Teen charged with killing Garden Grove man who tried to stop shoplifters in South El Monte

• April 25, 2025

A 16-year-old boy was charged this week with driving over and killing a Garden Grove man who tried to stop suspects after a shoplifting at his brother’s South El Monte shop, authorities confirmed Thursday, April 24.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed one count of murder and  two counts of second-degree robbery against the teen, Greg Risling, a spokesman for the DA’s Office said.

The teen, who appeared in Eastlake Juvenile Court on Wednesday, has a court hearing scheduled for June 2, he added.

Authorities didn’t release the teen’s name because he is a minor.

Detectives alleged the teen drove the car that ran over 63-year-old Kourosh “Steve” Yaghoubi on April 9. Investigators are still looking for the other suspects who were in the car.

One of the suspects had earlier stolen a box of N95 masks from Giant Discount at 2039 Durfee Ave., which is owned by Yaghoubi’s brother. The Yaghoubis chased the culprit to the parking lot.

Another suspect got out of a blue sedan. The Yaghoubis got into an altercation with them. The suspects entered the car, ran over Kourosh Yaghoubi, then drove off. He died in the parking lot from multiple blunt traumatic injuries.

Detectives believe there were more than three people in the car, which was found at the registered owner’s home hours after the robbery and killing, sheriff’s Lt. Michael Modica said.

The owner is related to the 16-year-old suspect who was arrested April 18, Modica said.

Investigators asked anyone with information about the case to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or go to lacrimestoppers.org

​ Orange County Register 

UN food agency says its food stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel’s blockade

• April 25, 2025

By WAFAA SHURAFA and LEE KEATH

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel’s nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.

The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity kitchens that it supports around Gaza. It said those kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days.

Some 80% of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food, because other sources have shut down under Israel’s blockade, according to the U.N. The WFP has been supporting 47 kitchens that distribute 644,000 hot meals a day, WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear how many kitchens would still be operating in Gaza if those shut down. But Etefa said the WFP-backed kitchens are the major ones in Gaza.

Israel cut off entry of all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza on March 2 and then resumed its bombardment and ground offensives two weeks later, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It says the moves aim to pressure Hamas to release hostages it still holds. Rights groups have called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid in Gaza, declined to comment on the amount of supplies remaining in the territory. It has previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the ceasefire. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the U.N. strictly monitors distribution. They say the aid flow during the ceasefire was barely enough to cover the immense needs from throughout the war when only a trickle of supplies got in.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

With no new goods entering Gaza, many foods have disappeared from markets, including meat, eggs, fruits, dairy products and many vegetables. Prices for what remains have risen dramatically, becoming unaffordable for much of the population. Most families rely heavily on canned goods.

Malnutrition is already surging. The U.N. said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March, up 80% from the month before. At the same time, because of diminishing supplies, aid groups were only able to provide nutritional supplements to some 22,000 children in March, down 70% from February. The supplements are a crucial tool for averting malnutrition.

Almost all bakeries shut down weeks ago and the WFP stopped distribution of food basics to families for lack of supplies. With stocks of most ingredients depleted, charity kitchens generally can only serve meals of pasta or rice with little added.

World Central Kitchen — a U.S. charity that is one of the biggest in Gaza that doesn’t rely on the WFP — said Thursday that its kitchens had run out of proteins. Instead, they make stews from canned vegetables. Because fuel is scarce, it dismantles wooden shipping pallets to burn in its stoves, it said. It also runs the only bakery still functioning in Gaza, producing 87,000 loaves of pita a day.

The WFP said 116,000 tons of food is ready to be brought into Gaza if Israel opens the borders, enough to feed 1 million people for four months.

Israel has leveled much of Gaza with its air and ground campaign, vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. It has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

In the Oct. 7 attack, terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. They still hold 59 hostages after most were released in ceasefire deals.

Keath reported from Cairo. AP correspondent Julia Frankel in Jersualem contributed to this report.

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Fears of racial profiling swirl over registration policy for immigrants in the US illegally

• April 25, 2025

By TERRY TANG

PHOENIX (AP) — The Trump administration’s plan to strictly require anyone illegally in the U.S. to register with the government and carry documentation is stirring up fears of heightened racial profiling even among legal residents, immigrants’ rights advocates say.

For some, it’s a return to a climate from the recent past in which police departments and other law enforcement agencies’ insistence on documentation drove immigrants underground and increased public safety concerns.

“It happens already to an extent. … I think this would make it even worse because how would you know somebody is undocumented?” said Jose Patiño, vice president of education and external affairs for Aliento, an Arizona-based advocacy organization that supports immigrants without documents. “It creates ambiguity of how you’re going to enforce and identify people who are not in the country (legally).”

A federal judge sided with President Donald Trump earlier this month in a lawsuit brought by immigrants’ rights groups over the policy and the mandate took effect April 11. Trump officials say they are simply enforcing a requirement that has been law for decades.

“The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws — we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce,” U.S. Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement after the ruling. “We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans.”

Under federal law, everyone 14 and older without legal status must self-register and give fingerprints and an address. Parents and guardians of anyone younger must ensure they are registered. Not doing so is considered a crime and a lack of documents risks prison time and fines.

Complications and confusion about enforcement

The mandate has rarely been enforced under previous administrations. To complicate matters, there have been recent instances of authorities detaining even people born in the U.S. as confusion also sweeps through other federal and state immigration policies.

An online appointment app used by temporary residents has sent work permit cancellations since late March, including to U.S. citizens. A growing number of Republican-led states also are refusing to recognize state driver’s licenses specially issued for immigrants without documents.

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, says racial profiling already happens at a disproportionate rate to Black migrants. The sudden pivot has aggravated things and people with Temporary Protected Status or who had regular Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins have been detained during travel, she said.

She decried the whole ordeal as a form of “psychological warfare.” Migrants who were allowed temporary legal residence are not sure if they need to protectively carry documents at all times.

“It is very hard to even communicate with the community members on what to do, telling them they need to know their rights, but they trample on their rights anyway,” Jozef said. “We are back in the ‘show me your papers’ era.”

‘Show me your papers’

The new mandate evokes previous instances of certain groups having to carry documentation. During the time of enslavement in the U.S., freed Black people had to have “freedom papers” or risk being re-enslaved. During World War II, Japanese Americans were required to register and keep identification cards but were put in incarceration camps.

“The statutes that are on the books about registration have been dormant” for 85 years, said Lynn Marcus, director of immigration law clinics at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. “There weren’t forms to comply with this requirement. It was created in wartime originally.”

The renewed strict registration requirement forces U.S. citizens to carry birth certificates or other proof of citizenship at all times, “especially if they have a ‘foreign appearance,’” Marcus said.

People who are valid residents or visa holders could potentially be profiled based on factors other than physical characteristics.

“Let’s say law enforcement encounters someone in another circumstance — maybe they’re reporting a crime,” Marcus said. “They might not be satisfied with answers if they aren’t able to communicate because not all U.S. citizens speak fluent English.”

Impacts on immigrants’ well-being

Eileen Diaz McConnell, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies, pointed to the effects of a 2010 Arizona law requiring all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers.

In 2012, the Justice Department sued the state over the law and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the papers requirement, but those two years when the requirement was in place were a traumatic time for Latino families in the state, McConnell said.

“Parents wouldn’t ride together in a car. They were always separated because they were worried they would be stopped,” Diaz McConnell said. “People don’t leave their house.”

She has done extensive research on how immigration policies can impact the mental health of mixed households of family members who are American-born and don’t have documents.

“In previous years, children report, even if they’re U.S.-born, real harm — impacts on their own sleep, worry, not eating, depression,” Diaz McConnell said. “There will be people who will say things like, ‘Well, if you’re not undocumented, what do you have to worry about?’”

Patiño, whose undocumented parents brought him to the U.S. when he was 6, is accustomed to keeping papers as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient. He knows others without special status are now panicked. The single mother of one of his U.S.-born former interns has stopped going to the grocery store, church and other places since she lacks documents.

“It’s like she’s afraid of her shadow or, like, even to go out and throw out the trash,” he said.

People who crossed the border without documents are especially unsure whether to register in the wake of international students and others being detained or deported even though they had visas or pending court hearings.

“You’re asking people to come out of the shadows and enroll us in a system that most of them probably have not heard of,” Patiño said. “It seems the administration is trying to go catch-22 with folks. You are in trouble if you do, you’re in trouble if you don’t.”

​ Orange County Register 

Environmental groups fear Trump’s order to speed deep-sea mining will harm ecosystems

• April 25, 2025

By SIBI ARASU and TAMMY WEBBER

Environmental groups are decrying an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to expedite deep-sea mining for ores and minerals, saying it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems and ignores an ongoing process to adopt international rules for the practice.

