With Gaza rehab and other global policy ideas, Trump goes from America First to America Everywhere

• February 5, 2025

By AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building.

But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the U.S. could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island.

The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is leaving even some of his allies slack-jawed — and wondering if he’s really serious.

“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” a flummoxed Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and Trump ally, posted Wednesday on social media. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”

The president’s shocking declaration Tuesday that he wants to remove roughly 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza and redevelop the war-scarred territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” with “long-term” American ownership raises anew questions about the direction of Trump’s foreign policy during his norm-breaking second term.

Is Trump’s imperialist talk just meant to appear tough on the world stage? Is he merely trying to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cover with far-right members of his governing coalition who oppose moving forward with the second phase of the ceasefire deal with Hamas? Is the Gaza takeover proposal a land grab by a president who sees the world through the prism of a New York real estate developer? Or is it, possibly, a bit of all of above?

Whatever the answer, Trump’s play on Gaza has perplexed Washington — and the world — as they try to make sense of the president’s foreign policy doctrine.

Trump advisers try to temper concerns

The president’s advisers sought Wednesday to temper concerns about his plans for the territory, just a day after Trump shocked the world with his call for a “world-class” American rehab of Gaza that would take place after relocating Palestinians to neighboring Arab nations.

Both his top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, edged away from Trump’s suggestion that Gazans would be relocated “permanently.”

Rubio said Trump’s proposal to take “ownership” of Gaza and redevelop the area should be seen as a “generous” offer.

“It was not meant as a hostile move,” Rubio said during his visit to Guatemala. “It was meant as … a very generous move.”

Rubio added that the moment was “akin to a natural disaster.” People won’t be able to live Gaza for years to come because there are unexploded munitions, debris and rubble.

“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” he said.

Trump would not rule out the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed to carry out his plan.

But Leavitt downplayed the prospects that Trump’s plan would come with a cost to American taxpayers or that Trump would deploy U.S. forces.

“It’s been made very clear to the president that the United States needs to be involved in this rebuilding effort, to ensure stability in the region for all people,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House. “But that does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza. It does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort.”

The White House has yet to explain under what authority Trump could carry his Gaza proposal. Nor has the administration clarified how Trump would get around stiff opposition to any relocation of Gaza’s population from Arab allies, including Egypt and Jordan, that he expects to take in Palestinians.

Still, they insist that Trump is just looking for an answer to the generational strife between Israelis and Palestinians that’s convulsed the region for decades and foiled many of his White House predecessors.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Leavitt said. “President Trump is an outside-of-the-box thinker and a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable.”

Democrats criticize expansionist talk

The expansionist talk in Gaza is playing out as Trump has begun an effort to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal agency that provides crucial aid that funds education and fights starvation, epidemics and poverty overseas. Trump sees it as a poster child of government waste and advancement of liberal social programs.

That split screen has galled some of Trump’s Democratic detractors.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., called Trump’s Gaza proposal “offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish.” Even worse, he said, it “risks the rest of the world thinking that we are an unbalanced and unreliable partner because our president makes insane proposals.”

Coons added that it was particularly infuriating that Trump floated the idea at a moment when he is also insisting that USAID be dismantled in the name of fighting government waste.

“Why on earth would we abandon decades of well-established humanitarian programs around the world, and now launch into one of the world’s greatest humanitarian challenges?” Coons said.

Mideast allies reject moving displaced Palestinians in Gaza

Trump’s push was roundly rejected Wednesday by European and Middle East allies, including those he’s calling on to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been left homeless by the war.

The Arab League, the 22-member regional grouping, said the proposal “represents a recipe for instability.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said displaced Palestinians in Gaza “must be allowed home.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said displacement of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would be ”unacceptable” and “against international law.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said “the idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator.”

“So I would suggest we go back to what we’ve been trying to do, which is destroy Hamas and find a way for the Arab world to take over Gaza and the West Bank, in a fashion that would lead to a Palestinian state that Israel can live with,” Graham said.

But even as his Gaza proposal was panned, Trump continued to insist that it has widespread support.

“Everybody loves it,” Trump said in a brief exchange with reporters.

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Matthew Lee in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and Farnoush Amiri and Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Sailing is part of high school athletics and with college opportunities, too

• February 5, 2025

The list of Orange County athletes who signed with colleges Wednesday includes the sport of sailing.

High school sailing?

It exists.

Three of the seniors on Mater Dei’s list of signees Wednesday are in the school’s sailing program: Tate Christopher, who signed with Tulane University; Brady Kennedy, who signed with Boston College; and Noah Stapleton, who signed with Brown University.

Mater Dei’s sailing program, which includes 30 students, competes in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association that includes high school sailing along the West Coast and Hawaii.

The school’s sailing program started in 1998. It has won national team championships. Christopher has won a solo sailing championship.

Stapleton has been sailing for a long time.

“Literally since I was born,” Stapleton said. “My dad rigged up a boat for me and put me on board.”

Kennedy said he gets some entertaining reactions when he tells people what he does in high school sports.

“They’ll say ‘you do sailing?’” Kennedy said. “You have to be really dedicated to it. A pretty big number of schools actually have sailing.”

Sailing is a thriving college sport, too. This year 170 U.S. colleges compete in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.

​ Orange County Register 

Honolulu records 6th death from massive explosion of illegal fireworks over New Year’s

• February 5, 2025

By AUDREY McAVOY

HONOLULU (AP) — A sixth person died Wednesday from injuries sustained when crates of illegal fireworks ignited during a New Year’s Eve party in a Honolulu neighborhood, setting off a chain of explosions that left more than a dozen people with severe burns.

The 30-year-old woman died at a local hospital at about 5:59 a.m., the Honolulu Police Department said in a statement.

The others killed included a 3-year-old boy, three women and one man.

The blast set off fresh calls for a crackdown on illegal fireworks that have become increasingly more common in Hawaii. Contraband explosives rock neighborhoods year-round but grow in frequency around the year-end holidays.

Police have so far arrested 10 people in connection with the explosion. Authorities accused them of reckless endangering, endangering the welfare of a minor and multiple fireworks offenses.

Police said they are working with prosecutors to file charges but it is taking time due to the number of people arrested, large volume of evidence being examined and fireworks being tested.

Authorities seized 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of unused fireworks from the scene.

Police said they expect to make more arrests.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has proposed allowing police to issue $300 tickets to those who shoot off fireworks and imposing potential class A felony charges and decades in prison on those whose use of fireworks leads to serious injury or death. The state Department of Law Enforcement has asked the Legislature for $5.2 million to hire eight people and expand a forensic lab to counter rampant fireworks smuggling.

Six of the injured were flown to a burn center in Arizona for treatment last month because Hawaii’s only burn care facility reached capacity with the wounded from the incident. One of them, a 29-year-old man, died last week.

​ Orange County Register 

Man pleads guilty in rapper Pop Smoke’s fatal 2020 Hollywood Hills shooting

• February 5, 2025

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH

A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of home-invasion robbery in connection with the 2020 shooting death of rapper Pop Smoke at a home in the Hollywood Hills.

Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time of the killing, faces 29 years in state prison. He also waived credit for the time he has already served behind bars since his July 9, 2020, arrest.

Walker is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for sentencing Feb. 21.

One of Walker’s attorneys, Kellen Davis, said outside court that he believes his client has “come to terms” that “this is the best outcome under the circumstances,” but said Walker “has to carry the load for this” despite the fact that he was not the shooter and that the killing was “something Mr. Walker never wanted to happen.”

Walker — who admitted gang and gun allegations — could have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if he had been tried and convicted on the original charges, which included murder and the special circumstance allegations of murder during the course of a robbery and murder during the commission of a burglary.

Walker was one of four people and the only adult arrested and charged in the killing of the 20-year-old rapper, whose real name was Bashar Jackson. The other three defendants were all charged in juvenile court, and their names were withheld because of their ages.

In 2023, one of the juvenile defendants, who was 15 at the time of the killing, admitted a first-degree murder charge in juvenile court, along with an allegation he personally discharged a handgun. He also admitted a home-invasion robbery count, and he is expected to remain in a juvenile facility until he turns 25.

That teenager could not be charged as an adult due to his age at the time of the crime.

Another juvenile defendant admitted one count each of voluntary manslaughter and home-invasion robbery, and the third admitted a charge of home-invasion robbery. The current custody status of those two defendants was not immediately clear.

Walker admitted a factual basis for his guilty plea, acknowledging that he became aware that the rapper was staying at the short-term rental home on Hercules Drive in the Hollywood Hills, and that he initially drove with the 17-year-old to surveil the house about 2:05 a.m. Feb. 19, 2020 and then returned with the three teenagers and another person — whose identity has not been released — shortly after 4 a.m. that day.

Walker replied “Yes” when Deputy District Attorney Hilary Williams asked if he provided a 9mm firearm to one of the juveniles.

