Bui Van Phong faced a choice when the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago: stay in his small village, helping his parents carry on the familys centuries-old tradition of making fish sauce, or join the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing his country for a better life.
Phong chose to stay behind and nurtured a business making the beloved condiment, known as nuoc mam in Vietnam, that is now in its fourth generation with his son, Bui Van Phu, 41, at the helm. Fish sauce from the village has been recognized by Vietnam as an indelible part of the country’s heritage and the younger Bui is acutely aware of what that means.
It isnt just the quality of fish sauce. It is also the historical value, he said.
But that heritage is under threat, and not only from giant conglomerates that mass-produce fish sauce in factories. Climate change and overfishing are making it harder to catch the anchovies essential to the condiment that underlies so much of Vietnam and southeast Asia’s food.
Anchovies thrive in large schools in nutrient-rich waters near the shore. But climate change is warming the oceans, depleting oxygen levels in the water. Scientists have long feared that this would lead to smaller fish, as large fish that need more oxygen may migrate or adapt over time by shrinking. Renato Salvatteci, who studies fisheries at the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel in Germany, said his research into warmer periods millenia ago found support for this in the fossil record.
If we continue with this trend of deoxygenation, anchovies will not be OK with that, he said. Every species has a limit.
Breaching that limit will have global consequences.
Warming oceans threaten the ocean ecology and the marine life that inhabits it. It may result in the proliferation of smaller, less nutritious fish and increase costs of fishing and consequently food. Anchovies, for instance, have an outsized role on marine ecology. They’re food for other fish that people eat, like mackerel. They are also vital to make fish meal, used to feed farmed fish.
Overfishing compounds the problem, and geopolitical tensions in the contested waters of the South China Sea responsible for about 12% of the global fish catch make management difficult. The destructive industrial fishing practice of dragging large nets along the seabed, scooping up everything in a net’s path, has prevailed since the 1980s. But despite increased fishing, the amount of fish being caught has stagnated, according to a 2020 analysis of fishing trends.
Even if the world can limit long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels and halve fishing intensity, the South China Sea will still lose more than a fifth of its fish stocks, warned a 2021 assessment by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada. In the most pessimistic scenario temperatures rising by 7.7 degrees Fahrenheit (4.3 degrees) nearly all the fish disappear.
Phu, who teaches information technology by day, also works hard to perfect the fish sauce art handed down by his ancestors.
The anchovies are usually caught between January to March when they congregate off the coast of Da Nang. If they are the right species and size, they get mixed gently with sea salt and put in special tera cotta barrels. Sometimes worms or other ingredients are added to bring in different flavors. Phu ferments this for up to 18 months stirring the mix several times a week before it can be strained, bottled and sold to customers.
The sea salt imparts different flavor depending on where it comes from. So does the amount of salt used, and makers have their own recipes; the Bui family uses three parts fish to one part salt. The time allowed for fermentation, and the potential addition of other fish, also affect the flavor of the final product.
But it is harder to get the perfect anchovies. The fish catch has decreased fishermen in markets across Vietnam rue the fact that much of the fish they sell now was considered bait-size in previous decades and it’s only the good relationships he has with anchovy fishermen that allow him to get the fish directly, avoiding high market prices. The unmistakeable aroma of fermenting fish cloaks the homes of families that still make traditional fish sauce. But Phu said that many families are thinking of getting out of the business because of high anchovy prices.
That may affect Vietnamese plans for a bigger share of the global fish sauce market projected to increase in value from $18.5 billion in 2023 to nearly $29 billion by 2032, according to a report by Introspective Market Research. Vietnam, along with Thailand, is the world’s largest exporter of fish sauce and is hoping improvements in food safety to satisfy standards in lucrative markets like the U.S., Europe and Japan will help cement a national brand that helps advertise Vietnamese culture to the world.
It’s hard to overemphasize how deeply the condiment is enmeshed in Vietnamese culture. Students living abroad speak of how its taste transports them back home and a top chef says it’s the foundation for flavor in the country’s cuisine. The varying taste of different brews also means everyone from top businessmen to daily wage workers has their own opinions about which is the best.
