CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s communications minister ordered a policy change Friday that allows Elon Musk’s Starlink and other foreign-owned satellite internet providers to operate in the country without selling 30% of their local equity to Black or other non-white owners.

The policy change published in a government gazette allows foreign companies seeking licenses to operate in South Africa’s communications sector to instead invest in “equity equivalent” programs to meet affirmative action criteria, like skills training or other means of supporting previously disadvantaged groups.

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That option is also available for foreign-owned companies in other sectors in South Africa.

Musk, who was born in South Africa, accused his home country of having “openly racist ownership laws” by requiring at least 30% local ownership by Black or other races that were denied opportunities under South Africa’s apartheid system of white minority rule.

The world’s richest man posted on social media in March that Starlink wasn’t allowed to operate in South Africa “because I’m not black.” U.S. President Donald Trump has also targeted South Africa for criticism over its affirmative action regulations and other policies that he has cast as antiwhite.

South Africa’s affirmative action policies, known as Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, are a cornerstone of its efforts to redress the inequalities of apartheid, though critics have said they are a barrier to foreign investment.

Starlink, which is a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX, says it already offers its low-orbit satellite internet in more than a dozen African countries, including most of South Africa’s neighbors.

South African Communications Minister Solly Malatsi said in his new policy directive that Starlink could help his nation accelerate high-speed internet access for rural and underserved communities.

“By building long‑lived gas infrastructure now, we make New York’s emission‑reduction goals harder and more expensive to reach and risk forcing abrupt, disruptive adjustments later.”

Climate activists rally against the NESE pipeline in August. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

New York faces a critical crossroads: regulators have approved the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, doubling down on fossil fuel infrastructure when accelerating the clean transition is most urgent. Approval does not end the debate—it intensifies it, as communities and environmental groups now turn to the courts to halt the project. 

Proponents present NESE as a reliability lifeline for rising energy demand. Yet the problem is not supply shortage, but a policy choice about what kind of supply we build amid aging infrastructure. Investing in long‑lived gas systems signals to markets that climate goals can wait and wastes capital when a strong economic case already exists for accelerating renewables, storage, and efficiency to cut peak loads and bolster resilience. 

There are three clear reasons New York should confront the consequences of approving NESE and other expansion projects: 

First, the science is clear: new gas pipelines lock in decades of methane and carbon dioxide emissions. Methane routinely escapes during production and transport, eroding any short‑term climate advantage that gas might have over coal. By building long‑lived gas infrastructure now, we make New York’s emission‑reduction goals harder and more expensive to reach and risk forcing abrupt, disruptive adjustments later. 

Additionally, the local environmental and public health impacts matter. Pipeline construction and the associated compressor stations threaten water quality, wetlands, and coastal ecosystems—concerns that Northeast states have repeatedly cited when exercising their water-quality review powers. For communities near the Rockaway Transfer Point and routes through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the risk of spills, habitat damage, and degraded air quality are not abstract; they are lived realities that hit low-income and fenceline neighborhoods hardest. 

Finally, renewables paired with battery storage are often cheaper than new fossil infrastructure especially when full system costs are counted. With investors moving away from long‑duration fossil assets, new pipelines risk becoming abandoned assets as policy and demand shift toward clean alternatives.

Ultimately, we pay the price. Utility customers would be stuck paying off this pipeline for years, even at a moment when New Yorkers are already struggling to afford their energy bills.

Approval has already triggered legal challenges. A coalition including NRDC, Earthjustice, and Surfrider Foundation has filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. They argue New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation violated the Clean Water Act by granting permits for NESE. The lawsuit underscores risks the pipeline poses to water quality and coastal ecosystems, and shows opposition will continue in the courts as well as communities across the region. 

The practical alternative to NESE is not an abrupt switch—it is a phased approach that safeguards reliability while cutting emissions. New York can chart this course by deploying offshore and onshore wind, scaling rooftop and community solar, expanding battery storage, and investing in demand‑side measures like weatherization and smart grids. Communities must be protected by retiring fossil infrastructure and ensuring short‑term reliability gaps are met with clean, dispatchable resources and regional coordination. 

State approval of NESE does not absolve lawmakers of responsibility. Legislators cannot claim climate leadership while allowing long‑lived fossil infrastructure to advance. Every dollar spent on pipelines is a dollar taken from renewables, storage, and efficiency. Every year of delay makes the eventual transition more abrupt and costly. 

With lawsuits now challenging the approval, legislators face a critical choice: defend communities and accelerate clean energy, or side with industry and entrench fossil fuel dependence. Legislators must now decide whether they will be remembered for protecting New York’s future or for locking the state into decades of carbon emissions.

Sophia Dimont is a program coordinator for Students for Climate Action, a non-profit dedicated to engaging high schoolers in climate advocacy, civic leadership, and policy initiatives.

The post Opinion:  New York’s Energy Future is on Trial appeared first on City Limits.

By JACK BROOK, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The last inmate caught after an audacious New Orleans jailbreak was sentenced Friday to two life sentences over a 2018 double murder, with the Louisiana judge rebuking him for the disruption caused by his five months on the run.

Derrick Groves, 28, wore shackles and an orange jumpsuit in a New Orleans courtroom, two months after investigators tracked him down and captured him beneath a house in Atlanta. Groves and nine other inmates escaped in May by crawling through a hole behind a jail toilet, leaving behind graffiti that read “To Easy LoL.”

FILE – Derrick Groves sits in a police vehicle after being taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and Atlanta police at a southwest Atlanta home, Oct. 8, 2025. (Ben Hendren/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, file)

A jury last year convicted Groves of two counts of second-degree murder for killing Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson in a shooting at a Mardi Gras party in 2018. He also pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter in two fatal shootings in a separate case.

Groves’ escape caused “concern, disappointment, frustration and displeasure” to the court, said Orleans Parish Judge Dennis Waldron. The judge said the killings compounded tragedy already endured by Groves’ family, noting that in 1994 a corrupt New Orleans police officer ordered the killing of his grandmother, Kim Groves, after she reported police misconduct.

“He chose to not honor the memory of his grandmother as she lay in that street in the Ninth ward, shot to death,” Waldron said. “He made that conscious decision to go the other way and to kill, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.”

Kadija Jackson, the sister of one of the victims, said she sends photos of him to his daughter so the girl can show friends she once had a father. Jackson recalled finding her brother dying inside a car after Groves fired an AK-style rifle.

“He lifted his head, but deep down, I knew he wasn’t going to make it,” she said sobbing. “That moment shattered something inside me. Since that day my life has felt like it is missing a a piece that it felt it could never replace.”

As she spoke, Groves smirked and nodded from the defense table, and later turned to stare at her and the other victims’ supporters from across the courtroom.

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Peter Freiberg, Groves’ attorney, said his client maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his convictions, while expressing sympathy for the victims’ families.

The judge, however, said Groves showed no remorse and the city would be far safer with him imprisoned for life. In addition to the two life sentences, Groves was convicted of two counts of attempted murder for wounding others in the 2018 shooting. Waldron imposed two 50-year sentences for those convictions, stacked onto the life terms.

The judge also referenced video of Groves smiling and blowing kisses while being led away after his capture in Georgia.

“It is almost as if Mr. Groves thought he were a guest at a presidential motorcade as opposed to a captured fugitive, riding in a police SWAT convoy,” Waldron said. “These actions may be considered a final act of defiance.”

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — It may feel like you are surrounded by sniffles and coughs, but flu season activity is still low in many parts of the U.S.

New government data posted Friday shows that as of last week, flu activity was high in four states — Colorado, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York — and minimal or low in most others. Severity indicators are increasing but are still within the boundaries of a “mild” season, said officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A number of diseases tend to peak in the winter, thanks to indoor gatherings that help germs spread. The list includes not only colds and flu but also norovirus — a highly infectious cause of vomiting and diarrhea. Norovirus cases have generally been trending up in the last month.

Here are three seasonal respiratory viruses that experts are keeping an eye on:

Experts are closely watching flu

Last flu season was bad, with the overall flu hospitalization rate the highest since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. With the addition of a late-reported case, child flu deaths reached 288, the worst recorded for regular U.S. flu season and the same number seen in the 2009-2010 flu pandemic.

This season’s first pediatric flu death was reported this week.

There are reasons to fear this winter might be bad.

One type of flu virus — called A H3N2 — historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that’s the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, 89% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.

Flu seasons often don’t peak until around February, so it’s too early to know how big a problem that mismatch will be.

The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual vaccination, and public health experts say it’s not too late. About 42% of U.S. adults and 41% of children have gotten flu shots this season, according to CDC data.

The shots may not prevent all symptoms but they can prevent many infections from becoming severe. That appears to be true for this year’s shot, according to a preliminary U.K. analysis.

RSV usually peaks soon

Respiratory syncytial virus is a common cause of cold-like symptoms. But it can be dangerous for infants and the elderly, and is known for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter.

RSV seasons typically peak by December or January, but the season seems to be starting later than usual reported cases so far have been relatively low, according to the CDC.

It’s likely more RSV is coming, said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious diseases expert at Duke University, in an email. And, indeed, Friday’s CDC update showed signs that infections are increasing in the South and in mid-Atlantic states.

But relatively new vaccines may be helping. In 2023, the government licensed new RSV vaccines for pregnant women and older people, and injections of laboratory-made versions of antibodies for infants.

“Perhaps, glass half full, we’re cumulatively getting more people slowly vaccinated against RSV,” Wolfe said. “And because the virus mutates far less quickly than flu or COVID, the one vaccine you might have had as an older adult two or three years ago is likely still quite effective.”

As of October, about 41% of Americans 75 and older have been vaccinated, and about 40% of infants were reported to be protected, CDC data says.

The Trump administration, which has appointed vaccine skeptics to public health leadership and advisory positions, this week opened a review of the two injectable drugs used to protect babies and toddlers despite no signs of safety issues.

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COVID-19 indicators are down from a summer peak

COVID-19 activity right now is relatively low.

This week, the CDC published research showing the COVID-19 vaccine can keep kids from developing a severe illness. Among children nine months to 4 years, the shots were 76% effective against symptoms severe enough to send a child to a hospital ER or urgent care center, the agency found. Among kids five to 17 years, it was 56% effective.

Other studies also found the shots are safe and effective for children. But the report comes out after Trump administration officials stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children, and as anti-vaccine advocates are petitioning the government to revoke licenses for the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Few people are getting the shot this year. About 7% of children and 15% of adults have gotten this season’s version of COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC.

In October, the agency stopped recommending COVID-19 shots for anyone, leaving the choice up to patients. Several doctors groups and scientific organizations argued against watering down vaccination recommendations for a disease that has been a primary or contributing factor in more than 1.2 million U.S. deaths.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.