Trump plans aid package for US soybean farmers while seeking trade deal with China

Trump plans aid package for US soybean farmers while seeking trade deal with China

By DIDI TANG and JOSH FUNK Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning a significant aid package to U.S. soybean farmers to help them survive China’s boycott of American beans in response to his trade war even as the president says he is still seeking a soybean deal with Beijing.

But farmers are worried that time is quickly running out to reach a deal in time to sell any of this year’s crop to their biggest customer.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said on CNBC that the public could expect news of “substantial support for our farmers, especially the soybean farmers” as soon as Tuesday.

Details of the aid package are unknown, but it would come as the world’s two largest economies have been unable to reach a trade deal and China has halted purchases of U.S. beans. China, the biggest foreign buyer of American soybeans for many years, last bought American beans in May and has not bought any for this harvest season, which began in September.

“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. “We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers.”

“I’ll be meeting with President Xi, of China, in four weeks, and Soybeans will be a major topic of discussion,” Trump wrote.

The soybeans that China imports largely for oil extraction and animal feed are an important crop for U.S. agriculture because they are the top U.S. food export, accounting for about 14% of all farm goods sent overseas and China has been buying 25% of all American soybeans in recent years.

U.S. farmers grew $60.7 billion worth of soybeans, or nearly 4.3 billion bushels, in the 2022-2023 marketing year, according to the American Soybean Association. Just over half were exported. Illinois is the top soybean growing state, but Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota are also large producers.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, to be held at the end of October in South Korea.

In Trump’s first trade war with China, he gave American farmers more than $22 billion in aid payments in 2019 and nearly $46 billion in 2020, though the latter also included aid related to the COVID pandemic.

Time is running out

Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer who serves as president of the American Soybean Association, welcomed Trump acknowledging the difficulties faced by farmers. He said actions are needed to prevent many farmers from going out of business.

Before the trade war, farmers were already pinched by high costs and low crop prices, he said. Then, their biggest customer vanished.

“It’s just unfortunate that we’re being used as a bargaining chip in this trade war that’s not of our own doing,” Ragland said.

He said time is running low for the two governments to strike a deal, because China has already ordered soybeans from countries such as Brazil and Argentina for deliveries through December and, if there’s no soybean deal soon, China could skip the U.S. entirely.

“If they get another couple months, they’re into new crop soybeans in Brazil and Argentina. And they’re going to bypass us altogether if we’re not careful,” Ragland said.

Deal is still likely

China has slapped 20% tariffs on U.S. soybeans since Trump announced his tariffs on the world in the spring, making U.S. beans uncompetitive in price.

The retaliatory tariffs are in response to Trump’s new import taxes on Chinese goods over allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl as well as Trump’s across-the-board “Liberation Day” tariffs, which have been reduced to the 10% baseline rate.

Observers say China could ease tariffs on U.S. farm goods should the White House walk back on fentanyl-related tariffs. That has yet to happen.

The White House “has not prioritized fentanyl” since this spring, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. She said Wang Xiaohong, China’s public security minister, showed up in Geneva in May but met no counterpart from the U.S. to negotiate with.

But it is not time yet to write off a soybean deal, she said. “China still needs to have something to show for at the leadership meeting in South Korea,” Sun said.

Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the consultancy Teneo, said a soybean deal is “the lowest-hanging fruit” for both governments.

“China needs beans, and the U.S. has them to sell. It costs China basically nothing to shift towards U.S. beans and away from Brazil and Argentina,” Wildau said. “If Washington and Beijing can’t reach a deal on soybeans, then they don’t have much hope of reaching a deal on thornier issues like export controls.”

Argentina is a sore subject for U.S. farmers right now because on September 24, Beijing took advantage of a tax holiday in Argentina and ordered nearly 2 million tons of Argentine soybean and soy products. The tax holiday came after the U.S. signaled it would provide a $20 billion support package to help stabilize the Latin American country’s economy.

“That situation was angering to many farmers,” Ragland said. “And while I don’t think the specific intent was just to give a big chunk, give $20 billion to Argentina so that they could send China soybeans. That was the result. And the optics of it look absolutely terrible.”

Farmers prefer trade over aid

Government aid might be necessary to help farmers get through this year if they cannot sell to China, but farmers say they would rather sell their crops on the market.

“All farmers are proud of what they do and they don’t like handouts. We’d rather make it with our own two hands than have it handed to us,” Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt said.

Meanwhile, farmers like Ryan Mackenthun, a fifth-generation farmer in south-central Minnesota, say they will do everything they can to survive.

