The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, the formerly well-connected Republican donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex.

On Monday, the high court turned away Lazzaro with no comment. In February, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also denied his appeal.

Anton Lazzaro

In August 2023, Lazzaro was sentenced to 21 years in prison on federal sex trafficking convictions. He was convicted of seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when Lazzaro was 30. The charges carried mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years with a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors had requested a 30-year sentence for Lazzaro. They likened Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York. The defense asked for no more than 10 years.

Lazzaro, who has said the charges against him were politically motivated, maintained his innocence, denying that he paid any of the girls explicitly for sex.

Lazzaro’s indictment in 2021 touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who was 19 at the time, formerly led the College Republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. She pleaded guilty to two counts last year. She testified against Lazzaro and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Prosecutors argued during his trial that Lazzaro enlisted Castro Medina, who he initially paid for sex, to recruit other teenagers — preferably minors — who were white, small, vulnerable or “broken.” He often sent cars to take the girls to his luxury penthouse condo at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, they said.

Pictures on Lazzaro’s social media accounts showed him with prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. He gave more than $270,000 to Republican campaigns and political committees over the years. Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the charges became public.

The sources of Lazzaro’s wealth have been murky. Defense filings called him “an up-and-coming real estate owner and entrepreneur.” Items seized from him included a 2010 Ferrari and more than $371,000 in cash.

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By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was voting Wednesday on legislation to put a check on President Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels, as Democrats and at least one Republican tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war power to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

It was the first vote in Congress on Trump’s military campaign that has so far has destroyed four vessels in the Caribbean, killed at least 21 people and stopped narcotics from reaching the U.S., according to the White House. The war powers resolution would require the president to seek authorization from Congress before further military strikes on the cartels.

The Trump administration has asserted that drug traffickers are armed combatants threatening the United States, creating justification to use military force. But that assertion has been met with some unease on Capitol Hill.

Some Republicans are asking the White House for more clarification on its legal justification and specifics on how the strikes are conducted, while Democrats insist they are violations of U.S. and international law. It’s a clash that could redefine how the world’s most powerful military uses lethal force and set the tone for future global conflict.

The White House has already indicated Trump would veto the legislation, and the Senate vote Wednesday was not expected to succeed, but it provided lawmakers an opportunity to go on the record with their objections to Trump’s declaration that the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

“It sends a message when a significant number of legislators say, ‘Hey, this is a bad idea,’” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who pushed the resolution alongside Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

What is the War Powers Resolution?

Wednesday’s vote was being brought under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which was intended to reassert congressional power over the declaration of war. The legislation would bar the Trump administration from using military strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea unless Congress specifically authorizes it.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long advocated for greater congressional power over war powers, was the lone Republican to support the legislation ahead of the vote, though Schiff and Kaine said others had expressed interest. A number of GOP senators have questioned the strikes on vessels and said they are not receiving enough information from the administration.

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“Congress must not allow the executive branch to become judge, jury and executioner,” Paul said in a floor speech.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, acknowledged “there may be some concern” in the Republican conference about the strikes.

However, Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who like Cramer is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he did not expect many Republicans to vote for the resolution.

“I’m going to vote no when the president is exercising his constitutional responsibility,” Rounds said.

What has the administration told Congress about the strikes?

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing last week on the strikes, and Cramer said he was “comfortable with at least the plausibility of their legal argument.” But he added that no one representing intelligence agencies or the military command structure for Central and South America was present for the briefing.

“I’d be more comfortable defending the administration if they shared the information,” he said.

Kaine also said the briefing did not include any information on why the military chose to destroy the vessels rather than interdict them or get into the specifics of how the military was so confident that the vessels were carrying drugs. The Democrats also said the administration has told them it is adding cartels to a list of organizations deemed “narco-terrorists” that are targets for military strikes, but it has not shown the lawmakers the full list.

“Maybe they were engaged in human trafficking, or maybe it was the wrong ship,” Schiff said. “We just have little or no information about who was onboard these ships or what intelligence was used or what the rationale was and how certain we could be that everyone on that ship deserved to die.”

A visit from Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Republican Conference for lunch Wednesday to emphasize to senators that they should vote against the legislation. He told the senators that the administration was treating cartels like governmental entities because they have seized control of large portions of some Caribbean nations, according to Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota.

“These drug trafficking organizations are a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States to unleash violence and criminality on our streets, fueled by the drugs and the drug profits that they make,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol. “And the president is the commander in chief, has an obligation to keep our country safe.”

Still, Democrats said the recent buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean was a sign of shifting U.S. priorities and tactics that could have grave repercussions. They worried that further military strikes could set off a conflict with Venezuela and argued that Congress should be actively deliberating whenever American troops are sent to war.

Schiff said, “This is the kind of thing that leads a country, unexpectedly and unintentionally, into war.”

