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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's Congress was set to vote Tuesday on a motion to remove interim President José Jerí as prosecutors look intoallegations of corruption involving unreported meetingsbetween Jerí and two Chinese businessmen.

If the legislators secure a majority, Jerí will be ousted from the presidency a mere four months into his term. His removal would trigger yet another transition, forcing the legislature to appoint a new leader and marking a volatile new chapter in Peruvian politics just two months before national elections.

Jerí is the seventh president to lead the nation in the past decade. Hewas sworn into office in October, after his predecessor was ousted by Congress over corruption allegations and a rise in violent crime. He now faces removal from office from his former colleagues in Congress, who have accused him of misconduct and lack of capacity to carry out his presidential duties.

The 39-year-old interim president said he was hopeful he would survive the vote.

"I'm not dead yet," Jerí said during an interview over the weekend on Peruvian television Panamericana, insisting he would continue to serve the people of Peru until his "last day" in the presidential palace.

If he is removed from office, the legislators will choose a new president from among their members to govern until July 28, when he the interim leader will hand over the office to the winner of the April 12 presidential election.

In turn, Jerí will return to his position as a legislator until July 28, when the new Congress also takes office.

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It is also possible that the legislators will not vote for removal. The president is supported by the Fuerza Popular party, led bypresidential candidate Keiko Fujimorithe daughter of a former president who was imprisoned for human rights abuses.

The accusations against Jerí stem from a leaked report regarding a clandestine December meeting with two Chinese executives. One attendee holds active government contracts, while the other is currently under investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal logging operation.

Jerí has denied wrongdoing. He said he met the executives to organize a Peruvian-Chinese festivity, but his opponents have accused him of corruption.

The crisis is the latest chapter in a prolonged political collapse in a country that has seenseven presidents since 2016, and is about to hold a general election amid widespread public outcry over a surge in violent crime.

Despite a revolving door of presidents, Peru's economy has remained stable.

The Andean nation had an external debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32% in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has welcomed foreign investment in areas like mining and infrastructure.

Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean athttps://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Rev.Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died.

Jackson was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, a Democratic presidential candidate and one of the world's best-known Black activists.

He was 84 and had suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disease that causes a decline similar to Parkinson's disease but accelerated.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Civil Rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Honorable Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.," said a statement from the organization. "He died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family."

Despite the illness that softened his voice and weakened his steps, Jackson had continued to advocate for civil rights and was arrested twice in 2021 over his objection to the Senate filibuster rule. That same year, he and his wife, Jacqueline,were hospitalizedwith COVID-19 complications at a Chicago hospital.

"His longevity is part of the story," said Rashad Robinson, the former president of the 7-million-member online justice organization Color of Change. "This is someone who had so many chances to do something else. And this is what he chose to do with his life."

Jackson's death comes amidst a rising tide of white nationalism and voting-rights access issues, and follows the loss of other civil rights icons, including former Rep.John Lewis, who died in 2020.

PresidentDonald Trumpsaid he'd worked with Jackson for decades, providing office space for his coalition. Jackson had previously said he and Trump had split over the fate of the Central Park Five ‒ the group of Hispanic and Black teens convicted but ultimately exonerated in the 1989 sexual assault of a woman in New York City's Central Park. Trump had taken out newspaper advertisements calling for the teens to be executed.

"Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him," Trump said in a social media post. "He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!"

The making of a Civil Rights icon

Born in Greenville, South Carolina,Jackson's rise to prominencebegan after he and seven other men were arrested in 1960 ‒ he was 18 at the time ‒ for protesting segregation at their town's public library. He then joined King's burgeoning civil rights fight and was just feet away when King was assassinated in 1968.

Jackson founded what would ultimately become the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and ran for president as a Democrat in 1984 and 1988, energizing and registering millions of Black voters.

"As we continue in the struggle for human rights, remember that God will see us through, even in our midnight moments," Jackson said in 2017 as he announced his neuromuscular disease diagnosis.

Jackson visited Minneapolis in 2021 to support protesters awaiting the verdict in the trial ofDerek Chauvin, the former police officer who was convicted days later of killing George Floyd in an incident that set off national protests and violence.

While there, he also attended services for Daunte Wright, a Black man who was shot and killed by a police officer during a protest against police violence in a nearby suburb. Speaking in a subdued voice, Jackson reminded the young activists leading a protest march that their cause was just.

