Global Pulse

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  • What to know about the AP/FRONTLINE investigation into scam victims

    What to know about the AP/FRONTLINE investigation into scam victims

    Scam activity across the United States has exploded to unprecedented levels in recent years, with nearly every American now facing regular targeting by fraudulent actors, according to a new joint investigation from The Associated Press and FRONTLINE. Federal data shows reported total losses from scams reached a new high of $15.9 billion last year, marking a 25% jump from 2024. But officials warn this official figure is a massive undercount: the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates actual total losses for 2024 are closer to $200 billion — equal to roughly $550 million stolen from consumers every single day.

    The collaborative investigation, which included in-depth interviews with 58 scam victims across the country, reveals that even after decades of legislative and administrative efforts to curb fraud under multiple presidential administrations, most people who fall victim to scams face almost no path to recover their stolen funds, and many end up suffering additional financial and personal harm. New polling from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research underscores the pervasiveness of the threat: 98% of U.S. adults report they have been targeted by scam communications, with many receiving fraudulent attempts daily. Three in 10 respondents confirmed they have already lost money or sensitive personal information to scams.

    The 58 victims interviewed for the investigation span every demographic, ranging in age from 32 to 90 years old, and including white-collar professionals such as IT specialists and academics, as well as working-class people living paycheck to paycheck. Individual losses ranged from several thousand dollars to as much as $4 million per person. Only one interviewee managed to recover their stolen funds, via a refund from their bank. The psychological toll on victims was severe: multiple respondents reported they had considered suicide after their losses, and two said they had attempted to take their own lives.

    Beyond the initial loss of funds, many victims face unexpected secondary penalties that leave them even worse off financially. Under a permanent provision of the Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, personal losses from most common scams are no longer eligible for tax deductions — a change that eliminated a key break that previously let victims offset their stolen income. For retirees who withdraw money from tax-deferred retirement accounts only to have it stolen by scammers, the Internal Revenue Service still requires them to pay income tax on the withdrawn funds, meaning they owe taxes on money that no longer exists in their possession.

    Many financial institutions also compound victims’ struggles, with some blaming customers for the fraud or even accusing them of being complicit in the scam. Victims reported having their bank accounts abruptly frozen or closed without warning, being forced to pay unexpected legal fees, and being held liable for repayment of fraudulent loans taken out in their names. Industry representatives note that banks already allocate significant resources to stopping unauthorized fraud, but current U.S. law places almost no liability on financial institutions for transactions that customers authorize themselves — even if that authorization was obtained through deception.

    The investigation also found that the United States lags far behind many other developed nations in putting consumer protections in place for scam victims. Since late 2024, United Kingdom financial institutions have been required to reimburse customers who are tricked into transferring funds to scammers, and trained social workers are often deployed to support affected people. The European Union has implemented new rules that hold financial firms liable for stolen funds if they fail to put adequate anti-fraud safeguards in place, while its Digital Services Act mandates that online platforms remove reported scam content quickly. In Australia, banks, telecom providers, and digital platforms can face heavy fines or be forced to compensate victims if they do not take sufficient action to prevent scams. Singapore goes even further: the country requires banks and telecom companies to refund victims of certain phishing scams if they fail to meet mandatory security standards, and operates a centralized national anti-scam center where police work alongside bank and platform staff in person to freeze fraudulent transfers before funds are lost.

    The rapid growth of cryptocurrency has amplified the scam crisis significantly, experts note. As a decentralized, hard-to-trace form of digital cash, crypto allows scammers to steal funds and move them across borders quickly without leaving a clear paper trail that authorities can follow. While major economies like China have banned unregulated crypto activity entirely and the EU has implemented strict licensing, consumer protection, and disclosure requirements for crypto firms, U.S. regulatory frameworks remain full of gaps. The GENIUS Act, a crypto regulation bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last year, did not include any requirement for crypto companies to return stolen funds to scam victims — a gap that has drawn widespread criticism from consumer advocates, prosecutors, and even some lawmakers. Unlike traditional bank deposits, crypto assets are not backed by federal deposit insurance, and many major crypto exchanges operate through offshore entities outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement and regulation.

    In recent months, the U.S. federal government has begun to acknowledge the scale of the crisis and has taken initial steps to address it. Congress is currently considering more than a dozen separate anti-scam bills, ranging from legislation that would create a centralized national scam complaint portal to requirements for transparency around AI-generated deepfake content that is often used to defraud consumers. In November, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a dedicated strike force targeting transnational scam operations based in Southeast Asia, which are responsible for a large share of global fraud activity, and the Treasury Department has levied sanctions against these criminal networks. In March, Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to prioritize scammer prosecutions and develop a new federal program to help victims recover stolen funds.

    Even with these new efforts underway, however, current initiatives are failing to keep pace with the rapid growth of scam activity, and anti-fraud governance remains fragmented across the federal government. A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that at least 13 separate federal agencies oversee different aspects of fraud prevention and victim support, with no unified coordination structure. The FBI’s Operation Level Up, one of the most active federal intervention programs, has prevented roughly 8,500 people from falling for scams over the past two years via proactive intervention calls. But that number represents only a tiny fraction of affected Americans: the FBI receives an average of nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints every day through its IC3.gov reporting portal.

