Well, Michael Boxall, it appears to be happening against your wishes.

The Minnesota United captain is the second-highest vote-getter among center backs for the MLS All-Star Game in Austin, Texas, on July 23. Boxall is behind only Vancouver’s Tristan Blackmon at that position, the league shared Wednesday.

Players often want honors and the praise that comes with them, but that does not include Boxall, despite the fact that the 10-year veteran has never appeared in an MLS All-Star Game.

MNUFC’s get-out-the-vote campaign for Boxall has been in full swing for a week — even if the gruff Kiwi didn’t give it his blessing.

“I want zero extra attention,” Boxall said about the Loons’ social media posts after Minnesota’s scoreless draw with first-place Vancouver last week.

But the Loons’ overall success gives the push for Boxall’s candidacy. MNUFC sits in second place in the Western Conference on the back of its league-leading eight shutouts.

Boxall, who is fourth in MLS in clearances (112), is looking to the fall, not the midsummer showcase in Texas.

“Midseason awards: it’s not why we play this game,” he said. “I think you want to be up for the awards at the end of the season. So we just need to keep pushing and make sure we are improving.”

The Loons’ stout defense has also boosted the chances that goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair makes his second all-star appearance.  After making it in 2022 — when it was held at Allianz Field — St. Clair had a much more expected answer when asked about his chances this season.

“I think I’ve been one of the top goalies so far … this year, and it would be a great achievement not just for myself but for the team,” he said last week. “It’s definitely something that I’d like to be a part of, and I’m showing to definitely be in the conversation and be on that final roster.”

St. Clair comes in second among ‘keepers behind only Orlando’s Pedro Gallese as of Wednesday morning.

No other Loons were among the top five vote-getters at the league’s seven different positions.

A case can be made for forward Tani Oluwaseyi, who ranks Top 10 in MLS with eight goals, and attacking midfielder Joaquin Pereyra, tied for fourth with seven total assists.

Fellow attacking mid Robin Lod was the Loons’ lone all-star last season, but a repeat showing is a long shot. Lod stacked up 22 goal contributions (seven goals and 15 total assists) last season, but has only six (two goals and four total assists) so far this year.

But most important for MNUFC, Lod notched a goal and an assist in the Loons’ best win of the season, 3-2 over Seattle on Sunday.

“I’m sure (Lod) would much rather be kind of replicating how he started last year stats-wise, but we know we’ve got players (for whom) things aren’t going to show up statistically. But we respect the effort,” Boxall said. “For example, Dayne has got a bunch of clean sheets, but Tani — the front guys — are working their (tails) off to help that out.”

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER

NEW YORK (AP) — Miguel Guimaraes Vasquez fought for years to protect his homeland in the Peruvian Amazon from deforestation related to the cocaine trade, even laboring under death threats from drug traffickers.

A leader in an Indigenous rights group, Vasquez said such efforts were long supported by financial assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which spent billions of dollars starting in the 1980s to help farmers in Peru shift from growing coca for cocaine production to legal crops such as coffee and cacao for chocolate. The agency funded economic and agricultural training and technology, and helped farmers gain access to international markets.

But the Trump administration’s recent sweeping cuts to the agency have thrown that tradition of U.S. assistance into doubt, and Indigenous people in the Amazon worry that without American support there will be a resurgence of the cocaine market, increased threats to their land and potentially violent challenges to their human rights.

“We don’t have the U.S. government with us anymore. So it can get really dangerous,” said Vásquez, who belongs to the Shipibo-Konibo people and is vice president of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest. “We think the situation is going to get worse.”

Several Indigenous human rights defenders have been killed trying to protect their land, Vasquez said, and in some of those cases U.S. foreign aid provided money to help prosecute the slayings. “We really needed those resources,” he said.

Sweeping cuts began in January

When Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, began dismantling USAID shortly after President Donald Trump began his second term, it all but eliminated U.S. foreign aid spending, including decades of support to Indigenous peoples around the world.

USAID’s work with Indigenous peoples sought to address a variety of global issues affecting the U.S., according to former employees. Its economic development efforts created jobs in South America, easing the need for people to work in illicit drug markets and reducing the likelihood they would migrate to America seeking jobs and safety. And its support for the rights of Indigenous peoples to steward their own land offered opportunities to mitigate climate change.

That included Vásquez’s organization, which was about to receive a four-year, $2.5 million grant to continue fighting illicit activity that affects Indigenous people in the region. Vásquez said that grant was rescinded by the new administration.