“It’s definitely tighten the belt, to look at the inputs, look at the previous investments I made in fertilizer and see if I can stretch another year or two out of them to reduce costs but maintain the same yield projections, run equipment longer,” Mackenthun said.

October 5th 2025

October 5th 2025

Thought of the Day

Getty Image

I’m convinced that when you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back to life as a tupperware lid that doesn’t fit on any of your containers.

Trump plans to federalize 300 troops in Illinois, as judge blocks a similar mobilization in Oregon

Trump plans to federalize 300 troops in Illinois, as judge blocks a similar mobilization in Oregon

President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago on Saturday, marking the latest escalation of the his use of federal intervention in cities.

But the same day, a similar mobilization of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon was temporarily blocked after a federal judge found President Donald Trump was likely overstepping his legal authority in responding to relatively small protests near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president authorized using the Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

Trump has characterized both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest, calling the former a “war zone” and suggesting apocalyptic force was needed to quell problems in the latter. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But the governors of Illinois and Oregon see the deployments differently.

“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek talked to Trump in late September and said the deployment was unnecessary. She refused to call up any Oregon National Guard troops, so Trump did so himself in an order to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. That prompted the lawsuit from city and state officials.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued a memo that also directs component agencies within the Justice Department, including the FBI, to help protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, including in Chicago and Portland.

Here’s a snapshot of where things stand with federal law enforcement activity in Chicago, Portland, and elsewhere:

In Chicago, alarms raised about racial profiling

The sight of armed, camouflaged and masked Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous downtown landmarks has amplified such concerns. Many Chicagoans were already uneasy after an immigration crackdown began earlier this month. Agents have targeted immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas.

Protesters have frequently rallied near an immigration facility outside the city, and federal officials reported the arrests of 13 protesters Friday near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that federal agents shot a woman Saturday morning on the southwest side of Chicago. A statement from the department said it happened after Border Patrol agents patrolling the area “were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.”

“The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively,” the statement said.

No law enforcement officers were seriously injured, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.

The woman who was shot was a U.S. citizen and was armed with a semiautomatic weapon, according to McLaughlin. She said the woman drove herself to a hospital for treatment, but a Chicago Fire Department spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times that she was found near the scene and taken to a hospital in fair condition.

Immigrants’ rights advocates and residents separately reported that federal agents used tear gas near grocery or hardware stores targeted for enforcement elsewhere in Chicago on Friday and detained a city council member as she questioned the attempted arrest of a man.

Deployment in Portland blocked by judge

U.S. District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut and issued the ruling temporarily blocking the deployment on Saturday afternoon, saying the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote. She later said: “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law.”

Trump has called Portland “war-ravaged” and suggested the city is “burning down.” But local officials have said many of his claims and media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when demonstrations and unrest gripped the city following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

On Saturday, before the judge’s ruling was released, about 400 protesters marched from a park to the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention facility. The group included people of all ages and races, families with children and retirees with walkers, the Oregonian reported. Federal agents used chemical crowd control munitions, including tear gas canisters and less-lethal guns that sprayed pepper balls, and arrested at least six people as the group reached the ICE facility.

By 4 p.m. the crowd had thinned significantly.

A federal ‘crime force’ in Memphis

On Wednesday, Hegseth, Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller rallied members of a federal law enforcement task force that began operating in Memphis as part of Trump’s crime-fighting plan. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has supported the effort.

Bondi said via social media that the task force made more than 50 arrests over a two-day period. More than 200 officers were deputized, including personnel from immigration and drug enforcement. They were serving criminal arrest warrants and teaming with state agencies on traffic stops.

Some residents, including Latinos, have expressed concerns that agents will detain people regardless of immigration status.

Louisiana’s governor asks for National Guard

On Sept. 30, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry asked for a guard deployment to New Orleans and other cities to help fight crime.

In a letter to Hegseth, Landry also praised the president’s decision to send troops to Washington and Memphis.

He said there has been “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, as well as shortages in local law enforcement.

But crime in some of the state’s biggest cities has actually decreased recently, with New Orleans seeing a particularly steep drop in 2025 that has it on pace for the lowest number of killings in over five decades.

Appellate court weighs California deployment

Trump deployed guard soldiers and active duty Marines in Los Angeles during the summer over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued and won a temporary block after a federal judge found the president’s use of the guard was likely unlawful.

The Trump administration appealed, and the block was put on hold by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate case is still underway, but the panel has indicated that it believes the administration is likely to prevail.