In a statement, civil rights attorney Ben Crump mourned his friend as someone who helped shape his own life. Crump has become the go-to lawyer for Black families seeking justice and represented some of Floyd's family members. Crump said Jackson helped broaden the path for people of color to shape America through politics and public life.

"Rev. Jackson conceived of a more just and inclusive America, believed in it with unwavering faith, and dedicated his entire life to achieving it – all while teaching the next generation how to carry the torch forward," Crump said. "He was an unstoppable and formidable force, proving that no opponent or battle was too big."

Born in the fall of 1941 to a teenage mother and her married neighbor, Jackson was adopted by the man his mother married, and he considered both to be his fathers. He attended a segregated high school and played football in college, dropping out a few credits short of his master's degree in divinity in 1966 to join the Civil Rights Movement full time.

By 1965, he'd marched with King and others from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to push for Black voting rights, and by 1967 was running operations for King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Chicago, the city that would become his home.

Under Jackson, the SCLC's Operation Breadbasket used boycotts and public attention to pressure companies to hire more Black workers. Jackson ultimately earned his divinity degree after being ordained a minister in 1968.

More:America was born in protest. What's changed 250 years later?

In 1983, shortly before announcing his run for president, Jackson traveled to Syria to negotiate the release of an American pilot shot down over Lebanon, and the next summer, he negotiated the release of 22 Americans and 26 political prisoners from Cuba after meeting with former dictator Fidel Castro.

His successes bolstered his presidential campaign, although he lost the 1984 Democratic primary to Walter Mondale, who went on to lose toRonald Reagan. Jackson ran again for president in 1988, putting on a strong showing but ultimately falling to Mike Dukakis, who lost to Republican George H.W. Bush.

After that second loss, Jackson shelved his own political aspirations but continued his efforts for civil rights and justice.

In 1990, Jackson opposed the pending invasion of Iraq and negotiated the release of hundreds of people whom Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had threatened to use as human shields, and then in 1999 won the release of three U.S. POWs during the Kosovo War.

'There certainly would have been no Barack Obama … no Bill Clinton either'

Robinson, the former president of Color of Change, remembers listening and watching as his family members made their first political donations after listening to one of Jackson's presidential campaign speeches.

"I didn't understand everything he said, but I understood what it meant," said Robinson, who later wrote a college paper on Jackson's campaigns. "He was such a possibility model. There are so many people who are in politics today who would not be where they are today thanks to Jesse Jackson. There certainly would be no Barack Obama if there was no Jesse Jackson. And there would have been no Bill Clinton either."

In 2000, Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, citing his decades of work to make the world a better place.

More:Jesse Jackson: Five key moments in Civil Rights icon's career

"It's hard to imagine how we could have come as far as we have without the creative power, the keen intellect, the loving heart, and the relentless passion of Jesse Lewis Jackson," Clinton said.

Trahern Crews, who helped found the Black Lives Matter-Minnesota chapter, said he grew up with Jackson's "I am Somebody" recitations ringing in his ears. Jackson often led crowds in a call-and-answer chant that usually included variations on "I may be poor … but I am … Somebody. I may be young … but I am … Somebody."

"That allowed future generations to stand up and follow and his footsteps and declare Black Lives Matter and recognize our humanity," Crews said. "When we go back and watch videos of Rev. Jesse Jackson marching and fighting for housing rights, voting rights, ending housing discrimination, and said, 'I am Somebody,' that encouraged activists of today to stand up and fight against 400 years of racist policies in the United States."

Jackson's family includes his wife of 63 years, Jacqueline "Jackie" Jackson, and six children: Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, Jacqueline and Ashley. In 1999,he fathered a childwith Karin Stanford, the director of the Washington bureau of his organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. He first publicly acknowledged his daughter, Ashley, in 2001 and apologized for his affair.

Kristen Clarke, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights under the Biden-era Department of Justice, said in a statement that Jackson helped make America a more just nation.

"A tireless and extraordinary public servant, his charge to all of us was to stay hopeful, keep up the good fight and respect the dignity and humanity of all people," Clarke said. "Jackson has been, and will always be, a central part of the story regarding America's ongoing quest for justice and equality.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jesse Jackson dies after long illness. Civil Rights icon was 84.

By Matthias Williams

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Migrants in Libya, including young girls, are at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or put into domestic slavery, according to a U.N. report that called for ‌a moratorium on the return of migrant boats to the country until human rights are ensured.

Libya has ‌become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Gaddafi ​to a NATO-backed uprising. Factional conflict has split the country into western and eastern factions since 2014.

