By JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not “point your weapons at the people,” online video showed early Monday, the latest disruption to follow nationwide protests in the country.

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The hacking comes as the death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 4,029 people, activists said. They fear the number will grow far higher as information leaks out of a country still gripped by the government’s decision to shut down the internet. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had his invitation to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, withdrawn over the killings.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between the United States and Iran over the crackdown after President Donald Trump drew two red lines for the Islamic Republic — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations. A U.S. aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East.

State TV disrupted

The footage aired Sunday night across multiple channels broadcast by satellite from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster. The video aired two clips of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, then included footage of security forces and others in what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed without offering evidence others had “laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people.”

“This is a message to the army and security forces,” one graphic read. “Don’t point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a statement from the state broadcaster acknowledging that the signal in “some areas of the country was momentarily disrupted by an unknown source.” It did not discuss what had been aired.

A statement from Pahlavi’s office acknowledged the disruption that showed the crown prince. It did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about the hack. How much support Pahlavi has inside of Iran remains an open question, though there have been pro-shah cries at the demonstrations and at night since the crackdown.

Sunday’s hack isn’t the first to see Iranian airwaves disrupted. In 1986, The Washington Post reported that the CIA supplied the prince’s allies “a miniaturized television transmitter for an 11-minute clandestine broadcast” to Iran by Pahlavi that pirated the signal of two stations in the Islamic Republic.

In 2022, multiple channels aired footage showing leaders from the exiled opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and a graphic calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

US aircraft carrier possibly on path to Mideast

As tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington, ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP on Monday showed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, as well as other American military vessels, in the Strait of Malacca after passing Singapore on a route that could take them to the Middle East.

The Lincoln had been in the South China Sea with its strike group as a deterrent to China over tensions with Taiwan. Tracking data showed that the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., the USS Michael Murphy and the USS Spruance, all Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, were traveling with the Lincoln through the strait.

Multiple U.S. media reports quoting anonymous officials have said the Lincoln, which has its homeport in San Diego, was on its way to the Mideast. It likely would still need several days of travel before its aircraft would be in range of the region. The Mideast has been without an aircraft carrier group or an amphibious ready group, likely complicating any discussion of a military operation targeting Iran given Gulf Arab states’ broad opposition to such an attack.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum withdrew its invitation for Araghchi to speak at Davos.

“Although he was invited last fall, the tragic loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks means that it is not right for the Iranian government to be represented at Davos this year,” the forum said.

Iran’s ambassador to Switzerland, Mahmoud Barimani, called the decision an “unreasonable act which was no doubt under the pressure and influence of anti-Iranian currents and radical American-Zionists.”

The Munich Security Conference separately withdrew invitation for Iranian government officials over the crackdown.

Death toll from crackdown rises

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll Tuesday to at least 4,029, warning it likely would go higher.

It said of the dead, 3,786 were demonstrators, 180 were security forces, 28 were children and 35 were people not demonstrating.

The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The AP has been unable to independently confirm the toll.

Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, although on Saturday, Khamenei said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States for the deaths. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began Dec. 28 over Iran’s ailing economy.

The agency also reported over 26,000 people had been arrested. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners.

“While the killers and seditious terrorists will be punished, Islamic mercy and leniency will be applied to those who were deceived and did not have (effective) roles in the terrorist event,” a statement Monday from Iran’s president, its judiciary chief and parliament speaker said.

Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.

By HUIZHONG WU

BANGKOK (AP) — How do you persuade a population to have more babies after generations of limiting families to just one?

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A decade after ending China’s longtime one-child policy, the country’s authorities are pushing a range of ideas and policies to try to encourage more births — tactics that range from cash subsidies to taxing condoms to eliminating a tax on matchmakers and day care centers.

The efforts haven’t paid off yet. At least, that’s what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world’s second-most populous nation. China’s population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show. The total population in 2025 stood at 1.404 billion, which was 3 million less than the previous year.

Measured another way, the birth rate in 2025 — 5.63 per 1,000 people — is the lowest on record since 1949, the year that Mao Zedong’s Communists overthrew the Nationalists and began running China. Figures before that, under the previous Nationalist government, were not available.

China was long the world’s most populous nation until 2023, when it was surpassed by regional neighbor and sometime rival India. Monday’s statistics illustrate the stark demographic pressures faced by the country as it tries to pivot from a problem it is working hard to overcome: status as a nation with a growing but transitional economy that, as is often said, is “getting old before it gets rich.”

Is a snake involved?

The number of new babies born was just 7.92 million in 2025, a decline of 1.62 million, or 17%, from the previous year. The latest birth numbers show that the slight tick upward in 2024 was not a lasting trend. Births declined for seven years in a row through 2023.

People catch a sight of the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion with lantern decorations at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Most families cite the costs and pressure of raising a child in a highly competitive society as significant hurdles that now loom larger in the face of an economic downturn that has impacted households struggling to meet their living costs.

Across the region, “it’s these big structural issues which are much harder to tackle, whether it’s housing, and work and getting a job and getting started in life and expectations around education…,” said Stuart Gietel-Basten, director of the Center for Aging Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “It’s gonna be difficult to make a major change in those number of births until those are addressed.”

