In 2017, the Trump administration cut the United Statess ties with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) completely for the first time since 1984. Then, the administration accused the international agency of holding anti-Israel bias for a multitude of reasons, including the naming of Hebron, as a “Palestinian city and certified UNESCO site.
Now, the administration has announced its second leave from UNESCO after the United States returned to the agency under the Biden administration in 2023.
The reasons remain the same since the initial leave with White House spokesperson, Tammy Bruce citing that UNESCOs work advances divisive social and cultural causes and that the agencys ideological agenda for international development is at odds with our America First foreign policy.
UNESCOs part in America
The agency aims to promote cooperation in areas including education, science, culture, and communication to foster peace worldwide. According to UNESCO, their main focuses include:
Promoting quality education and science
Building fair and inclusive societies
Protecting heritage and fostering creativity
Supporting information literacy
Empowering equality
With 194 member states, including the United States as of current, It is also responsible for assigning World Heritage Sites, including Americas 26 UNESCO-designated sites. Ranging from National Parks to the Statue of Liberty, these sites are protected as part of an international treaty, and are generally recognized as belonging to everyone versus one, sovereign state.
Unwoke-ifying education, science, and culture
The White Houses press release cites UNESCOs decision to recognize and admit the State of Palestine as a member in 2011, as a major part of what they see as anti-Israel rhetoric.
In response to the Trump administrations claims, UNESCO released a statement saying that these claims widely “contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism.
In the statement, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO says this news doesn’t come as a shock as a shock, and that ultimately, theyve been preparing for the U.S.s expected leave.
In February, Trump issued an executive order requiring the review of any organizations providing international support that received U.S. funding.
This is the third official UN agency the U.S. has withdrawn from since Trumps second inauguration, including the World Health Organization in January and the Human Rights Council in February. Each one, with the administration attributing the cuts to efficiency concerns and anti-American, woke culture.
The effect on cutting costs
As of 2023, the U.S. promised to pay roughly $600 million in back dues, as prior to the first leave of the agency, the country contributed to roughly 22% of their funding.
In recent years, we have undertaken major structural reforms and diversified our funding sources, Azoulay said. Thanks to the efforts made by the Organization since 2018, the decreasing trend in the financial contribution of the US has been offset, so that it now represents 8% of the Organization’s total budget compared to 40% for some United Nations entities; while at the same time, UNESCOs overall budget has steadily increased.
The agency says voluntary contributions have doubled since 2018, and that ultimately, the decision to leave the agency will result in difficulties for American communities seeking site inscription on the World Heritage List, gaining Creative City status, and working with University Chairs program.
However, the Paris-based agency does not expect layoffs at this time, and says they will continue to work with private American partners including those in the academic and non-profit spaces.
UNESCO’s purpose is to welcome all the nations of the world, Azoulay wrote. And the United States of America is and will always be welcome.
When the KissCam at a Coldplay concert landed on a couple who tried (but failed) to duck out of the spotlight, the internet immediately got to work.
In hours, the clip was just about everywhere. Endless memes, parody videos and photos of the pair’s shocked faces filled social media feeds. Online sleuths rushed to identify who was on camera. Artificial intelligence and software company Astronomer eventually confirmed that its CEO and chief people officer were in fact the couple in the video and announced the CEO’s resignation over the weekend.
The incident’s fallout has, of course, generated conversations about business ethics, corporate accountability and the repercussions that conflicts of interest among leadership can cause. But there are also broader implications at play in our increasingly online world about the state of potentially being visible everywhere you go or tracked through social media surveillance.” Experts say it’s more and more common for moments that may have been intended to be private, or at least reserved to a single physical venue, to make their way online and even go global today.
So in the era of lightning-fast social sharing and when cameras are practically inescapable, does being in public hold any expectation of privacy anymore? Is every experience simply fodder for the world to see?
Cameras are everywhere
It’s no secret that cameras are filming much of our lives these days.
From CCTV security systems to Ring doorbells, businesses, schools and neighborhoods use ample video surveillance around the clock. Sporting and concert venues have also filmed fans for years, often projecting playful bits of audience participation to the rest of the crowd. In short, the on-scene viewer becomes part of the product and the center of attention.
And of course, consumers can record just about anything if they have a smartphone in their pocket and, if it’s enticing to other social media users, that footage can quickly spread through cyberspace.