    This investigation is part of an ongoing collaborative project between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS), and will be accompanied by the documentary “Scammed,” set to premiere September 29 on PBS and its digital platforms. The Associated Press receives funding from multiple private foundations for investigative work, and maintains full editorial control over all content.

  • Scams in the US are at a record high. Yet most victims get no help and some end up losing even more

    Scams in the US are at a record high. Yet most victims get no help and some end up losing even more

    Grief opened the door for fraud in Simon’s life, after 43 years of marriage to his wife ended with her death. Overwhelmed by loneliness, he turned to online platforms searching for connection, just like thousands of other grieving widows and widowers across the United States. It took only a short time for him to connect with a woman calling herself Emily — a relationship that ended not with the companionship he craved, but with $800,000 stolen from his savings. What followed made the initial loss even worse.

    Simon was left on the hook for $185,000 in loans he had taken out to send the scammer, plus tens of thousands in unexpected taxes on retirement funds he had withdrawn and lost. When he reached out to local police and the FBI to report the crime, his report went nowhere. He was then targeted by a second scammer, who demanded even more money in exchange for arranging help from the Secret Service to recover his lost funds.

    Simon’s story is far from an anomaly. A joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has uncovered the full scale of a national crisis: scam targeting U.S. consumers has surged to all-time highs, inflicting hundreds of billions of dollars in annual losses, while systemic gaps in regulation, law enforcement response and government support leave victims with little to no recourse, and often facing further financial and emotional harm after the initial theft.

    New exclusive polling from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research confirms that nearly all Americans — 98% — have been targeted by scammers in some form, with many facing daily attempts. Three in 10 survey respondents have already lost money or sensitive personal information to fraudulent schemes. In interviews with 58 scam victims across the U.S., ranging in age from 32 to 90 and spanning every income bracket and racial group, the investigation found that victimization rarely ends when the scammer cuts off contact.

    Many victims told reporters that they faced stigma and mockery from friends and family, aggressive collection pressure from banks and lenders, unexpected tax bills, dismissive treatment from law enforcement, and inaction from a federal government that most Americans count on to protect them. “What happens after the scam might even be worse than the scam itself,” explained Erin West, a former prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock, a nonprofit that supports online scam victims. “It’s a travesty.”

    The investigation even managed to trace the stolen funds from Simon’s case, using leaked documents and public cryptocurrency wallet data. The trail led directly to a large, notorious scam compound in Myanmar, a hub for transnational criminal networks that steal billions from global victims every year. Simon was shocked to see the fake profile “Emily” used, alongside hundreds of pages of his private conversations that he had assumed were encrypted. “What a fool I was,” he told reporters, requesting to keep his full name private out of overwhelming shame. Much of the Myanmar compound has since been destroyed by local authorities, but criminal operations simply relocated to new secret sites, and Simon has not recovered a cent of his stolen money.

    “(The police) told me right away that, you know, ‘You have to kiss that money goodbye,’” he said, fighting back tears. “Already I experienced something very bad and now I have to pay for the consequences on top of it, and see my money evaporate all over again. You lose two ways.”

    ## Scams Have Become an Industrial-Scale Global Industry

    Official data underscores the staggering growth of scam activity in the U.S. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission recorded a record $15.9 billion in reported losses from scams, a 25% jump from the year before. Regulators and investigators widely agree that this official number is a massive undercount, since most victims are too embarrassed to come forward and report their losses. The FTC estimates that real total losses for 2024 are closer to $200 billion — equal to $550 million stolen from U.S. consumers every single day.

    Two technological shifts have supercharged this growth: breakthrough advances in artificial intelligence, and the rising popularity of cryptocurrency. AI has allowed scammers to operate at a scale and level of sophistication that was unthinkable a decade ago, enabling them to create convincing fake profiles, generate personalized phishing content, and even mimic the voices of loved ones to trick victims out of money. Cryptocurrency, the most common payment method for many modern scams, is a digital asset that is extremely difficult to trace, allowing criminals to move stolen funds across borders without leaving a clear paper trail.

    No demographic is immune: the 58 victims interviewed by AP and FRONTLINE included doctors, IT specialists, academics with advanced degrees, and working-class people struggling to cover monthly bills. Individual losses ranged from a few thousand dollars to $4 million. All respondents reported feeling isolated and disoriented after the scam, and most said they felt abandoned by authorities when they tried to report the crime. Multiple victims said they had considered suicide, and two disclosed that they had attempted to take their own lives.

    Only one of the 58 victims interviewed managed to recover any of her lost funds, through a rare legal settlement with her bank, not through law enforcement action against the scammers.

    A particularly harmful secondary burden for many victims is unexpected tax debt. Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent in 2025, personal financial losses from most common scams are no longer eligible for tax deductions. For many victims who drained tax-deferred retirement accounts to send money to scammers, that means the Internal Revenue Service still demands they pay income tax on money that was stolen from them.

    Retired nurse Susan Bivins was tricked into draining her entire retirement savings to send more than $200,000 to a scammer pretending to be a federal law enforcement agent. After local police and the FBI declined to act on her case, she received a tax bill for $80,000. “I wanted to drive off a cliff,” she said. “I didn’t know how I was going to live.” Bivins was forced to sell her home and move into a small one-bedroom apartment, and she continues to pay off her tax debt by selling handmade quilts she sews.

