By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Major anti-abortion groups were gathering in the nation’s capital on Thursday to begin a lobbying effort with Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood ahead of the Supreme Court hearing a case in April that could strip the organization’s funding in South Carolina.

The anti-abortion groups are taking aim at abortion providers under an initiative called Defund Planned Parenthood, which targets federal Medicaid funding for the reproductive health care provider.

“This event begins an intensive round of outreach to the GOP, calling on them to take advantage of this unique moment to defund the abortion industry,” Students for Life, the national anti-abortion group organizing the event, said in a statement.

The Hyde Amendment already restricts government funding for most abortions, and less than 5% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are abortions, according to the organization’s 2023 report. Planned Parenthood also provides other forms of reproductive health care, including contraception, treatment for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings, often for low-income patients.

Vicki Ringer, Planned Parenthood’s South Carolina director of public affairs, said claims that Planned Parenthood uses Medicaid funding for abortion is “an attempt to mislead the public” and emphasized Planned Parenthood’s role in providing broader reproductive health care.

“We should be expanding health care to low-income people rather than trying to kick off these people who rely on us for health care,” Ringer said.

Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, said the Defund Planned Parenthood movement has been building for 10 years but has gained momentum as the anti-abortion movement has been emboldened by Trump’s presidential victory and by his fellow Republicans winning control of Congress in November.

“We’re seeing more enthusiasm in states like South Carolina and others to close down Planned Parenthood under the banner of stopping abortions, which their laws already do,” she said.

The Supreme Court announced it would hear a case involving South Carolina’s attempt to strip Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. Experts say the lawsuit could prompt similar efforts in conservative states across the country to chip away at the organization’s funding.

Almost 100 conservative members of Congress signed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to side with South Carolina. The state already bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they’re pregnant.

In February, a panel of judges in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that attempted to force Planned Parenthood to repay millions of dollars of Medicaid funding in Texas and Louisiana.

If the Supreme Court sides with South Carolina, Rebouche said, there may be a wider impact on health care by “giving states broad power to exclude health care that is unpopular or politically disfavored,” such as contraception. Targeting Planned Parenthood might also have a negative effect on maternal and infant mortality rates and could cost more money in the long run by cutting off low-income patients from vital preventive reproductive health care, she said.

During a 2015 push to strip Planned Parenthood funding, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that doing so would cost the government $130 million over 10 years.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in at least three states — Missouri, Ohio and South Carolina — have introduced bills this year aiming to create tax breaks for anti-abortion centers.

The strategies come during a time when abortion rights advocates are warning that Trump and his Cabinet hold significant power to restrict medication abortion access nationwide.

Rather than immediately heeding calls from anti-abortion allies to restrict Medicaid funding for clinics that provide abortions, Trump has made quieter moves after waffling on the issue on the campaign trail.

Trump reinstated a policy that requires foreign nongovernmental agencies to certify that they don’t provide or promote abortion if they receive U.S. aid for family planning assistance. He also pardoned several anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinics and used wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people.

The Republican president has appointed abortion opponents in some key Cabinet positions that could affect the availability of medication abortion and contraception, Medicaid coverage for family planning services, collection of abortion-related data and abortion access for troops and veterans.

Advocates on either side of the abortion debate are waiting to see if Trump’s Department of Justice will revive the Comstock Act, a 19th-century obscenity law, to restrict the mailing of medication abortion or other materials used for abortions. Attorney General Pam Bondi has a history of defending abortion restrictions, and her confirmation was celebrated by abortion opponents.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

CAIRO (AP) — Six people died and nine others were injured after a tourist submarine sank in the popular Egyptian Red Sea destination of Hurghada, two municipal officials said Thursday. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Emergency crews were able to rescue 29 people, according to a statement released by the Red Sea governorate. The submarine, which was sailing off one of the beaches in the tourist promenade area, had carried 45 tourists of various nationalities.

It was not immediately clear what caused the submarine to sink.

In November, a tourist yacht sank in the Red Sea after warnings of rough waters, Egyptian officials said. At least four people drowned, while 33 were rescued.

Tourism is an important sector of Egypt’s economy but many tourist companies have stopped or limited traveling on the Red Sea due to the dangers from conflicts in the region.

Some weeks, my job is better than others.

This was a great week.

Last week, I hit up some of my favorite spots in St. Paul for meetings and friend hangs, but this past seven days was about a few new experiences, including a new favorite fish fry.

Friday fish fry at St. Paul Brewing

This isn’t really a secret — I’ll tell anyone who asks — but I am not a fan of beer-battered fish. Not only is it nearly impossible not to find some uncooked batter under the crust, but it also hides the flavor of the fish.

I grew up eating lake fish on Fridays — mostly perch and sunfish — lightly dredged in a breading and pan-fried to crispy perfection. I love that version of a fish fry so much that almost every time I visit family there, I leave with enough time to hit a supper club or bar for a Friday dinner.

So imagine my delight when I found out that St. Paul Brewing is serving perch and sunfish that are breaded, not battered!

My husband and I arrived on a very busy pre-St. Patrick’s Day Friday. Live music from a Scottish duo was happening in the main taproom, and because of some unseasonably warm weather, the patio was open. This all meant that staffing levels were a little below what’s optimal and that brings me to make this point: If you’re dining on a patio before May, it’s unlikely that the restaurant will have had time to properly staff up to increase its capacity. In other words, be patient.

Our fish fry, a small pile of super-crisp panfish atop a generous portion of steak fries and served with a pile of coleslaw and some homemade tartar sauce, was worth every second of the wait.

We’ll be back as frequently as we can manage.

One small piece of advice: If you like ketchup with your fries, you have to order it as a separate side for an additional 75 cents. Order it when you order your food (via QR code at the tables) or you won’t get it in time to enjoy your fries hot and with ketchup.

St. Paul Brewing: 688 E. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul; 651-698-1945; stpaulbrewing.com

Night at the Gas Station #12 at El Sazon in Eagan

I can’t believe I hadn’t been to one of these fancy-pants, multi-course dinners in a not-fancy Eagan BP station before!

El Sazon, which will open its fourth location in Eat Street Crossing any day now, celebrated its third anniversary slinging tacos and other Mexican favorites out of a window in that BP with an amazing five courses.

It’s the 12th time they’ve closed the interior of the station and put out long tables and folding chairs to serve some of the best Latino food in the Twin Cities. It started, chef Cristian de Leon said, as a joke. The trio who started the operation were brainstorming places to hold a pop-up dinner and someone said, “We could do it at the gas station!” And while de Leon initially envisioned tables outside, they ended up doing it inside, amidst the aisles of cold medicine, salty snacks and energy drinks. And it caught on like wildfire.

They sell out most dinners, which happen “when they have time.” The first one was just 22 people, but now they can accommodate 50. Follow them on social media to find out when the next one might be.

Our dinner was fabulous, from an unforgettable, creamy corn gazpacho with olive-oil-poached lobster, to pillowy masa and potato (gluten-free!) gnocchi with wild mushrooms and an ultra-creamy ricotta to a burnt cheese plate to a masa and yuca (also gluten-free) beef wellington that was insanely tender and flavorful. We ended with capirotada, the Mexican version of bread pudding, spiked with raisins and coconut and some of the best horchata I’ve tasted.

Because it’s served in a gas station and they quite understandably don’t have a liquor license, each course was paired with a delicious non-alcoholic cocktail, which was funny because we were indulging on what has become a national drinking holiday: St. Patrick’s Day.

For a more traditional pairing experience, the outfit hosts a taco omakase experience at its Stillwater location (Xelas by El Sazon, 1180 Frontage Road, Stillwater) three days a week. It’s a ticketed dinner, so check their website for availability.

El Sazon: Three (soon to be four) metro locations. Find them all at elsazonmn.com.

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Bakers from Cossetta have never won the panettone world cup — or, at least, not yet.

In late 2023, head pastry chef Jaime Martinez took first place at the U.S. qualifying tournament, which landed him a slot at the 2024 International Coppa del Mondo del Panettone, the world championships, in Milan last November.

Ultimately, he did not make the top three. But who better to call for advice than Barcelona baker Ton Cortés, the guy who won?

So from March 18 through 23, Cortés visited St. Paul’s Italian culinary institution, helping Martinez and the Cossetta team test batches and try new techniques for making panettone, the airy, buttery, fruit-filled Italian bread typically eaten around Christmas.

“We’re looking for perfection,” said Rafael Morán, a pastry chef at Cossetta who works closely with Martinez on panettone. “Our panettone is good — we’re trying to be perfect. When we reach that point, we’ll be happy.”

“Or dead,” added Cossetta’s research and development chef, Elizabeth Drake, with a laugh.

A batch of panettone loaves hang upside-down to cool in Cossetta’s underground bakery on March 22, 2025. Panettone loaves are baked and cooled on specialized racks that rotate, so the butter-heavy bread does not collapse in on itself as it cools. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

She’s only mostly kidding: It’s something of an inside joke among old Italian panettone masters that it takes 20 years just to nail down your personal recipe, Martinez said. At Cossetta, they’ve been at it for about 14 years so far, he said.

And making a single batch of panettone can take up to 72 hours. Like sourdough bread, it begins with a fermented “mother” dough. The dough is flavored with orange, vanilla and other ingredients, mixed with candied fruits and set into paper wrappings to bake in a rotating oven. Then, the loaves are moved to specialized racks that flip upside down, so the loaves can cool without collapsing in on themselves — but they have to be flipped back and forth every six hours or so to avoid becoming more dense on one side than the other. Many chefs, including Martinez, use baby monitor-like cameras to watch the process from home when they’re not at work and rush to the kitchen when needed.

“It’s a balance between philosophy and science,” Drake said. “You can follow the same recipe every day and get a different result. You have to get a feel for it; you can’t just rely on the ratios in the recipe.”

Currently, Cossetta’s bakery team only sells panettone at Christmas — and a similar dove-shaped bread called colomba for Easter, on sale now — but they’re considering ramping up to year-round panettone production if customers are interested, corporate executive chef Casey Leick said.

“We’re planning to go big, but Minnesotans have to know what it is,” Martinez said. “We want to build a laboratory just for panettone, but not many people know panettone and what goes into it, so that’s our focus.”

A lineup of several varieties of panettone, made using world champion baker Ton Cortés’s recipes, sit on a counter in Cossetta’s bakery on March 22, 2025. Although the bread is typically only sold at Christmas, Cossetta bakers prepare tests all year round to improve their recipes for the every-other-year international competition. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

For a long time, Cortés said, making panettone has been “mystic knowledge kept by just a few Italian masters,” but the world of panettone is opening up. At the 2024 world cup, non-European competitors hailed not just from the U.S. but also Peru, Brazil, Japan and Australia. And Cortés himself, originally from Mexico, did not grow up a baker: He moved to Spain for a well-regarded university program in 14th-century music but graduated, very inconveniently, amid the country’s economic crisis in 2009. He now runs his own bakery, Suca’l, in Barcelona.

And yes, it’s true that making good panettone takes time and practice, he said. But to the extent that he has a “secret” for his world-class bread, it’s to avoid getting bogged down in the process.

“People think that, if something is difficult to do, it’s better, and I think that’s not the case for panettone,” Cortés said in Spanish. “I like to keep things simple and focus on the things that are actually important, like the mother dough: Having a mother dough that’s strong, healthy, well-hydrated, treated with care and attention.”

A loaf of traditional panettone is cut at Cossetta on March 22, 2025. Panettone, typically eaten at Christmas, is fermented with a “mother dough” like sourdough but is sweet, flavored with orange and vanilla and containing candied fruit. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The health of the mother dough is evident when judging the interior of a good panettone, too, he said. The crumb should be light and craggy and the air pockets should be different sizes, signs of good fermentation. The dough needs to be soft, yet strong enough to hold plenty of butter and eggs: Cortés said you should be able to take a slice of panettone and gently tear off a vertical strip in one piece, like you’re ripping a piece of paper — a test called “filato,” or thread, in Italian.

The International Coppa del Mondo del Panettone, the panettone world cup, takes place every other year, so Martinez hopes to compete again in 2026. A team competition, the Campionato Mondiale del Panettone, takes place during the off years, including this October — Cortés is set to captain Spain’s team — but Cossetta is not competing in that tournament.

With his bakery in Barcelona and, increasingly, his panettone-related travel to far-flung places like St. Paul, Cortés’s main goal is to show how versatile panettone can be; that it can be eaten year-round, not just at Christmas.

“What I enjoy the most of making panettone is that it’s about sharing,” Cortés said. “It’s a big celebration bread that you can share with your loved ones, and that is the part I like. And yes, there’s also the freaky part with the temperatures and acidity and baby monitor cameras. You have to be a bit neurotic.”

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