregnant for a third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at a high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to her lawsuit.

Furthermore, doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her two prior cesareans sections, and that another C-section at full term would would endanger her ability to carry another child.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception to the state's abortion ban, and he urged the state's highest court to act swiftly.

“Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” Paxton's office told the court.

He also warned three hospitals in Houston that they could face legal consequences if they allowed Cox's physician to provide the abortion, despite the ruling from state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton called an “activist” judge.

On Friday, a pregnant Kentucky woman&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/ndmark%20U.S.%20Supreme%20Court%20decision%20last%20year%20that%20a%20woman%20has%20asked%20a%20court%20to%20approve%20an%20abortion.">also filed a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;demanding the right to an abortion. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and she wants to have an abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of the state’s ban, the suit said.

Unlike Cox's lawsuit, the Kentucky challenge seeks class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702131734401.png" alt="Kate Cox.Courtesy The Center for Reproductive Rights" />
 <figcaption>Kate Cox.Courtesy The Center for Reproductive Rights</figcaption>
 </figure>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night put on hold a judge's ruling that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-abortion-roe-568c09dc8794c341095189362ece9004">approved an abortion for a pregnant woman</a>&nbsp;whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.The order by the all-Republican court came more than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevents Texas from enforcing the state's ban in her case.In a one-page order, the court said it was temporarily staying Thursday's ruling “without regard to the merits." The case is still pending.“While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state’s request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” said Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.Cox's attorneys have said they will not share her abortion plans, citing concerns for her safety. In a filing with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, her attorneys indicated she was still pregnant.Cox was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she filed what is believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-dobbs-anniversary-state-laws-51c2a83899f133556e715342abfcface">that overturned Roe v. Wade</a>. The order issued Thursday only applied to Cox and no other pregnant Texas women.Cox learned she was pregnant for a third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at a high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to her lawsuit.Furthermore, doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her two prior cesareans sections, and that another C-section at full term would would endanger her ability to carry another child.Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception to the state's abortion ban, and he urged the state's highest court to act swiftly.“Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” Paxton's office told the court.He also warned three hospitals in Houston that they could face legal consequences if they allowed Cox's physician to provide the abortion, despite the ruling from state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton called an “activist” judge.On Friday, a pregnant Kentucky woman&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/ndmark%20U.S.%20Supreme%20Court%20decision%20last%20year%20that%20a%20woman%20has%20asked%20a%20court%20to%20approve%20an%20abortion.">also filed a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;demanding the right to an abortion. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and she wants to have an abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of the state’s ban, the suit said.Unlike Cox's lawsuit, the Kentucky challenge seeks class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion.

Court puts hold on Judge's ruling in unprecedented abortion case

JERUSALEM (AP)— The Israeli military says two soldiers have been seriously wounded in a failed attempt to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

The military said Friday that it killed numerous militants in the overnight operation, but was unable to rescue any hostages.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/10/1696679013332.png" alt="File -Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. . (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)" />
 <figcaption>File -Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. . (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)</figcaption>
 </figure>JERUSALEM (AP)— The Israeli military says two soldiers have been seriously wounded in a failed attempt to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza.The military said Friday that it killed numerous militants in the overnight operation, but was unable to rescue any hostages.Earlier Friday, Hamas said its fighters had stopped a rescue attempt and clashed with Israeli special forces. It claimed an Israeli soldier who was being held hostage was killed by Israeli air fire meant to protect the withdrawing forces. Israel’s military had no comment on the claim.Hamas is believed to be holding some 137 hostages who were captured in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack that triggered the war.Meanwhile, the United States&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-un-resolution-ceasefire-humanitarian-6d3bfd31d6c25168e828274d96b85cf8">vetoed a United Nations resolution</a>&nbsp;demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.Friday's vote came after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-un-secretarygeneral-humanitarian-ceasefire-69be52737db67c061280823ec3019f0d">invoked Article 99</a>&nbsp;of the U.N. Charter, which enables a U.N. chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-12-06-2023-156afcb1626f1cb4e9e26e5430c7185c">“humanitarian catastrophe”</a>&nbsp;in Gaza.U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”Around 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza</a>&nbsp;said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.