    Financial institutions often compound the harm, as well. Many banks blame scam victims for authorizing the transfers, rather than recognizing them as crime victims, and will freeze or close accounts, demand immediate repayment of loans, and charge steep legal fees. Debra Fox, a Colorado resident who lost $58,000 to a romance scam, said a representative at her local bank told her she would be held fully liable for any fraudulent activity linked to her accounts and forced to cover all associated legal costs. For 48 hours after the meeting, she was in shock, terrified that the small amount of savings she had left would be seized. “I thought, I have no control over this process,” she said. “The crime was horrific enough… but it’s what happened next that was really unbelievable to me.”

    Under current U.S. law, financial institutions are rarely held liable for transactions that customers themselves authorize, even if the authorization was obtained through fraud. One rare exception is California’s elder financial abuse laws, which allowed 83-year-old Alice Lin to recover a portion of her stolen savings after a lawsuit against her bank, JPMorgan Chase. After her husband died, Lin was targeted by a scammer posing as a fellow widower, who convinced her to withdraw $720,000 in life savings to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms. Lin sued the bank for failing to flag the large, unusual transfers and protect an elderly customer, and the bank agreed to an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

    Ari Redford, global head of policy at blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, explained that modern scams have become fully industrialized, with large criminal networks running dozens of different schemes simultaneously. Lin’s scammers, for example, took in at least $800 million from victims between January 2022 and September 2024, TRM data shows. “We have not built out systems in the U.S. in many respects to not only alert victims but to really do restitution in a meaningful way,” Redford said.

    ## Global Models Offer Clear Paths Forward That the U.S. Has Not Adopted

    While the U.S. government has only recently begun to address the scam crisis, many other developed nations have already implemented far-reaching regulations to hold companies accountable and compensate victims. The AP-FRONTLINE investigation found that the U.S. lags behind peer nations in three key areas: requiring financial institutions and social media platforms to take responsibility for preventing fraud, holding bad actors accountable for unregulated cryptocurrency activity, and providing support for victims after a scam occurs.

    Eight in 10 Americans across the political spectrum agree that the federal government is not doing enough to protect consumers from scams, a recent Gallup survey found. A majority of respondents to the AP-NORC poll also said that financial institutions, technology and social media companies, and the federal government all share responsibility for preventing scam activity.

    Since late 2024, U.K. financial services firms have been required to reimburse customers who are tricked into sending money to scammers, creating a strong financial incentive for banks to invest in robust fraud prevention. The European Union has also implemented new rules that hold financial institutions liable for stolen funds if they fail to put adequate fraud protections in place, and the EU’s 2022 Digital Services Act requires social media platforms to quickly remove reported scam content and implement systemic changes to reduce online fraud. In the U.K., trained social workers are often sent to the homes of scam victims to provide support for the emotional trauma of fraud, a practice that eliminates the common stigma of blaming victims.

    “You wouldn’t ever say to a victim, ‘Why did you fall for a mugging? Why did you fall for a burglary?’” explained Louise Baxter, a member of the U.K. Home Office Joint Fraud Task Force. “It’s secondary victimization, from a law enforcement perspective and a societal perspective.”

    Australia and Singapore have gone even further. Australia’s new regulations require financial institutions, telecom companies, and digital platforms to prevent scams, and allow regulators to fine companies or force them to compensate victims if they fail to act. Singapore has the strictest framework in the world: under its Shared Responsibility Framework, banks and telecom companies must reimburse victims of phishing scams if they failed to implement required security safeguards. A 2024 anti-scam law allows Singaporean police to temporarily freeze suspicious transfers from potential victims, and staff from banks and e-commerce platforms work side-by-side with police in the country’s national anti-scam center.

    In the U.S., by contrast, regulatory action remains piecemeal, and broad legal protections shield social media companies from liability for scam content posted on their platforms. Victims are almost never reimbursed if they willingly authorized a transfer, even if they were tricked by a sophisticated criminal.

    Regulation of cryptocurrency also remains far weaker in the U.S. than in most other developed nations. China has banned all unregulated crypto-related business activity, while the EU requires mandatory licensing, strict consumer protections, and public disclosures for crypto firms. While the Trump administration has supported some limited crypto regulation, it has also moved to roll back aggressive enforcement to promote innovation. The GENIUS Act, signed into law by President Trump last year to regulate certain crypto sectors, does not require crypto companies to return stolen funds to scam victims — a gap that consumer advocates, prosecutors, and many lawmakers have openly criticized.

    Law enforcement officials note that tracing, freezing, and recovering stolen crypto is extremely difficult, because traditional institutional banking safeguards do not apply to digital assets. Unlike bank deposits, crypto is not backed by federal deposit insurance, and transfers can be done without verifying the identity of the people involved. Most major crypto exchanges are registered offshore, outside the reach of U.S. law.

    After Brian Glick lost $575,000 to a crypto scam, he spent months collecting evidence and working with the FBI to attempt to freeze his stolen funds held by crypto firm Tether. According to email exchanges shared with AP and FRONTLINE, the FBI requested that Tether freeze the funds, but the company refused. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company was unaware of Glick’s specific case, and noted that the firm has cooperated with law enforcement in hundreds of other cases, saying “there is no company, even in the banking industry, in the traditional financial industry, that is so helpful as us.” After receiving details of Glick’s case, Tether declined further comment. FBI and Secret Service officials confirmed that Tether does work closely with law enforcement, and a joint initiative between Tether, TRM Labs, and blockchain network TRON has frozen more than $450 million in illicit funds worldwide since 2024. Still, Glick has not recovered any of his money. “There are so many victims of these cybercrimes,” Glick said. “And we can’t get our money back.”

