By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

DENVER (AP) — Young gymnasts and their parents started raising red flags about a coach as far back as 2017 — the same year a watchdog agency was created in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual-abuse scandal that nearly eviscerated USA Gymnastics and damaged the country’s entire Olympic movement.

But it took until 2022 for Sean Gardner to face any sanction from the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the independent agency created by Congress to investigate misconduct in Olympic sports. And it wasn’t until an Associated Press investigation this year that details emerged about the coach, whose arrest on child pornography charges in August was a turning point in a case one person involved called “Nassar 2.0.”

Now, a new AP investigation has found that months before Gardner’s arrest on allegations of installing cameras in a girls gym bathroom in Purvis, Mississippi, he was willing to accept a lifetime ban from coaching gymnastics as part of a deal where he would admit to the abuse, according to three people involved with SafeSport and its handling of the case.

A tangle of internal politics that included allegations of retaliation against employees inside SafeSport kept it from levying its harshest sanction, the people — who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by SafeSport — told the AP.

With multiple alleged victims, new witnesses coming forward and Gardner’s history at three gyms in different states, the case became one of the most troubling of the 8-year-old agency’s investigations.

“It was like, ’Well, this is ‘Nassar 2.0,’ so let’s figure out what we can figure out and wrap it up,” one person said.

That person said there was never a clear reason given for why the center did not finalize the permanent ban.

Meanwhile, Gardner has pleaded not guilty to federal child pornography charges and remains jailed pending trial, set for March 2.

Experts point out key differences between temporary and lifetime bans

SafeSport’s inability to lock down a permanent ban is seen by critics as a fundamental failure that undermines one of its key missions — securing permanent sanctions against the most dangerous abusers.

Asked why SafeSport didn’t follow through, center spokesperson Hilary Nemchik said in a statement that she could not comment about those details.

But, she said, SafeSport “took swift action to protect athletes from harm upon receiving the first allegations of sexual misconduct. The restrictions in place during a temporary suspension and a permanent ban are the same.”

Regarding SafeSport’s handling of cases in general, the statement said, “even if a respondent agrees to a significant sanction, center staff are still required to ensure the respondent receives a fair process.”

While not specifically addressing the Gardner case, Nemchik added that the center is careful not to close cases “with inaccuracies or make findings that a respondent was not properly noticed on, because it could jeopardize the case and require the matter to be reopened.”

Gardner’s temporary suspension in July 2022 was put on SafeSport’s disciplinary database — a searchable list of those banned by the center, which updates the list but does not announce new or notable sanctions. The database requires users to know the name of a person they want to check on.

The permanent ban Gardner indicated he was ready to sign in early 2025 would have changed his status on the database and closed the investigation, the people familiar with the case told the AP.

It would have limited his ability to do more damage in a number of ways, experts familiar with SafeSport told AP. These include:

— Eliminating the possibility of the case going to arbitration and any need to reinterview and potentially retraumatize athletes.

— Removing the risk of any ban on Gardner being lifted if he were acquitted in his criminal case.

Just as importantly, it would have sent a clear message to parents, people in sports and possible employers, said attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel, who represented gymnasts in the Nassar case.

“It communicates something that’s a final determination,” she said. “That means something. It’s not like it’s something that’s being adjudicated and maybe this guy is falsely accused.”

Gardner admitting potentially illegal activity to the SafeSport Center in early 2025 could also have provided law enforcement with more information in a case that didn’t result in his arrest until August, said attorney Steve Silvey, a longtime critic of the center.

“Did he abuse any people in the months that SafeSport was sitting on that information?” Silvey said. “And where did that fit into what the FBI knew” before it arrested him?

Despite being under temporary suspension from coaching gymnastics for two years, Gardner was able to land a job in May 2024 at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center as a surgical technologist, responsible for positioning patients on the operating room table and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. A hospital spokesperson did not respond to a voicemail and email from the AP seeking comment.

Gardner’s attorney, Omodare Jupiter, also did not respond to an email and phone message from the AP asking questions about SafeSport’s handling of his client’s case.

A web of office politics and staffers fearful of retaliation

The people familiar with Gardner’s case told AP it got stuck in a web of internal SafeSport politics that led to HR complaints alleging retaliation and other concerns — and eventually to no lifetime ban being imposed.

They described a dysfunctional culture in which employees were afraid to speak up to their bosses about problems they encountered, including frustration over the center’s failure to close out the Gardner case.

They said SafeSport took a survey of employees earlier this year that produced troubling results. A slideshow presentation to employees, shared with the AP, cited: “Significant concerns about retaliation, perceived favoritism and unqualified promotions” within the center’s investigation and legal departments.

“If I say something, I may get punished without being told why,” read a quote from an employee.

Nemchik did not respond to a question from AP about what SafeSport did in reaction to the survey, which came shortly after CEO Ju’Riese Colon’s ouster in April, but acknowledged “short-term cultural challenges” that came after Colon’s departure.

Nemchik said in a statement that the center expects a new CEO to focus on “organizational excellence as the center evolves under new leadership to best fulfill our mission.”

Some allegations went under the radar for years

Since his arrest, Gardner’s sanction on SafeSport’s disciplinary database has been upgraded from “temporary suspension” to “ineligible” due to “criminal disposition involving a minor” and “sexual misconduct.”

A conviction would change Gardner’s sanction to permanently ineligible to coach gymnastics. That’s the status Gardner had agreed to in early 2025, according to notes on the case file from April, one person told the AP.

“People know what Larry Nassar did and how it happened, and you let it happen again?” said John Manly, an attorney for gymnasts in the Nassar and Gardner cases, when asked to compare the two. “This center’s one job is to protect child athletes from predators. And they are failing.”

Meanwhile, SafeSport, USA Gymnastics and coaches at the Iowa gym where Gardner worked are named as defendants in civil lawsuits filed by two gymnasts who say they didn’t do enough to protect them.

The lawsuits say that in December 2017, USA Gymnastics and SafeSport were notified by one girl’s parents of Gardner’s inappropriate behavior while coaching at Jump’In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi.

Among the lawsuits’ allegations:

— “Gardner requiring minor gymnasts to hug him after every practice, including long, front-facing, two-armed hugs.”

— “Gardner disciplining and intimidating a minor gymnast by taking her into his office for a 25-minute closed-door meeting without parental consent, verbally abusing her, and then hugging and kissing her without consent.”

Both SafeSport and USA Gymnastics declined to comment on the litigation.

The criminal complaint that led to Gardner’s arrest says the FBI found files of videos on his computer that Gardner made with a hidden camera in a girls lavatory as young gymnasts undressed and went to the bathroom at the Mississippi gym. The videos date to at least December 2017 through mid-2018.

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The SafeSport center has said USA Gymnastics notified it in January 2018 that one of its affiliated gyms had resolved a report involving Gardner. But, the center said, it didn’t investigate further because the report was not related to sexual misconduct and it did not receive detailed information.

Meanwhile, Gardner was able to land a job at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 2018 — a gym owned by renowned coach Liang “Chow” Qiao that produced Olympians, including gold medalist Shawn Johnson.

Not until 2022, when new allegations of abuse were reported to SafeSport, did the Iowa gym fire Gardner and the center place him on temporary suspension. The gym and Qiao, which are both named in the lawsuits, did not return phone and email messages left by the AP.

It took another three years and an investigation by the AP to expose the depths of the allegations against Gardner — and the shortcomings of the watchdog agency created to protect athletes in the wake of the Nassar case.

Simpson Tuegel said it’s no surprise this case is being compared to Nassar’s.

“You look at the timeline and how many people knew and failed to protect children and allowed this person to keep having contact,” she said.

“And there really is a point that you see, in some of these cases, where it absolutely could have been stopped and it wasn’t.”

Associated Press reporter Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.

By JONEL ALECCIA, AP Health Writer

Starting Thursday, Americans in five states who get government help paying for groceries will see new restrictions on soda, candy and other foods they can buy with those benefits.

Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting the purchase of certain foods through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

It’s part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to urge states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program — long known as food stamps — that serves 42 million Americans.

“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement in December.

The efforts are aimed at reducing chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes associated with sweetened drinks and other treats, a key goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort.

But retail industry and health policy experts said state SNAP programs, already under pressure from steep budget cuts, are unprepared for the complex changes, with no complete lists of the foods affected and technical point-of-sale challenges that vary by state and store. And research remains mixed about whether restricting SNAP purchases improves diet quality and health.

