By LUENA RODRIGUEZ-FEO VILEIRA

Muslims will soon welcome a new year in the Islamic lunar calendar, known as the Hijri calendar.

The Hijri New Year, beginning on the first day of the month of Muharram, signals a chance for spiritual reflection and religious resolutions, set in the month following the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Here’s what to know about the holiday and how Muslims observe it:

The Hijri New Year will begin around Thursday

This Hijri New Year is expected to fall on or around June 26, ushering in the year 1447 A.H. (which stands for “anno hegirae” or “the year of the Hijrah” in Latin).

The exact date can vary depending on when regional Islamic authorities see the crescent moon.

Because the Hijri calendar is lunar, the dates of Islamic months and holidays — such as Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr — change annually. The new year corresponds with the first sighting of the crescent moon during Muharram, the first of 12 months in the Hijri calendar.

The calendar began in year 622

The Hijri calendar begins counting from 622 C.E., the year the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, fleeing persecution.

This journey, known as the Hijrah or migration in Arabic, led to the religious, social and political consolidation of the then-nascent Muslim community.

FILE – Sufi Muslims perform Zikr, or remembrance of God, as they sing Islamic songs during a parade to commemorate the beginning of the Islamic new year, 1446 Hijri, in Cairo, Egypt, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

The day is more solemn than festive

Muharram is one of four sacred months during which Islam forbids warfare, a condition that encourages increased prayer, charity and reflection throughout the month. More than 20 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Syria, have designated the Hijri New Year a national holiday.

While the passage of the Islamic New Year is generally more solemn and introspective than festive, Muslims may observe the holiday differently, according to their school of thought.

For Shiite Muslims especially, the first 10 days of Muharram mark a significant period of mourning: On the 10th of Muharram in 680 C.E., the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein was killed in battle.

Ten days into the new year on Ashoura, waves of Shiite mourners walk the streets dressed in black, beating their chests or self-flagellating in public grief.

Sunni Muslims commemorate Ashoura through voluntary fasting, as the day for them marks Moses’ parting of the Red Sea.

The wars in Iran and Gaza will impact observations of the new year

Mass demonstrations of mourning on Ashoura are known to unfold in Tehran and other cities in the Shiite-majority Iran.

But more than a week into a campaign of strikes by Israel, the streets of Tehran have been largely deserted, businesses are closed, and with no bomb shelters open, many shelter on the floor of metro stations. Thousands have fled the city.

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Israel launched a major attack on Iran on June 13, striking the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure in Tehran and triggering a war between the two longtime foes.

Ashoura demonstrations in Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq have also been a site of tributes to Palestinians.

This Hijri New Year is the second to pass since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023. Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 55,000 Palestinians in the predominantly Muslim area, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said most of the dead are women and children.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By GEOFF MULVIHILL

The number of abortions in the U.S. rose again in 2024, with women continuing to find ways to get them despite bans and restrictions in many states, according to a report out Monday.

The latest report from the WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, was released a day before the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended nearly 50 years of legal abortion nationally for most of pregnancy.

Currently, 12 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women realize they are pregnant.

While the total number of abortions has risen gradually over those three years, the number has dropped to near zero in some states while abortions using pills obtained through telehealth appointments has become a more common method in nearly all states.

Pills are used in the majority of abortions and are also prescribed in person.

The overall number of abortions has risen, but it is below historic highs

The latest survey, released Monday, tallied about 1.1 million abortions nationally last year, or about 95,000 a month. That is up from about 88,000 monthly in 2023 and 80,000 a month between April and December of 2022. WeCount began after Roe was overturned, and the 2022 numbers don’t include January through March, when abortions are traditionally at their highest.

The number is still well below the historic peak in the U.S. of nearly 1.6 million a year in the late 1990s.

The Society of Family Planning relies primarily on surveys of abortion providers and uses estimates.

Pills prescribed by telehealth now account for one-fourth of US abortions

WeCount found that in the months before the Dobbs ruling was handed down, about 1 in 20 abortions was accessed by telehealth.

But the last three months of 2024, it was up to 1 in 4.

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The biggest jump over that time came in the middle of 2023, when laws in some Democratic-controlled states took effect with provisions intended to protect medical professionals who use telehealth to prescribe pills to patients in states where abortion is banned or where there are laws restricting telehealth abortion.

WeCount found that about half telehealth abortions last year were facilitated by the shield laws. The number of telehealth abortions also grew for those in states without bans.

WeCount is the only nationwide public source of information about the pills prescribed to women in states with bans. One key caveat is that it is not clear how many of the prescriptions result in abortion. Some women may change their minds, access in-person abortion — or could be seeking pills to save for future use.

The WeCount data could help explain data from a separate survey from the Guttmacher Institute, which found the number of people crossing states lines for abortion declined last year.

