By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons in recent days, including for the father of a large donor to his super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a woman whose sentence he commuted during his first term but who ended up back in prison for a different scheme.

Related Articles

Trump offers to restart US mediation in Nile River dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia

New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

Trump quietly appoints 4 members to commission that will review his White House ballroom plan

Justice Department says members of Congress can’t intervene in release of Epstein files

Trump administration delays plan to withhold wages for student loan borrowers in default

Trump commuted the sentence of Adriana Camberos just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That followed her being convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the U.S. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.

In 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case, this one involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, prosecutors said.

The Camberoses were among 13 pardons Trump issued Thursday, along with eight commutations. An additional pardon was announced Friday for Terren Peizer, a resident of Puerto Rico and California who headed the Miami-based health care company Ontrak.

Peizer had been convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison, and fined $5.25 million, for engaging in an insider trading scheme to avoid losses exceeding $12.5 million, according to the Justice Department.

The president has issued a number of clemencies during the first year of his second term, many targeted at criminal cases once touted by federal prosecutors. They’ve come amid a continuing Trump administration effort to erode public integrity guardrails — including the firing of the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

Also pardoned this week was former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who had pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing had been set for later this month.

Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars, something Vázquez’s attorneys opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.

They had noted that Vázquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.

Also involved in the case was banker Julio Herrera Velutini, whose daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $2.5 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2024, and gave the group an additional $1 million last summer. The case’s third defendant was former FBI agent Mark Rossini, who was also pardoned by the president.

The recent wave of clemencies joins previous Trump pardons of Democratic former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican ex-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.

Trump also pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after a tax fraud conviction and made headlines for threatening to throw a reporter off a Capitol balcony over a question he didn’t like. Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes, also got Trump pardons.

The president also pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in a bribery and conspiracy case. He later expressed regret and frustration for having done so, however, when Cuellar announced he was seeking reelection without switching parties to become a Republican.

After wrapping up a successful first full year of owning the St. Paul neighborhood bar formerly known as Keenan’s, Ruth Kashmark, her son Gavin and Dan Guerrero decided to take a break and closed the place they now call the 620 Club for the first week of January.

The owners use the bar’s Facebook page to inform followers about food specials, live music and karaoke nights, just the sort of fare one would expect to see from a neighborhood bar that serves a wide variety of patrons. On Jan. 9, they posted an illustration of a megaphone announcing “We’re back” and a note that they were reopening that afternoon at 3 p.m.

Ross Raihala (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

But 90 minutes later, they posted a message expressing condolences for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis two days prior. “We wish the current administration would stop using ‘public safety’ as an excuse to foment chaos and abuse among and toward the people of this nation,” the message read. Fair enough, I thought, and then I saw that the post ended with the note “F— ICE.”

“I typically am very much, like, no politics and no religion at the bar,” said Kashmark, who had worked at Keenan’s for nearly a decade. “I’m not trying to alienate people and I know it’s kind of contradictory to the post that we put up, but I really don’t see this as a political issue. It is a humanity issue. I wasn’t necessarily trying to alienate anybody or be political. I just think that it’s horrific the way that this is being carried out.”

She’s not alone. While Minnesota’s biggest companies — Target, 3M, Best Buy and General Mills among them — have largely remained silent during the record-breaking surge of ICE agents into the state, some small businesses are speaking up in protest.

Such moves come with risk. Hilton removed its name from a Lakeville hotel after the company found it refused to accommodate a man posing as an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Taking a political stance can turn off a potentially wide swath of would-be customers.

Still, some businesses feel they need to speak out. Here are the stories of four of them:

Makwa Coffee

Jamie Becker-Finn, who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2017 to 2025, opened Makwa Coffee in Roseville in 2022. She said she’s been outspoken when it comes to ICE, from hanging “no fascists allowed” signs on her door to posting calls to action on social media.

“We are being really vocal about how important it is that we protect our community,” Becker-Finn said. “I live in this community and I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the vehicles, I’ve seen the officers and I know people who have witnessed abductions within Roseville city limits. I’m experiencing this as a parent and as a person who lives here, just the same as everybody else. It just seemed natural that I would use my platform as a small-business owner to share that with others.”

The gimiwan latte contains ube and non-alcoholic amaretto, as shown on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, at Makwa Coffee in Roseville. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

That’s been Becker-Finn’s approach since she opened her coffee shop, even though it’s meant enduring some nasty comments on social media.

“The thing is, being honest about your values is something that we’ve always done as a business,” she said. “This is a Native-owned, queer-owned shop. If you have a problem with that, then this is probably not your place. We’re not going to be the right fit for everybody, and that’s OK. I’ve overwhelmingly found in my time being open that being honest with the public feels better as a human being. If anything, I think we’ve grown because we aren’t staying neutral when the fight is at this level. Yesterday, we had our biggest sales day ever in three and a half years of business. I think it was directly because we have not shied away about sharing our values with the community.”

From her years of knocking on doors, Becker-Finn said she probably knows her community at a deeper level than other business owners. And she’s watched an ever-increasing number of her neighbors — who would have never joined her in campaigning — working and networking together and taking actions to keep the community safe.

“It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it what it’s like to be in this work and to be in this fight together,” Becker-Finn said. “You make eye contact with your neighbor and you both know that you’re doing the right thing. There’s this deep community connection and solidarity that I think is a lot stronger than a bunch of angry goons from out of state.

“The fascist playbook is that they want us to lose hope. But we’re not going to let them win. There’s just so many more of us and there’s a sort of belief that, yeah, we can do this.”

The Black Hart of St. Paul

Wes Burdine purchased the old Town House Bar in St. Paul’s Midway in 2018. While he’s straight, he pledged to maintain the Town House’s status as a gay bar while adding an emphasis on soccer. Burdine’s a big fan and Allianz Field is just a few thousand feet away.

All the while, Burdine has made his politics loud and clear, both on social media and in person. “I’ve never been shy about it, we have a big ‘F— Trump’ scarf over our window,” Burdine said. “It’s important for people to walk in here and know that this is queer space and if you don’t like it, you’re not welcome.”

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe poses in front of a mural of herself Sunday at The Black Hart of St. Paul in the Midway neighborhood. Courtesy of Jonathan Pavlica

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis in 2020, Black Hart was one of the dozens of St. Paul businesses that suffered property damage. Burdine said he thinks the community has learned a lot of lessons in the time since.

“My bar was broken into and it was by suburban kids,” Burdine said. “It was by these people taking advantage of a really hard moment and wanting to sow chaos and be part of that chaos. That’s one thing that’s on my mind, and I think on a lot of people’s minds. People really started to get organized in their neighborhoods to take care of one another.”

Related Articles

Mary Ellen Klas: What my Trump-supporting friends won’t say

Barbara McQuade: The DOJ suing for voter data is dangerous on many levels

Ellen Watters: Why are business leaders silent on the destructive workforce effects of this ICE operation?

Marc Champion: Putin just sent a reminder he’s a threat to NATO

Bill Dudley: Attacking Powell only undercuts Trump’s goals

After ICE began to surge into the area in December, Burdine saw those neighborhood networks not only spring back into action but to grow. “I went away for the holidays and when I got back, it was amazing to see the number of people just in Midway who are organized and keeping an eye out for us.”

Burdine said he has gotten some blowback over his vocal opposition to the president and ICE. He recently received an email from someone telling him he’s alienating half of his customers.

“That’s just patently false,” Burdine said. “People think that because Trump won the election that 50 percent of America loves Donald Trump. That’s just not true and in the Twin Cities, it’s an even smaller number. The number of people who think that Renee Good being murdered or that picking up old ladies off the street is something that’s appropriate is tiny. And I just don’t care about those people. Like, if you are for that, I absolutely don’t want your business.”

Mischief Toy Store

A glance at Mischief Toy Store’s Instagram feed includes both whimsical retail displays and a wall of yard signs that read “No Ice: Resist Fascism” and “Black Lives Matter.” There are photos of the Grand Avenue mainstay’s buckets of free whistles that activists have been using to alert neighbors of the presence of ICE as well as a screenshot of a message from a woman angry about those very whistles: “It is people like you that agitate, escalate and contribute to the problem we are having.”

Dan Marshall owns the store with his wife, Millie, and daughter Abigail. He said being vocal about his family’s values, and hearing complaints in the process, is something the store has experienced since it opened in 2015.

Snow covers the sign at Mischief Toy Store on Grand Avenue as heavy, wet snow creates its own mischief in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2020. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“We hung a Black Lives Matter sign after Philando Castile was murdered (in 2016), so this is not new to us,” Marshall said. “I think businesses have traditionally tried to be apolitical, but that hasn’t been a viable position for at least a decade now. We’ve been trying to stand up for community. Right now, it’s about immigration. But it could easily turn back to attacking the transgender community again. And none of this is acceptable. We’re just trying to use our voice as a business to stand up against this madness.”

After Thanksgiving, when ICE was cracking down on Chicago, the store began handing out whistles, which are created by 3-D printers owned by a growing, informal network of people who provide them to the store free of charge.

