By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and HAU DINH

DA NANG, Vietnam (AP) — The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces. But millions of people still face daily battles with its chemical legacy.

Nguyen Thanh Hai, 34, is one of millions with disabilities linked to Agent Orange. Born with severe developmental challenges, it’s a struggle for him to complete tasks others take for granted: buttoning the blue shirt he wears to a special school in Da Nang, practicing the alphabet, drawing shapes or forming simple sentences.

Hai grew up in Da Nang, the site of a U.S. air base where departing troops left behind huge amounts of Agent Orange that have lingered for decades, leeching into food and water supplies in areas like Hai’s village and affecting generations of residents.

Across Vietnam, U.S. forces sprayed sprayed 72 million liters (19 million gallons) of defoliants during the war to strip the enemy’s cover. More than half was Agent Orange, a blend of herbicides.

Agent Orange was laced with dioxin, a type of chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and lasting environmental damage. Today, 3 million people, including many children, still suffer serious health issues associated with exposure to it.

Vietnam has spent decades cleaning up the toxic legacy of the war, in part funded by belated U.S. assistance, but the work is far from complete. Now, millions in Vietnam are worried that the U.S. may abandon Agent Orange cleanup as President Donald Trump slashes foreign aid.

Decades of contamination

When the war ended, the U.S. turned its back on Vietnam, eager to turn the page on a painful chapter in its history.

But Vietnam was left with dozens of dioxin hotspots spread across 58 of its 63 provinces.

Vietnam says the health impacts last generations, threatening the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of people exposed to the chemicals with health complications ranging from cancer to birth defects that affects the spine and nervous system.

But the science about the human health impact — both to those exposed to Agent Orange and the generations that follow — remains unsettled. This is partly because when the two countries finally started working together in 2006, they focused on finding dioxin in the environment and clearing it instead of studying the still-contentious topic of its impact on human health, said Charles Bailey, co-author of the book “From Enemies to Partners: Vietnam, the U.S. and Agent Orange.”

“The science of causality is still incomplete,” said Bailey.

Vietnam identifies Agent Orange victims by checking family history, where they lived, and a list of health problems linked to the poison. And Hai’s disabilities were very likely linked to the spraying of the defoliant, added Bailey.

The 34-year-old dreams of becoming a soldier like his grandfather, was unable to leave home for years, waiting alone while his family went out to work. It was only five years ago that he began attending a special school. “I am happy here because I have many friends,” he said. Other students at the school hope to become tailors or makers of incense sticks.

The contamination also denuded Vietnam’s natural defenses. Nearly half of its mangrove trees, which shield shores from strong storms, were destroyed. Much of its tropical forest was irrevocably damaged, while the herbicide also leached the soil of nutrients in some of Vietnam’s most climate-vulnerable areas.

A massive cleanup begins

In the decades after the war ended, the recovering country fenced off heavily contaminated sites like Da Nang airport and began providing support to impacted families.

But the U.S. largely ignored growing evidence of health impacts — including on its own veterans — until the mid-2000s, when it and began funding cleanup in Vietnam. In 1991, the U.S. recognized that certain diseases could be related to exposure to Agent Orange and made veterans who had them eligible for benefits.

Since 1991, it has spent over $155 million to aid people with disabilities in areas affected by Agent Orange or littered by unexploded bombs, according to the U.S. State Department. The two countries have also cooperated to recover war dead, with the U.S. aiding Vietnam’s search for its own missing.

Cleaning up Agent Orange is expensive and often dangerous. Heavily polluted soil needs to be unearthed and heated in large ovens to very high temperatures, while less contaminated soil can be buried in secure landfills.

Despite years of work, large sites still need to cleared. In Da Nang, where an air base was contaminated during storage and transportation of Agent Orange, the U.S. completed a $110 million cleanup in 2018 but an area the size of 10 soccer fields still remains heavily contaminated.

Cooperation on war legacy issues also laid a foundation for growing U.S.-Vietnam ties, culminating in 2023 when Vietnam elevated the U.S. to its highest diplomatic status of comprehensive strategic partner.