Another potential factor in the numbers, at least for 2025: Last year in China was the year of the snake, considered one of the least favored years for having a child under the Chinese zodiac. The government’s official Xinhua News Agency, however, did say early last year — perhaps optimistically — that the snake “is shaking off its negative connotations.”

Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China’s population.

For decades, the Chinese government barred people from having more than one baby and often sanctioned those who did — a policy that produced more than two generations of only children. In 2015, the government raised the permitted amount of offspring to two and then, facing demographic pressure, further revised the limit to three in 2021.

Economics are behind the decision

The push for more births is about the economy. China now has 323 million people over 60, or 23% of the entire population. That number has continued to rise, while the working-age population is shrinking, meaning there are fewer workers to support the older population.

A visitor uses a smartphone to film the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

This demographic shift is happening while China is in the process of trying to transition away from labor-intensive industries like farming and manufacturing into a consumer-driven economy built with high-tech manufacturing.

While China’s rapid development in manufacturing with high-tech and robotics can reduce the impact of a shrinking labor force, “the bigger concern is whether economic growth can stay afloat with a shrinking population,” said Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis.

China reported a 5% annual economic growth for 2025 on Monday, based on official data. But some analysts expect growth to slow over the next few years.

To cope with these massive changes, China will eventually need to reform its pension system, Ng said, as well as broaden the tax base to cope with the higher government expenditure.

People catch a sight of the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion with lantern decorations at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Officials have had limited success with policy changes to incentivize families to have more children. In July, the government announced cash subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500) per child to families.

Coupling incentives with other attempts to mold behavior, the government also has started taxing condoms. China removed contraceptives, including condoms, from a value-added tax exemption list in 2025, meaning condoms are now being hit with a 13% tax that kicked into effect Jan. 1.

To further promote child-rearing, kindergartens and daycares have been added to the tax-exemption list, along with matchmaking services.

Researchers like Gietel-Basten say that young women want policies, especially in the workplace, that ensure they are not penalized for taking time off to have children, and that this is up to private companies to change. “It shouldn’t be this massive penalty,” he said.

Shihuan Chen in Beijing, Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — What sounds like President Donald Trump narrating a new Fannie Mae ad actually is an AI-cloned voice reading text, according to a disclaimer in the video.

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The voice in the ad, created with permission from the Trump administration, promises an “all new Fannie Mae” and calls the institution the “protector of the American Dream.” The ad comes as the administration is making a big push to show voters it is responding to their concerns about affordability, including in the housing market.

Trump plans to talk about housing at his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and corporate executives meet this week.

This isn’t the first time a member of the Trump family has used AI to replicate their voice. First Lady Melania Trump recently employed AI technology firm ElevenLabs to help voice the audio version of her memoir. It’s not known who cloned President Trump’s voice for the Fannie Mae ad. But ElevenLabs said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday that the audio of Trump’s voice wasn’t generated by the company.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Last month, Trump pledged in a prime-time address that he would roll out “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”

“For generations, home ownership meant security, independence, and stability,” Trump’s digitized voice says in the one-minute ad aired Sunday. “But today, that dream feels out of reach for too many Americans not because they stopped working hard but because the system stopped working for them.”

Fannie Mae and its counterpart Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages that meet their risk criteria from banks, which helps provide liquidity for the housing market. The two firms guarantee roughly half of the $13 trillion U.S. home loan market and are a bedrock of the U.S. economy.

The ad says Fannie Mae will work with the banking industry to approve more would-be homebuyers for mortgages.

Trump, Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others have said they want to sell shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a major stock exchange but no concrete plans have been set.

Trump and Pulte have also floated extending the 30-year mortgage to 50 years in order to lower monthly payments. Trump appeared to back off the proposal after critics said a longer-term loan would reduce people’s ability to create housing equity and increase their own wealth.

Trump also said on social media earlier this month that he was directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he said would help reduce mortgage rates at a time when Americans are anxious about home prices. Trump said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $200 billion in cash that will be used to make the purchase.

Earlier this month, Trump also said he wants to block large institutional investors from buying houses, saying that a ban would make it easier for younger families to buy their first homes.

Trump’s permission for the use of AI is interesting given that he has complained about aides in the Biden administration using autopen to apply the former president’s signature to laws, pardons or executive orders. An autopen is a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature.

However, a report issued by House Republicans does not include any concrete evidence that autopen was used to sign Biden’s name without his knowledge.

By BECKY BOHRER

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of U.S. states — and possibly further south — Monday night following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.

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The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center.

Geomagnetic storms that can lead to vivid northern lights also can interfere with satellite operations, GPS communications and other infrastructure, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Dahl said the current storm isn’t expected to become much weaker until sometime Tuesday.

In November, solar storms brought vibrant auroras to parts of Europe including Hungary and the United Kingdom, and as far south in the United States as Kansas, Colorado and Texas.

Northern lights illuminate the cloud cover over Rushmere St. Andrew, Ipswich, England, Monday Jan. 19, 2026. (Joe Pickover/PA via AP)

Solar radiation storms can affect objects in space and certain types of communications systems, but Dahl said astronauts at the international space station currently are not at risk. The intensity of this storm has not been seen in more than two decades, he said.