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The United States had 3.5 million residents who identify as Middle Eastern or North African, Venezuelans were the fastest-growing Hispanic group last decade and Chinese and Asian Indians were the two largest Asian groups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.The most detailed race and ethnicity data to date from the 2020 census was released Thursday more than three years after the once-a-decade head count, which determines political power, the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual federal funding and holds up a mirror to how the U.S. has changed in a decade. The delay was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of a new method to protect the confidentiality of participants.The Census Bureau says the 2020 census provided more details on the nation's racial and ethnic groups than ever before, offering counts for about 1,550 racial, ethnic and tribal groups, although some tables aren't available at smaller geographies for some groups because of the new confidentiality methods.MIDDLE EASTERN OR NORTH AFRICAN POPULATIONThe 2020 census was the first to allow respondents to identify themselves as coming from a Middle Eastern or North African country, otherwise known as MENA. While there was no separate MENA category in the 2020 census, respondents were encouraged to write-in their backgrounds, and if they wrote Jordanian or Moroccan, for instance, they could be classified as MENA. The data showed that more than 3.5 million people did so or in combination with another group.The results come as the Biden administration contemplates updating the nation's racial and ethnic categories for the first time since 1997. Right now, MENA residents are classified as white, but they would have their own category under the proposed changes. The process also would combine the race and ethnic origin questions into a single query, because some advocates say the current method of asking about race and separately about ethnic origin often confuses Hispanic respondents.The bureau's American Community Survey previously has asked a question about ancestry, from which MENA figures could be inferred, but the survey collects data only from 3.5 million households while census forms go to every U.S. household."This is a monumental change," said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a Washington-based advocacy group. "For us, it's a wonderful indication of what is to come when we secure a MENA category."According to the 2020 census, the two largest groups of people who identified as MENA, either alone or in combination with another group, were Lebanese, with more than 685,000 people, and Iranian with more than 568,000 people. The states with the largest MENA populations were California, Michigan and New York.HISPANIC POPULATIONVenezuelans were the fastest-growing Hispanic group. They nearly tripled their numbers, from more than 215,000 people to more than 605,000 people from 2010 to 2020, as they fled a political, economic and humanitarian crisis that has lasted the entirety of President Nicolás Maduro's government."This shows, really, what is going on in Venezuela," said Ernesto Ackerman, president of Independent Venezuelan American Citizens, an advocacy group in Miami. "There is nothing there and it's getting worse."The Biden administration on Wednesday said it was granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are already in the U.S. — quickly making them eligible to work.Mexicans were, far and away, the largest Hispanic group in the U.S. with a population of 35.9 million people, followed by Puerto Ricans with 5.6 million people and Salvadorans at 2.3 million people.WHITE POPULATIONAmong the census respondents who identified as white, English was the most common detailed group written down on the form where people were asked to elaborate on their backgrounds, with 46.6 million people saying they were English alone or in any combination. They were followed by those identifying as German, with 45 million people, and Irish, with 38.6 million people.BLACK OR AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATIONAmong the 46.9 million Black respondents, African American was the most common answer, either alone or combined with another group, at 24.5 million people, when asked about their backgrounds. That answer was followed in more or less a tie between Jamaican and Haitian at more than 1 million people each. Nigerians had the next highest responses, with more than 604,000 people, followed by Ethiopians at more than 325,000 people.ASIAN POPULATIONMore than 5.2 million people identified as Chinese, the largest group among respondents who were Asian alone or in combination with another group. They were followed by Asian Indians with 4.7 million people, Filipinos with 4.4 million people and the Vietnamese population at 2.2 million people. The Nepalese population was the fastest growing Asian group, growing from almost 52,000 people in 2010 to almost 206,000 people in 2020. California was home to the largest share of the six most common Asian groups in the U.S. New York had the second-largest share of Chinese residents, while Texas had the second-largest share of Asian Indian residents.AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE POPULATIONFor the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the U.S., Cherokee was the largest group alone or in combination with another group, with 1.5 million people. The next highest was Aztec with almost 584,000 respondents and Navajo Nation with more than 423,000. Tlingit was the largest Alaska Native alone or in any combination group, with more than 22,600 people.SOME OTHER RACEAlmost 94% of the almost 28 million respondents who answered "some other race" for the race question were Hispanic, supporting previous research that showed Hispanics often are unsure how to answer the question with the current race categories. Some 1.9 million respondents who picked "some other race" identified as multiracial or multi-ethnic, and more than a half million said they were Brazilian, either alone or in combination with another group.___Follow Mike Schneider on X, formerly known as Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP.

