ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs, the United Nations’ special envoy for the ocean said Tuesday in defense of the marine ecosystems that protect biodiversity, sustain underwater life and produce some of the oxygen we breathe.

In an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of an international ocean conference in Greece, Peter Thomson suggested that all significant coral reefs should be included in marine protected areas under what is known as the “30×30” initiative — a plan to designate 30% of the world’s land and ocean areas as protected areas by 2030.

Top reef scientists on Monday announced that coral reefs are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time — and the second time in just 10 years – as a result of warming oceans amid human-caused climate change.

Bleaching occurs when stressed coral, which are invertebrates, expel the algae that provide their food and give them their vibrant colors. Although the coral can recover, severe and prolonged bleaching can kill it.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and International Coral Reef Initiative said on Monday that coral bleaching across at least 53 countries, territories or local economies has been confirmed since February 2023.

Although much is being done to protect coral reefs around the world, the prime cause driving events such as global bleaching is the burning of fossil fuels, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions and warming oceans, Thomson said.

“Is enough being done? The answer is definitely not,” he said. “And the ‘done’ factor is the transition away from burning fossil fuels.”

Thomson said he believes some more resilient coral will survive, and noted efforts to preserve coral in facilities such as aquariums. But “are we faced with a colossal ecosystem tragedy? Yes, definitely. And we can’t escape that,” he said. “The fourth mass bleaching is just … a harbinger of what’s coming.”

Sometimes described as underwater rain forests, coral reefs support a quarter of marine species and form crucial barriers that protect coastlines from the full force of storms. They also provide billions of dollars in revenue from tourism, fishing and other commerce.

Thomson said that including significant reefs in the “30×30” initiative would be a feasible way of increasing their protection. Extending them the safeguards afforded to marine protected areas would be “very valuable for the preservation of the reefs,” he said.

“You can’t have a healthy planet without a healthy ocean. And the ocean’s health is currently measurably in decline,” Thomson said.

Thomson, an ambassador from Fiji who was appointed as the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean in 2017, vowed to continue the fight.

“You can’t condemn your grandchildren to a world with no coral, to a world on fire,” he said. “That’s not the world we’re going to give our grandchildren.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Coal miners will be better protected from poisonous silica dust that has contributed to the premature deaths of thousands of mine workers from a respiratory ailment commonly known as “black lung” disease, the Labor Department said Tuesday as it issued a new federal rule on miners’ safety.

The final rule, announced by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, cuts in half the permissible exposure limit for crystalline silica for an 8-hour shift.

Mine workers, community advocates and elected officials from Appalachian states have pushed for the stricter rule, noting that health problems have grown in recent years as miners dig through more layers of rock to gain access to coal seams when deposits closer to the surface have long been tapped. The increased drilling generates deadly silica dust and has caused severe forms of pneumoconiosis, better known as black lung disease, even among younger miners, some in their 30s and 40s.

“It is unconscionable that our nation’s miners have worked without adequate protection from silica dust despite it being a known health hazard for decades,” Su said Tuesday. “Today, we’re making it clear that no job should be a death sentence, and every worker has the right to come home healthy and safe at the end of the day.”

In Central Appalachia, an estimated one in five tenured coal miners has black lung disease. The condition reduces their life expectancy by an average of 12 years and makes it a “struggle to get through a phone call or play with their grandkids without losing their breath,” Su said in a speech in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where she appeared with Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and other union leaders.

“For too long, we accepted this as just the way things are for people who work in mines,” Su said. “They’ve had to work without the same protections from silica dust that people in other industries have, even though we’ve known about the harms of silica dust since Frances Perkins” who was labor secretary in the 1930s and 1940s.

The election-year rule shows “what it looks like to have the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history,” Su said, a political comment referring to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Rebecca Shelton, director of policy at the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, which pressed for stricter rules to protect miners, said the group was reviewing the rule closely to ensure that regulators from the Mine Safety and Health Administration accounted for comments by health professionals, attorneys and miners who have worked on the rule for years.

“There are too many lives at stake to get this wrong, and we’ll do whatever we can to ensure that this rule provides the protection that miners deserve,” Shelton said.

Democratic senators from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia hailed the new rule, saying it will play an essential role in safeguarding miners.

A spokesman for the National Mining Association said the group was reviewing the rule but supports the lower limits. The mining lobby has pushed to allow use of administrative controls and personal protective equipment to meet safety standards. “Unfortunately, those recommendations were not included in the final rule,″ said spokesman Conor Bernstein.