“We’re just a toy store, but we’re hearing every day, story after story, of people who’ve been traumatized by things happening in their communities,” Marshall said. “And, yeah, we’re giving out whistles, which is great. But these are normal, ordinary Minnesota people getting these whistles. And they’re using them in the full knowledge that it could get them shot. And they’re doing it anyway.”

620 Club

Unlike Makwa, Black Hart and Mischief, the 620 Club doesn’t get political beyond ICE. And Kashmark wanted to make it clear that the bar has “mad respect for local law enforcement” and that this is not about them at all.

Related Articles

Ellen Watters: Why are business leaders silent on the destructive workforce effects of this ICE operation?

Letters: We are living in a time that calls for clarity, courage and leadership

Skywatch: Orion, victim of a sting operation

Joe Soucheray: Under the deluding weight of political fealty, the center does not hold

Arne Carlson, et al: Let’s take the road to excellence, Minnesota

“First of all, we wanted to express our condolences to Renee Good and we wanted to make that public,” said Guerrero, a semi-retired criminal defense attorney and former Keenan’s patron who, like Kashmark, lives in the West Seventh neighborhood. “Second, we wish the administration wasn’t doing things the way they are, sowing fear and chaos among people.”

In the days since the post, the bar has weathered angry comments on social media and one-star reviews, which come with the territory.

“The next day, I got a phone call and he’s cussing me out,” said Kashmark. “Part of me is like, you know, we might lose some business for speaking up. But I also felt this is what my heart is telling me. I want my community to know that we stand with them. We had record-breaking sales over the weekend. People were coming in to say, ‘we saw your post, we love you and we’re here to support you.’”

By ALEXA ST. JOHN

DETROIT (AP) — Chinese automakers have been making inroads around the world with growing sales of their high-tech, stylish and affordable electric vehicles. That has had competitors concerned even before Canada this week agreed to cut its tariffs on Chinese EVs in exchange for concessions on Canadian farm products.

Related Articles

Social media platforms removed 4.7 million accounts after Australia banned them for children

YouTube relaxes monetization policy on videos with controversial content

ChatGPT’s free ride is ending: Here’s what OpenAI plans for advertising on the chatbot

Criminal investigation raises key question: Whether Chair Powell leaves Fed in May

Stocks edge a bit below their latest records on Wall Street

Experts now say an easier path into Canada could be a big boost for Chinese carmakers looking to dominate the global market — particularly as their domestic market weakens. That poses a threat to other auto manufacturers, particularly American companies.

U.S. officials acknowledged that in remarks at an assembly plant for Jeep-maker Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio on Friday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Chinese Communist Party invests in its auto industry to “control this industry.”

“Why? They want to take over the auto industry. They want to take away these jobs,” Duffy said. As far as the Canadian trade deal, he added: “They will live to regret the day they partner with China and bring in their vehicles.”

Others say the shift is inevitable.

“This is telling us that Chinese automakers continue to be really popular, and are doing better and better, and not just something that’s sold in global markets that are more marginal or less important to U.S. automakers,” said Ilaria Mazzocco, deputy director and senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

What makes Chinese vehicles stand out?

Chinese-made vehicles are high-quality, stylish and inexpensive, experts say.

“It’s clear that the vehicles made by Chinese brands come at a very competitive cost, but are also technologically quite desirable,” Mazzocco said. “They tend to be connected vehicles, so they have a lot of additional software capabilities that consumers seem to like. But the price point and the competitiveness are really big selling points.”

These vehicles can cost as little as $10,000 to $20,000; in the U.S., new vehicles are running close to $50,000 on average, and EVs even more so.

Chinese companies also have unique advantages as far as auto manufacturing and production, efficiency and making vehicles lighter, which helps extend an electrified vehicle’s driving range.

“They’ve found a way to make small and mid-sized cars — cars that people want — at a reasonable price,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions. “These are the segments where GM and Ford and almost everybody else have abandoned.”

Many automakers have discontinued smaller vehicles in favor of higher-margin, large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks that are far more profitable.

So why are Chinese EVs such a threat to U.S. automakers and others?

Much of the global auto market is electrifying, an ideal opportunity for advanced Chinese automakers to capitalize on. China saw 17% growth in plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles in 2025, according to data released by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence this week, and Europe saw a 33% increase.

Meanwhile, U.S. sales of electrified cars grew just 1% last year. As the rest of the world advances, U.S. automakers have weakened their once-ambitious, multibillion dollar electrification plans, instead opting for more efficient hybrid electric and gasoline vehicles amid the Trump administration’s shift away from EV-friendly policy.

