The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant Wednesday on the home of Susan Flores, whose son Paul Flores was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart. Authorities have not answered questions about what prompted the search.

Tim Nelligan, an expert in soil vapor testing, confirmed by phone Thursday that he was on the premises, gathering samples from the yards of Flores and a neighbor. He said is team has, in general, “come up with a methodology to assess soil vapor" and its relation to “human cadaver decomposition,” but that he could not discuss the current investigation.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Paul Flores, a fellow student. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

The decades-old case has captivated the public, fueled in part by a podcaster who helped investigators by bringing forward additional witnesses. Chris Lambert of the “Your Own Backyard” podcast first reported the search of the home in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

Attempts to reach Susan Flores for comment Wednesday and Thursday were not successful. She has never faced criminal charges related to the case.

Nelligen and other scientists poked instruments into the soil and pulled up long tubing. Soil vapor sampling, which is an evolving science, involves collecting underground gas samples to detect volatile organic compounds associated with human decomposition.

Lambert, the podcaster, said he did not know much about the search, but was optimistic investigators could locate Smart's body. He said past searches of Susan Flores' home have never been thorough.

“This property in particular has been overlooked for quite some time," he said Thursday in front of the house.

Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in 2021.

Prosecutors alleged Smart’s remains were buried on Ruben Flores’ property and later moved. He was acquitted of accessory charges. That property is different from the one currently being searched.

Paul Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to prison, where he has been physically attacked at least twice.

In 2024, a judge ruled that Paul Flores must pay just over $350,000 to Smart's family for costs they incurred after her death.

The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where the woman's body was. Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are. Flores maintains his innocence.

The county district attorney’s office said Wednesday it was helping the sheriff's office with the investigation.

“While those responsible for Kristin’s death — and those with knowledge of her whereabouts — could provide answers at any time, we remain firmly committed to using every lawful tool available to locate Kristin’s remains and to support her family until she is brought home,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in a statement.

The officials involved in preliminary discussions with Cuban authorities also told The Associated Press that they are not optimistic the communist government will accept an offer for tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, two years of free Starlink internet access for all Cubans, agricultural assistance and infrastructure support.

But they say Cuba has not yet outright refused the offer, which comes with conditions that the government has long resisted, even after the Trump administration imposed new sanctions Thursday on Havana.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, say there is still time for the government to accept. They cautioned, though, that Trump could change his mind at any time and that military options are still on the table.

The Treasury and State departments announced those sanctions after Trump signed an executive order last week expanding the administration’s authority to impose penalties on Cuba.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the measures as “collective punishment” and denounced the U.S. government’s “genocidal intent against Cuba.”

“These actions rely on the assumption that the United States can impose its will on the world while threatening foreign citizens and businesses with illegitimate coercion,” Rodríguez wrote on X.

Trump has repeated suggestions of action against Cuba

Shortly after signing the order Friday, Trump gave a speech mentioning that “Cuba’s got problems” and suggesting that a military show of force there may be in the offing.

He said one of the U.S. aircraft carriers on its way back from the Middle East could "come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say: ‘Thank you very much. We give up.’”

One official involved in the discussions said the new sanctions authority was intended, however, to make clear to the Cubans that the Trump administration’s immediate goal is “not regime change, but changing the regime’s failed policies.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long taken a hard line against Cuba's leadership, has said repeatedly that the country's government has failed. He said this week that Cuba’s economic model doesn’t work and those in power “can’t fix it.”

“And the reason that they can’t fix it is not just because they’re communist. That’s bad enough,” he told reporters Tuesday at the White House. “But they’re incompetent communists. The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent one.”

Rubio is visiting Rome and Vatican City, meeting Pope Leo XIV on Thursday in part to discuss Cuba, where the Catholic Church has significant influence.

US officials don't know if Cuba will accept conditions but say dialogue is open

One U.S. official said it is an open question as to whether Cuba’s top leadership is willing to meet U.S. conditions, which include the release of political prisoners, an end to political and religious repression, and an opening to American private sector investment.

At the same time, the official said the door has not closed to dialogue that could help both countries given Cuba’s proximity to the U.S. The United States sees a national security threat in what the official called increasing influence on the island by China and Russia, including intelligence and logistics cooperation.

Cuban officials are adamant, though, that its internal governance is not up for negotiation.

“Negotiations on issues like regime change or removing the president are out of the question,” Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations Ernesto Soberón Guzmán told reporters last week. “No internal affairs of Cuba are on the table.”

Guzmán also told The Associated Press last month that Havana will not abide by any American “ultimatums” to release political prisoners and that Cuba's leaders are “preparing for all scenarios” if Trump makes good on threats to intervene.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about military action in Cuba.

AP reveals State Department officials who led delegation to Havana

Contacts between the Trump administration and Cuba have increased, including a meeting earlier this year in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis between Rubio and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who is believed to carry significant influence in Havana. He is the grandson of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

More recently, two senior State Department officials — Jeremy Lewin, who is in charge of all U.S. foreign assistance, and Michael Kozak, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America — led a delegation to Havana on April 10 and met with the grandson, according to one U.S. official familiar with the meetings.

The top State Department participants had not been previously reported. It was the first U.S. government flight to land in Cuba other than at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay since 2016, during former President Barack Obama’s period of rapprochement with the island.

That meeting was “professional and cordial” but did not produce definitive results, leaving the U.S. delegation skeptical that the Cuban leadership is willing to consider even modest reforms that could ameliorate deteriorating humanitarian conditions, that official said.

U.S. officials have often rejected Cuban complaints that the American embargo on the island and, more recently, the Trump administration's energy blockade are responsible for the country's hardships.

But Cuba’s crises have deepened following the energy blockade, imposed after the U.S. in January removed Nicolás Maduro as leader of Venezuela, which was Cuba’s main source of energy.

Cuban officials have denounced the U.S. rejection of their complaints.

“Traveling 4,500 miles to meet with the Pope, supposedly to request his ‘good offices’ in delivering U.S. humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people through the Church, while at the same time claiming that the blockade does not exist, is a blatant insult to human intelligence,” Guzmán said Thursday in a statement.

___

Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Yesterday’s cold front certainly lived up to its name, which is in part why our wind speeds are on the up and up, while our temperatures have decreased.

Showers will exit within the next hour, but the temperatures will stay below average. Cloud cover behind this cold front will keep us very cool!

We are not alone in our below-average conditions, with much of the East Coast and even out towards the Midwest still cooler! This will change later on this week when our next weather maker arrives.

The cold front brought beneficial rainfall totals, anywhere from a half to a quarter inch of rainfall.

Have a great day and don’t forget the umbrella!

Rubio met with Leo and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that lasted 2½ hours.

Also, Iran said it was reviewing the latest American proposals on ending the war, as Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. The developments followed days of mixed messaging from the Trump administration over its strategy to end the war.

Here's the latest:

Brazil’s president says he doesn’t fear US interference in elections

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke to journalists Thursday at the Brazilian embassy in Washington after a three-hour meeting with Trump, in which the two discussed tariffs, rare earths and the fight against organized crime.

“I don’t believe he will have any influence in Brazilian elections because it will be the Brazilian people voting,” Lula said. “I think he will behave as the president of the United States, letting the Brazilian people decide its destiny as much as I let the American people decide theirs.”

Lula, 80 will be seeking his fourth inconsecutive term in October. His main rival will be Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of his predecessor and foe Jair Bolsonaro.

Tennessee enacts new US House map carving up majority-Black district in Memphis

The new voting districts signed into law Thursday by Republican Gov. Bill Lee gives the GOP a chance to win all nine of the state’s congressional seats in the November midterm elections.

Tennessee is the first state to adopt new districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that undermined a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

President Donald Trump has urged more Republican-led states to redraw their districts in light of the court ruling. Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

ICE training instructions for warrantless arrests fall short

U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said Thursday that guidance Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have received in making civil immigration arrests without a warrant in Washington do not meet probable cause standards and should not be used in such arrests.

One point she noted was that the immigration officers needed to do an assessment of a person’s connections to the community before concluding that person is a flight risk.

The action continues a preliminary injunction she issued in December. It is the latest step in a lawsuit filed by four plaintiffs in Washington, D.C., in 2025 challenging their arrests during immigration sweeps by the federal agency, which were part of a law-enforcement surge ordered by President Donald Trump.

Madeleine Gates, associate counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said the ruling “reaffirms that federal agents have to comply with the law, they do not get a pass in doing immigration enforcement.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iranian state media says the country’s forces exchanged fire with ‘the enemy’ in Strait of Hormuz

State media said the exchange on Qeshm Island followed an attack by a U.S. warship on an Iranian oil tanker. An explosion at Bahman Quarantine Dock in Qeshm occurred during the exchange, state media said.

No more details were reported and there was no immediate confirmation from the U.S.

Qeshm Island is the largest Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, home to about 150,000 people and housing a water desalination plant.

US will begin revoking passports of parents owing a significant amount of unpaid child support

The State Department told The Associated Press on Thursday that the revocations would begin Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more. That would apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures supplied to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The revocation program, plans for which were first reported by the AP in February, soon will be greatly expanded to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support — the threshold set by a little-enforced 1996 law, the State Department said.

It wasn’t clear Thursday how many passport holders owe more than $2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from state agencies that track the figures, but it could encompass many more thousands of people, officials said.

Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve trade deal

The president said in a Thursday social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year’s trade framework by July 4.

Trump made the announcement after what he described as a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Still, Trump was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.

“A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!” Trump posted. “I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.”

Trump meets with Brazil’s Lula in private, says tariffs were a central topic

The U.S. president hosted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the White House on Thursday and said afterward that it went “very well.”

“We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs,” Trump said on social media. “Our Representatives are scheduled to get together to discuss certain key elements.”

Part of the bilateral meeting originally had been scheduled to be open to the press, but reporters were never invited in.

The two leaders met months after Trump hit Brazil with heavy tariffs and criticized the criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump later eased the tariffs, and the leaders began mending fences after a United Nations meeting last year.

Tennessee lawmakers pass US House map carving up majority-Black district in Memphis

The new voting districts approved Thursday could give Republicans a chance to win all nine of the state’s congressional seats in the November midterm elections.

Tennessee is the first state to adopt new districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.

President Donald Trump has urged more Republican-led states to redraw their districts in light of the court ruling. Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

White House press secretary welcomes baby girl

Karoline Leavitt announced on social media Thursday that Viviana, or “Vivi,” joined her family on on May 1.

Leavitt and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, have an older son, Nicholas (or “Niko”).

“She is perfect and healthy, and her big brother is joyfully adjusting to life with his new baby sister,” Leavitt wrote in the post, which also included a photo of her with Vivi in her nursery. “We are enjoying every moment in our blissful newborn bubble.”

Leavitt has not indicated publicly how long she will take for her maternity leave. Other administration officials are expected to take the White House briefing room lectern in Leavitt’s absence; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who doubles as the president’s national security adviser, held a press briefing at the White House earlier this week.

US, Gulf nations urge UN support for Hormuz resolution

Standing alongside Gulf allies, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz called on the U.N. Security Council -- more notably Iran’s allies, Russia and China -- to support a resolution that would condemn Tehran’s actions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and threaten sanctions if it does not release its chokehold.

The resolution -- put forth by the U.S. and Bahrain -- is the second attempt to punish Iran for leveraging its hold over the vital waterway since U.S. and Israeli strikes ignited the war in late February.

“So we’re giving the U.N. and the Security Council another chance to get back to basics, to uphold these basic principles,” Waltz said Thursday. ”...If aid fails to reach the very people that the countries in the council claim to care about, what does that really say for the U.N.? What does that say for these countries?”

Iran creates new agency to control shipping in Strait of Hormuz while reviewing peace deal with US

Iran established the new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said Thursday. The move has raised concerns about eroding the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.

The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, is “positioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait,” Lloyd’s reported in an online briefing. Lloyd’s said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel comes as hundreds of commercial ships remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea.

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Democratic senators press US military on Israel’s evacuation zones, warning of legal risks

A group of Democratic U.S. senators have called for the U.S. Central Command to answer questions about American coordination with Israel in declaring broad “ evacuation zones ” in Lebanon and Iran, alleging the practice may violate international law.

The letter underlines how the Democratic Party — both its leaders and the base — has grown increasingly critical of Israel.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, the Israeli military has regularly issued maps covering large areas of territory along with warnings telling all residents of the zones to flee. Israel had previously used a similar approach in Gaza.

The senators said the sweeping warnings have “been used to permanently displace people and destroy homes and towns” and that some civilians who refused to leave their homes in the areas have been killed by subsequent strikes.

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State Department official says high-level talks between Israel and Lebanon will resume in Washington

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the closed-door talks, said the meeting would take place next week on May 14 and 15. The official did not specify the venue but the previous two rounds have taken place at the State Department and the White House.

The earlier rounds were led by the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio participated in both and President Trump greeted the participants at the second.

— Matthew Lee

US imposes sanctions on Iraqi officials and firms over Iran ties

The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on an Iraqi oil official, several Iraqi firms and leaders of Iran-backed militias accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions and finance militants.

The Treasury Department alleges that Iraq’s deputy oil minister, Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, helped divert Iraqi oil and falsify documents so Iranian oil could be sold as Iraqi oil, benefiting Iran and allied militias.

“Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran’s military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Thursday.

The Vatican says the pope and Rubio discussed the need to work for peace

The Vatican said the “need to work tirelessly in favor of peace” was discussed in talks Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who came to Rome on a fence-mending visit after President Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.

During Rubio’s meeting with Leo, and the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “the shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America was reaffirmed,” the Vatican said.

In a statement, the Vatican said the two sides then exchanged views on current events “with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as on the need to work tirelessly in favor of peace.”

Legislative session on redistricting is underway in Tennessee

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are debating a plan that could carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Trump’s strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections.

Protesters shouted “No Jim Crow” outside the House and Senate chambers as lawmakers convened to consider the legislation. The redistricting effort in Tennessee is one of several rapidly advancing plans in Southern states as Republicans try to leverage a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

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These numbers show the impact of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz

1. 21 miles (34 kilometers) — This is the width of the Strait of Hormuz, which bends like an elbow, at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships follow narrow lanes to safely navigate the shallow water, making it even more of a chokepoint.

2. 20% — Before the war, a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flowed through the Strait of Hormuz every day, as well as large supplies of natural gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products.

3. 50% — The amount that the average price of gas in the U.S. has risen since the war began. The average price of a gallon was $4.56 on Thursday, according to AAA. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also nearly doubled the cost of jet fuel .

4. 15,000 — The number of U.S. soldiers, accompanied by 100 aircraft, committed to enforce Project Freedom, according to the U.S. military. President Trump’s initiative to guide ships through the strait was paused Tuesday , just two days after he announced it.

5. 2 — The number of ships the U.S. said it successfully guided through the strait as part of Project Freedom.

US stocks hold near their records as crude oil prices fall again

The U.S. stock market is holding near its records as oil prices keep dropping on hopes that a deal may be nearing to allow tankers to carry crude once again from the Persian Gulf.

The S&P 500 added 0.1% early Thursday to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 193 points, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1%.

DoorDash jumped after reporting better results than expected. Whirlpool tumbled after reporting much weaker results than expected. The seller of home appliances said it would raise prices by at least 10% for some of its offerings, while accelerating cost cuts.

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Chief Justice John Roberts says the Supreme Court is not political

Supreme Court justices are not “political actors,” Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday, insisting unpopular court decisions are based solely on the law.

“I think, at a very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions, we’re saying we think this is how things should be, as opposed to what the law provides,” he said. “I think they view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”

His remarks to a conference of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit in Pennsylvania came at a time of low public confidence in the court, and about a week after the court handed down a decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act.

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Tennessee poised to vote on new US House map sought by Trump that carves up Memphis

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to take up a plan Thursday that could carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Trump’s strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections.

The redistricting effort in Tennessee is one of several rapidly advancing plans in Southern states as Republicans try to leverage a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the federal Voting Rights Act.

The court ruled Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the federal law. The high court’s decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

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Rubio’s Vatican talks included discussing efforts to achieve ‘durable peace’ in the Middle East

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that lasted 2½ hours.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rubio and Leo discussed the situation in the Middle East “and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere. The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

In a separate statement about the Parolin meeting, Pigott said the two diplomats discussed “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East. The discussion reflected the enduring partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom,” the statement said.

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Trump, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, seeks to halt $83M payment in sexual abuse case

Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily block a longtime columnist from collecting an $83 million defamation award.

The lawyer told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump won’t have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court.

A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in January 2024. Another jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her after she published her account of it in 2019.

Trump has vehemently denied sexually abusing Carroll or ever knowing her and has repeatedly accused her of making accusations against him for political purposes or to promote her memoir.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll, declined to comment through a spokesperson.

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Trump wants to paint the Eisenhower office building white. Now a key federal agency considers it

Trump’s proposal to put a coat of white paint on the exterior of a 19th-century historic landmark building next to the White House is slated for a hearing Thursday by a key federal agency, which he expects to approve what would be a dramatic makeover.

The National Capital Planning Commission is scheduled to begin considering the plan on Thursday, according to its meeting agenda. Trump calls for painting all or most of the Eisenhower building’s gray granite exterior with white paint. He last year called the gray a “really bad color.”

But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture, deteriorate the stone and not solve problems the administration wants to fix.

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Trump administration sows confusion as it tries to reopen Strait of Hormuz

The Trump administration’s approach to the Iran war over the past 24 hours has pinballed from declarations that a tenuous ceasefire was holding and military operations were over to new threats of bombing the Islamic Republic.

Tuesday started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explaining how the U.S. military was protecting stranded ships so they could traverse the Strait of Hormuz.

That afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that the military operation was “concluded” and that the U.S. achieved its objectives. But in almost the same breath, he said Trump was still seeking a “path of peace” that required Iran to agree to a deal to reopen the vital oil shipping corridor.

By Tuesday evening, Trump announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached. Then on Wednesday morning, he again warned that bombing would resume if Tehran didn’t agree to U.S. terms.

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Iran reviewing US proposal as Trump pressures Tehran for agreement on deal to end war

Iran said it was reviewing the latest American proposals on ending the war, as Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

Hope that the two-month conflict could soon end buoyed international markets on Thursday, even as the U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker attempting to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports hours earlier. The developments followed days of mixed messaging from the Trump administration over its strategy to end the war.

Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that he did not detail.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.

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Rubio arrives for audience with Pope Leo XIV to ease tensions after Trump’s criticism over Iran

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened a fence-mending visit to the Vatican on Thursday after President Donald Trump’s broadsides against Pope Leo XIV and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran angered the Holy See and sparked ongoing sparring between the two American leaders.

Rubio, a practicing Catholic, had an audience scheduled with Leo, which was complicated at the last minute by Trump’s latest criticism of the Chicago-born pope. Leo has pushed back, calling out Trump’s misrepresentations of his views on Iran and nuclear weapons and insisting that he is merely preaching the biblical message of peace.

Rubio was also due to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who on the eve of his visit strongly defended Leo and criticized Trump’s attacks in understated diplomatic terms. “Attacking him like that or criticizing what he does seems a bit strange to me, to say the least,” Parolin said Wednesday.

Parolin said Washington had requested Rubio’s audience, and that the pope was open to continued dialogue.

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During Construction Safety Week, Virginia Tech hosted a demonstration outside Bishop-Favrao Hall on its Blacksburg campus, where researchers and business partners showcased technologies — including virtual reality, robots, and drones — designed to better prepare workers before they ever set foot on a job site.

A robot named Spot

One of the most popular technologies on display was Spot, a robot made by Boston Dynamics. HITT Contracting brought Spot to show how it can reduce risk in dangerous areas.

“In some of these high-risk areas where we can eliminate people from doing any kind of observation or being within the scene, we can introduce this robot,” said Alan Sanchez, Field Robotics Engineer at HITT Contracting. “It could traverse, have the onboarding system sensors in order to assess really if it’s safe or not for someone to be there.”

Spot can also identify structural problems before they become hazards on the job site. Rachel Gertler, Robotics Operations Specialist at HITT Contracting, explained how the robot uses a programmed model to flag issues early.

“There was a beam that was supposed to be here, because I have the model programmed in my computer, and it can kind of see ahead of time problems that can snowball later on,” Gertler said.

Students train in virtual reality

Virginia Tech’s Safety Center is also using virtual reality to train the next generation of construction workers. Nazila Roofigari-Esfahan, Associate Director of the Safety Center, said the program exposes students to real-world hazards in a controlled environment before they ever reach a job site.

“Construction is one of the most hazardous industries we have in the U.S. and around the world,” Roofigari-Esfahan said. “It is important to prep our workers before they set foot in a construction job site so they are ready to recognize hazards.”

The VR program offers two levels of immersion — individual headset experiences and a full-room environment on campus called “the cave,” where an entire class can train together simultaneously.

“Not only are they in the same environment, they have the possibility to talk together,” Roofigari-Esfahan said. “The collaboration, and the hazards that they help each other recognize, or the discussions they have, are fascinating to me.”

The scenarios students encounter are not generic simulations — they come directly from industry partners who deal with those problems every day.

“They are facing workers being hit by traffic, they are facing workers falling off ladders because they’re not using the right procedures,” Roofigari-Esfahan said.

More technology on the horizon

Other technologies on display at the event included drones and a helmet capable of sensing incoming hazards. Virginia Tech’s helmet lab has also begun designing construction helmets for the first time.

The final Senate vote unfolded as demonstrators chanted loudly in the galleries and hallways. Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver stood on her desk in the Senate chamber, holding a banner denouncing the redistricting as a “Jim Crow” effort, then clapping and dancing. Other Democratic senators linked arms in the front of the chamber. Republican leadership quickly adjourned the special session, sending the new map on to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who promptly signed it into law.

Protesters in the galleries also had disrupted the Republican-led House as it voted for the new map — yelling, chanting and blowing air horns. In the hallways, other shouting protesters were held back by Tennessee state troopers.

Tennessee is the first state to pass new congressional districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. More legal challenges are expected.

The Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with federal law. The high court’s decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

Louisiana has postponed its congressional primary to give state lawmakers time to craft a new House map. Legislation awaiting a final vote Friday in Alabama also would upend the state’s congressional primaries if courts allow changes to its U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, meanwhile, Republican state House members released a proposed new congressional map designed to give them a clean sweep of the seats.

The states are the latest to join an already fierce national redistricting battle. Tennessee is the ninth state to redraw its congressional districts since Trump prodded Texas Republicans to do so last year. From that spate of redistricting, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some competitive races mean the parties may not get everything they sought in the November elections.

Tennessee Republicans act despite protests

As a first step to adopting new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to legislation — quickly signed into law by Lee — that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting. Another new law will reopen candidate qualifying until May 15 to allow time for new people to enter the U.S. House primaries and existing candidates to switch districts or drop out.

The new House map breaks up Tennessee’s lone Democratic-held district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis, creating a ripple effect of alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state. The geographically compact 9th District that includes Memphis — currently represented by Steve Cohen, who is white — will now stretch a couple hundred miles eastward before reaching north toward the Nashville suburbs.

Unlike in Louisiana — where lawmakers had crafted a second majority-Black district to try to comply with the Voting Rights Act — Memphis has long been the base of its own congressional district.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.

But Democrats dismissed such assertions.

“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the U.S. House.

Republican state Sen. John Stevens defended the new districts he sponsored by noting that Democrats in Illinois, Massachusetts and other states also had drawn congressional districts to their advantage.

“This bill represents Tennessee’s attempt to maximize our partisan advantage,” he said.

It does so at the expense of both Memphis residents and democracy, said Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis.

“You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power and then tell us race has nothing to do with it,” she said.

Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the election to make changes. This year, there’s even less time before the Aug. 6 primary, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, Democrats said.

A plan for a new primary advances in Alabama

Audience members watching an Alabama legislative committee Thursday erupted in shouts of “shame” after Republican lawmakers advanced legislation to authorize special primaries if the state can put a new congressional map in place for the November midterms.

Alabama has asked federal judges to lift an order requiring the state to have a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. That district gave rise to the election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, in 2024.

Republicans instead want to put in place a map lawmakers drew in 2023 — which was rejected by a federal court — that could allow them to reclaim Figures’ district. Black residents currently make up about 48% of the district’s voting-age population. That would drop to about 39% under the 2023 map. Republicans hope the federal courts will see the case differently in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana decision.

If a court grants Alabama’s request, the legislation under consideration would ignore the May 19 primary results for congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts. The House passed the legislation on a party-line vote Wednesday. A final Senate vote is expected Friday.

Addressing a Senate committee on Thursday, Figures said his concern isn’t for himself but for the people who fought for decades “to have a voice in what government looks like.”

A proposed new House map is unveiled in

South Carolina

A proposed new U.S. House map was distributed Thursday on the South Carolina House floor, where members huddled around desks to review it.

The proposal would take Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn out of the 6th District he has represented since 1992. His district currently is made up of nearly 50% Black voters and provided a greater than 60% vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024 presidential election. The proposal would split it into four different districts.

The proposed map also would split the Democratic stronghold of Columbia and its redder suburbs into four different districts.

The South Carolina House on Wednesday approved a resolution giving lawmakers permission to return after the May 14 end of their regular work to continue consideration of a redistricting plan. But that also would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

The state’s primary elections are June 9.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama; Collins from Columbia, South Carolina; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed.

Surging gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and tariffs that have hit the state’s auto industry hard have all contributed to concerns about a worsening political environment for Michigan Republicans.

The latest warning sign came Tuesday, when a Democrat won a special election by almost 20 points in a state Senate district that Kamala Harris won by less than 1 point in 2024. The previous officeholder, a Democrat, carried the seat by 6 percentage points in 2022.

“To get to this margin in that kind of a district means that Democrats and independent voters are working in tandem to send a message to the Trump administration,” Michigan pollster Richard Czuba said of Tuesday's result.

The sentiment could pose a challenge for Michigan Republicans in a midterm year when voters will decide the governor’s office, control of the Legislature and a premier U.S. Senate race. The mood of voters in Michigan also matters for a national Republican Party that sees the state — which Donald Trump flipped in 2024 — as central to its coalition and a midterm map that will again hinge heavily on the industrial Midwest.

‘If they don’t get Iran figured out pretty quick, we’re screwed’

Nationally, Trump’s approval rating on the economy fell between March and April as the Iran war sent prices higher, according to an AP-NORC poll. The April poll found that approval had eroded even among Republicans, with 62% having a positive view of the way Trump is handling the economy, down from 74% in March.

Trump’s economic approval remained low among independents, who have an outsized role in deciding elections in swing states like Michigan. About 2 in 10 independents approved of Trump’s performance on the economy in the April poll, down slightly from about 3 in 10 in March. Only about one-quarter of U.S. adults approved of his handling of the cost of living.

Michigan voters may be feeling the impacts more than those elsewhere in the U.S. Gas prices in Michigan are averaging around $4.80 per gallon, the 10th-highest in the nation, according to AAA, after they jumped by over 80 cents in a week.

Jared Kaufman, 26, is among those frustrated by rising costs and the war in Iran. He voted for Democrat Chedrick Green in Tuesday's election, saying he’s a teacher who doesn’t make much money. The sacrifices being made “for something that is nowhere near us” are unnecessary, he said.

Tariffs have also created new anxiety in a state deeply tied to the auto industry and cross-border trade with Canada. While Trump has argued the tariffs will strengthen domestic manufacturing, suppliers and smaller manufacturers in Michigan say the uncertainty has made it harder to plan investments and expansion.

“The more stability there is in the environment, the easier it is for me to make decisions to grow and expand,” said John Lytle, president of Promess Inc., a manufacturer outside Detroit. “That’s probably been the biggest impact it’s had on us.”

Jason Roe, a strategist and former executive director of the Michigan GOP, conceded that the political environment isn’t good right now, but argued Democrats have their own problems and that Trump still has time to bring costs down.

“But if they don’t get Iran figured out pretty quick, we’re screwed,” he added.

A messy top of the ticket race

The worsening political climate is also colliding with internal divisions at the top of the GOP ticket.

With Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer term-limited and leaving office at year's end, the governor's race was once viewed as Republicans' best pickup opportunity. Michigan has a long history of electing a governor from the opposite party once an incumbent leaves office.

The overwhelming favorite in the GOP primary was Rep. John James, a veteran who represents a competitive House district and has been endorsed by Trump in previous elections, including two failed bids for U.S. Senate (Trump has not endorsed in this year's GOP primary). But frustration with his campaign has steadily built within the party, spilling into public view in recent weeks.

After it was announced in April that James would miss a GOP debate in an important swing county where all other major candidates were attending, a wave of Republicans criticized him.

“The data is clear: if John James wins the Aug. 4, 2026, primary, Republicans will almost certainly lose the general election in November,” said Chris Long, a member of the Michigan GOP's leadership team, in a social media post calling for James to drop out.

James has said that he will take part in two debates in July.

Democrats have their own concerns. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is expected to lead the Democratic field, though Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is also running. Some in the party worry that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a former Democrat now running for governor as an independent, could pull votes from their nominee.

But James' campaign has also been complicated by the late entry of Perry Johnson, a millionaire businessman who mounted long-shot bids for governor in 2022 and president in 2024. Johnson has aggressively attacked James — and has the money to sustain it, announcing a $10 million television ad buy in February.

Republican strategist Dennis Lennox criticized James as running “an awful campaign,” but added that no matter who is the nominee, it will be a tough cycle.

“Anyone who isn't being paid to say otherwise will concede that 2026 is going to be a very difficult year for Republicans,” said Lennox.

In a statement, James spokesperson Hannah Osantowske dismissed the criticism as “sore losers griping,” arguing that James remains the GOP frontrunner and “the only Republican beating both Democrats in November.” She also dismissed Johnson’s campaign.

“Michiganders are not buying what he is selling,” Osantowske said. “They want a trusted Trump ally, combat veteran and proven job creator. That is John James.”

Republicans hope to break a three-decade Senate losing streak

The governor's race is top of the ticket in Michigan, but national Republicans are also looking to crush Democrats' chances of winning control of the Senate by flipping Michigan's open Senate seat.

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is running again on the GOP ticket, after losing in 2024 by less than 20,000 votes to Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

Democrats are in the midst of a competitive — and increasingly messy — Senate primary with three high-profile candidates vying for the party's nomination in the Aug. 4 primary.

Still, questions linger about whether Rogers can win a race he lost even with Trump on the ballot. No Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Michigan since 1994.

Rogers spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said, "Michigan is the number one pickup opportunity on the map for a reason.” She added, “While his opponents duke it out in their bloody primary, Mike Rogers is running to fix everything the Democrats broke in their single-party reign.”

Rogers maintains the most cash on hand of any Senate candidate, due to a noncompetitive GOP primary, but was behind Democratic candidates Mallory McMorrow, a state senator, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former health official, in fundraising in the first quarter of 2026. The Senate Leadership Fund, the leading super PAC for Senate Republicans, announced an initial $45 million investment in the Michigan race early in April.

Czuba said the influx of outside money may not help Rogers if it further nationalizes the race.

“If the conversation is nationalized in Michigan, we see how poorly the president's numbers look right now,” said Czuba. “If undecided voters disproportionately view Donald Trump negatively, I'm not sure what the path is for Mike Rogers.”

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Associated Press journalist Mike Householder in Bay City, Michigan, contributed to this report.

But the deal, part of a sprawling budget plan announced Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, would stop short of a major priority for the mayor: a broad tax increase on the state's wealthiest residents.

The proposed tax on multimillion-dollar second homes, known as pied-à-terres, comes as Democrats are trying to address voter concerns about affordability ahead of this year's midterm elections without alienating the business community.

Critics, including prominent business leaders, Republicans, and some moderate Democrats, have warned that slapping new taxes on rich people who maintain apartments and townhouses in New York, but don't consider it their primary home, will just lead the very wealthy to abandon the city.

The details of the proposal are not yet finalized, but Hochul said it would apply to homes worth over $5 million. It would only apply to second homes in New York City, not other state playgrounds for the rich, like Long Island's mansion-dotted Hamptons.

Hochul estimated the tax would bring in at least $500 million for the city annually.

After the governor's announcement, the state's legislative leaders warned that much was still left to be negotiated. “There is no budget deal,” said Carl Heastie, Democratic speaker of the state Assembly, adding that much of the financial backbone of the budget had yet to be decided.

Meanwhile, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, blasted out text messages to supporters saying the budget proposal doesn't go far enough to close New York City's multibillion-dollar budget deficit or fund needed social programs.

“Hochul is trying to shove a deal down our throats with no new taxes on the rich besides the pied-a-terre tax, which only fills 10% of NYC’s deficit," the organization's co-chair, Gustavo Gordillo, said in a statement.

Hochul, a Democrat running for reelection, opposes broader tax hikes on the rich, saying it risks encouraging wealthy residents and businesses to flee to lower-tax states.

“We were able to accomplish this extraordinary budget, with all these accomplishments, without raising statewide taxes at all,” Hochul told reporters Thursday.

Mamdani has cast the pied-a-terre tax as a victory, while still pushing — sometimes in personal terms — for more, targeted tax hikes on the very wealthy.

Last month, the mayor, seeking to boost excitement about the new tax plan, posted a video of himself standing outside a luxury building where billionaire hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin purchased a penthouse for about $239 million.

