By DAVID A. LIEB

In a victory for global agrochemical maker Bayer, Georgia has become the second state to shield pesticide manufacturers from some lawsuits claiming that they failed to warn customers of potential dangers.

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The legislation signed Friday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is designed to protect Bayer from lawsuits claiming that it failed to tell customers that its popular weed killer Roundup could cause cancer. It’s written broadly enough to provide legal protection in Georgia to any pesticide manufacturer that follows federal labeling requirements.

North Dakota’s governor signed the first such law last month, and similar measures have been considered this year in at least nine other states.

Bayer, based in Germany, acquired Roundup with the 2018 purchase of St. Louis-based Monsanto. But it quickly was hit with an onslaught of lawsuits alleging that Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. More than 67,000 of a total 181,000 claims involving Roundup remain outstanding, but a Bayer spokesperson said Monday that he didn’t have specifics about how many of those are in Georgia.

Though some studies associate glyphosate with cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.

Bayer insists glyphosate is safe. But it has stopped using the ingredient in its residential version of Roundup and has set aside $16 billion to settle cases. It continues to use glyphosate in its agricultural version of Roundup but has warned that it might have to stop doing so if the legal costs keep mounting.

The new Georgia law is to take effect Jan. 1. That means it won’t effect existing cases, such as a March decision by a Georgia jury to award nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who alleged Roundup caused his cancer.

Bayer has teamed up with a coalition of agricultural industry groups to mount a multiprong campaign. In addition to pursuing legislation in states and Congress, it also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and has run ads on billboards, newspapers, TV and radio stations and internet sites touting the importance of glyphosate in agriculture.

Glyphosate has for decades been used an efficient way to control weeds with less tilling, which helps prevent soil erosion. For some crops, such as corn, soybeans and cotton, Roundup is designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist glyphosate’s deadly effect.

Without glyphosate, weeds could become harder to control, crop yields could decline and groceries could become more costly, Bayer said.

The new law “demonstrates that Georgia stands with its farmers, who work tirelessly to produce safe and affordable food,” said Brian Naber, president of Bayer’s crop sciences in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

By JON GAMBRELL and TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — On his trip this week to the Middle East, U.S. President Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, though his most pressing regional challenges concern two other countries: Israel and Iran.

After ending a ceasefire two months ago, Israel is intensifying the war in the Gaza Strip, where a blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is worsening a humanitarian crisis. And Iran, an enemy of Israel and a rival of Saudi Arabia, stands on the cusp of being able to develop nuclear weapons.

Yet Trump will focus his attention on three energy-rich nations home to existing or planned Trump-branded real estate projects — places where he aims to leverage American economic interests to do what he personally revels in: making business deals.

“This is his happy place,” said Jon B. Alterman, a senior vice president at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “His hosts will be generous and hospitable. They’ll be keen to make deals. They’ll flatter him and not criticize him. And they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners.”

Trump said Sunday he was ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar, prompting criticism from some Democrats and allies of the president.

Trump won’t be able to avoid diplomacy on Gaza or Iran: The Gulf countries hosting him are also interested in easing the regional tensions that emanate from these two places.

“Trump can easily score a win by reassuring them of America’s strategic commitment to the region, demonstrating consistent messaging and generally rising above the fray,” analysts Elizabeth Dent and Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote Friday.

Trump doesn’t plan to visit Israel

By not scheduling a trip to Israel during his first trip to the region during his second term as president, Trump is reinforcing a feeling in Israel that its interests may not be top of mind for him.

That sense intensified last week, when Trump announced that the U.S. would halt its strikes on the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen that agreed to stop its attacks on American vessels in the Red Sea.

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The Houthis’ attacks on Israel did not appear to be covered by that deal, which came as a surprise to Israel, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue. Days after the deal between the U.S. and the Houthis — and despite a two-day Israeli assault on Houthi targets — a missile from Yemen again set off air raid sirens in Israel. Then Israel’s military warned Sunday that Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen could be targeted again.

Trump’s move to launch negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program also jarred Israel, which fears a deal that would not be strict enough to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or rein in its support for regional militant groups.

Israel had hoped that Trump might provide military assistance in any strike it carried out on the country’s nuclear facilities — an action that is unrealistic so long as there are negotiations, or if they reach a deal.

That has raised questions in Israel over Trump’s reliability on other major issues, like a long-sought normalization deal with Saudi Arabia as part of any defense pact the administration may reach with the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has said it would only normalize ties with Israel in exchange for significant concessions for the Palestinians toward statehood, something the current Israeli government is unlikely to agree to.

Israel has said it will hold off on expanding the war in Gaza until after Trump’s visit, leaving the window open for a new ceasefire deal to materialize. Hamas and Trump announced that the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, will be freed as part of efforts to establish a ceasefire, though it is not clear what involvement Israel had in that deal.