Phu said that each family has their own secrets about making fish sauce. And, nearly fifty years since his father chose to stay back and take care of the family business, he’d like to pass those on to his own son. But he knows that it’ll depend on whether enough anchovies thrive in the sea for the craft to be viable.
Fish sauce to me is not just a condiment for cooking. But it is our craft, our culture, our tradition that need to be preserved, safeguarded and inherited, he said.
Aniruddha Ghosal, Associated Press
Associated Press journalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.
The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
When the natural environment is stretched beyond its ability to meet basic human needs for food, clean air, drinkable water, and shelter, it is not just a humanitarian concern for the world community. Research shows that these crises are a matter of national security for the U.S. and other countries.
The Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community have long paid close attention to the influence of climate change on national security. Although recent intelligence reports of the Trump administration have omitted any mention of climate change, prior intelligence reports have shown how climate change can generate flash points for global conflict, affect how troops and equipment work, and influence which defense locations are vulnerable.
The effects of ecological disruptions on national security get less attention. But they, too, can cause social and political instability, economic strife and strained international relations. Ecological disruptions occur when ecosystems that provide natural resources are compromised and can no longer meet basic human needs. Examples include overfishing, human disease, and environmental crime.
Protecting access to fish
Some 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on fisheries as a major source of protein. Overexploitation of ocean fisheries is a common root of international conflict.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, intermittent conflict broke out between British and Icelandic fishermen over the Icelandic cod fisheries, which had been depleted by overfishing. The Icelandic government sought to ban British trawlers from a broader area around the countrys coast, but the British continued to fish. The result was standoffs between fishing boats and Icelandic gunboats, and even the intervention of the British Royal Navy.
These Cod Wars broke diplomatic relations between Iceland and the United Kingdom for a time. Iceland even threatened to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and close a U.S. military base in Iceland. The U.K. ultimately agreed to abide by a 200-mile territorial limit on fishing around Iceland. Decades later, in 2012, the British government issued an apology and offered 1,000 pounds each in compensation to 2,500 British fishermen for the loss of jobs and livelihoods that resulted from abiding by the 200-mile limit.
More recently, Chinas rampant overfishing of its own coastal waters has meant expanding fishing in the South China Sea and using fishing fleets to assert new territorial claims. Indonesia has responded by blowing up more than 40 Chinese vessels accused of fishing illegally in its waters and stealing more than $4 billion per year in Indonesian profits.
The U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Britain have stepped up naval patrols against illegal fishing in the waters of Pacific island nations. Conflicts have arisen with Chinese coast guard vessels that routinely escort fishing fleets entering other countries waters without permission.
Chinas fishing fleets have expanded their activities off the coasts of Africa and South America, depleting fish stocks and creating political instability in those regions, too. In 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard and Argentinean navy began joint exercises to combat illegal Chinese fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Public health crises
The best-known examples of ecologically related public health crises that jeopardize national security involve what are called zoonotic diseases, which spread from animals to humans as a result of close contact between people and wildlife. More than 70% of the worlds emerging infectious diseasesuncommon or newly identified infectious diseasesstem from contact with wild animals.
The risks of animal-to-human disease transmission are especially high for those who handle or eat wild meat.
A recent example is the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 global pandemic. Epidemiological and genetic studies suggest that SARS-CoV-2 first spilled over to humans from wild animals sold in the Huanan live animal market in Wuhan, China. Although the specific animal that served as the original host is still under investigation, bats and other mammals are considered likely natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 because they harbor other coronaviruses with closely related genomes.
Following the zoonotic spillover event, the pathogen spread rapidly across the globe, killing more than 7 million people and causing acute disruptions not only to global markets and supply chains but also to social cohesion and political stability. Countries with high COVID-19 mortality rates had elevated levels of civil disorder and fatalities caused by political violence as the trust of citizens in the ability of governments to protect them eroded.
Many other zoonotic diseases caused by human-wildlife contact, such as Zika, Ebola, SARS, and West Nile virus, have similarly generated international political and economic crises that have activated security measures within the U.S. government.
