Burning trash and wood to generate electricity will now be considered a carbon-free source under Minnesota’s landmark clean energy law, after a decision by state utility regulators following a contentious hearing on Thursday.

The law that passed in 2023 requires 100% of electricity produced in Minnesota to be generated from carbon-free sources by 2040. The goal was to significantly cut the amount of greenhouse gases the state emits, which contribute to global climate change.

But the law didn’t specify which power sources would qualify. Instead, the legislation defined “carbon-free” as “a technology that generates electricity without emitting carbon dioxide.” Lawmakers left it up to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to determine what meets that definition. The commission has held a series of proceedings in the years since the law passed to hash out how to implement the new law.

Technologies like wind and solar are straightforward — they produce electricity without generating any greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s proved controversial is deciding how to treat power plants that burn municipal waste or wood waste, which generate significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

But those materials can also contribute to climate change even if they aren’t burned to create electricity. For example, wood scraps left to decompose release carbon dioxide. Trash in a landfill releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. That’s why some argue that burning wood and trash for power is still environmentally beneficial.

PUC decision

In a raucous meeting Thursday that was twice interrupted by protesters, the five members of the state PUC ruled that facilities that burn municipal waste or biomass to generate electricity can still be considered carbon-free, even if they emit large amounts of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions.

They can do that if they pass a life-cycle analysis that proves that burning trash or biomass in that facility generates fewer greenhouse gases than what would most likely occur if the wood or waste were disposed of in another manner.

Commissioner Audrey Partridge described a hypothetical example of a Minnesota county that collected wood waste from forests damaged by storms and insects. The county recycled 10% of the wood and burned the rest so the pest infestation wouldn’t spread, resulting in the release of 100 tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

A utility wanted to instead burn that wood in a biomass power plant. If a life cycle analysis found that would release fewer than 100 tons of carbon, then that would be considered “carbon-free” under state law.

“If taking this waste and using it to generate electricity provides a climate benefit, then it should qualify,” Partridge said. “I believe that this is the best path for implementing this law and for improving the climate.”

But several environmental groups and attendees in the audience strongly disagreed. The meeting was disrupted twice, with people repeatedly shouting, “This is not the bill the people passed!”

DFL State Sen. John Marty, of Roseville, co-authored the 100% clean energy bill and addressed the PUC during its meeting Thursday. He was one of 42 legislators who wrote a letter to the Commission, urging them to not consider fuels such as biomass and waste incineration to be considered carbon-free under the law.

“I urge you to follow the plain wording of the law and the vision the legislature showed in 2023,” Marty told the commissioners. “It’s not ambiguous.”

“I know you’re looking at the life-cycle analysis,” Marty continued. “But I would suggest that if the Legislature wanted a life-cycle analysis, we could have done so.”

Potential growth of incinerator use

Only about 2% of the electricity generated in Minnesota comes from biomass and trash incineration. But environmental groups worry that this decision will lead to an increased use of incinerators to generate power, increasing the amount of greenhouse gases and particulate matter pollution emitted into the atmosphere.

“It’s possible that some of our biggest coal plants will be converted to partially burn trees, which is terrible for the environment, and it’s just a huge step backwards from the law that was passed in 2023,” said Hudson Kingston, legal director for the environmental group CURE.

Hudson said biomass and waste-to-energy plants should instead be compared against solar and wind projects, which don’t emit any greenhouse gas emissions.

Duluth-based Minnesota Power told the PUC it is considering converting part of the Boswell coal-fired power plant in Cohasset to biomass when that coal facility closes in 2035.

The utility also operates a biomass plant in Duluth that generates about 1 percent of all the electricity it produces. “But it serves an important purpose in terms of reliability and also serves northern Minnesota by providing a safe and sustainable place to dispose of diseased wood and storm debris,” said Minnesota Power spokesperson Amy Rutledge.

The utility said it looks forward to working with state agencies on a life-cycle analysis of the facility.

Future of HERC in Minneapolis

It’s unclear what the decision means for the future of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, or HERC, a controversial waste incinerator in downtown Minneapolis that neighborhood activists have tried to shut down for years.

Commissioners Joe Sullivan and Partridge said the state legislature has already determined that electricity produced at the HERC cannot be considered carbon-free.

But community advocates are concerned that the burning of trash there could still be allowed because the HERC is not specifically mentioned in the PUC’s decision.

“We don’t have any faith,” said Nazir Khan with the Zero Burn Coalition in Minneapolis. “What we would have to see is an explicit removal of HERC. I don’t see it in the decision option as it’s laid out, despite what they said.”

The decision could be the subject of litigation. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which has sued over the issue before, said it’s still regrouping after the PUC decision to determine its next steps.

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TORONTO – When everything is clicking for the Minnesota Wild, this is what it’s supposed to look like. Patient, disciplined, accurate and effective, all coming together to dominate a foe.

Playing with a somewhat patched together lineup in Canada’s largest hockey markets, the Wild took advantage of everything the Toronto Maple Leafs offered, winning their second game on this three-outing road trip 6-3 on Monday.

Marcus Foligno scored three and Vladimir Tarasenko had a pair of goals for Minnesota, which got 27 saves from Filip Gustavsson in the only visit they will make to Toronto this season.

With two assists in the game, Quinn Hughes became the fastest player to reach 20 points in a Wild uniform, doing so in his 18th game.

The Maple Leafs came in on a heater, having gone 9-1-3 in their previous 13 games, but Minnesota cooled things off quickly.

The Wild were outshot early, but they made their first shot on goal count. On the game’s first power play, Ryan Hartman fed a pass to Tarasenko, alone at the side of the Toronto crease, and the Russian veteran snapped in his 10th goal of the season.

When Hartman scored off a faceoff play in the offensive zone, the crowd got mostly quiet, and the Wild looked content to take their 2-0 lead into the first intermission. It was Hartman’s fifth goal in Minnesota’s past seven games.

But a four-minute high-sticking call on Minnesota captain Jared Spurgeon put the Wild penalty killers to the test and opened the door for Toronto to get the audience re-engaged.

The Leafs needed just 18 seconds of man advantage to get on the board, when former Gophers star Matthew Knies passed from below the goal line to John Tavares for a quick shot.

The Leafs killed a Wild power play early in the middle frame, only to have Foligno tip a Brock Faber shot past Toronto goalie Joseph Woll, putting Minnesota back up by a pair. Then Hughes set up Tarasenko for a breakaway goal, and Foligno tipped another Faber shot to effectively put things away.

Gustavsson, playing in his 200th career game, kept things mostly quiet the rest of the way, allowing a third period goal when he was unable to corral a loose puck in the crease with a pileup of bodies making the task more challenging.

Leafs star Auston Matthews got a breakaway goal late in the third to make it interesting, but Foligno completed his first career hat trick into an empty net.

Woll finished with 24 saves for Toronto in the opening 40 minutes. Dennis Hildeby came on for the third period for the Leafs, who make their only visit to St. Paul on March 15. Hildeby finished with nine saves.

The Leafs were playing without standout forward William Nylander, who is third on the team in goals with 17.

By JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not “point your weapons at the people,” online video showed early Monday, the latest disruption to follow nationwide protests in the country.

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The hacking comes as the death toll in a crackdown by authorities that smothered the demonstrations reached at least 4,029 people, activists said. They fear the number will grow far higher as information leaks out of a country still gripped by the government’s decision to shut down the internet. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had his invitation to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, withdrawn over the killings.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between the United States and Iran over the crackdown after President Donald Trump drew two red lines for the Islamic Republic — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations. A U.S. aircraft carrier, which days earlier had been in the South China Sea, passed Singapore overnight to enter the Strait of Malacca — putting it on a route that could bring it to the Middle East.

State TV disrupted

The footage aired Sunday night across multiple channels broadcast by satellite from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster. The video aired two clips of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, then included footage of security forces and others in what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed without offering evidence others had “laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people.”

“This is a message to the army and security forces,” one graphic read. “Don’t point your weapons at the people. Join the nation for the freedom of Iran.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted a statement from the state broadcaster acknowledging that the signal in “some areas of the country was momentarily disrupted by an unknown source.” It did not discuss what had been aired.

A statement from Pahlavi’s office acknowledged the disruption that showed the crown prince. It did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about the hack. How much support Pahlavi has inside of Iran remains an open question, though there have been pro-shah cries at the demonstrations and at night since the crackdown.

Sunday’s hack isn’t the first to see Iranian airwaves disrupted. In 1986, The Washington Post reported that the CIA supplied the prince’s allies “a miniaturized television transmitter for an 11-minute clandestine broadcast” to Iran by Pahlavi that pirated the signal of two stations in the Islamic Republic.

In 2022, multiple channels aired footage showing leaders from the exiled opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and a graphic calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

US aircraft carrier possibly on path to Mideast

As tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington, ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP on Monday showed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, as well as other American military vessels, in the Strait of Malacca after passing Singapore on a route that could take them to the Middle East.

The Lincoln had been in the South China Sea with its strike group as a deterrent to China over tensions with Taiwan. Tracking data showed that the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., the USS Michael Murphy and the USS Spruance, all Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, were traveling with the Lincoln through the strait.

Multiple U.S. media reports quoting anonymous officials have said the Lincoln, which has its homeport in San Diego, was on its way to the Mideast. It likely would still need several days of travel before its aircraft would be in range of the region. The Mideast has been without an aircraft carrier group or an amphibious ready group, likely complicating any discussion of a military operation targeting Iran given Gulf Arab states’ broad opposition to such an attack.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum withdrew its invitation for Araghchi to speak at Davos.

“Although he was invited last fall, the tragic loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks means that it is not right for the Iranian government to be represented at Davos this year,” the forum said.

Iran’s ambassador to Switzerland, Mahmoud Barimani, called the decision an “unreasonable act which was no doubt under the pressure and influence of anti-Iranian currents and radical American-Zionists.”

The Munich Security Conference separately withdrew invitation for Iranian government officials over the crackdown.

Death toll from crackdown rises

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll Tuesday to at least 4,029, warning it likely would go higher.

It said of the dead, 3,786 were demonstrators, 180 were security forces, 28 were children and 35 were people not demonstrating.

The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The AP has been unable to independently confirm the toll.

Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, although on Saturday, Khamenei said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States for the deaths. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began Dec. 28 over Iran’s ailing economy.

The agency also reported over 26,000 people had been arrested. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners.

“While the killers and seditious terrorists will be punished, Islamic mercy and leniency will be applied to those who were deceived and did not have (effective) roles in the terrorist event,” a statement Monday from Iran’s president, its judiciary chief and parliament speaker said.

Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.

By HUIZHONG WU

BANGKOK (AP) — How do you persuade a population to have more babies after generations of limiting families to just one?

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A decade after ending China’s longtime one-child policy, the country’s authorities are pushing a range of ideas and policies to try to encourage more births — tactics that range from cash subsidies to taxing condoms to eliminating a tax on matchmakers and day care centers.

The efforts haven’t paid off yet. At least, that’s what population figures released Monday show for what is now the world’s second-most populous nation. China’s population of 1.4 billion continued to shrink, marking the fourth straight year of decrease, new government statistics show. The total population in 2025 stood at 1.404 billion, which was 3 million less than the previous year.

Measured another way, the birth rate in 2025 — 5.63 per 1,000 people — is the lowest on record since 1949, the year that Mao Zedong’s Communists overthrew the Nationalists and began running China. Figures before that, under the previous Nationalist government, were not available.

China was long the world’s most populous nation until 2023, when it was surpassed by regional neighbor and sometime rival India. Monday’s statistics illustrate the stark demographic pressures faced by the country as it tries to pivot from a problem it is working hard to overcome: status as a nation with a growing but transitional economy that, as is often said, is “getting old before it gets rich.”

Is a snake involved?

The number of new babies born was just 7.92 million in 2025, a decline of 1.62 million, or 17%, from the previous year. The latest birth numbers show that the slight tick upward in 2024 was not a lasting trend. Births declined for seven years in a row through 2023.

People catch a sight of the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion with lantern decorations at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Most families cite the costs and pressure of raising a child in a highly competitive society as significant hurdles that now loom larger in the face of an economic downturn that has impacted households struggling to meet their living costs.

Across the region, “it’s these big structural issues which are much harder to tackle, whether it’s housing, and work and getting a job and getting started in life and expectations around education…,” said Stuart Gietel-Basten, director of the Center for Aging Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “It’s gonna be difficult to make a major change in those number of births until those are addressed.”

Another potential factor in the numbers, at least for 2025: Last year in China was the year of the snake, considered one of the least favored years for having a child under the Chinese zodiac. The government’s official Xinhua News Agency, however, did say early last year — perhaps optimistically — that the snake “is shaking off its negative connotations.”

Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China’s population.

For decades, the Chinese government barred people from having more than one baby and often sanctioned those who did — a policy that produced more than two generations of only children. In 2015, the government raised the permitted amount of offspring to two and then, facing demographic pressure, further revised the limit to three in 2021.

Economics are behind the decision

The push for more births is about the economy. China now has 323 million people over 60, or 23% of the entire population. That number has continued to rise, while the working-age population is shrinking, meaning there are fewer workers to support the older population.

A visitor uses a smartphone to film the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

This demographic shift is happening while China is in the process of trying to transition away from labor-intensive industries like farming and manufacturing into a consumer-driven economy built with high-tech manufacturing.

While China’s rapid development in manufacturing with high-tech and robotics can reduce the impact of a shrinking labor force, “the bigger concern is whether economic growth can stay afloat with a shrinking population,” said Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis.

China reported a 5% annual economic growth for 2025 on Monday, based on official data. But some analysts expect growth to slow over the next few years.

To cope with these massive changes, China will eventually need to reform its pension system, Ng said, as well as broaden the tax base to cope with the higher government expenditure.

People catch a sight of the snow-covered Forbidden City from a pavilion with lantern decorations at the Jingshan Park a day after the snow fall, in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Officials have had limited success with policy changes to incentivize families to have more children. In July, the government announced cash subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500) per child to families.

Coupling incentives with other attempts to mold behavior, the government also has started taxing condoms. China removed contraceptives, including condoms, from a value-added tax exemption list in 2025, meaning condoms are now being hit with a 13% tax that kicked into effect Jan. 1.

To further promote child-rearing, kindergartens and daycares have been added to the tax-exemption list, along with matchmaking services.

Researchers like Gietel-Basten say that young women want policies, especially in the workplace, that ensure they are not penalized for taking time off to have children, and that this is up to private companies to change. “It shouldn’t be this massive penalty,” he said.

Shihuan Chen in Beijing, Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong and Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.