Ellis Cashmore, author of the book Celebrity Culture, proposes that the rapid fame of last weeks KissCam moment probably answers a question many have been asking for years: Is the private life still what it was? And the answer is, of course, theres no such thing as the private life anymore, he notes. Certainly not in the traditional sense of the term.
Im not sure that we can assume privacy at a concert with hundreds of other people, adds Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austins School of Journalism and Media. We cant assume privacy on the street anymore.
Some version of the KissCam has long been a staple at big events from timeouts during sports games to romantic songs played by artists at their concerts. Its easy to miss, but most venues have signs to inform the audience that they could be filmed during the event. Whats been different in more recent years, experts note, is how quickly those moments can travel beyond the physical space where they actually unfold.
That isnt only limited to what shows up on a jumbotron. Sometimes it only takes one person in the crowd to capture any interaction on their phone and post the video online where it can zip around the world.
Its not just the camera,” Bock says. Its the distribution system that is wild and new.
Once something’s viral, doxing often follows
Then there’s the second ring of exposurewhat happens after the video or photos spread.
Experts point to growing instances of social media users rushing to publicly identify, or dox, the people captured on cameramuch like how quickly the internet committed to finding those involved in the Coldplay moment, for example. The LinkedIn pages belonging both to Astronomers now-former CEO and chief people officer remained disabled on Monday, and The Associated Press could not reach either for comment.
But it isn’t limited to company executives. Beyond someone simply spotting a familiar face and spreading the word, technological advancesincluding AIhave made it easier and faster overall to find just about anyone in an online post. This can happen with videos and photos shared on social media each day, even if it doesn’t go viral, experts warn.
Its a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track usand how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction, to a gigantic surveillance system,” Bock says. When you think about it, we are being surveilled by our social media. Theyre tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.
And of course, such moments can also impact people who were not actually on camera. As easy as it can be to be identified online today, the internet is notorious for cutting a broad swath or not always getting it right. That sometimes produces harassment of individuals not actually involved.
At last week’s Coldplay concert, for example, many social media users speculated that a third person seen near the two caught on camera was another Astronomer employee leading to swarms of posts targeting her. But the company later confirmed that she was not at the event and said no other employees were in the video circulating online.
For the now-viral moment, we can talk about whats right and wrong, and whether they deserved it, says Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor at New York Universitys Stern School of Business. Still, its a very frightening thing to get a lot of abuse and harassment online, Taylor notes. There are real human beings behind this.
Its hard to think that that these kind of viral moments will ever go away and there are few legal restrictions to stop users from sharing clips of interactions recorded from anything from a concert to the street widely online. But on an individual level, Bock says it can be helpful to think before you share and question whether somethings really accurate.
Social media has changed so much, Bock says. But we really have not, as a society, caught up with the technology in terms of our ethics and our etiquette.
Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer
Associated Press journalists Hilary Fox and Kelvin Chan contributed to this report.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has announced a joint recall of 5 million pools sold by multiple companies. At issue is a design flaw of specific above-ground pools that the companies have sold for over 20 years. That flaw has reportedly already contributed to the deaths of nine children as young as 22 months. Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a recall notice on its website stating that up to 5 million above-ground pools are being recalled because their design poses a significant drowning hazard to young children.
The design flaw centers around compression straps used on the above-ground pools. The steps wrap around the exterior sides of the pools, helping them retain their shape when filled with water. However, the straps can also be used as a makeshift step by young children to stand on and gain access to the pool.
The CSPC says that it believes nine children have died because of this design flaw. The agency says the deaths occurred between 2007 and 2022. During that time, nine children ranging in age from 22 months to 3 years gained access to the pools and drowned in them.
The deaths occurred in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri.
What pools are being recalled?
Up to 5 million above-ground pools are being recalled. These pools have been sold by several companies since 2002.
The companies involved in the recall include Bestway, Intex, and Polygroup, according to the recall notice. The pools measured 48 inches or taller in height and retailed for between $400 and over $1,000, depending on the model.
A list of the recalled models can be found here, along with images of the design flaw.
Where were the recalled pools sold?
The CSPC notice says that the recalled pools were sold nationwide, including at some of the most popular physical and online retailers. Stores where the recalled pools were sold since 2002 include, among others:
Walmart
Target
Sears
Lowes
Kmart
Toys R Us
Sams Club
The Home Depot
Big Lots
Costco
BJs
Amazon.com
Wayfair.com
Bestway USAs website
Intexs website
Funsicles website
Summer Waves website
About 266,000 of the pools were also sold in Canada.
What do I do if I have one of the recalled pools?
Consumers should ensure that children cannot access the recalled pools unattended, the CSPC says. As a precautionary measure, consumers may want to drain their recalled pool until the design flaw can be repaired.
Bestway, Intex, and Polygroup will send affected consumers who contact them about the recall a free repair kit, which will contain a rope that is to be used to replace the current compression strap.
Consumers with a recalled pool should contact Bestway, Intex, or Polygroup, depending on their pool’s model. Full details of the recall can be found on the CSPCs website.
Another crushing heat wave is hitting the United States this week. The so-called “dog days of summer” are in full swing for much of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., as a heat dome over the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys gradually builds over the eastern U.S. later in the week, according to the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
One unlikely culprit for the high humidity, especially in the Midwest, is “corn sweat.”
What is corn sweat?
“Corn sweat” is the term used to explain how corn, like other plants, excretes water vapor through its leaves via a process called evapotranspiration, which increases humidity in regions where corn is grown during the summer; namely, the Corn Belt, which stretches from North and South Dakota east to Ohio, including Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, according to The Washington Post.
Where is the heat wave?
Nearly 60 million Americans are under heat-related warnings, watches, and advisories this week with oppressive heat forecast across the Central Plains, Midwest, and deep South, according to the WPC.
What is the weather forecast this week?
Heat indices from the Central Plains to the Southeast are predicted to range between 100 and 110 degrees each day, with localized readings potentially reaching 115 degrees.
The National Weather Service’s HeatRisk, which ranks heat-related risks on a map, forecasts its most extreme heat level for the Deep South and lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday, with a major heat risk across the Midwest through Wednesday.
Extreme heat warnings are also in place for parts of the Central Plains and lower to mid-Mississippi Valley, along with extreme heat watches across the Midwest, including the majority of the Chicago area. Meanwhile, heat advisories encompass much of the Deep South and northern Florida.
That “dangerous, long lasting heat” is expected to persist the longest over the mid-Mississippi Valley and mid-South regions from Tuesday through Thursday, when the heat is expected to be the most intense and widespread, with heat waves that last multiple days in a row with little to no relief.
Meanwhile, temperatures into the upper 90s will be high enough to set some local daily records in the Southeast for late July.
As if that weren’t enough, thunderstorms could also pose a flash flood threat in portions of the Southwest, Midwest, and Southeast, with severe storms likely in the Northern Plains and Midwest.
The Northeast, which should have comfortable temperatures in the 80s in the first half of the week, is forecast to hit 97 to 98 degrees on Friday, in a number of cities including Boston and New York.
San Francisco is set to ban homeless people from living in RVs by adopting strict new parking limits the mayor says are necessary to keep sidewalks clear and prevent trash buildup.
The policy, up for final approval by San Francisco supervisors Tuesday, targets at least 400 recreational vehicles in the city of 800,000 people. The RVs serve as shelter for people who can’t afford housing, including immigrant families with kids.
Those who live in them say they’re a necessary option in an expensive city where affordable apartments are impossible to find. But Mayor Daniel Lurie and other supporters of the policy say motor homes are not suitable for long-term living and the city has a duty to both provide shelter to those in need and clean up the streets.
We absolutely want to serve those families, those who are in crisis across San Francisco, said Kunal Modi, who advises the mayor on health, homelessness and family services. We feel the responsibility to help them get to a stable solution. And at the same time, we want to make sure that that stability is somewhere indoors and not exposed in the public roadway.
Critics of the plan, however, say that it’s cruel to force people to give up their only home in exchange for a shot at traditional housing when there is not nearly enough units for all the people who need help; the mayor is only offering additional money to help 65 households.
Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, says city officials are woefully behind on establishing details of an accompanying permit program, which will exempt RV residents from parking limits so long as they are working with homeless outreach staff to find housing.
I think that theres going to be people who lose their RVs. I think theres going to be people who are able to get into shelter, but at the expense” of people with higher needs, like those sleeping on a sidewalk, she said.
San Francisco, like other U.S. cities, has seen an explosion in recent years of people living out of vehicles and RVs as the cost of living has risen. Banning oversized vehicles is part of Lurie’s pledge to clean up San Francisco streets, and part of a growing trend to require homeless people to accept offers of shelter or risk arrest or tows.
