By JEFFREY COLLINS

Bourbon maker Jim Beam is halting production at one of its distilleries in Kentucky for at least a year as the whiskey industry navigates tariffs from the Trump administration and slumping demand for a product that needs years of aging before it is ready.

Jim Beam said the decision to pause bourbon making at its Clermont location in 2026 will give the company time to invest in improvements at the distillery. The bottling and warehouse at the site will remain open, along with the James B. Beam Distilling Co. visitors center and restaurant.

FILE – Jim Beam visitors center at its central distillery in Clermont, Ky. on Oct. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner, File)

The company’s larger distillery in Boston, Kentucky, will continue to operate, the company said.

“We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand,” the company said in a statement.

Employees at the distillery are being reassigned within the company and right now Jim Beam plans no layoffs, according to the local United Food and Commercial Workers International Union chapter that represents the workers.

Bourbon makers have to gamble well into the future. Jim Beam’s flagship bourbon requires at least four years of aging in barrels before being bottled.

Whiskey makers are dealing with back-and-forth arguments over tariffs in Europe and in Canada, where a boycott started after the Trump administration suggested annexing the country into the U.S.

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Overall exports of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to a year ago, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. The most dramatic decrease came in U.S. spirits exports to Canada, which fell 85% in the April-through-June quarter

Bourbon production has grown significantly in recent years. As of January, there were about 16 million barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky warehouses — more than triple the amount held 15 years ago, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

But sales figures and polling show Americans are drinking less than they have in decades.

About 95% of all bourbon made in the U.S. comes from Kentucky. The trade group estimated the industry brings more than 23,000 jobs and $2.2 billion to the state.

Trailing by two in the final minute of Minnesota’s dramatic win over the Thunder on Friday, Rudy Gobert tapped a rebound off a missed Julius Randle free throw out toward Donte DiVincenzo to give Minnesota another look at the bucket.

The ensuing shot was Anthony Edwards’ go-ahead, stepback triple that gave the Wolves the lead for good against the NBA’s best team.

That rebound put Gobert at 15 for the night.

Asked about the play after the game, Gobert turned the question onto the media. “So, when you tap it out, it’s a rebound, huh?” he said.

“Some games they put it as a rebound, some games they don’t,” Gobert said. “I really wanted to know the rule, right? You tap it out and your teammates get it intentionally, so it’s a rebound. I just wanted to know.”

The intent of his comment was obvious. Gobert is a tap-out king, yet frequently doesn’t get the statistical credit for the extra possessions. Sure enough, within an hour of the game’s conclusion, that massive rebound was stat corrected to a board for DiVincenzo. How many rebounds does Gobert think have been taken from him via subjective evaluation of which tap-outs are intentionally directed to teammates and which are not?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t really pay attention.”

What is known is the count of rebounds for which Gobert has been given credit in his NBA career: 10,016. Eighteen of those came in Sunday’s win over Milwaukee, including rebound No. 10,000.

“Not a lot of people do that,” Wolves guard Mike Conley noted. “He’s gonna be in the Hall of Fame someday. He knows it, and he’s been just a guy that continues to challenge himself every year, and all the hard work is paying off.”

While round numbers are somewhat arbitrary in terms of their significance, Gobert said such a plateau provided a good time to “pause and reflect a little bit on the journey.” But only for a moment.

There are many more rebounds to grab. Gobert noted he’s still in his prime, even at 33 years old.

“I’m feeling great. I feel like I’m still getting better, still learning every day, still figuring things out every day,” he said. “There’s always ways to improve. It’s fun. It’s fun to have that drive to always get better. It’s not just about basketball. It’s so much deeper than that: get better as a leader and as a person, as a dad, as a leader in my community, leader in everything I do.

“(There is) always room to learn and room to grow, and I’m always hungry for that, hungry for knowledge and enjoying the moment at the same time.”

Gobert’s play suggests improvement. His performance Sunday marked his fifth-straight game with 12-plus rebounds, including a dominant performance against Oklahoma City. Minnesota coach Chris Finch said opponents are still trying to hold Gobert from a face-to-face position on the interior when shots go up. But rather than wrestling, Finch said Gobert is shedding his opponents so he can go grab the ball in the air.

The key to that improvement, per Gobert: Jiu jitsu.

“I try to pressure them as much as I can. They get away with being very physical with me, so I realize that I have to be even more physical with them and use momentum and strength and everything I know and have to our advantage,” he said. “ It’s been good. … Even when I don’t get the rebound, I think it takes a lot for them to just fight me. It takes a lot of energy and it carries over over the course of the game. Keep applying the pressure; that’s the mindset.”

Gobert is fifth in rebounds among active NBA players, trailing only Andre Drummond, LeBron James, Nikola Vucevic and DeAndre Jordan.

While Gobert noted his evolution as a rebounder as the game has changed over the years, he still insists rebounding is “99 percent” effort and desire.

“There’s other guys that are big, too. I think it starts there,” he said. “Then just being able to just try to feel the game … and just compete, compete for the ball.”

Briefly

Jaden McDaniels is questionable for Tuesday’s game against the Knicks with a left oblique contusion. The Knicks will be shorthanded at Target Center, with star guard Jalen Brunson already listed as out along with starting wing O.G. Anunoby.

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By JAIMIE DING and MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Many of Waymo’s self-driving cars blocked streets of San Francisco during a mass power outage Saturday and forced the company to temporarily suspend service, raising questions about the cars’ ability to to adapt to real-world driving conditions.

Social media users posted videos of Waymos as they encountered traffic lights that were off. Some cars’ hazard lights blinked and they abruptly stopped in place, failing to cross the intersection. Others stopped in the middle of the intersection, forcing other cars to swerve around them.

The power outage affected 130,000 homes and businesses in San Francisco, nearly one-third of the customers served by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. It was caused by a fire at a power substation, officials said. On Monday, the utility company was still working to restore power to thousands of customers.

Waymo operates hundreds of robotaxis in San Francisco, but it wasn’t clear how many cars were on the road at the time of the outage. The company paused service Saturday evening and resumed it Sunday afternoon.

The road-blocking problems that prompted Waymo to suspend its service during the weekend power outages revived concerns that city officials raised about the robotaxis periodically coming to abrupt and inexplicable stops before California regulators approved them as a commercial service in August 2023.

Tyler Cervini, who lives in the Mission District, said he was calling an Uber to bring him to the airport since his train station was not operating due to the outage. At the traffic light outside his apartment, there were five Waymos crowding the intersection, he said.

He got into his Uber right outside where all the Waymos were, but his driver “had to swerve through them to pick me up,” Cervini said. “He seemed extremely frustrated by what was going on.”

Waymo said that its vehicles are designed to treat nonfunctioning traffic signals as four-way stops, but the scale of the outage created unusual conditions.

Cars wait at an intersection with no working traffic lights from power outages, in San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

“While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events,” a Waymo spokesperson said. “Throughout the outage, we closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials.”

The company said most active trips were completed before vehicles were safely returned to depots or pulled over.

Philip Koopman, professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on self-driving vehicle safety, said the scale of the traffic disruption was concerning. Autonomous vehicles are generally programmed to come to a stop if they are unsure or confused on what to do and ask for remote assistance, he said.

Koopman said it did not appear to be a software failure in the cars themselves, but an “operational management failure” where the company did not have the capability to deal with so many robotaxis needing assistance at once.

Waymo should have suspended service earlier — as soon as their vehicles started having issues, he said.

“If you have thousands of robotaxis that stop, you have a problem,” he said. “What if this had been an earthquake? You would have thousands of robotaxis blocking the road.”

Waymo, which started as a secret project within Google in 2009, has steadily expanded its operations in San Francisco while also introducing its robotaxis into other California cities such as Los Angeles and San Jose, in addition to other U.S. markets in Texas, Arizona, Florida and Georgia.

In the months leading up to the approval from the state’s Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco’s transportation and fire department leaders flagged dozens of reports about robotaxis coming to standstills, blocking traffic.

Besides inconveniencing other drivers trying to get to their destinations, the road-blocking robotaxis were viewed as a possible impediment in life-threatening emergencies when firefighters and police officers were responding to calls for help.

Waymo’s fleet of robotaxis is on pace to complete more than 14 million rides this year, more than tripling from last year, according to the company.

Ding reported from Los Angeles.

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME and MICHELLE GUMEDE

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The U.S. government has signed health deals with at least nine African countries, part of its new approach to global health funding, with agreements that reflect the Trump administration’s interests and priorities and are geared toward providing less aid and more mutual benefits.