    ## Fledgling U.S. Efforts Fail to Keep Pace With Growing Crisis

    The U.S. government has begun to recognize the scope of the crisis, and has taken limited steps to address it. Congress is currently considering more than a dozen separate anti-scam bills: one proposal would create a centralized national website for scam complaints, ReportScams.gov, while another would require mandatory disclosures for deepfakes and other AI-generated content used in scams. In November, the Department of Justice launched a dedicated strike force to cut off transnational Southeast Asian scam networks from U.S. financial infrastructure, pursue criminal charges, and seize stolen funds. The Treasury has imposed sanctions on scam hubs in Southeast Asia, and local authorities in Myanmar and Cambodia have carried out high-profile raids on known scam compounds.

    The Justice Department’s strike force has announced that it has restrained $832 million in stolen cryptocurrency linked to transnational Chinese criminal networks, but a spokesperson told AP and FRONTLINE that the department cannot share details about individual seizures, where funds are being held, or how much has been returned to victims. President Trump also signed an executive order in March directing the attorney general to prioritize prosecuting scammers and develop a program to return stolen funds to victims.

    “President Trump is unleashing every available tool to stop criminal networks that exploit vulnerable Americans through cyber fraud and scams,” the White House said in a statement to AP and FRONTLINE.

    But advocates and government watchdog groups say these efforts are underfunded and fragmented, and cannot keep up with the rapid growth of scam activity. A 2025 report from the Government Accountability Office found that at least 13 different federal agencies handle different aspects of scam regulation and enforcement, with no unified national strategy. “There is no government-wide estimate of the money lost to scams, no common definition of scams, and no national strategy for combating them,” said Seto Bagdoyan, director of the GAO’s Forensic Audits and Investigative Service. He added that the current fragmented approach has resulted in a sluggish response that “falls short” of what is needed.

    Rebecca Keithley, assistant section chief of the FBI’s Financial Crimes Section who retired earlier this year, acknowledged that tens of billions of dollars flow out of the U.S. economy every year through scams. The FBI’s Operation Level Up, which proactively contacts potential victims to intervene before they send money, has stopped roughly 8,500 scams in nearly two years — a drop in the bucket compared to the total volume of incidents. The FBI receives an average of nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints every day through its IC3.gov portal, and most complaints never receive a follow-up.

    Chris Scott, an Arizona casino dealer who lost $400,000 to a dating site scammer, told reporters that she visited her local FBI office four times in person to beg for help, but was told all she could do was file a complaint through the IC3 portal. She filed the complaint, but never received any response, not even a confirmation that it had been received. Desperate for help, she hired three different companies that claimed to have connections to the FBI and promised to recover her funds, only to lose an additional $23,000 to these recovery scammers. She was forced to sell her home to cover her debts, and still pays off a $20,000 tax bill from her drained retirement account.

    “I’m just a small fish in a big pond,” Scott said. “All I wanted was to talk to someone and get help, but I’m nobody to them.”

    This report is part of an ongoing collaborative investigation between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS), including a new documentary “Scammed” premiering September 29 on PBS and streaming online.

  • Missing British trekker’s body found in Pakistan

    Missing British trekker’s body found in Pakistan

    A veteran hiker who built his life in Pakistan’s capital has been found dead after going missing during an expedition on a 4,000-meter mountain in the country’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Alexander Harris, a 30-year-old originally from Birmingham with both British and Irish citizenship, had been living in Islamabad working for the global advisory firm Adam Smith International, when he embarked on his trek to the summit of Musa Ka Musala.

    Local officials confirmed Harris set off for the climb at around 5:40 a.m. local time Saturday alongside a single hiking companion. After capturing photos at the peak, the pair began their descent, but separated after Harris pulled ahead by roughly 1 to 2 kilometers due to his faster pace. Unexpected rain rolled in as the descent continued, and Harris went missing soon after.

    Khalid Iqbal, deputy commissioner of the local district, shared that between 250 and 300 first responders, police officers and civilian volunteers launched an extensive search effort to locate the missing trekker. Rescuers deployed both on-foot search teams and drones to cover the steep, forested terrain, but heavy fog and poor visibility severely limited the effectiveness of aerial tools. After days of searching, crews located Harris’ body along a forest trail, with investigators concluding the most likely cause of death was a fatal slip and fall. Iqbal added that Harris had declined official support for the trip: local authorities and his accommodation had offered a certified guide and police security, but Harris, an experienced hiker familiar with the region, turned this assistance down. The expedition also was not registered with local authorities, per local regulations.

    A passionate outdoor enthusiast, Harris was an active trail runner and regular competitor in long-distance races across Pakistan. His employer released an official statement Sunday honoring his memory, describing him as a deeply beloved member of their team who had formed profound connections to Pakistan during his time in the country. “He cared deeply for Pakistan, its people, its nature, and learned Urdu during his time there,” the statement read. The company also extended its gratitude to the hundreds of people who participated in the search effort, noting that crews worked tirelessly through dangerous conditions including heavy rain, thick fog, and uneven steep terrain to locate Harris.

    Harris’ local running community, the Margalla Trail Runners, also mourned his loss on social media, remembering him as a passionate trail runner and extending condolences to his family and loved ones.