Anti-abortion efforts are focused on pills

Anti-abortion efforts are zeroing in on pills.

Three states have sued to try to get courts to limit telehealth prescriptions of mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used in combination for medication abortions. President Donald Trump’s administration last month told a judge that it does not believe the states have legal standing to make that case.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year found that anti-abortion doctors and their organizations didn’t have standing, either.

Meanwhile, officials in Louisiana are using criminal laws, and there is an effort in Texas to use civil penalties against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to women in their states. Louisiana lawmakers have also sent the governor a bill to further restrict access to the pills.

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO

CHICAGO (AP) — Many of the protesters who flooded the streets of Los Angeles to oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown wore masks or other face coverings, drawing scorn from him.

“MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests,” Trump posted on his social media platform, adding that mask-wearing protesters should be arrested.

Protesters and their supporters argue Trump’s comments and repeated calls by the Republican president’s allies to ban masks at protests are an attempt to stifle popular dissent. They also note a double standard at play: In Los Angeles and elsewhere, protesters were at times confronted by officers who had their faces covered. And some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have worn masks while carrying out high-profile raids in Los Angeles and other cities.

All of which begs the question: Can something that covers your mouth protect free speech? Protesters say the answer is an emphatic yes. Several legal experts say it’s only a matter of time before the issue returns to the courts.

‘What do these people have to hide, and why?’

Trump’s post calling for a ban on masks came after immigration raids sparked protests, which included some reports of vandalism and violence toward police.

“What do these people have to hide, and why?” he asked on Truth Social on June 8.

The next day, Trump raged against the anti-ICE protests, calling for the arrest of people in face masks.

It’s not a new idea. Legal experts and First Amendment advocates warn of a rising number of laws banning masks being wielded against protesters and their impacts on people’s right to protest and privacy amid mounting surveillance.

The legal question became even more complicated when Democratic lawmakers in California introduced legislation aiming to stop federal agents and local police officers from wearing face masks. That came amid concerns ICE agents were attempting to hide their identities and avoid accountability for potential misconduct.

“The recent federal operations in California have created an environment of profound terror,” state Sen. Scott Wiener said in a press release.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the California bill “despicable.”

“While ICE officers are being assaulted by rioters and having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at them, a sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

State restrictions on mask-wearing

At least 18 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that restrict masks and other face coverings, said Elly Page, senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. Since October 2023, at least 16 bills have been introduced in eight states and Congress to restrict masks at protests, the center says.

The laws aren’t just remnants of the coronavirus pandemic. Many date back to the 1940s and ’50s, when many states passed anti-mask laws as a response to the Ku Klux Klan, whose members hid their identities while terrorizing victims. Amid protests against the war in Gaza and Trump’s immigration policies, Page said there have been attempts to revive these rarely used laws to target protesters.

Page also raised concerns about the laws being enforced inconsistently and only against movements the federal government doesn’t like.

In May, North Carolina Senate Republicans passed a plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza where some protesters wore masks. The suburban New York county of Nassau passed legislation in August to ban wearing masks in public.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, last month sent a letter to the state’s public universities stating protesters could be charged with a felony under the state’s anti-mask law. Administrators at the University of North Carolina have warned protesters that wearing masks violates the state’s anti-mask law, and University of Florida students arrested during a protest were charged with wearing masks in public.

An unresolved First Amendment question

People may want to cover their faces while protesting for a variety of reasons, including to protect their health, for religious reasons, to avoid government retaliation, to prevent surveillance and doxing, or to protect themselves from tear gas, said Tim Zick, law professor at William and Mary Law School.

“Protecting protesters’ ability to wear masks is part of protecting our First Amendment right to peacefully protest,” Zick said.

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Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, said the federal government and Republican state lawmakers assert that the laws are intended not to restrict speech but to “restrict unlawful conduct that people would be more likely to engage in if they can wear masks and that would make it more difficult for law enforcement to investigate if people are wearing masks.”

Conversely, he said, First Amendment advocates oppose such laws because they deter people from protesting if they fear retaliation.

Stone said the issue is an “unresolved First Amendment question” that has yet to be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court “has made clear that there is a right to anonymity protected by the First Amendment.” Few of these laws have been challenged in court, Stone said. And lower-court decisions on mask bans are mixed, though several courts have struck down broader anti-mask laws for criminalizing peaceful expression.

Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the right to speak anonymously has “deep roots in the nation’s founding, including when anonymous pamphlets criticizing British rule circulated in the colonies.”

Federal agents wearing masks

“The right to speak anonymously allows Americans to express dissenting or unpopular opinions without exposing themselves to retaliation or harassment from the government,” Terr said.