Vonda Robinson, whose husband, John, who was diagnosed with black lung a decade ago at age 47, said she’s felt hopeful as officials considered the rule changes. But she was skeptical how the rule will be enforced.

Robinson, who lives in rural Nickelsville, Virginia, near the Tennessee border, said the mine safety office does not have enough staff or resources to adequately protect workers and their families.

“You can have rules, but until you back it up with enforcement, it’s not going to mean anything,” she said in an interview. “If they’re going to put out these rulings, you need to hire more people.”

The White House requested a $50 million increase to the mine safety office’s budget for the current year, most of which would have been earmarked for more inspectors and enforcement. Congress rejected it, keeping the budget at the 2023 level of $388 million.

Vonda Robinson said her husband struggles every day. John Robinson worked in the mines for almost three decades. Two years ago, the couple met with a physician about a lung transplant.

“Until you see it and live with it, you don’t understand,” Vonda Robinson said. “And knowing what we’re looking at now — miners being diagnosed at 32 – they’ll probably never seen their children graduate or have grandchildren. It really upsets me.”

The Labor Department rule lowers the permissible exposure limit of respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full-shift exposure, calculated as an 8-hour average. If a miner’s exposure exceeds the limit, mine operators must take immediate corrective actions.

The rule is in line with exposure levels imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on construction and other non-mining industries. And it’s the standard the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was recommending as far back as 1974.

The Labor Department began studying silica and its impact on workers’ health nearly a century ago, but the focus on stopping exposure in the workplace largely bypassed coal miners. Instead, regulations centered on coal dust, a separate hazard created by crushing or pulverizing coal rock that also contributes to black lung.

In the decades since, silica dust has become a major problem as Appalachian miners cut through layers of sandstone to reach less accessible coal seams in mountaintop mines where coal closer to the surface has long been tapped. Silica dust is 20 times more toxic than coal dust and causes severe forms of black lung disease after even a few years of exposure.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers on Tuesday that President Joe Biden has shown no signs of cognitive impairment while defending Biden’s ability to serve as commander in chief.

Garland, appearing before a House committee overseeing funding for the Justice Department, was answering questions on the report from special counsel Robert Hur about Biden’s handling of classified material. Hur’s report concluded in no criminal charges yet made some observations about Biden’s mental state that infuriated the Democratic president and his aides.

The attorney general, while stressing that he was not commenting on the specifics of Hur’s analysis, said that based on his own observations while interacting with Biden, he has “complete confidence in the president” when it comes to questions about his mental fitness.

“I have seen the president effectively guide the members of the department, of his Cabinet, and his military,” Garland said in response to questions from Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va. The attorney general added: “The president has no impairment.”

As Cline prodded him further, Garland stressed again: “I have complete confidence in the president, and I reject your characterization.”

Hur said in his report, released in February, that prosecutors would likely not be able to prove a criminal case against Biden beyond a reasonable doubt when it came to the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. In one line from the report, Hur found that Biden would “likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden angrily insisted in response that his memory is fine, and he was especially infuriated about Hur’s mention of him apparently being confused over the timing of the death of his son Beau in 2015.

Garland was appearing before the House committee to testify on the Justice Department’s budget request.

The Biden administration is enlisting the help of officials in 15 states to enforce consumer-protection laws covering airline travelers, a power that by law is limited to the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that the states, which include California, New York and Illinois, will help ensure that government enforcement activities keep up with a current boom in air travel.

Under an agreement announced by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, state attorney general offices will be able to investigate complaints about airline service. If they believe an airline violated the law or is refusing to cooperate with investigators, the states could refer cases to the Transportation Department for enforcement.

In return, the Transportation Department, or DOT, will give the states access to its consumer-complaint system and train state employees about federal consumer laws covering airlines.

“This is a partnership that will greatly improve DOT’s capacity to hold airlines accountable and to protect passengers,” Buttigieg told reporters.

Buttigieg pointed to travelers whose flights are canceled and then must wait days for another flight or pay more to fly home on another airline. “Things like that are a violation of passenger rights, and we are seeing far too many cases of that,” he said.

Other states whose officials signed the “memorandum of understanding” with the Transportation Department are: Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

The District of Columbia and two U.S. territories also signed the agreement.

Buttigieg repeatedly cast the agreement as bipartisan, but only two of the state officials who signed on are Republicans. Buttigieg indicated his department is hoping to recruit more states.

Under U.S. law, the federal government alone regulates consumer-protection laws covering airlines. The carriers are not legally required to respond to state investigations.

Consumer advocates have pushed to expand enforcement power to the states. However, both the full House and a key Senate committee declined to include that proposal in pending legislation that covers the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the Transportation Department.

“During the pandemic, we actually got more complaints about airline traffic than any other topic, and it was frustrating” because the state had no authority to investigate the complaints, Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said.

Weiser argued that Congress should give states power to enforce airline consumer-protection laws, “but I have to say, we didn’t wait for Congress to act.”

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plus the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge has recommended that the conviction and death sentence of Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman whose execution was delayed in 2022 amid growing doubts she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter, should be overturned amid findings that evidence in her murder trial was suppressed.

Senior State District Judge Arturo Nelson on Friday approved an agreement between prosecutors and Lucio’s attorneys that found the suppressed evidence, including witness statements from Lucio’s children and a report by Child Protective Services, would have corroborated Lucio’s defense that her daughter Mariah died of a head injury sustained in an accidental fall down a steep staircase two days before her death.

“She would not have been convicted in light of the suppressed evidence,” according to the 33-page agreement between the office of Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz and Lucio’s attorneys.

Nelson’s recommendation has been sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will make the final decision on whether Lucio’s conviction and death sentence are overturned. There was no timetable for a ruling by the appeals court. Lucio’s case has become a cause célèbre among people, including Kim Kardashian.

“We hope and pray the Court of Criminal Appeals will agree with the District Attorney, the defense, and Judge Nelson and our mother can come home to her family. It’s been 17 years that we have been without her. We love her and miss her and can’t wait to hug her,” Lucio’s children said in a statement Monday.

The agreement on findings in Lucio’s case had remained in limbo for 16 months before another judge, Gabriela Garcia. On April 5, Lucio’s lawyers and Saenz had issued a joint public statement in which they discussed that the findings were still under review by Garcia.

On April 10, Missy Medary, the presiding judge for the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region in South Texas, assigned Nelson to address the pending findings in the case. Nelson, who is a retired judge and had presided over Lucio’s 2008 trial, approved the findings two days later.

It was not immediately known why Nelson was assigned to review the findings. Court administrators for Garcia and Medary did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment.

Lucio, 55, had been set for lethal injection in April 2022 for the 2007 death of her daughter in Harlingen, a city of about 71,000 in Texas’ southern tip. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted her lethal injection two days before her scheduled execution so Lucio’s claims that new evidence would exonerate her could be reviewed.

Before the agreed findings approved by Nelson, prosecutors had long maintained Mariah was the victim of abuse and noted her body was covered in bruises.

Lucio’s case has garnered support from Kardashian and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody.

“Melissa Lucio has been in jail for more than a decade and a half, which is an unimaginable injustice, but one that can at least be undone,” Moody said in a post Tuesday on the social platform X.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell to consider his challenge to the legality of the FBI’s seizure of his cellphone at a restaurant drive-through.

The high court, without comment Monday, declined to reconsider three lower court rulings that went against Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump.

FBI agents seized the cellphone from him at a Hardee’s fast-food restaurant in the southern Minnesota city of Mankato in 2022 as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system technology in Mesa County, Colorado. Lindell alleged the confiscation violated his constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and was an attempt by the government to chill his freedom of speech.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

“While he has at times attempted to assert otherwise, Lindell’s objective in this action is apparent — this litigation is a tactic to, at a minimum, interfere with and, at most, enjoin a criminal investigation and ultimately hamper any potential federal prosecution,” a three-judge appeals panel wrote last September.

In February, when Lindell turned to the Supreme Court, his attorneys said Lindell had still not gotten his phone back.

Monday’s decision was the latest in a run of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who is being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.

A credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after it lost Fox News as one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers. A judge in February affirmed a $5 million arbitration award to a software engineer who challenged data Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 election.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Prosecutors plan to file charges of financial crimes against the former leader of the Michigan House, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said she would speak to reporters in the state capital at 2 p.m. EDT. Her office disclosed no other details.

Lee Chatfield, a Republican who is no longer a state lawmaker, was House speaker in 2019 and 2020 when the GOP controlled the chamber.

“We’ve learned that the charges are financial in nature,” Chatfield’s attorney, Mary Chartier, told The Associated Press. “We’re prepared to fight them each and every step of the way.”

“It took almost 2 1/2 years for the AG’s office to come up with charges. It’s going to be pretty flimsy if it took that long,” Chartier said.

Chatfield has been under investigation s ince his sister-in-law said he sexually assaulted her. He has denied the allegations and said they had a consensual affair.

