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Seven elephant seal pupshave tested positive for avian flu atCalifornia's Año Nuevo State Park,after scientists noticed several seals showing abnormal respiratory and neurological signs.

Scientists atUC Santa Cruz,UC Davis, and theU.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratoryconfirmed the outbreak late Tuesday evening, marking thefirst outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in marine mammals in California, according to apress release from UC Davis.

"This is exceptionally rapid detection of an outbreak in free-ranging marine mammals," said Professor Christine Johnson, director of theInstitute for Pandemic Insightsat theUC Davis' Weill School of Veterinary Medicine."We have most likely identified the very first cases here because of coordinated teams that have been on high alert with active surveillance for this disease for some time."

In response to this outbreak, theAño Nuevo State Park has temporarily closedaccess to the elephant seal viewing area for the rest of the season. The park will provide refunds to any tourists who booked a spot to view the seals.

The state park's marine education center, horse barn movie theater, and a portion of the Año Nuevo Point Trail will remain open at this time,according to the park's website.

This is not the first timethe disease has been detected in an elephant seal population; in 2023, southern elephant seals in Argentina were affected by it. The disease decimatedsouthern elephant seals, as hundreds of dead pups appeared along the Patagonian coast of Argentina.

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After the avian flu killed hundreds ofsouthern elephant seals, scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis increased disease surveillance of the population in North America, out of concern that the disease might spread along the American coastlines.

"Given the catastrophic impacts observed in related species, we were concerned about the possibility of the virus infecting northern elephant seals for the first time, so we ramped up monitoring to detect any early signs of abnormalities," said Roxanne Beltran, a professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz.Beltran's lableads UC Santa Cruz's northern elephant seal research program at Año Nuevo.

The avian flu wasfirst reported in Canada in December 2021, after the virus was detected in wild birds in every province and territory. However, UC scientistsbelieve this is the first detection of avianflu among thenorthern elephant sealpopulation.

The risk of the avian flu transmitting to the general public is very low; the disease can spread between animals and people. Scientists recommend avoiding areas with infected animals, not touching live or dead seals, and not allowing pets to approach them.

If a person encounters a sick, injured, or dead marine mammal in California, Oregon, or Washington, call the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region Stranding Hotline: (866) 767-6114.

Noe Padilla is a Northern California Reporter for USA Today. Contact him atnpadilla@usatodayco.com, follow him on X @1NoePadillaor on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social.Sign up for theTODAY Californian newsletteror follow us on Facebook atTODAY Californian.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Seven elephant seals test positive for bird flu at California beach

By Nate Raymond

U.S. District Judge Murphy Investiture Ceremony in Boston

BOSTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration had adopted an unlawful policy that allows for the rapid deportation of migrants to countries other than their own without providing them a ‌chance to object and raise concerns for their safety.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued a final ruling declaring the ‌U.S. Department of Homeland Security's policy invalid in a case that the administration expects will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The policy, which was adopted in ​March 2025 as part of Republican President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, failed to protect the due process rights of migrants who without notice could be swiftly deported to "an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous country," Murphy said.

Murphy said the administration had argued it would be "fine" for immigration officers under that policy to quickly deport people to so-called third countries they did not come from as long as DHS does not know someone is waiting to kill them upon ‌their arrival.

"It is not fine, nor is it ⁠legal," wrote Murphy, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.

DECISION ON HOLD PENDING LIKELY APPEAL

The judge set aside the policy and declared that migrants who had been subject to it had a right to meaningful ⁠notice and a chance to raise objections to being deported to third countries. But he paused his ruling from taking effect for 15 days to allow the administration time to pursue an appeal, citing the case's "importance and its unusual history."

He noted the Supreme Court's earlier interventions in the case. The court previously ​lifted ​a preliminary injunction Murphy issued in April protecting the due process rights of ​migrants facing deportation to third countries and later cleared ‌the way for eight men to be sent to South Sudan.

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While it was in effect, that earlier injunction hindered the administration's efforts to send migrants to countries other than their places of origin, including South Sudan, Libya and El Salvador.

A spokesperson for DHS, in a statement, pointed to the Supreme Court's earlier rulings in its favor in the case and said the department was "confident we will be vindicated again."

"DHS must be allowed to execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them," the DHS spokesperson said.

Wednesday's ruling came ‌in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of migrants facing deportation to countries not ​previously named in their removal orders or identified in their immigration court proceedings.

The policy allows ​migrants to be deported to such countries if immigration authorities ​either have credible diplomatic assurances they will not be persecuted or tortured if sent there, or have given ‌the migrants as little as six hours of notice that ​they are being sent to such ​a place.