    Officials confirmed they are now working to repatriate Harris’ remains to his family. The UK Foreign Office has been contacted for comment on the incident, and has not yet released a public statement as of Monday.

  • Pub’s ‘beloved’ manager stabbed to death in Germany

    Pub’s ‘beloved’ manager stabbed to death in Germany

    A small Buckinghamshire community is grieving the loss of a widely adored local publican, who was killed in a stabbing attack at a German train station while traveling abroad over the weekend.

    Thirty-one-year-old Rebecca Bullock, the popular manager of The White Swan pub in Whitchurch, was assaulted at Rosenheim Station just before 1 a.m. local time on Sunday. Emergency services rushed her to a nearby hospital following the incident, but she could not be saved and was pronounced dead a short time later.

    Local law enforcement in Bavaria confirmed that a 27-year-old German man with no fixed permanent address was taken into custody at the scene immediately after the attack. He has since been detained in a psychiatric hospital as authorities investigate on suspicion of murder.

    In an emotional Facebook post shared over the weekend, the team at The White Swan broke the news of Bullock’s death to the local community. “We are so deeply sorry to say that our beloved Becca passed away over the weekend whilst away on holiday,” the statement read. “Becca was much-loved by all of the team at the White Swan and our amazing regulars.”

    Following the devastating announcement, the pub chose to close its doors starting Monday as staff and regulars processed the loss. The pub’s landlords confirmed that it would reopen at 3 p.m. on the following day, noting that reopening aligns with what they believe Bullock would have wanted. Heartbroken customers and community members have since left floral tributes outside the pub to honor Bullock’s memory.

    A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told the BBC that British consular staff are already providing full support to Bullock’s family as they navigate the tragedy, and remain in close coordination with German local authorities working on the case.

    Beyond her work at The White Swan, Bullock was an passionate and dedicated recreational runner with deep ties to local running communities. After recovering from three major spinal operations, she completed the 2022 London Marathon to raise funds for the Spinal Injuries Association, a charity based in nearby Milton Keynes that supports people living with spinal cord injuries.

    She was also a committed member of Thame Runners, a running club based in Oxfordshire. The club released a statement following Bullock’s death expressing profound sorrow over the loss of their teammate. “In July, she and her clubmates were part of the winning women’s team at the Waddesdon 5K in Buckinghamshire,” the club shared. “She will be remembered with great affection by the many members who knew her, ran alongside her and shared in her love of running.”

  • Tugboat sinks off South Korea’s southern coast, leaving 1 dead and 6 missing

    Tugboat sinks off South Korea’s southern coast, leaving 1 dead and 6 missing

    A maritime disaster unfolded off the southeastern shore of South Korea on Wednesday, when a 286-ton tugboat overturned and ultimately sank, claiming one life and leaving six crew members unaccounted for, according to official statements from the South Korean Coast Guard.

    The ill-fated vessel set out on Wednesday morning on a routine mission to tow a cargo merchant ship, with a total of eight crew members on board. Its voyage through the waters near Busan, one of South Korea’s busiest port cities, ended in sudden catastrophe when it flipped unexpectedly.

    In the immediate aftermath of the overturn, one Indonesian crew member was pulled from the water by the nearby merchant vessel the tugboat had been heading to assist, and emerged physically unharmed. Rescuers from the coast guard later recovered a second crew member, a South Korean national, who was found unresponsive. The sailor was airlifted to a mainland hospital for urgent treatment, but medical teams were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

    As search efforts entered their first full day, the South Korean Coast Guard and national Navy have deployed a large-scale search and rescue contingent, including dozens of surface vessels, fixed-wing surveillance aircraft, and diving teams to comb the area where the tugboat sank for the six missing crew. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has issued explicit orders to relevant response agencies, directing them to mobilize every available resource to speed up search operations and leave no stone unturned in efforts to locate the missing.

    Official records confirm the tugboat slipped beneath the surface around 3:30 p.m. local time, which is 0630 GMT, roughly two hours after the first distress report of the capsizing was received. At this early stage of the investigation, maritime officials have not yet confirmed what triggered the capsizing, and a full probe into the incident is already underway to determine root causes and rule out any safety negligence.

  • German train station closed after blast and discovery of a suspicious object

    German train station closed after blast and discovery of a suspicious object

    On Wednesday morning, authorities ordered a full shutdown of the central train station in Augsburg, a mid-sized city in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria, following an unexpected explosion and the discovery of a second potentially hazardous package nearby. The sudden incident brought all rail services through the major transit hub to an immediate standstill, leaving passengers stranded and disrupting regional travel plans.

    Local law enforcement officials confirmed that the first, still-unidentified explosive device detonated inside a pedestrian passageway connected to the station building. While the explosion did not cause severe physical harm, several people suffered minor injuries linked to the loud concussive blast, and multiple window panes across the surrounding area were shattered by the force of the detonation.

    In response to the incident, specialist explosive ordnance disposal experts from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office were deployed to the scene to conduct a thorough forensic examination and assess the two items. Beyond the suspension of rail services, road traffic and local public transit routes within a close perimeter of the station were also diverted and halted, as a safety precaution, police confirmed in an official update posted to the social media platform X.