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Associated Press reporters across the U.S. contributed, including Thomas Peipert in Denver; Claire Rush in Portland; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.

Dabo Swinney and Clemson find positives after a bye. Bill Belichick and UNC find more of the same

Dabo Swinney and Clemson find positives after a bye. Bill Belichick and UNC find more of the same

By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Dabo Swinney watched his Clemson team start Saturday with a trick play that went for a 75-yard touchdown and never look back.

North Carolina ended its Saturday with Bill Belchick calling a timeout with 1 second left, extending the game to coach a team long since beaten in a home stadium largely emptied by halftime.

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s marquee coaching names — Clemson’s Swinney with two national championships, UNC’s Belichick with six Super Bowl titles in the NFL — each entered this game hoping for positive signs after an open date that followed a bumpy September. They exited with very different vibes: Swinney getting confirmation on previous hope in a 38-10 win, Belichick losing in lopsided fashion for the third time in as many games against a power-conference program.

“I’ll keep my conversations with the team between myself and the team,” Belchick said, his voice low and answers terse. “But I’ll just say we’re going to work through it, and work our way out of it. We’ll get better every week and keep working every week and prepare for the next team, be ready to go. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Belichick’s arrival in Chapel Hill and Swinney’s stature as one of the biggest names in college football certainly made this game stand out on the schedule in the offseason. But the game had lost luster, between the Tigers — ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25 as ACC favorite — going 1-3 for the worst start in Swinney’s long tenure and the Tar Heels struggling so badly to start Belichick’s tenure.

It marked only the second time in college football history that a coach with multiple national championships faced one with multiple Super Bowl titles.

Tigers find cause for optimism

This one was decided in the first 15 minutes, with Clemson scoring 28 points and averaging 15.8 yards per play in the opening quarter. Cade Klubnik had four TD passes by halftime — two each to Adam Randall and Christian Bentancur — in a game so under control that Swinney told Klubnik he planned to pull him for reserve Christopher Vizzina on the second drive of the third quarter.

Afterward, Swinney was ebullient, from the way the team practiced through the week to Klubnik’s play (22 of 24 passing for 254 yards) and the defensive effort with coordinator Tom Allen opting to work the sideline instead of being in the coaches’ box in previous games.

“We’ve got to try to find a way to build momentum, to develop some confidence from this, because we have not played with a lot of confidence,” Swinney said. “We have not played with a lot of precision. And you saw us make plays today that we just haven’t been making.”

Clemson had lost one-possession games to ranked LSU and Georgia Tech teams, as well as losing at home to Syracuse.

“I would just say that we finally we played complementary football, and what we were capable of doing,” cornerback Ashton Hampton said. “That’s just something we were trying to do the first four or five weeks and just haven’t been able to get it done.”

Then there’s the Tar Heels, who found merely more of the same.

Tar Heels lose ugly again

The 73-year-old Belichick started his UNC tenure with a 48-14 loss on Labor Day to TCU, with every ugly moment preserved in a national spotlight. Wins followed against Charlotte of the American Athletic Conference and Championship Subdivision opponent Richmond, but their second matchup against a Big 12 team — this time, UCF — was another blowout loss.

This time, a perfect-weather day that included buzz from a concert by rapper Ludacris on a nearby campus quad gave way to the home fans fleeing in droves by halftime with the Tigers up 35-3 — a repeat of the opening-night exodus against TCU, though a quarter earlier.

That led to a humbling repeat of the game being played out in a largely empty stadium, with the Tar Heels managing a fourth-quarter TD with the outcome long decided. Now UNC has a touchdown on 4 of 29 drives (13.8%) against power-conference opponents, not counting drives stopped by halftime or game’s end.

That’s not exactly in line with the school paying Belichick at least $10 million guaranteed for three seasons as part of an upgraded football investment.

And Belichick didn’t sound on the verge of making major changes, including when asked about coaching duties or play-calling responsibilities.

No, the plan is more of the same heading into another open week before visiting California on Oct. 17.

“The main thing we need to do is keep doing what we’re doing and do it better,” Belichick said. “I don’t think fundamentally we’re doing the wrong things. We’re just not doing it well enough.”

Clemson rolls out of open date by beating North Carolina 38-10 in Swinney-Belichick coaching matchup

Clemson rolls out of open date by beating North Carolina 38-10 in Swinney-Belichick coaching matchup

By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Antonio Williams threw a 75-yard trick-play touchdown pass to T.J. Moore on the first offensive snap to start Clemson’s dominating show in a 38-10 win at North Carolina on Saturday.