Strict new rules
The proposal sets a two-hour parking limit citywide for all RVs and oversized vehicles longer than 22 feet (7 meters) or higher than 7 feet (2 meters), regardless of whether they are being used as housing.
Under the accompanying permit program, RV residents registered with the city as of May are exempt from the parking limits. In exchange, they must accept the city’s offer of temporary or longer-term housing, and get rid of their RV when it’s time to move. The city has budgeted more than half a million dollars to buy RVs from residents at $175 per foot.
The permits will last for six months. People in RVs who arrive after May will not be eligible for the permit program and must abide by the two-hour rule, which makes it impossible for a family in an RV to live within city limits.
It first cleared the Board of Supervisors last week with two of 11 supervisors voting no.
RV dwellers can’t afford rent
Carlos Perez, 55, was among RV residents who told supervisors at a hearing this month that they could not afford the city’s high rents. Perez works full-time as a produce deliveryman and supports his brother, who lives with him and is unable to work due to a disability.
We dont do nothing wrong. We try to keep this street clean, he said, as he showed his RV recently to an Associated Press journalist. Its not easy to be in a place like this.
Yet, Perez also loves where he lives. The green-colored RV is decorated with a homey houseplant and has a sink and a tiny stove on which Carlos simmered a bean soup on a recent afternoon.
He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 30 years, roughly a decade of which has been in the RV in the working-class Bayview neighborhood. He can walk to work and it is close to the hospital where his brother receives dialysis multiple times a week.
Zach, another RV resident who requested being identified by his first name to not jeopardize his ability to get work, started living in the vehicle a dozen years ago after realizing that no matter how hard he worked, he still struggled to pay rent.
Now he works as a ride-hail driver and pursues his love of photography. He parks near Lake Merced in the city near the Pacific Ocean and pays $35 every two to four weeks to properly dispose of waste and fill the vehicle with fresh water.
He says Lurie’s plan is shortsighted. There is not enough housing available and many prefer to live in an RV over staying at a shelter, which may have restrictive rules. For Zach, who is able-bodied, maintains a clean space and has no dependents, moving to a shelter would be a step down, he says. Still, he expects to receive a permit.
If housing were affordable, there is a very good chance I wouldnt be out here, he said.
City recently closed its only RV lot
RV dwellers say San Francisco should open a safe parking lot where residents could empty trash and access electricity. But city officials shuttered an RV lot in April, saying it cost about $4 million a year to service three dozen large vehicles and it failed to transition people to more stable housing.
The mayor’s new proposal comes with more money for beefed-up RV parking enforcement but also an additional $11 million, largely for a small number of households to move to subsidized housing for a few years.
Officials acknowledge that may not be sufficient to house all RV dwellers, but notes that the city also has hotel vouchers and other housing subsidies.
Erica Kisch, CEO of nonprofit Compass Family Services, which assists homeless families, says they do not support the punitive nature of the proposal but are grateful for the extra resources.
Its recognition that households should not be living in vehicles, that we need to do better for families, and for seniors and for anyone else who’s living in a vehicle,” she said. San Francisco can do better, certainly.
Janie Har and Terry Chea, Associated Press
Coca-Cola said Tuesday it will add a cane-sugar version of its trademark cola to its U.S. lineup this fall, confirming a recent announcement by President Donald Trump.
Trump said in a social media post last week that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its flagship product in the U.S., which has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup since the 1980s. Coke didn’t immediately confirm the change, but promised new offerings soon.
On Tuesday, Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said Coke will expand its product range to reflect consumer interest in differentiated experiences.
We appreciate the presidents enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand, Quincey said in a conference call with investors Tuesday. We are definitely looking to use the whole tool kit of available sweetening options.”
Quincey noted that Coke uses cane sugar in some other U.S. drinks, like its Simply brand lemonade and Honest Tea. Coke has also sold Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar, in the U.S. since 2005.
Were always looking for opportunities to innovate and see whether theres an intersection of new ideas and where consumer preferences are evolving, Quincey said. Its a good sign that the industry, including ourselves, are trying lots of different things.
Rivals PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have been selling versions of their trademark colas sweetened with cane sugar in the U.S. since 2009.
Asked if Coke would also consider introducing a prebiotic version of its trademark cola as PepsiCo did this week Quincey said the company is currently selling a Coke with added fiber in Japan and is studying consumer response to it.
Quincey said consumer demand for its products improved in the second quarter in many markets, including China, Europe, Africa and North America.
I would I would say overall that the global economy and the global consumer remains resilient, Quincey said.
But early monsoons and conflict hurt demand in India, and Quincey said demand in Thailand and Indonesia was also weaker than expected. Quincey also said lower-income consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere have also pulled back on spending.
Global case volumes of Coca-Cola fell 1%. Juice, dairy and plant-based beverages fell 4%, Coke said. Sports drink case volumes were down 3%, as higher demand in North America was offset by declines in Latin America.
One bright spot was Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which saw case volumes grow 14%. Traditional Coca-Cola still far outsells the zero-sugar variety, but consumer demand for zero-sugar versions is growing much more quickly.
In North America, case volumes fell 1%, but that was an improvement from the first quarter, when they were down 3%.
Quincey said Hispanic sales in the U.S. returned to normal levels by the end of June. They had plummeted starting in February, when a social media video began circulating that claimed Coke was reporting its own workers to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Quincey said the claim was false. The company has been trying to win back Hispanic consumers with targeted deals and ads touting the companys local economic impact.
It was still a headwind in the second quarter but the issue is now largely resolved, Quincey said Tuesday.
Coca-Cola reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter as higher prices offset the weaker volumes. Coke said pricing rose 6% globally.
Revenue for the Atlanta company rose 1% to $12.5 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, quarterly revenue was $12.6 billion. That was in line with Wall Streets forecast, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Net income jumped 58% to $3.8 billion. Coke’s adjusted net income was 87 cents, which was higher than the 83 cents Wall Street forecast.
Coke said it now expects full-year adjusted earnings to grow 8%. At the start of the year, Coke had expected earnings to grow 8% to 10%, but in April it lowered that range to 7% to 9%. Coke earned $2.88 per share in 2024.
Shares of Coca-Cola Co. were down 1% in early trading Tuesday.
Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
Wall Street is hanging near its records on Tuesday following some mixed profit reports, as General Motors and other big U.S. companies give updates on how much President Donald Trumps tariffs are hurting or helping them.
The S&P 500 was shaving 0.1% off its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.4% after setting its own record.
General Motors dropped 5.8% despite reporting a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. The automaker said its still expecting a $4 billion to $5 billion hit to its results over 2025 because of tariffs and that it hopes to mitigate 30% of that. GM also said it will feel more pain because of tariffs in the current quarter than it did during the spring.
That helped to offset big gains for some homebuilders after they reported stronger profits for the spring than Wall Street had forecast. D.R. Horton rallied 14.5%, and PulteGroup rose 9.2%. That was even as both companies said homebuyers are continuing to deal with challenging conditions, including higher mortgage rates and an uncertain economy.
So far, the U.S. economy seems to be powering through all the uncertainty created by Trumps on-and-off tariffs. Many of Trumps stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, and the next big deadline is Aug. 1. Talks are underway on possible trade deals with other countries that could lower the proposed tariffs before they kick in.
Companies are already feeling effects. Genuine Parts, the Atlanta-based company that sells auto and industrial replacement parts around the world, trimmed its profit forecast for the full year in order to incorporate all U.S. tariffs currently in effect, along with its updated expectations for business conditions in the second half of the year.
Its stock rose 5.5% after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
RTX fell 2.3% after cutting its forecast for profit in 2025 but also raising its forecast for revenue. It made the changes to incorporate what CEO Chris Calio called our current assessment of the impact of tariffs, along with other changes anticipated from Washington’s recent approval of big tax changes.
Coca-Cola fell 1% even though it delivered a stronger profit than forecast. Its revenue for the quarter only edged past analysts expectations, and it said that higher prices that it charged helped offset sales of fewer cases during the spring.
Opendoor Technologies, a company that’s caught interest among investors looking for the next meme stock that can rally regardless of how its profits are doing, rose another 3.1% to $3.31. It’s more than quadrupled from 78 cents just two Fridays ago.
In the bond market, Treasury yields sank as traders continue to expect the Federal Reserve to wait until September at the earliest to resume cutting interest rates.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been insisting he wants to see more data about how Trumps tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy before the Fed makes its next move. Thats despite often angry criticism from Trump, who has been lobbying for more cuts to rates to happen sooner.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.33% from 4.38% late Monday.
In overseas markets, Japans benchmark surged and then fell back as it reopened from a holiday Monday following the ruling coalitions loss of its upper house majority in Sundays election. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.1%.