    As of Wednesday morning’s initial reports, no additional details have been released regarding the origin and nature of the exploded device, nor the second unexploded suspicious package that prompted the extended security response. Augsburg, which has a total population of roughly 308,000, sits approximately 78 kilometers (48 miles) to the northwest of Munich, Bavaria’s state capital.

  • South Korea jails disabled care home head for sexually assaulting residents

    South Korea jails disabled care home head for sexually assaulting residents

    A high-profile sexual abuse case at a South Korean disabled care home has sent shockwaves across the country, resulting in a 15-year prison sentence for the facility’s former director and triggering urgent nationwide reviews of residential care services for people with disabilities. The convicted individual, identified only by his surname Kim, was found guilty of sexually assaulting three residents of the Saekdongwon care facility, located in Incheon City, approximately 30 kilometers west of the national capital Seoul. The investigation into Kim’s actions was only launched after one of his victims, a woman living with a severe intellectual disability, stepped forward to report the abuse in February of last year. In the wake of Kim’s conviction, a deeper investigation commissioned by local Ganghwa County authorities uncovered disturbing new findings: as many as 20 current and former female residents of the facility may have been targeted for sexual abuse over the course of Kim’s tenure. The revelation has sparked intense public outrage and widespread questioning across South Korea, particularly given the country strengthened legal protections for people with disabilities against sexual violence back in 2011. Many members of the public and advocacy groups have raised critical questions about systemic failures that allowed Kim’s harmful actions to remain hidden from authorities for years. In response to the scandal, local regulators have taken swift administrative action: Ganghwa County has ordered Saekdongwon to permanently cease operations, while Incheon City officials have revoked the operating license of the non-profit foundation that ran the facility. To protect the well-being of the facility’s current residents, the closure has been delayed until all residents can be safely relocated to appropriate alternative care arrangements and supported transition to independent living, where applicable. The affected foundation has pushed back against the regulatory action, however, filing an administrative lawsuit to challenge the revocation of its operating license. Following the outbreak of the scandal, the South Korean national government launched an urgent inspection of all 1,507 residential disabled care facilities operating across the country. Preliminary results from that sweeping review uncovered 33 separate suspected cases of abuse across the nation’s care system, pointing to broader systemic issues that require policy intervention. South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has called the abuse at Saekdongwon an unprecedented moral failure, describing the incident as “a grave matter that calls into question the very reason for the state’s existence”, underscoring the severity with which national authorities view the scandal.

  • America’s story intertwined with its military history, but a military-civilian disconnect persists

    America’s story intertwined with its military history, but a military-civilian disconnect persists

    NEW YORK — Twenty years ago, when Qwynn Galloway-Salazar left the Army Reserves and stepped into a civilian job interview, the weight of misunderstanding hit her hard. As a Black woman veteran, she immediately recognized that she did not align with the narrow, outdated stereotypes the interview panel held of people who had served in the U.S. military. To them, a veteran was exclusively a white male who had fought in Vietnam. Sitting in that room, Galloway-Salazar understood the panel had no framework to engage with her experience. She left in tears, driving away wondering how she would ever bridge the gap between her military service and the civilian world she was trying to join. Today, decades later, she has built her entire career around advancing veteran advocacy and expanding public awareness of the gaps that still separate military and civilian life in America. Her story lays bare two under-examined, critical questions facing the nation as it marks 250 years of democratic experiment: How have military and civilian life drifted so far apart, and what can be done to close that persistent divide?

    Military history has been inseparable from the story of the United States since its founding. From the 1776 Revolutionary War that birthed the nation, to the territorial expansion that shaped its borders, to its modern role as a global superpower shaping international political and economic order, military service is woven into the fabric of everyday American life. It appears in the history lessons taught in K-12 classrooms, in the public monuments that dot city squares and national parks, in the pre-game ceremonies at professional sporting events, and in the national holiday commemorations that bring communities together. Most pervasive of all is the common cultural refrain, automatically offered to anyone in uniform or any veteran: “Thank you for your service.” But despite this pervasive cultural acknowledgement, many threads of that interwoven fabric have begun to fray.

    Even as the nation collectively celebrates the idea of military service, the vast majority of American adults have never served themselves, nor do they maintain close personal connections to service members or their families that would give them real insight into military life. Modern military service increasingly concentrates within interconnected networks: multigenerational military families, specific regional communities, and a handful of states that contribute a disproportionate share of recruits. This concentration means the burdens, risks, and sacrifices of military life fall disproportionately on a small subset of the population, while most civilians remain disconnected from those realities. Public attention typically only turns to military issues when high-profile crises emerge — such as the well-documented mental health crisis among sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, during an extended deployment tied to the U.S. campaign against Iran that has left 18 service members dead and more than 750 injured in just six months.

    Just as fraying threads create holes in fabric, this lack of connection has created a tangible military-civilian divide: a gap in mutual understanding that carries real consequences for public policy, for the daily logistics of military family life, and for the persistent stereotypes that shape how each group sees the other.

    Scholars note that tension over the relationship between the U.S. government and its military dates back to the nation’s founding. Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University, explains that the Founding Fathers were deeply preoccupied with striking the right balance between national security and democratic governance. One of the core grievances that sparked the Revolutionary War was British forced quartering of soldiers in private colonial homes without homeowner consent. While the new nation recognized the need for a military force to defend its borders, the idea of a large standing professional army was deeply unpopular among early leaders. “From the very beginning, the country has wrestled with … the need to have a military to protect you from threats, but the need for that military not to become a threat to the republic itself,” Feaver explains. That tension led to the creation of a small, focused professional army tasked primarily with border protection, with state militias handling local defense needs.