The coaching matchup of Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and North Carolina’s Bill Belichick became a romp by the Tigers (2-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who quickly overwhelmed the Tar Heels (2-3, 0-1) as both teams emerged from an open date hoping to regroup from a bumpy September.

“Everybody’s kind of been in a little bit of funk,” Swinney said. “And today they kind of played themselves out of it.”

Clemson scored 28 points while averaging 15.8 yards per play in the opening quarter. Cade Klubnik threw four TD passes by halftime — two each to Adam Randall and Christian Bentancur — before giving way in the third to reserve Christopher Vizzina.

Klubnik completed 22 of 24 passes for 254 yards in his abbreviated afternoon.

“Cade was awesome,” Swinney said.

Max Johnson threw for 213 yards in starting for the injured Gio Lopez for UNC, while Benjamin Hall ran for a fourth-quarter touchdown with the outcome long decided.

The Tigers had largely driven most of the home fans to the Kenan Stadium exits by halftime with a 35-3 lead, another telling visual of how UNC’s bet on hiring the 73-year-old Belichick as a first-time college coach has gone so far.

This marked only the second pairing of coaches with multiple national championships against one with multiple Super Bowl titles, though it had lost its luster with each team’s September start.

Only the Tigers managed to show a different trajectory.

“I thought we had a good week, I think we were ready to go,” Belichick said. “Unfortunately we gave up some big plays early in the game that really tilted the game, and were just never able to recover.”

The takeaways

Clemson: The preseason ACC favorite opened the year ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25, only to go 1-3 for the worst start in Swinney’s long tenure. But they were never threatened to start October.

UNC: The school is paying Belichick — who won six Super Bowl titles leading the NFL’s New England Patriots — at least $10 million guaranteed for three seasons as part of an upgraded football investment. His debut was a 48-14 flop against TCU, with Kenan largely empty in the third quarter. There was also a 34-9 loss at UCF. Add Saturday, and UNC now a touchdown on 4 of 29 drives (13.8%) against power-conference opponents, not counting drives stopped by halftime or game’s end.

Up next

Clemson: The Tigers visit Boston College on Oct. 11.

UNC: The Tar Heels get another open week before visiting California on Oct. 17.

October 4th 2025

October 4th 2025

Thought of the Day

Procrastination
Getty Image

Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God owes you another opportunity to do what you had time to do.

Wall Street finishes its winning week with more records

Wall Street finishes its winning week with more records

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks ticked higher on Friday, sending Wall Street to more records.

The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1% to close out its seventh winning week in the last nine, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 238 points, or 0.5%. Both added to their all-time highs set the day before. The Nasdaq composite lost an early gain and slipped 0.3% from its own record.

Usually, the first Friday of each month has Wall Street transfixed on the monthly jobs update that the U.S. government publishes. It shows how many jobs employers created and destroyed, while also updating the unemployment rate.

Such data is particularly important now, given how much on Wall Street is riding on the expectation that the job market is continuing to slow by enough to get the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates. But the shutdown of the U.S. government, now in its third day, is delaying the release.

So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past such delays, including Thursday’s scheduled report on unemployment claims.

Past shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if President Donald Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.

That leaves excitement around artificial intelligence and the massive spending underway because of it as one of the main drivers of the U.S. stock market, which has been setting record after record.

The industry got another boost after Japan’s Hitachi signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI related to powering AI. It followed an earlier set of announcements by OpenAI with South Korean companies, which vaulted stock prices higher there. Hitachi’s stock jumped 10.3% in Tokyo.

AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.

Nvidia, the stock that’s become the poster child of the AI boom, lost an early gain during the morning to finish with a dip of 0.7%.

Applied Materials fell 2.7%. The company, whose equipment helps make semiconductor chips, said it will take a roughly $110 million hit to its revenue in the fourth quarter because of a new U.S. Commerce Department rule expanding export restrictions to certain customers based in China.

But gains for oil producers helped offset such losses. Exxon Mobil climbed 1.8%, and Diamondback Energy rose 3% as the price of crude clawed back some of its sharp losses from earlier in the week. Oil prices had been struggling on worries that the amount of crude in inventories will be too high relative to demand.

Entergy climbed 1.9% after saying its Arkansas business will deliver power for Google’s planned $4 billion investment in the state, including a new data center.

All told, the S&P 500 added 0.44 to 6,715.79 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 238.56 to 46,758.28, and the Nasdaq composite fell 63.54 to 22,780.51.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was a big winner and rose 1.9% thanks in part to Hitachi’s jump.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.12% from 4.10% late Thursday.

