Reporters for The Washington Post interviewed dozens of people who have lived under ISIS's rule in Iraq and Syria and found that many people join the terror group out of desperation and a lack of other options.

The quality of life for ISIS fighters and their families much better than it is for those who simply live under the terrorists' control in the group's self-declared "caliphate."

Experts and caliphate residents told Newsweek last month that there is a widening income gap between ISIS fighters and average civilians, who pay taxes to the caliphate's authorities to fund ISIS fighters' salaries.

In addition to the taxes, people are reportedly paying more for food. Prices have tripled in some areas, which has driven some men to become ISIS fighters to provide for their families, according to The Post.

"There is no work, so you have to join them in order to live," Yassin al-Jassem, 52, who recently fled his home near Raqqa, Syria, the de-facto capital of ISIS — aka the Islamic State, ISIL, and Daesh — told the Post. "So many local people have joined them. They were pushed into Daesh by hunger."

And ISIS exploits people's desperation to grow its ranks.

Jassem said that while he was still living in ISIS territory, militants tried to bribe him into giving up his son to be a fighter. Jassem's 2-year-old grandson had a brain tumor that would cost $800 to treat, and the militants said they would pay for it if Jassem gave up his son to fight for ISIS.

In addition to food and medical care, other everyday necessities are now harder to come by in areas that have been taken over by ISIS.

Sayf Saeed, a dental student who fled to Baghdad in June, told Newsweek that in ISIS-held Mosul, the cost of a liter of fuel has shot up from $0.30 to $2. Cooking gas that used to cost $5 now reportedly costs $25. Sources who talked to The Post cited similar cost increases.

"The Islamic State has created a two-tiered system in which local people struggle to eat, while Islamic State occupiers have free electricity and food, even imported goods such as Red Bull energy drinks," Kevin Sullivan wrote in The Post.

Not only do ISIS fighters enjoy free electricity and food, which are extremely difficult to come by for other residents of the caliphate, but they also have better access to medical care. Some hospitals treat only ISIS members, and others reserve the best care for the militants, according to The Post.

Fleeing the caliphate isn't easy, and ISIS has a strategy to keep people from leaving.

"It is in ISIS's interest to prevent a mass exodus by residents living in territory it controls, because this would undermine its image of a cohesive state-building project," The International Institute for Strategic Studies reported recently. "The group has accordingly placed IEDs around entrances to cities it controls, such as Fallujah and Ramadi, to prevent escape, which simultaneously serve the larger purpose of preventing the [Iraqi Security Forces] from advancing."

Still, even with those who are joining ISIS out of desperation, the caliphate is still losing a lot of people.

The strategic security firm The Soufan Group noted last month that "more people are visibly fleeing [ISIS] and the areas it controls than are flocking to join it."

"In an attempt to change the minds of people who would rather risk drowning than live in the Islamic State, the group has ramped up its propaganda efforts," The Soufan Group said.

It added: "The scatter-shot nature of the Islamic State's recent messages — at times angry and denouncing refugees, at other times proclaiming the wisdom of staying in what the group sees as an Earthly paradise — shows the desperation of a group that resembles a pyramid scheme more than a government."

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US, States Finalize Settlement Over BP Oil Spill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and five states on Monday announced a $20 billion final settlement of environmental damage claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The deal, once approved by a judge, would resolve all civil claims against BP and end five years of legal fighting over a 134 million-gallon spill that affected 1,300 miles of shoreline. It also would bind the company to a massive cleanup project in the Gulf Coast area aimed at restoring wildlife, habitat and water quality.

"BP is receiving the punishment it deserves, while also providing critical compensation for the injuries that it caused to the environment and the economy of the Gulf region," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a Justice Department news conference.

"The steep penalty should inspire BP and its peers to take every measure necessary to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again," Lynch said.

The settlement, filed in federal court in New Orleans, finalizes an agreement first announced in July. The next steps are a 60-day public comment period and court approval.

In a statement, BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said the settlement total announced Monday includes amounts previously spent or disclosed by the company, and "resolves the largest litigation liabilities remaining from the tragic accident."

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In this April 21, 2010 file aerial photo taken in the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 miles southeast of …

Among other requirements, BP would have to pay $5.5 billion in Clean Water Act penalties and nearly $5 billion to five Gulf states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The company would also be required to pay $8.1 billion in natural resource damages, with funds going toward Gulf restoration projects such as support for coastal wetlands, fish and birds.

An additional $600 million would cover other costs, such as reimbursement for federal and state natural resource damage assessment costs. And up to $1 billion would go to local governments to settle claims for economic damage from the spill, which followed the April 2010 explosion on an offshore oil rig that killed 11 workers.

A coalition of conservation organizations, including the National Audubon Society and the Environmental Defense Fund, praised the arrangement. The groups said in a joint statement that while the full damage of the oil spill may not yet be known, the process "will help bring the Gulf back to the state it was before the spill, and the release of this plan is a positive step toward that end."

But Miyoko Saka****a, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the oil spill had damaged the Gulf region in a way that money could never fix. She said the real solution would be to curb offshore oil and gas drilling.

"All of this drilling is really just deepening our climate crisis," she said.

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EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy attends a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, M …

A report by Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Trustees — comprised of representatives from multiple federal agencies and the Gulf states — called the oil spill damages "unprecedented" and found that deep ocean water currents carried oil from the spill hundreds of miles from the blown-out well. Oil from the spill was deposited onto at least 400 square miles of the sea floor and washed up onto more than 1,300 miles of shoreline from Texas to Florida. The oil was toxic to fish, birds, plankton, turtles and mammals, causing death and disease and making it difficult for animals to reproduce.

Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that besides the toll on human life, "the spill drove Gulf communities into a period of painful uncertainty, forcing questions that no American family should ever have to ask: Is my food safe to eat? Is it dangerous for my kids to play near the shore? Is the air still clean to breathe? And will my businesses ever recover?"

The latest agreement follows a 2012 settlement between BP and people and businesses harmed by the spill. That settlement so far has resulted in $5.84 billion in payouts, according to a report filed recently in New Orleans.

While the latest settlement will mean the end of a major legal battle, other litigation remains.

For instance, some opted out of the 2012 settlement, and an appellate court battle continues over some of the awards made under that settlement. Some businesses are pursuing claims against BP over financial losses caused by a federal drilling moratorium following the spill. Also, suits by stockholders who say they were harmed by the company's actions remain.

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Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Kevin McGill and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift sits in front of a large poster of an Australian Navy frigate as he speaks during a media conference at the 2015 Pacific International Maratime Exposition in Sydney, Australia, October 6, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Some countries appear to view freedom of the seas as "up for grabs" in the South China Sea, imposing superfluous warnings and restrictions that threaten stability, a U.S. Navy commander said on Tuesday in comments apparently aimed at China.

Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a strongly worded address in Australia the United States remained "as committed as ever" to protect freedom of navigation through the region.

"It's my sense that some nations view freedom of the seas as up for grabs, as something that can be taken down and redefined by domestic law or by reinterpreting international law," Swift told a maritime conference in Sydney.

"Some nations continue to impose superfluous warnings and restrictions on freedom of the seas in their exclusive economic zones and claim territorial water rights that are inconsistent with (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). This trend is particularly egregious in contested waters."

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

Japan and China also have conflicting claims in the East China Sea.

The United States has called for a halt to China's artificial island building in the area. China says it has irrefutable sovereignty over the sea and no hostile intent.

China has also accused the United States of militarizing the South China Sea by staging patrols and joint military drills.

The United States and China have blamed each other for dangerous moves during several recent incidents involving their aircraft and ships.

"Put simply, we will continue to exercise freedom of the seas for all nations, because we know from painful past experience, to shirk this responsibility and obligation, puts much more at risk than any one nation's maritime interests," Swift said.

China last month said it was "extremely concerned" about a suggestion by a top U.S. commander that U.S. ships and aircraft should challenge China's claims in the South China Sea by patrolling close to artificial islands it has built.

(Reporting by Lincoln Feast and Matt Siegel; Editing by Robert Birsel)