Trump’s order Thursday directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in both U.S. and international waters.

The move comes as China controls many critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese used in high-tech manufacturing, including for military uses. Trump said his order “establishes the U.S. as a global leader in seabed mineral exploration and development both within and beyond national jurisdiction.”

The order also comes after Canada-based The Metals Company said it would request approval through a U.S. subsidiary for mining in international waters.

The company issued a statement on its website Friday, saying it plans to apply for permits this year to mine nodules that contain valuable minerals “to strengthen U.S. critical mineral supply chains.”

“As always, we remain committed to acting in the best interests of our sponsoring states, partners, investors, and the planet,” said Gerard Barron, the company’s chairman and CEO.

But environmentalists worry it could harm fisheries and even affect oceans’ ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming caused by the burning of coal, gas and other fossil fuels.

More than 30 countries, as well as fisheries trade groups, environmentalists and some auto and tech companies, have called for a moratorium on seabed mining.

“Scientists agree that deep-sea mining is a deeply dangerous endeavor for our ocean and all of us who depend on it,” said Jeff Watters, vice president for external affairs at the Ocean Conservancy. “The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn’t restricted to the ocean floor: it will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it.’

Such concerns prompted most countries in the 1990s to join a United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority to govern seabed mining in international waters. But the U.S. never signed onto the effort, which has not yet adopted rules.

Watters warned that ignoring those efforts “is opening a door for other countries to do the same” before safeguards are adopted. The ramifications could resonate beyond deep-sea mining, affecting agreements on fishing, shipping, navigation and marine research, warned Duncan Currie, legal advisor for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

“This is a clear case of putting mining companies’ greed over common sense,” said Katie Matthews, chief scientist at the advocacy group Oceana. “Any attempt to accelerate deep-sea mining without proper safeguards will only speed up the destruction of our oceans.”

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

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ICE is reversing termination of legal status for international students around US, lawyer says

• April 25, 2025

By JANIE HAR and KATE BRUMBACK

The federal government is reversing the termination of legal status for international students after many filed court challenges around the U.S., a government lawyer said Friday.

Judges around the country had already issued temporary orders restoring the students’ records in a federal database of international students maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The records had been suddenly terminated in recent weeks, often without the students or their schools being notified.

A lawyer for the government read a statement in federal court in Oakland that said ICE was manually restoring the student status for people whose records were terminated in recent weeks. A similar statement was read by a government attorney in a separate case in Washington on Friday, said lawyer Brian Green, who represents the plaintiff in that case. Green provided The Associated Press with a copy of the statement that the government lawyer emailed to him.

It says: “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations. Until such a policy is issued, the SEVIS records for plaintiff(s) in this case (and other similarly situated plaintiffs) will remain Active or shall be re-activated if not currently active and ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination.”

Green said that the government lawyer said it would apply to all students in the same situation, not just those who had filed lawsuits.

SEVIS is the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database that tracks international students’ compliance with their visa status. NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, which is maintained by the FBI. Many of the students whose records were terminated were told that their status was terminated as a result of a criminal records check or that their visa had been revoked.

International students and their schools were caught off guard by the terminations of the students’ records. Many of the terminations were discovered when school officials were doing routine checks of the international student database or when they checked specifically after hearing about other terminations.

​ Orange County Register 

Learning from the master: Inside the ‘Meat Master Class’ in San Juan Capistrano

• April 25, 2025

Nestled within the River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano, the Market by the Meat Cellar offers a comprehensive pit stop for food enthusiasts, serving as a hub for a variety of needs. Opening at the tail end of 2024, the venue combines a traditional butchery, a choice cheese shop, a culinary boutique and a full-service steakhouse. Beyond its daily offerings, the Meat Cellar hosts a monthly “Meat Master Class” series, presenting a multicourse dinner led by its expert in all things carnivorous.

Anthony Villegas, the charismatic meat master and co-founder of the Market by the Meat Cellar (which he founded alongside his wife, Sara) leads the dinner series. The new series not only offers guests a gastronomically-heightened dining experience for $250, but also an education. “We show you how to prepare the meals, how to take things home and cook them, and how simple, very good ingredients just need simple treatments,” he said.

The dinner series, which first started at the couple’s first Market by the Meat Cellar in Claremont, seats roughly 35 to 40 guests who gather at a handful of dining tables in front of a large screen with Villegas taking center stage. “We do a full demo of each course, and then it’s sent back to the kitchen and prepared for our guests,” he explained in a phone interview. “You get step-by-step instructions on how to make the sauces and the proteins, learn where the meat comes from and the method we’re preparing it.”

