LAS VEGAS (AP) ' When his parents were about his age, they bought their first home. But for 27-year-old Brian Torres Suazo, that milestone feels like a distant dream, despite a secure job with union wages and down payment assistance.

Torres Suazo expects to continue sharing an apartment with roommates for the foreseeable future, kept on the sidelines of homeownership by stubbornly high costs, even in cities once known for their affordability, such as his native Las Vegas.

Hes not alone. In a restless electorate frustrated by high prices, the cost of housing stands out. Democrats are pushing to channel this anger into support for their quest to chip away at Republicans unified control of Washington, maintaining their focus on economic concerns even when war with Iran dominates the news.

Their path cuts through Nevada, a perennial swing state won by Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and now home to closely contested U.S. House races.

'I would be paying more ' a lot more ' in mortgage than I am for rent right now,' said Torres Suazo, a food runner on the Las Vegas Strip. Sometimes he feels like politicians arent listening to people like him. 'Itd be nice if more people that knew what its like to work for a living could be in those rooms to make decisions,' he added.

Housing affordability isnt just a coastal concern

In all directions from the Strip, tract homes with sharp-angled roofs and earthy paint schemes sprout from the desert by the dozen. Streets to nowhere snake through the dirt, ready for future homes. Wooden signs dot roadsides advertising homes from the $300,000s for a townhome to over $1 million for big houses in the most desirable suburban neighborhoods.

Housing costs have long been a potent political issue in pricey metropolitan areas like New York and San Francisco, but now the issue is popping up virtually everywhere.

During the coronavirus pandemic, white-collar workers newly empowered to work remotely cashed out their equity in high-priced cities and bid up prices across Sun Belt cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, and Charlotte, North Carolina. At the same time, near-zero interest rates drove a wave of refinancing that gave existing homeowners mortgage payments that now seem impossibly low.

Almost 40 million people visited Las Vegas last year, and gamblers wagered $14 billion at Clark County casinos, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The steady flow of people and cash attracts dreamers and strivers with the promise of a good job and an affordable home.

The population of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, grew 17% to 2.4 million between 2014 and 2024. The country as a whole grew 6% over that period.

'If you ask locals who grew up here, some of them feel that housing is out of reach for them,' said Las Vegas real estate agent Tony Clifford. 'You talk to somebody from out of state ' Northwest, West, California ' were still so cheap compared to them.'

Home prices and mortgage rates have ticked down from historic highs in much of the country, and real estate agents say Las Vegas is now considered a buyers market. Houses are staying on the market longer, and more sellers are accepting discounted offers or offering concessions, such as covering closing costs. But monthly mortgage payments are still much higher than they were before the pandemic.

In Las Vegas, resale home prices rose 53% between December 2019 and the same month last year, according to the Case-Shiller index. The index tracks homes that have previously sold, excluding new construction, which makes up more than a quarter of the Las Vegas market.

In Las Vegas, the median home sale price rose 65% between the first quarter of 2020 and the same period last year, reaching $393,000, according to Federal Reserve data. It ticked down to $379,000 during the fourth quarter last year.

Nationally, 30-year mortgage rates followed a similar trend, bottoming out at 2.65% nationally in 2021 before peaking in 2023 at nearly 8%. Theyve settled around 6% this quarter.

Still, even with rates and prices stabilizing, they remain higher than they were before the pandemic. The median resale house at the prevailing interest rates with 20% down would cost $2,300 per month in December 2025, double the figure from December 2019.

Big investors are buying up houses

Large investors own about 11% of single-family home rentals in Las Vegas, according to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, compared with about 3% nationally.

Theyre increasingly becoming bipartisan targets as they buy and rent out single-family homes, though economists generally discount the benefits of constraining them. Trump and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, are both among a growing cadre of officials calling for limits on corporate homeownership.

'People live in homes, not corporations,' Trump said in a social media post in January, calling for Congress to ban large institutional investors from buying houses. Hes also pressured the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and proposed extending mortgage terms to 50 years, privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and allowing homebuyers to tap retirement or Education Savings Accounts for a down payment.

Fords housing plan, released last month, also calls for banning algorithmic pricing of rents, tackling regulatory barriers that block or slow new construction and seeking to unlock federal land for homebuilding. The federal government owns 84% of the land in Nevada.

Nevadas Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is one of the most vulnerable incumbent state leaders in the country, has tried to address the problem, announcing last month that his administration has approved $64 million to boost a dozen housing development projects, mostly in the Las Vegas and Reno areas, along with assistance for homebuyers.