First Amendment advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers have called the masks an attempt by ICE agents to escape accountability and intimidate immigrants. During a June 12 congressional hearing, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, criticized ICE agents wearing masks during raids, saying: “Don’t wear masks. Identify who you are.”

Viral videos appeared to show residents of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts confronting federal agents, asking them to identify themselves and explain why they were wearing masks. U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, a Democrat who represents Cape Cod, decried “the decision to use unmarked vehicles, plain clothed officers and masks” in a June 2 letter to federal officials.

Republican federal officials, meanwhile, have maintained that masks protect agents from doxing.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” ICE acting Director Todd Lyons said.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump wants on his desk by July 4 would loosen regulations on gun silencers and certain types of rifles and shotguns, advancing a longtime priority of the gun industry as Republican leaders in the House and Senate try to win enough votes to pass the bill.

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The guns provision was first requested in the House by Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican gun store owner who had initially opposed the larger tax package. The House bill would remove silencers — called “suppressors” by the gun industry — from a 1930s law that regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, eliminating a $200 tax while removing a layer of background checks.

The Senate kept the provision on silencers in its version of the bill and expanded upon it, adding short-barreled, or sawed-off, rifles and shotguns.

Republicans who have long supported the changes, along with the gun industry, say the tax infringes on Second Amendment rights. They say silencers are mostly used by hunters and target shooters for sport.

“Burdensome regulations and unconstitutional taxes shouldn’t stand in the way of protecting American gun owners’ hearing,” said Clyde, who owns two gun stores in Georgia and often wears a pin shaped like an assault rifle on his suit lapel.

Democrats are fighting to stop the provision, which was unveiled days after two Minnesota state legislators were shot in their homes, as the bill speeds through the Senate. They argue that loosening regulations on silencers could make it easier for criminals and active shooters to conceal their weapons.

“Parents don’t want silencers on their streets, police don’t want silencers on their streets,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The gun language has broad support among Republicans and has received little attention as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., work to settle differences within the party on cuts to Medicaid and energy tax credits, among other issues. But it is just one of hundreds of policy and spending items included to entice members to vote for the legislation that could have broad implications if the bill is enacted within weeks, as Trump wants.

Inclusion of the provision is also a sharp turn from the climate in Washington just three years ago when Democrats, like Republicans now, controlled Congress and the White House and pushed through bipartisan gun legislation. The bill increased background checks for some buyers under the age of 21, made it easier to take firearms from potentially dangerous people and sent millions of dollars to mental health services in schools.

Passed in the summer of 2022, just weeks after the shooting of 19 children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas, it was the most significant legislative response to gun violence in decades.

Three years later, as they try to take advantage of their consolidated power in Washington, Republicans are packing as many of their longtime priorities as possible, including the gun legislation, into the massive, wide-ranging bill that Trump has called “beautiful.”

“I’m glad the Senate is joining the House to stand up for the Second Amendment and our Constitution, and I will continue to fight for these priorities as the Senate works to pass President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who was one of the lead negotiators on the bipartisan gun bill in 2022 but is now facing a primary challenge from the right in his bid for reelection next year.

If the gun provisions remain in the larger legislation and it is passed, silencers and the short-barrel rifles and shotguns would lose an extra layer of regulation that they are subject to under the National Firearms Act, passed in the 1930s in response to concerns about mafia violence. They would still be subject to the same regulations that apply to most other guns — and that includes possible loopholes that allow some gun buyers to avoid background checks when guns are sold privately or online.

Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who supports the legislation, says changes are aimed at helping target shooters and hunters protect their hearing. He argues that the use of silencers in violent crimes is rare. “All it’s ever intended to do is to reduce the report of the firearm to hearing safe levels,” Keane says.

Speaking on the floor before the bill passed the House, Rep. Clyde said the bill restores Second Amendment rights from “over 90 years of draconian taxes.” Clyde said Johnson included his legislation in the larger bill “with the purest of motive.”

“Who asked for it? I asked,” said Clyde, who ultimately voted for the bill after the gun silencer provision was added.

Clyde was responding to Rep. Maxwell Frost, a 28-year-old Florida Democrat, who went to the floor and demanded to know who was responsible for the gun provision. Frost, who was a gun-control activist before being elected to Congress, called himself a member of the “mass shooting generation” and said the bill would help “gun manufacturers make more money off the death of children and our people.”

Among other concerns, control advocates say less regulation for silencers could make it harder for law enforcement to stop an active shooter.

“There’s a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Schumer and other Democrats are trying to convince the Senate parliamentarian to drop the language as she reviews the bill for policy provisions that aren’t budget-related.

“Senate Democrats will fight this provision at the parliamentary level and every other level with everything we’ve got,” Schumer said earlier this month.