During a visit to the San Juan Capistrano location’s second “Meat Master Class” on April 14, the roughly four-hour dinner featured eight courses, with each dish, save a phenomenal chocolate bread pudding kicker, prepared by Villegas in front of a butcher block and stove with a screen behind him allowing for maximum viewing.

The first course, “Cheese School,” a thoughtful cheese plate prepared by head cheesemonger Kendric Antonio, featured a gouda, Spanish olives, duck prosciutto, goat cheese, a mimolette (a French cow’s milk described as “somewhere between gouda and cheddar”) and honeycomb candy.

A soft shell crab sandwich served on a brioche bun with Meyer lemon aioli and calamansi vinaigrette salad, the second course, had Villegas beer battering and gently frying the succulent crustacean as servers bring guests their own. A lobster poached in Grand Marnier butter, for course three, came accompanied by a glass of Sinegal Estate sauvignon blanc, a perfect pairing for any Neptunian meat.

ALSO SEE: How the fall of Saigon cultivated a culinary legacy in Orange County — and beyond

Moving onto land-based fare, the fourth course proved to be the stunner of the night, a steamed Wagyu beef cheek taco served with avocado chimichurri and lemon picked red onion, a hat tip to Mexico, where Villegas was born and raised. “It’s a rough piece of meat so you want to put a good amount of salt on it,” he said while going table to table showing off the raw cheek so diners could get a closer look.

The taco was followed by a veal schnitzel, pounded flat and soaked in buttermilk, dusted with flour and panko breadcrumbs and then fried to golden-hued crispness. The finished schnitzel, laced with a potent demi-glace, came with sauteed fingerling potatoes. (In between discussing cooking and preparation methods, Villegas peppers his conversation with interesting facts; did you know most veal meat comes from male dairy calves? Well, I didn’t. As he explained, they’re not needed for breeding in the dairy industry.)

ALSO SEE: River Street Marketplace restaurants officially open, offering something for everyone

The next two courses, a spring lamb and a bison strip loin, provided the heartiest moments of the evening, with the former being sous vide for six hours, resulting in an exceedingly tender dish. (Bonus points for the scattering of lamb cracklings.) The latter succeeds in preparing the infamously lean meat with heightened flavor care of a slightly sweet blackberry veal demi.

As the dinner continues, guests are served glasses of wine, sparkling or otherwise, to pair with each dish. Villegas’s sister, Sonya Villegas Kelsen, co-owner of Colony Wine Merchant in Anaheim, helped lead wine selection and pourings. “I think of wine as the perfect agricultural product,” she told the crowd.

Due to an alcohol allergy, I couldn’t imbibe any-proof libations. The Market by the Meat Cellar seamlessly swapped my wine for alcohol-free drinks found on the mocktail menu. (I opted for a Shirley Temple with housemade grenadine and the White Linen made with elderflower tonic, mint, cucumber and soda). Such seemingly small attention to detail turned an already chipper night into a unforgettable one — literally.

At the end of the dinner, Villegas told his audience that most of the recipes are also available on the Meat Cellar’s website, allowing us to try them at home.

More than just an indulgence, the new dinner-class series at the Market by the Meat Cellar serves as an oral treatise on the meat industry. “People buy meat without knowing the living conditions,” Villegas explained. “Large companies, the big meat producers out there, they don’t really own any cattle themselves…they usually farm it out and buy whatever is the cheapest on the market.”

In contrast, the Meat Cellar sources from smaller farms, emphasizing quality — an ethos reflected in his simple philosophy: “It’s hard to (mess) up food if you keep it simple, he declared during dinner. “Just let the protein, starch or vegetable come through.”

The next Meat Master Class is slated for Monday, June 16. For more information, call the restaurant at 949-503-1548.

​ Orange County Register 

Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear program return to secluded Oman

• April 25, 2025

By JON GAMBRELL

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the secluded sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering out the technical details of a possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. has offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend’s talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend’s talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome’s Camilluccia neighborhood.

Iranians on Friday in Tehran remained hopeful the talks could be successful, as the Iranian rial has rebounded from historic lows.

“It’s OK to negotiate, to make the nuclear program smaller or bigger, and reach a deal,” Tehran resident Farzin Keivan said. “Of course we shouldn’t give them everything. After all, we’ve suffered a lot for this program.”