The National Retail Federation, a trade association, predicted longer checkout lines and more customer complaints as SNAP recipients learn which foods are affected by the new waivers.

“It’s a disaster waiting to happen of people trying to buy food and being rejected,” said Kate Bauer, a nutrition science expert at the University of Michigan.

A report by the National Grocers Association and other industry trade groups estimated that implementing SNAP restrictions would cost U.S. retailers $1.6 billion initially and $759 million each year going forward.

“Punishing SNAP recipients means we all get to pay more at the grocery store,” said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research & Action Center.

The waivers are a departure from decades of federal policy first enacted in 1964 and later authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which said SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol and ready-to-eat hot foods. The law also says SNAP can’t pay for tobacco.

In the past, lawmakers have proposed stopping SNAP from paying for expensive meats like steak or so-called junk foods, such as chips and ice cream.

But previous waiver requests were denied based on USDA research concluding that restrictions would be costly and complicated to implement, and that they might not change recipients’ buying habits or reduce health problems such as obesity.

Under the second Trump administration, however, states have been encouraged and even incentivized to seek waivers – and they responded.

“This isn’t the usual top-down, one-size-fits-all public health agenda,” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said when he announced his state’s request last spring. “We’re focused on root causes, transparent information and real results.”

The five state waivers that take effect Jan. 1 affect about 1.4 million people. Utah and West Virginia will ban the use of SNAP to buy soda and soft drinks, while Nebraska will prohibit soda and energy drinks. Indiana will target soft drinks and candy. In Iowa, which has the most restrictive rules to date, the SNAP limits affect taxable foods, including soda and candy, but also certain prepared foods.

“The items list does not provide enough specific information to prepare a SNAP participant to go to the grocery store,” Plata-Nino wrote in a blog post. “Many additional items — including certain prepared foods — will also be disallowed, even though they are not clearly identified in the notice to households.”

Marc Craig, 47, of Des Moines, said he has been living in his car since October. He said the new waivers will make it more difficult to determine how to use the $298 in SNAP benefits he receives each month, while also increasing the stigma he feels at the cash register.

“They treat people that get food stamps like we’re not people,” Craig said.

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SNAP waivers enacted now and in the coming months will run for two years, with the option to extend them for an additional three, according to the Agriculture Department. Each state is required to assess the impact of the changes.

Health experts worry that the waivers ignore larger factors affecting the health of SNAP recipients, said Anand Parekh, chief policy officer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

“This doesn’t solve the two fundamental problems, which is healthy food in this country is not affordable and unhealthy food is cheap and ubiquitous,” he said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By SIMINA MISTREANU

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister on Tuesday slammed a record U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as Beijing conducted the second day of military drills around the island it has long claimed as its own.

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Wang Yi, the most senior Chinese official to comment on the sales so far, also blasted the “pro-independence forces in Taiwan” and Japan’s leaders during an end-of-the-year diplomatic event in Beijing.

“In response to the continuous provocations by pro-independence forces in Taiwan and the large-scale U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, we must resolutely oppose and strongly counter them,” Wang said while reviewing a year of diplomacy by Asia’s largest and most influential nation.

He reiterated China’s aim for a “complete reunification” with Taiwan, a self-ruled island that split from China during a civil war in 1949 and evolved into a multiparty democracy.

Taiwan’s government argues the island was never part of China in its current form under the Communist Party and Beijing’s sovereignty claims are illegitimate.

Military package rankles China

The package valued at more than $11 billion that was announced earlier this month by the U.S. State Department amounts to the largest U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. It includes missiles, drones, artillery systems and military software.

The U.S. is obligated by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on the self-ruled island to buy more U.S. military equipment, even suggesting Taiwan should spend up to 10% of its GDP on defense.

China responded to the sale by launching two days of military drills around Taiwan on Monday. The exercises also are largely seen as a rebuke to Sanae Takaichi, the new Japanese prime minister, who inflamed Beijing last month by implying Japan could militarily intervene over Taiwan.