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, called Murphy's ruling "a forceful statement from the court that the administration's third-country removal policy is unconstitutional."

"Under the government's policy, people have been forcibly returned to countries where U.S. immigration ​judges have found they will be persecuted or ‌tortured," Realmuto said in a statement.

Department of Justice lawyers had argued the policy satisfied immigration law requirements and due process ​standards and was essential for deporting migrants whose home countries refused them due to crimes they committed.

(Reporting by Nate ​Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Nia Williams and Bill Berkrot)

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — When roadblocks, explosions and gunshots broke out after thekilling of Mexico's most powerful drug lord, people who rushed to their cellphones for information found social media posts depicting a country in chaos.

TheJalisco New Generation Cartelresponded to themassive Mexican army operationto capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes,known as "El Mencho,"on Sunday with an even bigger wave ofretaliatory violencein some 20 states. More than 70 people were killed.

But in addition to real accounts of death and destruction and the warnings from governments for their citizens to shelter in place, the internet was flooded with disinformation — fake videos and images generated byartificial intelligence. They were designed to stoke fear, Mexican officials said.

"We didn't know what was true and what was false," said Victoria Elizabeth Peceril, 31, who was walking with her three children in the now-calm streets of Guadalajara on Wednesday. "We were really scared."

Some posts falsely claimed the president hid and an airport was seized

One fake post purported to show a commercial plane on fire at Guadalajara's international airport. Messages spread that gunmen had seized the airport and tourists had been taken hostage.

The government said there were between 200 and 500 troublesome and inaccurate posts — including up to 30 that have received more than 100,000 views — since Sunday's army operation.

Officials presented data compiled by Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private university, during President Claudia Sheinbaum's daily news briefing Wednesday. It said 35% to 40% of those posts lacked context, at least 25% were misleading, and nearly 25% were manipulated by AI or fabricated.

One post claimed a U.S. agent had strangled Oseguera Cervantes. Another said Sheinbaum was hiding on a naval vessel off Mexico's Pacific coast. Others speculated that Mexico killed Oseguera Cervantes rather than turn him over to the U.S., or tried to tie his killing to the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to the university's report.

The university did not suggest who, or what, was producing the content.

"There was a lot of badly intentioned news Sunday, looking to generate terror," Sheinbaum said a day earlier.

The Jalisco cartel is known for extraordinary violence

Many people in Mexico learn about what is happening in their communities via chat groups on messaging apps or from accounts on the social platform X. In the northern border cities that live in the grip of organized crime, these sometimes read like traffic reports, telling drivers the location of convoys of criminals so they can stay away.

The Jalisco cartel has built a reputation for spectacular acts of violence, including downing a military helicopter and attempting to assassinate Mexico City's police chief, so social media posts proclaiming extraordinary cartel brutality are difficult to doubt.

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"At first, we believed everything," said 28-year-old Nicolás Martín, who lives in Mexico City but had been staying at a resort near Puerto Vallarta when the violence began. He said the images posted online resembled "what you see in movies."

Martín said he was surprised by the quality of posts that circulated early Sunday — including what appeared to be drone footage — supposedly showing explosions and fires in Puerto Vallarta. In the initial moments of chaos, you would expect the images to be less steady, more haphazard, he said.

Organized criminals are becoming tech-savvy

Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert in organized crime at the Brookings Institution — a Washington-based public policy think tank — it's possible that people tied to the Jalisco cartel were behind at least some of the disinformation.

Among Mexico's organized crime groups, the Jalisco cartel in particular has invested in its online presence.

"The criminals are becoming very tech-savvy," Felbab-Brown said.

"It was impressive to see the level of misinformation," she said, citing the images purporting to show the cartel had taken over the airport in Guadalajara. She said those "impressive and sophisticated" posts are likely generated by AI from chatbots controlled by Jalisco Nueva Generación.

They "certainly added to the aura of chaos and meltdown in Mexico," Felbab-Brown said.

Even though Mexican authorities and the U.S. Embassy tried to knock down some of the false information circulating Sunday, Sarai Olguín, a 22-year-old college student in Guadalajara, said it was difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Friends sent her videos and photos they found online as she and other residents hid inside their homes. She credits the posts in part with keeping people off the streets.

One post warned that "after a certain hour they were going to kill everyone," she said. "In a way it's good, because all of this false news helped take care of people even though they sowed immense fear."

Verza reported from Mexico City. Associated Press fact checker Abril Mulato in Mexico City contributed.

JERUSALEM (AP) — IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modiwas expected inIsraelon Wednesday for a two-day visit focusing on strengthening security, economic and technological cooperation between the two countries.