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In January, DOGE launched a sweeping effort empowered by Trump to fire government workers and cut trillions in government spending. USAID, which managed about $35 billion in appropriations in fiscal year 2024, was one of his prime targets. Critics say the aid programs are wasteful and promote a liberal agenda. Trump, Musk and Republicans in Congress have accused the agency of advancing liberal social programs.

“Foreign assistance done right can advance our national interests, protect our borders, and strengthen our partnerships with key allies,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in March. “Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high.”

Musk last week announced his departure from the Trump administration, marking the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs and reams of litigation.

Former USAID employees said political pressure from the U.S. often kept foreign governments from violating some Indigenous rights.

In the three months since thousands of foreign aid workers were fired and aid contracts canceled, the Peruvian government has moved quickly to strip Indigenous people of their land rights and to tighten controls on international organizations that document human rights abuses. It’s now a serious offense for a nonprofit to provide assistance to anyone working to bring lawsuits against the government.

The National Commission for Development and a Drug-Free Lifestyle, the country’s agency that fights drug trafficking, did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

“The impact was really, really strong, and we felt it really quickly when the Trump administration changed its stance about USAID,” Vásquez said.

The U.S. spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance. Tim Rieser, a senior foreign policy aide in the Senate who works for Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, called DOGE’s cuts to USAID a “mindless” setback to years of work.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Agency reached Indigenous communities worldwide

USAID’s work reached Indigenous communities around the world. It sought to mitigate the effects of human rights abuses in South America, created programs in Africa to enable Indigenous people to manage their own communities and led the global U.S. effort to fight hunger.

One of the most recent additions to USAID’s work was incorporating international concepts of Indigenous rights into policy.

Rieser, for instance, was responsible for crafting legislation that created an adviser within USAID to protect the rights and address the needs of Indigenous peoples. The adviser advocated for Indigenous rights in foreign assistance programs, including actions by the World Bank.

“That provided Indigenous people everywhere with a way to be heard here in Washington,” Rieser said. “That has now been silenced.”

That adviser position remains unfilled.

In this photo provided by Vy Lam shows Lam, a former adviser on Indigenous peoples at the U.S. Agency for International Development, on the floor of the United Nations during Sec. of the Interior Deb Haaland’s speech at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on April 17, 2023, in New York. (Vy Lam via AP)

Vy Lam, USAID’s adviser on Indigenous peoples, who said he was fired in March as part of the DOGE downsizing, said the idea of Indigenous rights, and the mandate to recognize them in foreign operations, was new to USAID. But it gained momentum under President Joe Biden’s administration.

He said concepts such as “free, prior and informed consent” — the right of Indigenous people to give or withhold approval for any action that would affect their lands or rights — were slowly being implemented in American foreign policy.

One of the ways that happened, Lam said, came in the form of U.S. political pressure on foreign governments or private industry to negotiate mutually beneficial agreements between Indigenous peoples and their governments.

For instance, if an American company wanted to build a hotel in an area that could affect an Indigenous community, the U.S. could push for the deal to require Indigenous approval, or at least consultation.

“We had that convening power, and that is the thing that I grieve the most,” Lam said.

U.S. foreign aid workers were also able to facilitate the reporting of some human rights violations, such as when a human rights or environmental defender is jailed without charges, or Indigenous peoples are forced off their land for the establishment of a protected area.

Money supported attendance at international meetings

In some cases, USAID supported travel to the United Nations, where Indigenous leaders and advocates could receive training to navigate international bodies and document abuses.

Last year, under the Biden administration, USAID awarded a five-year grant to support Indigenous LGBTQIA people through the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous People, an agency that offers financial support to Indigenous peoples to participate in the U.N.

At $350,000 per year, it was the largest grant from any member state in the U.N., fund Secretary Morse Flores said. The money would have paid for attendance at the U.N. and other international bodies to report human rights abuses and to testify on foreign policy.

In February, the fund received notice that the grant would be terminated. The State Department does not plan to fulfill its pledge to fund the remaining four years of the grant.

In most cases, people receiving assistance to attend major meetings “are actual victims of human rights violations,” Flores said. “For someone who’s unable to come and speak up, I mean, it’s really just an injustice.”

This story was published in partnership with Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

When it comes to labor rules and protections, the state’s latest $254 billion budget is a mixed bag for blue-collar New Yorkers, advocates said.

The latest state budget includes changes to pay frequency rules for manual workers, as well as wage theft enforcement. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office)

The $254 billion New York State budget passed last month included several measures to address the state’s poverty and affordability crises—like increased tax credits for families and the creation of the first statewide housing voucher program for the homeless.

