Young people in Taiwan are used to living with uncertainty when it comes to China — a situation they generally say is for the best for the time being, particularly when recent actions by the Trump administration have some of them asking a certain question. “Can Taiwan continue to view the U.S. as an ally?” said Chan Yu-hsiang, 25, a graduate student at National Taiwan University. Chan’s question reflects growing concern in Taiwan over the reliability of the U.S. as a security partner under President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for the Beijing-claimed island in the face of Chinese military threats but also made critical remarks and upended trade relations. In a Taiwan government poll released in March, the percentage of respondents who said the U.S. military would “definitely” intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion dropped to 14% from 19% a year earlier. Almost half of respondents said the U.S. military was unlikely to intervene, the same as a poll by the Brookings Institution conducted the same month. According to the same Taiwan government poll, 36% of respondents said U.S.-Taiwan relations would get worse under Trump, a 12% increase since January. Taiwan’s rising wariness toward the U.S. comes amid growing pressure from China, which claims the self-governing democracy as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force in achieving its unification goal. Beijing sends warplanes and ships toward the island on near-daily sorties. Last month, the Chinese military conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan in what it said was a warning to “separatist” forces. The Taiwan government has warned that Beijing could hold more drills in the coming days as the island marks one year under President Lai Ching-te, whom China describes as a “separatist” and “troublemaker.” China has rebuffed multiple offers of talks from Lai, who says only Taiwan’s 23 million people can decide its future. Beijing insists the island’s future is “by no means an ‘internal affair of Taiwan,’” warning that Taiwanese authorities would “suffer an apocalypse” if they sought formal independence. Strategic ambiguity The U.S. has no formal relations with Taiwan but is its most important international backer, bound by law to provide it with defensive weapons. On Monday, Taiwan test-fired for the first time a new rocket system provided by the U.S. that Ukraine has also used against Russia. Washington has long maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to whether the U.S. military would defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack, not giving a definitive answer either way. Asia Blast targeting school bus kills four children in Pakistan’s Balochistan Trump has not given any indication of a change in that policy. But he has unnerved Taiwan with comments accusing it of stealing semiconductor business from the U.S. and calling for Taiwan to pay more for its own defense, which it has pledged to do. Last month, he also slapped Taiwan with a 32% tariff on its goods, with an exemption for the chip industry, which makes up a big part of the Taiwan economy and which the U.S. relies on heavily. Taiwan has said it will not retaliate against the U.S. and that it is ready for trade talks “at any time,” offering a package of zero tariffs on American goods and increased U.S. investment. The duties came as a surprise to Taiwan after state-backed chipmaker TSMC announced a plan in March to invest an additional $100 million in the U.S., where it is already building multiple factories. For Chan, this suggested that even Taiwan’s “silicon shield” — the semiconductor industry that makes the island so indispensable to the global economy — is not enough to guarantee U.S. support. “If you keep giving away Taiwan’s last line of defense, the U.S. will take advantage of it, but they won’t necessarily treat you well,” he said. “Why would Taiwan still believe that Trump would definitely deploy troops if it was to fall?” Maintaining the status quo Though some U.S. officials and Taiwan’s military point to 2027 — the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army — as a possible timeline for China to attack, polls show that most Taiwanese believe an invasion is unlikely in the next five years. A survey last year by National Chengchi University in Taipei showed that over 88% of people in Taiwan support maintaining the status quo, in which Taiwan operates as a de facto independent country without formally declaring independence, a move that would risk all-out war with China. That’s especially true for Taiwan’s youngest voters, said Lev Nachman, a political scientist and assistant professor at National Taiwan University who has studied their views. Taiwan’s Gen Zers “are by no means pro-China relative to other generations, but they don’t have the same attitude towards Taiwan independence” as millennials do, he said. “Instead, we see younger generations having a much more sort of pro-status-quo approach to politics,” Nachman said. Young people in Taiwan were too young to be radicalized in political upheavals such as the island’s Sunflower Movement in 2014 and the martial law era, he said. They don’t want to “rock any major boat” with any “radical change” in the Taiwan Strait, Nachman added, though the desire for unification with mainland China is still “incredibly low.” The Taiwan government poll found that over a third of respondents ages 18 to 29 viewed China as the island’s “primary threat” despite efforts by Beijing to win them over with preferential policies for studying and working in the mainland, as well as various activities including sponsored trips, internships and cultural events. Last year, over 4 million people from Taiwan visited mainland China for tourism, study or work, a year-over-year increase of 54.3%, according to official data released by Chinese authorities. According to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, young people were the “most active” group.

Angel City's Savy King was discharged from the hospital Saturday following heart surgery after she collapsed on the soccer pitch this month, stopping the match and leaving her teammates visibly shaken. The team said King, a 20-year-old defender, was discharged from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and is home with her family and "resting comfortably" after heart surgery. It thanked the medical center for the expert care King received and added that it is prepared to support King and her family as she recovers. The team said last week that her prognosis is "excellent." It was not immediately clear whether and when she will return to soccer. "I’m still finding the words to express just how much your love and support have meant to me over these past few days," King wrote on Instagram. "What I do know is that I wouldn’t be getting through this without my incredible family by my side, my amazing teammates who have shown up for me and prayed for me, the fans, the entire soccer community, and the outstanding medical team here at ACFC who saved my life and cared for me every step of the way." King collapsed on the field in the 74th minute of Angel City's National Women's Soccer League match against the Utah Royals on May 9. Trainers rushed to her side before she was taken off the field on a stretcher and then to the hospital. While she was being evaluated, doctors discovered a heart abnormality, prompting surgery Tuesday to remedy the problem, the team said last week. No other information about the abnormality and the surgery have been revealed. The team asked for respect for King's privacy as recovers. "I'm looking forward to recovering and getting back out on the field!" King said on Instagram.

The 49ers and linebacker Fred Warner are reportedly on the verge of agreeing to a new contract. Warner’s camp and the team are very close to finalizing a multi-year contract extension, according to Jennifer Lee Chan of NBCSportsBayArea.com. Warner said on Saturday that after tight end George Kittle and quarterback Brock Purdy got new deals this offseason, he feels good about the direction the 49ers are heading in with getting deals done now so that they can focus on football during football season. “I think it’s obviously worked out really well being able to knock those things out earlier,” Warner said. “Allowing us to focus just purely on ball and getting better as a team, so things are moving in the right direction.” The 28-year-old Warner was a 2018 third-round draft pick of the 49ers who has been chosen as a first-team All-Pro in four of his seven seasons in San Francisco. Warner still has two seasons remaining on his five-year, $95 million contract, but he has a $29.2 million salary cap hit this season, and it would make sense for both sides to structure an extension so that Warner gets more money in future years while lowering his cap number for this year. That deal should get done soon.

Central and eastern areas of the United States face multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday that are capable of producing strong tornadoes, damaging winds and hail as big as tennis balls, forecasters say. On Monday tornadoes were reported in Nebraska and Oklahoma, and some residents in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Texas were under tornado warnings overnight, according to the National Weather Service. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear early Tuesday. Bryan Smith, a lead forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center, said on Monday that tornadoes would still be a notable threat on Tuesday and Wednesday. “There’s the potential for a couple of strong tornadoes, centered on parts of southern Kentucky, western and middle Tennessee and into portions of northern Mississippi and Alabama,” he said. The Storm Prediction Center has highlighted a Level 3 risk, on a scale of 1 to 5, for severe weather in those areas on Tuesday. A broader area from northeastern Louisiana to Illinois, the west of the Carolinas and into northern portions of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi are under a Level 2 risk. Storms already active on Tuesday morning in parts of Kentucky, northern Mississippi and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana were expected to continue and grow stronger as the day goes on. Later on Tuesday, new thunderstorms are anticipated to form ahead of a cold front pushing through the region. Some of these will likely become supercells — powerful rotating storms that can produce tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds and can last for several hours. These may develop in parts of western and southern Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northern Alabama, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Farther north, a separate area of storms is expected to form in parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana by Tuesday afternoon. These storms could also bring hail, strong winds and possibly a few tornadoes. Some areas could see clusters of storms forming and merging, which would increase the chances of severe weather. The Weather Prediction Center has also warned that flash floods are likely, especially over portions of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee, where the ground is already saturated from recent storms. The severe weather threat has been in effect since last week, as a storm system brings warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the central United States and cooler, drier air moves in from the west. This clash of air masses, combined with strong winds higher up in the atmosphere, has created an unstable environment — perfect for severe thunderstorms to form. Editors’ Picks Rocking Pink and Ready to Party A Long Life in Harlem, Made Possible by an Affordable Apartment Take It Outside! 24 Easy-to-Pack Recipes for Summer Picnics, Beach Days and More In Oklahoma, storms downed power lines, damaged at least 10 homes and destroyed a firehouse, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said on Monday. There was also flash flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Missouri late Monday.The threat of severe weather is expected to lessen on Wednesday as the storm moves toward the Atlantic. Still, a swath from eastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina, along the East Coast to the Florida and Georgia border, may still experience damaging wind gusts and possibly a tornado, before the storm system eventually clears. Beyond the middle of the week, forecasters expect a calmer period of weather. “A little bit of a more benign weather pattern will ensue across the lower 48,” Mr. Smith said.

After trading for wide receiver George Pickens this month, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said that the team does not view the former Steeler as a No. 2 receiver. The Cowboys’ incumbent No. 1 receiver doesn’t see Pickens that way either. CeeDee Lamb and Pickens were both in attendance at Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s charity softball game over the weekend and Lamb addressed how their partnership will work during an interview with DLLS Sports. “Now we both ones,” Lamb said. “It ain’t no A, B, none of that. It’s one. You look over there, you see one. You look over here, you see another one. So do what you gotta do with that.” Amari Cooper led the Cowboys in catches and receiving yards during Lamb’s rookie season in 2020, but Lamb took over both spots the next season and has been the unquestioned top dog in the Dallas passing game the last three years. Pickens may not match his numbers, but it’s clear that the Cowboys see their offense taking on a new look in 2025.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Striding down the 15th fairway Sunday at Quail Hollow, Scottie Scheffler couldn’t help but glance over his left shoulder, across the pond, as the only man standing between him and the Wanamaker Trophy was shrinking from the moment. Scheffler knew what Jon Rahm was capable of; it wasn’t long ago that he was measuring himself against Rahmbo. But things are different now, the stakes higher, their trajectories reversed. That was before Scheffler’s mind-bending consistency has kept him atop the world rankings for 140 weeks, third-most all time. That was before Rahm bolted for LIV, stunting their budding rivalry by limiting their on-course battles. And that was before Scheffler put up numbers not seen since peak Tiger Woods. Because with another display of surgical execution and steady nerve on the back nine of a major, it’s clear they’re all no match for Scheffler right now. Not just Rahm. The rest of ’em too. Scheffler took another step toward becoming a player for the ages by stabilizing himself after a few early wobbles, executing to near-perfection down the stretch and, ultimately, leaving little doubt. He won this PGA Championship by five shots – and that, he said modestly, was with nowhere near his best stuff. “I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career,” he said. In his increasingly legendary career, Scheffler has won with stirring comebacks at the Olympics and The Players. He has won with commanding coronations at the Masters and recent Byron Nelson. But this major runaway will be remembered for his grittiness and his tenacity, for his chilling effectiveness in crunch time. It’s why he raised his arms as the crowd chanted his name. It’s why he spiked his hat and screamed. It’s why, as he approached his family, his father Scott told him: “Words cannot describe what we just witnessed. You are so tough.” With a three-shot advantage at the start of the final round, Scheffler found just two fairways and four greens on the opening side to drop into a share of the lead with the hard-charging Rahm. Battling a left miss, Scheffler asked caddie Ted Scott if he noticed anything askew in his setup. Trying to lighten the mood, Scott quipped, “Aim further right,” but he actually may have been onto something. On the 10th tee, Scheffler closed his shoulders slightly, made a fuller turn and laced a 312-yard tee shot down the left side of the fairway. “There he is,” Scott said. From there, Scheffler didn’t miss a shot. He peppered the fairways and hit approaches pin-high and experienced not even the slightest bit of stress on the greens. He birdied the drivable 14th with a slick bunker shot and added a deft, two-putt birdie from the back edge on the reachable par-5 15th. He played the fearsome “Green Mile” stretch with a six-shot lead as Rahm, forced to get aggressive, imploded. “Most people throw in the towel, and he just has a way to dig deep,” Scott said later. “He has an ability to be like, Oh, no – you’re not coming after me, bud. Sometimes you have the game, sometimes you don’t. But when he’s feeling it, he’s so tough.” Scheffler’s major triumph had weighty historical significance, as it nudged him ahead of not just Rahm, his former rival, in the two-major club but the rest of those in his age division, too, from Xander Schauffele to Justin Thomas to Collin Morikawa. For the 28-year-old Scheffler, Brooks Koepka (five majors), Rory McIlroy (five) and Phil Mickelson (six) are also squarely in his crosshairs over the next few years. Of course, Scheffler doesn’t view his career achievements through that comparative lens. He wasn’t a grand goal-setter, didn’t plaster posters on his bedroom wall, never made any bold declarations about what he could become. When he ascended to No. 1 in the world for the first time in spring 2022, he said, earnestly: “I never got this far in my dreams.” When he admitted to sobbing before the final round of the Masters that year, it was because he had no earthly idea how, or why, life was coming at him so fast. And so even now, with a simple home life and extravagant career, he finds comfort in his inner circle and calm in the monotony of his simplistic routine. “When I can be by myself and I can just practice, it’s one of the most fun things for me,” he said. “It’s so peaceful, and I love the pursuit of trying to figure something out. You’re always battling yourself, and you’re never going to perfect it. There’s always something you can do better.” Of course, just when it seemed like he was running out of areas of improvement following a nine-win season, Scheffler suffered a freak hand injury over the holidays that required surgery. As he crammed for a return to competition without his usual practice, preparation and gym time, Scheffler battled the occasional wild miss off the tee, wasn’t as sharp with his scoring clubs and looked streaky on the greens. His frustration grew. He slammed clubs. He looked and sounded grumpy. Temporarily indisposed, only able to rack up five top-10s, other players filled the void. For them, at least, it was a welcome respite from his suffocating dominance. “A little fire in the belly doesn’t bother me in the least bit. Sometimes you have to let that out,” said Scheffler’s longtime swing coach, Randy Smith. “You can sit there and you can take jabs, and you can jab yourself. You’ll be all right. Just don’t throw any uppercuts into your own jaw, that’s all.” McIlroy was the story of the first half of the year, nabbing three significant titles and etching his name in history, but it may have been a brief diversion. The remember-me? reminder came three weeks after McIlroy’s Masters moment, when Scheffler shot 31 under par at the Nelson and romped to an eight-shot win in his hometown. Here at Quail Hollow, he became the second player since 1985 to win consecutive events by at least five shots. Just like that, his early-season fits have already been forgotten, his stats normalized, his mood lightened. “He never left in the first place,” Smith smiled. No, statistically, Scheffler is as good, if not better, than he’s ever been. Not since Woods two decades ago has a player possessed this rare combination of precision, touch and poise. Scheffler is the most accurate driver among the elite players. He is – by far – the most lethal iron player. He’s turned into an elite putter. He routinely ranks among the top scramblers. He records the fewest bogeys and, on the off-chance he does drop a shot, has nearly the highest bounce-back birdie percentage. “He’s maturing as a player,” Smith said, “and when you add good decision-making with good golf, he’s putting