“We’ve learned there is no CSC charge or something like that,” Chartier told AP, referring to criminal sexual conduct.

Two people who were top aides to Chatfield when he ran the House were charged last year with crimes, including embezzlement from nonprofit funds created for political purposes. Rob and Anne Minard have pleaded not guilty.

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White reported from Detroit.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – A former U.S. Army financial counselor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding grieving military families out of life insurance payments, in a scheme whose alleged victims included widows and a 13-year-old girl whose father had died.

Caz Craffy, 41, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, could face about eight to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to all 10 charges he faced, including wire fraud, securities fraud and making false statements.

“Those who target and steal from the families of fallen American servicemembers will be held accountable for their crimes,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Craffy, also known as Carz Craffey, from May 2018 to November 2022 manipulated members of at least two dozen Gold Star families into transferring $9.9 million of survivor benefits into private brokerage accounts he controlled.

Craffy then allegedly made more than 1,000 unauthorized trades, generating over $3.4 million of losses and more than $1.4 million of commissions for himself.

The defendant was a civilian employee of the Army, but victims believed the Army authorized his conduct.

He has also been a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, and enlisted since 2003.

Gold Star families include people whose immediate family members die in active duty.

Survivors can receive a $100,000 death benefit and the fallen soldier’s life insurance up to $400,000.

According to court papers, Craffy lost 60% of a widow’s $400,000 investment meant to fund her children’s college expenses and care for her mother, and looted $50,000 from the 13-year-old girl’s retirement account.

Mark Berman, a lawyer for Craffy, was not immediately available for comment.

Craffy entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton, New Jersey. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 21.

He could spend 97 months to 121 months in prison under recommended federal guidelines, and agreed not to appeal a sentence up to that range. Craffy also agreed to make full restitution, including proceeds from selling his home.

A spokeswoman for the Army Reserve declined specific comment on Craffy’s case, citing privacy laws, but said it “remains committed to holding personnel accountable for conduct that does not align with Department of Defense and Army policies.”

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in a technology firm based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country’s powerful national security adviser.

Microsoft and the technology holding company G42 announced the deal Tuesday. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, will join G42’s board of directors.

The deal “was developed in close consultation with both the UAE and U.S. governments,” Microsoft said.

Based in Abu Dhabi, G42 runs data centers in the Middle East and elsewhere and has increasingly identified itself as an AI firm. It has built what’s considered the world’s leading Arabic-language AI model, known as Jais.

Microsoft said G42 will run its AI applications and services on the U.S. tech giant’s cloud computing platform, and the two companies will work to bring digital infrastructure to countries where G42 has established a presence in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

G42 has previously said it would cut ties to Chinese hardware suppliers over American concerns it was too close to the Chinese government.

The company has faced spying allegations for its ties to a mobile phone app identified as spyware. It has also faced claims it could have gathered genetic material secretly from Americans for the Chinese government.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, is chairman of the company’s board.

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced a partnership with state attorneys general to fast-track investigations into complaints against airlines and ticket agents as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to enhance consumer protections.

Currently, the authority to enforce passenger protections lies solely with the federal government. And while state attorneys general receive consumer complaints, airlines are not legally required to respond to their inquiries.

Under the partnership, Buttigieg said the states will investigate complaints against airlines and refer them to the U.S. Department of Transportation for priority review and enforcement action.

They will also report carriers for failure to respond to requests for information. The DOT will give the states access to its consumer complaint database.

“The truth is we need force multipliers to help meet the need given the record-breaking air travel that we have seen,” Buttigieg told reporters.

Complaints about U.S. airlines climbed sharply last year even as flight cancellations dropped to a 10-year low, data from the Transportation Department shows.

The Biden administration has been aggressively pushing measures to expand consumer rights for airline passengers.

It has proposed rules to make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory when airlines are responsible for flight delays or cancellations. It has also pressed carriers to get rid of junk fees, including those for seating families together.

Buttigieg has opened numerous investigations and imposed fines for carrier misbehavior. Last year, the DOT imposed a $140 million fine on Southwest Airlines for a December 2022 holiday meltdown that led to 16,900 flight cancellations and stranded 2 million passengers.

The latest move comes as passenger traffic in the United States is projected to reach an all-time high this year.

Buttigieg said the bipartisan agreement brings together attorneys general from Republican and Democratic states.

It includes 18 states such as California, New York, Nevada and Colorado that have some of the busiest U.S. airports. The DOT said seven more states – Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington – are interested in joining the initiative.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; editing by Jonathan Oatis)