“Japan, which launched the war of aggression against China, not only fails to deeply reflect on the numerous crimes it committed, but its current leaders also openly challenge China’s territorial sovereignty, the historical conclusions of World War II and the postwar international order,” Wang said, adding that China “must be highly vigilant against the resurgence of Japanese militarism.”

Other diplomatic initiatives reviewed

In his speech reviewing China’s diplomatic highlights for the year, Wang also mentioned Israel’s war in Gaza, welcoming international efforts to facilitate a ceasefire but insisting that more needs to be done.

“The world still owes Palestine justice,” Wang said. “The Palestinian question cannot be marginalized again, and the Palestinian people’s cause for democratic and legitimate rights cannot end in vain.”

China maintains strong relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority and backs the two-state solution, under which Israel and Palestine would exist as independent states.

Wang also emphasized China’s aim to facilitate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Beijing says it is impartial in the war but in practice signals support for Moscow through frequent state visits and joint military drills.

Wang mediated talks between top diplomats from Thailand and Cambodia earlier this week, which the leaders said helped consolidate a ceasefire between the two neighbors after months of fighting.

The meetings represented China’s latest efforts to strengthen its role as an international mediator and particularly its influence in Asian regional crises. As China grows into an economic and political force globally, Beijing has spent the past decade and more working in various ways to increase its voice as a third party in diplomatic matters.

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and KATIE MARIE DAVIES

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Leaders from Europe and Canada held talks Tuesday on U.S.-led peace efforts to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv sparred over Russian claims, denied by Ukraine, of a mass drone attack on a lakeside residence used by President Vladimir Putin.

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The virtual meeting included European leaders as well as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, heads of European institutions and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“Peace is on the horizon,” Tusk told a Polish Cabinet meeting. But he added: “It is still far from a 100% certainty.”

It was the first meeting of European leaders since U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday. Trump insisted that Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement, although he acknowledged that outstanding obstacles could still prevent a deal.

Zelenskyy on Tuesday announced plans for upcoming meetings with officials from about 30 countries, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, which support Kyiv’s effort to end the war with Russia on acceptable terms.

National security advisers from those countries aim to meet in Ukraine on Jan. 3, followed by a meeting of the countries’ leaders on Jan. 6 in France, he said on social media. He thanked Trump administration officials for their readiness to participate but provided no further details.

“We are moving the peace process forward,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who attended Tuesday’s talks, said in a post on X. “Transparency and honesty are now required from everyone — including Russia.”

In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

His pointed reference to Russia came after Russian and Ukrainian officials exchanged bitter accusations over Moscow’s allegations that Ukraine attempted to attack the Russian leader’s residence in northwestern Russia with 91 long-range drones almost immediately after Trump’s Sunday talks with Zelenskyy.

The claims and counterclaims threatened to derail peace efforts. “I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump said Monday after Putin told him by phone about the alleged attack.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted Tuesday that Russia “still hasn’t provided any plausible evidence” to support its allegations.

Moscow won’t do so because “no such attack happened,” he wrote on X.

“Russia has a long record of false claims,” he added, referencing the Kremlin’s denials it intended to attack Ukraine ahead of its Feb. 24, 2022, all-out invasion of its neighbor.

Zelenskyy, speaking Monday, also branded the allegation as “another lie” from Moscow designed to sabotage peace efforts.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov countered Tuesday that the alleged Ukrainian attack is “aimed at thwarting President Trump’s efforts to promote a peaceful resolution” to the war.

In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Russia and Ukraine have throughout the war exchanged accusations about attacks that cannot be independently verified because of the fighting.

Peskov didn’t say whether Moscow would present physical evidence of the attack, such as drone wreckage, saying that such a step would be a matter for Russia’s military. “I don’t think there needs to be any evidence here,” he said.

The rural Novgorod region is home to one of the Russian presidency’s official residences, Dolgie Borody, close to the town of Valdai, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Moscow. The area has been used to host a vacation retreat for high-ranking government officials since the Soviet era.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said that since Trump launched a diplomatic push at the start of the year to end the war, “the Kremlin has sought to delay and prolong peace negotiations in order to continue its war undisturbed, prevent the U.S. from imposing measures intended to pressure Russia into meaningful negotiations, and even to extract concessions about bilateral U.S.-Russian relations.”

Davies reported from Leicester, England. Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine