By DAVID A. LIEB and M.K. WILDEMAN, Associated Press

President Donald Trump has approved federal disaster aid for six states and tribes following storms and floods that occurred this spring and summer.

The disaster declarations, announced Thursday, will allow federal funding to flow to Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin, and for tribes in Montana and South Dakota. In each case except Wisconsin, it took Trump more than a month to approve the aid requests from local officials, continuing a trend of longer waits for disaster relief noted by a recent Associated Press analysis.

Trump has now approved more than 30 major natural disaster declarations since taking office in January. Before the latest batch, his approvals had averaged a 34-day wait from the time the relief was requested. For his most recent declarations, that wait ranged from just 15 days following an aid request for Wisconsin flooding in August to 56 days following a tribal request for Montana flooding that occurred in May.

The AP’s analysis showed that delays in approving federal disaster aid have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. On average, it took less than two weeks for requests for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. During Trump’s first term in office, it took him an average of 24 days to approve requests.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the AP that Trump is providing “a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him” to make sure that federal tax dollars are spent wisely.

But delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses, temporary lodging and home repairs. Delays in disaster declarations also can hamper recovery efforts by local officials uncertain whether they will receive federal reimbursement for cleaning up debris and rebuilding infrastructure.

Trump’s latest declarations approved public assistance for local governments and nonprofits in all cases except Wisconsin, where assistance for individuals was approved. But that doesn’t preclude the federal government from later also approving public assistance for Wisconsin.

Preliminary estimates from Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ administration said more than 1,500 residential structures were destroyed or suffered major damage in August flooding at a cost of more than $33 million. There was also more than $43 million in public sector damage over six counties, according to the Evers administration.

Evers requested aid for residents in six counties, but Trump approved it only for three.

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“I will continue to urge the Trump Administration to approve the remainder of my request, and I will keep fighting to make sure Wisconsin receives every resource that is needed and available,” Evers said in a statement in which he thanked Democratic officeholders for their efforts, but not Trump or any Republicans.

Trump had announced several of the disaster declarations — including Wisconsin’s — on his social media site while noting his victories in those states and highlighting their Republican officials. He received thanks from Democratic North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Republican officials elsewhere.

Trump’s approval of six major disaster declarations in one day would have been unusual for some presidents but not for him. Trump approved seven disaster requests on July 22 and nine on May 21.

But Trump has not approved requests for hazard mitigation assistance — a once-typical add-on that helps recipients build back with resilience — since February.

Associated Press writers Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Scott Bauer, Jack Dura and Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.

By GREGORY GONDWE

MULANJE, Malawi (AP) — Alex Maere survived the destruction of Cyclone Freddy when it tore through southern Malawi in 2023. His farm didn’t.

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The 59-year-old saw decades of work disappear with the precious soil that the floods stripped from his small-scale farm in the foothills of Mount Mulanje.

He was used to producing a healthy 1,870 pounds of corn each season to support his three daughters and two sons. He salvaged just 8 kilograms (17 pounds) from the wreckage of Freddy.

“This is not a joke,” he said, remembering how his farm in the village of Sazola became a wasteland of sand and rocks.

Freddy jolted Maere into action. He decided he needed to change his age-old tactics if he was to survive.

He is now one of thousands of small-scale farmers in the southern African country using a generative AI chatbot designed by the non-profit Opportunity International for farming advice.

AI suggests potatoes

The Malawi government is backing the project, having seen the agriculture-dependent nation hit recently by a series of cyclones and an El Niño-induced drought. Malawi’s food crisis, which is largely down to the struggles of small-scale farmers, is a central issue for its national elections next week.

More than 80% of Malawi’s population of 21 million rely on agriculture for their livelihoods and the country has one of the highest poverty rates in the world, according to the World Bank.

Filesi Topola is seen on her farm in Mulanje, southern Malawi, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

The AI chatbot suggested Maere grow potatoes last year alongside his staple corn and cassava to adjust to his changed soil. He followed the instructions to the letter, he said, and cultivated half a soccer field’s worth of potatoes and made more than $800 in sales, turning around his and his children’s fortunes.

“I managed to pay for their school fees without worries,” he beamed.

AI, agriculture and Africa

Artificial intelligence has the potential to uplift agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 33-50 million smallholder farms like Maere’s produce up to 70-80% of the food supply, according to the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Yet productivity in Africa — with the world’s fast-growing population to feed — is lagging behind despite vast tracts of arable land.

As AI’s use surges across the globe, it is helping African farmers access new information to identify crop diseases, forecast drought, design fertilizers to boost yields, and even locate an affordable tractor. Private investment in agriculture-related tech in sub-Saharan Africa went from $10 million in 2014 to $600 million in 2022, according to the World Bank.

But not without challenges.

Farmers use the Ulangizi AI chatbot in Mulanje, southern Malawi, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

Africa has hundreds of languages for AI tools to learn. Even then, few farmers have smartphones and many can’t read. Electricity and internet service are patchy at best in rural areas, and often non-existent.

“One of the biggest challenges to sustainable AI use in African agriculture is accessibility,” said Daniel Mvalo, a Malawian technology specialist. “Many tools fail to account for language diversity, low literacy and poor digital infrastructure.”

The man with the smartphone

The AI tool in Malawi tries to do that. The app is called Ulangizi, which means advisor in the country’s Chichewa language. It is WhatsApp-based and works in Chichewa and English. You can type or speak your question, and it replies with an audio or text response, said Richard Chongo, Opportunity International’s country director for Malawi.

“If you can’t read or write, you can take a picture of your crop disease and ask, ‘What is this?’ And the app will respond,” he said.

But to work in Malawi, AI still needs a human touch. For Maere’s area, that is the job of 33-year-old Patrick Napanja, a farmer support agent who brings a smartphone with the app for those who have no devices. Chongo calls him the “human in the loop.”

“I used to struggle to provide answers to some farming challenges, now I use the app,” said Napanja.

Smallholder farmers hold a meeting in Mulanje, southern Malawi, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

Farmer support agents like Napanja generally have around 150-200 farmers to help and try to visit them in village groups once a week. But sometimes, most of an hour-long meeting is taken up waiting for responses to load because of the area’s poor connectivity, he said. Other times, they have to trudge up nearby hills to get a signal.

They are the simple but stubborn obstacles millions face taking advantage of technology that others have at their fingertips.

Trust is critical, scaling up is difficult

For African farmers living on the edge of poverty, the impact of bad advice or AI “hallucinations” can be far more devastating than for those using it to organize their emails or put together a work presentation.

Mvalo, the tech specialist, warned that inaccurate AI advice like a chatbot misidentifying crop diseases could lead to action that ruins the crop as well as a struggling farmer’s livelihood.

“Trust in AI is fragile,” he said. “If it fails even once, many farmers may never try it again.”

The Malawian government has invested in Ulangizi and it is programmed to align with the agriculture ministry’s own official farming advice, making it more relevant for Malawians, said Webster Jassi, the agriculture extension methodologies officer at the ministry.

Feluzi Makono holds soil at his grandmother’s farm in Mulanje, southern Malawi, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

But he said Malawi faces challenges in getting the tool to enough communities to make an extensive difference. Those communities don’t just need smartphones, but also to be able to afford internet access.

For Malawi, the potential may be in combining AI with traditional collaboration among communities.

“Farmers who have access to the app are helping fellow farmers,” Jassi said, and that is improving productivity.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates summoned Israel’s envoy in the country on Friday to condemn Israel’s attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar, increasing pressure on the country as Qatar’s top diplomat visits Washington.

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The meeting Friday saw Emirati Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem bint Ebrahim al-Hashimy “denounce the blatant and cowardly Israeli attack” on Qatar, the UAE said. She called the assault “an irresponsible escalation that threatens regional and international peace and security.”

“The continuation of such hostile and provocative rhetoric undermines prospects for stability and pushes the region towards extremely dangerous trajectories, and solidifies a situation that is unacceptable and cannot be overlooked,” the statement added.

Israeli media reported on the meeting, but there was no immediate readout from the Israeli government. Al-Hashimy spoke to David Ohad Horsandi, the deputy head of the Israeli mission in the country. It marks a rare moment for the UAE to summon an Israeli diplomat after reaching a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel five years ago.

The summoning comes ahead of an emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations next week in Qatar over the attack.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s prime minister was expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington after earlier addressing the United Nations Security Council. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister, said Thursday at the meeting that “Israel is trying to rearrange the region by force.”

P.J. Fleck threw Minnesota’s hat into the College Football Playoff ring back on Big Ten Media Days in July.

“If we are delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there,” Fleck said.

Hey, why not shoot for the stars? What would be the point in not having lofty goals in July, a month ahead of the season’s actual kickoff.

But is that one realistic?

The schedule suggests so …

Minnesota figures to be favored in every home game this season. The toughest opponents coming to Dinkytown are Nebraska and Wisconsin.

The Gophers do appear to have two surefire road losses — at Ohio State and at Oregon. They play the games for a reason, but even then-No. 1 Texas couldn’t win in Columbus in Week 1. And defending national champion Ohio State lost in Eugene last fall. Winning at either site would be a minor miracle.

But 10-2 likely puts a Big Ten team on the right side of the bubble to get into the 12-team playoff field. Which means Minnesota, indeed, has a path, though the margin for error is miniscule.

The biggest obstacles standing between the Gophers and a two-loss regular season look like a pair of tricky road trips, at Iowa in late October and Saturday’s late game at Cal, where the Gophers are a slight favorite to edge a Bears team featuring an intriguing freshman quarterback in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

This all sounds silly; why does anyone feel the need to opine about the postseason in Week 3? But the reality is if you go to bed before midnight Saturday, by the time you wake up Sunday morning, the Gophers’ playoff hopes will either be very much alive, or all but dead. A 9-3 season with losses to Cal, Ohio State and Oregon would not do the trick.

So, if you buy into Fleck’s notion that the Gophers could potentially punch a playoff ticket — probably the new bar for what makes for a truly special season at Minnesota — then Saturday is a must win. Frankly, outside of the Oregon and Ohio State dates, they all are.

Easy? Far from it.

Possible? Absolutely.

“As Indiana showed last year,” Fleck said in July, “anybody can get there.”

That’s no knock on the Hoosiers, who provided a number of programs with a positive dose of reality.

It’s part of the fun of the expanded playoff system. You don’t have to be some unstoppable juggernaut to participate. You do have to be good. You have to be consistent. And you have to have a little luck.

For a program like Minnesota, that luck comes in two forms: the rare confluence of a doable Big Ten schedule lining up with strong enough roster to take advantage, and that the inevitable one or two game-altering bounces or calls go your way. That can turn an 8-4 campaign into a magical 10-2 season.

On its surface, the schedule looks doable. While Minnesota hasn’t played anyone of note to date, the Gophers look good.

Is this the season the stars align for Fleck and Co.? That question will begin to be answered Saturday in Berkeley.

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