“The United States considers Vietnam a key partner in advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in Vietnam in 2023.

Anxiety about aid cuts

But Donald Trump’s cuts to USAID stalled key projects in Vietnam, and while many have resumed, doubts remain about U.S. reliability.

Vietnam now has to negotiate a new reality where the U.S. president says the country can no longer afford to help other countries.

The country can’t handle the toxic chemicals that still persist without help, said Nguyen Van An, the chairman of Association for Victims of Agent Orange in Danang. “We always believe that the U.S. government and the manufacturers of this toxic chemical must have the responsibility to support the victims,” he said.

He said he hoped that any stoppages to ongoing projects due to shifting politics in Washington would be temporary.

Insufficient data means that experts can’t definitely say when the risk to human health will end. But the more urgent problem is if that cleanup efforts are interrupted, the now-exposed contaminated soil could get into waterways and harm more people.

A 10-year project to clear the some 500,000 cubic meters (650,000 cubic yards) of dioxin-contaminated soil — enough to fill 40,000 trucks — at Bien Hoa airbase was launched in 2020. It stopped for a week in March and then restarted.

But Bailey, who worked on issues related to the Agent Orange in Vietnam for years, said future USAID funding for the cleanup and a $30 million program for people with disabilities was uncertain.

With federal cuts to USAID, most staffers in Vietnam are expected to be gone by later this year, leaving nobody to administer funding for remediation programs, even if it is not cut itself.

“This basically leaves a very large mountain of contaminated soil. Only 30% of which has been dealt with and that is less contaminated,” said Bailey.

He added that less than half of the soil at Bien Hoa had been treated and much of the remaining soil was heavily contaminated and needed to be treated in an as-yet unbuilt incinerator.

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Tim Rieser, who was retired Sen. Patrick Leahy’s foreign policy aide when the Vermont Democrat secured the original funding for Vietnam War remediation projects and is now a senior advisor to Sen. Peter Welch, said Congress still supports the programs but it would be hard for them to continue without staff.

“For more than 30 years, the U.S. and Vietnam have worked together to rebuild relations by dealing with the worst legacies of the war, like Agent Orange,” he said. “Now the Trump administration is mindlessly shutting everything down, with no concern for the impact of their actions on relations with an important partner in the Indo-Pacific.”

The U.S. State Department said that war legacy projects like clearing dioxin at Bien Hoa or demining programs in central Vietnam remain “active and running,” adding that it would conduct assessments for the resources needed for their continuation.

Chuck Searcy, an American Vietnam War veteran who has worked on humanitarian programs in the country since 1995, said he worries that trust built over years could erode very rapidly. He pointed out that those who benefit from U.S. funded projects to address war legacies are “innocent victims.”

“They’ve been victimized twice, once by the war and the consequences that they’ve suffered. And now by having the rug pulled out from under them,” he said.

Associated Press journalist David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Romano spent more than 17 years at the Justice Department, eventually becoming a supervisor on the team that would prosecute more than 1,500 people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The moment he watched the largest investigation in department history get wiped away with the stroke of a pen — on President Donald Trump’s first day back in the White House — Romano knew he had to leave.

“I knew on January 20th, when the pardons were announced, that I needed to find my way out,” Romano said in an interview with The Associated Press weeks after his resignation from the Justice Department. “It would be untenable for me to stay, given the pardons and given the false narratives that were being spread about January 6.”

Now, Romano says he fears Trump’s decision to pardon even the most violent rioters — whom his own vice president once said “obviously” shouldn’t be pardoned — could embolden right-wing extremists and encourage future political violence.

“The way that the pardons have been received by the January 6th defendants and by other right-wing extremists, as I understand it, is to recognize that if you support the president and if you commit violence in support of the president, that he might insulate you from the consequences, that he might protect you from the criminal justice system,” Romano said. “And so that might encourage people to commit these sort of acts.”

Romano is among dozens of Justice Department lawyers who have resigned, been pushed out or fired in the weeks since Trump’s new leadership has taken over and begun making sweeping changes to align the law enforcement agency with the priorities of the Republican president whom the department once prosecuted.

