MARTHA MENDOZA

People from China, Vietnam and Ethiopia, believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in scam centers, sit with their faces masked while in detention after being released from the centers in Myawaddy district in eastern Myanmar, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanaphon Wuttison)

Takeaways from the AP’s reporting into what people face in Myanmar after release from forced labor

Thousands of sick, exhausted and terrified young men and women, from countries all over the world squat in rows, packed shoulder to shoulder, surgical masks covering their mouths and, some, their eyes.

People from China, Vietnam and Ethiopia, believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in scam centers, sit with their faces masked while in detention after being released from the centers in Myawaddy district in eastern Myanmar, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanaphon Wuttison)

They were forced to scam others worldwide. Now thousands are detained on the Myanmar border

Thousands of sick, exhausted and terrified young men and women, from countries all over the world squat in rows, packed shoulder to shoulder, surgical masks covering their mouths and, some, their eyes.

People stand at the end of the Manhattan Beach Pier and watch high surf pound the pylons on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

California residents on edge as high surf and flooding threats persist on Christmas Eve

Persistent high surf and flooding threats along California’s coast have residents on high alert a day after a major storm was blamed for one man’s death and the partial collapse of a pier.

A building from a wharf collapse floats in the ocean Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)

Major storm pounds California’s central coast, blamed for man’s death and partially collapsing pier

A major storm has pounded California’s central coast bringing flooding and high surf that was blamed for fatally trapping a man beneath debris on a beach and later partially collapsing a pier, tossing three people into the Pacific Ocean.

The owner, who asked not to be identified because of concerns about his privacy, turns on the lights in his underground shelter in an undisclosed Southern California city, on Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite expert warnings they aren’t going to provide protection

Global security leaders are warning nuclear threats are growing as weapons spending surged to $91.4 billion last year.

President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP)

Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his

Donald Trump’s second term comes with the specter of the world’s richest man serving as his political enforcer.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, left, and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump attend the final day of the Republican National Convention, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Lara Trump stepping down as RNC co-chair and addressing speculation about Florida Senate seat

Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. One of her potential next steps is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Donald Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Gov.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, speaks with reporters following a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Police report reveals assault allegations against Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary

A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave.

FILE - President Donald Trump appears on Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth at a Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Trump’s pick to lead Defense Department was accused of sexual assault in 2017

Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host who is Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, was accused of sexual assault in 2017 after a speaking appearance at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California.

FILE - The seal on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen June 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

A courtroom of relief: FBI recovers funds for victims of scammed banker

Cheers and sobs of relief broke out in a federal courtroom in Kansas as dozens of people whose life savings had been embezzled by a bank CEO learned federal law enforcement had recovered their money.

FILE - Marine Maj. Joshua Mast, arrives at Circuit Court for a hearing in an ongoing custody battle over an Afghan orphan, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

Military board substantiates misconduct but declines to fire Marine who adopted Afghan orphan

A U.S. Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a yearslong legal battle and raised alarms at the highest levels of government will stay in the Marine Corps. A three-member panel of Marines said Tuesday that while Maj.

FILE - U.S. Marine Corp Major Joshua Mast, center, talks with his attorneys during a break in the hearing of an ongoing custody battle over an Afghan orphan, March 30, 2023, at the Circuit Courthouse in Charlottesville, Va. A Virginia appellate court ruled Tuesday, July 16, 2024, that the U.S. Marine should never have been granted an adoption of an Afghan war orphan and voided the custody order he’s relied on to raise the girl for nearly three years. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

Appeals court voids Marine’s adoption of Afghan orphan; child’s fate remains in limbo

A Virginia appellate court ruled Tuesday that a U.S. Marine should never have been granted an adoption of an Afghan war orphan and voided the custody order he’s relied on to raise the girl for nearly three years.

FILE - Lara Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Lara Trump is taking the reins and reshaping the RNC in her father-in-law’s image

Lara Trump became co-chair of the Republican National Committee in March, culminating efforts by her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, and his allies to shake up the party’s governing body.

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks with construction workers at the construction site of the new JPMorgan Chase headquarters in midtown Manhattan, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Trading Trump: Truth Social’s first month of trading has sent investors on a ride

With Donald Trump facing dozens of federal criminal charges and hundreds of millions in legal expenses, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. went public on the Nasdaq exchange March 26. Its performance has confounded analysts.

Workers peel shrimp in a tin-roofed processing shed in the hamlet of the Tallarevu, in Kakinada district, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. Indian shrimp is regularly sold in major U.S. stores such as Walmart, Target and Sam’s Club and supermarkets like Kroger, Safeway and Sprouts. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Highlights from the AP’s reporting on the shrimp industry in India

One reason for that is the low cost for consumers of shrimp from India.

A worker peels shrimp in a tin-roofed processing shed in the hamlet of Tallarevu, in Kakinada district, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. Dr. Sushmitha Meda, a dermatologist at a nearby government hospital in the city of Kakinada, said she treats four to five shrimp peelers every day for frostbite and infection. It’s a preventable problem, she said. Cotton gloves covered with latex gloves can protect peelers’ hands, but few can afford a $3 box of gloves. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

AP finds grueling conditions in Indian shrimp industry that report calls ‘dangerous and abusive’

India is the top supplier of shrimp to the U.S., with Indian shrimp stocked in freezers at most of the nation’s biggest grocery store and restaurant chains.

At least 5 US-funded projects in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, but most are spared

The United States has spent more than $7 billion on humanitarian aid and building infrastructure in the Palestinian territories in recent decades, while sending more than $3 billion a year to Israel for its military.

FILE - Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, arrive at Circuit Court, Thursday, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as “endorsing an act of international child abduction,” according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

Secret records: Government says Marine’s adoption of Afghan orphan seen as abduction, must be undone

The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that an American Marine’s adoption of an Afghan war orphan was flawed and could be seen as international child abduction. That is from secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press.

In this April, 2020 image provided by International Rights Advocates, children from Burkina Faso are seen resting while working on a cocoa plantation in Ivory Coast in Daloa. Child welfare advocates are suing the Biden administration for failing to block imports of cocoa picked by children in West Africa bound for America’s most popular chocolate bars. (Terrence Collingsworth/International Rights Advocates via AP)

Advocates sue federal government for failing to ban imports of cocoa harvested by children

Child welfare advocates have filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to force the Biden administration to block imports of cocoa harvested by children in West Africa that ends up in America’s most popular chocolate desserts and candies.

FILE - Equipment frames the cooling towers of the Temelin nuclear power plant near the town of Tyn nad Vltavou, Czech Republic, on Thursday, June 25, 2015. The U.S. and its European allies are importing vast amounts of nuclear fuel and compounds from Russia, providing Moscow with hundreds of millions of dollars in badly needed revenue as it wages war on Ukraine. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

Putin profits off US and European reliance on Russian nuclear fuel

The U.S. and its European allies are importing vast amounts of nuclear compounds and products from Russia, giving Moscow hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue as it wages war on Ukraine.

A baby was found in the rubble of a US raid in Afghanistan. But who exactly was killed and why?

A baby found in the rubble of a U.S. raid in Afghanistan in 2019 is raising questions about who was killed and why. A U.S. Marine who adopted the baby insists her parents were foreign fighters killed in the attack.

With stretched crews, homeowners join California firefight

As wildfires rage throughout California, turning forests and homes into kindling, firefighters are badly short-staffed, and some residents are taking matters into their own hands. Some 500 blazes are flaring around the state.

Airman may face death penalty in California cop killing

A U.S. Air Force sergeant could face the death penalty if he is convicted of a deadly ambush-style attack on unsuspecting officers in Northern California.

Detaining immigrant kids is now a billion-dollar industry

Currently, more than 11,800 children, from a few months old to 17, are housed in nearly 90 facilities in 15 states. They are being held while their parents await immigration proceedings or are reviewed for possible asylum themselves.

AP NewsBreak: US Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits

The U.S. Army appears to be doing an about-face on a program in which immigrant reservists and recruits enlisted with the hope of a path to citizenship.

Social media gets the word out during Irma emergency

With electricity out and cell service spotty across much of Florida because of Hurricane Irma, social media has become the go-to mode of communication for checking in safety or calling for help.

After Taiwan stop, fugitive Red Bull heir’s path a mystery

At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins

On an ordinary day at Kathmandu’s airport, about 1,500 Nepalis leave for jobs mostly in Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and six others return home in coffins.

Tech solutions to tackle overfishing, labor abuse at sea

More than a dozen apps, devices and monitoring systems aimed at tracking unscrupulous fishing boats and the seafood they catch are being rolled out.

Promises unmet as Thailand tries to reform shrimp industry

Facing international pressure for failing to stop human trafficking in its seafood sector, Thailand promised almost a year ago to compensate victims of slavery, while industry leaders vowed to bring all shrimp processing in-house.