In recent years, the EU and EU member states have supported and trained the Libyan coastguard, which returns migrants stopped at sea to detention centres, and have funded Libyan border management programmes.

A report published on Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. ‌Support Mission said migrants are rounded up ⁠and abducted by criminal trafficking networks, often with ties to the Libyan authorities and criminal networks abroad.

"They are separated from their families, arrested, and transferred to detention facilities without due ⁠process, often at gunpoint, in what amounts to arbitrary detention," Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson of the U.N. Human Rights Office, told a briefing in Geneva.

The Libya mission in Geneva and the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity did not immediately respond to a request ​for ​comment. Libyan authorities have previously denied any systematic abuse of migrants.

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A ​spokesperson for the EU Commission did not immediately ‌respond to a request for comment.

The report is based on interviews with almost 100 migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from 16 countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. They were interviewed inside and outside Libya.

It cited an Eritrean woman who was detained for over six weeks at a trafficking house in Tobruk, in eastern Libya. "I wish I died. It was a journey of hell," she said.

"Different men raped me many times. Girls as young as ‌14 were raped daily," she said. The perpetrators released her after ​her family paid a ransom.

The report, covering the period January 2024 ​to December 2025, described instances of a man being ​forced to work without pay or enough food, and of girls being separated from their ‌mothers.

"Men used humiliating methods with women, making them, ​for example, take their clothes ​off in front of other men and women migrants before raping them publicly, torturing them, and beating them," Suki Nagra, U.N. Human Rights representative at the U.N. mission in Libya, told the Geneva briefing.

The report ​emphasised the importance of life-saving search and ‌rescue operations for migrants at sea but urged the international community to halt returns to Libya ​until adequate human rights safeguards are ensured.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Matthias Williams, additional reporting by ​Amina Ismail in Brussels, editing by Thomas Seythal, Alexandra Hudson)

Former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes the NBA should embrace tanking. No, really.

Cuban went on a lengthy diatribe Tuesday in which he described his feelings on the subject. In his post, Cuban outlined why he believes the NBA should focus on "creating experiences for fans" and admitted to tanking while he was running the Mavs.

In Cuban's post — whichcan be read in full here— he claimed that fans don't necessarily want to see their teams compete every single night. Cuban said fans don't necessarily remember specific scores, dunks or shots from games. Instead, he argued, they remember the people who attended the game with them.

Cuban said fans are aware a team cannot win every single game, but that the hope of improvement is what drives fans forward. Sometimes, the easiest way to do that is to tank, per Cuban.

"Fans know their team can't win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fans that care about their team's record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.

"The one way to get closer to that is via the draft. And trades. And cap room. You have a better chance of improving via all 3 , when you tank."

Cuban then admitted to tanking when he was with the Mavericks. He claimed the team didn't tank "often," but said the fans appreciated when the Mavericks pushed for better draft position. Cuban said tanking helped the team secure Luka Dončić during the 2018 NBA Draft.

Cuban eventually tried to connect the two issues, and argued "pricing fans out of games" is a bigger problem than tanking.

"You know who cares the least about tanking, a parent who can't afford to bring their 3 kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player.

"Tanking isn't the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are."

A few hours later, Cuban sent a lengthy follow-up to his initial tweet. In it, he explained why tanking was more viable than ever now. The tweet, which contains some NSFW language,can be read in full here. Cuban ultimately concludes that — based on the current NBA rules — getting the most out of players on rookie deals is the easiest way to win games. Sometimes, a team has to tank to get the most elite rookies in the draft.

Cuban said the real issue there is that the team has to lie to its fans when it tanks. Otherwise, that team will receive a hefty fine from the NBA. Cuban called for a scenario where teams could be more open about their intentions, saying he wished teams could be upfront about tanking for a draft pick and communicating why they were taking that approach with fans.

In that scenario, Cuban also called for some accountability, saying a team owner should then meet with season-ticket holders and fans to answer questions about the team's approach.

Many of Cuban's opinions should get support from fans, though some of his leaps in logic don't exactly fit, particularly Cuban's attempt to connect tanking with making games more affordable and growing fandom. There are plenty of ways for a team to grow fandom in sports. Offering affordable tickets certainly feels like a good way to get a wide number of fans invested in the team. Winning games is also pretty important on that end, though. It's a lot more fun to support a team that's playing well.

To Cuban's point, there are times when tanking does seem like an advantageous option for franchises. And after seeing the tactic put into place a number of times — and occasionally result in success — the practice is more accepted among fan bases at this point.

Fans are capable of understanding when it's the right move to try and secure the top pick in the draft. It's not always a guarantee that works out, but having a shot at more elite talent in the draft can make a huge impact on a franchise if the player selected is a superstar.

But that also results in a lot of bad basketball, especially during the second half of an NBA season. If a team has virtually no shot at winning, it's going to be tough to draw fans out to the game, regardless of how cheap it is to attend.

The Detroit Pistons had the worst record in franchise history at the All-Star break four years ago. And two years ago, their record at the break was even worse.

Look at them now.

When theNBAstarts post-All-Star play on Thursday, the Pistons — a franchise that last won a playoff series in 2008 — will start the night with the best record in the league, a smidge ahead of the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Detroit is 40-13, Oklahoma City 42-14.

The Thunder were expected to be here. The Pistons probably weren't. How Detroit finishes, and if it can hold on to that top spot, is one of the intriguing storylines for the stretch run of the NBA season — with two-thirds of the year complete and teams now set to sprint toward the playoffs orsprint toward the bottomin search of better lottery odds.

"We're just going to run our race," Pistons All-Star guard Cade Cunningham said. "We like where we're at, and we're going to continue to try to finish our season strong."

There's a lot to like about the Pistons going into the home stretch.

They haven't been prone to any sort of real slide yet; they're 11-2 after a loss and are one of only three teams (Oklahoma City andSan Antonioare the others) yet to have a losing streak of more than two games. They don't get blown out; they have a league-low three losses by 10 points or more. They're a league-best 17-6 against teams who were at .500 or better.

Playoff basketball awaits in Detroit, and for the first time since 2008 there should be a Game 1 of a postseason series at home for the Pistons. Plenty of other teams — the Thunder, Boston, New York, San Antonio, Denver, Houston, Cleveland — are probably safe to call playoff locks at this point as well.

The next two months will tell the tale of which teams find their way either into Round 1 or will be trying to land the No. 1 draft pick instead.

"It's been hard. It's been a long journey so far, but just going to work every day, finding ways to connect with my teammates, connect with the city the best I can, and bring wins to the city," Cunningham said. "That's what the city respects and loves is people that go out there and compete every day. There were times they didn't like how we played. We figured it out, and now we have something going, something building. Just have to keep going now."

The realistic contenders

The top five teams in the NBA record-wise right now: Detroit, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Boston, Denver and New York (the Nuggets and Knicks are tied).

Expect one of those clubs as the champion in June.

Granted, in the early days the league had far fewer teams than it does now. But there have been only four instances of the eventual NBA Finals winner not being among the league's top-five teams record-wise at the All-Star break.

Milwaukee was seventh at the break in the coronavirus-affected 2020-21 season. Detroit was seventh at the break in 2003-04, Houston was ninth at the break in 1994-95 and Washington was eighth in 1977-78.

The scoring race

It looks like a two-person race for the scoring title: the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Doncic is averaging 32.8 points, Gilgeous-Alexander — the reigning champion — is averaging 31.8.

Doncic won the scoring race in 2023-24; Gilgeous-Alexander could become the 14th player in NBA history to win the title in consecutive seasons.

Award possibilities

Boston's Jayson Tatum and Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton — All-NBA picks last season — were going to be out of the awards mix this season because of their Achilles tendon tears suffered in last season's playoffs, so it was clear from the outset of this season that the group of award winners this spring would be different.

Turns out, it's going to be very different.

Because of the 65-game rule for eligibility for most player awards, the Lakers' LeBron James is going to see his 21-year streak of making the All-NBA team end. He's one of five All-NBA picks from last season who are assured of not making the team this year, joining Tatum, Haliburton, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo and Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams.

On the brink of joining that list: Denver's Nikola Jokic and Golden State's Stephen Curry, who basically can miss one more game the rest of the way to preserve their award eligibility.

Cleveland's Evan Mobley — second-team All-NBA last season — has been inactive 13 times this year, so he doesn't have a lot of missed-time wiggle room down the stretch of the season. The Lakers' Austin Reaves, Washington's Anthony Davis and Memphis' Ja Morant are all well past the cutoff for eligibility as well.

Others who are close to missing too much time for an All-NBA shot: Doncic, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, the Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, Utah's Lauri Markkanen and Phoenix's Devin Booker.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/NBA