Walker also admitted that he had researched the Los Angeles Police Department and the house on the websites Zillow and Google, driven with the vehicle’s headlights off and kept an open line of communication with the 17-year-old while the rest of the group went inside the home. He acknowledged that the victim’s Rolex watch, along with jewelry and a purse, were taken from the home, and that the group later sold the watch for $2,000.

LAPD Capt. Steve Lurie said the 911 call that brought police to the Hercules Drive address came from someone on the East Coast who said a friend’s home was being broken into by multiple suspects, and that one of them was armed with a handgun.

“When officers arrived there approximately six minutes later, they discovered a victim inside the house had been shot,” Lurie said at the time. “They called the fire department, who arrived and transported that victim to Cedars-Sinai, where he was pronounced dead.”

The suspects were wearing masks and were last seen running from the home and possibly getting into a nearby vehicle. The four were taken into custody just under five months later.

Pop Smoke released an album in July 2019, and one of the songs, “Welcome to the Party,” was considered by some the song of the summer. Nicki Minaj did a remix of the song a few months later.

The rapper also collaborated with Travis Scott on a song called “Gatti.”

Pop Smoke was named top new artist, top rap artist and top male rap artist at the Billboard Music Awards in May 2021, while his “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” won top rap album and top Billboard 200 album.

The rapper’s mother, Audrey Jackson, accepted the top Billboard 200 album award on her late son’s behalf, saying then that she wanted to “thank the fans for honoring the life and spirit of my son so much that he continues to manifest as if he were still here in the flesh.”

“He created music for the kid who has to sleep four in a room, the kid who has to figure out how to get to school each day so he can graduate and make his mom proud,” she added. “He did this so that 14-year-olds would not have to kill to prove that they are somebody. That is the irony in this.”

According to various media reports, the New York rapper posted photos earlier on the day of the killing or late the night before from a party at the home, even revealing the address. According to TMZ, one of the photos showed a person holding a large sum of money.

​ Orange County Register 

Tustin Unified employee arrested on suspicion of sexual assault of a student

• February 5, 2025

A Tustin Unified School District employee has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault involving a student on Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Santa Ana Police Department announced.

At around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a report of sexual activity in a vehicle near Westwood Avenue and Riviera Drive. They located a male and female in the backseat.

During their investigation, officers determined that the female was a 16-year-old student at Foothill High School. The man was identified as Mariano Hernandez, 32, a Behavior Interventionist at Benson Elementary in the Tustin Unified School District.

Hernandez and the victim admitted to being in a dating relationship for a few weeks. They reportedly met at Foothill High School, where Hernandez had been a teacher’s aide, department spokesperson Natalie Garcia said. Hernandez then transferred to the elementary school, but continued to see the student.

Details regarding the timeline of those events were not immediately available.

Hernandez was arrested and booked at the Santa Ana jail for contacting and communicating with a minor, lewd acts with a minor, digital penetration and child annoyance.

Tustin Unified School District could not immediately be reached for comment.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective M. Tapia at 714-245-8379, [email protected] or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.

​ Orange County Register 

Newport Coast estate of Hot Pockets creator Paul Merage seeks $40 million

• February 5, 2025

An oceanfront Newport Coast estate owned by billionaire businessman Paul Merage, inventor of microwave-crisping Hot Pockets turnovers, is on the market for $40 million.

Currently, it’s the most expensive listing in guard-gated Pelican Crest on the MLS.

The 11,041-square-foot residence in a Mediterranean style has six bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. It stands two stories high on a third-acre-plus lot with an expansive underground level featuring a wine cellar and tasting room, gym, home spa and garage lined with walls of storage closets.

Records show the property has belonged to Merage since June 1998.

Completed in 2001, it has been “designed with a calming transitional style and finished to the highest standards of quality and craftsmanship,” the listing reads.

Beyond the expansive foyer with a staircase is a wood-clad office, minimalist kitchen and light-filled living and dining areas where French doors and glass doors flow out to the resort-style grounds.

There’s an infinity pool, spa and heated loggias backed by panoramic views.

Those views abound from throughout the house, including the upstairs primary bedroom where French doors open onto a wraparound balcony. The room includes two walk-in closets and two bathrooms, the largest of which has a soaking tub and separate glass-enclosed shower.

An elevator services all three levels.

Rex McKown and Marcy Weinstein of M | W | A at Compass hold the llisting.