Environmental crime
Illegal paching and trade of wildlife and forest products is valued at $91 billion to $258 billion per year. That makes environmental crime one of the worlds largest crime sectors, comparable with drug trafficking, at $344 billion, and human trafficking, at $157 billion.
Exorbitant black market prices for rare wildlife specimens and body parts provide funding for terrorist groups, drug cartels, and criminal organizations.
Illegal logging helps finance terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab in Somalia, where trade in charcoal has become a critical revenue source. Money from illegally cut trees turned into charcoal and sold to markets in the Middle East has funded al-Shabab-linked suicide bombings in Mogadishu, the 2013 Westgate mall attack in Nairobi that killed 67 Kenyan and non-Kenyan nationals, and the 2015 massacre of 147 university students in Garissa, Kenya.
Those and other terrorist activities funded through environmental crime have contributed to the destabilization of countries throughout the Horn of Africa.
These examples make clear how ecological disruptions to nature increase national security risks.
National security is not just a matter of military strength. It also depends on the ability of a nation to maintain productive and stable ecosystems, resilient biological communities, and sustainable access to natural resources. Sovereign nations already develop and protect physical infrastructure that is essential to security, such as roads, communication networks, and power grids. The natural world plays an equally vital role in social and political stability and, we believe, deserves more attention in planning for national security.
Bradley J. Cardinale is a professor of ecosystem science and management at Penn State.
Emmett Duffy is a chief scientist at the Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network and MarineGEO at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center at the Smithsonian Institution.
Rod Schoonover is an adjunct professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States finds itself in the midst of another public health crisis. This particular pandemic is a psychological one: widespread loneliness and isolation.
About half of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonelywhat former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has characterized as an epidemic. The increase in social isolation has extensive costs for schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished, he wrote in 2023.
As a business school professor who studies intergenerational relationships, I believe that our workplaces hold untapped potential for alleviating isolation. When colleagues do form friendships at work, they often gravitate toward people their own age. But fostering meaningful connections across generational lines can benefit not just organizations, but workers own sense of purpose and mental health.
Working solo
The COVID-19 pandemic affected all ages differently. Prior to 2020, it seemed that younger generations were leading a strong push away from working in the office. Once many Americans were working remotely, however, Generation Zthose born 1997-2012reported the highest levels of loneliness.
The problem, Id argue, is how organizations early questions about working through the pandemic centered on efficiency. Was it possible to do our jobs remotely? Would we be as productive? Was remote work viable long term? For many jobs, the answer was yes, resulting in persistent work-from-home options even after it became physically safe to return to offices.
Yet companies overlooked crucial elements that contribute to employees commitment and well-being, particularly strong relationships between colleagues. These factors are especially vital during early career years as young workers establish networks, learn their roles, and develop professional identitiesall considerably more challenging in remote or hybrid environments.
Just 31% of U.S. employees feel engaged on the job, according to January 2025 data from Gallup, a 10-year low. Only 39% of employees strongly feel that someone at work cares about them as a person, and only 30% strongly agree that someone cares about their development.
Workers younger than 35, especially members of Gen Z, experienced a more significant decline in engagement than other age groups, dropping 5 points compared with the previous year.
Five generations
Since hybrid and remote work appear to be here to stay, we need innovative solutions to combat disconnectedness. One overlooked opportunity might lie in a demographic reality that many organizations view as a challenge.
Today, there are five generations in the workplace, more than any other time in history. This increase in diversity is primarily due to older workers remaining in the workforce longer than in the past, whether because of economic necessity or increased longevity and health.
In 2024, 18% of the U.S. workforce belonged to Gen Z. Theyve surpassed the baby boomers, born 1946-1964, who make up 15%. Gen X, meanwhile (the generation born 1965-1980) comprise 31%. The largest group are millennials, born 1981-1996, who represent 36% of workers. Finally, 1% of the workforce belong to the Silent Generation, born 1928-1945.
While such age diversity presents challenges, it also holds unique potential.
The importance of workplace friendships is well documented. Research has found positive workplace relationships are beneficial to teamwork, career development and building a sense of community, and they help employees find more meaning in their work. Workplace friendships can help offset job stress and exhaustion and contribute to mental health. The benefits of such relationships can reach beyond the workplace, increasing overall well-being.
However, these friendships rarely cross generational lines. A phenomenon known as age similarity preference often causes us to gravitate toward people similar in age, including among our coworkers. This broader tendency to connect with people we deem most similar to ourselves is well documented, and age can be a particularly visible sign of surface-level differenceone that leads people to assume, often incorrectly, that they hold similar views.
While natural, this tendency limits interactions and relationships, leading to higher levels of conflict. Not only do intergenerational connections at work bring professional benefits but they also can combat isolation.
For example, relationships with colleagues from different generations tend to have fewer feelings of competition and pressure, as they likely occupy different life and career stages. An older colleague who has navigated office politics or balanced raising young children with career demands can provide valuable advice and support to coworkers facing these challenges for the first time.
Forming intergenerational friendships can help break down negative stereotypes about people who are older or younger by revealing areas of common interest.
Beyond Gen Z
The benefits of these relationships extend beyond younger generations, especially given how widespread post-pandemic loneliness is.
Adults in mid-to-late career stagesGen Xers and baby boomersare in their prime years for generativity: the life stage when people are most likely to be motivated to share knowledge and expertise, preparing the next generation fo success. Generativity leads to benefits for the mentors too, such as higher self-esteem.
People of all ages benefit from meaningful intergenerational relationships, but it takes an effort to create them. Employers can help by setting up opportunities to connect. For example, a mutual mentoring program can be a fantastic way to encourage not only learning, but unexpected friendships as well.
Jonna, a Gen Xer I met through my generational consulting work, sought out a Gen Z mentor at her office and was grateful for her insight, as well as the chance to give advice. I like to believe I am someone with a growth mindset and in touch with current realities, but I quickly learned that Hannah had perspectives on many things that stretched me and my thinking, she said. Our partnership has helped me approach every situation with curiosity instead of judgment.
Hannah, her mentor-mentee, found the partnership just as beneficial. The experience was a reminder that regardless of age, we all have something to contribute, and bridging generational gaps can lead to innovative solutions and a richer understanding of the world.
Reaching out to colleagues who are significantly older or younger might seem unexpected. But it may also build a more connected, resilient workforce, where wisdom and innovation flow freely across generational divides.
Megan Gerhardt is a professor of management at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Elon Musk said on Friday that his xAI has acquired X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction for $45 billion, including $12 billion in debt.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said in a post on X, adding that the combined company would be valued at $80 billion.
Neither X nor xAI immediately responded to a request for comment.
The billionaire’s AI startup, which was launched in 2023, recently raised $6 billion from investors in a funding round that valued the company at $40 billion, sources told Reuters earlier.
Musk in February made a $97.4 billion bid with a consortium for the ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which was rejected, with OpenAI saying that the startup was not for sale.
As competition in AI intensifies, xAI has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, called “Colossus,” is touted as the largest in the world.
xAI introduced Grok-3, the latest iteration of its chatbot, in February, as it tries to compete with Chinese AI firm DeepSeek and Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
Musk clinched a deal in 2022 to buy X for $44 billion, ending its run as a public company since its 2013 initial public offering, declaring that “the bird is freed” once the acquisition closed.
Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Sandra Maler
Betty White is making her mark on the nation’s snail mail.
The beloved actor of The Golden Girls fame was celebrated with a new U.S. Postal Service stamp at a first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Los Angeles Zoo on Thursday.
Fans who were crowded behind barricades cheered as a blue curtain dropped to reveal the stamp featuring a portrait of White against a violet-colored background with lighter shades of bubbly spots in a nod to her sparkling personality. She wears a blue polka-dot blouse, and peeking out of her blond curls is an earring shaped like a paw print.
When I was working on the stamp surrounding myself with Betty White videos and pictures, I felt like I was working on a portrait of a family member, Boston-based artist Dale Stephanos said. I wanted Bettys huge personality to take center stage.