The midterms may hinge on affordability

Democrats are making affordability the central plank of their pitch to voters in November, arguing that Trump has failed in his campaign promise to bring prices back down despite Republican control of Congress. They believe anxiety over the cost of living has been a major factor in their victories in a series of off-year elections, including the races for governor of New Jersey and Virginia as well as special elections down the ballot.

Many Americans say Trump is focusing on the wrong priorities, according to multiple surveys, including a January AP-NORC poll, and they largely think Trump is neglecting the issue of costs at home.

Trump was reelected in large part because of economic concerns, but recent polling shows that the bulk of Americans arent seeing benefits from his policies yet, and most dont think hes paying enough attention to the issue.

A large share of registered voters see the economy as one of the top issues facing the country, and a recent New York Times poll found that about half of registered voters say Trumps policies have made life for most Americans 'less affordable.'

The issue will remain salient in November even as the Iran war raises interest in foreign policy, said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, one of the architects of Bill Clintons 1992 strategy that emphasized domestic economic concerns during a time of global upheaval from the first Gulf War and the fall of the Soviet Union.

'Trumps refusal to raise the minimum wage, and his willingness to raise the cost of health care, electricity, hamburger, and now gas, is a two-edged sword that will cut down a large number of congressional Republicans,' Begala said.

Housing is a thorny political issue. Rooted homeowners like high prices that inflate their net worth, at least on paper, a reality that Trump has nodded to repeatedly this year, assuring homeowners he wants to keep their values high.

But those prices become handcuffs if they want to move on but are priced out of the bigger homes or better neighborhoods theyre eying.

Michele Niemeyer feels trapped in the condo she bought for more than $500,000 just off the Strip. The homeowners association fee just went up to $686 a month, straining her budget, and the value of her unit has plummeted. But the neighborhoods that were in her budget when she bought the condo are now out of reach.

'I want to move,' Niemeyer said. 'I just dont know where.'

World leaders have tried and failed to curb climate change by appealing to nations to act for the common good. Now, the Iran war and its costly energy crunch have some experts wondering if selfishness and nationalism may be a more likely way to save the planet, by boosting support for homegrown renewables over imported fossil fuels.

Bombed refineries, disrupted shipping channels for oil and liquefied natural gas and skyrocketing fuel prices should point even the most reluctant leaders to a cleaner fossil free future, hope some experts.

But others are dismissive, noting the same speculation emerged, and then quickly flopped, as recently as Russias invasion of Ukraine. That prompted some European nations to replace gas with even dirtier coal.

'Just wishful thinking,' said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who tracks global emissions of carbon dioxide.

The head of the United Nations will argue otherwise on Monday.

'The turmoil we are witnessing today in the Middle East makes it evident that we are facing a global energy system largely tied to fossil fuels ' where supply is concentrated in a few regions and every conflict risks sending shock waves through the global economy,' U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in an email to The Associated Press. 'In past oil shocks, countries had little choice but to absorb the pain. Now they have an exit ramp.

'Homegrown renewable energy has never been cheaper, more accessible, or more scalable,' Guterres said. 'The resources of the clean energy era cannot be blockaded or weaponized.'

Going alone versus together

Annual U.N. climate conferences aimed at global cooperation have accomplished little. The most recent meeting in Brazil, known as COP30, ended with a statement that didnt even mention the words 'fossil fuels,' much less include a timeline to reduce their use. Guterres said then that he 'cannot pretend that COP30 has delivered everything that is needed.' Under President Donald Trump, whose attack on Iran has sparked new energy concerns, the U.S. didnt even participate in the Brazil meeting.

Even though renewable energy use and new installations are soaring globally, outpacing fossil fuel growth, the world continues to increase its fossil fuel use every year with emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane rising to new highs year after. Thats driving atmospheric warming that increases costly and deadly extreme weather, including dangerous heat, around the world.

'The bottom line is that for at least another five years and maybe longer, emissions reduction will in fact be dealt with largely unilaterally,' said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton climate and international affairs professor. 'If countries see the Israel-U.S.-Iran war as a further reason to head for the exits on fossil fuels by loosening domestic opposition to the necessary policies, that will be accomplished unilaterally at the domestic level.'

A moment of opportunity may be here

Caroline Baxter, director of the Converging Risks Lab at the Council on Strategic Risks in Washington, said there has already been a 'dramatic slowdown' in the movement of fossil fuels to various ports due to the conflict. And for countries like Japan or South Korea that depend on tankers arriving in their ports to deliver energy, this is a really big deal, she said.