‘Peaceful use of nuclear energy’

The Muscat talks come as Iran appears to have lined up Chinese and Russian support. Araghchi traveled to Moscow last week and this week visited Beijing.

On Thursday, Chinese, Iranian and Russian representatives met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that likely will verify compliance with any accord like it did with Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That deal included China and Russia, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, in addition to Iran and the U.S.

However, Iran has greatly restricted the IAEA’s inspections — leading to fears internationally that centrifuges and other nuclear material could be diverted.

The IAEA offered no readout from the talks, but China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday described the three nations as saying the agency has “the necessary potential and expertise to contribute constructively to this process.”

“China, Russia and Iran emphasized that political and diplomatic engagement based on mutual respect remains the only viable and practical path for resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” the report said. It added that China respects Iran’s “right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The Trump administration has kept France, Germany and the U.K. out of its direct negotiations with Iran, something similarly reflected in Witkoff’s negotiations with Russia over ending its war on Ukraine. Witkoff traveled Friday to Moscow ahead of Saturday’s meeting in Muscat.

Araghchi meanwhile has said he’s open to visiting Berlin, London and Paris to discuss the negotiations.

“The ball is now in the E3’s court,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X on Thursday, using an acronym for the countries. “They have an opportunity to do away with the grip of Special Interest groups and forge a different path.”

U.S. stance on enrichment hardens

Two Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, are expected to lead Tehran’s expert team, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks, while Gharibabadi as well as been involved in atomic negotiations.

The U.S. technical team, which is expected to arrive in Oman on Friday, will be led by Michael Anton, the director of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America’s efforts in the 2015 talks.

However, he was an early supporter of Trump, describing the 2016 election as a “charge the cockpit or you die” vote. “A Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto,” Anton wrote. “With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.” He also criticized “Iran sycophancy” in the same essay.

Rubio, speaking on a podcast released this week, also kept up a Trump line that Iran needed to stop its enrichment of uranium entirely.

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said.

However, former CIA director Bill Burns, who took part in the secret negotiations that led to the 2015 nuclear deal, expressed skepticism Iran would give up its program like Libya did in 2003.

“I don’t personally think that this Iranian regime is going to agree to … zero domestic enrichment,” Burns said in a talk Monday at the University of Chicago. “To hold out for the Libya model is virtually to ensure that you’re not going to be able to reach an agreement.”

Iran ‘on high alert’

But Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.

Meanwhile, one more wildcard is Israel, whose devastating war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Trump initially announced the Iran talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. But Israel, which for years has targeted Iran’s nuclear program with attacks on its facilities and scientists, has kept open the possibility of airstrikes to destroy Tehran’s enrichment sites.

On Monday, Israel’s military conducted drills preparing for possible new Iranian missile attacks, the country’s public broadcaster KAN reported.

“Our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” Araghchi wrote on Wednesday in a post on X.

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Nepal marks 10-year anniversary of earthquake that killed thousands

• April 25, 2025

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal marked the 10th anniversary of the devastating 2015 earthquake with a memorial service on Friday that was attended by top officials who pledged to be better prepared to face future disasters.

At exactly 11:56 a.m., which was the time of the earthquake on April 25, 2015, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, top ministers, officials and diplomats stood up and held a minute of silence in memory of those killed at the site of a tower that collapsed and crushed 180 people.

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed early 9,000 people, wounded more than 22,000 and damaged some 1 million houses and buildings.

“There was a huge loss of both lives and property then but were able to successfully recover and reconstruct.” Oli said. “Nepal has shown resilience.”

Oli was joined by ministers and diplomats from countries helped Nepal with rescue, recovery and later reconstruction efforts to light candles in memory of the lives that were lost in the disaster.

“We could not have done all that just by ourselves,” Oli said. “We want to thank all our partner nations and agencies for their support.”

Some 80% of structures that were damaged by the earthquake have been rebuilt, with almost all schools and public buildings upgraded to new safety standards, according to Anil Pokhrel, who headed the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority for years until he retired last month.

As many as 95% of houses damaged in the rural areas have been rebuilt, while there is less in urban areas mainly due to issues like disputes over ownership or rebuilding plans.

Families were given $3,000 to reconstruct their homes and offices were set up by the government in all the districts that were staffed with engineers and experts to help them rebuild.

“Nepal’s reconstruction, given the time, given the scale, given the process it went through and working with development partners, it is really considered as one of the exemplary reconstruction and recovery experiences,” Pokhrel said.

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