Game 2 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights, who twice trailed before scoring three third-period goals, have not lost in regulation since John Tortorella (8-0-1) took over as coach.

The Mammoth lost in the franchise's first playoff game since 2021. They are in their second season in Utah after leaving Arizona.

Colton Sissons had a goal and assist for the Golden Knights and Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev also scored. Carter Hart stopped 32 shots. Hanifin had two assists.

Logan Cooley and Kevin Stenlund scored for the Mammoth. Karel Vejmelka, playing in his first playoff game after five years in the Utah/Arizona organization, made 27 saves. Captain Clayton Keller, who closed the regular season with 16 assists over a 10-game streak, failed to record one in this game.

The Golden Knights took the fight to the Mammoth from the beginning and finished with 52 hits to 29 for Utah. Vegas' high in the regular season was 36 against Los Angeles in the Oct. 8 opener.

Both teams breaking into several fights including one after the final buzzer.

Former Golden Knight Nate Schmidt delivered a tremendous cross-ice pass to Cooley, whose one-timer from the right circle put the Mammoth on the scoreboard first with just 11 seconds left in the first period.

Sissons scored the equalizer at 3:44 of the second period, jamming in the puck after a backhand pass from Cole Smith. Utah retook the lead not even two minutes later when Hart found himself out of position and Vegas defenseman Kaeden Korczak knocked the puck into his own net, though it was officially credited to Kevin Stenlund.

The Golden Knights again tied it when Stone put a rebound into the open net for a power-play goal 5:33 of the third period. They then soon had the lead when Utah defenseman MacKenzie Weegar turned over the puck in his zone, and Dowd knocked in Hanifin's shot.

Barbashev closed the scoring with an empty-netter.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews," while other employees of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email.

The reason for summoning Musk

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.

“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”

Asked whether Musk would risk sanctions if he skipped the hearing, the Paris prosecutor's office declined to comment.

What is being investigated

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 platform's 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 pornographic 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.

French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — 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 Paris prosecutor’s office said this could have been done "ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”

Justice Department brushes off French call

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.

“This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said the letter quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments.

Reporters Without Borders' lawsuit

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, It "targets the platform’s policies that allow disinformation to flourish,” RSF said, accusing the U.S. billionaire’s company of repeated violations of the public’s right to reliable information.

“Disinformation campaigns are flooding X, some of which have accumulated several hundred thousand views. Although the staff at Elon Musk’s platform are well aware of the situation, this has not stopped them from responding to RSF’s repeated alerts with automated refusals to remove the content in question," RSF said. “This is a deliberate policy instated by X, and it is incompatible with the public’s right to reliable information.”

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Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.

Wembanyama's 21 first-half points set an NBA record for the most in the opening half of an NBA playoff debut since the league's play-by-play era began in 1997. His 35 total points set a Spurs franchise record for the most in a playoff debut, surpassing Tim Duncan’s 32 in 1998.

“It is obviously different, but we’ve been really good in the regular season,” Wembanyama said. “So, we have no reason to act differently or do anything different.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in San Antonio before the series heads to Portland for Games 3 and 4.

Stephon Castle and De'Aaron Fox each added 17 points and combined for 15 assists for San Antonio.

Deni Avdija had 30 points and 10 rebounds to lead Portland, which beat Phoenix 114-110 in Tuesday’s play-in game to earn the No. 7 seed.

Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft behind Wembanyama and Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, added 18 points.

The Spurs responded to the Trail Blazers' physicality while holding them to 10-for-38 shooting on 3-pointers and had a 45-38 rebounding advantage.

“The Spurs put you in tough positions,” Portland coach Tiago Splitter said. “Against them, you've got to shoot the ball well from 3s. We didn't. We've got to shoot the ball better.”

The Spurs and the sell-out crowd — which included Duncan and former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer David Robinson sitting together courtside — at the Frost Bank Center were primed for the franchise’s first playoff game since 2019. The six-season postseason drought came immediately after San Antonio won five NBA championships while appearing in a league-tying 22 straight postseasons.

Spurs fans are again dreaming big — and it’s because of their 7-foot-4 post player from France who is a finalist for the NBA's MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Wembanyama’s highlights included dribbling behind his back to avoid Avdija at halfcourt, backing him down to the top of the key, spinning around him and running free to the rim for a two-handed dunk midway through the first quarter.

San Antonio clamped down defensively to regain their double-digit lead in the third quarter, with Devin Vassell blocking Donovan Clingan and Jrue Holiday while scoring eight straight points.

“That’s what we’ve talked about, just not giving up on the play,” Vassell said. “Every possession matters, whether it’s the first possession in the first quarter or the last possession in the fourth quarter. Play to the whistle.”

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

Two women, including the gunman's wife who was the mother of their children, were also shot and critically wounded, according to Shreveport Police Department spokesperson Chris Bordelon. Officials said the children — who were all killed in the same house — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.

The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, died after a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him, according to Bordelon. Authorities did not say what may have set off the violence but Bordelon said detectives were confident the shooting was “entirely a domestic incident.”

The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. in more than two years.

“I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback,” Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said. “I cannot begin to imagine how such an event could occur.”

Bordelon said police were familiar with Elkins, who had been arrested in a 2019 firearms case, but he said officials were not aware of any other domestic violence issues.

Police said the attacks began before sunrise in a neighborhood south of downtown Shreveport when the suspect shot a woman at one home and then drove to the other location “where this heinous act was carried out.”

Seven children were killed inside the second house, and one was found dead on the roof after apparently trying to escape, Bordelon said. Another child jumped off the roof and was expected to survive after being taken to a hospital.

State Rep. Tammy Phelps said some children tried to get away through the back door. “I can't even imagine what the police officers, first responders actually dealt with when they got here today,” she said at a news conference.

Family member says suspect was separating from his wife

The victims were three boys and five girls, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s office.

Shamar Elkins and his wife were in the middle of separating and were due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, who is a cousin of one of the wounded women. Brown said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

“He murdered his children," Brown said. “He shot his wife.”

Elkins shared four children with his wife and three children with another woman who lived close by and who was also shot, according to Brown. All the children were together at one house, she said.

Brown described all the children as “happy kids, very friendly, very sweet.”

A neighbor wakes up to a mass shooting

Liza Demming, who lives two houses down from where most of the victims were shot, said her security camera captured video of the suspect running away along with the sound of two shots.

“That’s pretty much all I saw, was him running out of the house and the cars leaving,” she said.

Demming later went outside and saw the covered body of a child on the home’s roof.

Pastor Marty T. Johnson Sr., of nearby St. Gabriel Community Baptist Church, who owns one of the homes where the shootings occurred, said a person who works for him had rented it to the family, but he never had dealings with them.

“What began as a domestic dispute has ended in irreversible harm,” the parish's district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Shreveport is overwhelmed by grief

It was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb in January 2024, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

At a news conference outside the residence where one of the shootings occurred, officials appeared stunned, requesting patience and prayers from the community as they sorted through multiple crime scenes.

“This is a tragic situation — maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had,” said Tom Arceneaux, mayor of the city in northwestern Louisiana with about 180,000 residents. “It’s a terrible morning.”

Hours after the shooting, mourners gathered outside the single-story house on 79th Street and laid flowers. One door appeared stained with blood. Later that evening at a nearby prayer vigil, Kimberlin Jackson joined other members of the community who lit candles for the victims in a parking lot.

“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them,” she said.

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This story has been corrected to attribute the statements about the shooting to police spokesperson Chris Bordelon, not Police Chief Wayne Smith, and corrects the ages of the children killed based on updates by officials.

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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing were Associated Press reporters Jake Offenhartz in New York, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Terry Tang in Phoenix and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

Revere's ride took place on April 18, 1775, when the silversmith and express rider was dispatched to Lexington to warn Revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. He then headed to Concord to warn about raids on military stockpiles.

Revere reached Lexington around midnight, and another rider, William Dawes, got there along a different route soon after with the same message.

Their efforts resulted in militiamen, muskets in hand, confronting a much larger contingent of British regulars marching from Boston on the Lexington Battle Green. The British regulars were eventually chased back to Boston, where militias pinned them down for 11 months in what became known as the Siege of Boston.

“It’s important because you have to have someone to meet the British troops,” said Nina Zannieri, executive director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which owns and operates The Paul Revere House. “It becomes a turning point. If no patriots had turned out on the green and the British had just rolled into town, it would have been different. But they actually meet resistance.”

The reenactor, dressed in Colonial costume and accompanied by another horseman, will roughly trace the route taken by Revere 251 years ago. The ride will start in Boston’s North End and head to Charlestown, Somerville, Medford and Arlington before finishing in Lexington — all communities where Revere alerted militias about British movements.

Some aspects of the historic night will not be part of the event, such as Revere taking a boat to Charlestown before starting his ride.

Nor will there be Revere's brief detention by a British patrol on his way to Concord after leaving Lexington. Revere was ultimately let go without his horse after convincing the British that hundreds of patriots were waiting for them, and he returned to Lexington to see the end of the battle.

“It’s basically important that he leaves Boston. He rides. He’s alerting people. Other people are out,” Zannieri said. “He starts a chain reaction, and he accomplishes his mission even though he gets stopped and held. He’s lucky he wasn’t killed.”

While Revere dodged patrols and contended with rutted and muddy roads, his 21st-century counterpart will have it easy, traversing pavement the entire way and passing through a world of stoplights, car dealerships and bustling downtowns that Revere never could have imagined. The 2026 Boston Marathon takes place at the same time, though the routes will not overlap.

Michelle DiCarlo-Domey, who organizes the ride each year for the National Lancer, the state's historic mounted cavalry unit, said thousands come out to see history come alive and show their patriotism. The National Lancer has been holding the Revere and Dawes ride for over 110 years.