Merage, 82, is co-founder and former CEO of Chef America. The Iranian entrepreneur and his brother, David, sold their frozen-food business in 2001 to Nestlé for $2.6 billion. In 2005, Merage donated $30 million to UC Irvine’s business school that now bears his name.

​ Orange County Register 

National Signing Day 2025: List of Orange County athletes who are signing Feb. 5

• February 5, 2025

OCVarsity is compiling a list of Orange County high school athletes who will be signing official agreements with collegiate programs Wednesday, Feb. 5, or later this week.

Senior athletes (Class of 2025) in all sports except basketball are eligible to officially sign at this time. This is considered the start of the regular signing period for football, which had an early signing period in December.

The NCAA no longer uses the NLI (National Letter of Intent); athletes now sign a “grant in aid” agreement to commit to a college.

The list does not include names of athletes who were on our previous signing lists in November and December.

The OCVarsity list includes athletes who received commitment letters from Ivy League schools and military service academies, but does not include players offered preferred walk-on status.

ORANGE COUNTY SIGNING LIST

(Please send Signing Day information to [email protected])

BREA OLINDA

Liv Chappell, golf, Long Beach State

Holly Macedo, soccer, Corban University

CANYON

Abby Foley, water polo, Concordia

Samantha Gresham, softball, Dartmouth

Blake Helsper, baseball, Hawaii Pacific

Noah Kim, basketball, Oberlin College

Victoria Oropeza, softball, Augusta University

Jordan Simmons, softball, Brown

CAPISTRANO VALLEY

Tommy Acosta, football, Washington & Lee

CAPISTRANO VALLEY CHRISTIAN

Sophia Helsel, soccer, Westmont College

Bella Lee, volleyball, Jessup University

CORONA DEL MAR

Sebastien Boydell, football, Fresno State

CREAN LUTHERAN

Ben Byszewski, football, St. Thomas

Connor Stephens, football, Dordt University

CYPRESS

Aiden Franco, baseball, Azusa Pacific

Jackson Kesserman, water polo, Wheaton College (Mass.)

Wyatt Rosales, baseball, Western Oregon

EDISON

Julius Gillick, football, Fresno State

JSERRA

Elisha Canales, football, Fresno State

MATER DEI

Fernando España, football, Arizona Christian University

Wailana Whitford, gymnastics, Brown University

Jack Cudzil, lacrosse, University of Pennsylvania

Hugo Villalba, sailing, Pace University

Brady Kennedy, sailing, Boston College

Noah Stapleton, sailing, Brown University

Tate Christopher, sailing, Tulane University

Christian Sotomayor, soccer, Dominican University

Savannah Muldrew, soccer, Texas Southern University

Isabella Ruby, softball, George Washington University

Sophia Rolon, softball, Cal

Morgan Lalonde, swimming, Louisiana State University

Maya Villa, track and field, Claremont McKenna College

MISSION VIEJO

Brock deFries, football, UNLV

Zachary Foeldi, football, Fresno State

Cash Semonza, football, Tulane University

NORTHWOOD

Joseph Harper, football, Army

ORANGE LUTHERAN

Olivia Oskorus, softball, Cal State Dominguez Hills

Ariana Markey, soccer, Pepperdine

Jayden Santos, volleyball, Jessup University

Gavin Nixon, soccer, Baldwin Wallace University

Ben Lilii, football, Arizona State

SERVITE

Brandon Bass, football, Union College (N.Y.)

Brayden Kim, football, St. Thomas (Minn.)

ST. MARGARET’S

Aidan McMahon, volleyball, Belmont Abbey College

Luke Newman, football, University of Chicago

Kate Purpura, tennis, Bucknell University

Will Viola, football, University of Chicago

Scarlett Welsome, lacrosse, Hofstra University

Maverick Young, football, University of Chicago

RELATED

Football Early Signing Day: List of Orange County athletes who are signing

Fall Signing Day 2024: List of Orange County athletes who are signing, Nov. 13

​ Orange County Register 

AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano

• February 5, 2025

By JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS

LONDON (AP) — Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago.

Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

The library of what’s called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read.

The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically.

Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples.

In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the “Vesuvius Challenge” competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry.

On Wednesday, the challenge announced a “historic breakthrough,” saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were “thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll.” He said it “contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll.”

The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray.

Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation.

AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for “disgust.”

Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text.

“We are still at the beginning of a long process,” Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. “We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text.”

Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won’t have to be transported to Diamond’s headquarters.

“Maybe there will be something which can be moved,” he said. “And then don’t forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples.”

Havovi Todd of AP Television News contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register