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The agreements signed so far, with Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda among others, are the first under the new global health framework, which makes aid dependent on negotiations between the recipient country and the U.S.

Some of the countries that have signed deals either have been hit by U.S. aid cuts or have separate agreements with the Trump administration to accept and host third-country deportees, although officials have denied any linkage.

The Trump administration says the new “America First” global health funding agreements are meant to increase self-sufficiency and eliminate what it says are ideology and waste from international assistance. The deals replace a patchwork of previous health agreements under the now-dismantled United States Agency for International Development.

U.S. aid cuts have crippled health systems across the developing world, including in Africa, where many countries relied on the funding for crucial programs, including those responding to outbreaks of disease.

The new approach to global health aligns with President Donald Trump’s pattern of dealing with other nations transactionally, using direct talks with foreign governments to promote his agenda abroad. It builds on his sharp turn from traditional U.S. foreign assistance, which supporters say furthered American interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.

A different strategy

The deals mark a sharp departure from how the U.S. has provided health care funding over the years and mirrors the Trump administration’s interests.

FILE – A pharmacist counts HIV medicine inside a clinic in Ha Lejone, Lesotho, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File)

South Africa, which has lost most of its U.S. funding — including $400 million in annual support — due in part to its disputes with the U.S., has not signed a health deal, despite having one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, reached a deal but with an emphasis on Christian-based health facilities, although it has a slight majority Muslim population. Rwanda and Uganda, which each have deportation deals with the U.S., have announced the health pacts.

Cameroon, Eswatini, Lesotho, Liberia and Mozambique also are among those that have signed health deals with the U.S.

According to the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank, the deals “combine U.S. funding reductions, ambitious co-financing expectations, and a shift toward direct government-to-government assistance.”

The deals represent a reduction in total U.S. health spending for each country, the center said, with annual U.S. financial support down 49% compared with 2024.

A faith-based deal in Nigeria, a lifeline for several others

Under its deal, Nigeria, a major beneficiary of USAID funds, would get support that has a “strong emphasis” on Christian faith-based health care providers.

The U.S. provided approximately $2.3 billion in health assistance to Nigeria between 2021 and 2025, mostly through USAID, official data shows. The new five-year agreement will see U.S. support at over $2 billion, while Nigeria is expected to raise $2.9 billion to boost its health care programs.

The agreement “was negotiated in connection with reforms the Nigerian government has made to prioritize protecting Christian populations from violence and includes significant dedicated funding to support Christian health care facilities,” the State Department said in a statement.

The department said “the president and secretary of state retain the right to pause or terminate any programs which do not align with the national interest,” urging Nigeria to ensure “that it combats extremist religious violence against vulnerable Christian populations.”

FILE – Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

For several other countries, the new deals could be a lifeline after U.S. aid cuts crippled their health care systems and left them racing to fill the gaps.

Under its deal, Mozambique will get U.S. support of over $1.8 billion for HIV and malaria programs. Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in the world, clinched a deal worth over $232 million.

In the tiny kingdom of Eswatini, the U.S. committed to provide up to $205 million to support public health data systems, disease surveillance and outbreak response, while the country agreed to increase domestic health expenditures by $37 million.

No deal for South Africa after disputes

South Africa is noticeably absent from the list of signatories following tensions with the Trump administration.

Trump has said he will cut all financial assistance to South Africa over his widely rejected claims that it is violently persecuting its Afrikaner white minority.

The dismantling of USAID resulted in the loss of over $436 million in yearly financing for HIV treatment and prevention in South Africa, putting the program and thousands of jobs in the health care industry at risk.

Health compacts with countries that signed deportation deals

At least four of the countries that have reached deals previously agreed to receive third-country deportees from the U.S., a controversial immigration policy that has been a trademark of the Trump administration.

The State Department has denied any linkage between the health care compacts and agreements regarding accepting third-country asylum seekers or third-country deportees from the United States. However, officials have said that political considerations unrelated to health issues may be part of the negotiations.

Rwanda, one of the countries with a deportation deal with the U.S., signed a $228 million health pact requiring the U.S. to support it with $158 million.

Uganda, another such country, signed a health deal worth nearly $2.3 billion in which the U.S. will provide up to $1.7 billion. Also Eswatini, which has started receiving flights with deported prisoners from the U.S.

Associated Press writers Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, Dyepkazah Shibayan in Abuja, Nigeria, Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.