Reports came in mixed on activity for U.S. businesses in the health care, real estate and other services industries. One from the Institute for Supply Management said growth is stalling, while another from S&P Global said it’s still growing slowly.

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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

All injured in deadly North Carolina waterfront bar shooting released from the hospital

All injured in deadly North Carolina waterfront bar shooting released from the hospital

SOUTHPORT, N.C. (AP) — All six people hospitalized after a coastal North Carolina shooting last weekend that left three dead at a waterfront bar have been released, officials announced Friday.

Southport officials initially said five people were wounded in the rifle attack on the American Fish Company on Saturday. But city spokesperson ChyAnn Ketchum said a sixth victim had “self-admitted to a hospital.”

Nigel Max Edge, 40, a veteran wounded in the Iraq War, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Killed in the shooting were Solomon Banjo, 36, of Charlottesville, Virginia; Joy Rogers, 64, of Southport; and Michael Durbin, 56, of Galena, Ohio. Edge is also charged with attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Authorities allege Edge, a former Marine from Oak Island, motored up to the crowded wharf about 9:30 p.m. and opened fire with an AR-style rifle equipped with a scope and silencer. He was apprehended shortly afterward by Coast Guard officers who recognized him from a witness description.

Edge, who changed his name from Sean DeBevoise in 2023, told police he was injured in combat and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Southport police Chief Todd Coring said this week.

Edge is being held without bond pending a probable cause hearing on Oct. 13 in a Brunswick County court.

Coring asked the public for their patience as the investigation continues and said police presence will be higher, particularly on the waterfront.

“Officers from across the county will be assisting Southport officers to increase police presence to restore a sense of safety in and around our city,” he said Friday.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets 4 years in prison for case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets 4 years in prison for case involving sex workers, violence and ‘freak-offs’

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters, capping a sordid federal case that featured harrowing testimony and ended in a forceful reckoning for one of the most influential figures in hip hop.

Since Combs has already served a year in jail, the sentence means that the 55-year-old could get out in about three years. While prosecutors sought a sentence of more than 11 years, his lawyers wanted him freed immediately and said the time behind bars has already forced his remorse and sobriety.

Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places and over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

“Why did it happen so long?” U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asked as he handed down the sentence. “Because you had the power and the resources to keep it going, and because you weren’t caught.”

Subramanian, who also fined Combs $500,000, the maximum allowed, praised the accusers who testified at trial. They effectively spoke for countless others who experienced abuse, the judge said: “You gave them a voice. You stood up to power.”

Combs, sitting at the defense table, looked straight ahead as the judge spoke. He remained subdued afterward and appeared dejected, with none of the enthusiasm and smiles he displayed while interacting with his lawyers and family earlier in the day.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said to his family right before leaving the courtroom.

Combs’ lawyers said they’ll appeal.

“What we feel today is that the judge acted as a 13th juror, one we did not choose, and that he second guessed the jury’s verdict,” defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told reporters after leaving court.

Before sentencing, Combs wept as his defense lawyers played a video portraying his family life, career and philanthropy, and he went on to make a plea for leniency.

“I ask your honor for a chance to be a father again,” Combs said, “a son again … a leader in my community again … for a chance to get the help that I desperately need to be a better person.” He apologized to the people he hurt physically and mentally with his “disgusting, shameful” actions, and said the domestic violence was a burden he would carry for the rest of his life.

His nearly two-month trial in a federal court in Manhattan featured testimony from women who said Combs beat, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed them. Prosecutor Christy Slavik told the judge Friday that sparing Combs serious prison time would excuse years of violence.

“It’s a case about a man who did horrible things to real people to satisfy his own sexual gratification,” she said. “His currency was control. And he weaponized that currency to devastating effects on the victims.”

Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime. Defense attorney Jason Driscoll argued Friday the law was misapplied.

During testimony at the trial, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura told jurors that Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their decade-long relationship. Jurors saw video of him dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one such multiday “freak-off.”

“While nothing can undo the trauma caused by Combs,” Cassie’s attorneys, Douglas Wigdor and Meredith Firetog, said in a statement, “the sentence imposed today recognizes the impact of the serious offenses he committed.”

Another woman, identified as “ Jane,” testified she was pressured into sex with male workers during drug-fueled “hotel nights” while Combs watched and sometimes filmed.

Combs’ lawyers argued at trial that the government was trying to criminalize consensual, if unconventional, sexual tastes.

The only accuser scheduled to speak Friday, a former assistant known as “Mia,” withdrew after defense objections; Slavik accused Combs’ attorneys of “bullying” the woman. She has accused Combs of raping her in 2010 and asked the judge in a letter for a sentence that reflects “the ongoing danger my abuser poses.”

Six of Combs’ seven children addressed the judge, pleading for mercy for their father. One daughter, D’Lila Combs, said she feared losing her father after the death of her mother, Kim Porter, in 2018.

“Please, your honor, please,” D’Lila said through tears, “give our family the chance to heal together, to rebuild, to change, to move forward, not as a headline, but as human beings.”

Outside the courthouse, journalists and onlookers swarmed, echoing scenes from Combs’ trial.

Sade Bess, a Combs fan from Brooklyn, left the court’s overflow observation room looking both sad and relieved.

“It’s devastating to see a pioneer of the Black community’s legacy nearly diminished,” she said. “But the judge showed mercy by giving him a second chance, while still honoring the victims.”

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Associated Press writers Liseberth Guillaume in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

North Carolina governor signs criminal justice bill into law after Ukrainian refugee’s death

North Carolina governor signs criminal justice bill into law after Ukrainian refugee’s death

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Democratic governor signed into law on Friday a criminal justice measure that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature approved in response to the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte commuter train, even while opposing provisions within or wishing for others left out.

Gov. Josh Stein said he signed the bill because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That’s a good thing.”

The new law bars cashless bail for certain violent crimes and for many repeat offenders. It also limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions, gives the state chief justice the ability to suspend magistrates and seeks to ensure more defendants undergo mental health evaluations.

But Stein had harsh criticism for other portions and said lawmakers had failed in the legislation to approve his public-safety proposals, which included increased pay for law enforcement. He also said the measure failed to focus properly “on the threat that people pose instead of their ability to post bail.”

“I’m troubled by its lack of ambition or vision,” he said during a short video statement. “It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.” He also blasted a portion of a section that seeks to restart executions in North Carolina, where capital punishment was last carried out in 2006.

Still, the action by Stein, a former state attorney general, affirms in law reforms demanded by GOP politicians and their allies. Stein had until late Friday to act on the bill, which could have also included vetoing it or letting it become law without his signature.

Stein accepted the measure even as Republican lawmakers, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, have blamed Democratic leaders in Charlotte and statewide for soft-on-crime policies they allege allowed the suspect in Iryna Zarutska ’s Aug. 22 death to stay out of custody. The outrage intensified with the release of security video showing the attack.

Democrats have called the accusations politically motivated, with several arguing during debate last week that the legislation not only wouldn’t address the root causes of crime but also lacked funding for more mental health services. While Republicans are one House seat shy of a veto-proof majority at the General Assembly, the bill received bipartisan support in the chamber, making it more likely that any Stein veto could have been overridden.

“Finally, we are getting dangerous criminals off our streets so we can make sure no one else suffers the heartbreak that Iryna Zarutska’s family endured,” Charlotte-area Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who helped shepherd the legislation, said in a news release.

Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused in Zarutska’s death, has been arrested more than a dozen other times and previously served more than five years on a violent robbery count, according to court records.

A magistrate allowed Brown to be released on a misdemeanor charge in January on a written promise to appear, without any bond. Brown was arrested at that time after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital, complaining that someone was trying to control him with a foreign substance. He is now charged with both first-degree murder in state court and a federal count in connection with Zarutska’s death. Both crimes can be punishable by the death penalty.

The new law requires certain appeals for death-row inmates to be heard and reviewed by courts by the end of 2027 and opens the door to using other capital punishment methods — perhaps firing squads — should a court declare lethal injection unconstitutional or if it’s “not available,” because the drugs can’t be accessed.

The law doesn’t specifically name firing squads. Still, Stein said Friday “there will be no firing squads in North Carolina during my time as governor,” calling the idea “barbaric.” Stein has previously said he supports the death penalty for the most “heinous crimes,” but had reiterated that the current legal process holding up executions needs to be completed.

The state NAACP chapter condemned Stein’s bill-signing, saying that he “chose cruelty over justice, and the legislators from both parties who pushed it forward are equally responsible for this shameful failure of leadership.”

Stein also mentioned last weekend’s shooting at a waterfront bar that left three patrons dead and several injured while calling for more mental health services and efforts to keep guns out of the hands of “dangerous people.”

“It’s time to get real about the causes of violence and to take meaningful action to address them,” he said. The legislature is next scheduled in Raleigh on Oct. 20.

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