“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich,” Mamdani said in the clip, which has been viewed on X more than 52 million times, before mentioning Griffin by name. “Well today, we're taxing the rich.”

Griffin later said he was shocked by the video, calling it “frightening," and potentially threatening to his safety. He added that the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, had been shot to death in the same neighborhood, allegedly by someone upset about perceived corporate greed. Griffin said his company has decided to expand its operations in Miami.

“What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally my New York partners, is we need to double down on our bet in Miami,” he said at an economic conference in California this week. “Because we want to be in a state that embraces business.”

In response to a public records request, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report recently on what the Boeing 737-800's flight data recorder revealed. The NTSB became involved in the Chinese investigation because the plane and engines were made by American companies and the U.S. investigators are regarded as the world's leading experts on analyzing black boxes after a crash.

Aviation safety experts agree that the data shows both engines stopped and someone sent the plane into a nosedive and a 360-degree roll, but it does not conclusively show exactly what happened because the Civil Aviation Administration of China has yet to release its final report than four years later. International standards call for investigators to strive to release their report by roughly a year after a crash.

The NTSB report is dated July 1, 2022. It was released May 1, but the first news stories on it only showed up this week.

Likely intentional fuel cut

By design the fuel levers in a 737 cannot be easily bumped or shut off inadvertently — someone has to pull them out to release them before they will move. John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said the levers lock into place, so it’s likely that someone deliberately moved them both to the cutoff position.

The data ended while the plane was still at 26,000 feet (7,900 meters) of altitude after the flight recorder and all the plane’s hydraulic systems lost power, but the report of the 12 minutes before that suggests what happened.

The cockpit voice recorder, which continued working because it had a battery backup, could also help shed light, but the NTSB did not release a transcript of what it found on those recordings. It is up to Chinese authorities to release those details.

Jeff Guzzetti, who formerly investigated crashes for the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration, said the flight data suggests a struggle and the crash could have been a pilot suicide. There have been a number previous instances of that, including a Germanwings flight that crashed into the French alps in 2015, killing everyone aboard.

“Typically when you want to roll an airplane, it’s a smooth movement of the control wheel in one direction. But here you have it moving back and forth, back and forth, as if someone is trying to counter the initial movement of the roll,” Guzzetti said. “So it’s not conclusive, but it sure has the earmarks of a struggle in the cockpit.”

Pilots' mental health

The details about this crash will renew longstanding industry concerns about how to ensure pilots' mental health.

Many are reluctant to come forward and seek help for fear they could lose their medical certification and be grounded. Getting recertified can take months or longer during which a grounded pilot is not getting paid. Meanwhile some countries prohibit pilots from taking common psychiatric medicines such as antidepressants.

“Clearly pilots — and very understandably so — are oftentimes reluctant to come forward, knowing that to get recertified after having gone through a mental health evaluation, it can be very arduous and very lengthy,” Cox said.

Guzzetti said the co-pilot of an Egypt Air plane that crashed in 1999 is believed to have deliberately sent it into the ocean off New York. In 2023, in an incident that did not end in a crash, an off-duty pilot who took psychedelic mushrooms days beforehand tried to cut the engines of a Horizon Air flight while riding off-duty in the cockpit.

Plane plowed into a mountainside

The jet was flying from Kunming in the southwest to Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, when it went into a nosedive at about 8,800 meters (29,000 feet), appeared to recover but then slammed into the mountain. The crash left a 65-foot (20-meter) crater and set the forest on fire.

The crew reported no problems before losing contact with air traffic control. Chinese investigators said no abnormalities were found among the plane or crew or with outside elements such as bad weather.

Cox also said the new report from the NTSB does not indicate any problem with the plane.

The March 21, 2022, crash was a rare failure for the Chinese airline industry, which dramatically improved safety following deadly crashes in the 1990s. China Eastern is one of four major state-owned airlines in the country.

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party is bracing for big losses in polls that will choose about 5,000 local councilors and a handful of mayors across England, as well as semiautonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales. They are the biggest set of elections since Labour swept to power in a landslide in July 2024, and Starmer’s opponents have painted them as a midterm referendum on the prime minister.

Polls closed at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), and some local authorities will count ballots overnight, but the bulk of the results are likely to be declared on Friday afternoon.

A rout could trigger moves by restive Labour lawmakers to oust a leader who led them to power less than two years ago. Even if Starmer survives for now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps since he became prime minister in July 2024. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Labour is defending about 2,500 seats on English local councils, and party members are apprehensive it may lose many of them.

Starmer already survived a crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers, including the party’s leader in Scotland, urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment.

He has vowed to serve out his five-year term, but a bad result could spark a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternately, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.

Hard-right Reform UK expected to win big

Luke Tryl of pollster More in Common said the local elections are likely to see “the total collapse of the traditional two-party system” that was dominated for decades by the Labour and Conservative parties.

The big winner is expected to be hard-right party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, which is aiming for working-class, former Labour strongholds in England’s north and on London’s outer edges with its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message. The Green Party is also likely to gain hundreds of council seats in urban centers and university towns.

The main opposition Conservative Party is also expected to lose ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.

Starmer didn’t even mention the Conservatives in his final preelection message, framing it as a choice between “progress and a better future” under Labour and “the anger and division offered up by Reform or empty promises from the Greens.”

Farage said on the eve of the election that a strong result for Reform would mean Starmer is “gone by the middle of summer.”

Both Reform UK and the Greens have grown rapidly in the last year or two, and are facing increased scrutiny as a result. Farage is facing questions over a 5 million pound ($6.8 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire that he accepted in 2024, but did not declare. He says it was a personal gift.

The environmentalist Greens, who have stressed their pro-Palestinian credentials under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski, have fired several candidates for antisemitic social media posts.

Reform also is eyeing breakthroughs in Scotland and Wales, though pro-independence nationalists the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are likely to form governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

“Labour’s going to lose to Reform in some places, Greens in others, and here and there they’ll lose one or two seats to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives as well,” said Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics. “They’re fighting on four fronts in England — five in Wales and Scotland.”

The government's explanation: It never had the note.

“The note has not yet been authenticated, and this is the first time DOJ is seeing it as well," the department said Thursday when asked why it wasn't part of the voluminous Epstein files.

Nicholas Tartaglione said he discovered the handwritten note in a book after the disgraced financier was found in their cell at a Manhattan federal jail with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. Epstein was subsequently moved to a different cell, where a few weeks later, he was found dead, alone, in a suicide.

Tartaglione, a former police officer then facing murder charges, said he gave the note to his lawyers to protect himself against any claim that he might have harmed Epstein while they were in custody together. Epstein was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges at the time.

Since 2021, the note had been in a vault in federal court in New York. It somehow became part of proceedings between Tartaglione and his lawyers over their representation in his murder case. Anything related to that dispute was sealed out of the public's eye by the judge because it involved attorney-client privilege.

Tartaglione, a former suburban New York officer turned drug dealer, was convicted in April 2023 in the strangulation death of one man and the execution-style murders of three other people. He said he discovered the note in a book he was reading in his jail cell.

The New York Times petitioned U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas to release the note, noting that Tartaglione, now serving a life sentence, has talked publicly about it. The judge agreed to the request Wednesday, adding that Epstein's privacy interests in the note had been “vastly reduced” due to his death.

“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places and has not been authenticated. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!

“NO FUN. NOT WORTH IT!!” the note concludes.

According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from the suspected July 23, 2019, suicide attempt. Jail officers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. Epstein told a guard Tartaglione had attacked him, but later recanted.

Jail officials subsequently placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours before downgrading him to psychiatric observation, which was his status when he killed himself on Aug. 10, 2019.

The Justice Department did not object to releasing the note. Deputy U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley told the judge the public was interested in the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.

Buckley also said that while two Justice Department lawyers were included in the proceedings between Tartaglione and his attorneys in 2021, they were barred by the judge from disclosing anything from those hearings to protect his attorney-client privilege. So if they did see the note, they weren't allowed to tell anyone about it.

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn based on census data after the start of each decade. But an unusual spate of mid-decade redistricting broke out after President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to reshape U.S. House districts to give the party an edge in the midterm elections. Democrats in California countered with their own political gerrymandering. More states followed.

Tennessee has become the ninth state to adopt new House districts and several more are considering it. So far, Republicans believe they could win up to 14 additional seats from new districts in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain up to 10 seats from new districts in California, Utah and Virginia.

But those tallies presume past voting patterns hold in November. Historically, the president's party tends to lose seats in the midterms. Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, which would give them greater power to oppose Trump.

Where new House districts are proposed

Lawmakers in several states are considering plans for new U.S. House maps.

Louisiana

Current map: two Democrats, four Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has postponed the May 16 congressional primary to allow lawmakers to revise U.S. House districts in response to an April 29 Supreme Court ruling striking down a majority Black congressional district.

Challenges: Several lawsuits have been filed in federal and state court asserting that Landry lacked authority to suspend the primary elections.

Alabama

Current map: two Democrats, five Republicans

New map: Republican state officials hope to revert to a U.S. House map passed in 2023 — but not previously used — that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: The current map was imposed under a court order and is supposed to be used until after the 2030 census. State officials have asked federal courts to set aside that order in light of its ruling in the Louisiana redistricting case.

South Carolina

Current map: one Democrat, six Republicans

New map: Republican state House members have proposed a new U.S. House map that could give the GOP a better chance at winning an additional seat.

Challenges: State lawmakers are to wrap up their regular work May 14. The House voted to allow redistricting to be considered after then, but the extension also would need a two-thirds vote from the Senate.

Where new House districts were approved

New U.S. House districts have passed in nine states since last summer. Seven took up redistricting voluntarily, one was required to by its state constitution and another did so under court order.

Texas

Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in December cleared the way for the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It has since overturned a lower-court ruling that blocked the new map because it was “racially gerrymandered.”

California

Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in February allowed the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It denied an appeal from Republicans and the Department of Justice, which claimed the districts impermissibly favor Hispanic voters.

Missouri

Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A Cole County judge ruled the new map is in effect as election officials work to determine whether a referendum petition seeking a statewide vote complies with constitutional criteria and contains enough valid petition signatures. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit claiming mid-decade redistricting is illegal. It’s scheduled to hear arguments in May on claims the new districts violate compactness requirements and should be placed on hold pending the potential referendum.

North Carolina

Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A federal court panel in November denied a request to block the revised districts from being used in the midterm elections.

Ohio

Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: None. The state constitution required new districts before the 2026 election, because Republicans had approved the prior map without sufficient Democratic support after the last census.

Utah

Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat. The court ruled that lawmakers had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters when adopting the prior map.

Challenges: A federal court panel and the state Supreme Court, in February, each rejected Republican challenges to the judicial map selection.

Virginia

Current map: six Democrats, five Republicans

New map: Voters approved a constitutional amendment on April 21 authorizing new U.S. House districts backed by Democrats that could help the party win up to four additional seats.

Challenges: The state Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed, but it has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a Tazewell County judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

Florida

Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on May 4 that he had signed revised U.S. House districts that improve the GOP’s chances of winning four additional seats.

Challenges: Court challenges contend the new map violates a state constitution provision prohibiting districts from being drawn with intent to favor or disfavor a political party.

Tennessee

Current map: one Democrat, eight Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed new U.S. House districts May 7 that improve the GOP's chances of winning an additional seat by carving up the lone Democratic-held seat, a Black-majority district that includes Memphis.

Challenges: Court challenges are expected ahead of the primaries, which are scheduled for Aug. 6.

The killing of Casey Goodson Jr. by Jason Meade in December 2020 had provoked outrage in Ohio.

Trial jurors said they couldn't agree on the more serious charge of murder, so the judge declared a mistrial on that count.

Meade, who is white, said his shooting of Goodson — five times in the back and once in the side — was justified because he saw the 23-year-old holding a gun and turning toward him in the doorway of the house in Columbus. But no one else testified that they saw Goodson holding the gun he was licensed to carry, and no cameras recorded the shooting.

This was Meade's second murder trial, after the first ended in a mistrial two years ago. He is now the second white law enforcement officer to be convicted in the killing of a Black man in the state since the 2020 killing of a Black man, George Floyd, sparked national protests.

During the earlier proceeding, Meade testified that he pursued Goodson after the man waved a gun at him as they passed each other in their vehicles. According to his family and prosecutors, Goodson was holding a bag of Subway sandwiches in one hand and his keys in the other, and was listening to music through earbuds when he was killed.

Prosecutors also said that evidence suggests the gun wasn't in his hands, but in a flimsy holder under his belt, and that it was found under his body, its safety mechanism still engaged, as Goodson laid mortally wounded on the kitchen floor of his grandmother's house.

Meade, now 47, retired from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in 2021. He’s also a Baptist pastor. His defense attorney cited Meade’s oral and written accounts of what happened, and said the shooting was justified.

Ohio law defines murder as the purposeful causing of a death, while the lesser charge of reckless murder means the defendant acted recklessly in causing a death. The former is punishable by up to life in prison, while the latter carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Prosecutors said they were pleased with the guilty verdict on the reckless homicide charge and haven't decided yet whether to pursue a third trial on the murder charge.

Christopher Corne was driving nearby that day and testified for the prosecution at both trials. He said Goodson seemed to be dancing and singing in his truck shortly before the shooting. He also testified during the first trial that he did not see a gun in Goodson’s hand. Meade’s attorney pointed out inconsistencies, including that Corne said Goodson had either an Afro or a ponytail, when he was wearing a skullcap that day.

Columbus police Officer Samuel Rippey testified at the second trial that while he was administering emergency treatment to Goodson, he saw the gun, with an extended magazine, lying on the grandmother’s floor.

Goodson’s death provoked public outrage in Ohio as the killings of Black people by white officers increased demands for police reform following the killing of Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Banners were hung from highway overpasses in Columbus, carrying messages such as “Justice for Casey Goodson Jr.” and “Convict Murderer Meade.” The judge ordered law enforcement to remove them during the trial.

Previous Ohio prosecutions in such cases led to only one conviction — that of Columbus police officer Adam Coy, who was indicted on charges including murder in the 2020 killing of Andre Hill.

At least three Black children have been fatally shot by Ohio law enforcement, including Tamir Rice in Cleveland, age 12, in 2014; Tyre King in Columbus, age 13, in 2016; and Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, age 16, in 2021.

Other Black people killed by white officers in Ohio include John Crawford III in Beavercreek in 2014; Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati in 2015; Miles Jackson in Westerville in 2021; Donovan Lewis in Columbus in 2022; Jayland Walker in Akron in 2022; and Ta’Kiya Young, who was pregnant, in Columbus in 2023.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil settled at $100.06, down 1.2%, and continued its decline from more than $115 early this week. But it swung sharply before getting there, as Iran said it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposals on ending their war.

The hope is that an end to the war will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf to deliver crude again to customers. Oil and gasoline are still much more expensive than they were before the war began because of the strait’s closure.

Brent’s price briefly fell near $96 per barrel Thursday after a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said, “We expect an agreement sooner rather than later.” Pakistan has been mediating talks between the United States and Iran. But Brent later erased much of that drop and briefly topped $102, which in turn sent stocks lower on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 313 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1% from its own record.

Wall Street saw even sharper swings earlier in the war, when hopes rallied for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, only to get quickly dashed. That could happen again. And Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the strait, a shipping data company reported Thursday, a move that could add to costs for fuel.

Despite all the uncertainties about the war, a powerful parade of U.S. companies reporting even bigger profits for the start of the year than analysts expected has helped support the U.S. stock market. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

Datadog leaped 31.3% to help lead the U.S. market after the monitoring and security platform for cloud applications topped analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter.

Albemarle rose 3% after the lithium products and specialty chemicals company likewise delivered better-than-expected results. Taser maker Axon Enterprise rallied 10.6% after raising its forecast for revenue this year in part because of big growth for its counter-drone products.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Whirlpool, which tumbled 11.9% after reporting much weaker results than analysts expected. It’s instituting the largest price increases in a decade for its major appliances in North America, while accelerating cuts to its costs, as it contends with weaker confidence among U.S. consumers.

Shake Shack dropped 28.3% after its results for the latest quarter fell well below analysts’ expectations.

McDonald’s stock held steadier and slipped 0.1% after its revenue for the latest quarter edged past analysts’ expectations. CEO Chris Kempczinski said high gasoline prices and consumer anxiety over the Iran war could dent its sales this spring.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 28.01 points to 7,337.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 313.62 to 49,596.97, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 32.75 to 25,806.20.

In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after oil prices pared their drops. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.38% from 4.36% late Wednesday.

Higher yields can raise rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can slow the economy. Higher yields also tend to push downward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at just 3.97% before the war.

Several reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed. One said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the increase was not as bad as economists expected. Another report suggested that productivity for U.S. workers improved by only half of what economists expected for the latest quarter.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. Stocks dropped 1.5% in London and 1.2% in Paris.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 roared 5.6% higher as trading in Tokyo resumed following a holiday and caught up with big gains for Asian markets from earlier in the week. It has soared nearly 71% in the last 12 months on strength for tech stocks benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

“I think it’s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It’s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial ships bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea. Still, hope that the two-month conflict could soon be over buoyed international markets.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the Islamic Republic was reviewing messages from Pakistan, which is mediating peace negotiations, but Iran “has not yet reached a conclusion, and no response has been given to the U.S. side,” Iranian state TV reported.

Late in the day, Iranian state media said the country’s armed forces exchanged fire with “the enemy” on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. It is the largest Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, home to about 150,000 people. It also houses a water desalination plant.

No other details were reported. The White House and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Separately, Iranian state media reported loud noises and defensive fire in western Tehran. In southern Iran, explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, semiofficial Iranian news agencies said. The reports from the Fars and Tasnim agencies did not identify the source of the blasts.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Middle East peace efforts at the Vatican with Pope Leo XIV, whose opposition to the Iran war has led to open sparring with President Donald Trump.

Administration has sent mixed messages

The Trump administration has sent mixed messages on its strategy to end the war. A tenuous ceasefire and previous declarations that military operations were over have given way to new threats of bombing if Tehran does not accept a deal that allows for resumption of oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict.

Trump also suspended an attempt by the U.S. military to open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait, saying the pause would allow more time to reach a peace agreement. An official in Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the kingdom and U.S. ally refused to support Trump's effort to reopen the strait by force.

The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has largely held since April 8. But in-person talks between the two countries hosted by Pakistan last month failed to reach an agreement. The war began Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.

Pakistan says it expects a deal soon

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke by phone Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

“We expect an agreement sooner rather than later,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Thursday. “We hope the parties will reach a peaceful and sustainable solution that will contribute not only to peace in our region but to international peace as well.”

He declined to give a timeline.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking in televised remarks, said Islamabad remained in “continuous contact with Iran and the United States, day and night, to stop the war and extend the ceasefire.”

In other regional developments, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled to resume next week in Washington, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the closed-door meetings. The official said talks will be held May 14 and 15.

Iran creates agency to control passage at Hormuz

Iran established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said Thursday. The move has raised concerns about eroding the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.

The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, is “positioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait,” Lloyd’s reported in an online briefing. Lloyd's said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.

Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of supplies of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports. The disruptions have sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy.

The new Iranian agency formalizes an existing, albeit murky, vetting lane that takes vessels through the strait’s northern waters near the Iranian coastline. Iran controls which ships are allowed to pass and, for at least some vessels, imposes a tax on their cargo.

Maritime law experts say Iran’s demands to vet or tax vessels violate international law. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea calls for countries to permit peaceful passage through their territorial waters.

The U.S. and its Gulf allies are pushing for the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution that condemns Iran’s chokehold on the strait and threatens sanctions. A prior resolution calling for reopening the strait was vetoed by Iran allies Russia and China.

Iran's president reports lengthy meeting with new supreme leader

Top Iranian officials have said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is playing a key role in overseeing negotiations with the U.S. But he remains in hiding and has not appeared in public since he was wounded early in the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met recently for more than two hours with Khamenei. In remarks aired Thursday on Iranian state television, Pezeshkian praised the supreme leader’s “sincere” behavior in what he said was a long in-person meeting.

Khamenei has only released a series of written statements since being named supreme leader in March. He replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the war’s initial strikes.

Saudi official says kingdom did not support US effort to reopen strait

Trump did not consult with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia before launching the short-lived effort to force open a shipping passage through the strait, according to a Saudi official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We told them that we are not part of this and that they can’t use our territories and bases for this,” the official said Thursday.

The official said Saudi Arabia sent a message to Iran that the kingdom would not be involved in U.S. attacks related to Trump’s attempt to reopen the strait.

Trump suspended the effort, dubbed Project Freedom, during its second day Tuesday. Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.

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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Sally Abou AlJoud, in Beirut; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Matthew Lee in Washington; Samy Magdy and Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Farnoush Amiri in New York and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed to this report.

According to officials, Maryland Natural Resources Patrol Officers were dispatched to the area following a drowning incident involving a kayaker at 2:45 p.m., where CPR was being performed.

Officers arrived on the scene and determined three men were navigating various stretches of rapids in the Potomac River when one of the men, 22-year-old William Caulfield Lankford, became separated from the group.

The two kayakers returned upriver after realizing that the man was missing and found him struggling in the rapids. The two men took action to free him, and brought him to shore. Officials say Lankford was wearing a personal flotation device.

Officials say that the men initiated CPR before emergency services arrived. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel took over life-saving care of the individual before transporting him to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, where he was pronounced deceased.

Maryland Natural Resources Police is leading the investigation into the individual’s death, which is ongoing. Autopsy will be conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia in Manassas.

The council appointed by President Donald Trump approved a highly anticipated report that outlines ways the Trump administration could potentially put far more responsibility on states, tribes and territories for disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

It proposes upending how the federal government determines which disasters to support, how FEMA pays states and other governments for disaster recovery costs, and what kind of FEMA assistance survivors receive, among other reforms.

“These recommendations are all about accelerating federal dollars, streamlining the process, making it less bureaucratic so that Americans can get the help they need on the worst day of their lives,” former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a council member, said in a public meeting Thursday with nearly 6,000 virtual attendees.

There is broad agreement that FEMA needs reforms to move faster and relieve bureaucracy. However, the council’s recommendations raise concerns among some disaster experts that shifting responsibilities will be more than some state and local governments, the private sector, or survivors can handle.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the report offered him “a clear direction and an oversight of an agency that is in need of reform, but is still mission capable.”

The recommendations will now be sent to Trump, though many of the reforms would require congressional action.

Trump “looks forward to reviewing the recommendations,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, and “remains committed to getting resources to communities in need while also working with states to ensure they invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes.”

Major changes to federal aid

Among the council’s most significant recommendations is changing how states, tribes, and territories qualify for federal support from a decision informed by a per-capita formula that weighs costs against population to a pre-defined set of metrics for a disaster to trigger federal support.

It also recommended giving states direct payments within 30 days of a disaster, with a potential for another payment further down the line, replacing the current system of reimbursing states after recovery work is done.

Survivors’ assistance would be upended, too: The council proposed limiting housing assistance to those whose homes are rendered uninhabitable and offering survivors a one-time payment instead of multiple channels for rental, repair, and replacement assistance.

FEMA would focus its survivor aid on emergency housing, moving away from long-term housing assistance and giving states the option to run their own housing programs while adhering to federal standards.

“States, figure it out,” said council member and Florida emergency management director Kevin Guthrie. “Do what’s best for you.”

Other recommendations include shifting most flood insurance policies away from the National Flood Insurance Program, which is over $20 billion in debt, to the private market, and continuing to align premium costs more closely with risk.

A bumpy road to a final report

Trump has threatened to dismantle FEMA and has repeatedly said he wants to push more responsibility for disaster preparedness, response and recovery to the states.

The 12-person council he appointed is co-chaired by Mullin and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It is comprised of current and former officials and emergency managers from predominantly Republican-led states.

Emergency managers, local leaders, nonprofits involved with disaster management and survivor groups have anxiously awaited the council’s findings, which were due roughly six months ago but were delayed as former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and council members clashed over drafts.

The final recommendations seemed to move away from at least one of the most controversial reforms included in past drafts: Cutting the FEMA workforce by 50%, a recommendation included in a December draft reviewed by The Associated Press.

Can Congress pass FEMA reforms?

In a statement to The Associated Press, a spokesperson for The National Emergency Management Association said the group “broadly supports the overarching principles outlined by the council of less complexity in federal programs, faster assistance, and cost savings at all levels.”

Some disaster experts worry local governments and nonprofits won't be able to fill in potential voids left by a federal pullback. Limiting survivor aid to those whose houses are uninhabitable, for example, “would dramatically increase the level of displacement and economic insecurity” for low-income survivors, said Noah Patton, director of disaster recovery at the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

Most major changes would require legislative action. A FEMA reform act passed out of a House committee last year, but no further action has been taken.

Patton said he was skeptical that lawmakers could pass FEMA reform soon, especially with limited time before the midterm elections, and said the recommendations are not a foregone conclusion.

“It is important to remember that these are suggestions — they aren’t set in stone,” he said.

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, is awaiting sentencing.

Kazmierczak, dressed in bright orange jail clothing, gave only a fragmentary explanation Thursday of the Jan. 27 assault, which came as the city was already on edge after the fatal shootings of two people by federal agents during a White House crackdown that brought thousands of immigration officers to Minnesota.

After being asked what he remembered of the assault, he told U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen: “It's fuzzy.”

Kazmierczak, who was in the audience during Omar’s January town hall, leaped up when the representative called for the ouster of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He sprayed liquid from a syringe as court documents say he shouted that Noem would not resign and that Omar was “splitting Minnesota apart.”

Security officers tackled Kazmierczak, who told them the liquid was vinegar.

“I didn’t want anybody to think she was in danger,” he said Thursday.

Omar, who was not injured, continued with the town hall after the arrest.

Authorities later determined he’d sprayed her with a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar. He was charged with assaulting a U.S. officer.

Court documents say Kazmierczak, a critic of Omar who has made online posts supportive of President Donald Trump, told a close associate several years ago that “somebody should kill” her.

Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has long been a target of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. After she was elected seven years ago, Trump said she should “go back” to her home country. He has described her as “garbage” and said she should be investigated.

Trump has also accused Omar of staging the attack, telling ABC News, “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”

On Thursday, Kazmierczak told Erickson that he was being treated for Parkinson’s disease, and that he’d been diagnosed with ADHD or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and a form of post-traumatic stress.

After his arrest, his then-attorney said that he did not have access to the medications he needed for Parkinson’s and other serious conditions.

Minnesota court records show that Kazmierczak, who was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and has had numerous traffic citations. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

In social media posts, Kazmierczak had criticized former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.” Trump wants the U.S. to be "stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote.

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters before dipping slightly, only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

He was placed on suicide watch, but later made a startling allegation to the guard watching over him: Epstein said his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, had tried to kill him.

Tartaglione — a former police officer then awaiting trial and a possible death sentence in a quadruple murder case — had a different version of events.

He told his lawyer Epstein had tucked a suicide note inside one of the former officer's books. He handed the note over to his legal team but its existence got scant mention in the years afterwards — even after Epstein's suicide in a different cell about three weeks later was scrutinized by federal investigators and a skeptical public.

On Wednesday, almost seven years after the incident, the note Tartaglione says he found was publicly released for the first time after a judge unsealed it from records that were part of an unrelated legal dispute.

It isn’t clear whether the note is authentic or a forgery, when exactly it was written or whether its cryptic language amounts to a suicide note, as Tartaglione claims.

Here is what to know about Tartaglione, now 58, and why the note stayed out of public view for so long:

Who is Nicholas Tartaglione?

After retiring as a police officer on a disability pension in 2008, authorities say Tartaglione turned to dealing drugs and eventually orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of four men in 2016.

Tartaglione believed that one of the men, Martin Luna, had stolen money from him that was meant to be used to buy cocaine, according to prosecutors. The burly former police officer lured Luna to a bar, tortured him in an effort to find out where the money was, and when he didn’t get the answer he was seeking, strangled Luna with a zip tie, authorities said.

Three men Luna had brought with him that night — a mix of friends and family – were shot in the head. All four were buried on Tartaglione’s property, according to prosecutors.

Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016, and was still awaiting trial three years later when he found himself sharing a cell with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. In 2022, prosecutors announced they were no longer seeking the death penalty. Tartaglione was convicted in 2023 and later sentenced to four consecutive life terms.

What happened during Epstein's first suspected suicide attempt?

Epstein was found in the cell with Tartaglione around 1:30 a.m. the morning of July 23, 2019, according to jail records. He was taken out and placed on suicide watch elsewhere in the jail. That's when the guard says he sat up and accused Tartaglione of trying to kill him. Epstein claimed the cellmate had tried to extort money from him, and threatened to beat him up if he didn't pay.

However in an interview with jail staff a week later, Epstein said had never had any issues with Tartaglione, was not threatened by him and didn’t “want to make up something that isn’t there,” records show. He said he was not suicidal.

After 31 hours on suicide watch, Epstein was downgraded to psychiatric observation. He was without a cellmate when he was found dead at the jail on Aug. 10, 2019. Officials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time, but it didn’t appear to be a suicide note so much as a list of grievances about the filthy conditions at the jail, which has since been closed.

Authorities concluded that Epstein killed himself and that the first incident was likely a missed opportunity to take steps needed to prevent a second suicide attempt.

When did the note first emerge — and why was it only released this week?

A chronology included in files about Epstein's case recently released by the Justice Department said Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 suicide attempt.

Jail staff made no mention of the note in a report recounting an interview done with Tartaglione in late July. "Tartaglione stated he does not understand Epstein’s motive and what he is trying to do,” the report said. Tartaglione said he thought Epstein was having a heart attack.

The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s drug murder case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.

Tartaglione mentioned it publicly in an interview for a podcast last year, as he sought to dispel the persistent conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself. “It was in my book. When I got back into the cell, I opened my book to read and there it was,” Tartaglione said in the phone interview from prison.

The note itself is hard to parse.

“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” says the short note. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”

The club said in a statement that “following the incidents that occurred this morning during the first team’s training session, it has decided to open disciplinary proceedings against our players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni.”

The 27-year-old Valverde's injury could keep him sidelined for the final four games of the domestic season.

“After the tests carried out today on our player Fede Valverde by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a cranioencephalic trauma,” the club said in a separate injury update on Thursday.

“Valverde is at home in good condition and will need to rest for 10 to 14 days, as indicated by medical protocols for this diagnosis.”

Valverde is a key midfielder for Uruguay, which will play in Group H at the World Cup. Uruguay's first game is against Saudi Arabia on June 15.

The team gave no timeline on the disciplinary proceedings.

“The club will provide updates on the resolutions of both proceedings once the corresponding internal procedures have been completed,” it said.

There was no reported injury with Tchouaméni, a 26-year-old France international.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Her friend screamed that the windows were breaking. Schwebel could see on her screen the devastation to the cluster of cottages she owned in the town of Purvis — walls and roofs ripped away, her tenants huddled in their bathrooms.

“We could see a line of people sitting in their tubs,” Schwebel said Thursday. “We thought people were dead.”

Yet, for a second time in less than a month, a big burst of tornadoes caused no deaths. Authorities estimated that 500 homes were damaged across five counties Wednesday and said at least 17 people were injured. The powerful storms spawned at least three tornadoes across the bottom half of Mississippi that could be seen on weather radar, meteorologists said, possibly more.

Tornado flipped home and ‘scattered everybody’

Survivors told stories of crawling under furniture while winds tore off the roof and of hiding in a closet, holding on to a child. At Coaltown Baptist Church in Purvis, members hunkered down in a hallway, singing and praying until the storm passed.

A dozen people were hurt at a trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, in rural Lincoln County, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Most of the two dozen homes were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chain saw buzzed in the background.

Krystal Miller and six others — including babies as young as 4 weeks old — grabbed a Bible and sheltered in their hallway when the tornado sent their home cartwheeling through the air.

“We just flipped, and it threw us all out,” she said. “It scattered everybody out. ... I can’t find the Bible.”

Her young son was in the hospital for monitoring and another child was injured in the face, she said.

“The trailer is in pieces but we made it out,” Miller said. “I'm feeling grateful.”

Max Mahaffey was with his 59-year-old grandmother and watching TikTok videos on his phone when they realized the tornado was bearing down. They ran to the bathroom, but when the roof was torn off, they crawled to the living room and hid under a couch, he said.

“You heard screaming, glass breaking, horns honking — everything,” said the 15-year-old.

Survivors grateful to be alive

Dmell Burnes didn't realize his home was in the tornado’s path until seconds before it struck. The house shook as he covered his 11-year-old daughter in his arms, but the frame inside the closet where they protected themselves held even as the home’s walls and roof came apart.

“It was one of the most scariest moments of my life. Me and my daughter were praying,” Burnes said while standing on what was left from his trailer. “We’re just grateful to be alive.”

Residents dug out jackets, school backpacks, Bibles and a watch — whatever was salvageable.

A storm chaser walking through the debris early Thursday heard a meow but feared the worst when the cries stopped after a few minutes of searching. But after picking through insulation, Ashton Lemley found a tiny kitten, hiding between two wooden posts.

“I’ve been in these situations so many times,” he said. “I don’t try to get overly emotional. But it is very heartbreaking to see any type of animal or human go through something like that.”

Debris closed interstate in southern Mississippi

National Weather Service meteorologist Daniel Lamb said at least three tornadoes caused significant damage. Investigators plan to survey other areas to determine if more touched down.

“Pray for Mississippi,” Gov. Tate Reeves posted online, saying the state Emergency Management Agency was coordinating response efforts.

Debris from the storms closed Interstate 55 and many other roads in Lincoln County. The governor said a volunteer rescue group was providing a 50-person shelter and supplies to the county, which reported at least 200 damaged homes.

Lamar County to the southeast reported about 275 homes damaged, according to the Emergency Management Agency.

Alisha Marbury was teary eyed as she surveyed the wreckage in Bogue Chitto. Still, she counted her community blessed since it appeared no one had died. Many of the people she knew at the trailer park had been away at work, she said.

“God spared us,” Marbury added. “Houses and homes and cars and stuff are replaceable, but your life ain’t.”

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Rico reported from Atlanta and McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.

Ryan Erb, the construction operations and facilities manager in the White House Office of Administration, which is spearheading the proposal, discussed details with members of the National Capital Planning Commission as the federal agency opened its review process.

The commission did not approve the project on Thursday, instead directing the White House to provide additional information to the agency at a future date.

The proposed painting of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one piece of a broader plan the Republican president has said will make Washington more beautiful.

Trump is making numerous changes inside and outside the White House and its grounds, most notably razing the East Wing to build a 1,000-person ballroom. Across the street from the mansion, Lafayette Park is closed for renovations, including restoring the fountains.

“President Trump continues to beautify the White House and our Nation’s Capital and is giving it the glory it deserves — something everyone should celebrate,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in an emailed statement after the meeting.

Questioned about project costs, Erb said his office continues to work with an outside vendor to test the silicate paint they want to use, but offered $7.5 million as a preliminary estimate for the exterior paint job alone. The figure does not include costs for maintaining the paint.

“Unfortunately, we can't rush that process,” Erb told the commissioners at their monthly meeting. “We're trying to get all the data first.”

The White House has put forward two proposals: painting the entire gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower building white, or painting most of the building white while leaving the granite base as is. Painting the entire building is preferred, officials have said.

Trump last year said the gray is a “really bad color.”

Erb said Thursday that the paint is being tested on granite samples from a quarry in Maine because no testing can be done on the Eisenhower building itself. He stressed that the samples are new stone and not aged like what is on the building, which opened in 1888 after 17 years of construction.

“The initial data was encouraging for this process,” he said.

But the proposal has alarmed preservationists, architects, historians and others who argue that granite is not meant to be painted and that paint would trap moisture and deteriorate the stone.

“Painting the granite facade of the building white will adversely and permanently alter this important landmark, and should be rejected,” said Priya Jain, of the Society of Architectural Historians. She was among 11 people who commented at Thursday's meeting. Most urged the commission to reject the proposal.

More than 2,000 public comments submitted to the agency and available on its website were also strongly opposed to the plan. Commenters criticized the expected cost as a waste of taxpayer dollars and argued that a white Eisenhower building would throw off the visual balance along that portion of Pennsylvania Avenue and overwhelm the White House. Some suggested improved landscaping, lighting and other steps to improve the building’s appearance.

The capital planning commission, chaired by top Trump White House aide Will Scharf, approved staff comments on the proposal. That means White House officials will have to present additional information to the agency on a future date, including details about the type of paint to be used as well as alternatives that could improve the building's appearance without painting it.

A separate federal agency — the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts — is also reviewing the proposal and recently asked the White House to present additional information, including about paint testing, before a vote to approve it.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which sits across a driveway from the White House, is a National Historic Landmark. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A lawsuit against the proposed paint job is working its way through federal court.

The lawyer, Rocky Ratliff, said in an interview that the men came forward some eight years after the first lawsuit was filed because they needed to overcome the shame of revealing that they'd been sexually abused by another man and the fear of taking on the university publicly.

They are “tearful and living with it,” Ratliff said. “But as this case progresses on, they see how Ohio State’s treating athletes from the university and I think they want people to know it’s OK, even if it is male to male (sexual abuse), to come forward.”

Ohio State has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss. Hundreds say they were abused by Strauss, who worked at the school from 1978 to 1998. He died in 2005.

The men have signed letters of agreement to join a lawsuit filed by other student-athletes who say they are victims of Strauss, Ratliff said.

Of the 30, only three have agreed to make their identities public, Ratliff said. They are Al Washington, Ray Ellis and Keith Ferguson, he said. All were members of the 1980 Rose Bowl team and were recruited by and played for legendary coach Woody Hayes. The Associated Press does not identify people who say they’re victims of sexual abuse unless they choose to make their names public.

Some other former football players have settled with the school in sealed agreements that kept their names a secret, Ratliff said.

In a statement, Ohio State said it has “sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment.”

As of April 15, the university has settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million, and is remains actively engaged in mediation, the school said.

In an interview, Washington said it was hard to talk about the abuse he suffered and recalled being subjected to “unlawful” physical exams by Strauss when he was 18 or 19. He and the other players tried to make light of it with each other and joke about it.

“But it was really uncomfortable,” said Washington, now 67.

He didn't discuss it with others over the decades, but watching the 2025 documentary film “Surviving Ohio State” put it back into his thoughts.

“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t make it through that movie,” Washington said. “The pain and anguish that I saw, I just couldn’t take it.”

Strauss was on the faculty and medical staff and Ohio State. He retired in 1998 with emeritus status. School trustees revoked that mark of honor three years ago.

Washington played linebacker at Ohio State and was a fourth-round draft pick by the New York Jets in 1981. After a year with the Jets he went to the Ottawa Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.

Ellis, 67, was a safety at Ohio State and spent five years with the Philadelphia Eagles and two with the Cleveland Browns. He recorded 14 interceptions and three sacks over seven NFL seasons.

Ferguson, 67, was a defensive end at Ohio State and a fifth-round draft pick by San Diego in 1981. He spent five years with the Chargers and six more with Detroit. His best season came in 1986, when he recorded 9 1/2 sacks for the Lions.

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AP Pro Football Writer Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida, contributed.

In Argentina, a team of investigators has yet to leave for the southern town where they suspect the outbreak originated, officials from the country's Health Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday. The Argentine investigators suspect a Dutch couple may have contracted the virus while on a bird-watching trip before they boarded the cruise ship.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday.

Three passengers have died in the outbreak — a Dutch couple and a German national — and several others are sick. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

None of the remaining passengers or crew on the ship are currently symptomatic, the Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions cruise ship company said Thursday.

The World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public is low. Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn't easily transmitted between people.

“We believe this will be a limited outbreak if the public health measures are implemented and solidarity is shown across all countries,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the WHO's alert and response director on Thursday.

1st hantavirus case on board was confirmed May 2

Three people, including the ship’s doctor, were evacuated Wednesday while the ship was near the West African island country of Cape Verde and taken to specialized hospitals in Europe for treatment.

The body of the Dutch man who was the first to die on board on April 11 was taken off the ship on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena on April 24, when his wife also disembarked. She then flew to South Africa a day later and died there.

The ship's operator said Thursday that a total of 30 passengers — including the deceased Dutch man and his wife — left the vessel at St. Helena. The Dutch Foreign Ministry has put the figure at about 40. The company had not previously said publicly that dozens more people left the ship on April 24.

It wasn't until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger, the WHO says. That was in a British man evacuated from the ship to South Africa three days after the St. Helena stop. He was tested in South Africa and is in intensive care there.

Passengers who disembarked April 24 are being monitored

It emerged Wednesday that a man tested positive for hantavirus in Switzerland after he disembarked at St. Helena, though his precise movements in between aren’t clear.

On Thursday, Singaporean health authorities said they were monitoring two men who got off the ship at St. Helena, flew to South Africa and then home. The two men, who arrived in Singapore at different times, were being isolated and tested, officials said.

Authorities in St. Helena, the volcanic British territory in the South Atlantic where passengers disembarked, said they were monitoring a small number of people who were considered “higher risk contacts.” Those contacts were being told to isolate for 45 days, the St. Helena government said.

South Africa is tracing contacts from an April 25 flight

The Dutch health ministry said Thursday that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger in South Africa was showing symptoms of hantavirus and would be tested in an isolation ward at an Amsterdam hospital. The cruise passenger, the Dutch woman whose husband died on the ship, was too ill to take the international flight to Europe and was taken off the plane in Johannesburg, where she died.

If the Dutch flight attendant tests positive, she could be the first known person not on the MV Hondius to become infected in the outbreak.

The vessel is now sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, where it is expected to arrive Saturday or Sunday, with more than 140 passengers and crew members still on board.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday that he had been in regular touch with the ship's captain, and that morale improved once it began moving again.

Authorities in South Africa are also trying to trace contacts of any passengers who previously got off the ship. They have focused mainly on an April 25 flight from St. Helena to Johannesburg, the day after passengers disembarked there.

A French citizen with “benign symptoms” is in isolation and undergoing medical tests, after being identified as a contact case linked to the ship passenger who flew April 25 from St. Helena to Johannesburg and was confirmed to have hantavirus, the French Health Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The Dutch woman from the cruise ship who later died in South Africa was on that St. Helena-Johannesburg flight, officials have said. It's not known how many other cruise passengers were among the 88 people on it, but flights from St. Helena go to South Africa and are rare, normally once a week.

The body of the third fatality, a German woman, is also still on the ship after she died on May 2.

Unlike other hantaviruses, Andes virus may spread between people

Tests have confirmed that at least five people who were on the ship were infected with a hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus. The only hantavirus thought to spread human-to-human, it can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

The ship departed from Argentina and investigations into the outbreak’s source are focusing there.

The Dutch couple who presented the first two cases had traveled through Argentina, Chile and Uruguay before boarding the ship, the WHO said. They visited sites where the species of rat known to carry Andes virus was present.

Argentina’s Health Ministry has zeroed in on the town of Ushuaia in their investigation, but they’ve yet to dispatch the team, according to a written statement given to AP. Scientists from the state-funded Malbrán Institute planned to travel to Ushuaia “in the coming days,” the statement said.

Once in Ushuaia, a 3.5-hour flight from Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, experts will analyze rodents at the trash heap there to see if they carry the Andes virus, officials said.

The WHO is working with health authorities in Argentina to understand the couple's movements and has arranged to ship 2,500 diagnostic kits from Argentina to laboratories in five countries.

Argentina’s health ministry said there were 28 deaths from hantavirus last year, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that. Nearly a third of cases last year were fatal, it said.

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Quell reported from The Hague, Netherlands, Imray from Cape Town, South Africa, and DeBre from Buenos Aires, Argentina. AP writers Jill Lawless in London and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Speaking to the court through an interpreter, Mohamed Sabry Soliman apologized to the victims and said, “If I went back, I would not have done this, as this is not according to the teaching of Islam. What I did came out of myself and only myself.” He has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges for the attack last June. Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.

Soliman is an Egypt national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. Investigators allege he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

Despite Soliman’s claims he doesn’t hate people who practice the Jewish faith, Judge Nancy Salomone concluded Soliman targeted the victims because they were Jewish. “You chose a time and a place and a set of circumstances and weapons that were designed to inflict the most pain that you could,” the judge said.

Authorities say Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.

Karen Diamond, 82, was injured in the attack and later died. A dozen others were also injured.

“There are no words that can express my sadness for her passing,” Soliman said. He said he wasn’t asking for leniency at sentencing for his convictions in state court and wants prosecutors pressing federal hate crime charges against him to seek the death penalty.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Soliman’s guilty pleas don't show an acceptance of responsibility but rather “a surrender to the strength of the evidence” against him.

In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again.”

Andrew and Ethan Diamond said their mother suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death. “In those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions ‘living hell’ and ‘fate worse than death,’” Diamond’s sons said in the statement.

Soliman’s federal attorneys have said in court filings the attack “was profoundly inconsistent” with Soliman’s prior conduct and “came as a total shock to his family.”

At the time of the attack, Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs — about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away. He had moved to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.

The couple divorced in April.

Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!”

Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.

Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were nearby and considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman was charged with animal cruelty.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.

An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.

Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.

After the Yankees' 9-2 win over the Rangers, the team said Domínguez has a low grade AC sprain of his left shoulder, and will be put on the injured list. Concussion tests thus far were negative.

Domínguez, playing outfield for the Yankees for the second time this season, ran 81 feet to catch Nimmo's 101 mph shot. He gloved the ball 375 feet from the plate as his shoulder hit hard against the video advertising board.

Domínguez's sunglasses flew off as he fell to the warning track chest first, prompting center fielder Trent Grisham to come over as manager Aaron Boone jogged out to check on Domínguez along with head athletic trainer Tim Lentych, assistant athletic trainer Jimmy Downam and director of sports medicine and rehabilitation Michael Schuk.

Domínguez cupped his head in his glove and sat up after about a minute. He pointed to his shoulder and craned his neck as he was being examined, then walked to a cart under his own power and was seated as the cart drove away.

Cody Bellinger moved from right to left, Amed Rosario switched from third base to right and Ryan McMahon entered the game at third.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Between warmer temperatures and shifts in rain and snow patterns, between 7% and 16% of the world's plant species are likely to lose at least 90% of their habitat and go essentially extinct in about 55 to 75 years, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science.

That equates to roughly 35,000 to 50,000 plant species based on moderate carbon pollution scenarios, and much more if the world's pollution soars, said study co-author Xiaoli Dong, a University of California Davis ecologist.

“The warming rate drives the extinction,” Dong said.

Dong and her colleagues used numerous biology and climate computer models to examine the potential futures of 18% of the world's plant species in detail, seeking to get a good handle on what's in store for all of them.

Scientists have figured that plant species could gradually shift to cooler climates as the world warms, borne by wind, water and animals toward the poles or higher altitudes. Scientists have observed this process and even relocated plants to conserve them. But Dong's millions of computer simulations show that even if these species move as fast as possible “it's not going to reduce the extinction rate.”

“It is not because they are not moving fast enough,” Dong said — it’s because the habitats they depend on will no longer exist.

Climate change messes with plants' habitats

Climate change, whether by temperature or changes in rainfall, will make areas where plants used to grow no longer livable for some species, she said.

Consider the tulip, Dong said: It prefers a certain soil, temperature and rain level. Climate change has disrupted this combination: The right temperature pushed north, the proper rain pattern moved east and the perfect soil stayed put. “The perfect condition required by this tulip has become like really small,” Dong said.

This scenario is getting especially bad in the Arctic, the Mediterranean and Australia, the study found. In the Arctic it's because the temperature is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe and in Australia it's driven more by rainfall changes, Dong said.

Thousands of unusual flowering plants now at risk

While Dong’s study looks at future extinction risk, a second study published Thursday in the same journal looked at the current extinction risk of flowering plants, a group with more than 335,000 species, more than most varieties of flora and fauna.

Scientists at Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom found that nearly 10,000 flowering plant species are currently in danger of blinking out, and are so evolutionarily old and unusual that if they go, 21% of Earth’s “tree of life” would disappear with them. They include odd species such as titan arum, the world’s smelliest plant, and ones humans find useful, such as the orchid that provides vanilla, researchers said.

Evolutionary plant biologist and study lead author Felix Forest applied a 20-year system British biologists developed to prioritize species conservation by saving species that are most unique. The study doesn't look at what's causing the extinction risk, just what would be lost in terms of biological history and distinctiveness.

In the biggest species prioritization study scientists have undertaken, Forest found that there's more evolutionary history at risk in unusual flowering plants than almost any other groups of flora or fauna, except turtles and tortoises.

Some other species, like different types of rats, have close relatives and a bushy branch, so if one blinks out, others remain to share its evolutionary history. But flowering plants include trees like the Ginkgo biloba, which has no similar species and presents hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

Animals get the attention, not plants

The trouble is that extinction in plants is often overlooked, even by official organizations, when compared with animals, Forest and Dong said.

“We're trying to redress that imbalance between plants and animals, especially vertebrates,” Forest said. “Humans are generally more interested in fluffy furry things and things with two wings than plants. And that's just the way things are.”

The two studies together show that the world cannot wait to take action to save endangered plant species, wrote Chilean biologists Rosa Scherson and Federico Luebert, who weren't part of the studies.

When the future of plants is unstable, “it can also affect human food security and access to basic materials,” Scherson and Luebert wrote in a review of the two studies. “Maintaining the current conditions that support human life requires urgent action.”

—-

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The rapper, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was booked into the Orange County Jail on Wednesday on a felony charge of trafficking MDMA, the synthetic drug also known as ecstasy or molly.

Kapri, 28, entered a written plea of not guilty and asked for a jury trial on Thursday. He also waived appearing in person at a future arraignment hearing in state court. His bond was set at $75,000.

Kapri's arrest followed a police encounter in Orlando in November when officers were called to a neighborhood in Orlando by residents who reported hearing gunshots. Officers encountered a bunch of people hanging out around parked luxury sports utility vehicles, including Kapri, according to a police report.

An officer noticed a white substance on a $100 bill inside a Lamborghini SUV, which smelled of cannabis, giving the officer probable cause to search the vehicle. During the search, the officer found a pink bag containing a plastic bag of MDMA, $37,000 and numerous documents with Kapri's name on them, the police report said.

The pink bag matched a bag seen in a photo of Kapri that the rapper had posted to his Instagram account. The bag also contained a distinct lighter that also was in the photo, investigators said.

According to the police report, everyone at the scene denied owning the bag, including Kapri, who nevertheless said the money belonged to his business and asked for it back.

Ambrosia Healy and Kevin Young, who represent Kapri at Universal Music Group, didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

Kapri has faced previous legal issues.

In 2023, police in Plantation, Florida arrested Kapri after finding him asleep at the wheel with white powder around his mouth, officials said. Although authorities said the powder initially tested positive for cocaine, a lab test later revealed it was oxycodone, for which Kapri obtained a prescription.

The arrest was a violation of his probation from an unrelated case, which led to him being locked up in Miami for two months.

Kapri was also arrested in 2022 on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was freed on bond with regular drug testing as a condition of his release. Kapri was ordered into drug rehab for 30 days in 2023 after missing a drug test and then testing positive for fentanyl several days later, according to court records.

In January 2021, then-President Donald Trump commuted a three-year federal prison sentence the rapper had for falsifying documents used to buy weapons. Kapri had served about half his sentence.

As Kodak Black, Kapri has sold more than 30 million singles, with massive hits such as “Super Gremlin,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022.

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This story has been updated to correct rapper Kodak Black's arrest stems from November, not December, encounter with police in Florida.

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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.

The group's interim president and CEO, Bryan Fair, appeared in federal court in Montgomery representing the SPLC on charges of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud and false statements to a bank.

A grand jury indictment was filed April 21 by the U.S. Justice Department. The charges are an extraordinary strike against the Alabama-based organization, which works to combat discrimination and racism particularly in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The SPLC has denied wrongdoing. No individuals are charged in the case. The trial is set to begin in October.

The group has drawn criticism from conservatives including FBI Director Kash Patel, especially after it included Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA in a report about “hate and extremism.” Kirk was killed during a Utah college appearance in 2025.

The Justice Department accuses the organization of defrauding donors by using their money to fund the same extremism it says it fights. At least $3 million went to informants affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America and other groups between 2014 and 2023, the indictment says.

Fair has said the payments went to confidential informants to monitor threats of violence from the extremist groups. The information gathered helped save lives, he said, and was frequently shared with the FBI.

“The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law,” Fair said in a statement released after Thursday's hearing. “ Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups."

“The SPLC is no stranger to legal threats by those on the wrong side of history,” Fair continued. “In our 55 years, we have faced and prevailed in numerous fights.”

During Thursday's arraignment, the SPLC's attorney Adde Lowell said that the defense may try to dismiss the charges in the coming weeks on the basis of “vindictive prosecution," echoing supporters who have said that the SPLC is being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration for its civil rights triumphs.

U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson dismissed that idea after the trial, saying that his office is following standard procedure for the case.

“There was nothing vindictive about this prosecution,” Davidson told reporters.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche recently acknowledged that the organization has a history of sharing information with law enforcement after he was challenged for saying the opposite.

“That's well-documented, and there's no dispute there. They aren't charged with any of that conduct,” Blanche said.

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Colonel William Fleming and General Andrew Lewis are two local legends who helped shape Virginia and the nation. Their friendship, military leadership and political impact left a lasting mark on Southwest Virginia and American history.

“They were constantly doing things together, traveling together when they weren’t doing their respective work. And so then eventually, yes, Fleming moves down here and then Lewis moves to join him,” said a local historian.

Andrew Lewis

Lewis, an Irish officer, settled in Salem after receiving a land grant for his service and imprisonment during the French and Indian War. He led Virginia forces at the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant and drove British Governor Lord Dunmore out in 1776, securing Virginia’s self-rule.

“George Washington is the one who campaigned hard, saying no, this was my friend. He fought hard. He is the reason that Virginia was freed. He’s the one who expelled Dunmore,” the historian added.

Salem was founded on land from Lewis’s Richfield estate, which was sold by his family in 1800, leading to the town’s establishment in 1802.

“He is in the heart of the county that he begins… he establishes this county and wants his home to be right here in this land that he’d fallen in love with,” the historian said.

William Fleming

Fleming, a Scottish surgeon, fought alongside Lewis and was wounded three times at Point Pleasant, ending his military career. He then served in politics, including a brief term as Virginia’s third governor, living out his days at Belmont Plantation.

“He wrote in his letters, there was nowhere that he loved living more than back at Belmont, back at our Roanoke Valley today. And so yes, he lived here until the very end,” the historian noted.

The 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant was crucial. Lewis and Fleming fought without the promised support of the British governor, sparking resentment that helped ignite the American Revolution.

“… it’s very important within the revolution because it starts to sow these seeds of resentment against Dunmore. Why wasn’t he there? Why wasn’t he fighting against them as he had promised that he would be?” the historian said.

Lewis and Fleming also worked behind the scenes with founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to secure Virginia’s freedom and lay the foundation for the United States.

“It’s important to remember that these are guys that are fighting for Virginia and who are helping secure Virginia’s freedom. That’s what allows us to have our own self-rule at the same time as all the other colonies to start to form the United States,” the historian concluded.

Want to discover more stories that make Virginia unique? Visit the Patchwork 250 page to explore the full quilt of our region’s history, one patch at a time.

Yankees left fielder Jasson Domínguez left in a cart after crashing into the wall while catching Brandon Nimmo’s drive leading off the first. After the game, the Yankees said Domínguez has a low grade AC sprain of his left shoulder, and will be put on the injured list. Concussion tests thus far were negative.

AL-best New York won its sixth straight series while sending the Rangers to their seventh loss in 10 games.

Yankees scheduled starter Ryan Weathers was scratched because of illness, Paul Blackburn pitched the first and 27-year-old right-hander Brendan Beck allowed two runs, two hits and three walks in three innings-plus of his major league debut.

Brent Headrick (3-0) pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings. Grisham and Cody Bellinger had three hits each.

Max Schuemann made his first start this season at shortstop and doubled in the seventh for his first Yankees hit and RBI.

Texas right fielder Joc Pederson, playing the outfield for the first time since 2023, helped the Yankees get a pair of first-inning triples for the first time since Carlos Beltrán and Chase Headley on April 22, 2015.

Pederson went to the wall along with center fielder Evan Carter for Paul Goldschmidt's leadoff drive in the first off MacKenzie Gore (2-3), and the ball caromed into center. Pederson tried for a backhand diving catch on Bellinger's liner, and the ball bounced to the wall as Goldschmidt scored.

Grisham's fourth-inning popup dropped on the infield grass in front of shortstop Corey Seager after third baseman Josh Jung backed off and, after Bellinger's leadoff walk in the sixth, left fielder Alejandro Osuna broke back on Amed Rosario's routine fly and couldn't recover as the ball fell for a single.

Ryan McMahon walked and Grisham laced on opposite-field double that bounced to the left-center wall for a 4-2 lead. J.C. Escarra, Aaron Judge and Bellinger followed with RBI singles against the bullpen.

Ezequiel Durán had two RBIs, including a third-inning homer. Rangers right-hander Peyton Gray left after he was struck on his pitching hand by McMahon's eighth-inning liner.

Up next

Rangers: RHP Kumar Rocker (1-3, 4.71) starts Friday night at home against the Chicago Cubs

Yankees: LHP Max Fried (4-1, 2.39) starts Friday night's series opener at Milwaukee, which starts RHP Jacob Misiorowski (2-2, 2.84) to the mound.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

But, still, they need to make sure. So health officials in several countries are contact tracing: trying to identify and follow people who may have come in contact with passengers who got sick or died.

Hantaviruses usually spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings. While human cases are rare, small outbreaks have been documented around the world. But the Andes virus implicated in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. And viruses can change.

Scientists are trying to learn more about the virus as fast as they can, including whether it has mutated and how exactly it spreads.

What is contact tracing?

The goal of contact tracing is to alert people who might have been exposed, keep tabs on them in case they come down with symptoms, and prevent them from spreading it to others.

The process isn’t easy because people are social and mobile creatures who spend time with others, visit crowded places and travel.

In the cruise ship outbreak, fewer than a dozen people are thought to have shown any symptoms, and there have been only five confirmed cases, but many more may have been exposed.

Dozens of potentially exposed passengers have already left the ship

About 140 people remain on the cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands, where they will disembark, and none has been reported to be sick.

But authorities are trying to reach the dozens of people who left the ship about two weeks after a passenger died, but before authorities knew a hantavirus was the culprit. They were from at least 12 different countries, including from several states in the U.S. — including Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas, according to infectious disease experts and state public health officials.

Different countries take different approaches

Authorities in St. Helena — the remote, volcanic British territory in the South Atlantic where passengers got off — said they were monitoring a small number of people considered “higher-risk contacts.” They were being told to isolate for 45 days, the St. Helena government said.

British health officials say two people who were passengers aboard the ship but flew home midway through the journey are self-isolating but do not have symptoms. The U.K. Health Security Agency said “a small number” of contacts of the two are also self-isolating but not showing symptoms.

Singaporean health authorities said they were monitoring two men who disembarked at St. Helena and flew to South Africa and then home. The two men, who arrived in Singapore at different times, were being tested for hantavirus and were isolated at the country’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, officials said.

The U.S. government has released few details about its work on any contact tracing.

Texas officials on Thursday said public health workers there have reached the two people who left the ship April 24, who say they are not experiencing symptoms and did not have contact with a sick person while aboard. They promised to monitor themselves with daily temperature checks and contact public health officials at any sign of possible illness, officials said.

Two Canadians who disembarked are in Ontario and have been advised to self-isolate since they returned home, the province’s health minister says.

Scientists are trying to understand the Andes virus better

Apart from tracking people, scientists are also trying to understand the germ. The Andes virus, a member of the hantavirus family found in South America, may be one of the rare hantaviruses that can spread between people. Officials in Argentina believe the first cases may have been contracted on a birdwatching trip in the southern city of Ushuaia.

Argentina’s Health Ministry has yet to dispatch the team, but scientists from the state-funded Malbrán Institute planned to travel to Ushuaia “in the coming days,” the ministry told The Associated Press.

Scientists are analyzing the virus's genetics to see whether it has changed in a way to make it more transmissible.

They are also trying to learn exactly how it spreads, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. They believe people are mainly infectious when they have symptoms, and, if the virus spreads, it may be transmitted through small liquid particles that blow out of an infected person when they talk, cough or sneeze. ___

AP journalists Isabel Debre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Rob Gillies in Toronto; Jill Lawless in London; Suman Naishadham in Madrid; and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.

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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.

The new, 76-team brackets will jam eight extra games — for a total of 12 involving 24 teams — into the front half of the first week of the men's and the women's tournaments. It will turn what’s now known as the First Four into a bigger affair that will now be called the “March Madness Opening Round.”

The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women.

It is the first expansion of the tournaments in 15 years, when they were bumped to 68 teams each.

The NCAA said it will distribute more than $131 million in new revenue to schools that make the tournament. That money will come via expanded TV advertising opportunities for alcohol, the likes of which were previously restricted. It said the value of the rights agreement will increase $50 million each year on average over the course of the six years.

Most of the eight new slots are expected to go to teams from the power conferences that were already commanding the lion's share of entries in the bracket. Two years ago, the Southeastern Conference placed a record 14 teams in the men’s bracket. Last season, the Big Ten had nine.

Keith Gill, the chairman of the Division I men's basketball committee, called the expansion “a nice way to create some access but make sure we have the bracket we all love when we start Thursday at noon.”

The move is a product of the times, which includes massive expansion — the Atlantic Coast Conference, for instance, has grown from nine to 17 teams since 1996 — and the reality that mid-major schools with top-notch players will often see them plucked away by programs with bigger budgets and the ability to pay them through revenue sharing.

Cinderella? There will still be room for those stirring runs in the tournaments, though not a single mid-major advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons.

This is hardly a concern of the decision-makers anymore, who will point to TV ratings that traditionally spell out fans’ preference for the likes of Duke and North Carolina over St. Peter’s and San Diego State, especially once the Sweet 16 starts.

What matters more to the biggest schools is that their teams have a chance to compete in what remains the best postseason in college sports and that they aren't iced out by lower conference champions who earn automatic bids.

“You’ve got some really, really good teams who are going to end up in that 9, 10, 11 (seed) category that I think should be moved into the” 64-team bracket, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last year in discussing how he favored expansion.

Also, the money. The new beer and wine money will add to what the NCAA can distribute in “units” that are earned for placing teams in the bracket and then for every round those teams advance. Last year, that amounted to about $350,000 per unit for the men’s tournament. The Big Ten made nearly $70 million from both tournaments, won by conference members Michigan (men) and UCLA (women).

Leaders in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all acknowledged that smaller programs help make March Madness what it is, all the while steadily expanding their own power in NCAA decision-making. That brings with it the tacit threat of fracturing the single thing the NCAA does best — the basketball tournament.

This move might forestall that. What it isn't expected to do is drastically change the TV deal beyond the advertising.

The current deal for the men's tournament is worth $8.8 billion and runs through 2032. Adding a few extra games between mid-level Power Four teams on Tuesday and Wednesday won't change that much.

One of reason this took as long as it did was the NCAA negotiations with CBS and TNT, which themselves have been in negotiations over their own ownership.

The more drastic option of expanding the tournament to 96 teams or beyond would involve adding an extra week to a tournament that has thrived in part because of the symmetry of a six-round bracket that gets whittled down over three weeks.

That basic shell began in 1985, with only slight tweaks, the latest of which came in 2011 when it was upped to 68.

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AP March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The announcement appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25% tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Still, the U.S. president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.

“A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!” Trump posted. “I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.”

It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.

His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.

Under the original terms of the framework, the U.S. would charge a 15% tax on most goods imported from the EU.

But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10% tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee's decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and other election materials, as well as any electronic copies the Justice Department has made, should be returned because the seizure was improper and unconstitutional.

The Jan. 28 seizure by the FBI targeted the elections hub in Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and includes most of the city of Atlanta. Fulton County has been at the center of unfounded claims by President Donald Trump and his allies that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election.

The Justice Department has said it is investigating “irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County” and identified two laws that might have been violated. One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.

Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said he strongly disagrees with the judge's denial of the county's request to return the election records.

“We will continue, as always, to stand by our election workers and the voters of Fulton County,” he said in an emailed statement. “We intend to vigorously pursue all available legal options.”

A Justice Department spokesperson applauded the ruling and said the agency plans to continue its investigation.

“The seizure in this case was certainly not perfect,” Boulee wrote in his 68-page ruling. But he went on to say that Fulton County did not establish that its rights were callously disregarded “either through the lack of probable cause, omissions in the Affidavit or by the manner of the execution of the seizure.”

The county also failed to show that it needs the documents or will be irreparably harmed if they are not returned, he wrote, noting this is particularly true because the Justice Department has given the county copies of the documents.

Months after the January seizure of ballots and other election materials, the Justice Department in April obtained a grand jury subpoena for the names and personal contact information of Fulton County employees and volunteers involved in the 2020 election. Fulton County filed a motion Monday to quash that subpoena, arguing that it is overly broad and meant to harass the president’s political opponents.

The Trump administration has also taken moves to obtain past election records from other critical swing states. The FBI used a subpoena in March to get records related to an audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County in Arizona. And in April, the Justice Department demanded that Michigan’s Wayne County turn over its 2024 election ballots.

The Justice Department is also fighting numerous states in court for access to voter data that includes sensitive personal information. Election officials, including some Republicans, have said handing over the information would violate state and federal privacy laws.

Democrats have raised concerns that the Trump administration is weaponizing federal law enforcement to pursue the president’s personal grievances and is planning ways to interfere in this year’s midterm elections. The administration has said it is looking into allegations of past problems and seeking to protect future elections.

During a March 27 hearing on Fulton County’s demand that the FBI return its ballots and other materials, lawyers for the county argued that the seizure was improper and unjustified and demonstrated “callous disregard” for the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. They suggested that the Trump administration decided to use a criminal search warrant to obtain the materials because it had grown tired of waiting for the outcome of the civil litigation the Justice Department had filed last year to obtain them.

Justice Department attorneys argued that they took the appropriate steps to get a warrant and then take the documents. They said it is not uncommon for parallel civil and criminal investigations to be going on at the same time.

The judge agreed that the affidavit was “defective in some respects” and that some of the statements included in it were “troubling.” But he noted that the FBI agent who wrote it also included “facts that both hurt and helped him.” He concluded that the document's shortcomings don't amount to callous disregard.

He also agreed that the government can pursue civil and criminal proceedings on the same matter and said the timeline of the investigation weighs against the county's theory that the Justice Department “created an ‘ongoing investigation’ to sidestep procedural hurdles” in civil cases.=

Anunoby will be listed as questionable to play in Game 3 at Philadelphia on Friday, a person with knowledge of the details told The Associated Press on Thursday. Anunoby will be considered day to day.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because there had been no announcement about Anunoby. His status was first reported by ESPN.

Anunoby was having another strong game Wednesday before appearing to suffer a leg injury and motioning to come out of the game. He went to the locker room area and did not return to the bench before the end of the Knicks' 108-102 victory that gave them a 2-0 lead.

Anunoby scored 24 points and is averaging 21.4 per game in the postseason while shooting 61.9% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range.

The 6-foot-7 Anunoby, also considered the Knicks' top defender, injured his hamstring two years ago in the second round as the Knicks were taking a 2-0 lead over Indiana. He missed the next four games and played just a few minutes in Game 7 as the Pacers rallied to win the series.

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

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The department told The Associated Press on Thursday that the revocations would begin Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more. That would apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures supplied to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The revocation program, plans for which were first reported by the AP in February, soon will be greatly expanded to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support — the threshold set by a little-enforced 1996 law, the State Department said.

It was not clear on Thursday how many passport holders owe more than $2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from state agencies that track the figures, but it could encompass many more thousands of people, officials said.

Until this week, only those who applied to renew their passports were subject to the penalty. Under the new policy, HHS will inform the State Department of all past-due payments of more than $2,500 and parents in that group with passports will have their documents revoked, the department said.

“We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar said. “Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport.”

Since the AP reported the expansion of the program on Feb. 10, the department said it had “seen data that hundreds of parents took action and resolved their arrears with state authorities since news broke that the State Department would start proactively revoking passports.”

“While we can’t confirm the causation in all of those cases, we are taking this action precisely to impel these parents to do the right thing by their children and by U.S. law,” the department said.

Even before the policy was expanded, the department said the program had been a “powerful tool” to get parents to pay what they owed. It said that since it began in earnest in 1998, states had collected some $657 million in arrears, including more than $156 million in over 24,000 individual lump-sum payments over the past five years.

Those whose passports are revoked under the program will be notified that they will not be able to use their documents for travel and will have to apply for a new passport once their arrears are confirmed as paid.

A passport holder who is abroad at the time of revocation will need to visit a U.S. embassy or consulate to obtain an emergency travel document that allows them to return to the United States.

Incoming drones were destroyed in over 20 Russian regions, including Moscow, according to the Defense Ministry, in Ukraine’s second-biggest aerial attack since Russia’s all-out invasion more than four years ago. The largest was in March when it launched 389 drones.

Dozens more Ukrainian drones were launched during daylight hours Thursday, the ministry said, including some heading again toward Moscow. Nearly 100 flights in and out of the Russian capital's three main airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo — were delayed or canceled by midday, the Moskva news agency reported.

The attacks came ahead of Russia’s most important secular holiday on May 9, Victory Day, which marks the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Russian authorities have declared a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine for Friday and Saturday.

Ukraine had responded with its own suspension of hostilities from midnight Tuesday. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said while Ukraine had been ready to “ensure complete silence,” Moscow disregarded the goodwill gesture and launched fresh attacks.

“They want Ukraine’s permission to hold their parade — so they can safely take to the square for an hour once a year, and then go back to killing our people and waging war,” Zelenskyy said in his regular evening video address Thursday.

The Ukrainian leader said Thursday on X that Russia’s attacks have been ceaseless, with drones, missiles, artillery shelling and glide bombs hitting civilian areas of Ukraine, including the power grid and rail network.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, a drone strike wounded nine people, including three children, local officials said.

Tension has grown as Russia’s Victory Day celebrations approach and U.S.-led peace efforts gain no traction. Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was in the United States on Thursday and preparing to meet with Trump administration representatives, according to Zelenskyy.

All mobile internet access and text messaging services will be shut down in the Russian capital on May 9, state media reported Thursday, citing the country’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.

A traditional parade in Moscow won’t feature the usual tanks, missiles and other military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades.

The Russian Defense Ministry cited the “current operational situation” as a reason for excluding military equipment.

Russian authorities say they are concerned about possible Ukrainian attacks, as Kyiv has expanded its long-range drone and missile capabilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that additional security measures were being taken due to the “rather complex operational situation.”

The measures being taken “are necessary to ensure the safety of citizens, which is an absolute priority,” Peskov told reporters.

Among the foreign dignitaries expected to attend the Victory Day ceremonies on Saturday are Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, and Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was to meet with Putin and lay flowers at the tomb of the unknown soldier but stay away from the parade.

Zelenskyy said some countries who planned to send representatives to Moscow for May 9 had contacted Ukraine about their plans to visit.

“An odd desire at a time like this. We do not recommend it,” Zelenskyy said late Thursday.

Russia repeated its recent warnings to Ukraine that it would take decisive action — including a potential mass strike on Kyiv — if Ukrainian attacks disrupt the occasion.

“We have strengthened our focus on the possibility of retaliatory measures,” presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists Thursday.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry advised foreign embassies and international organizations located in Kyiv to evacuate their offices in case such a strike did take place.

Ukraine’s air defense shot down 92 of the 102 drones Russia launched overnight, the military said.

Russia maintains a significant advantage in drone numbers, regularly deploying hundreds in a single attack.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The Paris public prosecutor's office said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into X on charges including complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images and unlawfully collecting personal data. It's also investigating charges of disseminating non-consensual images or other content and denial of crimes against humanity.

X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.

The investigation comes less than three weeks after Musk and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — were summoned for “voluntary interviews" to discuss the allegations. They did not show up, but French authorities said this wouldn't hinder the investigation.

Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.

It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading sexual abuse images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.

Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.

Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors said.

The agency released a two-page update of its investigation into the attack on Buford's Backyard Beer Garden in the early morning hours of March 1 that ended when gunman, Ndiaga Diagne, was killed by police.

The shooting happened after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran. Diagne was wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design and the words “Property of Allah."

Despite lacking direct evidence of a motive for the shooting, investigators said Diagne was likely triggered into violent behavior by the war against Iran, “culminating in a violent, impulsive attack" at the bar, the report said.

Investigators determined Diagne admired Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been killed. His affinity for Iran and its former leader were likely factors in the attack Diagne perpetrated on his own, investigators said.

“The investigation to date indicates Diagne was a lone actor,” the report said. He had never been the subject of an FBI investigation prior to the shooting.

Diagne, 53, was born in Senegal. He first entered the U.S. in 2000 on a B-2 tourist visa and became a lawful permanent resident six years later after marrying a U.S. citizen, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“There is no evidence at this time that he was associated with a Foreign Terrorist Organization or that he received any direction, funding, or operational support for his attack,” the report said.

The bar is located in the city's popular hub of bars and nightclubs. Police said the gunman drove past the bar before circling back and firing the first shots from his SUV at people on the sidewalk and inside. He then parked, got out with a rifle and began shooting at people walking along the street before officers rushed to the intersection and shot him.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis has said officers arrived within 56 seconds of the first 911 call and killed the shooter after he fired at police.

Killed in the attack were 21-year-old Savitha Shan, 19-year-old Ryder Harrington and 30-year-old Jorge Pederson.

The FBI said the investigation into the attack remains open.

According to the department, the call came in just after 9 p.m. after the department had responded to a motor vehicle crash.

The cat became trapped under a garage door where a gap existed between the door and the floor. Members of Rescue 5 quickly collaborated to secure the cat and prevent further injury, working to open the door and safely extract the cat.

Once free, officials say, the cat ran back home.

The Colombian singer shared a minute-long teaser clip on Thursday of a new song, writing on social media, “From Maracaná Stadium, here is “Dai Dai,” the FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026." She also included a mention of Afrobeats star Burna Boy.

In the video short, Shakira appears on the field of Maracaná Stadium, joined by dancers. “Here in this place / You belong,” she sings in English, a male voice harmonizing with her. “What broke you once / Made you strong.”

According to her post, the full song will arrive May 14.

The FIFA tournament will kick off on June 11 with Mexico taking on South Africa at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The final is scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City.

Shakira is no stranger to World Cup anthems. Her song “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” was the official song of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa.

“Dai Dai” is not to be confused with Coca-Cola’s official anthem for the FIFA World Cup 2026, a reimagination of Van Halen’s “Jump” that features Colombian singer J Balvin, drummer Travis Barker, pop/R&B singer Amber Mark and guitarist Steve Vai.

Mark’s rich, crystalline voice is the first heard on the track; she sings the song’s original English lyrics. Vai transforms its iconic guitar; Barker amplifies its percussion.

The greatest difference is found in Balvin’s contributions. He wrote a new verse — in Spanish — atop production courtesy of his collaborator L.E.X.V.Z, a sound he described to the Associated Press in March as “Brazilian funk with hard strings, kind of like hip-hop.”

“‘Jump’ is not a fútbol song,” he said of the original, using the Spanish word for soccer. “So that’s why I had to put the Latin love and passion for fútbol (in the lyrics).”

That's certainly something Shakira knows a thing or two about.

Peter Wai and Bill Yuen, both dual Chinese and British nationals, posed as legitimate police or intelligence officers to conduct surveillance and gather information about Hong Kong dissidents and pro-democracy supporters, prosecutors said.

A jury in the Central Criminal Court in London found them guilty on charges they violated the National Security Act by assisting a foreign spy service. Wai was also convicted of misconduct in a public office.

“These convictions send a clear message that transnational repression, foreign interference, unauthorized surveillance, and attempts to operate outside the law will not be tolerated on British soil," said Bethan David, head of counterterrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service. “This conduct was deliberate, coordinated and carried out with full knowledge of who it would benefit.”

Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang was summoned to the British Foreign Office after the convictions.

“The activities carried out by these men, on behalf of China, are an infringement of our sovereignty and will never be tolerated," Security Minister Dan Jarvis said in a statement. “We will continue to hold China to account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people in our country at risk.”

Hong Kong's government said it wasn't a party to the case, but firmly opposed “unfounded allegations” against it or the London trade office.

Wai, 40, worked as a U.K. Border Force officer and was a special City of London constable and ran a private security company.

Yuen, 65, was formerly a superintendent in the Hong Kong Police employed in London by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, the official overseas representative of Hong Kong’s government.

Hong Kong authorities had offered up to nearly 100,000 pounds ($136,000) for the capture of, or information about, pro-democracy supporters

Yuen went beyond his job description as office manager and helped gather intelligence on the locations of and activities of Hong Kong activists and politicians who had moved to the U.K. in recent years after authorities introduced a wide-ranging national security law in the Asian financial hub, prosecutors said.

Wai, who was paid from a trade office account, was convicted of misconduct for misusing police computer systems while off duty to gather the information, prosecutors said.

Phone messages showed the two conducted surveillance of former Hong Kong lawmaker Nathan Law and activists they referred to as “cockroaches”

Yuen told Wai to pay special attention to members of Parliament or government employees and in 2023 provided the name of prominent politicians, including Conservative lawmaker Iain Duncan Smith, a co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

The plot was discovered after counterterror police, conducting their own surveillance, disrupted an operation involving nine people as they tried to break into the northern England home of a woman from Hong Kong in May 2024, police said.

The woman, Monica Kwong, had been accused by her former employer, Beijing-based Australian businesswoman Tina Zou, of committing a 16 million pound ($21.8 million) fraud. Kwong claimed it was a setup.

The group arrested at Kwong's home in West Yorkshire included Zou, Wai, and two other retired Hong Kong police officers. Yuen, who was in contact with the group, was arrested in London.

Investigators then began piecing together communications evidence to show Wai was assigned by Yuen to spy for Hong Kong and China.

The two men were charged along with Matthew Trickett, a U.K. immigration enforcement officer, who had also been arrested at Kwong's home. He was later found dead in a suspected suicide. Zou was never charged.

The panel could not reach verdicts on charges that the men committed foreign interference by breaking into Kwong's home.

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Associated Press reporter Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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The age of Peter Wai has been corrected. He is 40 not 38.

Leaders from various religious groups met last week with representatives from companies including Anthropic and OpenAI for the inaugural “Faith-AI Covenant” roundtable in New York to discuss how best to infuse morality and ethics into the fast-developing technology. It was organized by the Geneva-based Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities, which seeks to take on issues such as extremism, radicalization and human trafficking. The roundtable is expected to be the first of several around the globe, including in Beijing, Nairobi and Abu Dhabi.

Tech executives need to recognize their power — and their responsibility — to make the right decisions, said Baroness Joanna Shields, a key partner in the initiative. She worked as a tech executive with stints at Google and Facebook before pivoting to British politics.

“Regulation can’t keep up with this," she said. “This dialogue, this direct connection is so important because the people who are building this understand the power and capabilities of what they’re building and they want to do it right — most of them.”

The goal of this initiative, according to Shields, is an eventual “set of norms or principles” informed by different groups and faiths, from Christians to Sikhs to Buddhists, that companies will abide by.

Challenges lie ahead

Present at the meeting were a variety of faith groups, including representatives from the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the Baha’i International Community, The Sikh Coalition, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.

Before these companies initiated outreach, some traditions had issued their own ethical guidance on using AI. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given a qualified approval of the technology in its handbook. “AI cannot replace the gift of divine inspiration or the individual work required to receive it. However, AI can be a useful tool to enhance learning and teaching,” it reads.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., passed a resolution in 2023: “We must proactively engage and shape these emerging technologies rather than simply respond to the challenges of AI and other emerging technologies after they have already affected our churches and communities."

One challenge in creating a list of common principles is that global faiths, despite common ground, differ in their values and needs. “Religious communities see priorities differently,” said Rabbi Diana Gerson, a roundtable participant and the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

The partnership highlights a growing coalition between faith and tech, born out of an effort to create moral AI — a contested concept which begs questions about whether that is possible and what it means.

“We want Claude to do what a deeply and skillfully ethical person would do in Claude’s position,” Anthropic states in the public “Claude Constitution” written for its chatbot. That constitution was made with the help of a host of religious and ethics leaders.

In this burgeoning alliance, Anthropic has been the most assertive, at least publicly, in their efforts to court faith leaders. The move follows a public dispute earlier this year with the Pentagon over military use of artificial intelligence after Anthropic said it would restrict its technology from being used to develop autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of Americans.

“There’s some aspect of PR to it. The slogan was ‘Move fast and break things.’ And they broke too many things and too many people,” said Brian Boyd, the U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute. “There’s both a moral obligation on the part of the companies that they’re belatedly recognizing, as well as I think, for some members of the companies, an earnest questioning.”

Some skepticism emerges

But other advocates for AI regulation and safety aren’t so sure these efforts are genuine.

“At best it’s a distraction. At worst it’s diverting attention from things that really matter,” said Rumman Chowdhury, the CEO of the nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the U.S. science envoy for AI under the Biden administration.

Chowdhury says she’s not inclined to believe religion is the best place to help answer questions surrounding AI and ethics, but thinks she understands why companies are increasingly turning to it.

“I think a very naive take that Silicon Valley has had for a couple of years related to generative AI was that we could arrive at some sort of universal principles of ethics,” she said. “They have very quickly realized that that’s just not true. That’s not real. So now they’re looking at maybe religion as a way of dealing with the ambiguity of ethically gray situations.”

It’s unclear to what extent these notoriously opaque companies are translating what they hear from faith leaders into action — and what that action might look like. But some critics fear the conversation about creating ethical versions of the technology distract from broader conversations about AI and its role in society.

“Under the guise of, ‘We’re gonna build all this stuff. That’s a given. And when we do build these things in these ways, how do we make sure that the end result is maybe good,’” said Dylan Baker, the lead research engineer at the Distributed AI Research Institute. “It’s like, ’Wait, wait, wait. We need to question whether we want to be building these things at all."

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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.

Supporters of President William Ruto, who is seeking a second term in elections next year, use the phrase to describe the political violence that authorities will not tolerate. Opposition figures use it to condemn what they see as Ruto’s aggressive — and underhanded — campaign tactics.

At times it can seem as if goonism is up against goonism, an unwelcome turn of events in this East African nation where the contest for political power is becoming ever more vigorous and tinged with a sense of danger.

Many Kenyans doubt Ruto's commitment to the religious values he espoused before taking power in 2022.

Ruto vowed to raise a kind of born-again Christian nation, fearful of God and at peace with itself.

But as president, he appears to have benefited from the lawlessness that is now a national scourge as religious and political leaders warn that political violence threatens democratic gains. His critics charge that such chaos rises in part from Ruto’s uncompromising style of leadership.

“Goons, goons, goons,” yelled preacher Wilfred Lai during a recent Sunday sermon in which he lamented what had befallen Kenya. “Everyone who wants to rule this country by that kind of thing, I speak as a prophet of God: You shall fall.”

He added: “You can’t use goons and you are telling us that you are taking us into a better place. You are a liar and the truth is not in you.”

Although Lai, the pastor of a megachurch in the coastal city of Mombasa, didn't mention Ruto by name, many Kenyans suspect he had the president in mind when he gave that sermon, parts of which were shared online.

Some former supporters say Ruto has betrayed Christian values

Lai is among evangelical preachers who embraced Ruto when he was vice president and seeking to replace President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose backing he didn't have. At the time, Ruto was widely seen as a pious politician.

Ruto said he was fighting for the downtrodden, for those whose manual labor put food on the table. The leader — nicknamed “Nabii,” Kiswahili for “God’s prophet” — said he had risen so high in politics by the grace of God, unlike rivals he depicted as the entitled sons of political dynasties. Ruto won a tight race.

For many of his supporters, however, Ruto changed as soon as he won the presidency.

Although he continued to go to church on Sundays, some noticed that he stopped carrying the Bible and no longer quoted it regularly. His decision to demolish a chapel within the compound of the statehouse — to be replaced by a modern facility — was criticized by some as self-aggrandizing. Others saw betrayal in Ruto’s aggressive income tax measures months after his inauguration.

Thousands of young people took to the streets of Nairobi, the capital, forcing authorities to withdraw some tax proposals but not quite cooling popular anger. Ruto later faced more protests triggered by the death in police custody of a blogger.

Although the protests failed to remove Ruto, they left him wounded and determined to show strength. While his position remains precarious ahead of next year’s vote, some of his adversaries admit he is cunning and still hard to defeat.

After protesters stormed the parliamentary building in 2024, Ruto vowed that such a thing would never happen again. Last year, facing protesters who held placards saying “Ruto must go,” the president urged the police to “break” the limbs of protesters and said he was going nowhere.

“If we go this route, we will not have a country,” Ruto said in a televised address. “The country belongs to all of us. And if there’s no country for William Ruto, there’s no country for you.”

Some saw that as a veiled threat, and some opposition figures suspect the gangs materializing at opposition events are sponsored by the state.

“We must say no, collectively, to the new specter, the new norm, of goonism,” Kalonzo Musyoka, a prominent opposition figure, told a local broadcaster. “The goons are very well-known. So for anybody to pretend that it is the work of united opposition, he really must be ashamed, even before God, that this is state-sponsored.”

Political violence is on the rise

Men armed with machetes and guns can break up political rallies or prevent them from commencing. While opposition figures accuse authorities of fomenting violence, Interior Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently warned goons that “since the politician won’t be with you when you commit the crime, we’ll come for you.”

Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, Ruto's ally, said last month that “the culture of goonism has no place in a democratic society.”

In a notable event last month, an opposition lawmaker from western Kenya was manhandled in a restaurant by men questioning his political views. Sen. Godfrey Osotsi’s injuries required hospitalization. The attack sparked protests in his home area and was condemned by religious leaders.

Ruto hasn't given up on church leaders — whose influence cuts across social networks — in his quest to retain power. His choice of where to pray on a given Sunday may be unpredictable. Sometimes church leaders, from Methodist to Pentecostal pastors, congregate near him at the statehouse.

Other religious leaders are critical, provoked most recently by insults traded between Ruto and his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, who fell out with the president, was impeached and now is the leader of the Wantam movement to make Ruto a one-term president.

Their exchanges can be venomous.

In March, after Gachagua called Ruto a thief who would steal a funeral home, the president called Gachagua a “cold-blooded pig” who stole from his brother.

Days later, the head of the local conference of Catholic primates, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia, rebuked Ruto and Gachagua at a gathering of bishops. “Disagreement is OK, but insulting each other in public is a disgrace,” Muhatia said. “Give us a break.”

Expert warns that election could turn ‘very bloody'

Kenyan elections are often fractious affairs. There was a violent gang, known as Mungiki, that played a role in deadly violence that followed the 2007 election.

There is a pervasive sense this time that more is at stake, with a president who won’t back down. Some worry that Ruto is verging on authoritarianism, unlike his recent predecessors.

Kenyatta, Kenya’s fourth president, is a jolly man who tolerated internal opposition from Ruto while they served together. Mwai Kibaki, whom Kenyatta replaced, was a gentleman who once called a news conference to deny he had a second wife.

Kenya's current president is different, and goonism is “a product of gangster theology” of which Ruto is the high priest, said Christine Mungai, an independent writer based in Nairobi.

Ruto has mastered “how to perform public piety” while simultaneously working “to make life harder for everyone,” she said.

It isn't clear who Ruto's main election opponent will be. It could be Musyoka or Fred Matiang’i, a former cabinet secretary for the interior. While Gachagua is likely ineligible to seek the presidency after his impeachment, his support will be crucial for the opposition.

If Ruto and opposition figures don't tone down the rhetoric “the election is going to be very bloody,” said Karuti Kanyinga, a Kenyan development scholar who is a visiting professor at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. “Everyone will have their own protection gangs.”

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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.

This week, however, the company said that revenue dropped nearly 10% in its most recent quarter and sales of major appliances in North America tumbled 7%.

The company that also produces KitchenAid and Maytag products said that the Iran war has led to a “recession-level industry decline" that has shaken consumer confidence.

Whirlpool announced a 10% price hike in April, its largest in a decade, and said that a separate 4% price increase will happen in July to address “multiyear inflationary cost pressures.”

The company had absorbed the higher costs, choosing not to pass them on to customers, but that must change after the company posted a first quarter loss of $82 million, reversing last year's gains.

CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday that the North American slide in sales has a precedent.

“This level of industry decline is similar to what we have observed during the global financial crisis and even higher than during other recessionary periods,” he said during a conference call.

Whirlpool said that its performance has been impacted by the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down Trump's emergency tariffs. Rival appliance makers are seeking refunds to reduce the impact of those tariffs, disrupting pricing in the industry further.

The Benton Harbor, Michigan, company estimated that the tariff impact on its competitors was about 10% to 15%, while the impact on its business was around 5%, according to details in its earnings presentation.

But with consumers already worried about high grocery prices and escalating gas prices, many are holding off on big-ticket purchases like major appliances and instead trying to make due with what they already have.

“People are looking at the price of replacing appliances and realizing it’s not something they want to deal with right now,” Mark Stevenson, managing director and product designer at Stove Shield, said in a statement. “Instead, they’re asking how to avoid the damage in the first place.”

Whirlpool also announced that it is slashing its full-year earnings forecast to a range of $3 to $3.50 per share, from its prior outlook of $6 per share. It’s also suspending its dividend while it looks to reduce its debt this year.

Shares tumbled more than 12% Thursday.

The Roanoke County Economic Development staff promoted National Small Business Week 2026 within the county and partnered up with Basil’s Farm Market & Gifts and the Greater Roanoke Small Business Development Center to highlight local small businesses.

“Small businesses are really the fabric of Roanoke County and all locality is across the country,” Alex Jones, Assistant Director of Economic Development at Roanoke County. “So these are your neighbors, the small businesses that are the glue that hold your community together.”

Owner Whitney Scott has been running Basil’s since 2023.

They’ve got everything that a farmer’s market does, and by sourcing all of their goods locally, they are supporting local farmers and local agriculture.

“We’ve got some great farmers markets in the area, but for people having one day a week sometimes isn’t enough,” Scott said. “So being able to have it in one place is really important.”

Ry’s Pies ‘N Cobblers was also in attendance.

Based out of the Lynchburg Community Market, Owner Delilah White bases her pies off of her grandma’s 99-year-old recipe, with everything is made out of scratch.

“We’re doing really unique things, holding down legacies and trying to make sure that what our families, our grandmothers, our mothers did is still preserved to this day to be able to share with our community members,” White said.

Comey was charged in a two-count indictment last week with “knowingly and willfully" communicating a threat against Trump by posting an Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47.”

Prosecutors allege the photo constituted a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Comey has said he assumed the seashell arrangement, which he says he found on a beach, reflected a political message — not a call to violence — and that he removed the post once he saw that some people were interpreting it as a threat.

He is currently set to appear Monday in a federal court in Greenville, North Carolina, but his lawyers urged a judge on Thursday to cancel that appearance. They noted that he had surrendered and appeared before a judge in Virginia, where he lives, and that the Justice Department has consented to their request.

The case is the second against Comey, a longtime perceived adversary of the Republican president, brought by Trump's Justice Department. An earlier unrelated prosecution accusing Comey of making a false statement to Congress was dismissed by a judge who concluded that the prosecutor who filed the case was illegally appointed.

Legal experts have questioned whether the Justice Department can meet the high legal standard of proving that Comey intended his Instagram post to be a threat. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said investigators have evidence beyond just the post itself. He has not elaborated.

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”

As of Thursday, May 7, the average price for regular gasoline in Virginia is $4.326 per gallon, according to AAA. Premium is averaging $5.150 per gallon, while diesel sits at $5.620.

Closer to home, AAA says drivers in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are paying the most for gas in Southwest Virginia.

The average price for regular gasoline in those areas is about $4.25 per gallon.

There are still some deals if you know where to look.

According to GasBuddy:

• The lowest price for regular gas in the Roanoke area is $3.93 per gallon at the Walmart on Dale Avenue
• Walmart on Plantation Road is offering mid-grade (super) gas for $4.14 per gallon
• Sam’s Club on Towne Square Boulevard has premium gas for $4.29 per gallon (membership required)

In Roanoke, gas prices have been trending upward in recent weeks.

The average price for regular gas is now around $4.19 per gallon—up more than 20 cents in the past week, according to AAA. Prices are also higher than they were a month ago and significantly above this time last year.

With prices fluctuating, experts say it pays to shop around before filling up. Count on 10 News to bring you the latest prices at the pump every morning.

To find out where the lowest fuel prices are near you, visit GasBuddy’s website.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline, has spiked and swung rapidly. That’s because the conflict has caused deep supply chain disruptions and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.

Collins first confirmed the tremor to WCSH-TV in Maine on Wednesday after facing questions about her health from appearances in recent videos, including her campaign announcement video.

The condition causes trembling in Collins' hands, head and voice, and she said she has had it for the entirety of her nearly three-decade Senate career. It affects millions of Americans over the age of 40 and “does not interfere” with work, Collins said in a Thursday statement to The Associated Press. She said it is not a neurodegenerative condition.

“The tremor is occasionally inconvenient, and sometimes the subject of cruel comments online, but it does not hinder my ability to work and, as I said, is something that I have lived with for decades,” the statement said.

Health issues and candidates' ages have drawn increased scrutiny in high-profile elections following Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection in 2024 at age 81. Those questions have only lingered with Republican President Donald Trump, who's 79 and in recent months has been seen with bruising on the back of his hand, sometimes concealed with makeup. The White House acknowledged last year that Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.

Collins is up for reelection in a seat Democrats need to flip to have a chance to take back the Senate. Her likely opponent is Democrat Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign last week. Age has been an issue in the contest, with Collins, 73, and Mills, 78, more than three decades older than Platner, 41.

Platner acknowledged early in his campaign his own health problems. He has spoken openly about chronic pain in his shoulder and knees stemming from combat service, and he has said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving at war. Platner has said he has a 100% disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but continues to work as an oyster farmer.

“There are a lot of disabled combat veterans, or just disabled vets, at 100%, who still work,” Platner told WCSH last year. “It’s a very normal thing.”

Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and said in her statement that she has had the condition for all of that time. Over the years, the condition has been noticeable in Collins’ debates and frequent public appearances.

As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins has been at the forefront of the chamber’s many spending disputes this Congress, often leading the floor debate and providing the GOP’s closing arguments. She frequently engages with reporters in the hallways. Her streak of never missing a Senate vote is up to 9,966 and stands as the second-longest consecutive voting streak in the chamber’s history.

Tremors happen when nerves aren’t properly communicating with certain muscles. Essential tremor, sometimes called benign essential tremor, is one of the most common movement disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The risk of developing it increases as people get older, but at least half of cases are inherited, meaning the tremor runs in the family, and those tend to begin at younger ages. It almost always involves shaky or trembling hands but also can affect the head, voice or lower limbs.

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Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP's coverage of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins at https://apnews.com/hub/susan-collins.

The Pentagon evaluates wind energy projects during the Federal Aviation Administration review process. But in recent weeks, it has stopped sending any projects back to the FAA, grinding the process to a halt, the American Clean Power industry association said.

In a statement Thursday, the Pentagon said its siting clearinghouse is actively evaluating land-based wind energy projects to ensure they do not impair national security or military operations, in accordance with statutory and regulatory requirements — a process that involves complex, time-consuming interagency coordination.

However, Jason Grumet, CEO of ACP, said there has never been anything remotely comparable to a backlog of this size or a near-systemwide halt in transmittals back to FAA. Calling it a “de facto moratorium” on new land-based wind energy development, he said if the projects remain stalled, it would dramatically obstruct the industry at a time when the power is needed to meet skyrocketing demand and help lower utility bills.

More than 250 projects are pending in over 30 states, totaling at least 30 gigawatts of energy that could power millions of homes if the wind farms are built, ACP said. Wind power is also a climate change solution, as it generates electricity cleanly without emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases.

President Donald Trump has frequently talked about his hatred of wind power and calls turbines ugly. When he returned to office, he ordered a temporary halt to leasing and permitting for wind energy projects. A federal judge struck down that order blocking wind energy development. Trump is particularly hostile toward offshore wind, and the administration recently started buying back leases to stop offshore wind development.

ACP wrote to the Pentagon in March to express its concerns over the scope and duration of delays for land-based wind energy projects. In response, Pentagon official Robert Thompson wrote on April 8 that the department is actively working to ensure wind projects' compatibility with the national security of the United States, that its role in evaluating energy development proposals, particularly wind turbines, is inherently complex and time-consuming and further review will be conducted “as soon as feasible.”

Thompson, the department's principal deputy assistant secretary for energy, installations and the environment, also said there has been delay due to the government shutdown in the fall.

“The department intends to complete review of all companies’ proposals efficiently without compromising the integrity of the review,” Thompson's letter states.

A separate letter to a wind energy developer, dated April 9, makes similar points.

Before a wind farm is built, the FAA conducts a regulatory review to determine whether there are any hazards to air navigation, since turbines exceed 200 feet. The FAA works with defense officials to evaluate whether these structures could pose a national security risk or interfere with radar. Wind developers and defense officials frequently negotiate mitigation agreements to address any concerns.

Wind farms are an attractive option for some farmers and ranchers, who earn money by leasing a portion of their land while continuing their agricultural operations. Top states for wind energy voted for Trump in 2024: Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won Illinois, another windy state.

About 50 of the pending projects are in Texas.

Baringa, the global consultancy firm, said their clients are also saying things are stuck, with projects at different parts of the approval journey, and nothing is being signed. Many need to begin construction by a July 4 deadline to qualify for expiring clean energy tax credits, but they cannot do this without these signatures, said Tom Harper, partner at Baringa. And most are at the late stages of development, with considerable time and resources spent on them, he added.

Wind developers first noticed issues last summer when agreements they had already signed to mitigate any potential adverse impacts were not being countersigned by the Pentagon, despite this previously being routine, ACP said.

The situation escalated in recent weeks— the Pentagon stopped issuing new draft mitigation agreements in February even after negotiations had concluded, then in April canceled meetings to work on these agreements, the association said. Last week, even routine processing for projects that did not require mitigation measures stopped, ACP said.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell said he expected Boyd to miss about six weeks.

“It's kind of the minor meniscus surgery so we know he's going to miss a month, six weeks,” Counsell said ahead of his team's game against the Cincinnati Reds. “Probably closer to six weeks with getting it ramped back up. That's what we're hopeful for. Obviously, we'll see how it all goes and I think the important thing is how much time do we miss throwing. That's probably the biggest thing right here. The knee is going to recover pretty quickly, but how much throwing down time do we have to take?”

Boyd, 35, injured the knee on Wednesday. The left-hander joins starters Cade Horton, Justin Steele and Jordan Wicks on the injured list. Horton (elbow) is out for the season while Steele (elbow) is not expected back until the second half.

Counsell said he had yet to decide how to fill the the scheduled start for Boyd (2-1, 6.00 ERA) on Friday at the Texas Rangers. Javier Assad and Ben Brown are both potential options to enter the rotation.