    Conscription was a core part of major U.S. military conflicts through the 20th century, used to fill troop ranks when volunteer numbers fell short during the Civil War and both World Wars. But the Vietnam War sparked widespread public opposition to the draft, leading to its elimination in 1973. Since that year, the U.S. armed forces have operated as an all-volunteer force. Today, roughly 2 million Americans serve on active duty, or in the National Guard and Reserves — a tiny fraction of the more than 230 million adult citizens and legal permanent residents living in the U.S. While the benefits of a professional, highly trained all-volunteer force are widely accepted, and there is no serious movement to reinstate active conscription (adult men are still required to register for the Selective Service in case a draft is ever reintroduced), the shift has also widened the gap between military and civilian life.

    During World War II, nearly every American family had a member serving in uniform, Feaver notes. “If not themselves, if not their dad or mom, certainly they had an uncle or an aunt or somebody,” he says. “And the military was widely distributed geographically throughout society.” That widespread representation is no longer the case, says Kathy Roth-Douquet, co-founder and CEO of Blue Star Families, a nonprofit that advocates for military households. Her organization’s Do Your Part initiative calls on civilian industries and communities to develop policies that support military families without requiring civilian enlistment. “Military service kind of became a cul-de-sac, where it was people who served beget people who served, who married people who were from families who served,” she explains.

    Data from the U.S. Army Recruiting Command bears this out: More than 75% of new Army recruits come from families with a history of military service. In fiscal year 2025, roughly half of all Army recruits came from just seven states. U.S. military leaders have repeatedly highlighted the need to broaden recruitment pools to draw from a more diverse cross-section of young Americans across all regions and backgrounds.

    Jason Higgins, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech who specializes in the Vietnam War, says this concentrated representation means the harms and sacrifices of military conflict are not shared equally across American society. He points to the Iraq War as a stark example: repeated deployments became routine for many service members, leading to higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), permanent physical injury, and intense strain on families forced to repeatedly adapt to long absences and difficult reintegrations that were cut short when service members were called to deploy again. “You have this small group of American families who are the only ones who directly experience the consequences of war,” he says.

    This widespread public lack of familiarity with military life also reinforces harmful stereotypes about who serves and what their needs are when transitioning back to civilian life, Higgins argues. Pop culture depictions almost exclusively center grizzled, white male combat troops armed and in fatigues, erasing the huge range of roles that exist within the U.S. military. While combat troops are a critical part of the force, millions of service members work in administrative, logistics, mechanical, and technical roles that have no direct connection to combat. “There are millions of jobs in the military that are not related to killing people,” he notes. These narrow portrayals have even left many veterans uncomfortable with the ubiquitous “Thank you for your service” greeting. Higgins explains that many veterans feel reduced to symbolic “statues,” rather than recognized as full, complex human beings. While the gratitude is well-intentioned, the constant valorization makes many feel like outsiders in civilian society, he says: “not every veteran wants to be called a hero.”

    The divide extends beyond wartime experiences, shaping public understanding of the mundane, daily challenges that military families navigate. Military children must repeatedly transfer to new school districts as their families move to follow service assignments, disrupting their education and social connections. Military spouses struggle to build consistent, fulfilling careers when they are forced to relocate every few years, often having to start over job searching in a new market.

    Sheila Rupp, a military spouse of more than 20 years who has moved multiple times to follow her husband’s assignments, says closing the divide does not require all civilians to enlist. Instead, it requires ordinary Americans to build personal connections with military families and seek to understand the realities of their lives. “I think the average American really wants to support military families, but they often don’t know how,” said the 43-year-old Rupp. “If people were more connected and they actually knew their friends and neighbors that do serve or have served recently, I think it would impact a lot of things.”

    Rupp added: “I just wish that there were more opportunities for people to get to know us … because obviously the civilian population brings support to our networks. And I think that there’s a lot that military families bring to the communities in which they live and serve too. So I think relationship is really important.”

    This report is part of a series exploring American life as the nation marks its 250th anniversary.

  • Pennsylvania officer charged in death of student who knocked at wrong door

    Pennsylvania officer charged in death of student who knocked at wrong door

    In a tragic case that has drawn renewed attention to police use of deadly force in the United States, a veteran Pennsylvania law enforcement officer has been formally charged with voluntary manslaughter for the killing of an unarmed 22-year-old college student who mistakenly arrived at the wrong residence after a night out.

    Upper Pottsgrove Police Corporal Sean Farrell, 58, fatally shot Glenwood Earl Pysher in the early hours of August 23, after the young man had gotten lost while heading to a friend’s house following a birthday celebration at local pubs. According to case documents from Montgomery County prosecutors, body camera footage directly contradicts the officer’s post-shooting account of the incident, laying out a clear timeline of the avoidable tragedy.

    The chain of events began when Pysher, who was out marking a friend’s 21st birthday, left the bar to walk to the group’s planned after-party, but misread the address and ended up at a private home. After attempting to open the wrong door, the student retreated to the property’s back porch to sit down and reach out to his friends for directions. The confused homeowner contacted 911 to report the suspicious person, and Farrell was dispatched to the scene.