The illustration is based on a photo taken by Kwaku Alston in 2010.
At the celebration, singer-songwriter Ellis Hall performed a snippet of Thank You for Being a Friend, the theme song to The Golden Girls.
A laughing kookaburra and other squawking birds occasionally interrupted the speakers, which surely would have delighted the animal-loving White.
Animals were her kids and she loved them allany shape, size, and kind, said Richard Lichtenstein, a board member of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.
White had worked with the zoo since its opening in 1966 until her death in December 2021, a couple weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
Who didnt love Betty White? Lichtenstein said. Her smile, her sense of humor, her basic decency. Our country, our city, and, yes, even our Los Angeles Zoo, would be much better if more people followed her example. Betty White put her stamp on everyone and anyone she came in contact with.
He said White’s financial support and advocacy helped make possible exhibits featuring chimps, gorillas, and elephants, among others.
Lichtenstein said White set up a private foundation before her death that funds various zoo programs.
This zoo, its inhabitants, and this community meant so much to Betty White just as she meant so much to all of us, said Amber McReynolds, chair of the USPS board of governors. Betty White was an American treasure.
People lined up to purchase panes of 20 Forever stamps, pins, and notecards before getting first-day cancellations near a churro snack stand while schoolchildren walked by.
This stamp is special because, lets face it, everybody loves Betty White, Stephanos said.
By Beth Harris, Associated Press
The U.S. Naval Academy has changed its policy and will no longer consider race as a factor when evaluating candidates to attend the elite military school, a practice it maintained even after the U.S. Supreme Court barred civilian colleges from employing similar affirmative action policies.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration detailed the policy change in a filing on Friday, asking a court to suspend an appeal lodged by a group opposed to affirmative action against a judge’s decision last year upholding the Annapolis, Maryland-based Naval Academy’s race-conscious admissions program.
Days after returning to office, Trump signed an executive order on January 27 that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the military.
Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth two days later issued guidance barring the military from establishing “sex-based, race-based, or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission, or career fields.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said that in light of those directives, Vice Admiral Yvette Davids, the Naval Academy’s superintendent, issued guidance barring the consideration of race, ethnicity or sex as a factor in its admissions process.
The Justice Department said that policy change could affect the lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, which has also been challenging race-conscious admissions practices at other military academies.
Blum’s group had been seeking to build on its June 2023 victory at the Supreme Court, when the court’s 6-3 conservative majority sided with it by barring policies used by colleges and universities for decades to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and other minority students on U.S. campuses.
That ruling invalidated race-conscious admissions policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina. But it explicitly did not address the consideration of race as a factor in admissions at military academies, which conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said had “potentially distinct interests.”
After the ruling, Blum’s group filed three lawsuits seeking to knock out the carve-out for military schools. The case the group filed against the Naval Academy case was the first to go to trial.
But U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett in Baltimore sided with Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration in finding that the Naval Academy’s policy was constitutional.
Nate Raymond, Reuters
Theres a reason Haliey Welch seemingly vanished from the internet overnight: Shes the focus of an upcoming documentary exploring her meteoric riseand dramatic fallfrom viral fame.
The 22-year-old influencer will be the subject of an upcoming documentary from Emmy-winning production company Bungalow Media + Entertainment, according to Deadline. The documentary will chronicle how Welch, a young woman from a small town with no active social media presence, unknowingly created a viral moment that gave way to a global phenomenon, per a press release shared with the outlet.
The documentary will focus on Welch’s “unexpected rise to fame, the scrutiny that followed,” and will expose “the incredible power social media has to crown and crucify its internet darlings, the press release continued.
Welch became a viral sensation after her video interview was uploaded by the Tim & Dee TV YouTube channel, where she responded to one of their questions with the now-iconic hawk tuah catchphrase.