“We're just trying to think about the innings puzzle moving forward here," Counsell said. "And then you're also just trying to consider what's next. You have to play that game, unfortunately. You always have to play that game: What do we do if something else happens? We just have to make sure we're covered there. ... I don't think we have anybody completely stretched out as a starter right now. So that's what I'm talking about, the puzzle. We're just going to have to put that together. We'll just see what we get there on that day and what that means.”

The Cubs recalled reliever Trent Thornton from Triple-A Iowa on Wednesday and made another bullpen swap Thursday, recalling Gavin Hollowell and designating Corbin Martin for assignment.

Martin allowed three runs in the ninth inning Wednesday night as the Cubs blew a 4-2 lead before coming back to beat the Reds 7-6 on a walk-off walk in the 10th — their third straight walk-off win, 14th straight win at home and eighth straight overall. Martin had a 10.80 ERA in seven appearances.

Thornton pitched a scoreless 10th to pick up the win in his debut with the Cubs.

Hollowell, 28, had a 2.25 ERA in six appearances at Iowa.

The Cubs close out a four-game series with the Reds on Thursday, with Shota Imanaga (3-2, 2.40) facing Rhett Lowder (3-2, 5.09).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

As part of our Young Patriot campaign, we’re inviting you to submit videos of your child reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

One of our latest submissions comes from Donna Y. of Salem, who shared a sweet video of her granddaughter proudly saying the pledge at just 3 years old.

Now, we want to see yours! Whether it’s your child at home, a classroom full of students, or even an entire school—we’re looking for videos to feature on air every day leading up to the Fourth of July.

To submit, just record your video and upload it using Pin It and your child could be featured on 10 News!

Israel meanwhile said it killed three Hezbollah militants in a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut the day before.

Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya's 32-year-old son, Azzam, was wounded by a strike in Gaza City on Wednesday that killed another person and wounded several others. The Israeli military has not commented on the strike. The older al-Hayya is based abroad.

Israel has continued to carry out regular strikes against what it says are militant targets — also killing civilians — since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted major military operations in October. That agreement also led to the release of the remaining hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.

Key stipulations of the agreement remain unmet, including the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international stabilization force and Israel's withdrawal from the half of the territory its troops still control. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violations.

Israel has killed several Hamas leaders and their relatives

Hamas accused Israel of trying to pressure negotiators through targeted killings. It was not clear if the younger al-Hayya was the target of the strike.

In comments to Al Jazeera after his son was wounded, Al-Hayya said that if his son was targeted, “it would be an honor to me, to him, and to all Palestinians.”

When asked about disarming, al-Hayya said Hamas would be ready to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire agreement only after Israel fulfills the first phase, which includes a cessation of hostilities and a surge in humanitarian aid.

Israeli strikes have killed several top Hamas leaders and their family members over the years. Another son of al-Hayya, Hammam, was killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar in September.

Al-Hayya's daughter, Tasnim, speaking at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, said her father's hand would not be forced by the deaths of his children.

“We are like all our people. Everyone has suffered and everyone has sacrificed. We are one of them,” she said.

Palestinians still struggle despite shaky ceasefire

An Israeli strike on Thursday killed three Hamas-affiliated security forces at a guard post, according to Shifa Hospital. A fourth security officer was critically wounded, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command center.

More than 72,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas' 2023 attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Palestinians in Gaza are still contending with myriad daily struggles, from lack of water to rodent infestations in sprawling tent camps.

Relatives of three people killed Wednesday in a separate Israeli strike on Gaza gathered in the courtyard of Shifa Hospital on Thursday to say their final goodbyes, embracing as they wept.

The family members had just moved out of a school where they were sheltering and were setting up new tents when they were struck. A man, his son and his nephew were killed, according to a relative, Yahiya Kishko.

A rare strike on Beirut

In Lebanon, the Israeli military said it had killed Ahmed Balout, who it identified as a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, along with two other militants. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Wednesday's strike occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence but which is also home to many civilians. It was the first time Israel had struck the area since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was announced on April 17. Fighting has continued in southern Lebanon.

Israel says it has killed more than 85 Hezbollah militants and struck 180 sites used by the group in the last week, without providing evidence.

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Ezzidin reported from Cairo. Associated Press reporter Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed.

Authorities in Nigeria's Kogi state said that gunmen attacked an Islamic orphanage that was operating illegally and abducted 23 pupils in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, on April 26. Fifteen of those abducted were immediately rescued.

The troops intercepted and recovered nine of those abducted within a forest area in the state, army spokesman Hassan Abdullahi said in the statement, which was dated Wednesday but released on Thursday.

“The rescued victims comprised five boys, two girls, and two adult females, believed to be the wives of the proprietor of the orphanage,” Abdullahi said.

The development would mean that there could be one more pupil missing, but the statement didn't mention if anybody else was unaccounted for.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Armed groups attack schools and abduct students because they are seen as strategic in drawing attention and exacting huge ransoms, according to analysts. Several hundred students have been kidnapped across Nigeria.

The proposal will start the formal process of rolling back parts of the first-ever limits on PFAS in drinking water finalized during former President Joe Biden's administration. Officials at the time found they increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and babies being born with low birth weight.

Jessica Kramer, head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, said at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday the agency intended to rescind and revisit certain limits she said were improperly issued by the Biden administration. The move would align with actions the EPA had said a year ago they intended to take.

The proposal comes at a time when the agency is facing scrutiny from the Make America Healthy Again movement on issues like PFAS and pesticides. The group in part advocates against corporate environmental harms and has been championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The details of the plan haven't yet been released, but officials previously said they would propose rescinding limits on three types of PFAS, including what are known as GenX substances found in North Carolina. They will then reconsider them. They will do the same with a limit on a mixture of several types of PFAS.

“We need drinking water rules that are legally defensible. We need drinking water regulations that are not susceptible to legal challenge because the explicit process in the Safe Drinking Water Act wasn’t followed. And so that is a huge concern,” said Kramer at a conference focused on ensuring everyone has access to safe drinking water and wastewater.

She said the intent is to start the process over and follow the law. The Biden administration faced allegations they did not follow the correct legal process, moving too quickly on limits on the less common types of PFAS the agency is proposing to rescind limits for.

The agency said they are committed to helping utilities reduce PFAS in drinking water. The agency provides technical assistance and there have been billions of dollars in extra funding available to assist in installing and navigating the expensive and sometimes complex treatment that's needed to remove the chemicals.

The Biden administration’s rule also set tight standards for the two common types of PFAS, referred to as PFOA and PFOS, at 4 parts per trillion. The EPA has said they intend to keep those standards, but give utilities two extra years — until 2031 — to comply.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said last year when they first announced they would take this action that delaying the deadline was “common-sense flexibility.”

“This will support water systems across the country, including small systems in rural communities, as they work to address these contaminants," he said at the time.

On drinking water broadly, the Trump administration said they would defend tough standards to reduce lead in tap water. That's in contrast to their efforts to slash health protections for coal and other polluting energy sources.

“Where they may have taken a wrecking ball to those rules, this is a little more surgical and measured in part because of the resonance of these issues among voters,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

Forcing utilities to treat for several types of PFAS can help ensure that other potentially harmful substances are filtered out of water, too, according to the nonprofit.

Benesh also said the move is likely illegal — the Safe Drinking Water Act, which authorizes EPA to regulate contaminants in drinking water, prevents officials from issuing regulations that are weaker than those previously in place.

The public will have a chance to comment before the change is finalized.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights.

The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court, and there is no sign he plans to retire anytime soon.

“I think he’s more energized and excited now than when I first met him,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in Republican President George W. Bush's administration after his time as a Thomas clerk three decades ago.

Thomas was confirmed in 1991 after contentious hearings that included sexual harassment allegations. More recently, his acceptance of luxury trips has raised a storm of ethics questions. He's nevertheless gone from near-silence at oral arguments to asking the first questions and penning a landmark ruling expanding Second Amendment rights.

Following the nomination of three conservative justices by Republican President Donald Trump, Thomas is now the most senior member of a supermajority that's also overturned abortion as a constitutional right, ended affirmative action in college admissions and sharply limited the Voting Rights Act.

“The court has radically moved in his direction over the course of his time on the court,” said Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan. Thomas' seniority means he can decide who writes an opinion if he's part of a majority that doesn't include Chief Justice John Roberts, a factor that can nudge other votes behind closed doors, Karlan said.

Off the bench, Thomas' sphere of influence also includes his large, close-knit network of former clerks, who have served in the Trump administration and are increasingly filling out the ranks of federal judges.

“That is an important legacy that he will leave,” said Sarah Konsky, director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “Even as justices' own time on the court winds down, significant influence lives on through their clerks.”

That’s not to say Thomas’ time on the court is up. In a recent speech, Thomas tied the nation’s highest ideals to a conservative vision of limited government — and launched a broadside on progressivism seen by critics as unfair and inappropriate. In the room at the University of Texas, though, it earned a standing ovation.

Thomas, who became the second Black member of the court, now has a tenure that tops 34 years, putting him ahead of Justice Stephen J. Field, who was nominated by President Abraham Lincoln before the end of the Civil War and served as the only 10th justice until 1897.

For Thomas, 77, it’s a long way from the hearings at which his nomination by Republican President George H.W. Bush was nearly derailed by allegations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a charge he forcefully denied.

Thomas has more recently come under scrutiny for lavish, undisclosed trips from a GOP megadonor and the conservative political activism of his wife, who backed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The justice has said he wasn’t required to disclose the trips he took with friends and ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the election.

On the court, though, recent years have also brought perhaps the most significant work of his career, especially a 2022 opinion he wrote that found people generally have the right to carry a gun in public. The justice did not respond to a request for comment on his tenure.

His own jurisprudence has changed little over the years, said Scott Gerber, author of “First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas." Even as the majority moves his way, he’s continued to write dissents that get noticed.

“He’s incredibly consistent,” Gerber said. Once known for solo dissents, “now he writes majority opinions.”

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Follow the AP's coverage of the Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Consumer Reports has been tracking the prices of commonly purchased items to help shoppers better understand how costs are changing—and how to save money.

Tracking how prices move

From everyday purchases like coffee to big-ticket items like appliances, Consumer Reports followed the prices of 16 popular products to see how they fluctuate over time.

The goal is to give shoppers a clearer picture of how prices rise, fall and sometimes change dramatically.

“Some things that you have to buy, some things that would be fun to buy, and other necessities like apparel, things like that,” said Chris Raymond with Consumer Reports.

Prices can swing quickly

Consumer Reports found that prices can vary widely—even within a short period of time.

One example: a Shark vacuum that dropped as low as $119, but reached nearly $200 at its peak. That’s a swing of $40 to $50 in just a week.

The organization says this kind of volatility isn’t limited to one product category.

They’re seeing similar fluctuations in baby products, clothing and footwear, with frequent and sometimes sharp price changes.

Timing and research matter

Consumer Reports says when and how you buy can make a big difference.

“The more you do your research, the more you kind of find, ‘OK, I’m paying a reasonable price for it, or that’s outrageous, and I’ve got to find another way to get that item,’” Raymond said.

Ways to save on big purchases

For electronics, shoppers may want to consider buying older models. TVs, phones and laptops that are one to two years old can cost hundreds less than the latest versions.

Refurbished products can also offer significant savings.

“They take it, they clean it up, they replace parts, and you get it with a new one-year warranty,” Raymond said. “There’s no better deal in my mind than getting a refurbished item.”

Watch out for misleading sales

Consumer Reports also warns shoppers not to be misled by flashy discounts.

“I have seen instances where the price goes up a few weeks before the sale begins, so they can make it look like they’re slashing 30% when maybe they’re only giving you 5% or 10% off,” Raymond said.

The bottom line

Consumer Reports says the key to saving money in today’s market is paying attention to price patterns and doing your homework before buying.

“When it hits the low, pounce on it,” Raymond said.

The self-taught sculptor from Utah who works in Mexico is keenly aware of his place as an outsider within the cliquey art world, and is bracing for the critical gaze as he takes one of the most prestigious stages in contemporary art.

A selection process that has been described as “opaque” has cast a shadow over the opening.

Institutions that typically vie for the coveted Biennale commission shied away out of apparent concern that they would be subjected to administration politics after the open call removed language focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion and replaced it with requirements to promote “American values.”

In a seemingly ironic act, Allen created a bronze evil eye to hang on the exterior of the brick, Jeffersonian-style U.S. Pavilion to ward off bad vibes, he joked. It is one of a dozen new pieces that he made for an exhibition that will likely be a defining moment in his 30-year career.

Just days before the Biennale’s opening on Saturday, the evil eye still had not arrived.

“This is really the first circumstance in my life as an artist where I felt the need to defend myself, or my work,’’ Allen told The Associated Press during a walk-through of the pavilion this week. He acknowledged that having lived outside the critical eye for the last three decades “has been actually a pleasure.”

The outsider artist

Allen makes biomorphic sculptures in wood, stone and bronze, and is reluctant to name them to give viewers “a moment of creation when they can decide what it is.”

The Biennale exhibition, titled “Call Me the Breeze,” includes works he made over the last 20 years, interspersed with new work. Alma said he chose the title to reflect his ability to get around obstacles.

“And that’s been my necessity and it’s also because of being self-taught and not having any institutional support very often in life,” he said.

The pavilion’s commissioner, Jeffrey Uslip, said Alma’s institutional independence was part of the appeal.

“I am deeply interested and invested in artists who are not, I guess, academicized … or lobotomized,’’ he said.

Lost and found commission

A prior proposal for artist Robert Lazzarini to stage the show, curated by art historian John Ravenal, fell apart in September, despite having secured U.S. State Department approval, after the project’s required institutional sponsor backed out, Ravenal told AP.

A U.S. State Department attempt to link the Lazzarini project to the newly formed American Arts Conservancy, failed, and a short time later the new project with the AAC as sponsor, Uslip as curator and Allen as artist was announced.

Uslip declined to discuss the selection process.

Ravenal called the process highly unusual, with no apparent committee vetting or application process, noting that the application deadline had expired in July.

“It’s really a loss of a 40-year history of open call and peer review,’’ Ravenal told AP by telephone, describing Allen as “a pawn in this whole thing.”

Allen is aware his willingness to mount the show has been the source of some backlash. But he insists that the Trump administration has not interfered with the show in any way.

“My art is not propaganda,” he said.

Wrong sheep, right moment

In the pavilion’s courtyard, a headless, and thus directionless, sheep stands as a self-portrait of Alma as an outsider. He described it as “a bit shunned because it’s the wrong sheep.”

His most recent work includes bronze wall sculptures that he treats with chemicals in a form of painting, treating the hard metal “as an instantaneous material, like watercolor,’’ he said.

Alma’s journey to the Biennale included a period of homelessness in New York City when he sold his creations from atop an ironing board, a move of admitted desperation that soft-launched his artistic career, establishing his first collectors.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Palm Springs Art Museum own pieces of Allen’s work, and he participated in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He made his European debut in Brussels in 2022.

After getting the Biennale commission, he made his first trip ever to Venice in November to view the U.S. Pavilion, a neoclassic brick building built around a courtyard and rotunda. A painting by Hieronymus Bosch titled “The Visions of Hereafter” at Venice’s Accademia depicting heaven, hell and purgatory inspired the show’s organizing principle.

“I wanted there to be a bit of the chaos that we go through,” he said.

Beyond his body of work, Allen attributes his selection to the fact that “I’m just ready to do things at the last minute” and accept challenges as they come.

“When they do, I’m prepared to try it, and fail at it. That’s fine,” he said.

Though the non-binding advice to sports governing bodies does not yet apply also to Russia, it seemed to point toward being closer to ending Russia’s isolation in Olympic circles during its war on Ukraine as the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games approaches.

Athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus had to be approved as neutrals who did not support the war for individual events at the 2024 Paris Olympics and February’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The countries were barred from all team sports at the Olympics.

“The IOC reaffirms that athletes’ participation in international competition should not be limited by the actions of their governments, including involvement in a war or conflict,” the Olympic body said.

The IOC noted the qualification period “starts this summer” for Los Angeles, where more than 200 national Olympic teams are set to compete for more than 350 medal events on the program.

The updated Olympic position more than four years into the war on Ukraine also comes after repeated calls from critics of Israel for sporting sanctions to be applied because of the conflict in Gaza.

The IOC has under president Kirsty Coventry and her predecessor Thomas Bach resisted those requests, and on Thursday cited its task to “navigate the ever-increasing complex realities and consequences of the current geopolitical context.”

IOC awaits anti-doping investigation

One barrier to Russian athletes' full return is an ongoing World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into recent reports, including by the New York Times, implicating Russian anti-doping agency official Veronika Loginova.

The IOC said its executive board noted “with concern the recent information” being looked at by WADA, without naming Loginova.

The Russian Olympic Committee has been suspended by the IOC since October 2023 for incorporating regional sports bodies in illegally occupied eastern Ukraine.

“Whilst the ROC has held constructive exchanges with the IOC on its suspension,” the IOC said, “it remains suspended while the IOC Legal Affairs Commission continues to review the matter.”

Coventry told reporters at an online news conference there is no set timetable to complete the legal review.

Pushback from sports bodies

Track and field's World Athletics excluded athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus out of its international events within days of the war starting. The IOC's move Thursday will not change that.

“Our council has made a clear decision that when there is tangible movement towards peace negotiations it can begin to review its decisions,” the Monaco-based track body said.

Sports officials in northern European and the Baltic countries have taken strong positions against Russia and Belarus since 2022, and the Swedish sports confederation on Thursday called the IOC's advice “deeply unfortunate.”

Neutral athletes at the Olympics

A total of 32 neutral athletes competed in Paris, combining to win five medals including one gold in trampoline by Ivan Litvinovich of Belarus. One silver medal was won by the 20 neutral athletes in Milan and Cortina.

At the previous Olympic editions, a Russian team of 335 athletes went to the Tokyo Summer Games held in 2021 and 209 went to the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Belarus sent 101 and 26, respectively.

A Belarus team should now expect to regain privileges at the 2028 Olympics — march under a national flag in the opening and closing ceremonies, wear uniforms in national colors, and hear the anthem played for gold medalists.

Doping case for Belarusian medalist

The IOC announced its Belarus news hours after a positive doping test was revealed for one of the country's four medalists at the Paris Olympics.

Weightlifter Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who took bronze in the men's 102-kilogram class in Paris, is not suspended while his case is prosecuted by the International Testing Agency. Growth hormone was found in a sample Tsikhantsou gave in March, the ITA said Thursday.

IOC updates on Olympic Games in 2030

The IOC board chaired by Coventry gave updates on the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps and picking a host for the 2030 Youth Olympic Games.

An ongoing review of the Winter Games program will be confirmed in June but cannot include in France any sports not played on snow and ice, Coventry said. There has been speculation about adding new sports or boosting the winter program with indoor sports from the Summer Games.

The youth hosting contest was moving to a vote next month but stalled Thursday because of IOC uncertainty about a strategy for what it aimed to achieve, Coventry said, noting “very disjointed” views worldwide.

The bidders are Asunción, Paraguay; Bangkok, Thailand; and Santiago, Chile.

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AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

The Russian activist has lived under protection since 2022 because French officials believe Russia is trying to kill him.

In April 2025, a crew of Russian men staked out Osechkin's home and the surrounding area in southwestern France for several hours, taking videos and photos in suspected groundwork for an assassination, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press that are not public. Several years earlier, Osechkin said, a red dot — which he thought was a laser sight for a gun — appeared on his wall.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lithuanian officials disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official. Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And that same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.

While Russian officials have long been accused of silencing the country’s enemies abroad, three Western intelligence officials from different countries told AP that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The officials said Russia's security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine, in addition to the usual suspects like military defectors. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

“This campaign is not by accident or chance," said one of them, a senior European intelligence official. "There is political authorization.”

The intelligence officials, a former senior British counterterrorism official and prosecutors in Lithuania see the campaign as connected to Russia's broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine, including 191 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption linked to Russia by Western officials that the AP has mapped across Europe since the beginning of the war.

Many accused in that campaign are people who were recruited as cheap proxies for Russian intelligence operatives. Moscow is now using that model to target its perceived enemies abroad, according to the French court documents, officials and information from the Lithuanian prosecutor.

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told AP he didn't see “any need” to comment. Russian officials have previously denied that Moscow is behind attempts to kill its opponents abroad.

The AP spoke to three of the people targeted: Osechkin; Lithuanian activist Valdas Bartkevičius; and Ruslan Gabbasov, who advocates for independence for the Russian region of Bashkortostan.

A trip to the seaside

Three of the four men detained by French police in the plot to kill Osechkin traveled to the beach resort of Biarritz, where Osechkin lives, in April 2025, court documents show. They surveilled his house “with a view to assassinating him and subsequently intimidating all political opponents of the Russian authorities living in France,” the documents said.

All four were born in Russia's Dagestan region. One has multiple criminal convictions while another said he had been arrested by Russia's domestic security service and fled the country to avoid being sent to Ukraine.

Osechkin founded a rights group for prisoners years ago and runs a project that exposes abuses in Russia's prison system, but he said the threats against him escalated after he began investigating alleged Russian abuses in Ukraine and helping Russian military defectors flee.

He moved to France in 2015 and was put under police protection seven years later when French officials received information that his life was in danger.

“If it weren’t for them, I probably would have been killed,” he said.

Targets say Moscow wins if they hide

Across the continent in Lithuania, Gabbasov, the activist from Bashkortostan, discovered an Apple AirTag tracker hidden on his car in February 2025. Police told him to leave the device and followed the people following him, he said.

A few weeks later, Gabbasov said he was attending celebrations marking Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union with his wife and 5-year-old son when officers called and told him not to return home.

The next day, he said officers told him: “Yesterday, a killer was detained near your house; he was waiting for you with a gun. ... He was ready to wait for you all night.”

Lithuanian authorities, he said, offered him the chance to completely “disappear” — change his name, move and stop his work.

He turned them down, saying many people from his mainly Muslim home region near Kazakhstan see him as a leader in the campaign for independence. The region is important to the Kremlin, Gabbasov said, because of its gold reserves and because large numbers of its men have been sent to fight in Ukraine.

“I can’t betray them all by simply disappearing, especially out of fear,” Gabbasov said, adding that would play into Moscow’s hands.

“What difference does it make to them?” Gabbasov asked, referring to Russia’s security services. “They could kill me ... or I could hide from everyone and stop engaging in political activity. That’s exactly what they want.”

A plot to put a bomb in a mailbox

The authorities in Lithuania made the same offer to Bartkevičius, after he said they discovered a plot to kill him with a bomb planted in his mailbox in March 2025.

But disappearing also wasn't an option for the activist who raises money for Ukraine and who gained notoriety for his anti-Russian acts, including urinating on a Russian war memorial.

That, he said, would be “social death."

Lithuanian prosecutors charged 13 people from at least seven countries with involvement in the two plots — among at least 20 people authorities have detained, charged or identified as involved in such plots in Europe over the past year.

The people involved in the Lithuanian cases were directly ordered by Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said, and some had connections to Russian organized crime and could be linked to other arson and espionage plots elsewhere in Europe.

Moscow's switch to relying on such proxies can be traced to a previous attempted assassination, Cmdr. Dominic Murphy told AP before he retired as head of the counterterrorism squad at Britain’s Metropolitan Police.

In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England — an attack the U.K. government accused Moscow of carrying out with military intelligence officers.

In response, Britain and other Western nations kicked out hundreds of Russian diplomats — and spies — making it harder for Russian officers to operate in Europe, Murphy, a lead investigator, said.

The fact that most of the plots made public by Western officials since 2022 have been foiled could indicate that it’s harder for Moscow to carry them out with proxies, as opposed to its own officers, one of the Western intelligence officials said.

Still, the attempted killings may serve additional purposes, they said, including scaring the Kremlin’s opponents into silence and wasting European law enforcement resources.

Pointing to the case of Maxim Kuzminov — the helicopter pilot who defected and was threatened with death by masked men in military fatigues on Russian state television — the official said it’s clear Russia’s security services can kill someone in Europe if they really want to.

For that reason, the European intelligence official said, targets will never be safe.

“Even if you thwart an operation once, you still need to be ready in case they strike again.”

Valdez was at first banned for six games by MLB, which cited him for intentionally throwing a pitch at Story, but the penalty was reduced in an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' association. He started serving the penalty during Wednesday night's series finale and barring rainouts will be eligible to pitch Wednesday at the New York Mets.

Detroit already is missing injured starting pitchers Tarik Skubal (elbow), Casey Mize (hamstring) and Justin Verlander (hip).

"Generally when you have an event like last night where there’s a disruption of play and there’s a guy kicked out of the game for what is deemed throwing at somebody, that doesn’t come for free,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.

Hinch was suspended for one game for what MLB said was Valdez's intentional actions and was to serve the penalty Wednesday.

Valdez already allowed eight runs in the first three innings when Willson Contreras hit a 449-foot homer on the first pitch of the fourth. Contreras watched the flight of the ball from home plate before flipping his bat.

Two pitches later, Wilyer Abreu boosted the score to 10-2 when he homered into the right-field seats, a 109.1 mph drive. His next pitch was a 94.4 mph offering that hit Story between the numbers on his back. Valdez had not thrown a four-seam fastball since last Aug. 3 when he hit Boston's Ceddanne Rafaela under the left arm with a 95.5 pitch with a 3-1 count leading off the sixth inning. The Astros trailed the Red Sox 6-1.

When home plate umpire Adam Beck and Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler got between Story and the mound Tuesday, the Red Sox dugout emptied, followed by Detroit's bench and both bullpens. There was no physical contact and few harsh words.

Valdez denied hitting Story on purpose, saying the unfamiliar four-seam fastball got away from him.

Last season while pitching for Houston, Valdez denied intentionally hitting his catcher César Salazar in the chest with a pitch almost immediately after he gave up a grand slam in a loss to the New York Yankees. Two pitches after Trent Grisham’s slam in the Yankees’ 7-1 victory on Sept. 2, Valdez crossed up catcher César Salazar by throwing a 92.8 mph sinker to Anthony Volpe. Valdez and Salazar both said after the game the pitch that hit the catcher wasn’t on purpose.

Earlier in the season, Valdez expressed frustration about the defensive positioning on a play in the sixth inning that led to the only run he allowed in the Astros’ 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on July 28.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $4.55 on Thursday, according to AAA. That was 44% higher than a year ago.

McDonald's Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company has been making progress bringing lower-income customers back into its stores with value meals. But fast food visits by customers with household incomes of $45,000 or less are still declining overall, and the spike in gas prices won't help, he said.

“Clearly, when you have elevated gas prices... that is going to disproportionately impact low-income consumers. And so we expect the pressures there are going to continue,” Kempczinski said Thursday during a conference call with investors.

McDonald's said same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell in the U.S. and some international markets in April. That was partly due to a big surge in sales last April, when a popular Minecraft meal drove traffic. Kempczinski said it's too early to get a read on sales in May and June, although the company is hoping a new beverage lineup which launched in the U.S. this week will generate interest.

“Certainly consumer sentiment is heightened anxiety, let’s just say, and it may have an impact. But, you know, our focus is on controlling what we can control,” Kempczinski said.

McDonald's shares were flat in early trading Thursday.

In the January-March period, McDonald's global same-store sales rose 3.8%. That was better than the 3.7% increase Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

The company kept customers interested with limited-time menu items like the Big Arch burger, a 1,020-calorie behemoth that went on sale in the U.S. in March. The burger became a viral sensation after Kempczinski posted a video of himself taking a nibble from one and was mocked for his tentative bite. Tom Curtis, president of rival Burger King, posted his own video taking a vigorous bite of his chain’s new Whopper.

The Big Arch burger costs well over $8 in many U.S. markets. So McDonald's is trying to emphasize value in other parts of its menu. The company cut prices on some U.S. combo meals in September, and starting April 21, McDonald’s U.S. stores began offering 10 items that each cost less than $3.

Kempczinski said McDonald's experience in other markets like Germany and Australia has shown that the combination of meal deals and low-priced individual items is the best value strategy.

“You need to have a meal deal offering there to be able to drive interest and excitement around some of our core menu items,” Kempczinski said. “But you also need entry-level price points for those folks who are maybe a little bit more stressed around affordability and are looking for, you know, ‘What can I get for $3 or less?’”

The Chicago chain said its revenue rose 9% in the first quarter to $6.52 billion. That was also higher than the $6.47 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to FactSet.

McDonald’s net income rose 6% to $1.98 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2.83 per share. That was also higher than analysts’ forecast of $2.74.

He famously owned the Atlanta Braves, leveraging his ownership of the TBS superstation to broadcast their games across the country, all while showcasing his outsized personality at a time when many owners stayed behind the scenes.

Turner, who died Wednesday, bought the struggling Braves in the 1970s, put the team on his then-tiny TV station and then sold the signal to cable systems nationwide.

“He effectively transformed the Braves into a team with a national reach and set the table for ways that local teams have now gained more of a national footprint,” said Travis Vogan, a sports media professor at the University of Iowa.

With a burgeoning fanbase that stretched far beyond the South, the Braves turned into a World Series mainstay during the 1990s, and Turner finally hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy in 1995 before selling the franchise the next year.

In a statement Wednesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called Turner a “visionary whose impact on the media landscape transformed how fans experience sports.”

Turner also once owned the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, and the rest of his sports interests were about as varied as could be — everything from professional wrestling to sailing to the Olympics.

He tried to make the 1964 Olympic sailing team, won a world sailing championship in 1971 off the coast of Long Island and skippered the winning entry in the 1977 America’s Cup — the most famous yachting competition in the world.

“There will never be a time in my life as good as this time,” he said when told he would skipper in the America’s Cup that year. “I can’t believe all this is really happening to me.”

A ‘swashbuckling’ owner

Turner always wanted to be part of the action and famously named himself owner-manager of the Braves in 1977. Atlanta had lost 16 straight, and Turner told manager Dave Bristol to take a few days off. Turner took over, and the Braves lost 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates to extend their losing streak.

“I wanted to see what it’s like down in the trenches,” Turner said that night.

Major League Baseball intervened and put a stop to Turner’s managerial career after that one game — just as they had forced Turner to stop putting “Channel” on the back of the jersey of pitcher Andy Messersmith, who wore No. 17.

But Turner continued to lean into his identity as “Captain Outrageous,” helping to set a model for “swashbuckling” modern-day owners who use their ownership to shape their public image, said Vogan, the Iowa professor.

Larger-than-life sports moguls like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer “have all emulated Turner by being these kinds of celebrity entrepreneurs that use sports to build their own identities and to build their own kind of brands in the popular imagination," Vogan said.

“Our good friend and former owner, Ted Turner, was one of a kind,” read a statement from the Braves on Wednesday.

A new international competition

Turner’s competitive drive wasn’t satisfied by owning teams, though.

He founded the Goodwill Games, born in large part out of his frustration with the U.S. boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and then the Soviets leading a boycott of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. He brought the inaugural Goodwill Games to Moscow in 1986, with about 3,000 athletes from 79 countries taking part.

The Goodwill Games would be held five times in all, ending in 2001. There was also a Winter Goodwill Games, held only once — at Lake Placid, New York, in 2000.

“There’s nothing better for kids than sport,” Turner said at the opening ceremony of those Lake Placid Games.

Vogan said the Goodwill Games showcased Turner's “audacity,” even if it didn't work out.

“The fact that he was involved in an initiative like that says a lot about his ambitions and his role as a disruptive force in media,” Vogan said.

___

Reynolds reported from Miami.

Norfolk Constabulary said that the arrest came Wednesday evening after a man was reported “behaving in an intimidating manner” near the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England.

“Officers attended, and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and possession of an offensive weapon,” the force said Thursday.

The suspect is being held for questioning at a nearby police station. The term offensive weapons covers knives, truncheons and other items used to cause injury. Police didn’t specify what type of weapon was involved.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse. It said the incident occurred near the Sandringham Estate while the former prince was out walking his dogs, and that Andrew and his protection officer got in their car and sped away.

Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, moved to the king’s private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, after he was evicted from his longtime home near Windsor Castle following revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew, 66, now lives at Marsh Farm, a property on the Sandringham Estate, after leaving Royal Lodge last year.

He was stripped of all his honors and titles and banished from public view by the royal family after years of scandal over his money woes and links to questionable characters, including Epstein.

One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, alleged that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince three times starting when she was 17. He denied it, but eventually settled the case for an undisclosed sum and acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025, aged 41.

In February, he became the first senior British royal in almost 400 years to be arrested when he was held for hours by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public office in a case related to his links to Epstein. It was an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.

Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was the United Kingdom’s special envoy for international trade.

Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.

The actor, director and producer lay down in a doctor's office in Seoul and underwent microinjections into his face of DNA from salmon sperm. The hope was to reduce inflammation and improve elasticity.

“I look like a got a little sunburn and a little redder than usual, but it’s not bad,” he says to a camera crew after the procedure. “OK, I’m camera ready.”

Kim was putting his face on the line as part of the new CNN series “K-Everything: The Global Rise of Korean Culture,” his love letter to K-beauty, K-pop, K-food and K-film. It debuts Saturday on CNN International and is also available on CNN and HBO Max.

“It's an examination of how Korea has risen in the course of three short generations from a war-torn third world country to one of the most modern places in the world,” Kim says in an interview. “We’ll take a look at how that’s happened through food, through cinema, through beauty products and through music.”

What's the show about?

At a vibrant kimchi festival in Pyeongchang, Kim explores how K-food is reshaping fine dining across the globe. In other episodes, he meets actor Lee Byung-hun, “Gangnam Style” singer-songwriter Psy, BigBang's Taeyang and the songwriters behind the Oscar-winning song “Golden.”

“For those who’ve never been to Korea, this is a nice introduction in a way that is not something taught in a classroom or in a textbook,” Kim says.

In the beauty episode, Kim chats with makeup artist and influencer LeoJ and model Irene Kim on how beauty standards have changed. He tries various serums and face masks and even visits a factory where snail slime is collected to be used in various products.

“I got to meet people from different walks of life, from different cities, from different economic classes, and it just broadened my understanding of the culture,” he says.

Kim was born in South Korea but moved to the United States when he was 1, returning frequently. That makes “K-Everything” a personal journey, which also includes his parents.

Seoul has undergone such an economic and cultural boom that all the landmarks his parents knew from when they were teenagers were gone and they relied on him to navigate. “It was almost a foreign country to them,” he says.

‘A trusted guide’

Kim joins a crowded field of celeb travel hosts, which includes Tony Shalhoub, Rainn Wilson, Eugene Levy, Stanley Tucci,Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, José Andrés, Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith, Eva Longoria and Ewan McGregor.

Kim, the “Lost” star who recently earned a Tony Award nomination, is a fan of the late chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who helped create the role of modern TV travel host.

“I wouldn’t say that this show is as irreverent as Anthony Bourdain’s show was, but I loved it because I felt like he was showing me his take on each country and he was a trusted guide,” he says. “If I can be that for some people then that’s the spirit that I’d like to bring into this show.”

Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent, CNN Originals and creative development, says Kim brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to the series.

“From the first time I met him, it was clear he was incredibly well equipped to tackle this — deeply passionate about the subject and highly knowledgeable. He was also very focused on making sure the way we look at Korean culture translates to a broad global audience, really putting a spotlight on it,” she says.

Kim has never played TV host, but he's an avid traveler and he's not a fish out of water in Korea. He says despite stretching himself, he felt comfortable.

“I get to introduce the world to a culture that I love and have gotten to know and has informed who I am as a performer and as a human being. So to me, it was strangely comfortable and it didn’t feel at all like I was stepping outside of my comfort zone.”

Kim hopes the series can help non-Koreans better understand a culture that has influenced so much of the globe of late and address anti-Asian racism, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If we can start to understand one another a little bit better through culture, then I think it is one step toward bringing together a global community. And I think the world could use a little more understanding in general.”

Davis, who rose to stardom as a little league pitching sensation, followed developments as WNBA players negotiated historic salaries. As she enters the inaugural season of the WPBL, Davis sees those record gains as a signal to the next generation of women's leagues about what is possible.

“Wanting to be a WNBA player growing up and seeing it not be as huge as it is now,” Davis said, “and just seeing the growth — it’s amazing. I’m excited for what’s to come.”

As the WNBA begins its season under the new CBA, emerging women's sports leagues like baseball and hockey are looking at that progress as a promising roadmap for growth. At the same time, leaders of those startup leagues recognize the WNBA's growth was shaped by decades of player advocacy, work stoppage threats and athletes playing elsewhere to supplement their incomes.

“The WNBA is definitely an example of a league that had to grind and keep showing its worth over and over,” said Justine Siegal, co-founder of the WPBL, which debuts in August. “The recognition is overdue and well-deserved. For us as a new women’s pro league, we don’t see it as the beginning. We see it is we’re part of a momentum that fans want to see.”

Newer women's leagues try to capitalize on current boom

The WNBA's new seven-year CBA will raise the league's salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million in the first year of the deal. It will also improve player experience with codified charter flights, first-class travel accommodations and expanded mental health support. Perhaps most notably, the deal marks a new era of player compensation, with stars like four-time MVP A'ja Wilson making more than $1 million for the first time in WNBA history.

Those milestones are, in part, the result of surging popularity in women's basketball, with stars like Caitlin Clark becoming household names and driving up viewership. After securing a landmark media rights deal in 2024, players recognized a pivotal opportunity to demand a bigger share of that growing revenue.

“We can kind of show (other leagues) what worked and obviously the strength in numbers,” said New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart. “Realizing the value of your league and your teams."

Newer leagues are still far from the financial scale of leagues like the WNBA or National Women's Soccer League, which is in its 14th year and has benefitted from years of equal pay efforts. A recent report published by the accounting firm Deloitte said soccer and basketball are expected to be the top revenue-generating women’s sports in 2026, with each accounting for 35% of overall revenues.

Still newer leagues are watching closely as they try and capitalize on the current boom those established organizations helped create.

“There is a lot for us to take away from both the player solidarity that led to the deal and the substance of the deal itself,” said, Malaika Underwood, executive director of the Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association, in an email. “In many ways, this new CBA has raised important benchmarks for what women athletes should expect across professional sports.”

Growth won't happen overnight

She added while that kind of growth won’t happen overnight for the PWHL — which is concluding its third season— the league believes it has set itself up for similar success. That has been evident in how the PWHL has blown past initial attendance and revenue projections since its 2024 launch. After adding two franchises last year, the eight-team PWHL is preparing to expand by as many as four more for next season.

Other leagues, like Women's Elite Rugby (WER), are learning from WNBA players' unified approach to advocacy, while recognizing their own unique financial hurdles.

The WNBA, entering its 30th season, is partially owned by the NBA, and while the PWHL isn't financially tied to the NHL, it has been able to leverage partnerships through marketing and shared venues.

That's not the case for WER, which is entering its second season.

“There wasn’t a billionaire benefactor who was willing to write a big check and say, ‘Let’s get this going no matter what the cost,’" said Phil Camm, the league's chief commercial officer. “So we can learn from things, but we have to approach it from a very different perspective.”

Because of the current investment in the women’s sports ecosystem, David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University, predicts it won't be long before women's athletes in rugby, baseball and other emerging leagues become household names and enjoy the same benefits that WNBA players long fought for.

“By the time you get to the end of the century, people are going look back to this point and go, ‘I don’t get it, why weren’t you showing it on television?'" Berri said. "'Why wasn’t it obvious that this was a good idea?’ It’ll seem obvious at that point that you should have done that.'”

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AP Sports Writer John Wawrow and Women's Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this report.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

“Don’t sell your tickets," Embiid said. “This is bigger than you. We need you guys.”

Of more pressing concern for the Sixers and their fans, they need Embiid.

The 2023 NBA MVP, Embiid missed Game 2 of the second-round series against the Knicks with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip.

The 76ers put up a far better fight without Embiid than in the Knicks’ 137-98 romp in Game 1, yet still lost 108-102 on Wednesday night. It's the Knicks who hold a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals when the series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday night and Game 4 on Sunday.

Recent history proved, the Knicks should feel right at home once they play in Philadelphia.

Spurred by affordable train fare, cheaper tickets compared to Madison Square Garden and a simply overzealous passion for Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the Knicks team stamped a legitimate NBA championship contender, New York fans have flooded Philly and provided a home-court edge on the road.

The Sixers’ strategy to ward off Knicks fans in this playoff series was to try through Ticketmaster to geographically restrict sales.

Geo-fencing, in sports ticket lingo.

A message on their website over the weekend read: “Xfinity Mobile Arena is located in Philadelphia, PA. Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of Greater Philadelphia area. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside Greater Philadelphia area will be canceled without notice and refunds given.”

The 76ers — and other sports teams in all leagues that cut off sales outside city limits — essentially shut the front door of their home but leave all the windows open. There are so many ways around the game plan through the various resale platforms — no proof-of-Philadelphia ID needed — it hardly seemed worth the effort.

The splashy headline for a day could turn into a cold reality check on Friday night — there’s nothing that can prevent big-spending backers of the Knicks from buying from Philadelphia fans who choose to sell.

“I think they’re soft,” Knicks fan Bryan Reinah, of Queens, said at Game 2. “They’re afraid of the Knicks takeover. I think last time we played them it was 47% Knicks fans. Everybody hops on the trains and goes right down. Tickets are cheaper and the Knicks fans travel well. They’re afraid of it.”

The 76ers' plan did spark national headlines even though the policy is not new or even uncommon in sports.

The thought is, why not try?

Of recent note, the Detroit Pistons tried the same tactic in last season's playoffs and limited ticket sales on Ticketmaster to residents of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario, Canada. The Carolina Hurricanes did the same to New York Rangers fans during the 2024 and 2022 NHL playoffs.

Hey, maybe these cities just don't like New Yorkers!?

Ah, maybe not as the policy through the decades has enforcement well beyond the five boroughs.

Take 2001, when Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, a former senior executive with America Online, wrote a computer program that banned Pittsburgh residents from buying tickets on the Capitals' website.

"Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Leonsis said in 2001. “I got a lot of emails from Pittsburgh saying I was mean-spirited and unfair. I don’t care. I’m going to keep doing it.”

The Sixers said this season's effort was designed to ensure that tickets remained in the hands of local fans who have supported the team all season.

Neither the Sixers nor Ticketmaster said how many face-value tickets went on sale Sunday.

Ticketmaster put out a statement that covered its geo-fencing policy with a peppy social media post.

“Who gets to buy tickets to sports games? Let us break it down,” the video noted. “Sometimes, sports teams put limits on who can buy tickets for big, in-demand matchups. This is a way to give local fans the best shot at attending the event and to limit scalpers who are located hundreds of miles away, who are trying to flip to the tickets just for a profit.”

Ticketmaster said those rules and decisions come directly for the team.

When the Knicks played at Philadelphia in Game 6 of a first-round series in 2024, Sixers owners Josh Harris, David Blitzer and David Adelman and former minority owner Michael Rubin joined forces to buy more than 2,000 tickets they handed out to people who serve the Philadelphia community.

Tickets for Game 3 on StubHub as of Thursday started at about $220 a pop in the upper deck and topped $1,000 in the lower bowl.

Sixers or Knicks fans, that's some serious cash.

The amount of blue-and-orange and Brunson jerseys in the stands on Friday night will be the final word on if Sixers fans were serious about listening to Embiid and keeping tickets in house.

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AP freelance writer Adry Torres in New York contributed to this story.

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

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary opened the event by saying his agency was “removing all petroleum-based food dyes" from U.S. foods. But the specifics did not become clear until the final minutes, when Kennedy revealed that the government had “an understanding” with foodmakers to voluntarily stop using the chemicals. A “national standard and timeline” for completing the process would soon follow, according to an FDA statement.

More than a year later, the FDA has not introduced any of the detailed, scientific regulatory documents needed to establish a safety issue with the half-dozen widely used dyes. Instead, the FDA maintains an online list of manufacturers that have pledged to phase out the chemicals.

The administration’s handling of food dyes reflects its approach to a number of health priorities. Instead of using the time-consuming process of federal rulemaking, which can stretch across multiple administrations, officials working under Republican President Donald Trump have found a quicker approach: Announce sweeping changes first and deal with the regulations later.

“It speaks volumes that the administration has yet to produce a document articulating the scientific basis for the voluntary request,” said Susan Mayne, a Yale University public health expert and former director of the FDA’s food program. Meanwhile, the FDA's website continues to carry the government's longtime conclusion that “the totality of scientific evidence” does not show a link between synthetic dyes and health problems.

“If FDA has changed its position, then FDA should document why and pursue a ban,” Mayne said.

A spokesperson for Kennedy said the administration has used “multiple approaches” to quickly make more progress on food dyes “than at any point in the past.”

“FDA engaged industry early in this effort to encourage timely changes while continuing its scientific and regulatory work,” said Emily Hilliard of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The agency maintains its role in evaluating safety and will continue to use its regulatory authorities, guidance, and review processes as appropriate.”

The lack of initiative in drafting new regulations is particularly striking at the FDA. Under federal law, the agency is supposed to refrain from making major policy announcements in news releases, speeches or other informal settings.

But a string of changes from Makary and his deputies have appeared first in articles in subscription-only medical journal articles, television interviews or online posts, including new restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines and other therapies.

Traditionally, those changes would be published first in the Federal Register, giving consumers, experts, and companies a chance to comment and suggest revisions to FDA proposals.

FDA has faced little pushback from industry

Almost as surprising as the agency’s shift away from rulemaking is the fact that the powerful companies FDA regulates have put up little resistance.

The FDA has faced hundreds of lawsuits over the decades — from drugmakers, pharmacies, tobacco companies and others — that accused the agency of failing to follow the legally required steps for new regulations and guidelines.

But drugmakers and other multibillion-dollar companies are sitting on the sidelines, at least for now.

Industry observers point to the administration's unusual willingness to pressure drugmakers, including on drug pricing concessions sought by Trump.

“Does the government have the ability to basically bully companies?” asked Dan Troy, the FDA’s former chief counsel. “Yes, and I think we’re seeing that.”

One of the biggest FDA changes came last May, when Makary and then-vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad published a medical journal article announcing that the FDA would no longer routinely approve COVID-19 shots for healthy adults under age 65 and children without underlying health problems. To win approval for that group, vaccine manufacturers would need to conduct large studies that many experts say may not be feasible in today's post-pandemic environment.

As with other vaccine decisions, Makary and Prasad bypassed the agency’s outside experts, who had traditionally been consulted on major decisions involving the shots. Makary says FDA advisory panels are often biased and take too much time and money to convene.

“We had all of this experience looking at the safety of how these vaccines work, and then these two cowboys come and say: ‘We’re going to make this policy’,” said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, who previously led the FDA’s vaccine panel.

Edwards and other experts say the lack of pushback from vaccine manufacturers may reflect the tremendous power the FDA holds over them.

“Ultimately, you need the FDA to license your product,” said Edwards, a retired vaccine scientist at Vanderbilt University. “If you’re going to try and buck the FDA -- especially in this environment — the likelihood of your product getting a positive review is going to be pretty low.”

Earlier this year, the FDA briefly refused to consider a new mRNA flu shot from Moderna. The agency reversed its decision after pushback from the company and the White House.

Recent FDA changes may have little staying power

There may be other reasons why normally litigious companies are not challenging the agency.

Some FDA initiatives have the potential to benefit companies, including a program that awards ultrafast reviews to drugs favored by the Trump administration.

Even seemingly burdensome changes may have little staying power because the agency is not going through the process to enshrine them in federal rules or guidelines. That includes stringent new standards to win approval for CAR-T therapies that were previously approved for various forms of cancer, based on early results.

“Anything that this administration does that they don’t embody in law can easily be undone by a future administration,” Troy said.

Still, with more than two years remaining under Trump, there are signs at least some companies may be willing to raise objections.

The FDA last year began releasing rejection letters for drugs it declined to approve. Previously, that information was considered confidential and the property of drugmakers.

Last month, an unnamed drugmaker filed a formal petition challenging the practice, noting the FDA had provided “only a two-sentence explanation addressing its purported legal authority” to release the letters.

The petition does not carry the force of a lawsuit, but it invokes the same language as numerous legal challenges to the agency, calling the FDA’s action “arbitrary and capricious.”

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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.

You could be dealing with restless legs syndrome.

Reports show it affects roughly 30 million people here in the United States.

“Restless legs syndrome can be a terrible disorder and really interfere with your ability to fall asleep. It’s a clinical diagnosis. It’s defined as the sensation of restlessness, or maybe itchiness, or pain, usually in your legs. And it usually happens at nighttime or when you’re at rest, like when you’re trying to go to sleep. And it can interfere, again, with your ability to fall asleep,” explained Brian Chen, MD, sleep specialist at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Chen said restless legs syndrome can be caused by a number of different factors, including having low levels of iron.

He explains that sometimes our guts don’t absorb iron properly, or in some cases, we may not be getting enough iron from our diets.

Iron can be found in foods like beef, chicken, eggs, fish and dark leafy greens.

Dr. Chen said treatment for restless legs syndrome can vary and may be something as simple as taking an iron supplement.

However, medication may also be necessary.

“There are also less common medications that are a little bit more cutting edge for restless legs that are really hard to treat, including some light opiates in a controlled state. There are even devices that are used to control restless legs. There’s a device on the market that you wear around your knee and then it stimulates the leg to make it feel like it’s moving so you don’t have to move it, and that way you’re able to fall asleep,” he said.

Dr. Chen adds that restless legs syndrome can also happen in children.

If you notice your child is tossing and turning more than normal in bed, it’s important to let their pediatrician know.

The military said that any “hostile design” against Pakistan would be countered with “greater strength, precision and resolve” than what India witnessed during the May 2025 conflict, which Islamabad named “Marka-e-Haq,” or “Battle of Truth.”

Pakistan and India had exchanged tit-for-tat strikes following an attack by gunmen in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them Hindu tourists. India blamed Pakistan-backed militants for the massacre in the town of Pahalgam, an allegation Islamabad denied while calling for an independent investigation.

India launched strikes inside Pakistan on May 7, triggering retaliatory attacks by Pakistan that included drone incursions, missile strikes and artillery fire. Dozens of people were killed on both sides before a ceasefire was reached on May 10 following U.S. mediation.

Pakistan at the time claimed it shot down at least seven Indian military aircraft, including a French-made Rafale fighter jet. India acknowledged suffering some losses but did not provide details.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken the credit for helping avert a wider war.

Speaking at a televised news conference, army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said India had blamed Pakistan for the attack on tourists in Kashmir within minutes of the shooting without presenting evidence.

“It has been one year since the Pahalgam incident, yet the questions Pakistan raised remain unanswered,” he said. Chaudhry said Pakistan did not underestimate India’s military capability but was fully prepared to respond to any “misadventure.”

“We are prepared; if anyone wishes to test us, they are more than welcome,” he said alongside Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Adm. Shifaat Ali and Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Projects) Air Vice Marshal Tariq Ghazi. However, Chaudhry added: “We are not seeking conflict, we are not seeking war. But we know how to defend ourselves with honor and dignity.”

Ali said the Indian navy had attempted to deploy vessels in the northern Arabian Sea during the fighting in an effort to target Pakistan’s naval assets and disrupt maritime trade routes. “But due to the effective strategy of the Pakistan Navy, maritime traffic in all our waterways remained uninterrupted,” he said.

At Thursday’s briefing, Ghazi said Pakistan had downed eight Indian fighter jets during the conflict. He added that Pakistan had exercised restraint and that its air force had the capability to inflict greater damage on the enemy.

Pakistan and India have long had strained relations and have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is claimed by both in its entirety.

Fellow No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said this week the players should consider a boycott.

“It’s more about respect. Because I think we give much more than what we are getting back,” Sinner said on Thursday at the Italian Open. “It’s not only for the top players; it’s for all of us players.”

Sinner wouldn’t commit to a boycott.

“It’s tough to say,” he said. “I cannot predict the future in a way. But in the same time I also believe that somewhere we need to start.”

The players have targeted the upcoming French Open for reducing players’ share of revenue to an alleged 15% — compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week.

The same group of players sent a letter a year ago to the heads of the four Grand Slams seeking more prize money and a greater say in decision-making. Wimbledon increased its 2025 total pot by 7%, the U.S. Open by 20% and the Australian Open in January by 16%.

“It’s not nice that after one year we are not even close to conclusion of what we would like to have,” Sinner said. “I truly believe that within 48 hours you have not only a response but you also have a meeting.”

French Open organizers announced last month they were increasing overall prize money by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), with the total amount up 5.3 million euros from last year. But the players’ statement said “the underlying figures tell a very different story,” claiming they will receive a smaller share of tournament revenues.

The players claim their share of Roland Garros revenue has declined from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% projected in 2026.

Wimbledon has not yet announced its prize money for this year.

“I think in the next couple of weeks we know also the prize money we’re going to have in Wimbledon. We truly hope that it’s going to be better. Then, of course, U.S. Open,” Sinner said.

Including profit sharing and an end-of-the-year bonus pool, men’s players actually get about 30% of the share of revenues at ATP Tour events like the Italian Open.

“We’ve been quiet for a long time and now the time has come to raise our voice,” Sinner added in Italian. “We’re not asking for 50% — we wouldn’t even dare — but right now we’re getting too little.”

French Open organizers have not responded to requests for comment.

Djokovic not involved but lends support

Novak Djokovic announced in January he was cutting ties with the Professional Tennis Players Association he co-founded, and that sued the sport’s governing bodies last year.

And while the 24-time Grand Slam champion said he has not been involved in the current player protest, he said the “players know that they’ll always have my support.

“The new generations are coming up," Djokovic added. “I’m glad that there is willingness from the leaders of our sport, like Sabalenka, to really step up and really understand the dynamics of how the tennis politics works and understand the nuances and really what needs to be done not only for her benefit and well-being, but for everyone.”

One of the big issues affecting tennis governance was that there were seven organizing bodies: The four Grand Slams, ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation.

“Tennis, as any big global sport, is a big business,” Djokovic said. “It needs to be approached from all sides with willingness to work together and figure out what the formula is.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

“We had a Western when we opened up, which is a hamburger and egg. That’s from the beginning. And a few years later, my grandfather decided to put cheese on it, sometime in the 30s. We’ve had a cheesy Western since then,” Matt Bullington, owner of the Texas Tavern, said.

Bullington says as far as he knows, the Texas Tavern was the first to put an egg on a hamburger.

“And we’ve been doing it for a long time. And it’s synonymous with the Texas Tavern. If you grow up in the Roanoke area and you hear Cheesy Western, then you think of Texas Tavern,” Bullington said.

But as it turns out, the burger’s reputation is reaching well beyond Roanoke.

“So, I got the cheesy western. I got a double cheesy western, and that blew my mind,” said hamburger expert George Motz, after a visit to the Texas Tavern several years ago.

A self-proclaimed burger scholar, Motz can back it up. He is the author of Hamburger America, a book now in its fourth edition, and owns a restaurant by the same name in New York City. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram.

“...If there is a resident scholar on hamburgers in America, it’s George Motz. The guy went to literally thousands of places over a couple of decades, and he understands where the burger came from,” Bullington said.

Motz, as it turns out, has a high opinion of the little restaurant.

“I started to realize that this is one of the most important restaurants in America, seriously,” Motz said.

And starting today, (May 6, 2026), it will be featured for a month in New York City at Motz’ restaurant.

“And so, what we do at Hamburger America is we do a monthly special. And the monthly special is always based on my relationships, people I know in the hamburger world,” Motz said. “In the case of Texas Tavern, what we’re doing is we’re actually bringing up the famous Texas Tavern relish that goes on the burger. Matt, of course, you know, didn’t want to give me the recipe, and I don’t blame him.”

“It’s a great honor, it really is. You know, George understands that it’s about the burger and the food, that’s certainly important, but it’s also about the places, and most all of the places are all the places in his books,” Bullington said.

The addition of the Tavern’s fare to the menu in New York was to be celebrated with an online news conference and celebration.

“And New York City, I think at this point, has gotten used to me launching one burger a month. And there’s always a lot of excitement around it. This has a lot excited because the older the place is and the more multi-generational a restaurant is, the more excitement it gets for sure. And this definitely fits the bill for a very exciting monthly special at Hamburger America,” Motz said.

The promotion in New York City comes at the same time the Texas Tavern is being featured in Southern Living Magazine. The magazine tapped the Tavern as one of the top four burger restaurants in the South.

Bullington says it’s great to be featured and recognized at the national level, but he says the Tavern will stay true to its roots.

“I always joke and say Texas Tavern’s kind of we’re a cultural mooring, so people crave things that are unchanged that they’re timeless, because everything else is so chaotic seemingly and changing all the time. So, we try to stay true to that and try to keep things as we’ve always had them, but we don’t want to lose that authenticity. That’s really important. So, that’s a big factor of our success,” Bullington said.

Check out this digital extra of John Carlin and Rachel Lucas talking Texas Tavern!

The letter underlines how the Democratic Party — both its leaders and the base — has grown increasingly critical of Israel.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, the Israeli military has regularly issued maps covering large areas of territory along with warnings telling all residents of the zones to flee. Israel had previously used a similar approach in Gaza.

The senators said the sweeping warnings have “been used to permanently displace people and destroy homes and towns” and that some civilians who refused to leave their homes in the areas have been killed by subsequent strikes.

The 12 senators led by Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, in a letter dated May 4 to CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper that was provided to The Associated Press, state that Israel’s practice of unilaterally declaring mass evacuation warnings in Lebanon and Iran “likely contravene international laws the United States has helped develop around humane warfare.”

The other signatories include senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

The letter asked the CENTCOM chief whether U.S. forces have coordinated military targets with Israeli forces during the recent war with Iran, whether they provided assistance or intelligence helping Israel’s military to impose the evacuation zones in Lebanon and Iran, and whether CENTCOM signed off on U.S. military support for the targeting of people or infrastructure in the evacuation zones. It also asked whether the U.S. military has reviewed the legality of the practice.

The Israeli military declined to comment when asked about the letter. CENTCOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the past, Israel has said the evacuation maps aim to keep civilians out of harm’s way. It says Hezbollah has positioned fighters, tunnels and weapons in civilian areas across southern Lebanon, from which it has launched hundreds of drones and missiles — without warning — into northern Israel.

International law experts say Israel’s warnings are inconsistent and often overly broad and open-ended. In Lebanon, residents say the warnings sometimes come with short notice or in the middle of the night, causing chaos and confusion, while in some cases, the warnings prompt evacuations but are never followed by a strike. In other cases, strikes in residential areas come with no warning.

A shift in the party stance

Observers said the move is part of a larger shift in the stance of Democratic Party leaders on U.S. military assistance to Israel. Democrats have also been critical of the Trump administration's entry into the war on Iran alongside Israel.

The letter came nearly three weeks after more than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Sanders to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.

The two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs to Israel were opposed by all Republicans and rejected 40-59 and 36-63.

Jon Finer, former deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden, said the recent steps by Democratic senators reflect a “growing concern about Israeli conduct of various wars that cause civilian harm and U.S. complicity in that" across the spectrum within the Democratic Party.

Asked why the Democratic Party is taking these steps now and not at the time when the war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out — when the Democratic Biden administration was in power — Finer said: “our operational integration with Israel appears to be growing, which is part of it, but the truth is the Democratic base has been moving in this direction for some time and Washington has been catching up.”

Andrew Miller, a former senior official on Israel and Palestinian Affairs at the State Department, said the letter “represents a shift among congressional Democrats moving from questions of the legality of Israeli military operations to concerns about the complicity of the U.S. military.”

“It demonstrates that Democrats are taking international law very seriously and that is a welcome development,” Miller said.

The evacuation zones

Israel has issued dozens of evacuation warnings in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2. Over 1 million people in Lebanon have fled their homes during the war.

Israel has also issued similar warnings for Iranians, both during the 12-day Israel-Iran war last year and during the U.S.-Israeli war launched on Iran on Feb. 28. In one case last year they warned 300,000 people in Tehran, Iran's capital, to evacuate.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation warning to residents of 12 villages in southern Lebanon saying Hezbollah is using them to launch attacks. The warnings came despite a ceasefire that has been nominally in place since April 17, although Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying daily attacks since then.

The senators said the declaration of evacuation zones does not absolve Israeli and U.S. forces “from the absolute legal responsibility to determine that each individual person or civilian facility targeted by drones, jets, and gunfire is, in fact, a military target.” It said the use of the zones has been linked to “the deaths of thousands of civilians," describing them as “kill zones.”

In response to questions by the AP last month, the Israeli military said it issues warnings by phone, text, radio broadcast, social media and leaflets dropped from the air, in accordance with the “principles of distinction, proportionality and feasible precautions” under international law.

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Associated Press writer Julia Frankel contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

The new concert film, co-directed by Eilish and three-time Academy Award winner James Cameron, was his idea. Cameron emailed Eilish's mother, Maggie Baird — a friend of his wife via their shared interest in plant-based diets and environmentalism — and suggested they shoot Eilish's “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour in 3D.

It is new territory for Cameron, in some ways, and old hat in others. His production company has done a number of concert films, including one with Eilish's musical hero Justin Bieber, but Cameron hasn't sat in the director's chair of a project like this one. A 3D concert film also brings up a number of technical challenges — a passion of Cameron's, as anyone who has seen the blockbuster “Avatar” franchise could attest to — and as a fellow outlier of industry, the pairing succeeds.

Eilish, too, is no stranger to film: She's the subject of the 2021 documentary, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” and a concert film released that same year, “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles.” This, however, is her first time co-directing a feature. And where “The World's a Little Blurry” served as a composite of her come-up and various successes, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is dedicated to the concert film format while pushing its boundaries.

While no movie can serve as the perfect replica of a transformative live music experience, “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)” works an immersive magic. Every seat is the best seat in the house in these shots; common issues with concert films find solutions. Audience members are celebrated like additional characters. When the camera is on them, their voices are heard loud — sniffling, screams, cheers, off-key sing-alongs get their shine, sometimes above Eilish in the mix, mimicking the experience of swaying in the crowd.

In 3D, her minimalist set is given a visceral tangibility. Fans see Eilish jump through trap doors, hook into safety harnesses, chug water, dance off screen, become teary eyed and embrace her band mates. At nearly two-hours of runtime, it passes like zephyr, a thrill ride so fun it feels too short.

There is also new insight for the Eilish fan: Cameras escort the pop star backstage and underneath it. In the beginning of the film, viewers experience the tour's opening scene — and then they get to see it again, from Eilish's perspective. In other moments, Cameron is on screen with Eilish as she co-directs, giving the film the intimacy of a behind-the-scenes DVD extra detailing how the movie was made … in the middle of it. It's a compelling watch and demonstrates a deep understanding of a dedicated pop music audience, where accessibility is the most valuable cultural currency.

“You're like a tuning fork,” Cameron says to Eilish in one scene. “And they're hitting the same beats.”

There is little narrativizing, what often ruins a fine film, turning it into a vanity project. Eilish is shown backstage strengthening her ankle after suffering a sprain, mostly to highlight the physicality of her performance. In another, she plays with puppies, a brief reminder of her animal rights activism. They're welcomed breaks, but not totally memorable. The strength of the film is Eilish on stage — not in its interview interludes.

For years, Eilish has chosen to perform solo on stage. In this movie, fans will learn it is because she has long wanted to mimic a hip-hop performance, where a rapper can command a stage with just a microphone, the strength of their songs and charisma. “I just wanted the freedom of being a guy running around,” she tells Cameron. The performance that follows is “Bury a Friend” from her first record, a song with production that pulls inspiration from hip-hop — a masterful exhibition of influence creating innovation.

The only place where the structure falters is in a candid conversation about desirability and femininity followed by the Oscar-winning “Barbie” theme “What Was I Made For?” Other songs in Eilish's discography would've driven the point home with more subtlety and acuity.

But the moment comes and goes. What is left are big songs and bigger emotions. When a fan in the front row is heard wailing, “Billie! Billie! Billie,” with tears in her eyes and a handmade sign asking for a hug, the viewer has no choice but to hope she gets that embrace, that Eilish makes individual eye contact with her, that a connection can be realized in some brief, healing moment. “I understand that need and that desperation,” Eilish says in one scene, describing herself as a superfan like the ones before her. “I want to be the artist I would want to be a fan of.”

Concert films are engineered for loyal listeners: To relive the night, or experience it for the first time, or to revel in the joy of being a face in the crowd. That goes for Eilish as well.

“To get to see these close up, beautiful, 3D shots of these fans who I would never have gotten to see have that emotional reaction,” from the stage in the middle of her performance, Eilish told The Associated Press last month, “I feel really grateful for that gift.”

Spoken like a true fan.

“Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D),” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong language and suggestive references. Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Both the Vatican and the U.S. State Department stressed that Rubio’s meetings with Leo and the Vatican’s top diplomat underscored strong bilateral ties. Those relations, though, have been strained over Trump’s repeated broadsides about Leo’s calls for peace and dialogue to end the U.S.-Israeli war.

Rubio, a practicing Catholic, has often been called on to tone down or explain Trump’s harsh rhetoric. He had an audience first with Leo, which was complicated at the last minute by Trump’s latest criticism of the Chicago-born pope. During a 2½-hour visit, Rubio then met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who on the eve of his visit had strongly defended Leo and criticized Trump’s attacks.

“Attacking him like that or criticizing what he does seems a bit strange to me, to say the least,” Parolin said Wednesday.

After the meetings, the U.S. State Department said that Rubio and Parolin discussed “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East. The discussion reflected the enduring partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom.”

In a separate statement about the audience with Leo, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that the two discussed the situation in the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere. “The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

The Vatican, for its part, said that during Rubio’s meetings with both Leo and Parolin, “the shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America was reaffirmed.”

It said the two sides exchanged views on the current events “with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as on the need to work tirelessly in favor of peace.”

Rubio also has meetings Friday with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Those meetings might not be much easier for Washington’s top diplomat, given both have strongly defended Leo against Trump’s attacks and have criticized the Iran war as illegal — drawing the president’s ire.

A mission to smooth ties

The tensions began when Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration’s immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said that God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who wage war.

Later, Trump posted a social media image appearing to liken himself to Jesus Christ, which was deleted after a backlash. He has refused to apologize to Leo and has sought to explain away the post by saying that he thought the image was a representation of him as a doctor.

Rubio said that Trump’s recent criticisms of Leo were rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he said could be used against millions of Catholics and other Christians.

Leo has never said Iran should obtain nuclear weapons and that the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”

“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said late Tuesday, after Trump again accused him of being “OK” with Iran having a nuclear weapon.

By Thursday, tensions seemed to have eased.

Rubio gave Leo a small crystal football paperweight. He acknowledged Leo’s known allegiance to the Chicago White Sox, saying “you’re a baseball guy,” but noted that the football had the seal of the State Department on it.

“What to get someone who has everything?” Rubio joked as he gave Leo the paperweight.

Leo, for his part, gave Rubio a pen apparently made of olive wood — “olive being of course the plant of peace,” Leo said — with his coat of arms on it and a picture book of Vatican artworks.

Trump also has criticized Meloni and other NATO allies for a lack of support for the Iran war, recently announcing plans to withdraw thousands of American troops from Germany in the coming months.

Vatican seen as willing to have dialogue

Giampiero Gramaglia, former head of the ANSA news agency and its onetime Washington correspondent, said that he didn’t expect much to come out of Rubio's visit for Italian or Vatican relations. He, and other Italian commentators, believe Rubio instead was looking to smooth over relations with the pope for his own political ambitions, as well as the upcoming midterm U.S. congressional elections and 2028 presidential race.

“I doubt Rubio has the role of conciliator for Trump,” he told Italy's Foreign Press Association. “I have the perception that Rubio’s mission is more about himself” and his political ambitions as a prominent Catholic Republican.

The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture office, said that Rubio’s mission wasn’t to “convert” the pope to Trump’s side. Rather, Washington “has come to acknowledge — implicitly but legibly — that (Leo’s) voice carries weight in the world that cannot simply be dismissed.”

“The situation created by President Trump’s remarks required a high-level, direct intervention, conducted in the proper language of diplomacy: a semantic corrective to a narrative of frontal conflict with the church,” he wrote in an essay this week.

Cuba is also on the agenda

Rubio said that topics other than the Iran war were on the agenda for the Vatican visit, including Cuba. The Holy See is particularly concerned about the Trump administration’s threats of potential military action there following its January ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has said frequently that Cuba could be “next,” and even suggested that once the Iran war is over, naval assets deployed in the Middle East could return to the United States by way of Cuba.

Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and a longtime Cuba hawk.

“We gave Cuba $6 million of humanitarian aid, but obviously they won’t let us distribute it," Rubio said. “We distributed it through the church. We’d like to do more.”

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Matthew Lee, the AP's diplomatic writer, reported from Washington.

___

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.

Iran effectively seized control of the critical waterway after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. Weeks of heavy bombing and a U.S. naval blockade imposed last month have yet to loosen its grip. Iran says it will only reopen the strait if the war ends and the blockade is lifted. U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking wider concessions, including the rollback of Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Here is a look at the strait by the numbers:

21 miles (34 kilometers)

This is the width of the strait, which bends like an elbow, at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships follow narrow lanes to safely navigate the shallow water, making it even more of a chokepoint.

20%

Before the war, a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flowed through the strait every day, as well as large supplies of natural gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products.

100-130

The number of ships that passed through the strait each day before the war began, including oil tankers and cargo ships, according to research firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

534

The number of ships that are believed to have passed through the strait from the start of hostilities through May 4, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. Many are believed to have carried Iranian oil. In normal times, an estimated 6,500 to 8,450 ships would have transited the strait during the same period.

50%

The amount that the average price of gas in the U.S. has risen since the war began. The average price of a gallon was $4.56 on Thursday, according to AAA. The closure of the strait has also nearly doubled the cost of jet fuel.

Up to 10%

Insurance rates for ships have skyrocketed from 1% of the ship’s goods up to as much as 10%, according to shipping experts.

45 million

The number of people who could experience hunger, mostly in Asia and Africa, if the strait does not open soon, according to the U.N. World Food Program. The blocking of fuel and fertilizer shipments could soon push the price of food and other necessities out of reach for those already in a precarious situation, it said.

10

The number of mariners who have been killed since the Iran war began, according to the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization.

32

The number of ships that have come under attack, according to the International Maritime Organization.

1,550

The number of vessels, from 87 countries, currently stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. military.

22,500

The number of mariners stranded on these ships, including many from South and Southeast Asia.

15,000

The number of U.S. soldiers, accompanied by 100 aircraft, committed to enforce Project Freedom, according to the U.S. military. Trump's initiative to guide ships through the strait was paused on Tuesday, just two days after he announced it.

2

The number of ships that the U.S. said it successfully guided through the strait as part of Project Freedom. ___

Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed.

Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, is also campaigning to turn the Rome event into a fifth Grand Slam.

The players have targeted the coming French Open for reducing players' share of revenue to an alleged 14.3% — compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week.

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among players this week threatening a boycott of the Slams if they don’t start receiving more compensation.

“The players have our full support,” Binaghi said. “It’s scandalous that we’re required by the ATP to share a bigger cut of the revenues with the players and the four Grand Slams hand out a smaller cut.

“It’s shameful and creates competitive disparities, too, because the four nations (that organize the Slams) have a huge amount of money to invest in their technical sectors that other nations don’t have,” Binaghi added. “I want to blow apart this monopoly.”

Italian Open prize money

It should be noted that the Italian Open has offered less prize money for women than men for years. The total men's prize money this year in Rome is $9.6 million while the women's prize money is $8.3 million.

But next week the women's champion in Rome will earn 1.055 million euros — slightly more than the 1.007 million euros handed out to the men's winner.

Fifth Grand Slam

For more than a year, Binaghi has been campaigning to turn the Italian Open into a fifth Grand Slam alongside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open — upending a century of tennis history.

With Jannik Sinner dominating at No. 1 and three other Italians in the men's top 20 rankings — No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti; No. 12 Flavio Cobolli and No. 20 Luciano Darderi — Italian tennis is booming.

Italy has won the Davis Cup for three straight years and the Billie Jean King Cup — the women’s team event — for the last two years.

So Binaghi, who took over the federation a quarter century ago when it was nearly bankrupt, wants to take advantage of the boom for his Grand Slam dream.

“We’re experiencing a stretch of tennis in Italy that will be tough to repeat, because it also needs to be considered in comparison with the Italian soccer debacle," Binaghi said, referring to how Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.

Foro Italico running out of room

Besides tradition and scheduling issues, Binaghi faces another major obstacle toward making the Italian Open bigger: There’s little room for expansion at the Foro Italico.

“We’re open to organizing a (fifth Grand Slam) anywhere in Italy — on any surface,” Binaghi said.

Work on a retractable roof for Campo Centrale is slated to start immediately after this year’s Italian Open and be ready for the 2028 edition.

Capacity for the revised stadium will increase from 10,500 to 12,400.

The Italian Open is hoping to pass 400,000 ticket sales this year, while the French Open last year had a total attendance of nearly 700,000.

“If we’re going to aim big, we shouldn’t focus exclusively on the Foro Italico, because there are a lot of issues here in terms of transport and temporary venues,” Binaghi said.

So would Binaghi be willing to move the tournament away from the Foro and its statue-lined courts?

“These days, the beauty factor is just added value; it’s not decisive,” he said. “The people don’t come to see the statues anymore. They come to see Sinner, Musetti, (Jasmine) Paolini and the other Italian players.”

The Italian Open wanted to add a mixed doubles tournament this year on the weekend before the singles events start but ATP and WTA rules wouldn’t allow it because the Madrid Open ends those days.

Sinner favored to end drought

While Jasmine Paolini earned Italy the titles in both women’s singles and doubles (with partner Sara Errani) last year, Sinner is an overwhelming favorite this year to become the first Italian man to win at the Foro since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.

Apart from the Olympics, the Italian Open and French Open are the only big titles in tennis that Sinner hasn’t won and his top rival, Carlos Alcaraz, is out of both tournaments due to a right wrist injury.

Binaghi said if Sinner raises the trophies in Rome and Paris, “maybe I should step down.

“If it happens,” Binaghi said of Sinner winning those two titles, “we’ll take stock of all the opportune and logical consequences.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

The No. 2-seeded Spurs restored order in the West, handing the Timberwolves their worst postseason loss in franchise history, 133-95, as Victor Wembanyama and company seemed to send a message after a disappointing home loss in the series opener.

The 7-foot-4 Wembanyama dominated with 19 points and 15 rebounds, Stephon Castle added 21 points and the Spurs shot 50% from the field to even the series, which heads to Minnesota for Game 3 on Friday night.

Minnesota coach Chris Finch reacted by saying, “I just told (our players) we got punked.”

The Spurs’ win marked the franchise’s highest-scoring playoff game since a series-clinching 145-105 win over Denver on May 4, 1983.

Also Wednesday, the New York Knicks took a 2-0 Eastern Conference semifinal series lead over the Philadelphia 76ers with a 108-102 win behind 26 points from Jalen Brunson.

A pair of Game 2s are on tap Thursday: Detroit, at home, will aim for a 2-0 lead on Cleveland in the East and Oklahoma City, also at home, is seeking a 2-0 lead on the Los Angeles Lakers in the West.

Thursday's schedule

— Game 2, Cleveland at Detroit, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Odds: Detroit by 3 1/2.

Cade Cunningham had 23 points, Tobias Harris scored 20 and the top-seeded Pistons ended a NBA record-tying 12-game postseason losing streak to a single opponent with a 111-101 win against the Cavaliers in Game 1. The Pistons had not defeated Cleveland in the NBA playoffs since the 2007 Eastern Conference finals. Cavs reserve guard Sam Merrill (left hamstring) could miss Game 2.

— Game 2, Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Odds: Oklahoma City by 15 1/2.

The Los Angeles Lakers, still without Luka Doncic (hamstring), looked completely outmatched against OKC in Game 1. Chet Holmgren had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and the Thunder ran away with a 108-90 victory. Doncic has already been ruled out for Game 2. Jarred Vanderbilt (finger) is doubtful and Luke Kennard (neck) is questionable for the Lakers.

Friday's schedule

— Game 3, New York at Philadelphia, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Series: New York leads 2-0.

Odds: 76ers by 1 1/2.

The 76ers will look to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole as the series heads to Philadelphia. The 76ers are hoping to get center Joel Embiid back after he missed Game 2 with a sprained ankle.

— Game 2, San Antonio at Minnesota, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Series tied 1-1.

Odds: Spurs by 3 1/2.

Wembanyama brought a refuse-to-lose attitude to Game 2 and the Spurs won in a blowout. Now the series moves to Minnesota and the Timberwolves hope star Anthony Edwards, who has come off the bench in the first two games, may be able to play more minutes as he works his way back from a hyperextended knee.

Wednesday recap

— Knicks 108, 76ers 102 for 2-0 series lead. Joel Embiid did not play due to a sprained ankle.

— Spurs 133, Timberwolves 95 to even series at 1-1.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder were followed by San Antonio (+400), New York (+800), Detroit (+1700), Cleveland (+3500), Los Angeles Lakers (+4000) and Minnesota (+4000).

Philadelphia has the longest odds at +10000.

Will Lakers strategy in Game 2 change?

The Lakers were determined not to let Gilgeous-Alexander beat them in Game 1, repeatedly double-teaming the Thunder point guard.

The strategy mostly backfired.

While Gilgeous-Alexander turned the ball over seven times and was limited to 18 points — the first time he's been held to fewer than 20 points in 81 games — the rest of the OKC team thrived in a blowout victory.

“Ultimately it’s the easiest form of basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’d much rather do that than have to go one-on-one all night over somebody. My teammates on the back end playing four-on-three, it’s what you play for.”

Added Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: “When they play like that, it’s one of the advantages that you have. They’re throwing two at Shai really early in possessions and, in order to do that, you get two guys on the ball and then you’ve got three guys off of bodies and rotating and that presents rebounding opportunities.”

Key dates

— Sunday: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“I thought we had maybe four wide-open shots in a row that didn’t go. We just needed to keep the scoreboard moving and we played great offense. We just didn’t shot-make.” 76ers coach Nick Nurse on his team's struggles scoring down the stretch in Game 2 without Embiid.

Stats of the day

— The 76ers-Knicks game featured 25 lead changes, the most in a playoff game in 11 years. There were also 14 ties. The largest lead of the game was seven points.

— San Antonio's De'Aaron Fox made both 3-point attempts after missing on four attempts in Game 1.

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

Now, a renter-friendly pilot program in New York City is testing a different approach: plug-in batteries that can power air conditioners offline during peak demand, helping take pressure off the grid at its most stressed moments while still keeping residents cool.

“It’s basically a souped up version of the power bank that you would use to charge your phone when you go out,” said Andrew Wang, the chief executive officer of Every Electric, the company behind the pilot, which has partnered with the city's energy company Con Edison.

The devices, about the size of a microwave, charge when electricity demand is low and then run window AC units for a few hours when demand spikes. It's one of many partners participating in Con Edison's demand response programs, which pay customers to reduce or shift electricity use to support the grid.

The pilot program is expanding to more than 1,000 homes this summer and participants can get rewarded in cash rebates.

Experts say this initiative reflects the broader shift toward so-called virtual power plants, in which many small, distributed energy resources are coordinated to reduce strain during peak demand. When scaled, solutions like this could have a significant impact on power reliability and affordability.

Why electricity gets pricier during heat events

When electricity demand spikes, utilities often turn to backup power plants that don’t run as often, and are typically less efficient and more polluting, said Kevin Brehm, a manager at RMI, a nonprofit that researches energy systems and the transition to clean power.

Over time, those spikes can push utilities to build more power plants, often fossil-fuel based, to meet demand, with the costs eventually passed down to consumers.

“There’s a question of emissions, and then there’s also a really important question around affordability,” said Brehm.

That’s why power companies often ask residents to conserve energy during the hottest days of the year, and set higher rates during peak hours to encourage people to conserve power. Those strategies “can be hard to rely on because they don’t know exactly how consumers are going to behave,” Brehm added.

That’s where solutions like Every Electric’s can help.

Battery networks can take the pressure off

Utilities and governments are increasingly looking for ways to manage rising electricity demand as heat waves become more frequent and intense.

One approach is Every Electric's demand response program, which pays customers to reduce or shift electricity use during periods of high demand.

Virtual power plant programs are another solution expanding state by state. They connect thousands of small energy devices, like home batteries or smart appliances, and coordinate them to send power back to the grid when demand spikes, easing strain without building new plants. California, for example, is working to develop one of the world’s largest, paying hundreds of thousands of participants to send stored energy back to the grid during extreme climate events. Most of these programs are limited to homeowners with solar panels.

Con Edison said batteries can help reduce peak demand, support renewable energy and lessen the need for new infrastructure.

Every Electric’s program works specifically for people with window AC units, who are typically renters, though it does not export power back to the grid. Instead, it reduces demand by using stored battery power.

Still, Brehm said programs like it are part of the broader push to integrate consumer energy devices into the grid and reward the services they provide.

“I can’t put solar panels on my roof,” said Bianca Pasternack, a New York City renter enrolled in the program. “This is at least something that’s accessible and easy. It was very set-it-and-forget-it.”

Pilot program of plug-in batteries to AC units is growing

The battery plugs into the AC unit, then into the wall outlet. It’s connected to a smartphone app that detects when demand is low, charging the battery during off-peak hours and using it to power the AC during peak times, usually from 1 to 4 p.m. or 4 to 8 p.m. during the hottest months.

Participants can also earn money for taking part, roughly the equivalent of the cost of a July electric bill, according to the company. Pasternack said she received a $100 gift card at the end of the season.

The company says its pilot is growing from about 200 kilowatts of flexible capacity last year to roughly 2 megawatts this summer, and could expand much further. By comparison, California's program exceeds 200 megawatts. The company is looking to expand to other cities, Wang said.

Although Every Electric's program currently operates at a small scale, Brehm says systems like this could meaningfully reduce strain on the grid if they reach enough households.

“It’s a matter of how we’re able to get to that scale,” he said, noting that widespread adoption is a key issue that depends on how easily the technology can be deployed and integrated into the grid. He added that Every Electric’s installation process is easily accessible. “It’s plug-and-play and you don’t need a ton of permissions.”

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 2 rose by 10,000 to 200,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 205,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

The previous week’s new claims figure, which was the fewest since 1969, was revised up by 1,000 to 190,000.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite dwindling layoffs shown in government data, the Iran war, now in its third month, has injected a large degree of uncertainty about how it will affect the U.S. and global economies even as Iran and the U.S. remain under a ceasefire agreement with growing optimism that an end to the war is near.

U.S. financial markets have rebounded near record levels and prices for a barrel of U.S. crude oil remain elevated around $90 per barrel. That’s down from highs of $112 last month, but still 36% higher than before the war began. Gas prices also much higher since the war began — AAA says the national average Thursday was at $4.56 a gallon —- saddling businesses and consumers with higher costs.

Last week, the government reported that a key inflation measure jumped in March as gas prices soared, the latest sign that the Iran war is driving the cost of living sharply higher.

An inflation gauge monitored by the Federal Reserve rose 0.7% in March from February, up sharply from the previous month, the Commerce Department said. Compared with a year ago, prices rose 3.5%, the biggest increase in almost three years.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation was also up in March.

This comes at a time when U.S. inflation is already above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Last week, the Fed opted to leave its benchmark rate alone, citing economic uncertainty caused by instability in the Middle East and still-elevated inflation.

Lower interest rates can boost the economy and hiring, but also tend to fuel inflation. Fed officials voted to cut rates three times to close 2025 out of concern for a weakening job market.

The Labor Department reported last month that U.S. employers added an unexpectedly strong 178,000 new jobs in March, nudging the unemployment rate back down to 4.3%. That followed a surprisingly large loss of 92,000 jobs in February. Revisions also have trimmed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, a sign that the labor market remains under strain.

The government issues its monthly jobs report for April on Friday.

A number of high-profile companies have cut jobs recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPS, Amazon and Disney.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff rollouts, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs last year, compared with about 1.5 million in 2024, according to the data firm FactSet.

Economists say the American labor market appears stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job. The recent artificial intelligence boom and the investment required to develop it is also making companies reluctant to hire.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly ups and downs, fell to 203,250, down 4,500 from the previous week.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 25 declined by 10,000 to 1.77 million.

The indictment identified the man as Yona Schreiber, 36, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel. It comes after a video of the assault received wide condemnation from foreign and Christian leaders.

Schreiber was arrested last week, and Israel's attorney general recommended extending his detention for the duration of the case. Schreiber’s lawyer refused to speak to an Associated Press journalist at the court.

According to the indictment, Schreiber attacked a woman in Jerusalem, just outside of the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, because she was wearing a habit that identified her as a Catholic nun. He pushed her and then kicked her while she was lying on the ground, and also attacked a passerby who attempted to halt his attack, the indictment said.

Schreiber is being charged with simple assault, and assault motivated by religious hostility.

Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said that the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence” in an X post.

Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship in Jerusalem’s holiest sites because of security concerns during the Iran war.

Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was prohibited from holding a private Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, the first time in centuries Catholic leaders have been prevented from observing Palm Sunday at the church. After the uproar, Jerusalem police eventually worked out a compromise for a limited Easter Mass at the church.

Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself bludgeoning a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said that he would be reprimanded, and assisted local residents in replacing the statue.

The Israeli military also opened an investigation into a soldier photographed shoving a cigarette into the mouth of the statue of the Virgin Mary, which was apparently photographed several weeks ago. The military said that it views the incident with “utmost severity.” And there have been questions and concern about Israeli soldiers bulldozing parts of a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon.

Last month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry appointed former Ambassador George Deek to be the special envoy to the Christian world, in response to the incidents. Deek previously served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan and was Israel’s first Arab Christian ambassador.

Deek condemned the soldier filmed smoking a cigarette with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and stressed that Israel “is committed to preserving religious freedom and the dignity of all religions.”

Israel’s founding declaration includes safeguarding freedom of religion and all holy places, and it portrays itself as an oasis of religious tolerance in a volatile region.

But some church authorities and monitoring groups have lamented a recent increase in anti-Christian sentiment and harassment. The issue is particularly pronounced in Jerusalem’s Old City, a densely populated area with narrow alleyways of ancient stones, which houses holy sites for Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Wadie Abunassar, the coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, last week called attacks targeting Christians a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was caught on video.

He said that he felt “great anger on the system and great sadness, because I feel that this will not end anytime soon.” One of the problems, he said, was insufficient deterrence against such violence.

“Many times in such cases there are no arrests and if there are arrests, sometimes after one or two days, (suspects) are released,” he added. “In some cases, the police do not recommend the prosecution to file charges or to indict them. And in some cases, when there is indictment, the indictment is mild.”

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Sam Metz contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the release of the note after The New York Times asked him last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.

Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it last year on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast.

Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book after Epstein was found on the floor of their cell at a Manhattan federal jail on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around the financier's neck. That was about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell in what authorities concluded was a suicide.

“They investigated me for month -- found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do -- Bust out cryin!!”

“NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”

It is unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found. It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of files on the late financier.

In a written ruling, Karas said he weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, before ruling to release the note. He said existing case law suggests that privacy interests of a deceased person, such as Epstein, “are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.‘”

According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from the suspected July 23 attempt. Jail officers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. One officer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed Tartaglione had tried to kill him, according to a memo included in the Justice Department’s files.

Jail officials placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours after the incident before downgrading him to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself. According to jail records, he denied trying to harm himself, telling a jail psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain.

A chronology included in the files states that Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.

Both men were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019, according to jail records.

Epstein said he had never had any issues with Tartaglione, wasn't threatened by him and didn't “want to make up something that isn’t there.” Tartaglione said he didn't have any issues being Epstein’s cellmate, though he said they kept their conversations to a minimum. On July 23, he said, he thought Epstein was having a heart attack because his eyes were open and he appeared to be snoring.

Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both were awaiting trials — Epstein on sex trafficking charges and Tartaglione on charges that in 2016 he killed four men, including a man he tortured and strangled over stolen drug money.

Tartaglione, who had been an officer in the Hudson River Valley village of Briarcliff Manor, was convicted in 2023. He is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon.

Epstein was without a cellmate when he was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, on Aug. 10, 2019. Authorities have pointed to a series of missteps by jail personnel — including browsing the internet and sleeping when they should've been checking on Epstein — for allowing him to take his own life.

Officials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, but that it didn't appear to be a suicide note. Rather, they said, it appeared to be a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including about food, showers and the presence of bugs.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

A free kick that should have led to a second yellow card for handball by Paris Saint-Germain defender Nuno Mendes was overturned after just 29 minutes when Bayern badly needed a way back into Wednesday's game.

“That would have been a decisive moment if PSG had lost a player so early,” said Bayern’s Konrad Laimer, who instead was eventually judged — on the fourth official’s advice — to have handled the ball seconds earlier.

Two years ago, a potential goal in stoppage time by Bayern’s Matthijs de Ligt to force extra time at Real Madrid was ruled out by a quickly raised flag for a possible offside that was marginal at best.

In 2024, Bayern’s then-coach Thomas Tuchel called the on-field ruling a “disastrous decision” that “feels almost like a betrayal.”

It is now six years and counting — and two semifinals exits — since six-time European champion Bayern last played in the final.

An added frustration is the passage of play around the Nuno Mendes handball could not be reviewed by the VAR system — though a similar incident could be next season when the rules are updated.

Key moment

PSG took a deserved third-minute lead in Munich on Wednesday when Ousmane Dembélé finished a fast break driven by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s skills and speed.

That made it 6-4 on aggregate to PSG, and Bayern seeking a big change in momentum.

It seemed to come when Laimer surged forward and flicked the ball up to the side of Nuno Mendes, whose outstretched right arm made his body bigger and blocked the ball.

Referee João Pinheiro blew his whistle and signaled with his left arm a free kick to Bayern. Another yellow card for Nuno Mendes, already booked for tripping Michael Olise, seemed inevitable.

Before Pinheiro reached the spot to take the free kick, his right arm was out in the PSG direction of play. The Portuguese referee gave a thumbs up signal to his fourth official on the touchline, Espen Eskas from Norway.

Laimer was judged to have handled the ball several meters (yards) further back when he first controlled the bouncing ball. Television replays were inconclusive.

“You don’t feel it during the game itself. I thought I had played the ball with my stomach, and then Mendes with his hand,” Laimer said. “The referee whistled for handball against me five seconds later. That’s really strange.”

No VAR review

The VAR protocol today allows video review of “clear and obvious errors” in four game-changing situations: A goal, a penalty, direct red cards, mistaken identity when the wrong player is shown a red or yellow card.

Starting at the World Cup next month, VAR can intervene to overturn a red card if a second yellow was shown in error.

Nuno Mendes never was shown a second yellow on Wednesday. However, a similar situation next season will let the referee follow their first instinct and review the whole passage of play at a pitchside monitor.

“I though he was giving it,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said of Pinheiro moving toward a second yellow for Nuno Mendes. “I felt he pulled out because he realized he had already given him a yellow and he didn’t want to send him off for that, and he’s turned it around to the other side.

“I’ve seen it from a few angles. I don’t see Konrad Laimer touch the ball with his hand.”

Instead of playing one hour against PSG down one man, Bayern faced a full-strength opponent and did not score until Harry Kane’s goal at the very end of a 1-1 game that cut the overall score to 6-5.

Minutes after the Laimer decision, Bayern was correctly denied a penalty for handball by PSG’s João Neves because the ball was played to his arm by a teammate. That nuance is not specified in The Laws of the Game but it is in a supplementary document called Football Rules.

PSG will defend its Champions League title against Arsenal on May 30. Bayern’s wait goes on.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Last week, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said he hopes the U.S. would make the “right choices” relating to the self-ruled island when he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not excluded the use of force to take it. Beijing has been ramping up its military pressure by sending warplanes and naval vessels around the island almost daily.

“The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and the bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian Thursday.

“Abiding by the One China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués and honoring the commitments made by U.S administrations on the Taiwan question, is the due international obligation of the United States and the prerequisite for a steady, sound, and sustainable China-U.S. relationship," he added.

Such strong language so close in time to the two leaders' meeting is rare for Beijing, said Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defense expert at Taiwan’s Central Police University. The new language also explicitly links U.S. diplomatic actions on Taiwan to Washington's relationship with China.

China and Taiwan split after a civil war in 1949. The U.S. is the island's largest unofficial ally and also sells weapons to Taiwan as part of a law which requires it to ensure Taiwan can defend itself. Those weapons sales and diplomatic support is a primary source of tension between China and the U.S.

Separately, China's top diplomat Wang said Thursday in a meeting with visiting American senators that ties with both sides have managed to keep things stable amid disruptions.

During a meeting with members of a U.S. bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Sen. Steve Daines, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi credited Presidents Xi Jinping and Trump for “helping steer the direction of bilateral relations at critical moments.”

“Over the past year, China-U.S. relations have gone through many twists and disruptions, but we have still managed to maintain overall stability," Wang said.

Daines, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a strong supporter of Trump, agreed and said that both countries should look for stability.

“I strongly believe that we want to de-escalate, not decouple. We want stability, we want mutual respect,” he said.

Daines hinted at one possible outcome to the two leaders' meeting next week, saying, "perhaps we could see some more Boeing airplanes purchased, which I know would be something we would like to see."

The senator also recognized China's efforts to help reduce tensions in the Middle East and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said that Wang's meeting on Wednesday with the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was proof of China's engagement.

Ahead of Trump's visit to China, scheduled for May 14-15, the U.S. government has been pressing Beijing to use its influence with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows.

It was Daines' second trip to China since Trump took office last year. He previously visited in March 2025, when the two countries were locked in frictions over trade tariffs and efforts to combat illegal fentanyl trade.

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Wu reported from Bangkok.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined the proposed revisions on Thursday, casting them as necessary to safeguard future generations given global concerns about AI’s risks to democratic governance and humanity itself.

“It’s very important that, in this process of constitutional revision, we take care of the world that will host our children,” Mitsotakis told lawmakers from his governing center-right party.

The proposed changes would include a provision that says: “Artificial intelligence shall serve the freedom of the individual and the prosperity of society, ensuring that risks are mitigated and that the advantages it provides are fully realized.”

Dozens of other changes would include expanding postal voting, increasing mandatory schooling from nine to 11 years and banning retroactive taxation.

“These challenges already dominate today: from the climate crisis and protection of water resources to renewable energy sources, but above all the use of artificial intelligence,” the prime minister said. “This great revolution must also be constitutionally placed at the service of individual freedom and social well-being.”

The lengthy revision process involves a series of votes by two successive parliaments and typically requires some cross-party support.

Greece has been an eager adopter of AI and modern technology since emerging from a major financial crisis eight years ago, upgrading border surveillance and rebuilding its tax administration.

A powerful government services platform now manages everything from obtaining a divorce to buying tickets for domestic soccer matches.

Last month, the government unveiled plans for a full social media ban for children younger than 16 — a move it said was intended to pressure the European Union to adopt similar rules.

Some constitutional experts in Greece argue AI must be legally required to serve democracy because major private technology platforms now hold enough data and power to operate beyond effective public oversight.

Evripidis Stylianidis, the government’s lead lawmaker on the constitutional revision, said the changes would serve as a long-term guardrail on AI use.

“Many issues today are defined at the international level,” he told state radio Thursday. “The protection and proper use of artificial intelligence touches all human rights in daily life and is something that must concern us in the constitutional revision.”

“If our hearts must break, let them break open,” said the rabbi, who leads Kehillat Israel where 300 families out of 900 lost their homes. “This tragedy has really pushed us closer to one another. We're working to change the things we need changed.”

Faith leaders both in the Pacific Palisades and in Altadena and Pasadena — devastated by the pair of fires that tore across Southern California — have relied on interfaith and community partnerships to rally congregants who are picking up the pieces 16 months later.

They’ve had to learn on the fly about insurance coverage and local land use regulations while still trying to keep their scattered flock together and raising money for basic needs. Pastors in Altadena have had to fight to protect the rights of Black people who decades ago found pathways to home ownership in that community despite redlining — but now risk losing their land to outside developers who sense an investment opportunity.

And throughout this span, faith leaders have had to cater to the emotional and spiritual needs of their communities and think about how they want to rebuild their sanctuaries that were lost or damaged in the fire. More than a dozen houses of worship burned to the ground or were damaged.

Interfaith relationships have become stronger after the fires

This would have been difficult for faith leaders to handle but for the interfaith relationships that became closer and stronger after the fires, said the Rev. Grace Park, associate pastor at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, which burned down.

Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews and yogis have not just found common ground in human suffering and loss, but have learned how to lean on one another in a time of dire need, she said.

“It’s a sense of mutual affection and respect, learning from each other and leaning on one another,” Park said. “We’re sharing the joys and the deep valleys of what it means to lead through a time of tragedy.”

Brother Satyananda, a senior monk at the Self Realization Fellowship, lost his living quarters and belongings in the fire. Much of the campus, started by Paramahamsa Yogananda who brought ancient spiritual practices from India to the West, fortunately survived the fire.

Satyananda recalls one day when Bernstein picked up on his sadness and offered him “motherly compassion.”

“We share the same profession where we’re tuned to people in need,” he said. “Now, our relationship has changed because we’re tuning into each other. There’s a greater level of trust.”

Pastor BJ King, who leads LoveLand LifeCenter, worked with the late Rev. Cecil B. Murray to heal communities and build interfaith coalitions after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“Back then, there was a choice whether or not to get involved,” he said. “But with these fires, there is no choice. It has affected everybody.”

Pastors have had to acquire new skills

King’s congregation has switched to online services after their leased church building in Altadena suffered smoke damage. Twelve families lost their homes. In addition to helping meet people’s basic needs, King has created a program organizing gatherings to connect therapists with those in need of mental health.

“Many people didn’t even know they needed that,” he said.

One of the most powerful roles faith leaders have played after the fire is to “continue to talk with power, people in charge,” said Pastor Jonathan DeCuir, who leads Victory Bible Church in Pasadena. He and others in the region have continued to meet with local officials and even conferred with Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep things moving for their communities.

DeCuir chairs the board of a nonprofit called Legacy Land Project, which provides financial aid, legal support and guidance on building contractors, as well as medical care to those affected by the fires.

The disaster has brought a level of camaraderie that DeCuir says he has never seen among the region's clergy.

“Denominational lines have been crossed,” he said. “Even if we have different theological stances or approaches to ministry, we are all now looking at how to care for our people and community. If we don’t come together, Altadena will never ever be the same. The people won't be there anymore. That, to me, is terrifying.”

While a church is more than a building, physical churches do appear as “beacons of hope” in traumatized communities, said Pastor Mayra Macedo-Nolan, executive director of Clergy Community Coalition in Pasadena. Her group has lobbied for houses of worship to be prioritized on the same footing as businesses in the rebuilding plan.

“When people start seeing churches rebuilding in Altadena, they’re going to feel like it’s going to be OK because the churches are coming back,” she said.

Reimagining a purposeful future

On April 26, the Altadena Fountain of Life Church broke ground to build a new sanctuary after their house of worship, which had stood for over three decades, was destroyed in the fire. Pastor Jonathan Lewis, who ministers to about 75, hopes the church will be ready in time for Easter next year.

“It’ll be a Resurrection Sunday for our church, too,” he said.

Alexis Duncan, who grew up in Altadena attending that church, came to the groundbreaking with her 6-year-old daughter. She lost both her home and her church building.

“It means everything to me that they’re rebuilding because I want the church to be there for my daughter as she grows up,” she said. “This new beginning gives me and my family hope and the encouragement to come back.”

Some churches like Altadena Community Church, a United Church of Christ congregation, are pausing to rethink their future purpose. The Rev. Michael Lewis, who took over in February after the previous pastor retired, said the congregation is looking into several possibilities for the one-acre lot, including affordable housing.

“We know that a church is not intended to be a landlord and the pastor is no property manager,” he said. “But, we’re also thinking about who is able to return to Altadena? How will this rich, economically diverse community that was scattered by the fire come back?”

The church has been around since the 1940s. A haven for actors, poets and musicians, the former sanctuary also served as a vibrant performance space. Lewis said they hope to incorporate a performance stage into the new facility.

“It’ll look different from what we had before,” he said. “Once we figure out how to build community, we can decide what physical structures will help us support that community.”

As for Kehillat Israel, on May 15, members will carry their Torah scrolls back to their sanctuary, marking one of the first returns by a house of worship to the Palisades since the disaster.

Judaism has had “a long history of starting over,” Bernstein said.

“It’s encoded in our cultural approach to the world, that there are things that can always be taken away from you,” she said. “But what you become can never get taken away.”

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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.

Lamine Yamal is out for the rest of the season and so is Brazil star Estêvão.

There was also a scare when Mohamed Salah hurt his hamstring recently.

Injuries to some of soccer's biggest names are mounting ahead of the World Cup which starts in five weeks.

Mbappé is expected to play again for Real Madrid this month and there is no suggestion his issue will rule him out of the World Cup. But every setback to France's best player will be of concern to the national team.

Barcelona's teenage sensation Yamal — recuperating from a leg muscle injury — is also expected to be part of Spain's squad and appear at his first World Cup.

And initial fears about Salah have been dispelled.

Others, however, have not been so fortunate.

France's Hugo Ekitike sustained an Achilles injury in April that could take more than six months to fully recover, ruling him out of the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and possibly the start of next season.

Brazil stars Rodrygo and Éder Militão are definitely out. So is Bayern Munich and Germany forward Serge Gnabry after injuring his adductor in training.

Meanwhile, the absence of Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri in recent weeks because of a groin injury is also worrying after he missed the majority of last season due to ACL damage. City manager Pep Guardiola has given positive updates about Rodri's recovery in recent days and the former Ballon d’Or winner should play again this season.

Players and coaches have increasingly warned about the impact of an ever-packed playing schedule, and the expanded World Cup comes a year after the relaunched, supersized Club World Cup. The Champions League has also been expanded in recent years.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta describes the demand on players as “an accident waiting to happen."

Players definitely ruled out of the World Cup

Argentina: Joaquín Panichelli (ACL)

Brazil: Éder Militão (hamstring), Rodrygo (ACL)

France: Hugo Ekitike (Achilles)

Germany: Serge Gnabry (adductor)

Netherlands: Xavi Simons (ACL)

United States: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles), Patrick Agyemang (Achilles)

Ones to watch

Algeria: Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, the son of France icon Zinedine Zidane, is a doubt after a facial injury during an on-field collision last month.

Argentina: Cristian Romero has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury. It has not yet been confirmed if he is out of the World Cup, with Tottenham not giving a timeframe for his recovery.

Brazil: Teenage sensation Estêvão will not play again for Chelsea this month after a hamstring injury. There are conflicting reports as to whether he will recover in time for the World Cup.

Croatia: Veteran midfielder Luka Modrić broke his cheekbone last month but is expected to be available for the World Cup.

Morocco: Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi has been sidelined with a right thigh injury.

United States: Defender Miles Robinson hasn’t played since April 18 because of a leg injury.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The 2030 Commonwealth Games are already locked in for Ahmedabad, and there's high expectations for India's bid to host the 2036 Olympics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisioned a developed India by 2047, and the government is focused on improving living standards, transport infrastructure, education and becoming a global hub for tech and innovation.

And that's the bedrock of India’s aspirations for the Olympics and beyond.

“India today reflects a confident and aspirational mindset, ready to lead and shape the future of global sport,” Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Our growing capability to host major international sporting events is a testament to how far we've progressed.

“At the same time, our athletes continue to make the nation proud, signaling the steady rise of India as a formidable sporting force.”

Progress reports

On Thursday, Mandaviya was due to preside over a national sports conclave in Delhi, where India’s preparedness for the 2026 Asian Games and Commonweath Games, as well as the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, will be measured.

Discussion topics also included compliance to the National Sports Governance Act that was introduced last year, pertaining to transparency of national sports federations, and the hosting of and participation in international events.

So far in 2026, India has hosted three high-profile cricket events — the men’s Twenty20 World Cup, the Women’s Premier League and currently the Indian Premier League, one of the richest and most followed franchise leagues in international sport.

New Delhi is hosting the badminton world championships, Bhubaneshwar is slated to host a World Athletics Continental Tour meet and Ahmedabad is set to host the Asian weightlifting championships.

Indian authorities are also considering ways of bringing Formula 1 back to the country for the first time since 2013. Influential sports officials have already helped get cricket back into the Olympics for Los Angeles in 2028.

Commonwealth Games

Outside of cricket, the Commonwealth Games are the biggest barometer for India’s developing sport story.

New Delhi hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and 1951, and also the 2010 Commonwealth Games that was fraught with logistics problems. Long delays in getting facilities ready and a list of scandals overshadowed the event.

Indian officials expect Ahmedabad to put those problems into the distant past. The Sardar Patel Sports Enclave is marked as a key hub for the 2030 Games, which bring together thousands of athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations and territories.

The complex also houses the biggest cricket stadium in the world – the Narendra Modi Stadium – and it can be optimized to host different sports.

On and off the field

But this is a tale growing beyond infrastructure alone. There is a genuine push toward attaining success on the field as well, and sustained efforts have been made over the past decade to develop a robust sports ecosystem.

There are more than fifteen professional leagues across sports actively nurturing talent and creating future opportunities.

The Sports Authority of India has established sports-specific centers of excellence across the country, designed to provide world-class infrastructure and scientific training with the aim of producing Olympic and international medalists.

The results are showing – India recorded its best-ever showing at the Asian Games with 107 medals in the last edition staged in 2023. It won the Thomas Cup (badminton) in 2022, a first squash World Cup title, earned 29 medals — including seven gold — at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, and 20 medals at the World Boxing Cup finals.

Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is among the standout individual performers.

Sports backers say the individual success stories matter in sending out a message of fitness and participation through society.

Play India

Hari Ranjan Rao, Sports Secretary, Government of India, said while the infrastructure is put in place, “we are also working on our messaging.”

The Khelo India — or Play India — program has grown since 2018 at the youth and university level, winter and para games, beach and water sports, and even tribal games.

“The aim is to draw out the masses into an active lifestyle,” Rao said, “As well as into participation.”

And with extra participation, India is hoping for greater success.

“As we prepare to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and advance our bid for the 2036 Olympic Games, India stands ready to take center stage,” Mandaviya said. “We are determined to emerge as a global sporting powerhouse, both in producing champions and in hosting world class events.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Wembanyama responded by setting a suffocating tone as San Antonio handed Minnesota its largest postseason loss in franchise history, beating the Timberwolves 133-95 on Wednesday night to even their series at one game apiece.

Despite posting 11 points, 15 rebounds and setting an NBA postseason record with 12 blocks, Wembanyama shouldered much of the blame for the Spurs' 104-102 loss to the Timberwolves on Monday in Game 1.

The 7-foot-4 All-Star knew he needed to do more, especially offensively.

Was there some anger and frustration and a desire to get back on the court for Game 2? Absolutely.

“There always is,” Wembanyama said. “In the playoffs, magnify that.”

What resulted was what Minnesota coach Chris Finch said was a punking before a raucous sellout crowd.

The Timberwolves were held to 35 points in the first half while shooting 7 for 24 from the field and 2 for 15 on 3-pointers.

Minnesota closed the game shooting 40% from the field, 30% on 3-pointers while committing 22 turnovers. San Antonio had a 58-36 scoring advantage in the paint, a 55-43 rebounding advantage and had nine blocked shots compared to two for Minnesota.

“We got beat in every way possible, it’s as simple as that,” Timberwolves forward Julius Randle said. “There’s not really much to say from this game. They outhustled us, out-physicaled us, executed, played better defensively, more energy. They just beat us in every way in this game. We’ve got to come back in the next game and be better.”

Game 3 is Friday in Minneapolis followed by Game 4 on Sunday at the Target Center.

The Spurs and Timberwolves went deep into their benches Wednesday with 10 minutes remaining in the game with only the margin of defeat undecided.

San Antonio's 38-point victory toppled Minnesota’s previous largest postseason defeat of 30 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 29, 2003.

“I know this team’s capable of doing all of this,” Wembanyama said. “To be honest, I’m expecting this kind of response from myself, from my teammates. So, I’m not surprised by any means and I’m just going to keep working so we approach more games like we did tonight.”

After blowing a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter Monday, Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox both took accountability for the two-point loss.

Wembanyama andFox combined for only 21 points in Game 1. The All-Star duo was a combined 0 for 12 on 3-pointers with Wembanyama missing eight.

“They acknowledged it, them being the leaders on our team,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “Coming out of Game 1, I mean, it’s going to happen. You're going to have bad shooting nights, but I mean, we have nothing but confidence in those two. So, I expect them to play well the rest of the series like they did tonight.”

Wembanyama set the tone early in Game 2, scoring seven points on 3-for-4 shooting.

The Spurs missed their first three shots, but Wembanyama followed the third attempt by flying through the lane and throwing down a right-handed dunk to open the scoring.

Wembanyama had 14 points and nine rebounds in the first half while leading a defensive effort that limited Minnesota to 35 points, the fewest points by a San Antonio opponent in the first half of a playoff game since Memphis had 31 in 2013.

“I just think we respond well to adversity,” Castle said. “I think we’ve done that all year. I mean, I don’t think we were too shell shocked coming out of Game 1. I think we knew why we lost Game 1 and we addressed it right away. And I feel like that’s what carried us through tonight.”

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

It’s a rare moment of respite and catharsis amid the harsh realities of life in the Gaza Strip. The children, some wearing sliders on their feet, dance next to mangled metal rods jutting out from a mound of rubble and shattered concrete. The school that trains them is in the Nuseirat refugee camp, a crowded, built-up camp in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

“I come to this center because I discovered that I have a talent for breakdancing, and I also come here to release the negative energy inside me and to enjoy,” said Habiba Abu Khater, one of the children from around five to 14 years old who train at the school. She said she's been attending for four years and is happy about her progress after starting from scratch.

Instructor Fayez Saraj said the school, established in the camp in 2004, helps children build their self confidence and improve their mental health through break dance, gymnastics, and contemporary dance.

The movements "help the child with psychological release, especially from the difficult situations we experienced during the years of war," he said. “We have a significant role in … moving them from an atmosphere of depression and frustration to one of joy.”

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, caused widespread destruction and displaced most of the territory’s residents.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Israel launched the offensive after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage in their attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

While the heaviest fighting has mostly subsided since a fragile ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce. Hamas and Israel have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Palestinians in Gaza are still contending with myriad daily struggles.

—-

Associated Press writer Mariam Fam in Winter Park, Florida, contributed to this report.

“I just told them we got punked,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said.

Stephon Castle had 21 points and De'Aaron Fox added 16 points for San Antonio, which shot 50% from the field and 41% on 3-pointers. It was the highest-scoring playoff game for the Spurs since a series-clinching 145-105 win over Denver on May 4, 1983.

Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr. each scored 12 points for Minnesota.

Edwards came off the bench again as Minnesota continued to restrict his minutes in his second game back from a hyperextended left knee.

Games 3 and 4 are Friday and Sunday in Minneapolis.

With Wembanyama playing more aggressively on offense from the outset, the Spurs put the series-opening loss behind them quickly.

Minnesota's previous largest postseason defeat was by 30 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 29, 2003.

Only the margin of victory was in doubt Monday as both teams sent their starters to the bench with 10 minutes remaining and the Spurs leading 104-66.

“I told the guys after the first game it’s the natural tendency for the team that steals the first game, the away team, to get blown out in Game 2," Edwards said. “We can’t come out cool and we came out cool and what happened — we got blown out.”

After combining to score 21 points on 10-for-31 shooting in Game 1, Wembanyama and Fox combined to go 12 of 25 from the field Wednesday.

The All-Star duo scored the Spurs' first 11 points as they raced to a 29-point lead in the first half.

“Just trying to set the tone,” Wembanyama said.

Fox finished 2 for 2 on 3-pointers after missing on four attempts in Game 1.

“We’re at our best when (Fox is) in attack mode,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnnson said. “He has probably the strongest ripple effect on our team in terms of when he’s in attack mode pushing the pace, because you have Steph (Castle) and Dylan (Harper) that follow suit with that. And then our shooters get shot in transition. Victor plays in space and so on and so forth.”

The Spurs missed their first three shots, but Wembanyama followed the third attempt by flying through the lane and throwing down a right-handed dunk to open the scoring.

Minnesota was held to 35 points in the first half. The Timberwolves shot 29.8% from the field before halftime and were 2 for 15 on 3-pointers as they fell behind by 25 points.

“I loved how everyone had everybody’s back (defensively),” Wembanyama said. “Tonight looked like a system that worked.”

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

The health emergency aboard the ship that's moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.

Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva.

“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”

The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.

A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.

Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low. The Andes strain only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.

Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for the Andes virus. Argentina on Wednesday said it was sending genetic material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to help Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom detect it.

The cause of infection remains under investigation

Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected passengers traveled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they plan to trace contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further spread.

The U.N. health agency, or WHO, says that the first death on board, a 70-year-old Dutch man, happened on April 11. His 69-year-old wife, also Dutch, died on April 26. The third passenger, a German woman, died on May 2.

The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks. That makes it hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving Argentina for Antarctica on April 1; during a scheduled stop to a remote South Atlantic island; or aboard the ship.

The province of Tierra del Fuego, where the vessel docked for weeks before departing, has never seen a case of hantavirus. Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and traveled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, WHO said.

The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in Ushuaia, according to two investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists' footsteps through the forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina where some infections are clustered.

Because early symptoms resemble the fever and chills of a flu, “tourists might think they just have a cold and not take it seriously. That makes it particularly dangerous,” Raul González Ittig, genetics professor at the National University of Córdoba and a researcher at state science body CONICET, said.

Climate change sends rodents to new frontiers

Argentina in recent years endured a historic drought. But it also had bouts of unexpectedly intense rainfall, part of a broader pattern of wild weather that scientists attribute to climate change.

Some of this variability has created conditions that have allowed hantavirus to flourish, experts say. Dry spells drive animals out of their usual habitats in search of food and water. Huge amounts of rain lead to vegetation growth, scattering seeds that attract leaf-munching rodents.

“When precipitation increases, food availability increases, rodent populations grow, and if there are infected rodents, the chance of transmission between rodents — and eventually to humans — also increases,” Ittig said.

Although hantavirus cases once were limited to the southern reaches of Patagonia, now 83% of cases are found in Argentina’s far north, according to the Health Ministry.

Argentina issued alerts early this year

The ministry issued an alert in January about several fatal outbreaks, including in the most populous province of Buenos Aires.

With rural hospitals underequipped, residents had no clue what hit them.

Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their 14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andrés de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest.

But the feisty fourth grader's breathing worsened. On Jan. 1, they rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a hantavirus test came back positive.

"I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone in the world,” Delgado said.

Member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh — who performs as Mo Chara — had been charged with a terror-related offense for displaying a flag of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, (which is banned in Britain as a terrorist organization) during a London concert in 2024. The case was eventually thrown out and the band used the experience of going to court, and the party that ensued in their support, as inspiration for some of the tracks on “Fenian.”

The record's title is also an act of defiance, reclaiming a word that has historically been used as derogatory term directed toward Irish people.

During the band’s various court appearances, fans lined the streets outside court to support the Belfast trio — singing, playing instruments and chanting “Free Mo Chara” — a refrain that's sampled on the band’s new track “Carnival.”

Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí discussed recording “Fenian,” the importance of their live shows and if they think they can get visas to tour the U.S., with The Associated Press recently.

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: How is this process different from writing your first record?

MO CHARA: We were writing the tracks as Dan Carey (producer) was creating the tracks so like the lyrics and the production was like kind of developing at the same time, same place, which I thought was interesting. It was a very organic feeling. It was the first time we’d ever done it like that.

MÓGLAÍ BAP: Obviously when we were in the studio we had, we were in the Magistrates’ Court during that period, during the seven weeks we had to leave the studio and go to the courts and then also had the Wembley Arena concert so it was quite a busy time.

Usually studio time for bands it’s quite (a lot of) down time but we were kind of going into the chaos of going to court — Mo Chara was obviously — but actually ended up not much of a hindrance. It kind of helped us and we used that in the song “Carnival,” we sampled the crowd outside the court case saying “Free Mo Chara.”

AP: How would you describe your live performances, it feels like a celebration with that kind of energy. Is that important to you?

DJ PRÓVAÍ: Because we have a reputation of being like a band that’s live shows are good, you know people already come with that kind of energy and they have that expectancy so whenever they’re in there they’re up here already. Even when the show’s starting it’s kind of sits here alrdy. (gesturing toward the ceiling)

MO CHARA: It’s almost like the hard work’s all been done before the show so people are coming in and they’re full of energy now. They’re giving us a show as well.

MÓGLAÍ BAP: I think the origins of that is like because we started off doing the music in Irish, a big part of our challenge was to connect with the audience and interact with them in a way that they can enjoy the music without understanding it. Just kind of bringing that energy on stage was a way for the crowd to actually enjoy it because most people don’t know what the (expletive) we’re saying.

AP: Do you think you’d be able to go to America? Is there a plan? Are you trying to get visas?

MO CHARA: See, the thing was we never actually got turned down for a visa, like there was a lot of miscommunications there and I think the media kind of ran with the story that they wanted. We were never turned down.

What happened was we were changing our promoters in America so what happens is you have to reapply for a new working visa and then obviously with the court case going on we didn’t apply for one. So now that the court case is over, I don’t see any reason why we won’t get our visa accepted. Obviously we’ve never been convicted of any crimes in any country in the world.

We just didn’t apply for it because we thought it was probably the wrong time to do it. So I think now with everything being over, there’s no reason why we won’t be back in America soon.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is tech’s favorite candidate to be the next leader of California.

The 43-year-old former tech executive jumped into the crowded race in January, touting himself as a pragmatic problem-solver. A moderate Democrat, Mahan has built his statewide profile mainly by criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature's response to homelessness and crime. His centrist message has appealed to tech leaders who want a business-friendly governor to succeed Newsom, a longtime tech ally who’s terming out.

In just three months, Mahan has raised more than any of his rivals, many of whom have been running for more than a year. ( Billionaire Tom Steyer is largely self-funding his campaign.)

During a Tuesday night debate on CNN, he criticized his rivals as career politicians while crafting himself as the candidate with practical solutions to the state’s challenges.

“We don’t need MAGA values, but we also don’t need more of the same,” Mahan said, referring to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement supported by Republican rivals Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, whom Trump has endorsed.

But Mahan doesn’t appear to have yet gained the momentum he expected or the widespread name recognition to beat his rivals — and he’s running out of time to win over voters ahead of the June 2 primary. His ties to tech are of particular concern to labor unions and a segment of Democratic voters who question whether he’ll stand up to the industry.

A Silicon Valley mayor

“People do not want somebody who is a puppet of these big tech billionaires, of these AI billionaires — and that’s who he has always been,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Labor Federation, which has endorsed Steyer, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Mahan said he's the only candidate who has experience with the behemoth industry, pointing to a coalition he created in San Jose where more than 900 public agencies work together to explore responsible ways to implement artificial intelligence in government. In Tuesday's debate, he said he supports taxing AI companies to fund workforce development.

“Voters can see past the kind of, you know, shallow connection that because I’m the mayor of the largest city in Silicon Valley, that might mean that I’m not willing to regulate tech,” Mahan told The Associated Press. "It’s actually been quite the opposite.”

Observers note California is known for leading the way on policies aimed at both boosting and reining in its home-grown tech industry.

“If they can ensure that they get a governor in California who’s weak on tech accountability, then that can save them a lot of money across the states,” J.B. Branch of Public Citizen, a progressive consumer rights advocacy group, said of the Silicon Valley leaders supporting Mahan.

Tech's efforts to exert political influence

Across politics, the tech industry is flexing its political muscle as public skepticism about social media and artificial intelligence rises. Independent groups backed by tech companies and billionaires have already committed at least $40 million to influence California legislative races.

Political committees backing Mahan have raised more than $25 million, including donations from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, venture capitalist Michael Moritz and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

Some donors, like Brin and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, are hedging their bets — they also gave to Hilton, the former Fox News host.

Mahan is “focused on actually solving problems — building more housing, improving public safety and making it possible for people to live and work here again,” Garry Tan, who leads a startup accelerator that helped launch companies like Airbnb and DoorDash, said through a spokesperson.

From the Ivy League to business and politics

A Harvard graduate, Mahan was classmates with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who he's said persuaded him to go into tech instead of law school.

Mahan was part of the team that built an early Facebook app called Causes that allowed users to promote nonprofit organizations. He then co-founded Brigade, a nonpartisan online voter network.

But that's not at the center of Mahan's campaign. He's focused instead on his upbringing as the son of a postal worker and a schoolteacher. He's the only major Democrat who wants to suspend the state's gas tax.

He defeated a labor-backed candidate for mayor in 2022 after serving two years on the city council. As mayor, he convinced council members to direct more city money toward short-term housing to get homeless people off the streets and made them eligible for arrest for rejecting shelters. Both efforts faced fierce opposition, but San Jose last year saw a drop in the number of people without access to shelters, according to county data.

He bucked Newsom in 2024 by backing a tough-on-crime ballot measure. Mahan has since tamped down his criticism, saying the governor has focused on the right issues.

Tech support is a double-edged sword

Mahan has committed to not raising taxes to fix budget holes — including with a one-time tax on billionaires that most of his rivals are also against. He wants to incentivize elected state officials and appointees by tying future pay raises to improvements on issues like unemployment rates and homelessness.

“Raising taxes isn’t always the answer, Tom,” he pointedly said Tuesday when Steyer pitched a plan to make corporations pay more in property taxes.

Mahan raised more than $13 million in 11 weeks, allowing him to launch television ads to reach voters in some of the most expensive markets in the country. Two independent expenditure groups have spent more than $18 million to boost him.

As of last month, only about 730 donations given to Mahan’s campaign were less than $250, indicating limited grassroots support. In contrast, almost all of Porter’s 46,000 donations were under that amount, as were about 5,600 of those to former state attorney general Xavier Becerra.

Still, voters' support for the other Democratic candidates "is very soft" Mahan said of his chance. “Even if people are leaning a certain way, they’re still persuadable.”

Tech moguls’ support of Mahan’s candidacy and his plans to regulate them were among the most popular topics during a recent “Ask Me Anything” session Mahan hosted on Reddit, where people can ask questions anonymously.

Several people asked when Mahan would drop out to prevent a catastrophic scenario for Democrats where two Republicans could advance to the November election. One asked which Democrat he would endorse after exiting the race.

“I plan to win!” he responded.

It turned sour, and the jury is charged with settling the ensuing legal dispute between the two Silicon Valley titans.

But the unresolved questions about the dangers of AI have been looming over the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, since the trial began last week. The technology itself is not on trial – the judge has warned lawyers not to get “sidetracked” by questions about its dangers – but witness testimony has touched on concerns around workforce disruptions and the prospect raised by Musk that superhuman AI might one day kill us all.

Musk, the world's richest person, filed the case accusing his fellow OpenAI co-founder of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit. Altman, in turn, accuses Musk of trying to hobble the ChatGPT maker for the benefit of his own AI company.

One witness, AI pioneer Stuart Russell, said that the “winner take all” power struggle over AI's future is itself threatening humanity.

Musk's lawyers brought Russell to the stand as an expert witness, at the rate of $5,000 an hour. The University of California, Berkeley computer scientist listed a host of AI dangers, from racial and gender discrimination to jobs displacement, misinformation and emotional attachments that take some AI chatbot users down a spiral of psychosis.

“Whichever company develops AGI first would have a very big advantage” and an increasingly big lead over everyone else, Russell told the court, using the initials for artificial general intelligence, a term for advanced AI technology that surpasses humans at many tasks.

A judge's warning hasn't kept out talk of AI's dangers

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk.

Both Musk and Altman, who has not yet testified in the trial, have said they wanted OpenAI to safely develop AGI for the benefit of humanity and not for any one person’s gain or under any one person’s control. And both camps allege it’s the other guy who was trying to control it.

A jury of nine people selected from the San Francisco Bay Area will get to say which one of them is telling the truth.

Early on, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers warned lawyers, particularly Musk’s, not to delve into broader AI concerns that go beyond Musk’s claims that OpenAI violated its charitable mission.

“This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity,” Gonzalez Rogers told lawyers before jurors arrived at the federal courthouse.

Still, Musk managed to skirt that guidance in his testimony last week. Asked to describe artificial general intelligence, Musk said it is when AI becomes “as smart as any human," and added that “we are getting close to that point," and AI will be smarter than any human as soon as next year.

Musk said he has “extreme concerns” about AI and has had them for a long time. Musk said he wanted a “counterpoint” to Google, which at the time had “all the money, all the computers and all the talent” for AI, with no counterbalance.

“I was concerned AI would be a double-edged sword,” he said.

Musk and OpenAI each say they are working for humanity's benefit

During his testimony, Musk repeatedly said that he could have founded OpenAI as a for-profit company, just like the other companies he started or took over. “I deliberately chose this,” he said, “for the public good."

The judge expressed some skepticism. In comments to lawyers last week before the jury came into the room, Gonzalez Rogers pointed out that Musk, “despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space,” referring to the billionaire’s xAI artificial intelligence company, which launched in 2023 and has since merged with Musk’s rocket company SpaceX.

OpenAI's side also claims its goals are to benefit the public. OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, a defendant in Musk's lawsuit along with Altman and their company, said he thought the technology OpenAI was developing was “transformative” — bigger than corporations, corporate structures and bigger than any one individual. It was, he said, “about humanity as a whole.”

Brockman testified this week that his No. 1 goal was always the “mission” of OpenAI and it was Musk who sought unilateral control over the company.

Brockman recalled a meeting where at first Musk seemed open to the idea of Altman being OpenAI's CEO. In the end, however, “he said people needed to know he was in charge.”

In addition to damages, Musk is seeking Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. If Musk wins, it could derail OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering of its shares.

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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

The Maroons jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Saints scored their first goal. Roanoke’s leading scorer this season, lived up to his billing Wednesday. Julian Kammerman notched 5 goals, 2 assists while Tyler Schmelzer scored 4 goals.

This proved to be the first ever meeting between Roanoke and Marymount.

The Saints had 26 turnovers and proved to be a big reason the Maroons more than doubled their number of shots on goal (42-17).

Up next, Roanoke advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where the will play at Salisbury Saturday at 3 p.m.

The 76ers were limited to 12 points in the fourth quarter and lost 108-102 to the New York Knicks to fall into a 2-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Embiid was ruled out about six hours before the game with a sprained right ankle and a sore right hip. Coach Nick Nurse said Embiid woke up with soreness and was treated during the 76ers' morning shootaround. The team's medical staff determined afterward that Embiid would be unable to play.

Andre Drummond started and Adem Bona backed him up. They combined for 15 rebounds but both were in foul trouble. Drummond took only two shots and Bona didn't take any.

That's nowhere near the kind of offense the 76ers can count on from Embiid, who has averaged 25.2 points in five games thus far.

“We feel like we should have won it,” 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe said. “It came down to shot-making at the end of the game. They were making shots, we weren’t.”

Embiid struggled through a short night in the Knicks' 137-98 romp in Game 1, scoring 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting in 25 minutes before the starters were benched with the game out of reach.

Embiid had been listed as probable to play in that game with a bruised right hip before being cleared, and the Knicks repeatedly took advantage of his lack of mobility to create open shots.

Embiid returned from a late-season appendectomy during Game 4 of Philadelphia's first-round series against Boston and helped the 76ers overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the series.

It's unclear whether the pain around Embiid's hip is replated to the appendectomy. He winced and grabbed his abdomen at one point in Game 1 after Knicks guard Mikal Bridges collided with him on a screen in the first half.

Embiid later said he felt the contact was unnecessary.

“Obviously based on what’s been going on, I guess I’ve got to protect it more,” Embiid said. “I don’t know if it was dirty or not, so I guess I’ve got to do a better job of protecting, especially that part.”

Tyrese Maxey bounced back from a passive performance in Game 1 with 26 points, while Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. each had 19. Edgecombe finished with 17, but Philadelphia was just 4 for 17 in the fourth quarter.

Embiid might have made a difference, though the Sixers are used to playing without him. It has been years since the former MVP has truly been healthy.

“I said this before, but coming back from that appendectomy so quick was not easy for him to do,” Nurse said. “He’s worked extremely hard to get back and he continues to want to play badly and I feel really bad for him, because he really wants to be out there and we want him out there.”

Perhaps Embiid will get a chance this weekend, with Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia. Either way, the 76ers believe they can make another comeback.

“We definitely feel like we can pull ourselves out of this one,” Maxey said. “Kind of go home, get two.”

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

While the rainfall will be consistent during the day today, the coverage will vary. Rain showers will be widespread this morning before turning scattered this afternoon and evening.

Radar scans this morning show the rain is slowly but surely working into the region. Heavier bands of rainfall are embedded in this line, which will help out with our drought conditions. Right now, Roanoke is in a nearly 5″ rainfall deficit.

Despite the rain, we have kept our temperatures fairly mild. We are still in the 50s and 60s thanks to the abundant overnight cloud cover filling in ahead of the rain showers this morning.

The amount of rainfall we are expected to accumulate through the active pattern this week will range from 3/4″-1″ through next Friday morning. This is extremely beneficial as the week brings slow soaking rain showers and not severe storms bringing massive amounts of rainfall at once. The best possible situation during this drought! Be sure to pack the umbrella and have a wonderful day!

Josh Doan and Jordan Greenway also scored for Buffalo, which was making its first second-round appearance since 2007, and first overall in 15 years. Alex Lyon stopped 26 shots and improved to 4-1 since taking over the starting duties in Game 3 against Buffalo’s opening-round opponent Boston.

Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach scored for Montreal, which appeared slow to find its legs three days after defeating Tampa Bay in Game 7 of its first-round series. Jakub Dobes finished with 12 saves, and allowed four goals after allowing a combined two in splitting Games 6 and 7 against the Lightning.

Montreal has yet to win consecutive playoff games this postseason, and was coming off a series in which all seven games were decided by one goal, including four in overtime.

Buffalo hosts Game 2 on Friday night, before the series shifts to Montreal on Sunday.

The Sabres were the more rested team, having had four days off since beating Boston 4-1 in Game 6 on Friday.

“I like the quick start we got off to. I know we can be a lot better," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said, noting he thought Buffalo looked disjointed at times. “There’s a couple situations in the game that we gave them a little bit of momentum.”

Doan opened the scoring 4:31 in by converting Zach Benson’s pass to cap a 2-on-1 after Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson fell and turned over the puck in front of his bench.

McLeod made it 2-0 by converting Benson’s pass through the crease on Buffalo’s second power-play opportunity 13:26 into the first period. Byram scored on the next opportunity by snapping in a shot from between the circles to put Buffalo up 4-1 midway through the second period.

Byram’s goal was his fourth, matching the Sabres’ franchise playoff record for defensemen, joining Mike Ramsey (1988), Jason Woolley and Alexei Zhitnik, who both scored four in 1999.

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was pleased with how much more room his players had to create with the puck after a tight-checking series against the Lightning. His only issue is the Canadiens need to take advantage of it.

"Now, what does that mean? I got to rewatch," St. Louis said.

“I have ideas, but I’m not going to put my stamp on those ideas right now. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," he added. "I’m confident that we can play any style. I’m confident that we could play the game that’s in front of us. And I’m confident that we can learn from this one and be better.

Buffalo converted 2 of 3 power-play chances, breathing new life into a unit that went 1 of 24 against Boston. The Sabres' 4.2% conversion rate was tied for 865th out of 897 teams that had 20 or more opportunities in a playoff series since 1978.

And Buffalo’s man-advantage woes carried over from the final seven regular-season games, during which the team went 0 for 22.

McLeod didn't mind hearing questions about the power play on Wednesday night.

“I mean, maybe keep asking, if we’re gonna keep scoring now,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a process of building it and getting your look. So I think, we got them tonight and it was going in.”

Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin limped off favoring his right leg with under three minutes left after blocking a shot by Jake Evans. Dahlin briefly went up the tunnel, before returning to the bench, but did not see any further ice time.

Ruff said he doesn't believe there's an issue after seeing Dahlin walking down the hallway.

Dach scored the game’s highlight goal, cutting Buffalo’s lead to 4-2 with 3:29 left in the second. Driving up the right wing, Dach’s centering pass was blocked by Lyon’s stick. The puck caromed back to Dach who, while falling, was able to lift the puck over the goalie’s glove.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl