Recognition of the Rodriguez government grants legitimacy and potentially unlocks new financial support, both from official sources and potentially from the private sector, an expert told AFP

Apple on Monday announced that Tim Cook will step down as the tech giant's chief executive officer in September, handing the top job to company veteran John Ternus.

The announcement answers long-simmering questions about a successor for 65-year-old Cook, who said he will become executive chairman of the board when he cedes Apple's CEO position.

"It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company," Cook said in a statement.

Cook joined Apple in 1998, rising through the ranks and helping drive its success as chief operating officer coordinating the iPhone maker's complex supply chain.

He became chief executive in 2011 after its iconic co-founder and leader Steve Jobs left due to health issues.

Cook is credited with expanding Apple's product line and ramping up the company's value to some $4 trillion based on the value of its shares.

"Tim's unprecedented and outstanding leadership has transformed Apple into the world's best company," outgoing chairman of the board Arthur Levinson said in the statement.

"His integrity and values are infused into everything Apple does."

Levinson currently holds the board chairmanship in a non-executive role. He will become the board's lead independent director.

Ternus joined Apple's product design team in 2001 and became a senior vice president of hardware engineering over the course of the following two decades.

He is credited by Apple with playing roles in an array of products including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch, and Mac computers.

"I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple's mission forward," Ternus said in the same statement.

"Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor."

Apple marks its 50th anniversary this year as artificial intelligence challenges the Silicon Valley legend to prove it can deliver yet another culture-changing innovation.

Jobs, a driven marketing genius, and Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple computer, revolutionized how people use technology in the internet age.

The two men -- both college dropouts -- changed the way people use computers, listen to music and communicate on the go, giving rise to lifestyles revolving around smartphone apps.

Apple's hit products — the Mac, the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad — command a cult-like following, long after the company's humble beginnings on April 1, 1976 in Jobs's Cupertino, California garage.

gc-tu/mlm

A Canadian woman was shot dead and five other people injured by a gunman on Monday at Mexico's famed Teotihuacan archaeological site, authorities said.

The gunman killed himself after opening fire at the popular tourist destination, home to pre-Aztecan pyramids, said Cristobal Castaneda, the security secretary for Mexico state, where the site is located.

Videos on social media showed the gunmen firing periodic shots from a pistol about halfway up the Pyramid of the Moon while some tourists take cover behind stairs below and others flee.

"A person is opening fire on us, take care friends, send security," a voice from one video, which AFP has not verified, can be heard saying. 

State authorities at the scene seized a firearm, knife, and unused ammunition and evacuated tourists from the premises.

Mexico's health institute reported that seven victims were receiving treatment in a nearby hospital for gunshot wounds, including one minor. 

Four were treated for gunshot wounds while others suffered an anxiety attack and injuries from falling down the pyramid's steep 47 step stairway.

The injured included two Colombians, another Canadian, and a Russian, according to Castaneda.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a statement on her X account that federal and state security forces were being deployed to the site and that her administration was in contact with the Canadian government.

"What happened today in Teotihuacan hurts us deeply. I express my sincerest solidarity to the people affected and their families," Sheinbaum wrote.

While Mexico continues to struggle with frequent drug gang-related violence, mass untargeted shootings are relatively rare, especially compared to the country's northern neighbor, the United States.

Local reporters shared videos of prosecutors and officials in forensic suits standing atop the pyramid in the now empty complex, cordoned off by crime scene tape.

The over 2,000-year old pyramid city is one of Mexico's most important archaeological sites as well as one of the most popular tourist sites near Mexico City.

The Secretary of Tourism said over 1.8 million people visited in 2025. 

Mexico City is preparing for a surge of foreign visitors in the leadup to the June World Cup, as the head tourism official estimated over 5.5 million people will visit in relation to the global tournament.

ai/jpo/des

(The Center Square) - U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer will leave the Trump administration, a White House official said Monday. 

DeRemer's exit follows two high-profile depatures in Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Chavez-DeRemer has been embroiled in controversy after allegations of having an affair with a subordinate surfaced over the past several months. 

"She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives," said Steven Cheung, director of communications at the White House. 

Chavez-DeRemer faced accusations of an affair with a subordinate. Her husband also came under investigation by the department amid sexual assault allegations and was barred from the Labor Department building. 

Chavez-DeRemer has been under investigation by the Department of Labor's inspector general due to various accusations. Several top members of DeRemer's staff have left their posts since the investigation began.

Keith Sonderling, current deputy secretary of the Department of Labor, will take over as the interim head of the agency. During his confirmation hearing last year, Sonderling expressed support for implementing artificial intelligence into processes throughout the federal workforce. 

“We are not going to be able to succeed as a global leader in AI without making sure that the products are developed, designed, and deployed in accordance with the laws that Congress have passed,” Sonderling said.

Cheung said Chavez-DeRemer would take on a position in the private sector. He did not specify when her tenure would end. 

Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green said Monday he believes Steve Kerr may not return as coach of the franchise next season following his team's exit from the NBA play-in tournament.

Speaking on his podcast, 'The Draymond Green Show', Green said that while he wanted Kerr to continue, he suspected the 60-year-old would bring the curtain down on his 12-season coaching career with the Warriors.

"I hope he's our coach next season," Green  said. "You want my opinion? I think not. Just because it feels like that. It felt like that was it."

Kerr shared an emotional moment with Green and Warriors ace Stephen Curry immediately after the team were eliminated from the postseason in a 111-96 loss to Phoenix on Friday.

"These jobs all have an expiration date," Kerr said afterwards, before adding that he would take some time to ponder his future.

"It may still go on. It may not," Kerr said. "But we all need to step away a little bit and then reconvene."

Kerr has overseen a dynastic era during his reign at Golden State, overseeing four NBA championships in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022.

While Kerr has left the door open to a return next season, courtside microphones caught him telling Green and Curry during their huddle on Friday: "I don't know what's going to happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you."

Curry said he didn't know if it was a precursor to an official goodbye.

"I don't know if that's a signal of anything," Curry said. "It's just that we wanted to appreciate what we have all poured into this journey."

rcw/dmc

Afro-Colombian woman Yuvelis Morales, a 25-year-old who has spent most of her adult life working to block the world's biggest oil companies from exploiting fragile ecosystems, won the environmental equivalent of a Nobel prize on Monday.

Morales spoke to AFP about standing up to such multinationals, protecting natural resources in her native Colombia during what she called "the beginning of the end" of the fossil fuel era, and facing the fear of death threats.

Born to a fishing family in the world's deadliest country for environmentalists, the recipient of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize began her activism at age 18.

She grew up on the banks of the Magdalena River, near Colombia's largest oil refinery, in a sweltering region long shaped by oil, conflict and poverty.

Successive Colombian governments have eyed fracking projects in the area, hoping to bring revenue and jobs.

But worried that fracking would threaten water supplies and local livelihoods, Morales organized protests.

Under the slogan "No to fracking," her campaign drew local support -- and national attention.

That pressure helped stop pilot projects backed by state oil company Ecopetrol and US energy giant ExxonMobil.

Morales said she was proud to receive the Goldman prize, often described as the "Green Nobel," alongside five other activists.

But speaking from the US state of California, Morales acknowledges her work has come at a cost.

In 2022, armed men came to her home to issue a warning.

Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders, with nearly 150 murdered in 2024 alone, according to Global Witness.

After receiving repeated threats, Morales decided to leave Colombia and sought asylum in France.

She spent several months in exile and prefers not to speak in detail about that period.

- Fighting fear -

Fear "will always be present because of the anxiety that comes with defending territory," Morales told AFP.

"You decide what to do with that fear," she said. "Whether it immobilizes us, or instead we denounce and shout to the world what is happening."

Morales said her opposition to projects that threaten the Magdalena is "non-negotiable."

The river, Colombia's longest, stretches about 1,540 kilometers (957 miles) and supports fishing, farming and transport across much of the country.

It is home to many Afro-Colombians, who make up about a tenth of Colombia's population.

Many live in poor, rural regions rich in oil and minerals, where communities have long borne the brunt of violence, exclusion and environmental damage.

Fracking, she said, "destroys community harmony, ends agricultural livelihoods, and displaces not only people but also fauna and flora."

But the activist said she is already focused on the next fight.

Her award comes as Colombia hosts a global summit on ending fossil fuels this week in Santa Marta, a city on the Caribbean coast.

Morales said she believes the moment marks "the beginning of the end of the era and expansion of fossil fuels" in Colombia.

President Gustavo Petro has halted new fracking contracts, though efforts to ban the practice in law have stalled in Congress.

"Petro can't finish his term" in August "without a ban on fracking," she insisted.  

Morales compares the work of environmental defenders to a "shield."

"I will keep shouting to the world," she said. "We must live in our territories and never give them up."

als/vd/arb/mlm

More than 200 tourists were trapped Monday atop an iconic hill overlooking Rio de Janeiro after a gunfight broke out between police and drug gangs in a nearby favela, authorities and a tour operator said.

Visitors were stranded for about two hours on Morro Dois Irmaos -- or Two Brothers Hill -- while fighting raged on a hillside below them between police and members of Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil's largest criminal groups.

The hilltop, which overlooks Ipanema and Leblon beaches from its 533-meter (1,750-feet) height, is one of the city's most famous viewpoints and attracts thousands of visitors each week. 

"There were more than 200 people taking the tour this morning. Seventy percent were foreign tourists," Renan Monteiro, from the tour operator Favela Turismo, told AFP.

Monteiro lamented that news of such gun battles would hurt tourism.

Police said in a statement that when officers arrived at the Vidigal favela, drug traffickers opened fire.

The tourists descended the hill after receiving the green light from the police. The operation resulted in the arrest of three people and no injuries.

Rio received more than 2.1 million international visitors in 2025, a record.

ll-rsr-lg/mjf/des

(The Center Square) - California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced an unredacted version of his motion for a preliminary injunction against Amazon.

In 2022, the Office of the Attorney General announced a lawsuit against the company for “stifling competition and causing increased prices.” Earlier this year, Bonta filed a preliminary injunction to immediately stop Amazon from engaging in illegal price fixing.

During a livestream announcement Monday, Bonta said Amazon has “strong-armed vendors” into raising prices elsewhere or pulling products from competing retailers altogether so that Amazon can protect its profit margins.

“That's not competition,” said Bonta. “It's price fixing, and under California law, it's illegal.”

The Center Square reached out Monday to Amazon, which is based in Seattle, and other retailers mentioned by Bonta, but did not get a response by press time.

According to Bonta, the newly announced version of his filing paints a clear and disturbing picture.

“Amazon has been coordinating with vendors and major retailers, including Target, Walmart, Chewy, Best Buy and Home Depot, to raise prices across the market,” said Bonta. “This is about protecting Californians from paying more than they should for everyday products, especially at a time when affordability feels farther out of reach. It's about making sure prices are set by real competition, not behind-the-scenes pressure from Amazon.”

Bonta stressed that the prices were not suggestions from Amazon, rather “directives often backed by threats of penalties” if vendors failed to comply.

“Amazon used vendors as the middleman,” directing them to contact retailers and push for price increases so Amazon wouldn't have to compete, Bonta said.

These are “concrete” examples of “a widespread scheme” going back years and involving different product categories, the attorney general told reporters.

“That's why we're asking the court to immediately stop these practices while our case proceeds,” said Bonta. “Specifically, we're asking the court to prohibit Amazon from agreeing with vendors or competing retailers to fix or raise prices, using vendors as intermediaries to coordinate pricing, communicating with vendors in ways that facilitate price coordination, and demanding payments tied to price matching.”

OAG has also requested an independent monitor to ensure compliance.

“Notably, the court has already denied Amazon's motion for summary judgment on a key cross-claim, a significant setback for Amazon's attempt to avoid being held accountable,” said Bonta.

Near the end of his announcement, Bonta said OAG is not asking Amazon to change its business model. Instead, OAG is asking Amazon to follow the law. That includes California’s Cartwright Act, which makes price fixing illegal.

“Courts have long held that prices must be determined by supply and demand, by market forces, not by agreements orchestrated by a dominant company like Amazon,” said Bonta. “When a company pressures vendors to raise prices elsewhere or withdraw products to protect its own profits, it interferes directly with the competitive process.”

That, said Bonta, takes money out of the pockets of California families every single day on common household items such as diapers, clothing and furniture.

Estimates vary on how many U.S. homes have an Amazon Prime membership. Bonta put that figure at nearly 80 million. Capitol One Shopping puts it at just over 88 million. Snopes.com puts it around 147 million. Whatever the number is, Bonta said 92% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from Amazon than any other site.

“So when prices are manipulated, there are real consequences for working families,” said Bonta. “The evidence shows coordinated efforts to stabilize or increase prices, harming consumers and distorting the marketplace.”

(The Center Square) – Businesses worldwide are urging caution as the U.S. Trade Representative's Office prepares for key hearings central to President Donald Trump's renewed push for higher import taxes, an effort aimed at rebuilding a protectionist tariff wall.

Trump could implement the higher tariffs as early as July under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose tariffs after investigating specific trade issues. The administration launched these investigations in March, with hearings set for May 5. A major concern for businesses is the possibility of exemptions. Section 301 has no established process for exclusions, but a recent Congressional Research Service report noted uncertainty about whether the Trade Representative's Office "would establish a new exclusion process for current or future tariff actions."

Businesses began submitting public comments last week ahead of the hearings.

Ford, of the nation's largest auto makers, urged the Trade Representative's Office to ensure that the new Section 301 tariffs do not add to the existing tariffs.

"Ford strongly supports USTR’s intention to ensure continuity between the tariff structure deployed under IEEPA and any new Section 301 tariff framework. This will ensure that any tariff remedy enacted as a result of these investigations is not placed upon vehicles with internal combustion engines and parts from China already subject to Section 232 auto tariffs," Ford's Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel Steven Croley wrote in a letter. "We ask that automakers be able to use our tariff offset credit for imported content subject to any new remedy implemented under Section 301."

The National Corn Growers Association said that the administration must take steps to shield farmers from higher tariff costs.

"Farmers must have relief from additional cost pressures on inputs, which duty-free treatment for all categories of agricultural inputs would help alleviate. As the Administration pursues this Section 301 investigation in 60 countries, NCGA asks for Mexico and Canada to be exempted from this investigation, strong consideration to preserving and enhancing market access, and duty-free treatment for all inputs to prevent burdening farmers with even higher costs."

Waterloo, Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Co. urged against blanket tariffs that penalize everyone.

"The investigation covers 60 countries and does not identify specific goods with documented forced labor issues. We are concerned that broad-based tariffs applied across virtually all imports from most of the world's economies will not effectively target bad actors – they will simply raise costs for American consumers and businesses alike," Trek's General Counsel Robert Burns wrote.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association also requested exemptions from the Section 301 tariffs. The group, which represents U.S. manufacturers of electrical goods, said if tariffs must be used, "we urge the Agency to pursue a sensible exclusion strategy that mitigates the impact of duties on electricity prices and U.S. AI leadership."

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office received more than 400 such letters, many of which sought exemptions, including from the Premium Cigar Association, which noted that the U.S. imports less than 1% of cigars from the European Union but that import taxes could still affect U.S. prices and consumers. It said cigars should be excluded from such tariffs.

"The greater majority of premium cigar retailers in the United States are single store, family owned, small businesses which operate on thin margins. Any price increases will be directly passed on to the consumer," the group noted.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing called on the administration to use tariffs to stamp out force-labor practices in other countries.

"The lack of enforcement by foreign governments regarding bans on forced labor imports adversely affects U.S. commerce in several ways: it replaces domestically produced goods with lower-cost imports; it inhibits investment and job growth within the United States; it weakens supply chain resilience in critical sectors; and it incentivizes exploitative practices that are rightly prohibited for U.S. firms both legally and ethically."

Delta said it supports narrow, targeted efforts to go after forced labor. However, it "respectfully urges USTR not to apply tariffs or other broad remedies to civil aircraft, engines, or aircraft parts as part of this Investigation."

Magtech Ammunition Company and Taurus Holdings urged against tariffs on "Brazilian-origin imports that are necessary to U.S. manufacturing; that equip hunters, sport shooters, and law-enforcement agencies nationwide with reliable, affordable ammunition; and that support U.S. national security interests," an attorney wrote on behalf of the two companies.

The shift to Section 301 comes after a turbulent legal period for the administration’s trade policy. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose worldwide tariffs was an overreach of executive power.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump's tariffs "could be back in place at the previous level by [the] beginning of July."

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the president and the U.S. Trade Representative's office to implement "retaliatory import restrictions" against a country that is found to have engaged in unfair or "discriminatory" trade policies or practices toward U.S. businesses.

In April 2025, Trump unilaterally imposed the highest tariffs in nearly a century. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods paid by importers to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs worldwide. The court did not decide the fate of $166 billion in import taxes already collected, leaving the U.S. Court of International Trade to oversee ongoing litigation over refunds.

At the same time, the states and small businesses that challenged Trump's IEEPA tariffs have also challenged Trump's latest 10% global entry tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That challenge remains pending before the Court of International Trade.

Trump has defended the tariffs, saying the revenue could fund increased military spending and other goals, including a tariff refund check for some Americans. Experts have questioned whether tariffs will raise enough money to cover these costly spending plans.

Trump has also said the tariffs will help bring back manufacturing jobs lost to low-wage countries over the past few decades.

Multiple economic studies have found that U.S. businesses and consumers are bearing the brunt of Trump's tariffs. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York report, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and a December 2025 Duke University study all concluded that Americans are paying nearly the entire cost of tariffs, not foreign nations, as the White House has said.

(The Center Square) - Eight Snohomish firefighters are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify what an employer is required to prove under federal law before denying a religious accommodation for vaccines. 

Several attorneys filed a petition last Thursday, asking the court to review a 2024 Ninth Circuit ruling siding with Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue. The agency denied the firefighters' vaccine exemptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that granting them would have caused SRFR undue hardship. 

Cliff Martin, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, told The Center Square this isn’t about securing vaccine accommodations years after the fact; it’s about clarifying a split in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

A 2023 SCOTUS ruling requires employers to show that approving a Title VII religious accommodation would create undue hardship to deny the exemption. The Ninth Circuit and two other appellate courts only require a reasonable concern of that hardship, while three others require proof of actual hardship.

“It's a technical issue about the application of the undue hardship defense that an employer has to an accommodation case,” Martin told The Center Square in an interview. “So, we don't see this so much as a COVID case … because it's going to apply to all religious accommodation requests going forward.”

Martin said it could be months before SCOTUS decides whether to consider the petition. If it agrees to take up their case, the outcome could have major impacts on other religious accommodation lawsuits.

He wants SCOTUS to require proof that approving the firefighters’ vaccine accommodation would have caused SRFR to suffer undue financial hardship. Doing so could reverse the Ninth Circuit’s 2024 ruling and send their lawsuit back to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington for a trial.  

SRFR had argued in federal court that allowing the firefighters to continue working unvaccinated would pose a safety risk to the rest of the agency and the public. It also claimed that exemptions would have caused operational burdens, since a total of 46 of 192 firefighters requested vaccine accommodations.

The eight plaintiffs went on leave in October 2021 and returned in May 2022, after the agency granted vaccine accommodations once the pandemic largely settled, without back pay for about seven months.

They filed a lawsuit in district court the following November, seeking back pay and financial damages. 

“These individuals went to nearby fire departments and worked for the whole eight months that they were laid off,” Martin said. “Clearly, you're able to accommodate them, because you did accommodate them eight months later. Yet still, the Ninth Circuit said, ‘No, we're letting them completely off the hook.’” 

According to the petition, one of the plaintiffs even provided mutual aid to SRFR after it had laid him off and he was working for another agency, despite SRFR having denied his religious accommodation.

Martin said the circuit courts’ split interpretation of the 2023 SCOTUS ruling could have arisen in any accommodation request. For example, a Jewish employee could request Saturdays off to worship, and a judge could allow an employer to deny the request if they claim it might create an undue hardship. 

“Under the Ninth Circuit, maybe that's enough, but we would hope the Supreme Court says, ‘No, you need more than a reasonable concern. You need to have evidence,’” Martin said. “If [SCOTUS] doesn't grant this petition… your experience of religious accommodation law will change based on geography.”

An SRFR spokesperson declined comment for this article, citing ongoing and pending litigation. 

The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a challenge by Catholic preschools to a state requirement that they enroll children of gay or transgender parents in order to receive public funds.

Colorado provides state funding for tuition at public or private preschools, including faith-based institutions, but has withheld it from Catholic preschools for violating nondiscrimination laws.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, two Catholic parishes in Colorado and two parents, Dan and Lisa Sheley, filed suit, but lost in lower courts, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.

"All we want is the freedom to choose the best preschool for our kids without being punished for our faith," the Sheleys said in a statement. "Colorado promised families a universal preschool program, then cut out families like ours because we chose a Catholic education."

Nicholas Reaves, an attorney representing the schools and Sheleys, said, "Colorado promised free preschool for all, then slammed the door on families who chose a religious education for their children."

Colorado, in a filing with the Supreme Court, said participants in the preschool program must enroll children regardless of their race or religion or the sexual orientation or gender identity of the child or their parents.

"Petitioners seek an exemption from this law to allow them to receive public funding while turning away preschoolers because of their, or their parents', gender identity or sexual orientation," the state said.

The conservative-dominated Supreme Court has sided with religious rights claims in a number of recent high-profile cases, several of which have involved Colorado.

In 2018, the court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, and last month the court backed a Christian therapist who challenged a Colorado law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ minors.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the Catholic preschools case during its term beginning in October and issue a ruling by June 2027.

cl/mjf