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his Administration: Melissa G. Dalton, Nominee to be Under Secretary of the Air Force, Department of Defense Andrew Plitt, Nominee to be Assistant Administrator for the Middle East, U.S. Agency for International Development Tanya F. Otsuka, Nominee to be Member of the Board of Directors of the National Credit Union Administration Board Spencer Bachus III, Nominee to be Member (Republican) of the Board of Directors of the Export Import Bank of the United States Melissa G. Dalton, Nominee to be Under Secretary of the Air Force, Department of Defense Melissa G. Dalton currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs. She is responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense and other senior defense leaders on defense continuity and mission assurance, homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities, Arctic and global resilience, and U.S. defense and security policy for North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. Previously, she served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities from January 2021 to March 2022. In that role, she was responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense and other senior defense leaders on national security and defense strategy, the forces, contingency plans, and associated posture necessary to implement the defense strategy. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Dalton was a Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) International Security Program and Director of the Cooperative Defense Project. Prior to joining CSIS in 2014, Dalton served for a decade as a career civil servant in the Bush-Cheney and Obama-Biden Administrations in the Department of Defense. A graduate of the University of Virginia and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.Andrew Plitt, Nominee to be Assistant Administrator for the Middle East, U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentA career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Andrew Plitt serves as USAID’s Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Middle East region. In this role he is USAID’s principal senior-level contact for oversight and management of policy, strategy, resources, and operations across the Middle East and North Africa region and directs technical and regional support matters for the Bureau for the Middle East. Plitt joined the Foreign Service in 1991 and most recently served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Middle East covering North Africa and Egypt from 2019 to 2021. He served as USAID’s Senior Development Advisor at U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany from 2016 to 2019. He has also served as Director of the Office of North African and Arabian Affairs in the Bureau for the Middle East, and Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Operations in the Bureau for Asia, covering the Asia and Middle East regions. Plitt’s previous overseas assignments include West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Morocco, Rwanda, and Cote d’Ivoire. Prior to government service, Plitt held staff and mid-level positions at Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young offices in Washington, D.C. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Plitt holds a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his spouse are proud parents of two boys.Tanya F. Otsuka, Nominee to be Member of the Board of Directors of the National Credit Union Administration BoardTanya F. Otsuka is a dedicated public servant with over a decade of experience in financial regulation and supervision. She is currently Senior Counsel for the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee under Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH), where she has handled the Committee’s work on banking and credit union issues since March 2020. In 2019, she also served on the Committee staff through the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University’s Capitol Hill Fellowship Program, on detail from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Prior to her time with the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Otsuka was a staff attorney and Counsel at FDIC where she worked on a broad range of banking issues. She began her career at the FDIC as a law clerk in 2010 and an Honors Attorney in 2011.Otsuka earned her J.D. from Boston College Law School and B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia. She is originally from Woodbridge, Virginia and is a member of the Virginia Bar. She currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and son. Spencer Bachus III, Nominee to be Member (Republican) of the Board of Directors of the Export Import Bank of the United StatesSpencer Bachus III has served as a member of the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) Board of Directors since May of 2019. Bachus served a Member of the House of Representatives from the state of Alabama. In the House of Representatives, Bachus worked on the committees of Transportation and Infrastructure, Judiciary, and Financial Services. He was named Chairman Emeritus of the Financial Services Committee for the 113th Congress. His accomplishments for his district and state include work on I-22, the Northern Beltline, other major highway and infrastructure projects, establishment of the National Computer Forensics Institute, creation of the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge, and construction of the Alabama National Cemetery to honor veterans and their families. Selected by his Republican colleagues as Ranking Member and Chairman of the Financial Services Committee from 2006 to 2012, Bachus assumed his responsibilities during the 2008 financial crisis, where was the first to advocate for the Capital Purchase Plan to help stabilize the financial sector. The approach was ultimately adopted by the Treasury Department and returned a profit to the U.S. Treasury of more than $15 billion dollars. He has also helped to pass the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, deposit insurance reform, Check 21, and he is credited with originating the provisions which authorized Medicare coverage to seniors for prostate cancer screenings that eventually became part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Bachus is the recipient of numerous financial, legal, humanitarian, and leadership honors, including the Houghton-Lewis Leadership Award from the Faith and Politics Institute. Starting in 1993, Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and Bachus cohosted an annual civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama, visiting the cities of Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham. Bachus holds his B.A. from Auburn University and a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. ###

The Midas List Europe, Forbes’ data-driven ranking of the top 25 private tech investors in Europe, Israel, and the Middle East, is back for a seventh year. Submissions are open through October 6. 2023 saw Europe’s largest ever tech IPO, a flurry of investment in AI startups and a trickle of later-stage rounds, signaling early signs of green shoots for Europe’s tech ecosystem. Even so, the value of venture capital deals in the first half of this year was down 60.8% from 2022, while exits have hit a decade low. But some investors have thrived in this turmoil, and the seventh annual Midas List Europe will highlight the 25 most successful. Submissions for the Midas List Europe 2023, the definitive ranking of the continent’s top private tech investors, are now open through October 6. Produced in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, the Midas List Europe is a data-driven list that evaluates hundreds of investors from across Europe, Israel, and the Middle East’s top venture firms. Forbes and TrueBridge rank the top 25 VCs based on their portfolio results: Eligible portfolio companies must have gone public or been acquired for at least $100 million over the past five years, or have at least doubled their private valuation since initial investment to $200 million or more over the same period. Liquid exits count for more than unrealized returns, and the Midas model rewards investors who have made bigger, bolder bets. With decades of experience and industry data, Midas and TrueBridge can ensure that data is input correctly and confidentially; portfolio performance shared in the Midas process is not published or shared. THE MIDAS LIST 2022 Read More Note: Investors that submitted for the Midas List, published each May, are encouraged to re-submit for Midas List Europe unless their portfolio activity remains unchanged. Last year’s Midas List Europe saw Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer shoot to the top of the rankings thanks to Adobe’s $20 billion offer to acquire one of his early bets, Figma. With that deal stalled in antitrust arbitration, there will be challengers for the title of Europe’s top venture investor, and likely several new entrants adding to last year’s four breakthroughs.