together some nice work. And it’ll get better and better.” His best work at Quail Hollow came in spurts. During a scratchy opening round, he overcame a mud-ball double bogey and played 2 under the rest of the way to get into red figures for the day. Needing to separate from a crowded leaderboard on Saturday, Scheffler hit eight perfect shots on Quail’s stout closing holes and gained more than five shots on the field in a five-hole stretch to snag a three-shot lead. Cameras captured Si Woo Kim and Max Homa’s dazed expressions in the scoring room after Scheffler vaporized them on his way to a 65 that marked the first time in his major career that he fired the lowest round of the day. “If I can hit it just as well and make every putt I look at, I’ll have a chance,” Matt Fitzpatrick snarked later. “But I don’t see Scottie bobbling it.” Actually, Scheffler did – three bogeys, uncertainty with his swing, a blown lead – and yet it still didn’t matter. Beginning with his striped tee shot down 10, he played six perfect holes to seize control of the tournament while everyone else around him folded. “The greatest gift that he has,” Scott said, “is his mental thought process and his ability to do what he did today, to not have his game, hang in there, stay tough, stay resilient, and then all of a sudden you find a little something, start hitting it good – and now you’re winning by a lot.” That’s happening more and more often these days. All three of Scheffler’s major victories have been by three or more shots, becoming the first to do that since Seve Ballesteros. He also joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win 15 times (including three majors) before the age of 29. The consistency, the dominance, the completeness of his résumé – it gives the impression that he’s not battling this current crop of players as much as he is the legends of the sport. “He’s got that fire, and there’s been no signs of dimming,” Smith said. “In fact, I think that fire is just going up a little bit.” Isn’t that a terrifying prospect? “Nope, not for me,” Smith said. “And not for him, either.”

Last summer, an abandoned factory in southwest Memphis got a new life courtesy of the world’s richest man. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI moved in to transform this unprepossessing building into the “world’s largest supercomputer.” Musk named it Colossus and said it was the “most powerful AI training system in the world.” It was sold locally as a source of jobs, tax dollars and a key addition to the “Digital Delta” — the move to make Memphis a hotspot for advanced technology. “This is just the beginning,” xAI said on its website; the company already has plans for a second facility in the city. But for some residents in nearby Boxtown, a majority Black, economically-disadvantaged community that has long endured industrial pollution, xAI’s facility represents yet another threat to their health. AI is immensely power-hungry, and Musk’s company installed dozens of gas-powered turbines, known to produce a cocktail of toxic pollutants. The company currently has no air permits, appearing to rely on a loophole for temporary turbines — but environmental groups say the exemption does not apply, and residents are angry. “Our health was never considered, the safety of our communities was never, ever considered,” said Sarah Gladney, who lives 3 miles from the facility and suffers from a lung condition. xAI did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. This part of Memphis, home to 17 other polluting facilities — including an oil refinery, steel plant and gas-fired power plant — is used to fighting for clean air. This time, however, not only are they up against the world’s richest man, who happens to be one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors, but it’s happening as the Trump administration takes an ax to pollution legislation, slashes environmental justice programs and throws its full-throated support behind AI. What’s unfolding in Memphis should be a warning to other communities, said Erika Sugarmon, a commissioner of Shelby County, which encompasses Memphis and the surrounding area. “All these different safeguards are being taken away,” she told CNN. “So where do you go?” The race for AI The new Memphis facility is part of Musk’s quest to dominate AI, providing computing power to xAI’s chatbot, Grok, which the company promotes as an “anti-woke” version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It has been under fire for loose guardrails, including allowing users to create Nazi Mickey Mouse images. Memphis Mayor Paul Young has thrown his support behind xAI’s arrival, emphasizing benefits including the promise of hundreds of high-paying jobs and around $30 million in tax revenues in the first year alone. “What we are looking at is an opportunity to completely transform our economy,” Young said. It’s “game changing,” he told CNN. Others see it very differently. Some local lawmakers say they were kept in the dark about the facility’s arrival, leaving them scrambling for information. State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat who lives 3 miles from the facility, said he was blindsided. His initial concern was how it would be powered. “Our grid is already not stable enough” and the last three winters have seen rolling blackouts, he told CNN. It turned out the answer is partly grid power. The facility receives 150 megawatts from the local public utility Memphis Light, Gas and Water — enough to power around 100,000 homes. MLGW said it had done an impact study to ensure this would not affect power availability and reliability for consumers. xAI is now awaiting approval for a further 150 megawatts. But