That shift threatens U.S. automakers’ competitive edge in the coming years. As is, Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling electric vehicle maker last year, delivering only 1.64 million vehicles in 2025 to Chinese rival BYD’s 2.26 million.

FILE – Tesla vehicles are displayed at the AutoMobility LA Auto Show, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Trump administration policy slashing emissions rules at a time when Chinese companies are advancing quickly has experts worried for the future of American car manufacturers.

Chinese automakers will have to meet standards required for the Canadian auto market for the latest trade arrangement to be successful — standards that are similar to those in the U.S. — which is likely to incentivize Chinese auto manufacturing investment in Canada.

They’ll also have to establish which segment of the market they are targeting there: Higher-end vehicles, or less-expensive ones that sell at higher volumes.

Regardless, “It brings it home to what is needed to compete globally,” said Mark Wakefield, global automotive market lead at AlixPartners. The firm predicts Chinese brands will account for 30% of the global market by 2030.

“They’ve already started in Europe. They started in South America. Now Mexico and Canada,” Wakefield said. American carmakers “don’t want to end up as a Brazil with your ethanol-based cars that aren’t sellable anywhere else in the world and … like Britain or Australia that used to matter in the auto world, and no longer really matter.”

Why have others sought to regulate Chinese EV-makers’ expansion?

Countries have attempted to regulate Chinese EVs from entering their markets for several reasons.

“China has become this overwhelming machine making inexpensive vehicles. And the fear is that if you give them an inch, they’re going to take a mile,” Fiorani said. “The other issue is technology. These vehicles are data centers… and the idea that a state-owned company in China could have access to where a high portion of drivers are going gives them leverage for all kinds of outlets.”

The European Union hiked tariffs on Chinese EVs last year, though the two have been resolving that at the start of this year.

In 2024, former President Joe Biden set a 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars. Canada matched that import tax on the vehicles until this week. And even with an annual import cap, Canada cutting its tariffs this week means those companies are another step closer to U.S. soil. The Mexican auto market has welcomed Chinese EVs, with massive growth last year.

“The advance of Chinese manufacturers is inevitable. It will happen eventually. Everybody is negotiating to put up the roadblocks to figure out: What data is being processed, how much market share you’re going to allow Chinese manufacturers to have?” Fiorani added.

“There are a lot of guardrails that have to be put up, but eventually they’re going to make their way into all Western markets.”

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was ready to restart U.S. mediation efforts between Egypt and Ethiopia with an eye toward resolving long-standing issues of water sharing from the ⁠Nile River.

Related Articles

Trump issues a flurry of pardons, including for a woman whose sentence he commuted in his first term

New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

Trump quietly appoints 4 members to commission that will review his White House ballroom plan

Justice Department says members of Congress can’t intervene in release of Epstein files

Trump administration delays plan to withhold wages for student loan borrowers in default

Washington-led mediations began during Trump’s first term, but they effectively collapsed in 2020, when Ethiopia withdrew — though some discussions later continued under the African Union.

Ethiopia formally inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, last fall. As Africa’s largest dam, it is located on the Blue Nile near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan and is meant to produce more than 5,000 megawatts, doubling Ethiopia’s electricity generation capacity.

Ethiopia sees the dam as a boon to its economy. But Egypt opposed its construction, arguing that it would reduce the country’s share of Nile River waters — which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.

On Sept. 4, before the dam’s inauguration, Tamim Khallaf, spokesperson for the Egyptian foreign ministry, said Ethiopia built the dam “unilaterally without any prior notification, proper consultations, or consensus with downstream countries, thereby constituting a grave violation of international law and posing an existential threat.”

Trump posted on his social media site a letter he sent to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, saying: “I am ‍ready to ‍restart ⁠U.S. ‌mediation between ⁠Egypt ‍and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the ⁠question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once ‌and for all.”

“My team and I understand the significance of the Nile River to Egypt and its people,” Trump wrote.

The president frequently boasts about ending eight wars around the world, though that claim is exaggerated. Egypt and Ethiopia are already on his list of wars he resolved, with Trump maintaining he stopped a conflict that might have led to fighting over issues that included the dam known as GERD.

Trump recently told Fox News that one of the ongoing conflicts that has continued despite his claiming to have stopped it — between Thailand and Cambodia — should actually count more than once.

“I did put out eight wars, eight and a quarter, because, you know, Thailand and Cambodia started going at it again,” he told Sean Hannity last week. The implication was a flare-up in the conflict made it an extra 1/4 of a war — something to watch for as he pushes mediation efforts again in Ethiopia and Egypt.