With only a single sentence, Haliey Welch went from an unknown young woman having a night out on the town to enjoying 15 minutes of fame to global phenomenon who cemented her status in the pop culture lexicon. There are very few people who know what it is like to achieve this level of fame and live under the 24/7 microscope known as social media, Bob Friedman, producer and CEO at Bungalow Media + Entertainment, said in a statement. He adds that the documentary will chronicle Welchs journey as well as explore the highs and lows of living in the public eye.
After her viral moment, Welch parlayed her 15 minutes into a business empire, launching merchandise, the Talk Tuah podcast, and a Gen Z-targeted dating app called Pookie Tools. In early December, Welch announced that she would be releasing her own cryptocurrency memecoin called $HAWK, which quickly tanked and caused Welch to disappear from the internet in a cloud of controversy.
I hope yall been enjoying the crazy stories about my life unfold on social media, Welch said in a statement about the upcoming documentary. First, I was dead. Then pregnant. Now Im wanted by Interpol and in jail! Luckily, weve been working with Bungalow to start spilling the tea and the truth is actually even more bizarre than you think.
To get the full story, fans will have to be patient. Release details for the documentary have yet to be announced.
The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday said he is opening an investigation into the diversity practices of Walt Disney and its ABC unit, saying they may violate U.S. equal employment opportunity regulations.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr wrote Disney CEO Robert Iger in a letter dated Thursday that the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts may not have complied with FCC regulations and that changes by the company may not go far enough. “I want to ensure that Disney ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name,” Carr wrote in the letter, which was seen by Reuters.
He has sent letters to Comcast and Verizon announcing similar probes into diversity practices.
“We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commissions letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions,” a Disney spokesperson said.
Disney recently revised its executive compensation policies to remove diversity and inclusion as a performance metric, adding a new standard called “talent strategy,” aimed at upholding the companys values.
Carr said FCC’s Enforcement Bureau will be engaging with Disney “to obtain an accounting of Disney and ABCs DEI programs, policies, and practices.”
Carr, who was designed chair by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, has been aggressively investigating media companies.
In December, ABC News agreed to give $15 million to Trumps future presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made on air involving the civil case brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Days after Carr took over as chair, the FCC reinstated complaints about the “60 Minutes” interview with Harris, as well as complaints about how ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump. It also reinstated complaints against Comcast’s NBC for allowing Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” shortly before the election.
Trump has sued CBS for $20 billion, claiming that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited the interview in order to interfere in the November presidential election, which he won.
CBS, which is owned by Paramount Global, this week called on the FCC to dismiss the complaint “without delay,” but Carr quickly rejected the idea, saying the investigation would continue.
David Shepardson and Dawn Chmielewski, Reuters
Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle start-up Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year for fraud, was pardoned by President Donald Trump, the White House confirmed Friday.
The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors.
Milton, 42, and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
At Milton’s trial, prosecutors say a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway was actually a video of a nonfunctioning Nikola that had been rolled down a hill.
Milton had not been incarcerated pending an appeal.
Milton said late Thursday on social media that he had been pardoned by Trump.
“I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for his courage in standing up for what is right and for granting me this sacred pardon of innocence, Milton said.
The White House confirmed the pardon Friday, though there was no notice of a pardon on the White House website.
When asked by a reporter in a news conference Friday why he pardoned Milton, Trump said it was highly recommended by many people. Trump suggested that Milton was prosecuted because he supported the president.
They say the the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president, Trump said.
Trump went on to say that Milton did nothing wrong and that the Southern District of New York’s prosecutors were a vicious group of people.
During his securities fraud case, Milton was defended by two lawyers with connections to Trump: Marc Mukasey, who has represented the Trump Organization; and Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi, who Trump appointed as U.S. Attorney General.
Trump wasted little time in using his pardon power since beginning his second term. Hours after taking office, he wiped clean the records of roughly 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The next day, Trump announced that he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs.
Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the role of the internet in illegal markets.
Nikola, which was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scandal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
Milton, convicted of fraud, was portrayed by prosecutors as a con man six years after he had founded the company in a basement in Utah.
Prosecutors said Milton falsely claimed to have built its own revolutionary truck that was actually a General Motors product with Nikolas logo stamped onto it.
Called as a government witness, Nikolas CEO testified that Milton was prone to exaggeration when pitching his venture to investors.
Milton resigned in 2020 amid reports of fraud that sent Nikolas stock prices into a tailspin. Investors suffered heavy losses as reports questioned Miltons claims that the company had already produced zero-emission 18-wheel trucks.
The company paid $125 million in 2021 to settle a civil case against it by the SEC. Nikola didnt admit any wrongdoing.
The U.S. District Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on Miltons pardon.
At the time of his conviction U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again on social media, on television, on podcasts, and in print. But todays sentence should be a warning to start-up founders and corporate executives everywhere fake it till you make it is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price.
Matt Ott, AP business writer
As part of a push to roll back dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.
The Environmental Protection Agency has set up an electronic mailbox to allow regulated companies to request a presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules.
Companies were asked to send an email by Monday seeking permission from President Donald Trump to bypass the new restrictions. The Clean Air Act enables the president to temporarily exempt industrial sites from new rules if the technology required to meet them is not widely available and if the continued activity is in the interest of national security.
Environmental groups denounced the administration’s offer, calling the email address a polluters’ portal that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health. Exemptions would be allowed for nine EPA rules issued by the Biden administration, including limits on mercury, ethylene oxide and other hazardous air pollutants. Mercury exposure can cause brain damage, especially in children. Fetuses are vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mothers womb.
Margie Alt, campaign director of the Climate Action Campaign, said the request for exemption applications is a gift to the fossil fuel industry” and further indication of a polluters-first agenda” under Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Companies can now apply for a gold-plated, ‘get-out-of-permitting free’ card,” she said, adding that the latest action marked at least the third time Zeldin has moved to weaken enforcement of environmental laws since he took office less than two months ago. On March 12, he announced a series of actions to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.
Last month, Zeldin said he would push for a 65% spending cut at the agency, saying, We dont need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA last year.
Trump and Zeldin, aided by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, have also pushed to drastically reduce EPA staffing, and the agency is considering a plan to eliminate its scientific research office. About 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for EPA rules safeguarding human health and the environment could be fired.
The EPA’s offer for companies to request exemptions was first reported by The New York Times.
Submitting a request via this email box does not entitle the submitter to an exemption,” the EPA said in a statement. The President will make a decision on the merits.
Authority for exemptions solely rests with the president, not EPA,” added EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou.
Former President Joe Biden offered similar exemptions after issuing a rule last year tightening emission standards for ethylene oxide from commercial facilities that sterilize medical equipment, she noted.
Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, called EPA’s action an invitation to pollute and an abuse of power by Zeldin. Coal-fired power plants have long used scrubbers and other devices to limit mercury and other toxic pollution and can continue to do so, she said, adding that hundreds of companies nationwide could potentially apply for exemptions that are neither needed nor legal.
“We will go to court. We will get their records and we will make that list (of exemptions) public,” she said.
Jason Rylander, a lawyer for another environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, called the EPA’s actions ridiculous and one more demonstration that the Trump administration wants to help polluters, not protect the environment.
It is an enormous stretch to suggest that theres some national interest in giving industry the right to pollute. That doesnt make sense to me, he said.
Trump declared an energy emergency early in his term and has embraced policies to boost and oil and gas production, which he sums up as drill, baby drill.”
In my view, we’re in the middle of a climate emergency,” Rylander said. But in the Trump administrations view, we have this fictitious national energy emergency that may provide a basis for (Trump) to claim this is somehow in the national security interests of the United States.
Exemptions offered this week also could apply to more than 200 chemical plants nationwide that are being required to reduce toxic emissions likely to cause cancer. The rule, issued last year, advanced the former presidents commitment to environmental justice by delivering critical health protections for communities burdened by industrial pollution from ethylene oxide, chloroprene and other dangerous chemicals, the Biden administration said.
Formally undoing the Biden administrations protections, however, is complicated and could take years. Exemptions for specific plants may be a faster workaround in the meantime, according to Bradford Mank, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati.
Matthew Daly, Associated Press
Associated Press writer Michael Phillis contributed to this report.
