Home
 
 
 
 
 
Home

News

Who has the edge? Dolphins at Jets, to extend win streak to 4 and sweep rival

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 18:18

Here’s a look at how the Miami Dolphins (5-7) and New York Jets (3-9) match up in six key areas ahead of Sunday’s Week 14 game at MetLife Stadium (1 p.m., CBS):

When the Dolphins run: Miami goes the way of its run game. In the stretch of four wins in five games, the Dolphins have rushed for at least 141 yards in the games won and at least 164 during the three-game winning streak. Running back De’Von Achane is on a tear of 100-yard performances that have now put him at 1,000 yards on the season. Rookie Ollie Gordon II and second-year back Jaylen Wright are now both being used sparingly behind him.

Right tackle Austin Jackson’s return to the lineup for the first time since Week 1 brought more tenacity to the run game from his side, and right guard Cole Strange may have had his best game with Miami in the win against the New Orleans Saints. Meanwhile, center Aaron Brewer and left tackle Patrick Paul continue to do their thing, while the package of Daniel Brunskill as a sixth offensive lineman presents something the Jets didn’t see in the first meeting.

New York’s run defense is tied for 25th and no longer has Quinnen Williams on the defensive line after the trade with the Dallas Cowboys. Miami rushed for 123 yards against the Jets earlier this season. Expect them to do it even more this time around, especially in the first cold-weather game the Dolphins have played this year. Edge: Dolphins

When the Jets run: The Dolphins’ run defense has gone from consistently poor to on and off in recent weeks. They stopped the run in wins over the Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills and against the Saints. They did not stop the run last time they faced the Jets, giving up 197 yards on the ground, but they did force the ball out for three fumble recoveries.

Running back Breece Hall remained on the roster after the trade deadline, and he has 834 rushing yards on the season, with a 4.5 average of yards per carry. It’s also Tyrod Tayler at quarterback for the Jets this time instead of Justin Fields. Taylor is still a run threat, although not as much as Fields.

New York’s No. 7 rushing offense goes against the Dolphins 29th-ranked run defense that, as mentioned, has been better in recent weeks. Linebacker Jordyn Brooks leads the NFL with 137 tackles. It’s just a matter of how much he’s making up for others in the wrong lanes or missing tackles and the defensive line helping keep blockers off of him. Edge: Jets

When the Dolphins pass: Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is trying to rebound from a rough performance against the Saints in which he was 12 of 23 for 157 yards and an interception while being largely inaccurate. He’s up to 14 interceptions on the season, tied for the league lead.

Related Articles

Last time against the Jets, the game in which Tyreek Hill was lost for the season, Darren Waller debuted for Miami and scored two touchdowns. He’s in his second game back from missing four games on IR with a pectoral injury. The Jets’ 10th-ranked pass defense, which no longer has cornerback Sauce Gardner in the secondary, should be varying its coverages to shift attention between Waller and wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. New York has not intercepted a pass all season, so something’s got to give.

Will McDonald has seven sacks to lead the Jets pass rush, as he and fellow edge rusher Jermaine Johnson can get after it. Jackson has his second game back protecting Tagovailoa’s blind side, and he shook some rust off in pass protection against New Orleans. Tagovailoa was sacked four times in the game, some of it coming down to coverage sacks. Edge: Jets

When the Jets pass: The Dolphins faced Fields last time and Taylor this time. Taylor is 1-2 in three starts this season, completing 60.8 percent of passes for 773 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. Against the Falcons last Sunday, he was 19 of 32 for 172 yards and a touchdown.

Top Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson is on injured reserve, but Adonai Mitchell, whom the Jets picked up in the trade with the Colts, had eight catches and 102 yards and a touchdown last Sunday. He will be a focal point for cornerbacks Jack Jones and Rasul Douglas, depending on which side he’s on, as one and then the other intercepted a pass for the first time with the Dolphins in the past two games. Hall must be accounted for out of the backfield. Rookie tight end Mason Taylor, the son of Dolphins great Jason Taylor, as well, after he had five catches for 65 yards in the first meeting.

The Dolphins pass rush finally has Chop Robinson going after he had 1 1/2 sacks against the Saints in his first start of the season and second of his career. He and Bradley Chubb can win on the edge against the Jets’ young first-round tackles they’re trying to develop in Olu Fashanu on the left side and Armand Membou at right tackle. Edge: Dolphins

Special teams: Dolphins kicker Riley Patterson continues to make his kicks, Jake Bailey is among the league’s best in punting this season, and Malik Washington is a solid returner. But the last special teams play we saw from Miami was the onside kick surrendered.

Now, the Jets have had two return touchdowns this season. Nick Folk has made all but one kick this season and hit the game-winner against the Falcons. And they blocked a field goal earlier this season. Edge: Even

Intangibles: Miami’s the team on a three-game winning streak and still holding on to slim hopes. The Dolphins are also visiting the site where their 2024 season was torn to shreds, so those coming back should remember that. It’ll be below 40 degrees, which Miami hasn’t played in this season. New York has traded some of its top players but is still playing hard. Edge: Dolphins

PREDICTION: Dolphins 20, Jets 17

Dolphins Deep Dive: Prediction time — Can Miami continue winning streak vs. Jets? | VIDEO

Trump is fighting the Institute of Peace in court. Now, his name is on the building

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 18:07

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after President Donald Trump and has planted the president’s name on the organization’s headquarters despite an ongoing fight over the institute’s control.

Related Articles

It’s the latest twist in a seesaw court battle over who controls the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on peace initiatives. It was an early target of the Department of Government Efficiency this year.

On Wednesday, the State Department said it renamed the organization to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.” The new name could be seen on its building, which is near the State Department.

Trump has spent months openly lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize even though he was passed over for this year’s installment — arguing he had a hand in easing a series of conflicts around the world. But Trump has also ordered strikes on suspected drug vessels off the coast of Venezuela and repeatedly threatened that attacks on land could be coming, which would be an act of war against that country.

The takeover of the Peace Institute was also anything but peaceful, with his administration seizing the independent entity and ousting its board before actually affixing his name to the building.

Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said: “The United States Institute of Peace was once a bloated, useless entity that blew $50 million per year while delivering no peace. Now, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which is both beautifully and aptly named after a President who ended eight wars in less than a year, will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”

She added, “Congratulations, world!”

George Foote, a lawyer for the former Institute leadership and staff, said the renaming “adds insult to injury.”

“A federal judge has already ruled that the government’s armed takeover was illegal. That judgment is stayed while the government appeals, which is the only reason the government continues to control the building,” Foote said.

Since March, the headquarters has switched hands multiple times in court actions related to the DOGE takeover. A final decision on its fate is pending in federal appeals court.

USIP has maintained the organization is an independent creation of Congress and outside the president’s executive authority. The administration argues it is an executive branch organization.

After Trump fired the institute’s board in the the spring, the staff was fired as well and the building was turned over to the General Services Administration.

A federal district court overturned the action in May, putting the headquarters back into the hands of USIP leadership. But that action was reversed weeks later by a federal appeals court.

Employees at this juncture have been fired twice and the building is in GSA’s possession.

The building is expected to be the backdrop for the signing of a peace agreement Thursday between Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame. High-ranking officials from the African Union, Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Togo, Qatar, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates are also expected to attend the signing, according to Yolande Makolo, a senior adviser to Kagame.

The USIP website remained unchanged Wednesday night, but its lead item was headlined, “President Donald J. Trump to Sign Historic Peace Agreement at USIP Headquarters,” followed by a write-up of the deal between Congo and Rwanda that Trump was overseeing at the institute on Thursday.

The Institute of Peace was created by Congress in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1985. Described as an independent, nonprofit think tank funded by Congress, its mission has been to work to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts while working outside normal channels such as the State Department. It was operating in 26 conflict zones, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali and Burkina Faso, when DOGE shut the operation down.

There is also broad speculation that Trump will be awarded a new peace prize from FIFA on the sidelines of the World Cup draw, happening in Washington on Friday.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visits Republicans as debate over intensifying AI race rages

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 18:03

By MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met separately with President Donald Trump and Republican senators Wednesday as tech executives work to secure favorable federal policies for the artificial intelligence industry, including the limited sale of Nvidia’s highly valued computer chips to U.S. rivals like China.

Related Articles

Huang’s closed-door meeting with Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee came at a moment of intensifying lobbying, soaring investments and audacious forecasts by major tech companies about AI’s potential transformative effects.

Huang is among the Silicon Valley executives who warn that any restrictions on the technology will halt its advancement despite mounting concerns among policymakers and the public about AI’s potential pitfalls or the ways foreign rivals like China may use American hardware.

“I’ve said repeatedly that we support export control, that we should ensure that American companies have the best and the most and first,” Huang told reporters before his meeting at the Capitol.

He added that he shared concerns about selling AI chips to China but believed that restrictions haven’t slowed Chinese advancement in the AI race.

