By MIKE BALSAMO

NEW YORK (AP) — While close to 150 world leaders prepared to descend on Manhattan for the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service was quietly dismantling a massive hidden telecom network across the New York area — a system investigators say could have crippled cell towers, jammed 911 calls and flooded networks with chaos at the very moment the city was most vulnerable.

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The cache, made up of more than 300 SIM servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations, represents one of the most sweeping communications threats uncovered on U.S. soil. Investigators warn the system could have blacked out cellular service in a city that relies on it not only for daily life but for emergency response and counterterrorism.

Coming as foreign leaders filled midtown hotels and motorcades clogged Manhattan, officials say the takedown highlights a new frontier of risk: plots aimed at the invisible infrastructure that keeps a modern city connected.

A broader investigation led to this discovery

The network was uncovered as part of a broader Secret Service investigation into telecommunications threats targeting senior government officials, according to investigators. Spread across multiple sites, the servers functioned like banks of mock cellphones, able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks and mask encrypted communications criminals, officials said.

This photo provided by the U.S. Secret Service, in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, shows SIM card packaging that was seized by the agency. (U.S. Secret Service via AP)

“It can’t be understated what this system is capable of doing,” said Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office. “It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? …. You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city.”

Officials said they haven’t uncovered a direct plot to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and note there are no known credible threats to New York City.

Forensic analysis is still in its early stages, but agents believe nation-state actors — perpetrators from particular countries — used the system to send encrypted messages to organized crime groups, cartels and terrorist organizations, McCool said. Authorities have not disclosed details on the specific government or criminal groups tied to the network at this point.

“We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up,” McCool said, noting that the process will take time.

An extensive, expensive operation

When agents entered the sites, they found rows of servers and shelves stacked with SIM cards. More than 100,000 were already active, investigators said, but there were also large numbers waiting to be deployed, evidence that operators were preparing to double or even triple the network’s capacity, McCool said. He described it as a well-funded, highly organized enterprise, one that cost millions of dollars in hardware and SIM cards alone.

This photo provided by the U.S. Secret Service, in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, shows servers on desks at the location where they were seized by the agency. (U.S. Secret Service via AP)

The operation had the capability of sending up to 30 million text messages a minute, McCool said.

“The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled,” the agency’s director, Sean Curran, said in a statement.

This photo provided by the U.S. Secret Service, in New York, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, shows part of a wall of SIM boxes that were seized by the agency. (U.S. Secret Service via AP)

Officials also warned of the havoc the network could have caused if left intact. McCool compared the potential impact to the cellular blackouts that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, when networks collapsed under strain. In this case, he said, attackers would have been able to force that kind of shutdown at a time of their choosing.

“Could there be others?” said McCool “It’d be unwise to think that there’s not other networks out there being made in other cities in the United States.”

By ADRIAN SAINZ

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Missouri woman is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for scheming to defraud Elvis Presley’s family by trying to auction off his Graceland home and property before a judge halted the brazen foreclosure sale.

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U.S. District Judge John Fowlkes will sentence Lisa Jeanine Findley in federal court in Memphis. Findley pleaded guilty in February to a charge of mail fraud related to the scheme. She also had been indicted on a charge of aggravated identity theft, but that charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Findley, of Kimberling City, falsely claimed Presley’s daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a bogus private lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before her death in January 2023, prosecutors said when Findley was charged in August 2024. She then threatened to sell Graceland to the highest bidder if Presley’s family didn’t pay a $2.85 million settlement, according to authorities.

Findley posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May 2024, prosecutors said. A judge stopped the sale after Presley’s granddaughter sued.

Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell off one of the most storied pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be phony.

Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. A large Presley-themed entertainment complex across the street from the museum is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. Presley died in August 1977 at the age of 42.

The public notice for the foreclosure sale of the 13-acre estate said Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owed $3.8 million after failing to repay a 2018 loan. Actor Riley Keough, Presley’s granddaughter, inherited the trust and ownership of the home after the death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley.

Keough filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, and a judge halted the proposed auction with an injunction. Naussany Investments and Private Lending — the bogus lender authorities say Findley created — said Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice. Keough’s lawsuit alleged that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023 and that Lisa Marie Presley never borrowed money from Naussany.

Kimberly Philbrick, the notary whose name is listed on Naussany’s documents, indicated she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any documents for her, according to the estate’s lawsuit. The judge said the notary’s affidavit brings into question the authenticity of the signature.

In halting the foreclosure sale, the judge said Elvis Presley’s estate could be successful in arguing that a company’s attempt to auction Graceland was fraudulent.

A statement emailed to The Associated Press after the judge stopped the sale said Naussany would not proceed with the sale because a key document in the case and the loan were recorded and obtained in a different state, meaning “legal action would have to be filed in multiple states.” The statement, sent from an email address for Naussany listed in court documents, did not specify the other state.

After the scheme fell apart, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said. An email sent May 25, 2024, to the AP from the same email as the earlier statement said in Spanish that the foreclosure sale attempt was made by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets old and dead people in the U.S. and uses the internet to steal money.

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — After gorging all summer on sockeye salmon, the portliest brown bears on the Alaska Peninsula will battle it out to see who will be named the fattest of them all in the wildly popular online voting contest called Fat Bear Week.

Those casting votes online starting Tuesday will choose between 11 mammoth brown bears and the winner of last week’s competition for cubs, named “128 Junior.” She’s a cub of “Grazer,” the two-time defending Fat Bear Week champion at Katmai National Park and Preserve who is looking for a third title.

The contest, which began in 2014, is meant to showcase the resiliency of the brown bears, who pack on the pounds each fall to survive the harsh winter, mostly by gobbling salmon on the Brooks River in the remote preserve about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage by plane. The public can watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite creature.

How to vote for Fat Bear Week

The 12 contestants announced Monday will face off in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, with the winner declared Sept. 30.

The first round features eight bears squaring off in four separate contests. The four winners advance to the second round, where they face four bears that received first-round byes.

There are about 2,200 brown bears within Katmai, a 6,562-square-mile park on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area of the main Brooks Camp.

The contest has some colorful characters

The contestants include a number of colorful characters, from a bear nicknamed “Flotato” for a stomping dance it does, to one that will place its paw over its heart like she is pledging allegiance to the flag while waiting for fish to arrive.

Two of the contestants were once dominate males now adjusting to new realities. One was once at the top of the bear hierarchy but now is the old man of the river. The other is adapting to life with a broken jaw that will never heal properly.

A full list can be found here.

Voting is not all about weight

The brown bears at Katmai are among the largest in the world. Mike Fitz, a naturalist for explore.org who started the Fat Bear Contest at Katmai when he was a ranger there, said that the only bears that are bigger are on nearby Kodiak Island.

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A male bear at Katmai weighs about 700 to 900 pounds mid-summer and can bloat to over a 1,000 pounds by September or October, thanks to successful foraging. But even a 1,400-pound male isn’t unusual.

Female bears are about half to two-thirds the size of adult males.

But the contest isn’t always just about how big the bear is, and the past two years prove that point with “Grazer” defeating “Chunk,” one of the biggest bears on Brooks River.

Voters could consider the challenges some contestants have had to overcome, such as female bears who protect their young and produce milk for the cubs while also fattening up for winter themselves.

Abundant salmon equals fat bears

Even though factors other than girth can be considered when voting, this might be the year when weight does play a role.

Brooks Falls is famous for brown bears snagging salmon out of the air as the fish try to jump upstream to get to their spawning ground.

That didn’t happen much this year, as an exceptional salmon run reduced the need for bears to compete for fishing spots at the falls.

“We are kind of expecting really to have some of the fattest bears we’ve ever seen in the event,” Fitz said. In fact, officials refer to one contestant as “cruise ship” because of its sheer plumpness.

The Minnesota Department of Health is encouraging COVID-19 vaccination for all people ages 6 months and older, endorsing recommendations from national medical associations rather than the federal government.

The three medical associations — the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — recommend that everyone 6 months or older receive the updated 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine “without additional barriers.”

Additionally, the groups strongly recommend vaccination for those under 2, those who are 65 or older, those who are pregnant and people of any age with high-risk conditions.

“Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements in modern medicine and help protect people of all ages,” said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, MDH’s medical director and state epidemiologist. “We encourage people to talk to their health care provider about all of the vaccines that are recommended for them, especially flu, RSV and COVID-19 vaccines, right now as we enter the respiratory disease season.”

The state health department’s endorsement Monday of medical associations’ vaccine recommendations is a change from previous years. Historically, the department would endorse the federal government’s guidance, MDH said in its announcement.

“This is a unique moment where vaccine information from federal health leaders leaves important information gaps for Minnesotans,” said Dr. Brooke Cunningham, Minnesota’s health commissioner. “These independent medical associations have all looked at the science and concluded that COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and important for people across the lifespan.”

Last week, a key committee within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended COVID-19 vaccination based on “individual decision-making.”

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for all adults age 65 and older, but approved it for people between the ages of 5 and 64 “with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.”

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a longtime leader of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccination nonprofit.

The MDH’s endorsement follows Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s Sept. 8 executive order that directed the state agency to safeguard access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

In its Sept. 22 announcement, MDH said it has issued a standing order that gives pharmacists broad permission to immunize people who desire the COVID-19 vaccine. It also sets up conversations between MDH, the Minnesota Department of Commerce and health insurers to “ensure ongoing coverage.”