Trump’s return to the White House has ushered in a dizzying change for many in the Justice Department, but perhaps few have felt it more than the lawyers who spent years working on the largest-scale serious attack on the Capitol since the war of 1812.

As a deputy chief of the now-disbanded Capitol Siege Section that prosecuted the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Romano had a close-up view of the evidence, including harrowing videos and court testimony detailing the violence that unfolded when the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify former President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Romano joined the Justice Department in 2007 straight out of law school, and was working in the section in Washington that handles public corruption cases on Jan. 6, 2021. He recalled watching the riot unfold on television, and quickly deciding he wanted to help with the prosecution of what he described as a “crime of historic proportions.”

Trump’s pardons cemented the president’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack.

While vying to return to the White House, Trump repeatedly downplayed the violence that left more than 100 police officers injured, and lauded the rioters as patriots and hostages whom he contended were unfairly persecuted by the Justice Department for their political beliefs. Only two Capitol riot defendants were acquitted of all charges, which Trump supporters cited as evidence that Washington juries can’t be fair and impartial. Some Jan. 6 defendants are now considering running for office.

The scope of Trump’s clemency hours after the inauguration came as a surprise to many, considering the president had suggested in the weeks prior that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Trump’s proclamation described the prosecution as “a grave national injustice” and declared that the pardons would begin “a process of national reconciliation.”

Trump’s pardons led to the release from prison of the leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power as well as rioters convicted of brutal attacks on police — many of whose crimes were captured on camera and broadcast on live TV. Trump has defended his pardons, saying the sentences handed down for actions that day were “ridiculous and excessive” and that “these are people who actually love our country.”

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Romano said the notion that the Jan. 6 defendants were not treated fairly by in the justice system or not given the due process they were entitled is “simply not true.” In many cases, he said prosecutors had overwhelming evidence because the defendants “filmed themselves proudly committing crimes.”

“They had the full protection of rights guaranteed to them by the American justice system and the Constitution,” Romano said. “It was my experience when dealing with these cases and seeing the way that the rioters and some of their attorneys behaved in court, that their take was that they should be treated like heroes and not prosecuted at all.”

Despite the pardons, Romano said he still believes that the Capitol Siege Section’s work was important because it left behind a “historical record” of what happened on Jan. 6 that cannot be changed.

“In light of the efforts to whitewash the history of that day, in light of the efforts for people to lie about that day for their own benefit, which is what’s happening, it’s important that people really understand the truth about what happened on January 6th,” he said.

After-school programs and activities are canceled for St. Paul schools Monday due to severe storms in the forecast.

St. Paul Public Schools’ Extended Day Learning, Flipside and middle school athletics are canceled. High school athletic events are decided case-by-case and students’ athletic directors should be contacted for more information.

Other Community Education evening activities and classes will continue as scheduled unless separately notified. Discovery Club will stay open until all students are picked up.

Parents can visit spps.org for district updates.

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By JIM MORRIS, CLAIRE RUSH and ROB GILLIES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A 30-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder in the deaths of 11 people who were killed when a car careened into a crowd at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, and mourners including the Canadian prime minister remembered the dead at vigils across the city.

Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in a video appearance before a judge Sunday, hours after he was arrested at the scene, said Damienne Darby, spokeswoman for British Columbia prosecutors. Lo has not yet entered a plea.

Thirty-two people were taken to hospitals, and 17 were still there late Sunday, including some in critical and serious condition, the British Columbia Health Ministry said.

Investigators ruled out terrorism as a motive and said more charges were possible. They said Lo had a history of mental health issues.

An attorney for Lo was not listed in online court documents, and The Associated Press could not immediately reach an attorney representing him.

Those killed were between the ages of 5 and 65, officials said. Dozens of people were injured, some critically, when the black Audi SUV sped down a closed street just after 8 p.m. Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival.

Nathaly Nairn and her 15-year-old daughter carried flowers to one of the vigils. They attended the festival on Saturday, and Nairn recounted seeing the damaged SUV and bodies on the ground.

“Something really dark happened last night,” Nairn said as she and her daughter wiped away tears.

While attending a vigil, Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said the Filipino community and the city were “heartbroken, were sad, were scared and there’s a bit of anger there, too.”

Mental health may have been a factor, Sim said.

“We do have people with significant mental health challenges who shouldn’t be directing their own care on the streets, where they can do harm to themselves and others,” he said. “So we have to get to the root cause of that problem as well.”

Interim Police Chief Steve Rai called it “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.” There was no indication of a motive, but Rai said the suspect has “a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health.”

Video of the aftermath showed the dead and injured along a narrow street in South Vancouver lined by food trucks. The front of the Audi SUV was smashed in.

Kris Pangilinan, who brought his pop-up clothing and lifestyle booth to the festival, saw the vehicle roll slowly past a barricade before the driver accelerated in an area packed with people after a concert. He said hearing the sounds of people screaming and bodies hitting the vehicle will never leave his mind.

“He slammed on the gas, barreled through the crowd,” Pangilinan said. “It looked like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins and all the pins are flying into the air.”

Investigators were collecting evidence at the scene Monday and had executed a search warrant at a Vancouver property, police spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said. Investigators were also going through bystander video from the scene.

“Nobody anticipated that this would happen,” said Addison, adding that the unpredictability of this kind of behavior makes it difficult to police against. Officials will review the situation and it may change how they approach events like this.

“This was intended to be a safe, fun family-friendly community block party for people to celebrate their community and culture,” Addison said. “The actions of one person stole that away from them.”

Suspect detained by bystanders

Rai said the suspect was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.

Video circulating on social media showed a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.

“I’m sorry,” the man said, holding his hand to his head. Rai declined to comment on the video.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Sunday, a day before a national election. He canceled his first campaign event and two major rallies on the final day of the campaign before the country votes on Monday.

“Last night families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, father, son or a daughter. Those families are living every family’s nightmare,” Carney said. He joined British Columbia Premier David Eby and community leaders Sunday evening in Vancouver.

Carney posted a photo of himself on X lighting a candle at a makeshift memorial near the scene of the attack.

The assault was reminiscent of an attack in 2018, when a man used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto.

Witnesses describe leaping out of the way

Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said her daughter made a narrow escape.

“The car hit her arm, and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,” said Nulada, who described children screaming and victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.

“I saw people running, and my daughter was shaking,” Nulada said.

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Nulada was at Vancouver General Hospital on Sunday morning, trying to learn about her brother, who was run down in the attack and suffered multiple broken bones.

Doctors identified him by presenting the family with his wedding ring in a pill bottle and said that he was stable but would need surgery.

James Cruzat, a Vancouver business owner, was at the celebration and heard a car rev its engine and then “a loud noise, like a loud bang” that he initially thought might be a gunshot.

“We saw people on the road crying. Others were like running, shouting or even screaming, asking for help,” Cruzat said.

Vincent Reynon, 17, was leaving the festival when he saw police rushing in. People were crying, and he saw scattered bodies. “It was like something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare,” he said.

Adonis Quita said when he saw the SUV ramming through the crowd, his first reaction was to drag his 9-year-old son out of the area. The boy kept saying “I’m scared, I’m scared,” Quita recalled. Later they prayed together.

His son just relocated to Vancouver from the Philippines with his mother to reunite with Quita, who has lived here since 2024. Quita said he worries the child will struggle to adjust to life in Canada after witnessing the horrific event.

Filipino community was honoring a national hero

Vancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of the city’s total population, according to Statistics Canada, the agency that conducts the national census.

Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century. The organizers of the Vancouver event, which was in its second year, said he “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonization.”

Eby said the province will not let the tragedy define the celebration. He urged people to channel their rage into helping those affected.

“I don’t think there is a British Columbian that hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community,” he said. “You can’t go to a place that delivers and not meet a member of that community in the long-term care home or hospitals, childcare or schools. This is a community that gives and gives and yesterday was a celebration of their culture.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a statement saying that the Philippine Consulate in Vancouver would work with Canadian authorities to ensure the attack is thoroughly investigated, and that the victims and their families are supported.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes and Lindsey Wasson in Vancouver; Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.