“We need to be able to compete around the world. The one thing we can’t do is we can’t degrade the chips that we sell to China. They won’t accept that. There’s a reason why they wouldn’t accept that, and so we should offer the most competitive chips we can to the Chinese market,” Huang said.

Huang also said he’d met with Trump earlier Wednesday and discussed export controls for Nvidia’s chips. Huang added that he wished the president “a happy holidays.”

The Trump administration in May reversed Biden-era restrictions that had prevented Nvidia and other chipmakers from exporting their chips to a wide range of countries. The White House in August also announced an unusual deal that would allow Nvidia and another U.S. chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, to sell their chips in the Chinese market but would require the U.S. government to take a 15% cut of the sales.

The deal divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad support for controls on AI exports.

A growing battle in Congress

Members of Congress have generally considered the sale of high-end AI chips to China to be a national security risk. China is the main competitor to the U.S. in the race to develop artificial superintelligence. Lawmakers have also proposed a flurry of bills this year to regulate AI’s impact on dozens of industries, though none have become law.

Most Republican senators who attended the meeting with Huang declined to discuss their conversations. But a handful described the meeting as positive and productive.

“For me, this is a very healthy discussion to have,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. Rounds said lawmakers had a “general discussion” with Huang about the state of AI and said senators were still open to a wide range of policies.

Asked whether he believed Nvidia’s interests and goals were fully aligned with U.S. national security, Rounds replied: “They currently do not sell chips in China. And they understand that they’re an American company. They want to be able to compete around the rest of the world. They’d love to some time be able to compete in China again, but they recognize that export controls are important as well for our own national security.”

Other Republicans were more skeptical of Huang’s message.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the upper chamber’s Banking Committee, said he skipped the meeting entirely.

“I don’t consider him to be an objective, credible source about whether we should be selling chips to China,” Kennedy told reporters. “He’s got more money than the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and he wants even more. I don’t blame you for that, but if I’m looking for someone to give me objective advice about whether we should make our technology available to China, he’s not it.”

Some Democrats, shut out from the meeting altogether, expressed frustration at Huang’s presence on Capitol Hill.

“Evidently, he wants to go lobby Republicans in secret rather than explain himself,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.

Warren added that she wanted Huang to testify in a public congressional hearing and answer “questions about why his company wants to favor Chinese manufacturers over American companies that need access to those high-quality chips.”

US opens massive $796M consulate in Irbil to strengthen Kurdish ties

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 17:58

By STELLA MARTANY

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The United States inaugurated a massive new consulate compound Wednesday in Irbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.

Related Articles

The move highlighted Washington’s diplomatic and strategic engagement in the Kurdish region, particularly as the U.S. moves troops that had been stationed elsewhere in Iraq as part of a mission against the Islamic State group, under an agreement with the central government in Baghdad.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas joined Kurdish leaders for the inauguration of the sprawling complex — planned as the largest U.S. consulate in the world — built on a 206,000-square-meter (50-acre) site along the Irbil–Shaqlawa highway at a cost of $796 million.

“America’s investment in this new consulate provides a secure platform to advance the interests of the United States,” Rigas said. “It demonstrates the value that a sovereign, secure and prosperous Iraq, in mutually beneficial partnership with the United States can deliver for its own people and for America.”

The opening comes amid ongoing challenges in Iraq, including regional tensions and attacks on energy infrastructure. A drone strike last week on the Kormor natural gas field caused widespread power outages.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Rigas appeared to cast blame on Iraq’s politically powerful Iran-backed militias.

He urged both Baghdad and Irbil to “disempower and dismantle Iran-aligned militias that continue to engage in violent and destabilizing activities and only serve to harm Iraqi sovereignty.”

Kurdish regional President Nechirvan Barzani referred to the consulate as a “clear political message regarding the importance of Irbil and the Kurdistan region.”

He said the facility underscores the deep partnership between the U.S. and the Kurdish authorities and will serve as a hub for diplomatic, economic and security cooperation.

Follow AP’s Middle East coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/middle-east

A dozen former FDA leaders lambast claims by the agency’s current vaccine chief

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 17:50

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and LAURA UNGAR

WASHINGTON (AP) — A dozen prior leaders of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike — issued a scathing denunciation of new FDA assertions casting doubt on vaccine safety.

Related Articles

The former officials say the agency’s plans to revamp how life-saving vaccines for flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases are handled — outlined in an internal FDA memo last week — would “disadvantage the people the FDA exists to protect, including millions of Americans at high risk from serious infections.”

“The proposed new directives are not small adjustments or coherent policy updates. They represent a major shift in the FDA’s understanding of its job,” the officials, former FDA commissioners and acting commissioners, wrote Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The internal memo by FDA vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad hasn’t been publicly released but a source familiar with the document confirmed its authenticity. The document claimed — without providing evidence — that COVID-19 vaccines caused 10 children’s deaths. It went on to outline planned agency changes in handling those and certain other vaccines, and said that FDA staff who disagreed should resign.

FILE – In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Vinay Prasad smiles for a portrait. (U.S. FDA via AP)

Among Prasad’s plans were revising how yearly flu shot updates are handled and focusing more on “the benefits and harms of giving multiple vaccines at the same time.” A common message of vaccine skeptics is that too many shots may overwhelm kids’ immune systems or that ingredients may build up to cause harm — although scientists say repeated research into those claims has turned up no concerns.

On Wednesday, the former FDA leaders wrote that Prasad’s claim about child deaths related to COVID-19 vaccines had been reported to a surveillance system that doesn’t contain medical records or other information sufficient to prove a link — and that government scientists had carefully combed through those reports in previous years, reaching different conclusions. They also noted that “substantial evidence” shows COVID-19 vaccines reduce children’s risk of severe disease and hospitalization.

But the bigger picture, the former FDA leaders argued, is that the new proposals would reject long-standing science about how to evaluate vaccines being updated to better match virus strains, slow innovation to replace older vaccines with newer, potentially better ones, and make the process less transparent to the public.

An administration spokesman didn’t immediately comment.

Many doctors and public health experts also have expressed alarm about the memo.

“Vaccines save lives, period,” Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement. “It is a sad day when FDA creates confusion and mistrust without supplying evidence, spreading propaganda that makes lifesaving vaccines harder to access and that creates additional confusion and mistrust for the public.”

The FDA’s planned vaccine changes come at a time when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years — is seeking to broadly remake federal policies on vaccines.

FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

Kennedy already ousted a committee that advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine recommendation and replaced it with handpicked members. And in August, he fired Susan Monarez 29 days into her tenure as CDC chief over vaccine policy disagreements. The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee will meet Thursday and Friday to discuss h epatitis B vaccinations in newborns and other vaccine topics.

Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A vocal Jeffrey Epstein accuser is urging judges to unseal his court records

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 17:42

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ‘s most vocal accusers urged judges on Wednesday to grant the Justice Department’s request to unseal records from their federal sex trafficking cases, saying “only transparency is likely to lead to justice.”

Related Articles

Annie Farmer weighed in through her lawyer, Sigrid S. McCawley, after the judges asked for input from victims before ruling on whether the records should be made public under a new law requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his longtime confidante, who sexually abused young women and girls for decades.

Farmer and other victims fought for the passage of the law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Signed last month by President Donald Trump, it compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release by Dec. 19 the vast troves of material they’ve amassed during investigations into Epstein.

The Justice Department last week asked Manhattan federal Judges Richard M. Berman and Paul A. Engelmayer to lift secrecy orders on grand jury transcripts and other material from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case and a wide range of records from Maxwell’s 2021 case, including search warrants, financial records and notes from interviews with victims.

“Nothing in these proceedings should stand in the way of their victory or provide a backdoor avenue to continue to cover up history’s most notorious sex-trafficking operation,” McCawley wrote in a letter to the judges.

The attorney was critical of the government for failing to prosecute anyone else in Epstein and Maxwell’s orbit.

She asked the judges to ensure that the orders they issue do not preclude the Justice Department from releasing other Epstein-related materials, adding that Farmer “is wary” that any denial could be used “as a pretext or excuse” to withhold information.

Epstein, a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

In a court filing Wednesday, Maxwell’s lawyer again said that she is preparing a habeas petition in a bid to overturn her conviction. The lawyer, David Markus, first mentioned the habeas petition in court papers in August as she fought the Justice Department’s initial bid to have her case records unsealed. The Supreme Court in October declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal.

Markus said in Wednesday’s filing that while Maxwell now “does not take a position” in the wake of the transparency act’s passage, doing so “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” if her habeas petition succeeds.

The records, Markus said, “contain untested and unproven allegations.”

Engelmayer, who’s weighing whether to release records from Maxwell’s case, gave her and victims until Wednesday to respond to the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The government must respond to their filings by Dec. 10. The judge said he will rule “promptly thereafter.”

Berman, who presided over the Epstein case, ordered victims and Epstein’s estate to respond by Wednesday and gave the government until Dec. 8 to reply to those submissions. Berman said he would make his “best efforts to resolve this motion promptly.”

Lawyers for Epstein’s estate said in a letter to Berman on Wednesday that the estate takes no position on the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The lawyers noted that the government had committed to making appropriate redactions of personal identifying information for victims.

Last week, a lawyer for some victims complained that the House Oversight Committee had failed to redact, or black out, some of their names from tens of thousands pages of Epstein-related documents it has released in recent months.

Transparency “CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims, especially these survivors who have already suffered repeatedly,” lawyer Brad Edwards wrote.

Ex-Missouri officer pleads guilty to searching women’s phones for sexual photos during stops

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 17:21

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

A former suburban St. Louis police officer admitted that over several months last year, he pulled over 20 women’s vehicles and searched their phones for nude photos and videos.

Related Articles

In a deal with federal prosecutors entered Tuesday, former Florissant Officer Julian Alcala pleaded guilty to 20 counts of willfully depriving someone of their right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a felony obstruction count.

The count he pleaded guilty to is punishable by up to a year in prison. Alcala, 30, remains free on bond pending his March 11 sentencing.

According to the plea deal, Alcala pulled over a woman in February 2024 and took her cellphone to his vehicle, saying he needed to do so to confirm her insurance information. Instead he found a video of the woman engaged in sexual activity on her phone and texted it to his own phone. He also found a nude photo of the woman and used his phone to take a picture of the image.

Over the next three months, he took 19 other women’s phones back to his vehicle during traffic stops, purportedly to confirm their insurance or vehicle registration, the plea deal states. He then looked for nude images and took photos of ones he found.

He was caught after the first victim looked in her deleted texts and learned that the video of her engaged in sexual activity had been sent to an unknown number. She called the FBI, which traced the number to Alcala. The FBI then executed a search warrant and found the other nude photos, according to the plea agreement.

Alcala’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, didn’t immediately respond to a Tuesday email seeking comment.

Ex-missionary from Ohio charged with sexually abusing 4 children in Haiti

South Florida Local News - Wed, 12/03/2025 - 17:16

By PETER SMITH and JULIE CARR SMYTH

A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years.

Related Articles

Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted for alleged actions during his multiple visits to Haiti between 2002 and 2019. Mast — who according to authorities admitted to abusing about 30 victims in Haiti and more in Ohio — worked for part of that time for the Millersburg-based Christian Aid Ministries, which coordinates missionary activities for Amish, conservative Mennonite and related groups.

It marks the second court case against Mast, who was sentenced in Holmes County court in 2019 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors in Ohio.

Mast received an early judicial release in October after serving just under six years, according to Ohio’s inmate database. As a condition of his release, he was placed on three years’ supervised probation and required to complete an intensive supervision program, including sex-offender specific programming.

Court records indicate that presiding retired Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”

Mast was arrested on the federal charges on Nov. 5 and formally indicted on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Cleveland.

“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible,” U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement. “Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”

The charges are based on a U.S. law that prohibits citizens from “traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person,” according to court filings.

The court docket indicates Mast is represented by a public defender, who did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment late Wednesday.

The Mast scandal came into public view in 2019 after he abruptly returned home from Haiti. In a subsequent interview with Holmes County authorities, he admitted to molesting about 30 children in Haiti between about 2003 and 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Special Agent Jason M. Guyton of Homeland Security Investigations. Details of his admission indicate many if not all of the reported victims were boys.

The federal charges accuse Mast of abusing four different minors in 2004, 2007 and 2011. One was a 13-year-old boy Mast met through his missionary work and allegedly molested in a tent, according to the criminal complaint.

The case was among those that drew attention to issues of sexual abuse in Amish and related, plain-dressing church communities such as conservative Mennonites and the Charity churches that Mast belonged to. Advocates have said victims have been pressured to forgive abusers and not to seek prosecution outside the disciplines of the largely closed religious communities.

Holmes County, where Christian Aid Ministries is based, is the hub of one of the nation’s largest Amish settlements. In 2019, CAM placed two of its managers on leave amid revelations that they knew as early as 2013 that Mast had confessed to sexual activity with young men, yet kept him on the job.

A CAM spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

CAM’s work in Haiti came into the spotlight in 2021 when 17 missionaries and their children were kidnapped by a gang. They went free later that year, some ransomed by a third party, CAM acknowledged. CAM said most of the rest escaped.

On Wednesday, Joly Germine, alleged to be the founder and leader of the gang, was sentenced in federal court in Washington to life in prison for orchestrating the kidnapping.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

  
Admin Login