Baxter said she 'wouldnt be surprised' if some shift to green energy because of the conflict, if only because renewable energy offers more stability than fossil fuels do.

'I think there is an opportunity, rightly or wrongly, for countries to really turn inward and try to power themselves in a way that cuts off their dependence on other nations for that source,' said Baxter, who was U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training from 2021 to 2024 under the Biden administration.

Baxter said if shes right and if 'everyone does it in their backyard,' it will limit future climate change 'without the thorny diplomatic negotiations and the glad-handing and the machinations behind closed doors' of international climate conferences.

The war will lead to more solar panels and heat pumps installed in coming months, said energy analyst Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, of IEEFA Europe.

A reality check from Ukraine: ‘Exactly the wrong lesson

More skeptical analysts point to the Russian invasion of Ukraine a few years ago, which put a massive kink in Europes natural gas supply, yet didnt change the worlds fossil fuel dependence. Politicians often pivot to other fossil fuels to address war-oriented energy insecurity, such as coal, which releases even higher amounts of heat-trapping gases.

'We have seen this at the European level where actors post-2022 slowly wanted to move away from the energy transition which is exactly the wrong lesson,' said war studies lecturer Pauline Heinrichs at Kings College in the United Kingdom.

Just as Europe did then, many countries, like China and India ' already the worlds No. 1 and No. 3 carbon-emitting countries ' could turn to more coal use, said Ohio Universitys Geoff Dabelko, an expert on climate and conflict, and University of St. Andrews Neta Crawford, author of 'The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions.'

War and militaries pollute the air

Whatever happens with nations energy choices, the war itself will spike emissions.

Even before it began, reports showed that the worlds militaries are responsible for 5.5% of Earths heat-trapping emissions each year, more than any country except China, the United States and India.

Crawford, co-founder of the Costs of War project at Brown Universitys Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, said fighter jets consuming vast quantities of fuel, releasing carbon dioxide and other pollutants, is just one example.

'The consequences of war on emissions will far exceed any incremental offset in emissions due to increased enthusiasm for a green transition,' she said.

Borenstein reported from Washington and McDermott from Providence, Rhode Island.

The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

WASHINGTON (AP) ' As Congress responds to President Donald Trumps attack on Iran, lawmakers who served on the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan are making their voices heard in a war debate that has taken on intensely personal meaning.

Many admit mixed feelings, taking satisfaction in seeing vengeance taken on the leadership of an Iranian regime that has targeted U.S. service members for decades, yet fearful that another generation of soldiers could soon face the same combat experiences that they did.

'Do I take gratification? You know theres the Marine side of me: Yeah, of course,' said Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, whose company suffered some of the heaviest losses on the U.S. side during the Iraq War. 'I know they killed a lot of American soldiers, American Marines. But do I also understand that I have a responsibility not to let my lust for revenge drive my country into another war?'

Experiences in the post 9/11 wars are also coloring the decisions of the Trump administration, given that top officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were once deployed to Iraq.

Gallego, like others on Capitol Hill, leaned heavily on his firsthand experience of fighting in the wars after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as he assessed the Iran conflict. Lawmakers wore bracelets etched with the names of friends killed in battle, told stories of coming under attack from Iran-backed militant groups and reflected on their own life-changing injuries suffered during combat.

Veteran lawmakers are wary of war

While the initial votes on Iran saw Congress divide mostly along party lines, with Republicans backing Trumps actions and Democrats warning of an extended conflict, veterans in both parties share deep reservations about entering the conflict.

'As somebody who knows a lot of friends that didnt come home and a lot of Gold Star families, thats why the week before the attack, I was actually one of the ones that was talking about caution and why we needed to avoid at all costs getting into another long, drawn-out Middle Eastern war,' said Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, a former Navy SEAL who left college to enlist the week after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Crane said his concerns were partially assuaged by briefings from the Trump administration that indicated to him the president is not planning a drawn-out war. He voted against a war powers resolution that would have halted attacks on Iran unless Trump got congressional approval.

But Crane said wars are never straightforward. 'Ive been on military operations that did not go to plan many times, and so I understand the nature,' he said, adding that he was calling for the Trump administration to approach the conflict with 'humility and caution.'

Gallego and other Democrats worried that it was too late for that approach. They paid tribute to the six U.S. military members who were killed in a drone strike in Kuwait and worried that there could soon be more American casualties.

'War is dirty, and mistakes happen,' Gallego said. The longer the conflict drags on, he added, the more chance there will be for U.S. military members to be killed. He said he saw that in Iraq when friends would be killed by seemingly random shots from enemy combatants.

Still, many Republicans argued that it was necessary to attack Iran to stop a regime that for decades has helped train and arm militant groups throughout the Middle East. Republican Rep. Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led the debate on the House floor against the war powers resolution.

Mast, who served as an Army bomb disposal expert, now uses prosthetic legs after receiving catastrophic injuries from an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. 'Me especially, many of my other colleagues, no one wants to see our military go into combat or war,' he said.

Then he added, 'But Irans terror, which has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans, it has to stop.'

Trying to push soldiers to forefront of war debate

Important questions loom for Congress as the conflict with Iran unfolds and spreads to other parts of the Middle East. The price for the operation is already likely running into the billions of dollars, likely forcing the Trump administration to soon seek billions in funding from Congress. The outbreak of war has also scrambled global alliances and the future of U.S. foreign policy.

Shadowing it all is the potential of another drawn-out conflict. Lawmakers said they owe it to their fallen comrades to ensure that doesnt happen.

'To me, its to speak out. Its to say another generation should not go fight in an open-ended, ill-conceived regime change war in the Middle East,' said Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan, his hand moving to a bracelet etched with the names of friends who were killed during his two Army combat tours in Iraq.

Others remembered how frustrated they became with Washington during their service, especially as soldiers tried to fight with insufficiently armored vehicles and not enough troops.

'I know what it was like to be on the very end of the receiving line of the decisions made in Washington,' said Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, who entered the Army as a private before being promoted to a captain and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Crow said that front-line soldiers often suffered 'because people stopped asking tough questions. People stopped being held accountable. Congress stopped voting on it.'

Another veteran, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, said that was one of the reasons she sought a congressional seat in the first place. As a Blackhawk helicopter pilot with the Illinois National Guard, Duckworth lost her legs when her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.

'I ran for Congress so that when the drums of war started beating once again, Id be in a position to make sure that our elected officials fully considered the true cost of the war,' she said. 'Not just in dollars and cents but in human lives.'

NEW YORK (AP) ' Uber launched a feature Monday to allow both women riders and drivers across the U.S. to be matched with other women for trips, expanding a pilot program aimed at addressing concerns about the safety of its riding-hailing platform.

The new feature is being rolled out nationwide despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against the policy in California, filed by Uber drivers who argue that it is discriminatory against men. Rival ride-hailing company Lyft is also facing a discrimination lawsuit over a similar offering that it introduced nationwide in 2024.

The feature, announced in a blog post, allows women to request a female driver through an option on the app called 'Women Drivers.' Passengers can opt for another ride if the wait for a woman is too long, and they can also reserve a trip with a woman driver in advance. A third option allows female users to set a preference for a woman driver in their app settings, which would increase the chances of being matched with a female driver, though it would not guarantee it. Uber is also allowing its teen account users to request women drivers.

Ubers women drivers can set the apps preferences to request trips with female riders, and they can turn off that preference at anytime.

Uber, based in San Francisco, says about one-fifth of its drivers in the U.S. are women, thought the ratio varies by city.

Two California Uber drivers filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber in November, arguing that its Women Preferences feature violates Californias Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises. The lawsuit charges that the feature gives its minority female drivers access to the entire pool of passengers, while leaving its majority male drivers to compete for a smaller pool of passengers. The lawsuit also argues that Ubers policy 'reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.'

Uber filed a motion to compel arbitration in the case, citing an agreement the plaintiffs signed when joining the app as drivers. In the motion, Uber disputed that its new feature violates the Unruh Act, saying it 'serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety.'

'This feature is a common sense solution to a long-standing request from both women Drivers and Riders who told Uber they would feel more comfortable and safer if they could choose to ride with another woman,' the company said in the court filing.

Two Lyft drivers have filed a similar lawsuit against that company against its 'Women+Connect' feature, which allows women and nonbinary riders to match with drivers of the same identification.

Uber piloted the 'Women Preferences' feature in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit last summer and expanded it to 26 U.S. cities in November. The company first launched a version of the feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019 following the countrys landmark law granting women the right to drive. It now offers similar options in 40 other countries, including Canada and Mexico.

Both Uber and Lyft have for years faced criticism over their safety records, including thousands of reports of sexual assaults from both passengers and drivers. In February, federal jury found Uber to be legally responsible in a 2023 case of sexual assault and the company was ordered to pay $8.5 million to an Arizona woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers.

Uber maintains that because its drivers are contractors and not employees, its not liable for their misconduct. But Uber says has taken multiple steps in efforts to improve safety, including teaming up with Lyft in 2021 to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints over sexual assault and other crimes.

Uber says sexual assault reports have decreased over the years. According to reports from Uber, 5,981 incidents of sexual assault were reported in U.S. rides between 2017 and 2018 ' compared to 2,717 between 2021 and 2022 (the latest years with data available), which the platform says represented 0.0001% of total trips nationwide.

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Anthropic is suing the Trump administration, asking federal courts to reverse the Pentagons decision designating the artificial intelligence company a ' supply chain risk ' over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology.

Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday, one in California federal court and another in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., each challenging different aspects of the Pentagons actions against the company.

The Pentagon last week formally designated the San Francisco tech company a supply chain risk after an unusually public dispute over how its AI chatbot Claude could be used in warfare.

'These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic’s lawsuit says. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executives unlawful campaign of retaliation.'

The Defense Department declined to comment Monday, citing a policy of not commenting on matters in litigation.

Anthropic said it sought to restrict its technology from being used for two high-level usages: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials publicly insisted the company must accept 'all lawful uses' of Claude and threatened punishment if Anthropic did not comply.

Designating the company a supply chain risk cuts off Anthropic’s defense work using an authority that was designed to prevent foreign adversaries from harming national security systems. It was the first time the federal government is known to have used the designation against a U.S. company.

President Donald Trump also said he would order federal agencies to stop using Claude, though he gave the Pentagon six months to phase out a product thats deeply embedded in classified military systems, including those used in the Iran war.

Anthropic’s lawsuit also names other federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury and State, after officials ordered employees to stop using Anthropics services.

Even as it fights the Pentagons actions, Anthropic has sought to convince businesses and other government agencies that the Trump administrations penalty is a narrow one that only affects military contractors when they are using Claude in work for the Department of Defense.

Making that distinction clear is crucial for the privately held Anthropic because most of its projected $14 billion in revenue this year comes from businesses and government agencies that are using Claude for computer coding and other tasks. More than 500 customers are paying Anthropic at least $1 million annually for Claude, according to a recent investment announcement valued the company at $380 billion.

Anthropic said in a statement Monday that 'seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners.”

The letter from Dawyn Harrison, county counsel, dated Feb. 27, was sent to the Catalina Island Conservancy (CIC) which manages 88% of the island located off the coast of Long Beach, and Charlton H. Bonham, director California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which granted the permit in January.

The CIC’s approved plan for eradication of the deer is part of an effort to better balance the island’s plant and animal life. The plan contends the deer are eating the native grasses, which harm the island’s ecosystem and increase the growth of more flammable, invasive grasses that can fuel a wildfire.

Harrison, along with LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn whose district includes Catalina Island, and LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, says the total elimination of plant-eating deer will increase the island’s fire risk, not reduce it. They advocate thinning the herd, but leaving a small deer population to keep brush volume down.

This is similar to using grazing goats to reduce the amount of dry brush on hillsides and wild lands. Goats were recently left to graze on hillsides in Glendale to reduce wildfire risk. 

Marrone’s memo to Hahn in part warns that total elimination of grazing deer will surge growth of “fine fuels” that increase wildfire danger to the city of Avalon.

Marrone wrote mule deer eat native plant stubs that are often replaced by invasive grasses, which follows the CIC plan principles. Yet the chief said the fire intensity from the new grasses is not as strong as from the native plants.

Without at least some deer eating vegetation from hillsides, it would 'elevate wildfire risk to developed areas, particularly in Avalon and other locations where heavy fuels are present within 200 feet of structures,' he wrote. The island is listed as a 'Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,' by CalFire, the highest risk category.

The CIC disagreed with Marrone’s assessment, and dismissed Harrison’s letter and her ask for a stay.

“The Los Angeles County Counsel’s letter challenging the Catalina Island Conservancy’s restoration project is based on factually incorrect information that is not rooted in science and furthers misconceptions about the realities on Catalina Island,” wrote Pepe Barton, a spokesperson for the island’s Conservancy in an emailed response.

“The suggestion that removing invasive mule deer endangers human life is simply false,” Barton continued. “Wildfire and conservation experts agree: removing invasive deer will make the island more resilient to wildfire, not less.”

Barton quotes Robert Fitch, a fire ecologist and researcher, who agrees with the plan that the deer’s chomping on native plants, such as chaparral, thus allowing invasive grasses to grow in their place weakens the island’s resilience to wildfires.

“Reducing flashy fuels in order to decrease ignition risk is a cornerstone of wildfire management in Southern California,” Fitch wrote.

Barton said the Conservancy already does brush clearing and removing, and is working with leaseholders to create defensible space around camps and coves. It will be adding 11 staff members to be “wildland firefighters” while equipping them with protective gear. They will take direction from LAC Fire Department.

Harrison and Hahn argue that the Conservancy is going about hillside management all wrong. Harrison called it “a moral failure” because the killing of these animals living on the mostly tourist island for 100 years is a violation of the animals’ dignity.

“While these deer were introduced to the island a century ago, they are indigenous to California and deserve a strategy that respects their status as sentient creatures,” Harrison wrote.

The population of deer is estimated at 2,040 by the CIC, though they haven’t produced a survey or count documents, Hahn said. The mule deer have been part of the island’s ecosystem for 100 years and have become a favorite of many of the island residents.

Back in April 2024, the CIC advocated using helicopters flying low with sharpshooters to take out the deer. Hahn said 90,000 signatures were collected in opposition to the plan, which also was opposed by the Catalina Island Humane Society, who called the planned aerial shooting 'brutal, inhumane, unnecessary and dangerous.'

That plan was dropped. But the new plan to use trained sharpshooters on the ground to carry out the killings over five years also drew Hahn’s opposition.

Harrison noted that the resource management plan included using helicopters to circle the deer and drop aerial nets to entangle them, so that they can be shot more easily while trapped. And also, dogs would be used to flush out deer hiding in bushes or in steep terrain, to expose them to waiting sharpshooters.

“First, the proposed methods of utilizing aerial net capture, nocturnal ground shooting with drone support, and hunting dogs over a five-year period are inhumane and deeply distressing,” Harrison wrote.

Hahn, in a video message listing several points why the plan is flawed, said wiping out an entire population of animals without a proper survey of their population is careless at best. “If you say there are so many deer you ‘have’ to kill every last animal, you don’t guess. You verify.”

Hahn has repeatedly suggested using sterilization to thin out the herd. But the CIC reject that option as too costly and not feasible.

“Proceeding with a five-year mass slaughter without a definitive, peer-reviewed population survey is scientifically reckless and erodes all public trust,” Harrison wrote.

She described their plan as a “moral failure” that attempts to protect endemic island species and their habitat at any cost. Harrison asked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to adjust the plan to include sterilization and better fire-risk components. She also suggested the CIC issue more hunting permits to the public. Another option is relocating the animals to the mainland, she wrote.

Harrison said by not changing the plan and not taking into account Chief Marrone’s assessment regarding fire risks, the CIC and the state environmental agency that OK’d the permit “are prioritizing plant life over the safety of human residents.”

Harrison wrote that her office reserves the right to use other remedies at its disposal. This could include litigation.

Hahn, who has been fighting plans to eradicate Catalina Island’s deer population for nearly two years, said in her video message she will keep fighting to save the deer.

“We can protect Catalina’s ecosystem without pulling the trigger on total eradication of the deer that islanders have come to cherish. Because once they are gone, they are gone,” said Hahn in the video.

MIAMI (AP) ' Jury selection began Monday in the U.S. federal trial of four men charged in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haitis former leader, plus related charges. They face possible life sentences. They all pleaded not guilty.

Christian Sanon was set to go on trial, but his attorney confirmed Monday that Sanons case was severed from the others because of medical reasons. A separate trial for Sanon will be scheduled for a later date.

The trial against all five defendants was previously set for last year, but U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra in Miami agreed to delay the case because of discovery challenges and the large volume of evidence.

Five others have already pleaded guilty in the conspiracy and are serving life sentences. A sixth person, who officials believe didnt know about the assassination plot, was sentenced to nine years behind bars after pleading guilty to providing body armor to the conspirators.

Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly from Colombia, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince, officials said. Moïses wife, Martine, was wounded during the attack and flown to the U.S. for emergency treatment.

According to court documents, South Florida served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone of the conspirators choosing.

Ortiz and Intriago were principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida.

Sanon is a dual Haitian-American citizen who investigators say was initially favored by the conspirators to replace Moïse. Solages was a CTU representative in Haiti who coordinated with Sanon and others, officials said.

The conspirators met in South Florida in April 2021 and agreed that, once in power, Sanon would award contracts to CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment, investigators said. Worldwide Capital agreed to help finance the coup, extending a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sending money to co-conspirators in Haiti to purchase ammunition, officials said.

CTU initially retained about 20 Colombian nationals with military training to provide security for Sanon. But by June 2021, the conspirators realized Sanon had neither the constitutional qualifications nor sufficient popular support to become president. They then backed Wendelle Coq Thélot, a former Haitian Superior Court judge. She died in January 2025 while still a fugitive.

Besides the 11 people arrested and prosecuted in the U.S., another 20, including 17 Colombian soldiers and three Haitian officials, face charges in Haiti. Gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system have stalled an ongoing investigation.

PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) ' French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged to defend Cyprus, days after dispatching a warship to the east Mediterranean island nation, where a Shahed drone struck a British air base on its southern coast last week during the Iran war.

'When Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked,' Macron said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Cyprus main air base near the southwestern town of Paphos. 'We are bound to one another by strategic partnerships.'

The French president paid a visit to Cyprus to demonstrate his 'full solidarity' with Cyprus, which sustained the first drone attack of the Iran war on European territory.

Macron had ordered the French frigate Languedoc to waters off Cyprus, a fellow European Union member, to bolster its anti-drone and anti-missiles defenses. The French president also sent last week ground-based anti-drone and anti-missile defenses to the island.

Greece already dispatched four F-16 fighter planes to the Paphos air base and its two state-of-the-art frigates Kimon and Psara are already patrolling offshore Cyprus, tasked with intercepting any missiles or drones.

Macron hails ‘unprecedented show of strength

In a show of strength, Macron said he would also deploy a total of eight warships, two helicopter carriers and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider Middle East region, calling the move 'unprecedented.' He is due to go aboard the De Gaulle, which is currently sailing 'very near' Cyprus.

Macron pointed to a French-led initiative currently in the works that will involve European and non-European nations helping to escort oil and gas tankers with the aim of gradually reopening the Strait of Hormuz 'as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict is over.'

Christodoulides said the leaders presence in Cyprus underscores how the EU remains 'united and determined' to ensure the security of its member states.

'Our countries have the common believe that the European Union must engage more actively, more strategically and more coherently with the wider region as part of a comprehensive approach,' Christodoulides said.

Mitsotakis echoed the Cypriot president, saying that 'now is the time to make clear that every inch of European territory is inviolable' but stressed that any action is purely defensive in posture.

'Our sole and exclusive aim it to strengthen the defense of a European Union member state against any threat,' said Mitsotakis. 'And were not going to accept any part of European territory, like Cyprus, to be exposed to the slightest danger.'

EU leaders seek to contain Middle East conflict

Macron has been deeply involved in diplomatic talks in recent days to try to avoid further escalation in the Middle East. On Sunday, he spoke to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and urged him to stop strikes.

Last week, Macron ordered the De Gaulle to move from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean to help protect allied assets, citing the drone strike on Cyprus. Cyprus and France signed a new strategic partnership in December.

Despite the military buildup, the three leaders have urged against any expansion of the conflict. Christodoulides has repeatedly underscored that Cyprus wont take part in any military operation and remains focused on its regional humanitarian role that includes a maritime corridor sending aid to Gaza via the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The Shahed drone caused minor damage to a hangar at the RAF Akrotiri air base minutes after midnight on March 2. No one was injured. Another two drones were intercepted by British Typhoon and F-35 warplanes that were scrambled from the air base shortly after midday that day.

Cyprus officials confirmed last week that the Shahed originated from Lebanon and believe that it was launched by the Hezbollah militant group, Irans proxy in the country. Hezbollahs arsenal notably includes exploding drones, similar to the ones used by Iran.

Lebanons Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji on Sunday condemned the drone attack.

'I called on our Cypriot friends not to confuse the Lebanese state with those acting outside its authority and legal framework,' said Rajji, a staunch opponent of Hezbollah.

The Lebanese government has ordered its security agencies to crack down on non-state groups carrying out attacks.

Macron said France is expending diplomatic capital to ensure a return to calm in the country and to allow for the Lebanese armed forces to assert themselves as Israel continues to pound Hezbollah positions.

'Our goal is simple, Hezbollah must cease all strikes from Lebanese territory, because it is putting all Lebanese people in danger,' Macron said, while urging Israel to cease its strikes in Lebanon.

Menelaos Hadjicostis reported from Nicosia, Cyprus. Kareem Chehayeb contributed to this report from Beirut.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) ' Hungarys Russia-friendly leader is urging the European Union to lift all sanctions on Russian fossil fuels to remedy spikes in energy prices caused by the war in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, considered the Kremlins closest partner in the EU, said in a video posted to social media on Monday that hed sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after 'oil prices began to grow explosively.'

The Iran war, now in its second week, has ensnared places that are critical to the production and movement of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf, leading to price surges on global markets.

In the video, Orbán said that the 27-nation EU must 'review and suspend all sanctions on Russian energy across Europe.' He added he had convened an emergency government meeting on Monday to assess how to prevent further spikes in gasoline and diesel prices in Hungary.

Orbáns nationalist government has long opposed EU efforts to cut Russian energy imports, and along with neighboring Slovakia has maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas since Moscow launched all-out war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Both countries have received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, and have until recently taken Russian crude supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine.

But oil deliveries through the Druzhba have been halted since Jan. 27, leading to an escalating feud between Hungary and Ukraine. The Ukrainian government says that a Russian drone strike damaged the pipelines infrastructure, but Orbán has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of deliberately holding up the oil supplies.

In response, Orbán vetoed a new round of EU sanctions against Russia, and is blocking a major $106 billion EU loan for Ukraine until flows are resumed.

Orbán, lagging in most polls just a month before a critical election, has accused Zelenskyy of seeking to cause an energy crisis in Hungary, in order to influence the outcome of the vote ' part of his governments sweeping anti-Ukraine media campaign leading up to the April 12 ballot.

Further inflaming tensions, Hungary on Thursday temporarily detained seven Ukrainian state bank employees and seized two Ukrainian armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash and gold across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering.

Ukraine has insisted the cash shipment was part of regular services between state banks, and strongly denied the money laundering allegations.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) ' A Nepali political party led by an ex-rapper is set for a landslide victory in the countrys first parliamentary election since Gen Z protests ousted the old leadership that has ruled the Himalayan nation for decades.

The Rastriya Swatantra, or National Independent Party, formed only four years ago, had already won 117 of 165 directly elected seats and led in eight other constituencies in the results published Sunday morning by Nepals Election Commission.

Other political parties and independent candidates had won 36 seats in total so far. Officials were still counting the votes Sunday and final results were expected later in the week.

The partys prime ministerial candidate is rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral race. He emerged as a leading figure in the 2025 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

In Nepal, voters directly elect 165 members to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Parliament. The remaining 110 seats in the 275-member body are allocated through a proportional representation system, under which political parties are assigned seats based on their share of the vote. On Sunday, RSP also led that, with about 51% of the 110 seats.

The relatively new RSP has unseated the two long-dominant parties: the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist'Leninist), who have taken turns ruling the country.

Local papers called the sweeping win a historic moment. 'RSP set for a landslide victory,' said the popular Himalayan Times. 'Peoples ballot revolt; shift in political paradigm,' said Annapurna Post.

RSP supporters have been celebrating the win in several constituencies, offering the winners flower garlands, bouquets, scarves and smearing them with red vermilion powder.

'The future prime minister (Shah) has clearly spoken that there will be no compromise when it comes to developing the country,' said RSP party member and volunteer Khagendra Chapagain, who was at the party headquarters in Kathmandu. 'Our first agenda is to develop nation, and focus will be to work for health, education and the fight against corruption.'

The party officials, however, have asked their candidates and supporters to refrain from victory rallies or any other public celebrations out of respect for the dozens of lives lost during last years youth-led protests.

In Nepal, voters get two ballot papers, one to choose a candidate of their choice who is usually a political party nominee and the other to choose a party they prefer.

RSP clearly has more than half the directly elected seats and the results of the second ballot also show the party has more than 50% of the votes in its favor. They require the support of half the total number of members in the lower chamber of Parliament to form a government.

Analysts say the party would have comfortable numbers in the parliament to form a single-party government but faces challenges running the government.

'The problem or challenge with this new party would be to deliver things, given the limited resources and the limited institutional support. Because people have high expectations, that doesnt necessarily mean that the new party can fulfill it,' said Keshab Prasad Poudel, an independent analyst.

Last years protests against corruption and poor governance were triggered by a social media ban before snowballing into a popular revolt against the government. Dozens were killed and hundreds wounded when protesters attacked government buildings and police opened fire on them.