what really spiked Pearson’s concerns were the turbines that started appearing at the facility last summer. Gas-powered turbines produce pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, a key component of ozone pollution — also called smog — which can cause asthma attacks and chest pain and, in the longer-term, is linked to decreased lung function and premature death. They also generate the carcinogen formaldehyde and tiny air pollution particles so small they can pass through lungs into people’s bloodstream. It’s a big concern for a region already grappling with the impacts of air pollution. The cancer risk from industrial sources in southwest Memphis is 4.1 times higher than the EPA’s acceptable risk, according to a ProPublica analysis. Shelby county has an F in air quality for ozone levels from the American Lung Association and the highest rates of children hospitalized for asthma in Tennessee. Aerial images taken by the Southern Environmental Law Center and South Wings, an organization of volunteer pilots, in March showed xAI had 35 turbines at the facility. These can generate a total of 420 megawatts, equivalent to a “medium- to large-sized power plant,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney at SELC. They can produce an up to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution every year, which would make xAI one of the biggest sources in the county, according to SELC calculations. Aerial pictures taken in April, this time with a thermal imaging camera, showed 33 turbines were producing heat, suggesting they were operating, Anderson told CNN. What has inflamed the community further is xAI’s lack of air permits. It appears the company relied on a loophole which allows temporary turbines in one location for less than a year to operate without a permit. The SELC, however, argues xAI’s turbines don’t fall within a permit exemption because of their size and the pollution they produce. “Our position is (xAI is) without a permit, they should not be operating,” Anderson said. In January, months after starting operations, xAI applied to the Shelby County Health Department for permits for 15 turbines. A health department spokesperson told CNN the application was currently under review and all community feedback would be “carefully considered.” Twelve of the remaining 20 turbines were removed in May, and the rest will go in the future, said Mayor Young, although the timeline is unclear. The Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce said the turbines for which permits have been requested “will achieve industry-leading emission standards” once they are equipped with pollution reduction technologies. For Rep. Pearson, however, the situation is bewildering. “It’s an actual gas plant in the middle of a neighborhood and you don’t need any permitting?” he said. “Something has failed drastically and significantly with our system of checks and balances.” ‘Not a new fight’ Some of xAI’s supporters have accused those who oppose it of being motivated by animosity toward Musk. It’s a theory rejected by KeShaun Pearson, director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. Southwest Memphis has a long history of battling for clean air, soil and water, he told CNN. Residents successfully fought off a crude oil pipeline in 2021 that would have crossed Boxtown and multiple other predominantly Black communities in southwest Memphis. A medical sterilizing facility in south Memphis, which since the 1970s had been pumping out ethylene oxide, a toxic pollutant linked to blood and breast cancers, closed in 2023 after local campaigning. xAI’s facility “is not a new fight; this is the most recent,” Pearson said. Southwest Memphis has long been seen as a “sacrifice zone,” he added. Pearson is wary of promises of hundreds of highly-paid jobs; data centers don’t typically need large numbers of workers. He fears the majority of roles available to local people will be in janitorial and security. xAI’s taxes also won’t make up for health impacts, said Pearson, whose grandparents both died of cancer in their 60s, losses he blames on long-term pollution. What’s happening in southwest Memphis reveals the tension between two very different narratives of what AI can bring US communities. For some leaders and business groups, xAI offers an opportunity to bring investment to an area in desperate need. Young people will be trained for AI jobs, and xAI tax dollars will be reinvested in the community, including tackling indoor air pollution, Mayor Young said. For environmental groups and many residents, this much-hyped, new technology brings the same old problems. “If the innovation shackles you to fossil fuels like methane gas or coal, that’s regression, right? That’s not progress,” Pearson said. There could be a rash of similar power-hungry data centers appearing across the US as Trump and tech companies pave the way for AI. The EPA has listed making the US the AI “capital of the world” as one of the five pillars guiding its work. An EPA spokesperson told CNN “the Trump EPA will continue to implement its core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback” but did not answer specific questions about the xAI facility. Rep. Pearson fears for the impacts. “If you look at where these data centers are propping up, it’s always in poor communities” he said. There is “no hope” the federal government will help protect them, he added. In southwest Memphis, the fight for clean air will continue, especially as xAI looks to expand its footprint with a new 1 million-square-foot facility. But it’s exhausting, said Boxtown resident Sarah Gladney. “It seems like we are constantly at battle,” she said. “We deserve to breathe clean air.”

