DAKAR, Senegal

Farah fled Morocco to save her life. Her family had beaten her, hunted her, and tried to kill her after discovering she was in a same-sex relationship.

Now, after a harrowing journey to the United States and a swift deportation by the Trump administration, the 21-year-old says she is back in the country where being gay is a crime—and back in hiding.

“I have to work and live with the fear of being tracked once again by my family,” Farah told The Associated Press in a rare testimony from an asylum-seeker deported to a third country despite having a protection order from a U.S. immigration judge. “But there is nothing I can do.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of persecution, Farah described a desperate odyssey that began when her relationship was discovered.

She was beaten, first by her own family and then by her partner’s relatives. Kicked out of the family home, she fled to another city with her partner, only to be found and nearly killed, she said.

Through a friend, the couple learned of an opportunity to obtain visas for Brazil, hoping to eventually reach the United States where they had connections.

From Brazil, they trekked through six countries over weeks before finally reaching the U.S. border, where they requested asylum.

The AP reviewed her protection order, and lawyers verified parts of her account. In Morocco, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison.

Now, Farah says she is trapped in the very country she fled, her safety once again hanging in the balance.

By James Kisoo

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah

In a first-of-its-kind operation, the Pentagon and the Energy Department have airlifted a small nuclear reactor from California to Utah, demonstrating what officials describe as the nation’s capacity to rapidly deploy nuclear technology for both military and civilian applications.

The nearly 700-mile flight last weekend transported a 5-megawatt microreactor—conspicuously absent its nuclear fuel—aboard a C-17 military aircraft.

The operation underscores the Trump administration’s push to expand nuclear energy’s role in meeting surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence, data centers, and military installations.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Undersecretary of Defense Michael Duffey accompanied the privately built reactor on its Feb. 15 journey.

Both hailed the mission as a breakthrough for accelerating commercial licensing of microreactors, part of a broader administration effort to reshape America’s energy landscape.

By James Kisoo

President Donald Trump raised the global duty on imports into the United States to 15 percent on Saturday, doubling down on his promise to maintain his aggressive tariff policy a day after the Supreme Court ruled much of it illegal.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of Friday’s “extraordinarily anti-American decision” by the court to rein in his tariff program, the administration was hiking the import levies “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.”

Shortly after the court’s 6-3 ruling that rejected the president’s authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 economic emergency powers act, Trump had initially announced a new 10 percent global levy by invoking a different legal avenue.

At the same time, the Republican launched an extraordinary personal attack on the conservative justices who had sided with the majority, slamming their “disloyalty” and calling them “fools and lap dogs.”

The ruling was a stunning rebuke by the high court, which has largely sided with the president since he returned to office, and marked a major political setback in striking down Trump’s signature economic policy that has roiled the global trade order.

Saturday’s announcement is sure to provoke further uncertainty as Trump carries on with a trade war that he has used to cajole and punish countries, both friend and foe.

It is the latest move in a process that has seen a multitude of tariff levels for countries sending goods into the United States set and then altered or revoked by Trump’s team over the past year.

Several countries have said they are studying the Supreme Court ruling and Trump’s subsequent tariff announcements.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday urged Donald Trump to treat all countries equally.

“I want to tell the US President Donald Trump that we don’t want a new Cold War. We don’t want interference in any other country, we want all countries to be treated equally,” Lula told reporters in New Delhi.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Saturday he would hold talks with European allies to formulate “a very clear European position” and joint response to Washington before he travels to the US capital in early March.

On the domestic front, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X it was time for Trump to “listen to the Supreme Court, end chaotic tariffs, and stop wreaking havoc on our farmers, small business owners, and families.”

The new duty by law is only temporary — allowable for 150 days. According to a White House fact sheet, exemptions remain for sectors that are under separate probes, including pharma, and goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

On Friday, the White House said US trading partners that reached separate tariff deals with Trump’s administration would also face the new global tariff.

– High court defeat –

Friday’s court ruling did not impact sector-specific duties Trump separately imposed on steel, aluminum and various other goods. Government probes still underway could lead to additional sectoral tariffs.

But it nevertheless marked Trump’s biggest defeat at the Supreme Court since returning to the White House 13 months ago. The court has generally expanded his power.

Trump heaped praise on the conservative justices who voted to uphold his authority to levy tariffs — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee — thanking them “for their strength and wisdom, and love of our country.”

The president alleged the majority of six justices, including two nominated during his first term, had been “swayed by foreign interests.”

“I think that foreign interests are represented by people that I believe have undue influence,” he said.

Shares on Wall Street — a metric closely watched by Trump — rose modestly Friday after the decision, which had been expected.

Business groups largely cheered the ruling, with the National Retail Federation saying this “provides much-needed certainty” for companies.

In court arguments, the Trump administration said companies would receive refunds if the tariffs were deemed unlawful. But the Supreme Court’s ruling did not address the issue.

Trump said he expected years of litigation on whether to provide refunds. Kavanaugh noted the refund process could be a “mess.”

WASHINGTON

The Department of Homeland Security has suspended enrollment in TSA PreCheck and Global Entry as the partial government shutdown forces it to prioritize resources.

The shutdown, which began Feb. 14 over an immigration dispute, means travelers cannot apply or renew for the programs that expedite airport security.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the suspension is a “real-world consequence” of the shutdown, with agencies now focused on the general traveling public.

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee criticized the move, accusing the administration of intentionally disrupting travel.

By James Kisoo

BBC -Israeli air strikes have killed at least 10 people in eastern Lebanon, Lebanese officials say, despite a ceasefire.

Israel’s military said it had targeted sites belonging to Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia and political party, in the Bekaa Valley, an area where the group has a strong presence.

Hezbollah confirmed that at least eight of its members had been killed, including a senior field commander.

The strikes were among the deadliest in Lebanon since a ceasefire ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024.

Despite the deal, which followed 13 months of conflict, Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on Lebanon, on targets it says are linked to the group, which is supported by Iran.

Images posted online from one of the locations hit on Friday night showed heavy damage in what appeared to be a residential neighbourhood.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had struck what it described as Hezbollah command centres and that the group “systematically embeds its assets within the civilian population”. It said the group’s activities were “a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

In a separate statement on Saturday, the military said it had “eliminated several terrorists of Hezbollah’s missile array in three different command centres… recently identified as operating to accelerate the organisation’s readiness and force build-up processes, while planning fire attacks towards Israel”.

Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and the US, says the ceasefire deal only applies to southern Lebanon, in the area between the Litani river and the Blue Line, the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel.

There, the Lebanese army has dismantled infrastructure used by the group, in the first stage of a plan to disarm Hezbollah after its devastating war with Israel.

The group, however, has so far rejected calls from Lebanese authorities to discuss the future of its weapons elsewhere in the country, including in the Bekaa Valley, where part of its arsenal is believed to be located.

This week, Hezbollah dismissed a decision by the government to advance the second phase of the disarmament plan in areas between north of the Litani and the Awali river, in the port city of Sidon.

Lebanon’s government says Israel’s ongoing actions are a violation of the ceasefire deal and has urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam recently said the situation had become a “one-sided war of attrition”.

Hours before the attacks in the east, an Israeli strike hit the densely populated Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh, on the outskirts of Sidon, in the country’s south.

The Israeli military said it had struck a “command centre” that had been used by Hamas, which said two members had been killed.

The strikes come amid heightened tensions in the region, with the United States threatening to attack Iran if negotiations between the two countries fail to reach a deal.

There are concerns in Lebanon that Iran might force Hezbollah to join its response to an attack if Israel becomes involved.