However, when it comes to labor rules and protections, the budget is a mixed bag for blue-collar New Yorkers, advocates said.

One thing many New Yorkers agree on, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and worker advocates, is the need to address the high costs of living. During her State of the State speech in January, Hochul said that New York’s future depends on “the ability of every family to afford the essentials of life.”  

“When we raised the minimum wage and tied it to inflation,” Hochul added, “it was because I believe that when costs go up, your wages should too.”

However, advocates argue that raising wages is pointless if strong protections aren’t in place to ensure workers receive their wages on time, and without having to fight for them through the lengthy wage theft claims process.

Here’s a look at what the budget included around labor and wages. 

Pay frequency for manual workers

The budget included changes to Section 191 of the New York Labor Law, which regulates workers’ payment frequency. Manual workers (someone who spends more than 25 percent of their work time each week doing physical labor) have to get paid weekly, and no later than seven days after those wages were earned.

In the past, If a payment was late, the employer had to pay damages equal to 100 percent of the wages owed. With the budget change, manual workers won’t be able to receive those damages for the first late payment violation, but only when a violation occurs for a second time.

When asked about the change, the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) referred to the governor’s previous May press release on workforce changes in the budget.

“Many small businesses are unaware of the weekly requirement for classes of manual workers or that a certain classification of work is deemed manual work, pay the workers in-full and semi-monthly, and then are sued for large amounts of money despite already paying their employees full wages,” the announcement at the time explained. 

Under the new rules, “once an employer is put on notice that the class of workers are manual, they owe interest for the weeks in which the workers were paid semi-monthly rather than weekly,” the press release added. “If the employer does not pay those manual workers weekly going forward then they may be subject to liquidated damages.”

Labor advocates were upset about the amendment, saying it helped ensure workers get paid on time.“The penalties applied to these violations “[were] an effective deterrent to non-payment/late payment,” said Natalia Aristizabal, deputy director of Make the Road New York. 

Advocates also argue that it is often big companies, not the small businesses the governor cites, that frequently violate the law.

“The main beneficiaries are large companies, like large retail and fast-food chains and companies in the building services industry, that have been accused of routinely paying their workers late,” said Richard Blum, a staff attorney in the employment law unit at the Legal Aid Society. 

The change took effect with the budget’s passage last month, and applies retroactively to pending cases.

Wage theft

Each year in New York, more than 2 million workers don’t get their full pay, amounting to a combined $3.2 billion in unpaid wages and benefits, according to advocates.

Gov. Hochul announcing a “multi-pronged effort to combat wage theft” in July 2022. (Don Pollard / Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

In New York, wage theft can mean different things: failure to pay the minimum wage, overtime, or tips, or not giving an employee their required meal and rest breaks. Both the state and federal labor departments enforce wage standards. In New York City, the greatest number of state wage investigations are in the midtown Manhattan area, with hundreds of cases from 2017 to 2025, according to the DOL’s online dashboard.

This year, the budget gives the DOL more power to enforce wage theft laws, including the ability to seize a violator’s financial assets and place liens on property following an unpaid wage theft judgment.

“These strengthened penalties empower the Department [of Labor] to better protect the paychecks of hardworking New Yorkers and safeguard the young, and often most vulnerable, members of our workforce,” a DOL spokesman said via email.

The DOL commissioner can now give a county sheriff a warrant to seize and sell the property of wage theft offenders who owe monetary penalties. The sheriff has to pay any collected funds to the DOL within 60 days. 

“Wage theft is one of the cruelest, most rampant crimes we don’t talk about enough,” said Senator Jessica Ramos, chair of the Labor Committee and a candidate running to be the city’s next mayor, via email. 

“This year’s budget makes some strides toward the accountability we seek for bad employers, but we remain hopeful that our efforts will continue to empower workers to come forward with real tools like liens and stop-work orders, so there are real consequences for stealing a paycheck,” she added.  

While these new powers give the state a little more teeth, advocates argue that they can only be used after a lengthy court process, and only for DOL’s own cases. New York State Attorney General Letitia James and district attorneys also combat wage theft through investigations, settlements, and legal action.  

“The budget tweaks the powers of the Department of Labor to enforce its own orders in wage theft cases only at the end of a years-long process during which wage thieves can already have hidden all their assets,” said Blum.

Blum said that for years, advocates and legislators have been pushing for the approval of the “Empowering People in Rights Enforcement (EMPIRE) Worker Protection Act,” which would allow an affected employee, or an organization that represents them, to start a legal case on behalf of the labor commissioner.

Supporters plan to rally for passage of the proposal in Albany Wednesday. They highlight the difficulty of private enforcement in smaller workplaces and rural communities, and say the DOL lacks the resources needed to effectively investigate and prosecute wage theft on a large scale.

Assemblymember Jo Ann Simon, co-sponsor of the
EMPIRE Act, at a rally for the bill last month. (Photo
shared by Simon’s office)

The changes in the budget don’t go far enough, Blum said.

“Unlike the EMPIRE Worker Protection Act, this tweak does not give the Department the resources it needs to conduct timely investigations,” Blum added via email. “It does not give workers the tools they need to prevent wage thieves from transferring their assets to avoid collection well before the end of a case against them.”

In 2019, state lawmakers passed the “Securing Wages Earned Against Theft” (SWEAT) bill, which would have allowed employees to place a lien on their employer’s property for the value of a wage claim. But former governor and current New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo vetoed it, citing “technical aspects.” 

Child labor

New York’s child labor laws mainly regulate the hours and conditions under which young people can work. Youth under 14 can’t work—with some exceptions—and those 14 and older can, but with limits on the number of hours per day and week, especially during school season. 

Teens between 14 and 17 years old also need an employment certificate, or “working papers,” issued by school districts. 

Currently, neither the State Education Department, New York City Department of Education, nor the NYS Department of Labor have data on the number of working papers issued. The state DOL plans to offer digital working papers in the future, and expects to maintain a database of those by May 2027.

According to the DOL’s Child Labor Case Data, the number of child labor cases in New York has increased since 2022, coinciding with a nationwide rise.

“In the past 10 years, the U.S. Department of Labor has seen a 316 percent increase in the number of children employed in violation of child labor laws across the country,” explains the governor’s press release.

In her executive budget released in January, Hochul said the state wanted to “align child labor law penalties with severity of violation,” advancing legislation to raise the maximum civil penalties.

“The union movement has always prioritized protecting our youth and ensuring their safety in the workplace. That is why we strongly supported increasing penalties for employers who violate child labor laws,” said Mario Cilento, New York State AFL-CIO president.

The final budget increased civil violations from a prior maximum of $1,000 for first-time offenders to up to $10,000; from $2,000 to at least $10,000 (but no more than $25,000) for second violations; and from $3,000 to at least $10,000 (but no more than $55,000) for third violations.

“By increasing penalties, New York is taking a critical step toward ensuring that employers who violate the law are held accountable and that illegally employing minors isn’t just the cost of doing business,” said Nina Mast, a policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.

While the increases seem high, lawyers find some problems in the language included in the budget for the penalty assessment, as it asks the DOL commissioner to give consideration to “the good faith of the employer to believe that its conduct was in compliance with the law,” among other factors.

“It is almost certain that the Department of Labor will have to litigate over and over the meaning of the phrase ‘good faith belief,’” Blum said. “The phrase is an invitation to employers to exploit child labor and then litigate this vague defense if they are caught.”

The budget also raises the fines for injury or death of a minor worker.   

Now, for a first-time violation, the minimum fine is $3,000, but can go up to $30,000. For a second violation, it’ll start at $6,000 and can go up to $75,000. And for a third violation, the fine will range from $30,000 to $175,000.
“The updates New York is making to state child labor standards are particularly essential amid rising violations in New York and across the country, continued attempts to weaken existing standards in many states, and the risk of diminished federal wage and hour enforcement,” Mast said.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. The reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The post 3 Changes to New York Labor Laws Included in the Latest State Budget appeared first on City Limits.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ford is recalling nearly half a million older Explorer models because part of the door trim can detach while driving and cause a dangerous road hazard, U.S. auto safety regulators said Wednesday.

A notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the recall covers 492,145 Ford Explorers, model years 2016-2017. The vehicles were produced between June 11, 2015 and April 19, 2017.

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Ford Motor Co. first recognized the problem as far back as 2019, but did not consider it an “unreasonable risk to safety,” the NHTSA report said. In March of this year, the NHTSA shared with Ford dozens of vehicle owner reports of the problem, leading Ford to further investigate it, eventually leading to the recall.

Ford concluded that lack of proper adhesion was causing the trim to loosen, adding that it is unaware of accidents or injuries related to the defect.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker expects to start sending notification letters to owners on June 9.

When a remedy to fix the faulty part has been determined, owners will be notified by mail and instructed to take their vehicles into a Ford or Lincoln dealership to have the trim fixed at no cost.

The NHTSA recall number is 25V347. The manufacturer’s recall number is 25S53.