Climate change should be considered a new core aspect of creditworthiness when prospective home buyers apply for a mortgage, a new report suggests. The analysis from the climate risk financial modeling firm First Street is a groundbreaking nationwide look at the ties between the growing risks from extreme weather such as floods and wildfires, and a long-suspected spike in mortgage defaults in hard-hit areas. It finds that lenders and borrowers are exposed to more financial risk than they are aware of because current ways of determining creditworthiness leave out exposure to climate disasters as a factor. If climate risk were to be taken into account by lenders — which the analysis shows may be increasingly necessary as climate change worsens the severity and frequency of certain extreme weather events — then the next time someone goes to get a home loan their credit score could be knocked down (or adjusted upward) due to their climate risk exposure. At the same time, mortgage lenders could become more hesitant to provide policies, or raise the cost of borrowing, in certain risky areas with greater exposure to climate-related hazards. First Street finds weather-driven mortgage foreclosures could cause $1.2 billion in lender losses in today’s climate, with the majority of that happening in just three states: California, Florida and Louisiana. Over the next decade, this could increase to up to $5.4 billion per year by 2035, which would be about 30% of annual lender losses, the report says. “This growing share of foreclosure losses is largely driven by the escalating insurance crisis and the increasing frequency and severity of flooding anticipated in the next decade,” the report states. It is well-known that the cost of home insurance is increasing in many areas due in part to climate change-driven hazards. This is causing insurance policies to become unaffordable for many people, which exposes them to financial risk from a flood, wildfire or hurricane, for example. It is also prompting insurance companies to flee particularly disaster-prone locations, such as Florida and California. In California, State Farm is raising rates by 17% in one year due in large part to wildfire-related losses. “When climate events destabilize local housing markets, it doesn’t just affect those directly hit,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications for First Street and an author of the report. “It ripples through the financial system, driving up mortgage rates, directly impacting individual credit risk, and pricing more people out of homeownership,” Porter said. Relying on a combination of peer reviewed methods and new techniques, Porter looked at the number, amount and pattern of foreclosures following wildfire, extreme wind and flooding events nationally. He found the best predictor of rising foreclosure rates among climate-related factors is flooding, particularly when it occurs outside of FEMA flood zones, where homeowners are far less likely to have flood insurance. The study also linked rapid increases in insurance premiums over time at the ZIP code level to increases in foreclosures in those same ZIP codes, finding that insurance increases are putting many families in a more financially vulnerable position and creating greater risks for lenders. Properties flooded in an extreme weather event face a 57% higher foreclosure rate than nearby, unflooded homes, Porter said. One underlying trend used for the study is the rapid increase in costs of natural disasters in the US, as shown in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s billion-dollar weather and climate disaster database. However, the agency recently announced that due to staffing cuts and shifting priorities, it will no longer update this list, forcing groups like First Street to rethink their methodology and rely on other, potentially inferior datasets.

by Rebecca Schneid , Olivia-Anne Cleary and Callum Sutherland Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke for two hours on Monday in what the U.S. President described as an "excellent" conversation, announcing that Russia and Ukraine would immediately begin negotiations toward a ceasefire. The call followed Trump's recent public appeal to Putin to "stop the bloodbath" and end what he described as a violent and devastating conflict. Shortly after speaking with the Russian President, Trump said he had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as several European leaders and Pope Leo, of the planned talks. He also noted that the Vatican had expressed interest in hosting future negotiations. Advertisement “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” Mr Trump wrote on social media. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and, more importantly, an end to the war.” Following the call, Russian state media reported that the Russian President expressed openness to a ceasefire. "Russia is ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum on future peace talks. A ceasefire with Ukraine is possible once agreements are reached," TASS quoted Putin as saying. Putin also described the conversation with Trump as “very informative and quite a frank discussion.” He added, “The U.S. president voiced his position on a ceasefire. For my part, I noted that Russia, too, favors a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. We must determine the most effective ways of moving towards peace.” Putting the end to the war in Ukraine has been a core aspect of Trump’s presidency so far. The President signed a deal on May 1 in which Ukraine would hand over half of its future oil, gas, and minerals wealth to the U.S. in return for American investment and economic assistance. Ahead of the calls this morning, Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters: "I think the president is going to say to President Putin, look, 'Are you serious? Are you real about this?'" Vance added that the U.S. is “more than open to walking away” from ongoing peace talks. “We want to see outcomes,” he added. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump “has grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict,” and will be pushing for an end to the ongoing war. When asked if Trump would be meeting with Putin in the near future, Leavitt responded: “The president would certainly be open to that." Overnight on Saturday, leading into Sunday morning, Ukrainian officials reported that Russia had launched its most intense drone attack against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Aproducer behind reality shows like The Millionaire Matchmaker, Duck Dynasty, and Alpha Dogs has pitched a new reality show idea to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—one in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. “I'm putting a face to immigration. This is a great celebration of America,” Rob Worsoff told CNN in an interview that aired on Friday, May 16, noting that he himself is an immigrant from Canada. Worsoff said that he also pitched this reality show during both previous Democratic Administrations. Advertisement In an emailed statement to TIME on Saturday, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary who oversees the DHS' public outreach, said: “DHS receives hundreds of television show pitches a year, ranging from documentaries surrounding ICE and CBP border operations to white collar investigations by HSI,” adding that each of these proposals goes through a vetting process. “We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches. This pitch has not received approval or rejection by staff,” she said. McLaughlin also denied, as she had previously via social media, that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was backing the show in any way, and said that Noem is “not even aware of the pitch.” Meanwhile, Worsoff claimed during his interview that the DHS appears to be “seriously considering” the show—which he said would include a series of elimination challenges across America. Examples he gave of such challenges included a “pizza-making challenge” in New York, a “rocket-launching challenge” in Florida, and a “gold rush challenge” in California. Per his vision, each episode would culminate in a town hall-esque style vote, one he said is akin to a “presidential election.” “The people of Tennessee, let’s say, will get to vote on which one of our future Americans they would most like to represent the state of Tennessee,” Worsoff offered as an example. Then, a winner would be granted citizenship. The show currently has the working title "The American." The pitch comes at a time when President Donald Trump and his Administration have launched a crackdown on U.S. immigration—embroiling themselves in legal battles to end birthright citizenship, upping mass deportation goals, and overhauling asylum access. On Friday, the Supreme Court barred the Trump Administration from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump Administration had previously been utilizing the act to expedite deportations of Venezuelan nationals alleged to be in the Tren de Aragua gang, though the court argued that Trump only gave these migrants 24 hours to receive legal advice, and that they were “devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal.” The ruling extends the court’s April emergency order barring Trump from using the wartime law to deport migrants held in a detention facility in Texas.