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed.

By MAKIYA SEMINERA and CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, Associated Press

The number of international student arrivals in the U.S. dropped by nearly a fifth in August as American universities started the new academic year, according to federal data.

The dip is the latest sign of a hit to colleges’ international enrollment as the Trump administration ratchets up scrutiny of foreign students.

International visitors arriving to the U.S. on student visas declined 19% in August compared with the same month in 2024, according to the preliminary data released by the National Travel and Tourism Office. The numbers declined also in June and July but August is the summer month that typically sees the most international student arrivals — 313,138 this year.

As the federal government has clamped down on student visas, industry groups have warned of international enrollment declines that threaten school budgets and American colleges’ standing in the world. While the full extent of the change remains to be seen, the new data suggests a turnaround in international enrollment that had been rebounding in the U.S. from a decline worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 1.1 million international students were in the United States last year — a source of key revenue for tuition-driven colleges. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid, and many pay full tuition.

Visa challenges and travel bans blocked some students

Many students who had plans to study in the U.S. could not enter the country because of difficulty lining up visas. In late May, the State Department paused the scheduling of visa interviews for foreign students, which resumed three weeks later with new rules for vetting visa applicants’ social media accounts.

The timing of the pause had “maximum possible impact” for visa issuances for the fall semester, said Clay Harmon, executive director of the Association of International Enrollment Management, a nonprofit membership association.

A travel ban and other restrictions for 19 countries the Trump administration announced in June created even more uncertainty for some students. Most of the countries included in the ban were located in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The federal data shows those regions experienced the largest declines in international student arrivals this August, with drops of 33% from Africa, 17% from the Middle East and 24% from Asia — including a 45% decrease from India, the country that sends the most students to the U.S.

The data includes new as well as returning students, but some who were already in the U.S. avoided traveling outside the country this summer for fear of problems reentering.

Sara, a 2022 college graduate in Iran, was planning to come to the U.S. to accept a fully funded spot in the University of Iowa’s physical rehabilitation science Ph.D. program. Sara, who spoke on condition of partial anonymity out of fear of being targeted, had been trying for years to study in the U.S. and had to pass up offers from other programs that didn’t offer financial aid.

But not long after her admission this spring, the U.S. paused visa interviews. Then, the travel ban affecting Iran was announced.

Her graduate school admission was deferred to next year, but Sara said she has started applying to universities in Germany. She begun taking lessons in German — now her fourth language — several weeks ago to prepare.

Students have concerns about the political climate — and cost

Some international students and their families have been wary of the Trump administration’s wider crackdown on immigration. In the spring, the federal government stripped thousands of international students of their legal status, causing panic before the Trump administration reversed course. Trump also has called for colleges to reduce their dependence on foreign students and cap international enrollment.

Zeynep Bowlus, a higher education consultant in Istanbul, Turkey, said interest in U.S. universities among the families she works with had been declining over the last few years largely because of financial reasons and skepticism about the value of an American degree. Policy changes in the U.S. are adding to their concerns, she said.

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“I try not to make it too dramatic, but at the same time, I tell them the reality of what’s going on and the potential hurdles that they may face,” Bowlus said.

Institutions in other countries have seized the opportunity to attract students who might be cooling on the U.S. Growing numbers of Chinese students have opted to stay in Asia, and international applications to universities in the United Kingdom have surged.

Elisabeth Marksteiner, a higher education consultant in Cambridge, England, said she will encourage families looking at American universities to approach the admissions process with more caution. A student visa has never been guaranteed, but it is especially important now for families to have a backup plan, she said.

“I think the presumption is that it’s all going to carry on as it was in the past,” Marksteiner said. “My presumption is, it isn’t.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A 21-year-old man was killed and three other people were injured in a Tuesday night shooting inside a downtown Minneapolis bar.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of Fourth Street South about 11:40 p.m. They found a man who’d been shot multiple times. Despite lifesaving efforts, he died at the scene, according to Minneapolis police.

Another man and two women were transported to Hennepin Healthcare with apparent non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

“An argument inside a crowded bar should never end in gunfire and a loss of life,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a statement of preliminary information indicating that a fight inside the bar escalated into a shooting.

No arrests had been made as of Wednesday morning.

The shooting came after other recent instances of multiple people killed or injured in shootings in Minneapolis.

There were 27 people shot and two children killed at Annunciation Catholic Church and School on Aug. 27. Police said the shooter died by suicide at the scene.

The day before, a man was killed and six people were injured in a shooting outside Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. A man has been charged.

On the morning of Sept. 15, five men were shot near Lake Street and Stevens Avenue and one of the men later died at the hospital. That night, seven people were injured by gunfire at an encampment near 28th Avenue and Lake Street and a woman died a few days later.

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