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Live Nation, Ticketmaster trial to resume after 7 states join a Justice Department settlement

By
The Associated Press
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NEW YORK (AP) — More than 30 states will resume their antitrust trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Monday in a New York federal court after negotiations this week failed to result in many states joining a tentative settlement reached by the Justice Department.

Judge Arun Subramanian said at a hearing in Manhattan on Friday that the states had dropped their request to restart the trial in coming weeks with a different jury.

Lawyers told the judge that Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota were joining the Justice Department in settling.

The other 32 states involved, including many of the nation’s largest and most populated, plan to continue to try to convince a jury that Live Nation Entertainment and its ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster were squelching competition and driving up prices for fans. They say this was done through threats, retaliation and other tactics to “suffocate the competition” by controlling virtually every aspect of the industry, from concert promotion to ticketing.

The companies say they do not monopolize their industry and that artists, sports teams and venues set prices and decide how tickets are sold.

Judge Subramanian said the trial will resume Monday. He also ruled against Live Nation’s objection to trial exhibits in which a company employee several years ago tells another worker that the prices Live Nation charges to access the VIP area of a Tampa, Florida, amphitheater are “outrageous,” that customers paying the fees “are so stupid” and that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them” before writing, “BAHAHAHAHAHA.”

Live Nation had argued against their inclusion in the trial, saying the employees were making “passing references to non-ticket ancillary products — such as VIP club access, premier parking, or lawn chair rentals — sold to concertgoers at two amphitheaters” in Florida and Virginia.

The judge said the overall fan experience is relevant to the relationship between performers and their customers and some artists might not want to perform if fans were being charged too much for lawn chairs or other amenities.

Subramanian said it was no different than the harm that might occur to the film industry if movie theaters began charging $50 for concessions such as soda, candy and popcorn.

The jury began hearing evidence in the case only last week before the Justice Department reached a deal over last weekend that it says will save the public money by letting competitors of Live Nation into some ticket markets that they are currently excluded from.

Many states criticized the deal, saying the federal government failed to get enough concessions from Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Subramanian urged states to negotiate over the past few days to see if they could also settle their claims, but the talks resulted in fewer states settling than the 10 states that a Justice Department official had predicted on Monday were ready to join the federal government’s agreement.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Live Nation attorney Dan Wall told the judge that the chance all states would settle their claims this week was “about zero.”

State lawmakers grill former special prosecutor Nathan Wade over Georgia Trump election case

By
The Associated Press
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ATLANTA (AP) — State senators on Friday grilled the former special prosecutor who led the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump about communications his team had with federal investigators. But their efforts were largely frustrated by his repeated assertions that he couldn’t remember details.

Nathan Wade appeared before a subcommittee of the Special Committee on Investigations, which was created by the Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 to examine various allegations of misconduct against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, with regard to her prosecution of Trump.

While the committee has met multiple times to hear from witnesses, including a combative appearance by Willis in December, it has unearthed little that wasn’t already known. Republicans expanded the committee’s mission to also look into Democrat Stacey Abrams, but the committee has thus far done nothing publicly with her.

Willis obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023. Using Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, she alleged that they had participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss in Georgia. Four people pleaded guilty in the months that followed after reaching deals with prosecutors.

The resolution creating the committee focused on Wade’s hiring as a special prosecutor, saying a romantic relationship between him and Willis amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers” of the county and state. An appeals court in December 2024 removed Willis from the case, finding the relationship created “an appearance of impropriety,” and a new prosecutor dismissed it last November.

While the senators did ask Wade about his hiring — including the timing and how he came to be chosen — there was no mention of his romance with Willis. An opening statement Wade read at the start of the hearing indicated that there had been an agreement beforehand that no personal relationship would be discussed.

Mostly, though, Sen. Greg Dolezal asked Wade about his invoices, particularly several billing entries that seemed to indicate contact with the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and meetings with U.S. Department of Justice officials. But Wade repeatedly said he could not recall when trips or calls happened, who he met or spoke with, who else from his team had participated or what was discussed.

Wade also pushed back, saying there seems to be a big focus on who the team was talking to, but he asserted that the investigative work was done by the team Willis assembled.

“She led us, I led the team and we did the work,” he said. “We didn’t get assistance, coordination, however you want to characterize it. No one held her hand and guided her through the process. This is her work.”

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Dolezal conceded that he did not get everything he wanted. “Look, I wish Mr. Wade had a better memory,” he said, adding that he appreciated Wade appearing and answering questions “to the best of his recollection.”

But Dolezal said he was glad to have established that Wade and his team met with someone connected with the Jan. 6 investigation and also that they were in touch with Department of Justice officials. He said it raises questions about how much coordination existed in an attempt to “get Trump.”

“That notion that it was part of some big conspiracy is absolute fiction,” said Andrew Evans, a lawyer for Wade. He accused the Republican senators of trying to use the committee to shift the focus from real issues that are unfavorable to them as midterm elections approach.

Including Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor, four of the five Republicans on the committee are running for statewide office in 2026. Bill Cowsert is running for attorney general, while Sens. Blake Tillery and Steve Gooch are also each seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Another Republican who had been on the committee, John Kennedy, resigned to pursue his own lieutenant governor bid. Only Dolezal and Cowsert were present for Friday’s subcommittee meeting.

The subcommittee also heard testimony Friday from Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Jeff DiSantis, who handles media relations for Willis’ office. He was asked about Wade’s hiring, which he said he wasn’t aware of until it had been decided, and about the district attorney’s office’s use of a media monitoring service.

The ‘Spieth experience’ is entertaining to fans and frustrating for him at The Players

By
The Associated Press
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jordan Spieth was coming off four straight birdies Friday at The Players Championship when he turned to thousands of fans along for the ride and asked them a question that summed up why he rarely lacks for entertainment.

“Did anyone see where that went?” he said.

His hard draw turned into a hook and hit a tree on the par-5 second hole, and he was fortunate it bounced away from a forest and into short grass just 200 yards away. Instead of having a chance to reach in two, he hit 7-iron back into position and 8-iron short of the green.

And then he holed a 50-foot putt for his fifth straight birdie.

This is the essence of the “Spieth experience,” and it was full on before a large crowd that witnessed a little bit of everything in the second round. But it ended the same way it did on Thursday — a double bogey — that made him settle for a 4-under 68 and left him in the middle of the pack.

“It was just a bummer, both days finish with doubles,” Spieth said. “I just played better than that.”

So much of that work came undone on his final hole at the par-5 ninth — another pull off the tee into the woods, a tree restricting his back swing that forced him to punch out, a 3-hybrid hooked so badly to the left he hit a provisional in case he couldn’t find it, a shot from the pine straw that came up short and bounced back into the bunker, a lip-out from 6 feet for double bogey.

He made seven birdies, hit three trees, made two long putts from off the green and twice had to ask the gallery for help finding his golf ball.

“It was really good. I’ve been playing really well, trying to let the course come to me,” Spieth said. “It’s not quite there yet, but it’s, like, close enough to where I can do what I did today for a while. Just kind of stinks because to finish like that … some days you wonder if you shot one stroke worse but you finished with a birdie if you would actually be happier.

“It’s a weird deal, weird game.”

It’s his life at the moment. Behind him is wrist surgery in August 2024 that he thinks cost him six years because he tried for too long to treat it with rest and therapy. He has been out of the top 50 in the world since July. He is not eligible for the U.S. Open yet.

The game is there, just not always, and certainly throughout the entire round. It seems something is bound to happen at some point, and it was like that Friday.

He closed out the back nine with three straight birdies, including that enormous break when his tee shot was headed well right and caromed off a tree into the fairway. He hit that to 6 feet. Then came a wedge to 3 feet on No. 1, and the birdie on No. 2 from that 50-foot putt to make it five in a row.

And then he missed a 4-foot birdie putt. Go figure.

The real drama came on No. 6 when Spieth tugged his tee shot toward a bunker without seeing the white puff of sand.

“Anyone over here see it land?” he said to the gallery.

Turns out it was embedded into the bank of the grass. After a free drop, his wedge from an awkward lie hit the thick of a palm tree and plopped into the fairway. His pitch was too short and didn’t reach the green. He used putter to hole that from 30 feet.

The Spieth experience.

“The goal was to play 7 and 8 normal golf,” Spieth said, a rare choice of words for him. “Don’t play weird golf like I played on 6, just normal golf … fairways and greens, and then try to attack the par 5. So yeah, I did my job on 7 and 8 there.”

And then came the ninth, another tree, another double bogey to finish his round, and more frustration. He was the co-leader after 54 holes in his TPC Sawgrass debut in 2014, and he hasn’t been better than a tie for 19th since then.

“The last two or three tournaments, just feels like things are getting better and better each week,” he said. “This place has gotten the best of me in the past, and I let it get the best of me a couple times this week already. That cost me probably four shots, so hopefully it’s not too much to make up.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

California launches probe after video shows petition gatherers offering money for signatures

By
The Associated Press
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California election officials said Friday that they are investigating whether signature collectors in San Francisco illegally offered to pay people to sign ballot petitions using false names.

A video posted Monday on X shows a sign that says “Sign petition for $5” and a line of people waiting along the sidewalk. A woman sitting at a folding table appears to be instructing the name and address to use to fill out the petition. When the person recording asked what the petitions were for, the woman said, “Just sign it.”

The California secretary of state’s office said in a statement that it was “aware of, and investigating, the matter.”

In California, people can place measures on the ballot for voter approval by gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures. Campaigns can pay people per signature they gather, providing an incentive for workers to get as many as possible.

At least one of the petitions seen in the video was for a tech-backed ballot measure to fight a proposed tax on billionaires. It’s funded by Building a Better California, a committee started by wealthy business leaders including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who gave $20 million.

The signature collectors were not directly working for the campaign, said Molly Weedn, a spokesperson for the effort. The campaign was cooperating with authorities to reject the petitions collected with falsified information, she said.

“Under no circumstance do we tolerate this type of activity,” Weedn said in a statement. “Our campaign took immediate action and campaign attorneys reported to authorities.”

She said the campaign notified elections officials as soon as the video surfaced.

Another ballot petition funded by Building a Better California for a measure to prohibit new tax on retirement savings also appeared in the video. Spokesperson Nathan Click said the campaign “does not tolerate fraudulent activity in any signature-gathering process.”

“As soon as we became aware of the activities in question, we demanded that our signature-gathering firm identify the petition circulator, reject any and all petitions submitted by this circulator,” Click said in a statement.

There were multiple petitions on the table, and it’s unclear whether they were for any additional campaigns.

Offering money or other gifts in exchange for ballot measure signatures is illegal under the state’s election law, the secretary of state’s office said. Signatures on petitions are reviewed and verified against voter registration records, and those that don’t match won’t be counted.

“It is also a crime to circulate, sign and/or file those signed petitions with an election official any initiative petition that is known to include forged names,” the office said in a statement.

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Associated Press journalist Sophie Austin contributed.

Inclusion of Russia in 2026 Venice Biennale art fair sparks outcry

By
The Associated Press
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ROME (AP) — The inclusion of Russia in the line-up of the 2026 Venice Biennale art fair has sparked international outcry, with the European Commission threatening to withhold funding and 22 European countries demanding Moscow stay away again over its war in Ukraine.

The scandal at the world’s oldest and most important contemporary art fair has put Italy’s Culture Ministry in the crosshairs. It comes just weeks after the Italian government had to stand by as the International Paralympic Committee allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics.

Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli is trying to manage the diplomatic fallout, voicing clear opposition to the Biennale’s decision but acknowledging that its governing foundation is independent of the government and acted autonomously when it included Russia in the line-up for its 61st arts festival.

Russia has a permanent, historic pavilion in the Giardini exhibition area and under the rules governing the arts fair, has a streamlined process allowing it to participate in the show. But Moscow hasn’t appeared since the Ukraine war began: In 2022, the Russian pavilion was shuttered after its artists withdrew following Moscow’s invasion. In the 2024 edition, the pavilion was loaned to Bolivia for its exhibition.

The Venice Biennale Foundation on March 4 announced the line-up for its 2026 edition, which runs May 9-Nov. 22. Ninety-nine nations are participating, including seven for the first time.

Russia’s return to the fair was not highlighted by the Biennale, but it was merely included in the list of participating countries with an exhibition entitled “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” and some three dozen Russian artists participating.

As the outcry mounted, Giuli this week fired the ministry official who sits on the Biennale board, Tamara Gregoretti, accusing her of having failed to disclose to the ministry that Russia had indicated it would be participating and that she had supported its inclusion.

Giuli also launched an investigation to determine if Russia’s participation was compatible with the EU sanctions regime. Specifically, he demanded that the Biennale urgently provide all documentation, including correspondence with Moscow, about Russia’s plan to set up and manage the pavilion during the fair.

He spoke by telephone Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Tetyana Berezhna, and “reiterated the Italian government’s commitment to protecting Ukraine’s cultural identity, which has been under threat for over four years due to the Russian invasion, and reaffirmed his personal commitment and that of the government to the reconstruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage,” the ministry said.

Berezhna, for her part, told Giuli that Russia’s participation was “unacceptable for Kiev and contrasts with the strong support for Ukraine maintained by the Italian government,” Giuli’s office said.

The head of the Biennale Foundation, Pietrangolo Buttafuoco, has defended the decision and framed it as an act opposing censorship.

He announced that this year’s edition will be accompanied by two dedicated exhibition spaces for “dissident” art. And he recalled that last year’s Venice Film Festival featured the world premiere of “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” an unflattering portrait starring Jude Law about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power.

But 22 European countries wrote a letter to Buttafuoco expressing their “profound concern” over Russia’s participation. They warned that Moscow could exploit it to “project an image of legitimacy and international acceptance that stands in stark contrast to the reality of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, as well as to European and international sanctions.”

The European Commission, for its part, condemned the Biennale decision and threatened to withhold EU funds for the fair, which would amount to some 2 million euros over three years.

“Should the Biennale Foundation proceed with its decision to allow Russia to participate, we will consider further measures, including the suspension or termination of ongoing EU funding to the Biennale Foundation,” said a statement from Commissioners Henna Virkkunen and Glenn Micallef.

The Latest: US deploying Marines to Middle East as it pounds Iran

By
The Associated Press
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Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble after a strike in southern Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Sajjad Safari)

About 2,500 U.S. Marines are being deployed to the Middle East as American and Israeli strikes keep pounding Iran and the Islamic Republic keeps attacking Persian Gulf shipping and energy infrastructure. As Iranian threats choke global oil shipments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “we have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”

A large explosion rocked a square in Tehran that was filled with people for annual Quds Day demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, Iranian state television reported. Thousands chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”

More than 100 children are among the 773 people killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Friday. Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. All six crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq are dead, raising the U.S. military death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13.

Israel said Friday its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon are “continuing and intensifying. Hezbollah’s leader said his gunmen “will fight until the end.” U.S. President Donald Trump said the war would end “when I feel it in my bones.”

Here is the latest:

Hezbollah leader in televised speech says his gunmen ‘will fight until the end’

Naim Kassem said Friday night that the Lebanese government hasn’t been able to defend the country or its people from Israel’s near daily strikes since a ceasefire went into effect in November 2024, so Hezbollah resumed firing after the U.S. and Israel began attacking Iran.

Surrender and defeat “are not in our dictionary,” Kassem said. “This is an existential battle. It is not a limited or simple battle.”

Shrapnel has fallen on Qatar in more than 600 places during the war

Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in an interview posted on the ministry’s social media pages that it had responded to 5,000 reports of fallen shrapnel in more than 600 locations since the beginning of the war.

The Gulf nation, home to the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base and smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut, says it has intercepted most of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

Iran’s president speaks with Egyptian leader about de-escalation efforts

In a phone call Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is still keen on “fraternal relations and good neighborliness with Arab states.”

That’s according to the office of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, a former general and close ally of Saudi Arabia, who condemned Iranian attacks on Gulf countries and insisted they don’t support or participate in the war.

US military is sending roughly 2,500 Marines and at least one extra warship to Middle East, AP source says

Roughly 2,500 Marines and at least one amphibious assault ship are headed for the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said that elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli have been ordered to the Middle East. The move would mark a major addition of troops to the region.

Marine Expeditionary Units are not only trained and equipped to conduct amphibious landings but they also specialize in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians, and disaster relief. While the deployment is a major increase of troops to the region, it does not necessarily indicate that a ground operation is imminent or will take place at all.

The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, as well the Tripoli and other amphibious assault ships carrying the Marines are based in Japan and have been at sea in the waters of the Pacific Ocean for the past several days, according to images released by the military. Their location puts them more than a week away from the waters off Iran.

— By Konstantin Toropin

Israel’s military cuts major roads in southern Lebanon

The strikes on roads and bridges come as Israel’s military says it is sending more forces to the front along the border with Lebanon.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel’s air force twice struck the Jardali road linking the southern city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun. Strikes also destroyed bridges that Israel said were used by Hezbollah fighters.

After the previous Israel-Hezbollah war, the World Bank estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery for Lebanon at about $11 billion, with damage to physical structures amounting to $6.8 billion.

Last week, Israel’s finance minister threatened to make Beirut’s southern suburbs look like Gaza.

The United Arab Emirates to resume air traffic

The country’s General Civil Aviation Authority said Friday that it would gradually resume air traffic after closures amid drone strikes on Dubai’s airport and closures during two weeks of war.

The UAE’s leaders have projected confidence in their air defenses, but flight cancellations threaten key pillars of its tourism‑ and transit‑dependent economy. Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest, handles tens of millions of travelers a year and links Europe, Asia and Africa. The aviation industry employs hundreds of thousands of people in the country.

Trump admin to help US farmers meet war-related fertilizer price hikes

“We’re looking at every potential avenue to keep the fertilizer costs down as these farmers are going into planting season,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Rollins said she’s had conversations on Capitol Hill exploring additional funding for farmers. “No big announcements yet, but it is coming.”

Most farmers have already purchased fertilizer for this year’s planting season, Rollins said, but about 25% have not. A separate aid package from December opened $12 billion in aid for farmers hit by rising costs amid a trade war with China.

Crude prices remain high despite US easing of some Russian oil sanctions

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X that the 30-day reprieve on sanctions applies to Russian oil already loaded on tankers as of Thursday. He said allowing this stranded oil to be sold provides no additional financial benefit for Russia, because the Kremlin already taxed it when the oil was extracted from the ground.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it shows how the war has boosted Moscow’s ability to profit from its energy exports, a pillar of the Kremlin’s budget as it presses its invasion of Ukraine.

“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war,” Zelenskyy said. “It spends the money from energy sales on weapons, and all of this is then used against us.”

Trump ally Ric Grenell stepping down as Kennedy Center president

By
The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Grenell, the longtime Republican foreign policy adviser who oversaw far reaching changes at the Kennedy Center that prompted many artists to abandon the iconic performing arts venue, will step down as the institution’s president.

The development was first reported on Friday by Axios and later confirmed by a person familiar with the plans who requested anonymity because the news was not yet public.

Trey Hendrickson is ready for a fresh start after leaving Cincinnati for a division rival

By
The Associated Press
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Trey Hendrickson had a close-up view of the Ravens for several seasons while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals — and even if he hadn’t been in the same division, he’d have been well aware of the talent Baltimore possessed.

“I’ve seen a lot of purple at the Pro Bowls over the last four years,” Hendrickson said. ”It’s something that I’m excited to play with those guys. I got to meet them and their families at those type of events, which what a blessing to be a part of that. You get to see the behind the mask. We’re all people at the end of the day. But a place like this — the standard of defense is very high.”

Now Hendrickson joins a Baltimore defense that already included Kyle Hamilton in the secondary and Roquan Smith at linebacker. The Ravens signed Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million deal, and they introduced him at a news conference Friday.

Baltimore agreed to, then backed out of, a trade for pass rushing star Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders. Then the Ravens landed Hendrickson to fill a similar role.

His signing ended a productive but occasionally contentious five years for Hendrickson in Cincinnati. He had 17 1/2 sacks in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Then he requested a trade, and a contract dispute dragged on until he received a $14 million raise for one more season with the Bengals.

Hendrickson said staying in the AFC North wasn’t a big factor in his decision, but it was no surprise that he moved on from Cincinnati.

“It’s exciting to start something fresh. I think that was overdue for me,” Hendrickson said. “My family probably took a lot of things more personally than I did, which is saying something. So, for everybody to just kind of get a fresh start and build on this opportunity, it starts day one. I’m excited to get to work. I’m excited to embrace this city, embrace this culture and build from the ground up.”

For the Ravens, signing Hendrickson felt like a must after the trade for Crosby fell through. Baltimore has had some success producing a pass rush without giving out huge contracts to edge rushers, but that didn’t work last season, when the Ravens managed only 30 sacks, tied for the third-fewest in football.

Baltimore has also had a tendency to give away leads. That’s an area the Ravens are hoping to fix after Jesse Minter replaced John Harbaugh as coach in January.

“One of the things that stood out to me — since 2021, Trey is second in the NFL in fourth-quarter sacks,” Minter said. “When we talk about being able to have a closer mentality and finish games and dominate in the fourth quarter, Trey is the epitome of that with how he’s played the last four or five years.”

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said he’s looking forward to a quiet weekend, an indication Baltimore might not be all that busy in the next few days of free agency. The Ravens lost quite a few contributors this week, including star center Tyler Linderbaum. The interior of the offensive line was already shaky.

Baltimore did add guard John Simpson, who returns to the Ravens after two seasons with the New York Jets. The Ravens also acquired safety Jaylinn Hawkins and tight end Durham Smythe.

“John Simpson plays with an energy and a passion that I’m really excited about adding into the offensive line room,” Minter said. “He had a great season here in one of the most successful seasons in recent memory here in 2023. He is kind of a force multiplier from an energy (standpoint). It’s very contagious how he operates.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

State Department slashes fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450

By
The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.

After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.

The new fee, which took effect on Friday, had been promised in 2023 but had never been implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.

Renouncing U.S. citizenship can be an intensive and lengthy process. Applicants must repeatedly confirm in multiple written and verbal attestations to a State Department consular officer that they understand the implications of the step before being allowed to take a formal oath of renunciation. It must then be reviewed by the department.

The fee was raised from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover the administrative expenses as the number of people wanting to renounce their citizenship surged in part due to new U.S. tax reporting requirements for American expatriates that angered many.

That dramatic fee increase drew significant opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people mainly living abroad whose U.S. citizenship is due purely to their having been born in the United States.

The association filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee, including one that remains pending that argues there should be no cost at all for renouncing one’s citizenship.

“The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible to all,” its president, Fabien Lahagre, said in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy.”

In court, the association said since the 2023 announcement that the fee would be reduced at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide numbers for the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship.

EPA moves to weaken pollution limits on chemical used to sterilize medical equipment

By
The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Friday to weaken air pollution limits on a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment, a move that would reverse a Biden administration finding of high cancer risks at manufacturing facilities that use ethylene oxide to clean medical devices like catheters and syringes.

The EPA said it is concerned that the current Biden-era standards “actively threaten” manufacturers’ abilities to sterilize equipment and “jeopardize one of America’s only options for a secure domestic supply chain of essential medical equipment.”

Ethylene oxide plays a crucial role in sterilizing lifesaving medical devices, including pacemakers and syringes, but long-term exposure can cause leukemia and other types of cancer among people who work at medical sterilization facilities or live nearby.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the proposed rule shows the agency’s commitment to protecting people’s health while maintaining a stable domestic medical supply chain.

“The Trump EPA is committed to ensuring life-saving medical devices remain available for the critical care of America’s children, elderly and all patients without unnecessary exposure to communities,” he said in a statement.

The proposal is the latest in a series of moves by the EPA under President Donald Trump to relax pollution limits and lower costs for industry. In February alone, the agency weakened restrictions on mercury from coal-burning power plants and repealed a scientific finding that served as the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

An EPA rule finalized in 2024 was intended to reduce ethylene oxide emissions by about 90% by targeting nearly 90 commercial sterilization facilities across the country. The Biden-era rule also required companies to test for the antimicrobial chemical in the air and ensure their pollution controls are functioning properly.

The American Lung Association called the proposed rule change unacceptable.

“The science shows that both short-term and long-term exposure to ethylene oxide is dangerous for health,” said Laura Kate Bender, the association’s vice president. “People who live near many commercial sterilization facilities are much more likely to develop cancer over their lifetimes. No one should have to live with elevated cancer risk because of air pollution in their community.”

Environmental justice advocates noted that many ethylene oxide facilities are located in minority communities where Black and Brown people have been exposed to the cancer-causing chemical.

Ethylene oxide, also known as EtO, is a gas used to sterilize roughly half of all medical devices and is also used to ensure the safety of certain spices and other food products. It is used to clean everything from catheters to syringes, pacemakers and plastic surgical gowns. Brief exposure isn’t considered a danger, but breathing it long term elevates the risk of breast cancer and lymphoma, the EPA said.

The EPA first classified ethylene oxide as a human carcinogen in 2016.

In 2022, the EPA laid out the risks faced by residents who live near medical sterilization facilities. In Laredo, Texas, for example, residents and activists fought to clean up a sterilization facility run by Missouri-based Midwest Sterilization Corp. It was one of 23 sterilizers in the United States that the EPA said posed a risk for people nearby.

Sterigenics, a major sterilization company, shuttered a medical sterilization plant in a Chicago suburb after monitoring found emissions spikes in nearby neighborhoods. They eventually settled numerous lawsuits.

Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, said medical sterilizers provide a vital service and many devices can’t be sterilized by any other method.

“We appreciate the EPA’s efforts in listening to and understanding the importance of supplying safe, sterile medical technology without interruption while protecting employees and communities near sterilization facilities,” he said in an email.

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