    When Farrell arrived, he immediately confronted Pysher on the rear patio, shouting orders for the student to raise his hands and get on the ground. Body camera footage reviewed by investigators confirms that Pysher complied with the first order, lifting both hands fully into the air and began walking toward the officer as instructed. Even as Pysher followed Farrell’s initial direction, the officer repeatedly ordered him to drop to the ground, then fired two shots into the student’s chest before finishing his warning to stop. Prosecutors confirmed that Pysher was approximately 20 feet (6 meters) away from Farrell when the shots were fired — too far to pose an immediate physical threat, investigators found.

    In a striking twist, the district attorney’s office confirmed that Farrell had multiple less-lethal force options available on his utility belt the night of the shooting, including a Taser, that he never attempted to use. After the shooting, Farrell told fellow responding officers that Pysher had charged at him while screaming and refusing to comply with orders. But prosecutors say this version of events is completely disproven by the official body camera footage.

    Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele emphasized at a public press conference that the shooting did not meet the legal standard for justifiable use of lethal force. “This is not a legal use of lethal force,” Steele stated plainly.

    Farrell turned himself in to authorities this week, with bail set at $75,000. His next court hearing is scheduled for September 10.

    In the weeks after their son’s death, Pysher’s parents remembered him as a gentle, kind-hearted young person who was only days away from returning to his college studies. “He was a very caring, loving kid,” they shared in a statement, highlighting the senseless loss of a life cut short by a mistaken turn and a fatal police decision.

  • Charlie Kirk murder suspect pleads not guilty as judge clears way for death penalty trial

    Charlie Kirk murder suspect pleads not guilty as judge clears way for death penalty trial

    On Tuesday, 23-year-old Utah native Tyler Robinson formally entered a plea of not guilty to charges of aggravated murder in the 2025 fatal shooting of prominent conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, as a Utah judge upheld the prosecution’s right to pursue the death penalty in the high-profile case.

    Kirk, 31, who was widely credited with mobilizing young conservative voters in support of former President Donald Trump, was shot in the neck while delivering a speech at a public campus event hosted by Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on September 10, 2025. Beyond the top charge of aggravated murder — a capital offense under Utah state law — Robinson also faces six additional criminal charges connected to the shooting, all of which he has denied.

    Robinson, dressed in a neutral grey suit, appeared before the court in Provo on Tuesday, conferring periodically with his legal team. Kirk’s immediate family — including his widow Erika, mother of the couple’s two young children, and his parents Robert and Kathryn Kirk — were all present for the pivotal arraignment hearing.

    Tuesday’s proceedings followed a nearly week-long preliminary hearing held in July, during which prosecutors laid out their full body of evidence to establish probable cause for the case to go to trial. Prosecutors laid out four core pillars of evidence linking Robinson to the crime: DNA evidence tying him to the murder weapon and other items recovered at the shooting scene, alleged confessions to family members, a taped video statement from his roommate and romantic partner Lance Twiggs, and surveillance video showing Robinson on campus the day of the shooting.

    “There is a mountain of evidence that proves that he is the shooter,” lead prosecutor Ryan McBride told the court Tuesday, noting that surveillance footage captured Robinson “dressed to kill” ahead of the attack. Prosecutors also outlined the state’s alleged motive: Robinson reportedly viewed Kirk’s conservative political positions — particularly his stances on transgender issues — as “repugnant.”

    During Tuesday’s arguments over the eligibility of the death penalty, prosecutors detailed aggravating circumstances they say warrant a capital trial. Defense attorneys had initially pushed to remove the death penalty from consideration, but prosecutors argued that Robinson’s decision to fire at Kirk while surrounded by a crowd that included children created extreme risk to innocent bystanders. Prosecutor Chad Grunander described Robinson’s actions as “ballistic roulette,” saying the defendant “gambled with the lives of others” when he opened fire. The prosecution also confirmed Robinson repeatedly scouted the Utah Valley University campus on the day of the shooting, even interacting with Turning Point USA members and eating at a campus Chick-fil-A before changing into a new outfit. Prosecutors say the outfit included long pants intentionally chosen to conceal the rifle Robinson carried onto campus.

    Prosecutors further detailed that Robinson’s DNA was recovered from his grandfather’s hunting rifle, which was hidden in a wooded area near the campus after the shooting, as well as from the towel used to wrap the weapon and a screwdriver left at the scene. Casings recovered at the shooting carried engravings that match a Dremel tool found in the home Robinson shared with Twiggs, prosecutors added. During the July preliminary hearing, Twiggs’ recorded interview was played for the court, in which he testified that Robinson had confessed to the shooting, cried, and said he regretted the act. Robinson surrendered to law enforcement the day after the killing, accompanied by his family and a neighbor.

    Robinson’s defense team has sought to undermine the prosecution’s case, raising questions about evidence handling procedures and the expert credentials of prosecution witnesses during the July hearing. The defense also pushed back against the prosecution’s framing of aggravating factors, arguing that no bystanders were struck by gunfire, with Kirk being the only victim.

    A long-running point of contention in the case has been the defense’s repeated objections to allowing cameras to livestream court proceedings, amid widespread public interest and rampant online conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s killing. On Tuesday morning, Judge Michael Graf held a sealed hearing to revisit the issue, ultimately ruling in favor of court transparency, allowing broadcast access.

    The next hearing in the case is scheduled for October 23, 2026, when a formal trial date is expected to be set.