By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and BRADY McCOMBS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former Utah Supreme Court justice is expected to be named the next president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the recent death of President Russell M. Nelson.

Announcing his successor — Dallin H. Oaks — is largely a formality because the church has a well-defined leadership hierarchy that has governed it for decades. Nothing will change in the leadership body until some time after Nelson’s funeral, which is scheduled for Oct. 7.

FILE – Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaks during a news conference at the Conference Center, Jan. 27, 2015, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, file)

Here’s a closer look at how the leadership structure is arranged and how new members are chosen:

Who leads the church?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church, is led by a president and his two top counselors, forming what is known as the First Presidency. They usually come from a governing body called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which sits just below the First Presidency and helps set church policy while overseeing the faith’s business interests.

Together, these 15 top officials are all men in accordance with the church’s all-male priesthood.

How are the presidents chosen?

The longest-tenured member of the Quorum of the Twelve becomes the new president in a tradition established more than a century ago to ensure a smooth handover and prevent any lobbying internally or publicly.

The succession plan was created in 1889 following nearly two years of debate and some politicking among the apostles after the faith’s third president, John Taylor, died. Since then, the plan has been carried out without exception.

FILE – Church President Russell M. Nelson looks on during The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ conference on April 6, 2019, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Nelson, the faith’s oldest-ever president, died Saturday at the age of 101. Per protocol, his successor won’t be formally announced until some time after his funeral next week. With his death, the First Presidency automatically dissolved and his two counselors rejoined the Quorum, bringing its number to 14.

Until a new president is announced, the Quorum, now led by Oaks, is in charge as the Utah-based faith prepares for its twice-annual general conference in Salt Lake City this weekend.

What does the president do?

He is considered a prophet, seer and revelator who leads the church through divine revelation from God along with two top counselors and members of the Quorum of the Twelve. He sets policy, interprets doctrine and manages church programs.

The president also oversees the church’s businesses, which include real estate, farms, publishing, life insurance, nonprofits, universities, a Polynesian cultural center in Hawaii and an upscale open-air shopping mall in Salt Lake City.

The church doesn’t disclose or discuss its finances, but the latest filings from its investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., value its portfolio at $58 billion.

How long do the presidents serve?

Presidents serve until they die, which is why the length of their tenures vary widely.

The longest was Brigham Young, who served nearly 30 years in the mid- to late 1800s. Other lengthy tenures include Heber J. Grant, with nearly 27 years from 1918 to 1945, and David O. McKay, with nearly 19 years from 1951 to 1970.

The shortest tenure was Howard H. Hunter, who served only nine months from 1994 to 1995. He and three other church presidents served less than five years, including an 18-month stint by Harold B. Lee from 1972 to 1973.

Nelson held the position for more than seven years. The two presidents before him, Thomas S. Monson and Gordon B. Hinckley, each had relatively long terms. Monson served nearly 10 years, and Hinckley was in the post for nearly 13.

How are the president’s two counselors chosen?

A new president usually chooses counselors from the Quorum of the Twelve. Sometimes, they are the same men who served the previous president. If they’re different, the previous counselors return to being members of the Quorum.

Most leaders of the faith known widely as the Mormon church assumed the presidency later in life. (AP Digital Embed)

Nelson kept Henry B. Eyring as a counselor and elevated Oaks as the other.

Being counselors does not put them ahead in line to become the next president. It is still the longest-tenured Quorum member who takes that role.

Oaks happens to be next in line. The 93-year-old joined the Quorum in May 1984, around the same time as Nelson.

Jeffrey R. Holland, 84, has the next highest seniority after Oaks.

How are new Quorum members chosen?

They can come from anywhere. In modern history, most were already serving in lower-tier leadership councils.

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The apostles tend to be older men who have achieved success in occupations outside the church. The last three chosen for the Quorum were a U.S. State Department official, an accountant for multinational corporations, and a board member of charities, schools and an enterprise agency.

Under Nelson, the church injected some diversity into the previously all-white leadership panel by selecting the first Latin American apostle and the first apostle of Asian ancestry. The appointments brought excitement to a contingent of members who for years had been hoping to see the top leadership become more representative of a religion with over half its more than 17 million members living outside the U.S.

Once Oaks becomes president and selects his two counselors, the Quorum will likely be left with one vacancy for him to fill — one way church presidents can leave their imprint.

What about women?

Nine highest-ranking women in the church oversee three organizations that run programs for women and girls. These councils sit below several layers of leadership groups reserved for only men.

The president and two counselors who oversee the Relief Society, which runs activities for women, are considered the top female leaders based on the organization’s historical cachet.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.

As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense.

Sanseito, while still a minor party, made big gains in July’s parliamentary election, and Kamiya’s “Japanese First” platform of anti-globalism, anti-immigration and anti-liberalism is gaining broader traction ahead of a ruling party vote Saturday that will choose the likely next prime minister.

Anti-immigrant policies, which allow populists to vent their dissatisfaction on easy targets, are appealing to more Japanese as they struggle with dwindling salaries, rising prices and bleak future outlooks.

“Many Japanese are frustrated by these problems, though we are too reserved to speak out. Mr. Kamiya is spelling them all out for us,” said Kenzo Hagiya, a retiree in the audience who said the “foreigner problem” is one of his biggest concerns.

The populist surge comes as Japan, a traditionally insular nation that values conformity and uniformity, sees a record surge of foreigners needed to bolster its shrinking workforce.

In September, angry protests fueled by social media misinformation about a looming flood of African immigrants quashed a government-led exchange program between four Japanese municipalities and African nations.

Even the governing party, which has promoted foreign labor and tourism, now calls for tighter restrictions on foreigners, but without showing how Japan, which has one of the world’s fastest-aging and fastest-dwindling populations, can economically stay afloat without them.

Kamiya says his platform has nothing to do with racism

“We only want to protect the peaceful lives and public safety of the Japanese,” he said at the rally in Yokohama, a major residential area for foreigners. Japanese people tolerate foreigners who respect the “Japanese way,” but those who cling to their own customs are not accepted because they intimidate, cause stress and anger the Japanese, he said.

Kamiya said the government was allowing foreign workers into the country only to benefit big Japanese businesses.

“Why do foreigners come first when the Japanese are struggling to make ends meet and suffering from fear?” Kamiya asked. “We are just saying the obvious in an obvious way. Attacking us for racial discrimination is wrong.”

Kamiya’s anti-immigrant message is gaining traction

All five candidates competing in Saturday’s governing Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote to replace outgoing Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister are vowing tougher measures on foreigners.

One of the favorites, former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hardline ultra-conservative, was criticized for championing unconfirmed claims that foreign tourists abused deer at a park in Nara, her hometown.

Takaichi later said she wanted to convey the growing sense of anxiety and anger among many Japanese about ”outrageous” foreigners.

During the July election campaign, far-right candidates insulted Japan’s about 2,000 Kurds, many of whom fled persecution in Turkey.

A Kurdish citizen, who escaped to Japan as a child after his father faced arrest for complaining about military hazing, said he and his fellow Kurds have had to deal with people calling them criminals on social media.

Japan has a history of discrimination against ethnic Koreans and Chinese, dating from the colonialist era in the first half of the 20th century.

Some of that discrimination persists today, with insults and attacks targeting Chinese immigrants, investors and their businesses.

Hoang Vinh Tien, 44, a Vietnamese resident who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years, says foreigners are often underpaid and face discrimination, including in renting apartments. He says he has worked hard to be accepted as part of the community.

“As we hear about trouble involving foreigners, I share the concerns of the Japanese people who want to protect Japan, and I support stricter measures for anyone from any country, including Vietnam,” Hoang said.

Rising foreigner numbers, but not nearly enough to bolster the economy

Japan’s foreign population last year hit a new high of more than 3.7 million. That’s only about 3% of the country’s population. Japan, which also promotes inbound tourism, aims to receive 60 million visitors in 2030, up from 50 million last year.

The foreign workforce tripled over the past decade to a record 2.3 million last year, according to Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare statistics. An increase of 300,000 from a year earlier was twice the projected pace. Many work in manufacturing, retail, farming and fishing.

Even as the foreign population surged, only about 12,000 foreigners were arrested last year, despite alarmists’ claims that there would be a crimewave, National Police Agency figures show.

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The pro-business ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 1993 launched a foreign trainee program and has since drastically expanded its scope in phases. But the program has been criticized as an exploitive attempt to make up for a declining domestic workforce. It will be renewed in 2027 with more flexibility for workers and stricter oversight for employers.

Many Japanese view immigrants as cheap labor who speak little Japanese, allow their children to drop out of school and live in high-crime communities, says Toshihiro Menju, a professor at Kansai University of International Studies and an expert on immigration policies.

He says the prejudice stems from Japan’s “stealth immigration system” that accepts foreign labor as de facto immigrants but without providing adequate support for them or an explanation to the public to help foster acceptance.

A Sanseito supporter in her 50s echoed some of these views but acknowledged that she has never personally encountered trouble with foreigners.

Meanwhile, Japan faces real economic pain if it doesn’t figure out the immigration issue.

The nation will need three times more foreign workers, or a total of 6.7 million people, than it currently allows, by 2040 to achieve 1.24% annual growth, according to a 2022 Japan International Cooperation Agency study. Without these workers, the Japanese economy, including the farming, fishing and service sectors, will become paralyzed, experts say.

It is unclear whether Japan can attract that many foreign workers in the future, as its dwindling salaries and lack of diversity makes it less attractive.

A growing party that’s part of a changing political landscape

Sanseito started in 2020 when Kamiya began attracting people on YouTube and social media who were discontent with conventional parties.

Kamiya, a former assembly member in the town of Suita, near Osaka, focused on revisionist views of Japan’s modern history, conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine ideas and spiritualism.

Kamiya said he is “extremely inspired by the anti-globalism policies” of U.S. President Donald Trump, but not his style. He invited conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk to Tokyo for a talk event days before his assassination, and Kamiya has compared his party to far-right parties such as the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), the National Rally of France and Britain’s Reform UK.

His priority, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, is to further expand his support base, and he hopes to field more than 100 candidates in future elections.

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO

CHICAGO (AP) — College student Maya Roman has the handoff down to a science: a text message, a walk to a designated site, and a paper bag delivered with condoms and Plan B emergency contraception. At DePaul University, it’s the only way students can get a sliver of sexual health support, she said.

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DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus.

To get around that, a student group runs a covert contraceptive delivery network called “the womb service.” The group was once the university’s chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, but it has been operating off campus since DePaul in June revoked its status as a student organization.

At Catholic universities, which generally do not offer contraceptives on their campuses or at school-run health centers, student groups have stepped in to fill what they see as gaps in reproductive health care. It often means navigating pushback from college administrators.

In line with church teachings that discourage premarital sex and birth control, many Catholic colleges restrict access to contraceptives on campus. The student activists say they are providing essential help on campuses that enroll students of all faiths.

At DePaul, the university said it banished the student group over its affiliation with Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. It said it also “reserves the right to restrict the distribution of medical or health supplies/devices items on university premises that it deems to be inappropriate from the perspective of the institution’s mission and values.”

“I was in disbelief,” Roman said of the group being forced to disband. “It was a flood of disappointment.”

Efforts to restrict contraception have mounted around the US

Far beyond college campuses, a growing number of Republican-led states have seen attempts to restrict access to contraception. Some state legislatures have sought to exclude emergency contraception and other birth control methods from state Medicaid programs or have introduced bills requiring parental consent for minors to access contraception.

The Trump administration has also frozen funding to family planning clinics that provide free or low-cost contraception and scrubbed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on birth control from government websites.

Conversely, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, signed legislation in August requiring colleges and universities to offer contraception and abortion medication at on-campus pharmacies and student health centers, but it applies only to public institutions.

“We do see this massive effort to restrict access to contraception and abortion throughout the U.S., not just on Catholic campuses,” said Jill Delston, associate professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied contraception access. “And on Catholic campuses, that may in some ways be amplified.”

Activist groups connect with students just off campus

Roman, an economics student at DePaul, grew up learning about reproductive health from her mother, a nurse. When she arrived on campus, she realized many of her peers had relatively limited sexual health knowledge. Meanwhile, she said she noticed DePaul’s sexual and reproductive health resources were lacking.

“It was seeing a need in the community and trying my best to address it right away,” she said.

Now, the group she leads receives about 15 to 25 orders each week for contraception and hosts sex education seminars.

“These schools disproportionately don’t provide contraception access, so students are stepping up to fill those gaps so that other students aren’t being prevented from controlling their own reproductive destiny and reproductive freedom,” said Maddy Niziolek, development specialist at Catholics for Choice, which helps students organize against Catholic universities’ restrictions on contraception access.

At Loyola University, another Catholic institution in Chicago, Students for Reproductive Justice delivers condoms, lubricant, pregnancy tests and emergency contraception directly to students. They receive as many as 20 orders in a single night. The group also hosts Free Condom Friday, where members pass out condoms at bus stops just off campus.

The group applied for registered student organization status in 2016 but was denied, said Alyssa Suarez Tineo, a junior studying women and gender studies and an organizer for SRJ Loyola.

“Loyola’s motto is ‘cura personalis,’ care for the whole person,” she said. “And this is just an example of Loyola not living up to what it promises.”

At the University of Notre Dame, the student group Irish 4 Reproductive Health formed in 2017 to file a lawsuit challenging the university’s decision to deny birth control coverage to students and employees. The group today distributes contraception off campus.

Gabriella Shirtcliff, the group’s co-president, said its work “helps reduce the risk of unplanned pregnancy that might require someone to get an abortion.”

Organizers see Catholic colleges as ‘challenging environments’

A lack of access to contraception can have deep, long-term impacts on students’ lives, Delston said.

“What’s at stake for these students is their bodily autonomy — the direction of the rest of their lives, their ability to pursue their goals, get a degree, have a career or start a family at the time it suits them,” she said.

In 2020, the American Society for Emergency Contraception launched an effort to help student activists expand contraception access on college campuses. The group has helped install 150 vending machines that dispense emergency contraception on campuses.

At Catholic universities, students usually have to start smaller than a vending machine, said Kelly Cleland, the group’s executive director. The first step, she said, is helping students figure out what’s possible.

“This is a lesson for them about organizing in challenging environments,” she said.

At DePaul, the students behind the womb service have re-applied under a new name — Students United for Reproductive Justice — and plan to continue distributing contraceptives this semester. DePaul has not approved the registration. Roman said she hopes more students on Catholic campuses challenge their universities’ reproductive health policies.

“It is possible; it is feasible,” she said. “And you’re not alone in this fight.”

This story was first published on Sept. 30, 2025. It was updated on Oct. 1, 2025 to make clear that the student group at DePaul University does not have status as registered on campus.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the unusually quiet halls of the U.S. Capitol, Republican leaders faced the cameras for a second day and implored Democrats to reopen the government.

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“We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning, before criticizing his counterparts. “Democrats are the ones who have decided to inflict the pain.”

It’s a striking role reversal. Budget standoffs for years have been the bane of Republican congressional leaders who had to wrestle with conservatives on their side ready to shut down the government to get their policy demands. Democrats often stood as willing partners to keeping the government open, lending crucial votes to protect programs they had championed.

“Both parties have completely flip-flopped to the opposite side of the same issue that hasn’t changed,” said GOP Sen. Rand Paul. “Congress has truly entered the upside down world.”

The change is happening in large part because President Donald Trump exercises top-down control over a mostly unified GOP — and faces little internal resistance to his budget priorities. The shift is unfolding as the shutdown threatens government services, forces the furlough of federal workers and gives the Trump administration another opportunity to remake the federal government.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been left scrambling for leverage in the first year of Trump’s second term, using the funding fight to exert what influence they can. It’s an awkward posture for a party that has long cast itself as the adults in the room during shutdown threats — something not lost on Republicans.

At a Wednesday morning news conference, Republicans looped an old clip of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declaring, “It’s not normal to shut down the government if we don’t get what we want.”

A new GOP consensus on short-term spending

Short-term government funding legislation — known as continuing resolutions on Capitol Hill – once roiled hardline conservatives who viewed them as a dereliction of their duty to set the government’s funding levels. That fight became so bitter in 2023 that right-wing lawmakers initiated the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after he relied on Democrats to pass a “clean” continuing resolution.

But now, Paul of Kentucky has been the lone Republican to join Senate Democrats in opposing a short-term funding measure backed by GOP leaders that would keep government funding generally at current levels through Nov. 21. In explaining his vote, Paul said the measure “continues Biden spending levels” which Trump had previously pledged to roll back.

Many of Paul’s previous fiscal hawk allies, however, have changed their tune.

“We need to reopen the government. Let’s fix America’s problems, let’s work together to solve them, but let’s reopen the government,” Vice President JD Vance said Thursday.

When he was in the Senate, Vance never voted in favor of final passage of a continuing resolution. Instead he argued that the leverage should be used to gain significant policy wins.

“Why shouldn’t we be trying to force this government shutdown fight to get something out of it that’s good for the American people?” Vance said last September on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast.

This week, Vance said: “You don’t have policy disagreements that serve as the basis for a government shutdown.”

Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, has also taken a new tack now that he is back in the White House. While Joe Biden was president, Vought directed a conservative organization called The Center for Renewing America and counseled Republicans in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to gain policy concessions.

Yet this week, he charged that Democrats were “hostage taking” as they demanded that Congress take up health care policy.

In retaliation, Vought has threatened to initiate mass layoffs of federal workers and Wednesday announced that the White House was withholding funding for already approved projects in some blue states.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Mn., center, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., from right, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel ,Balce Ceneta)

Trump’s tight grip unifies the GOP on the surface

The shutdown, which began Wednesday, shows no sign of resolution. Republicans appear increasingly comfortable with their position, reflecting Trump’s firm control on the party’s agenda.

In a striking contrast to the internal division that once plagued GOP spending fights, party leaders displayed unity on the Capitol balcony on the first day of the shutdown.

“The President, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, we’re all united on this,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at the gathering, while holding the pages of the Republicans’ continuing resolution that has already passed the House. That bill would reopen the government if it passed the Senate.

Trump’s second term has seen far less resistance from Republicans than his first. His major tax and spending proposal, along with his personnel appointments, have largely moved forward unchallenged — a break from his first term when GOP lawmakers frequently pushed back against his proposals and actions.

Still, tensions remain just below the surface. The Republican administration’s push for aggressive spending cuts — and its resistance to renewing certain health care subsidies — has sparked quiet concern inside the party.

Signs of Republican unease

One of the biggest flashpoints is the impending expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Some Republicans are sympathetic to the Democratic demands for an extension of the tax credits. If they allowed to expire, there will be large rate increases for many people who purchase their health care coverage on the marketplace. It would add financial stress to key Republican constituencies like small business owners, contractors, farmers and ranchers.

When Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, floated a one-year extension to the health care subsidies during a Senate floor vote Wednesday, it attracted attention from Democrats and Republicans alike.

“Sometimes there’s a misunderstanding that we’re divided on the ACA credits, we’re not. So now we’re moving forward to eliminate the fraud and also find a way back to pre-pandemic levels,” Rounds said.

There’s also a growing unease with how the Trump administration is leading Republicans through the shutdown. GOP lawmakers feel they hold the political advantage in the fight, but some are beginning to express doubts as the president and his budget director prepare to unleash mass layoffs and permanent program cuts.

Trump’s penchant for hurling insults at Democratic lawmakers – many who will be crucial to leading Congress out of the spending impasse – has also undercut the messaging of Republican leaders. When Johnson was asked Thursday what he thought about Trump posting doctored videos of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero, he offered a bit of advice for his Democratic counterpart.

“Man, just ignore it,” Johnson said.