By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday released human rights reports for countries worldwide, which eliminate mentions of discrimination faced by LGBTQ people, reduce a previous focus on reproductive rights and criticize restrictions on political speech by U.S. allies in Europe that American officials believe target right-wing politicians.

The reports, which cover 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, reflect his administration’s focus on free speech and protecting the lives of the unborn. However, the reports also offer a glimpse into the administration’s view of dire human rights conditions in some countries that have agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“This year’s reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners,” the State Department said.

The congressionally mandated reports in the past have been frequently used for reference and cited by lawmakers, policymakers, academic researchers and others investigating potential asylum claims or looking into conditions in specific countries.

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The reports were delayed by the Trump administration’s changes

The reports had been due to be released in March. The State Department said in an overview that the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to “adjust” the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration. Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses.

“Frequently, eyewitnesses are intimidated or prevented from reporting what they know,” the overview said. “On the other hand, individuals and groups opposed to a government may have incentive to exaggerate or fabricate abuses. In similar fashion, some governments may distort or exaggerate abuses attributed to opposition groups.”

Human rights groups decried the changes in focus and omissions of certain categories of discrimination and potential abuse.

The new reports “reveal a disturbing effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture the alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The reports do follow previous practices in criticizing widespread human rights abuses in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

Laying out the poor human rights records of countries accepting migrant deportees

Although such deportations did not begin until after Trump took office, the reports, with one notable exception, detail general poor human rights conditions in many of the countries that have agreed to accept migrants, even if they are not citizens of that nation.

The exception is El Salvador, which was the first of several countries in Latin America and Africa to agree to accept non-citizen migrant deportees from the U.S. Despite claims from rights advocates to the contrary, the report about the country says “there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses” in El Salvador in 2024 and that “the government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.”

Human rights groups have accused authorities of abuses, including at a notorious prison where many migrants are sent.

However, for Eswatini — a small country in Africa formerly known as Swaziland — South Sudan and Rwanda, the reports paint a grimmer picture. All have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States.

In all three countries, the reports noted “significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment … serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association.”

Those governments “did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses,” the reports said.

Singling out the treatment of white South Africans

South Africa was also singled out for its human rights situation “significantly worsening.” The report pointed to unfair treatment of white Afrikaners following the signing of major land reforms that the Trump administration has said discriminate against that minority, which ran the country’s apartheid government.

That system brutally enforced racial segregation, which oppressed the Black majority, for 50 years before ending in 1994.

With the signing of that law in December, the report said that “South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.”

It also said the government “did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities, or violence against racial minorities.”

This year, the administration admitted as refugees some groups of white Afrikaners.

Accusations of European allies restricting right-wing speech

The reports take issue with what the Trump administration believes are restrictions on free speech imposed against generally right-wing voices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The reports use identical language to say that human rights conditions in each of the three NATO allies “worsened during the year.”

The executive summaries for each of the three reports say “significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.”

These governments have rejected such assertions that have been made by senior U.S. officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Targeting Brazil over allegations of restricting Bolsonaro’s speech

Similar freedom-of-speech issues were raised in Brazil, which has more recently provoked Trump’s ire by prosecuting his ally — former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — and led to the imposition of massive U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Brazil’s Supreme Court chief justice.

“The human rights situation in Brazil declined during the year,” the report said. “The courts took broad and disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech and internet freedom by blocking millions of users’ access to information on a major social media platform in response to a case of harassment.”

It added that the government “undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to undermine democracy” and specifically mentioned suppressing the speech of Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Gov. Tim Walz named four new members of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents Tuesday.

Joel Bergstrom and Samuel Heins will serve as at-large representatives, with Kowsar Mohamed serving as the student at-large. Ellen Luger will represent the 5th Congressional District. The new members include a search firm principal, a retired U.S. ambassador, former minister counselor at the United States Mission to the United Nations and a doctoral student.

They replace at-large representatives Bo Thao-Urabe and Mary Davenport and student at-large Mike Kenyanya, as well as 5th Congressional District representative Janie Mayeron. Their terms ended in June.

Members of the 12-seat board serve six-year terms as volunteers with a third of board seats up for election by the Legislature every two years. The positions are typically filled by the Legislature during a joint convention, but that didn’t happen this year. Walz interviewed candidates last week.

“The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is gaining four accomplished, knowledgeable, and dedicated leaders,” Walz said in a statement. “They will bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives, united by a deep commitment to the University’s mission. Their leadership will be critical as the Board addresses current challenges and shapes the University’s future.”

The board controls policy, curriculum, tuition and fees for the University of Minnesota’s campuses around the state and manages all University lands.

One member represents each of the state’s eight congressional districts and four are at-large positions.

The new members join the University at a time it faces significant budgetary challenges. The Board of Regents at its June meeting approved a budget which cut about 7% of the University system budget and raised in-state tuition by 6.5% and out-of-state tuition by 7.5%.

As of late May, the University had lost around $22 million dollars worth of federal research award grants and officials expect to lose 10% to 30% of federal funding. Federal research funding represented more than $600 million for the U last fiscal year.

At the same time, international student enrollment in the state could fall, according to NAFSA, a nonprofit also known as the Association of International Educators, adding to those challenges and following a nationwide trend down in international student enrollment.

The board’s next regular meeting will be Oct. 9 to Oct. 10.

Ellen Luger

Luger will represent the 5th District and most recently served as minister counselor for agriculture at the U.S. mission to the United Nations food agencies in Rome. She was later appointed acting deputy chief of mission.

She has held philanthropic leadership roles at The Minneapolis Foundation and General Mills. Her board service includes work with Twin Cities Public Television, the Global Foodbanking Network and Wellesley College. She holds a juris doctor degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College

Joel Bergstrom

Bergstrom is a principal at Orion Search Group, leading executive searches for clients in the nonprofit, public and private sectors, with a focus on higher education, social services, housing and the arts.

He previously served as vice president at CohenTaylor Executive Search Services and held development leadership positions at Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery and the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Currently, he volunteers with the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation and is a former board member.

Prior to his nonprofit work, Bergstrom worked as an attorney in New York and Minnesota.

He holds a juris doctor  from New York University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in history from the U.

Samuel Heins

Heins is a retired U.S. Ambassador to Norway under President Barack Obama. He previously worked as a senior partner at Heins Mills and Olson, leading securities fraud and antitrust litigation as an attorney.

Heins has founded or co-founded international NGOs including The Advocates for Human Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture. He also has served on election monitoring teams in Pakistan and Ukraine.

He has held board roles with the ACLU of Minnesota, Ploughshares Fund, PEN America and Planned Parenthood North Central States. Heins earned his bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from the U and has received several human rights awards, including the Minnesota Governor’s Award for International Human Rights Activities.

Kowsar Mohamed

Mohamed is the enterprise director of inclusion at the state’s Office of Inclusion and a doctoral student in Natural Resources Science and Management.

She previously served as director of strategic partnerships at the Center for Economic Inclusion and as a senior project manager with St. Paul’s Department of Planning and Economic Development. She has taught urban studies as an adjunct professor at the U and served four years on the Regent Candidate Advisory Council until 2024.

She is a member of Minneapolis’ Climate Legacy Roundtable, the Full Stack St. Paul Steering Committee and Xcel Energy’s Environmental Justice Accountability Board.

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By CEDAR ATTANASIO, Associated Press

A huge basin of rainwater and snowmelt dammed by Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier has started to release, and officials on Tuesday urged residents in some parts of Juneau to evacuate ahead of what could be a record surge of floodwater downstream.

Officials in recent days have been warning people in the flood zone to be ready to evacuate. On Tuesday morning they confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam and flowing downstream, with flooding expected late Tuesday into Wednesday.

Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes.

People view Mendenhall Glacier from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center area, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

The Mendenhall Glacier — a thinning, retreating glacier that is a major tourist attraction in southeast Alaska — acts as a dam for Suicide Basin, which fills each spring and summer with rainwater and snowmelt. The basin itself was left behind when a smaller glacier nearby retreated.

When the water in the basin builds up enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam, entering Mendenhall Lake and eventually the Mendenhall River. Before the basin reached the limit of its capacity and began overtopping over the weekend, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet per day during especially sunny or rainy days, according to the National Weather Service.

The Mendenhall Glacier is visible in the distance from a residential area, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

The threat of so-called glacier outburst flooding has troubled parts of Juneau since 2011. In some years, there has been limited flooding of streets or properties near the lake or river.

But 2023 and 2024 marked successive years of record flooding, with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet, about 1 foot over the prior record set a year earlier, and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley.

Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged.

A large outburst can release up to 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That’s the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year’s flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say.

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City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The installation of about 10,000, four-foot (1.2-meter) tall barriers is intended to protect more than 460 properties from flood levels similar to last year, said Nate Rumsey, deputy director with the city’s engineering and public works department.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what’s expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it’s unreasonable.

Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers.

Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.

Authorities identified a man Tuesday who was fatally shot outside a St. Paul bar as a 43-year-old from Brooklyn Park.

A bouncer at the Midway Saloon was charged Friday with the shooting death of patron Jeffrey S. Matson outside the University Avenue bar early Thursday.

Davarius Lamonte Clark, 29, of Minneapolis, is charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder while committing a felony assault.

The bar manager told investigators the two men had argued inside the bar because Matson had brought his bike inside the business. The bar manager told Clark that Matson could keep his bike inside as long as Matson kept an eye on it.

Surveillance video showed the two men arguing outside the bar. Clark told police the man called him a racist expletive and spit on him two times, according to the criminal complaint. He said he “very angry” and “blacked out,” not remembering anything until he was being placed in the back of a squad car, the complaint continued.

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