Modi has said he would hold talks with IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuandPresident Isaac Herzogand would speak to Israeli parliament on Wednesday evening.

"Our nations share a robust and multifaceted Strategic Partnership," Modi wrote on X. "Ties have significantly strengthened in the last few years."

Netanyahu referred to himself and Modi as "personal friends" when he announced the visit earlier this week and the visit is likely to give Israel a boost of international support after seeing relations with many of its allies deteriorate since thewar in Gaza began in October 2023.

In addition to being a powerful ally, India is also Israel's No. 2 trading partner in Asia. Total trade between India and Israel was valued at $3.62 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, according to India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

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Modi became India's first prime minister to travel to Israel in 2017, and Netanyahu reciprocated with a trip to India the following year.

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that economic and security issues will be high on the leaders' agenda, as will sharing technology, includingartificial intelligenceand quantum computing.

"We are partners in innovation, security, and a shared strategic vision," Netanyahu said on the social platform X ahead of Modi's arrival. "Together, we are building an axis of nations committed to stability and progress."

Modi's embrace of Israel has marked ashift in India's foreign policy.India has historically supported the Palestinians, and did not establish full diplomatic ties with Israel until 1992.

A staunch Hindu nationalist, Modi was one of the first global leaders to swiftly express solidarity with Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian militant Hamas group.

India was also among more than 100 countries earlier this month tocondemn Israel's newly approved measuresto deepen its control over theoccupied West Bankand weaken the already limited powers of thePalestinian Authority.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Facing tough odds in an upcoming election, Hungary's pro-Russian prime minister is trying to convince voters that the greatest threat to the country is not economic stagnation — the focus of his top opponent — but neighboring Ukraine.

Hungary Anti Ukraine Campaign

Viktor Orbánis running an aggressive media campaign replete with disinformation whose central message is that Hungarians should refuse to align with the rest of Europe in supporting Ukraine againstRussia's invasion. That path, he argues, risks bankrupting the country and getting its youth killed on the front lines.

Billboards erected across the country show AI-generated images of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flanked by European officials, holding out his hand as if demanding money. It's a not-so-subtle reference to the European Union's efforts tohelp Ukraine financially and bolster its defensesas the war enters its fifth year.

"Our message to Brussels: We won't pay!" the publicly funded billboards read.

If there had been any doubt, it became clear on Monday why the outcome of Hungary's upcoming election will reverberate beyond its borders. Hungaryblocked a new package of EU sanctionson Russia in response to interruptions in Russian oil supplies that pass through Ukraine, and vowed to veto any further pro-Ukraine policies until oil flows resume.

Orbán is widely seen asthe Kremlin's strongest allyin the EU. While almost all of the bloc's other 26 nations have distanced themselves from Russia since it launched the war on Feb. 24, 2022, Hungary has deepened cooperation.

The prime minister has cast his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as pragmatic, stemming from Hungary'saccess to reliable suppliesof Russian oil and gas. But Orbán'santi-LGBTQ+ policies,crackdowns on the mediaand nongovernmental organizations, and hislabeling of critics as "foreign agents"have led to accusations that he's reading from Putin's authoritarian playbook.

Campaign of fear

Orbán, who retook office in 2010,faces the strongest challengeto his power in an election set for April 12. The EU's longest-serving leader and his right-wing Fidesz party are trailing in most independent polls to an upstart center-right challenger,Péter Magyar.

A 44-year-old lawyer and former Fidesz insider who broke with the party in 2024, Magyar has focused his campaign on stemming the rising costs of living, improving social services and reining in corruption. He also promises torestore Hungary's Western orientationand bolster democratic institutions which have eroded during Orbán's 16 years in power.

His rise was aided by political scandals that have damaged the credibility of Orbán's party; apresidential pardongiven to an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case led to a public outcry, prompting the president and justice minister to resign.

Losing ground to Magyar and his Tisza party, Orbán and Fidesz have sought to change the conversation. They have blanketed the country with taxpayer-funded billboards, as well as advertisements on radio, television and social media. A petition mailed to every Hungarian of voting age claimed the EU's plans to help Ukraine financially would bring economic ruin.

Other ads, paid for by a shadowy pro-government organization with Fidesz ties, depict Magyar as a puppet of Zelenskyy and the EU who would sell out the country to foreign interests and draw Hungary into the war.

Hungary's public media, along withmany private news outletsloyal to Orbán's government, faithfully mimic the claims. They say Ukraine wants to prolong the bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands of its citizens — and is conspiring with the EU to do it.

Disinformation is fueled by artificial intelligence

Orbán has recently claimed thatthe EU — not Russia — poses the greatest threatto Hungary. He says rising defense spending across Europe — driven by Russia's war and pressure from the U.S. to increase NATO contributions — is evidence that the EU is preparing for conflict with Moscow and plans to forcibly conscript Hungarians to fight.

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In an AI-generated video Fidesz released on social media last week, a little girl asks her forlorn mother in Hungarian: "Mommy, when is daddy coming home?"

In the next frame, the fictional father — bound, blindfolded and kneeling on a muddy battlefield — is approached by a soldier, and shot in the head. "We won't allow others to decide on the fates of our families," a narrator says. "Let's not take a risk. Fidesz is the safe choice."

Although some EU countries have proposed sending troops to Ukraine to monitor any future ceasefire, they are not intended to engage in combat, and participation would be voluntary, said András Rácz, a Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Rácz notes that, despite the false premise behind many of Orbán's claims, Fidesz has won two previous elections afterraising fearsthat its political opponent would drag the country into the war.

"They are trying to max this out. They have nothing else," Rácz said. "Populists often try to define an enemy, often an imaginary one, and then offer protection to the society from that enemy. Ukraine has been ideal from this perspective."

Escalating tensions

For years, Orbán has sought tostymie EU effortsto provide financial and military support to Ukraine, and he has vigorously opposed sanctions targeting Russian oil and officials.

Tensions with Ukraine grew recently after Russian oil shipments to Hungary were interrupted; Ukraine blamed the disruption on a Russian drone strike in late January that damaged a pipeline. Orbán called it blackmail.

Last week, his government retaliated byhalting diesel shipmentsto Ukraine and threatening toveto a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) EU loandestined for Kyiv. On Monday, itblocked the 20th round of EU sanctionsagainst Russia.

The anti-Ukraine campaign has resonated with many Hungarians loyal to Fidesz. Despite Tisza's advantage in the polls, its victory is far from assured.

Still, many Hungarians are dubious of Orban's anti-Ukraine messaging. On Sunday, hundreds of Hungarians and Ukrainians, many of them refugees, gathered in central Budapest to commemorate the four-year anniversary of Russia's invasion. Marching toward a demonstration outside the Russian embassy, participants held Ukrainian and Hungarian flags, and chanted, "Stop Putin, stop the war!"

Budapest's liberal mayor, Gergely Karácsony, told The Associated Press that Orbán's messaging and policies are "a betrayal not only of Ukraine, but of Hungary's national interest."

"I hope that this will go into history as a failed policy, but that history will also remember that there were some who stood up for what is right," he said.

One of the marchers was Ester Zhivatovska, a 19-year-old veterinary medicine student who came from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa to study in Budapest. She said the billboards depicting her country's president are laughable.

"The main message of these billboards is that Ukraine will steal Hungarian money," she said. "But come on, you're using these AI images from the Hungarian budget to do what? To win elections."

By Jihoon Lee

A woman holding up her baby is silhouetted against the backdrop of N Seoul Tower in Seoul

SEOUL, Feb 25 (Reuters) - South Korea's birthrate rose for a second straight year in 2025, government data showed on Wednesday, in a further sign that a country facing a demographic crisis for nearly a decade may be starting to turn a corner.

South Korea's total ‌fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have during her reproductive life, stood at 0.80 in 2025, up from 0.75 ‌in 2024, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

New births began rebounding in 2024 on a post-pandemic boost and government policies, after eight consecutive years of declines that saw South ​Korea register the world's lowest birthrate at 0.72 in 2023, a period marked by sky-rocketing house prices and higher economic participation by women.

There were 5.0 new births per 1,000 people in 2025, up from 4.7 in 2024. That compared with 5.6 in China last year, 4.6 in Taiwan last year and 5.7 in Japan in 2024, where the trend remains downwards.

The pace of the rebound is faster than the government's optimistic-case projection of 0.75 in 2025 and 0.80 in 2026, which forecasts the total fertility rate to break ‌above 1.0 per woman in 2031.

Marriages, a leading indicator of ⁠new births with a lag of one to two years, rose 8.1% in 2025, after a record 14.8% jump in 2024.

"The biggest part is that marriages are increasing a lot, accumulatively," Park Hyun-jung, a ministry official, told a briefing, noting a higher number of ⁠people in their 30s and shifts in social attitudes.

The sharpest rise in new births was in the capital, with Seoul's fertility rate at 0.63, up 8.9% from 0.58 in 2024, though still the lowest across the country.

Shin Kyung-ah, a sociology professor at Hallym University, said the data needed more scrutiny because of statistical effects such as population composition changes.

"Still, it is ​meaningful ​as an indicator suggesting positive changes, which will, at least indirectly, also help make people become ​more positive about having a baby," Shin said.

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In a biennial ‌government survey in 2024, 52.5% of South Koreans expressed positive views about marriage, up from 50.1% in 2022. The average number of children people ideally wanted to have stood at 1.89.

Last year, new births rose 6.8% to 254,457, the biggest percentage rise since 2007, while deaths rose 1.3% to 363,389, resulting in the population naturally shrinking for the sixth consecutive year.

ECONOMIC SHOCK

President Lee Jae Myung's administration plans a five-year policy roadmap this year to respond to demographic changes, amid concern about an economic shock from an ageing population.

It also plans to expand policy support rolled out in recent years for childbirth, and to introduce measures to attract skilled foreign workers to offset a ‌shrinking workforce.

"The government will further strengthen support for young people in their 20s and early 30s, ​low-income earners and the unemployed," the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy said last ​month, citing evidence policy efforts were bearing fruit.

South Korea's potential economic growth ​rate, estimated at around an annual rate of 2%, fell by six percentage points in the last three decades, more sharply than ‌in most major economies, and is expected to drop to 0.6% ​by 2045-2049, according to the central bank.

Credit ratings ​agencies warn of growing strains on public finances from welfare expenditure. The country's public pension fund, the world's third-largest with $1 trillion in assets, is projected to run out by 2071.

President Lee has called for regional cooperation on demographic challenges and proposed at last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to hold ​the group's first population policy forum in South Korea this ‌year.

During visits to China and Japan in January, Lee also agreed with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to seek collaboration on ​ageing populations.

South Korea's population of 51.8 million is expected to shrink by almost a third to 36.2 million by 2072, according to the ​latest government projection in 2022.

(Reporting by Jihoon LeeEditing by Ed Davies and Lincoln Feast.)

BEIJING (AP) — German ChancellorFriedrich Merzis meeting China's top leaders Wednesday at the start of a whirlwindtwo-day visitto press for a fair economic playing field for German companies, and China's assistance in bringing about an end to Russia's four-year-oldwar in Ukraine.

The German leader's plane touched down in the late morning on an overcast day in the Chinese capital. Before his departure, he emphasized the importance of placing Germany's China policy in a European context, saying it was no coincidence that he is visiting not long after French PresidentEmmanuel Macronand British Prime MinisterKeir Starmer— and ahead of aplanned tripby U.S. President Donald Trump in early April.

"Our message from a European point of view is the same: We want partnership with China balanced, reliable, regulated and fair," Merz said. "This is our offer. At the same time, it is what we also hope for and expect from the Chinese side."

Merz, who is making hisfirst trip to Chinasince taking office last May,has championedbuilding a stronger Europe both economically and militarily to assert itself in an emerging new world order. Europe has been buffeted by Trump's tariffs and demands that it take more responsibility for its own security and cede control of Greenland to the U.S.

He stressed in his predeparture remarks that for all the differences Europe has with China, "the big global political problems can no longer be tackled today without involving Beijing." Cooperation is needed to resolve crises and wars, including that in Ukraine, he said, noting that "Beijing's voice is heard, including in Moscow."

Many European governments have been frustrated that China hasn't done more to pressure Russia to end the fighting. It has maintained trade and close diplomatic ties with Russia and said its position on the conflict is impartial and objective. "We hope all parties will seize the opportunity to reach a comprehensive, lasting and binding peace agreement," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said earlier this week.

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Merz is the latest in aparade of world leadersto visit Beijing as China seeks support from other nations to push back against Trump's use of tariffs to demand concessions from trading partners, and his challenges to the United Nations and the global order that has governed international and economic relations in the post-World War II era.

"At a time when the world is experiencing turbulence and transformation, China and Germany, as major economies and advocates of multilateralism, share the responsibility to uphold the stability of global industrial and supply chains and oppose protectionism and economic coercion," China's official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary.

Economically, a flood of Chinese exports is threatening factory jobs in Europe. Germany's imports from China rose 8.8% to 170.6 billion euros ($201 billion) last year, while its exports to China fell 9.7% to 81.3 billion euros ($96 billion).

European leaders want Chinese companies to build factories in their countries. They also want China to reduce manufacturing overcapacity that is driving down prices in industries such as electric vehicles and solar panels, and to remove barriers faced by foreign companies in what is the world's second largest economy.

"We also want to discuss how we can find a remedy, for example, where systemic overcapacities have arisen, where there are export restrictions and where there are access restrictions … that distort and prevent competition," Merz said.

Moulson reported from Berlin.