AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

It followed back-to-back rulings last week that barred his two sweeping executive orders seeking to change national election rules, more court rulings preventing his Department of Justice from obtaining detailed state voter data and his stalled attempts to get the Senate to pass the SAVE Act. That measure would eliminate nearly all absentee voting, require citizenship documents to register to vote and impose photo identification requirements nationwide right before the midterm elections.

“It’s been a mixed bag for Republicans,” said University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller. But the president, he added, “has come up mostly empty-handed.”

Trump's efforts have not been entirely fruitless. Republican-run states have satisfied his demands to redraw congressional district lines, efforts buoyed by the Supreme Court striking down a key section of the Voting Rights Act, and he has been directing his Department of Justice to investigate voting and election operations, which Democrats see as a possible prelude to their involvement in November.

All the activity around how the nation votes and runs its elections is a reflection of the Republican president's long fixation on his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was rigged. He has been so frustrated by the inability of the Senate to pass the SAVE Act that he has refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill.

US and Iran pause strikes but disagree over next steps on talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Iran on Monday separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the U.S. “at any level” after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend challenged negotiations to end the war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.

But one of Iran's senior negotiators denied talks had been scheduled. And the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tehran was sending its delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations, to discuss terms of the interim deal without involving the U.S.

Hostilities mounted in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil had been shipped before war began. After four days of trading strikes, both sides appeared to pause their attacks Monday.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month that calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. It also waives U.S.-backed oil sanctions on the country, calls for free traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and gives each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements.

Monaco explosion injures 3 including Ukrainian tycoon, as suspect flees to France

MONACO (AP) — A Ukrainian business tycoon is believed to have been the target of an explosive device that detonated outside a residential building in Monaco, seriously injuring three people before the suspected attacker fled into neighboring France, authorities and media reports said Tuesday.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda said he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia.

A woman was very seriously injured and is being treated at a hospital in Nice, Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco, told French news broadcaster LCI on Tuesday. Her partner and a 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries but remain at hospital, he added.

The explosion occurred around 9 p.m. on Monday at the entrance of a residence near the French border.

Law enforcement officers were deployed Tuesday morning in Monaco and the surrounding area. French and Monaco authorities are searching for an unidentified suspect, whose motive is under investigation, authorities said.

Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people

The instructions were clear: He had four days to make each victim fall in love.

And there were a lot of victims. Online, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, who was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar, impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella. On a typical shift, he said, he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, as supervisors prowled among the desks with electric batons.

In just a month, Koorimannil targeted some 50,000 victims from at least 17 countries, according to records he smuggled out to The Associated Press. His “clients” included a widowed tailor in Kurdistan, a pastry chef in Turkey, a sheep farmer in Kyrgyzstan, soldiers in Iraq, an engineer in Russia, a building painter in Germany, a port officer in Argentina, a student in Indonesia, a security guard in Poland and a dairy farmer in the Republic of Georgia. And he did it using software built with artificial intelligence models from American tech companies that scammers are abusing to target victims at unprecedented speed and scale. “Everyone is a robot there,” he told AP from his home in southern India in his native Malayalam language.

Technology from American companies is being used to power a revolution in the scam industry, playing a key role in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear until now, an AP/"FRONTLINE" investigation has found. Watchdogs say these companies have the technical capacity to do more to protect against abuse but lack the legal, regulatory and business incentives to crack down on a crime the Federal Trade Commission estimates cost Americans nearly $200 billion in losses in 2024.

While most public scrutiny of the technology that fuels scams has focused on the social media platforms victims see, the infrastructure exploited to commit fraud begins much farther upstream, the investigation showed. American technology is present all along the digital supply chains that connect scammers with the scammed, from AI models baked into powerful new tools to optimize workflow and create more perfect fakes, to satellite dishes that enable scammers to evade internet crackdowns, to internet service providers that carry traffic from the lawless borderlands of Myanmar to the phones and computers of millions of victims.

Takeaways from AP/'FRONTLINE' investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams

American technology and American companies are being used to power a revolution in the cyberscam industry, playing key roles in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear until now, an AP/"FRONTLINE" investigation has found.

Most public scrutiny of the technology that fuels scams has focused on the social media platforms victims see, but the infrastructure exploited to commit fraud begins much farther upstream, the investigation showed.

Watchdogs say satellite internet, AI and internet infrastructure companies along the digital supply chains that fraudsters abuse have the technical capacity to do more to protect consumers but lack the legal, regulatory and business incentives to crack down on a crime the Federal Trade Commission estimates cost Americans nearly $200 billion in 2024.

The AP found no evidence to suggest these companies were doing anything illegal. However, the patterns of abuse AP identified raise questions about how vigorously they are enforcing their own terms of service, which prohibit illegal activity.

Here are key findings:

He survived 2 natural disasters in Venezuela's La Guaira. Now he vows never to return

Venezuelan merchant Grian Serrano has survived two of the country's worst natural disasters: the devastating 1999 mudslides that ravaged the coastal state of La Guaira and, 26 years later, two powerful earthquakes that struck the same region.

Bruised around his left eye and across much of his body, 46-year-old Serrano is recovering from the ordeal he endured with his son and mother Wednesday.

The three were buried beneath rubble and twisted steel when their eight-story apartment building collapsed in the city of Caraballeda in La Guaira, the state hardest hit by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes.

“It is a miracle from God,” Serrano said as he recalled how, in total darkness, he clawed through debris with his bare hands before rescuing his 8-year-old son and 69-year-old mother with the help of two passersby.

The two earthquakes have killed more than 1,700 people and injured more than 5,000, according to the government. Hundreds of buildings collapsed or were damaged, primarily in La Guaira. Significant damage was also reported in the capital, Caracas, and in the states of Carabobo, Miranda, Aragua and Yaracuy.

By the numbers: What to know about Spain's legalization program for immigrants

MADRID (AP) — Around 1 million immigrants in Spain have sought to legalize their status after the Southern European nation launched a measure earlier this year to integrate foreigners living and working in the country without authorization.

The window to apply for the program, which was announced in January and kicked off in April, was set to close Tuesday.

It offers immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record.

Spain's government estimated that half a million people could benefit from the program. But by mid June, the government said it had received more than 900,000 applications.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, one of Europe's prominent progressive leaders, called the measure “an act of justice and a necessity,” arguing that people already living and working in Spain should “do so under equal conditions” and pay taxes.

Pope issues last-ditch appeal, begs breakaway traditionalist group to back off bishop consecrations

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday begged a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics to call off its plan to consecrate new bishops without his consent, calling the move a schismatic act and a “sin of extreme gravity.”

“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the Society of St. Pius X.

Leo issued the last-ditch appeal a day before the society plans to consecrate four new bishops at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. Under church law, the consecrations constitute a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church, and incur automatic excommunication for the four bishops and the bishop administering the consecration.

The ceremony poses the first major crisis for the American pope, who has stressed the need for church unity since the start of his pontificate. He has worked especially hard to heal tensions with traditionalist Catholics who prefer the old Latin Mass, that worsened in some ways during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The society, known as the SSPX, was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the council revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other religions and the laity, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin.

Venezuelans search more earthquake ruins as attention turns to humanitarian crisis

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — With the window for finding survivors shrinking fast, Venezuelans combed Monday through more ruins of buildings toppled by last week’s powerful back-to-back earthquakes, and attention turned to the country's humanitarian crisis that could persist for years.

Relief organizations say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster is the most crucial time period for rescues, though survival can be extended if people have access to food and water. Five days after the twin quakes, questions loomed about whether the cash-strapped government will be able to coordinate the effort needed to care for thousands of people who have been left homeless.

In other developments, a 4.6 magnitude aftershock rumbled through the disaster zone in the northern state of La Guaira.

The death toll stood at more than 1,700 people, according to the government, which has long retained tight control over news media.

Facing criticism that authorities have done too little, too slowly, government officials aggressively promoted their recovery and rescue efforts. Police and military officers on Monday handed out cans of tuna and crackers to hungry displaced people in La Guaira.

Supreme Court says Fed’s Cook can keep her job for now, but it upholds other Trump firings

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday dramatically expanded presidential power, upholding President Donald Trump’s firings of the heads of independent federal agencies with one important exception: the Federal Reserve.

The justices allowed Fed governor Lisa Cook to stay in her job while she fights the Republican president’s effort to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied.

But other than at the nation’s central bank, with its role of setting interest rates, the court held that presidents have free rein to fire agency heads at will, despite federal laws that require a cause for such dismissals and a 91-year-old decision that had limited executive authority.

With the six conservative justices in the majority, the nine-member court jettisoned its unanimous decision in Humphrey’s Executor that had limited when presidents can fire agencies’ board members — in part to try to ensure decision-making free of political influence.

“We hold that such protection from removal is contrary to the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.