Still, Trump has given Israel free rein in Gaza and, like Israel, blames Hamas for any civilian casualties.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee played down any significance to Trump’s decision not to visit the country, saying in interviews with Israeli media that his visit to the region was focused on economic issues.

No major breakthrough in Iran nuclear talks

For Iran, much depends on the talks it is having with the U.S. over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. A reported two-month deadline to reach a deal likely has passed as U.S. officials signal America may push for Iran to give up enrichment entirely — something Tehran has insisted is a red line.

Although four rounds of talks mediated by Oman have not led to a major breakthrough, they have gone into the so-called “expert level” — meaning specifics about any possible accord likely have been discussed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled over the weekend to both Saudi Arabia and Qatar ahead of Trump’s trip. Iran likely is trying to pass messages to the U.S. while signaling its interest in continuing the talks. Iranian officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon, while Trump and Israel have both threatened to strike Iranian nuclear sites if a deal isn’t reached.

The Islamic Republic is running out of options. Its economy has cratered since Trump in 2018 unilaterally pulled America out of their initial nuclear deal with world powers. And Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” — a group of aligned nations and militant groups, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — has been mauled since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Iran also faces internal political pressure, including from women increasingly refusing to wear the state-mandated headscarf, or hijab.

There is one thing that unites most Iranians, however — pride over the Persian Gulf. Trump’s consideration of having America uniformly call the body of water the “Arabian Gulf” instead drew fierce criticism from across the country.

“This gulf has always been the Persian Gulf — and it will forever remain the Persian Gulf,” Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said.

Trump’s 2017 trip still haunts the Gulf

After starting his trip in Saudi Arabia, Trump will then go to Qatar, which recently announced plans for a Trump-branded development there.

FILE – Journalists chat as video of a plane is shown on a screen while landing at at Al Ula airport in Saudi Arabia, Jan. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, file)

This tight embrace of the president comes after his first trip to the Middle East — in 2017 — apparently sparked what became known as the Qatar crisis. That is when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE boycotted Qatar over its support of Islamists in the region and its ties to Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field.

The dispute grew so serious that Kuwait’s ruling emir at the time, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, suggested on a visit to the White House there could have been “military action.”

Trump initially criticized Qatar as having “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level” at the start of the boycott. Less than a year later, he praised Qatar and rolled that back. The four nations ended their boycott just before Biden took office.

Any plane gifted to the U.S. by Qatar could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft, U.S. officials said — which would amount to the president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government. “This was just a gesture of good faith” from Qatar, which knew that Boing had encountered delays building the next generation of the Air Force One aircraft, Trump said Monday at the White House.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. AP reporter Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.

Firefighters who responded to a blaze in Inver Grove Heights pulled a person from an apartment, but he died at the hospital.

The Inver Grove Heights and South Metro fire departments were called to the fire off Babcock Trail just after noon Sunday. Inside the apartment, crews found “zero visibility” and located the victim during a search, according to a news release.

He was treated at the scene and taken by M Health Fairview EMS to a hospital, where he died.

Firefighters contained the fire to the single apartment and no one else was injured.

The fire did not appear to be intentionally set, according to Inver Grove Heights Fire.

The cause is under investigation.

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By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks.

Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.

While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.

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“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.

But Democrats said the cuts are “shameful” and essentially amount to another attempt to repeal Obamacare.

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said “hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

As Republicans race toward House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, they are preparing to flood the zone with round-the-clock public hearings this week on various sections before they are stitched together in what will become a massive package.

The politics ahead are uncertain. More than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the health care safety net programs that residents back home depend on. Trump himself has shied away from a repeat of his first term, vowing there will be no cuts to Medicaid.

All told, 11 committees in the House have been compiling their sections of the package as Republicans seek at least $1.5 trillion in savings to help cover the cost of preserving the 2017 tax breaks, which were approved during Trump’s first term and are expiring at the end of the year.

But the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee has been among the most watched. The committee was instructed to come up with $880 billion in savings and reached that goal, primarily with the health care cuts, but also by rolling back Biden-era green energy programs. The preliminary CBO analysis said the committee’s proposals would reduce the deficit by $912 billion over the decade — with at least $715 billion coming from the health provisions.

Central to the savings are changes to Medicaid, which provides almost free health care to more than 70 million Americans, and the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded in the 15 years since it was first approved to cover millions more.

To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. People would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once.

This is likely to lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to a local benefits office to verify their income in person. But Republicans say it’ll ensure that the program is administered to those who qualify for it.

Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5% boost that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.

There would be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.

The energy portions of the legislation run far fewer pages, but include rollbacks of climate-change strategies President Joe Biden signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act.

It proposes rescinding funds for a range of energy loans and investment programs while providing expedited permitting for natural gas development and oil pipelines.

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.