Analysts said the market initially climbed on relief that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to stay in office despite a loss for his ruling coalition in an upper-house election Sunday. But the results have only added to political uncertainty and left his government without the heft needed to push through legislation.
A breakthrough in trade talks with the U.S. might win Ishiba a reprieve, but so far theres been scant sign of progress in negotiating away the threat of higher tariffs on Japans exports to the U.S. beginning Aug. 1.
Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.
Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Dawn Price signs rent checks worth about $160,000 every month for 79 people that her nonprofit helps house in Laguna Beach, California.
Usually, she logs into an online portal to withdraw enough from an account funded by a grant from the federal housing agency. But in February, she couldn’t. Access had been temporarily cut off for many housing organizations as part of the Trump administrations cuts and funding freezes.
That was just a sea change for us for those dollars to be so immediately at risk, said Price, the executive director of Friendship Shelter, which started in 1987 as a community organization. Access was eventually restored but the episode took a toll.
Government moves slowly usually, and I think what was so disorienting early on was government was moving really fast, she said.
In the early days of his second term, President Donald Trump froze, cut or threatened to cut a huge range of social services programs from public safety to early childhood education to food assistance and services for refugee resettlement. Staffing cuts to federal agencies have also contributed to delays and uncertainty around future grant funds. Altogether, his policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities.
This vast and interconnected set of programs funded by taxpayers has been significantly dismantled in just months, nonprofit leaders, researchers and funders say. And even deeper, permanent cuts are still possible. That uncertainty is also taking a toll on their staff and communities, the leaders said.
In response to questions about the cuts to grant funding, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, Instead of government largesse thats often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration is focused on unleashing Americas economic resurgence to fuel Americans individual generosity.
He pointed to a new deduction for charitable giving included in the recently passed tax and spending law that he said encourages Americans innate altruism.
But experts say private donations will not be enough to meet the needs.
In 2021, $267 billion was granted to nonprofits from all levels of government, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute published in February. While the data includes tax-exempt organizations like local food pantries as well as universities and nonprofit hospitals, it underestimates the total funding that nonprofits receive from the government. It includes grants, but not contracts for services nor reimbursements from programs like Medicare. It also excludes the smallest nonprofits, which file a different, abbreviated tax form.
However, the figure does give a sense of the scale of the historic and, until now, solid relationship between the public sector and nonprofits over the last 50 years. Now, this system is at risk and leaders like Price say the cost of undoing it will be catastrophic.
Government funding to nonprofits reaches far and wide
The Urban Institutes analysis shows more than half of nonprofits in every state received government grants in 2021.
In the vast majority of the country, the typical nonprofit would run a deficit without government funding. Only in two Congressional districts one including parts of Orange County, California, and another in the suburbs west of Atlanta would a typical nonprofit not be in the red if they lost all of their public grant funding, the analysis found.
But in Orange County, famous for its stunning beaches, mansions and extraordinary wealth, funders, nonprofits and researchers said that finding surprised them. In part, that’s because of major economic inequalities in the county and its high cost of living.
Taryn Palumbo, executive director of Orange County Grantmakers, said nonprofits are not as optimistic about their resiliency.
They are seeing their budgets getting slashed by 50% or 40%, she said. Or theyre having to look to restructure programs that they are running or how theyre serving or the number of people that theyre serving.
Last year, the local Samueli Foundation commissioned a study of nonprofit needs in part because they were significantly increasing their grantmaking from $18.8 million in 2022 to an estimated $125 million in 2025. They found local nonprofits reported problems maintaining staff, a deep lack of investment in their operations and a dearth of flexible reserve funds.
The foundation responded by opening applications for both unrestricted grants and to support investments in buildings or land. Against this $10 million in potential awards, they received 1,242 applications for more than $250 million, said Lindsey Spindle, the foundations president.
It tells a really stark picture of how unbelievably deep and broad the need is, Spindle said. There is not a single part of the nonprofit sector that has not responded to these funds. Every topic you can think of: poverty, animal welfare, arts and culture, civil rights, domestic abuse… Theyre telling us loud and clear that they are struggling to stay alive.
Charitable organizations have held a special role in the U.S.
One of the founding stories of the United States is the importance of the voluntary sector, of neighbors helping neighbors and of individuals solving social problems. While other liberal democracies built strong welfare states, the U.S. has preferred to look to the charitable sector to provide a substantial part of social services.
Since the 1960s, the federal government has largely funded those social services by giving money to nonprofits, universities, hospitals and companies. Several new policies converged at that time to create this system, including the expansion of the federal income tax during World War II and the codification of tax-exempt charitable organizations in 1954. Then, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations started to fund nonprofits directly with federal money as part of urban renewal and Great Society programs.
It was a key approach of midcentury liberalism of addressing issues of poverty, sort of making a reference to civil rights and racial inequality, but not growing the size of government, said Claire Dunning, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Conservatives also tended to support working through local, private, nonprofit organiations, though for different reasons than liberals, she said.
With various expansions and cuts during different presidencies, the federal government has continued to fund nonprofits at significant levels, essentially hiding the government in plain sight, Dunning said. The size and importance of the nonprofit apparatus became suddenly visible in January when the Trump administration sought to freeze federal grants and loans.
Dunning said the speed, hostility and scale of the proposed cuts broke with the long legacy of bipartisan support for nonprofits.
People had no idea that the public health information or services they are receiving, their Meals on Wheels program, their afterschool tutoring program, the local park cleanup were actually enabled by public government dollars, she said.
A coalition of nonprofits challenged the freeze in court in a case that is ongoing, but in the six months since, the administration has cut, paused or discontinued a vast array of programs and grants. The impacts of some of those policy changes have been felt immediately, but many will not hit the ground until current grant funding runs out, which could be in months or years depending on the programs.
Private donations can’t replace scale of government support
Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach has an annual budget of about $15 million, $11.5 million of which comes from government sources. Price said the government funding is braided in complex ways to house and support 330 people. They’ve already lost a rental reimbursement grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the Samueli Foundation stepped in to backfill those lost funds for three years.
That kind of support is extremely unusual, she said.
We dont know of any large-scale private philanthropy response to keeping people housed because its a forever commitment, Price said. That person is in housing and is going to need the subsidy for the rest of their lives. These are seriously disabled people with multiple issues that theyre facing that they need help with.
She also believes that even in a wealthy place like Orange County, private donors are not prepared to give five, six or eight times as much as they do currently. Donors already subsidize their government grants, which she said pay for 69% of the actual program costs.
We are providing this service to our government at a loss, at a business loss, and then making up that loss with these Medicaid dollars and also the private fundraising, she said.
She said her organization has discussed having to put people out of housing back on to the streets if the government funding is cut further.
That would be, I think, a signal to me that something is deeply, deeply wrong with how were looking at these issues, said Price, adding, If I was placing a bet, I would bet that we have enough good still in government to prevent that.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Thalia Beaty, Associated Press
Elon Musk fought court cases on opposite coasts Monday, raising a question about the billionaire that could either speed his plan to put self-driving Teslas on U.S. roads or throw up a major roadblock: Can this wildly successful man who tends to exaggerate really be trusted?In Miami, a Tesla driver who has admitted he was wrong to reach for a dropped cell phone moments before a deadly accident, spoke of the danger of putting too much faith in Musk’s technology in this case his Autopilot program.“I trusted the technology too much,” said George McGee, who ran off the road and killed a woman out stargazing with her boyfriend. “I believed that if the car saw something in front of it, it would provide a warning and apply the brakes.”In unusual coincidence, regulators arguing an Oakland, California, case tried to pin exaggerated talk about the same Tesla technology at the center of a request to suspend the carmaker from being able to sell vehicles in the state.Musk’s tendency to talk big whether it’s his cars, his rockets or his government costing-cutting efforts have landed him in trouble with investors, regulators and courts before, but rarely at such a delicate moment.After his social media spat with President Donald Trump, Musk can no longer count on a light regulatory touch from Washington. Meanwhile, sales of his electric cars have plunged and so a hit to his safety reputation could threaten his next big project: rolling out driverless robotaxis hundreds of thousands of them in several U.S. cities by the end of next year.The Miami case holds other dangers, too. Lawyers for the family of the dead woman, Naibel Benavides Leon, recently convinced the judge overseeing the jury trial to allow them to argue for punitive damages. A car crash lawyer not involved in the case, but closely following it, said that could cost Tesla tens of millions of dollars, or possibly more.“I’ve seen punitive damages go to the hundreds of millions, so that is the floor,” said Miguel Custodio of Los Angeles-based Custodio & Dubey. “It is also a signal to other plaintiffs that they can also ask for punitive damages, and then the payments could start compounding.”That Tesla has allowed the Miami case to proceed to trial is surprising. It has settled at least four deadly accidents involving Autopilot, including payments just last week to a Florida family of a Tesla driver. That said, Tesla was victorious in two other jury cases, both in California, that also sought to lay blame on its technology for crashes.Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Miami case argue that Tesla’s driver-assistance feature, called Autopilot, should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at 62 miles-an-hour in an April 2019 crash. Tesla said that drivers are warned not to rely on Autopilot, or its more advanced Full Self-Driving system. It says the fault entirely lies with the “distracted driver” just like so many other “accidents since cellphones were invented.”Driver McGee settled a separate suit brought by the family of Benavides and her severely injured boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.McGee was clearly shaken when shown a dashcam video Monday of his car jumping a Key West, Florida, road and hitting a parked Chevrolet Tahoe which then slammed into Benavides and sent her 75 feet through the air to her death. Asked if he had seen those images before, McGee pinched his lips, shook his head, then squeaked out a response, “No.”Tesla’s attorney sought to show that McGee was fully to blame, asking if he had ever contacted Tesla for additional instructions about how Autopilot or any other safety features worked. McGee said he had not, though he was heavy user of the features. He said he had driven the same road home from work 30 or 40 times. Under questioning, he also acknowledged he alone was responsible for watching the road and hitting the brakes.Summarizing the testimony, Tesla said in a statement after the court adjourned that McGee had “stated the simple truth that we all know: If he had just paid attention to the road instead of searching for his dropped cell phone and pressing the accelerator which he was doing for over a minute before the crash this tragic accident would never have happened.”But lawyers for the Benavides family had a chance in the courtroom at parrying that line of argument, asking McGee if he would have taken his eyes off the road and reached for his phone had he been driving any car other than a Tesla on Autopilot.McGee responded, “I don’t believe so.”The case is expected to continue for two more weeks.In the California case, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles is arguing before an administrative judge that Tesla has misled drivers by exaggerating the capabilities of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features. A court filing claims even those feature names are misleading because they offer just partial self-driving.Musk has been warned by federal regulators to stop making public comments suggesting Full Self-Driving allows his cars to drive themselves because it could lead to overreliance on the system, resulting in possible crashes and deaths. He also has run into trouble with regulators for Autopilot. In 2023, the company had to recall 2.3 million vehicles for problems with the technology and is now under investigation for saying it fixed the issue though it’s unclear it has, according to regulatory documents.The California case is expected to last another four days.
Condon reported from New York.
Bernard Condon and David Fischer, Associated Press
Social media is overflowing with wellness hacks and tips. While some should be avoided at all costs, others may actually be rooted in medicinal practices dating back to the Dark Ages, new research suggests.
After examining hundreds of medieval manuscripts and compiling their findings into a catalog, a new international research project sheds fresh light on early medieval medical practicesmany of which wouldnt be out of place on TikToks For You Page.
As the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) sect and wellness girlies gain traction both online and in the Oval Office, natural remedies are back in vogue. From beef tallow as skincare to castor oil in the belly button, these hacks could just as easily have been scribbled in the margins of a 5th-century manuscript as featured in an influencers get-ready-with-me video in 2025.
“A lot of things that you see in these manuscripts are actually being promoted online currently as alternative medicine, but they have been around for thousands of years,” wrote Meg Leja, an associate professor of history at Binghamton University. Whether thats a good or bad thing depends on who you ask.
One medieval hack involves rubbing a mixture of crushed peach pit and rose oil on the forehead as a cure for headaches. Science now backs this upa study from 2017 suggests rose oil may help relieve migraine pain.
Another 9th-century hair hack recommends covering the scalp with herbal-infused salt and vinegar to disinfect it, followed by a salve of oils mixed with the ashes of a burnt green lizard to enhance shine. Perhaps not one to try at home.
Other topical ointments and detox cleanses made from dried herbs and distilled alcohols share similarities with recent TikTok trends, like drinking “tadpole water” for debloating or eating dirt to reduce wrinkles.
Many of these medieval health and beauty hacks were found scribbled in the margins of books unrelated to medicine, suggesting a preoccupation with wellness that feels distinctly modern.
“People were engaging with medicine on a much broader scale than had previously been thought,” Leja told Science Daily. “They were concerned about cures, they wanted to observe the natural world and jot down bits of information wherever they could in this period known as the ‘Dark Ages.'”
Sounds like they wouldve loved TikTok.