“Whenever you can interact with the riders and the horses, it can help carry history on,” DiCarlo-Domey said. “Kids can relate to what they learn in school. And where else do you see two horses running down the street?”

The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race kicked off.

That was faster than the human world record holder, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race.

The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward from last year's inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

But the competition, which was held alongside a race for humans, wasn’t without hiccups — one robot fell flat at the start line, another bumped into a barrier.

Du Xiaodi, Honor's test development engineer, said his team was happy with the results. Du said its robot design was modeled on outstanding human athletes, with long legs of about 95 cm (around 37 inches), and was equipped with what he called a powerful liquid-cooling system, which was largely developed in-house.

“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas. For example, structural reliability and liquid-cooling technology could be applied in future industrial scenarios,” he said.

While it will still take time to achieve widespread commercialization of humanoid robots, spectators were already impressed by the robots. Sun Zhigang, who had been in the audience last year, watched Sunday's race with his son.

“I feel enormous changes this year,” Sun said. “It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined.”

Wang Wen, who came with his family, said robots seemed to have stolen much of the spotlight from human runners in the event.

“The robots' speed far exceeds that of humans,” he said. “This may signal the arrival of sort of a new era.”

Beijing E-Town said about 40% of the robots navigated the course autonomously, while the others were remotely controlled.

State media outlet Global Times reported that a separate, remotely-controlled robot from Honor was the first to cross the finish line in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But it said the winning one used autonomous navigation and received the championship under the event’s weighted scoring rules.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the runners-up, which were also from Honor and used autonomous navigation, finished the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. A robot served as a traffic officer to direct the participants with its arm gestures and voice, CCTV added.

In China, technology has evolved into an area of competition with the U.S. with national security implications. Beijing’s latest five-year plan vows to “target the frontiers of science and technology.” Speeding up the development of products like humanoid robots and their applications is part of the 2026-2030 plan for the world’s second-largest economy.

London-based technology research and advisory group Omdia recently ranked three Chinese companies — AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics Corp. — as the only first-tier vendors in its global assessment for shipment numbers for general-purpose embodied intelligent robots.

They all shipped more than 1,000 units of the robots last year, with the first two companies shipping more than 5,000 units, the report said.

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Associated Press video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.

It was practically a repeat from three years ago, right down to the shot into the 18th hole that Fitzpatrick said was “out of this world.”

The 31-year-old from England quieted the crowd with a 4-iron from 204 yards, a little more left than he intended but no less magnificent. It covered the bunker, rolled past the pin and settled 13 feet away for a birdie to beat Scheffler and win the RBC Heritage for the second time.

The playoff was almost a repeat from when Fitzpatrick defeated another American favorite, Jordan Spieth, in a playoff at the RBC Heritage three years ago. That time, he hit 9-iron with the wind at his back that rolled out to a few inches for the winning birdie.

This time the closing hole was a brute, the toughest at Harbour Town on Sunday.

“It was quite funny that the playoff was just going to keep playing on 18. I was thinking it was going difficult in a way to separate ourselves because it’s such a difficult hole,” Fitzpatrick said. “To do it how I did was special.”

Scheffler, trailing by three shots with four holes to play, forced a playoff with a pair of late birdies for a 4-under 67 and some help from Fitzpatrick, who hit a poor chip from right of the green and missed a 20-foot par putt for his only bogey of the day and a 70.

The gallery that was allowed to come onto the fairway short of the 18th green in regulation filled the Calibogue Sound with endless chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” They returned outside the ropes to see Fitzpatrick hit 4-iron into a stiff breeze to a pin just over the bunker.

Scheffler followed with his worst swing of the day, a 6-iron he fanned so badly that it came up 37 yards short of the hole. He hit a superb pitch to 8 feet, but never had to putt when Fitzpatrick made the winning putt.

“A lot of grit,” Fitzpatrick said of holding on for the win.

His reaction was muted, lightly touching his finger to his right ear in a friendly response to the crowd. Fitzpatrick knew what he was up against, having gone through a similar atmosphere when Cameron Young beat him at The Players Championship.

“I didn't get out of line in terms of no one was shouting on backswings or anything like that, which was great," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm all for it. I love the people ... they're supporting Scottie. You want golf to have an atmosphere. I'm paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds. Having them chanting at you every week, it’s great feeling.

“However,” he said with a smile, “there's no better feeling than coming out on top against that.”

It was the second straight runner-up finish for Scheffler, who came from 12 shots behind going into the weekend to finish one back of Rory McIlroy at the Masters. This time, he was seven behind Fitzpatrick through 36 holes and finished 64-67.

“In both weeks I put myself behind the 8-ball going into the weekend and had really nice Saturdays and Sundays in order to get myself into contention,” Scheffler said. "On Sunday it’s a shot here or there that makes a difference. This was one of those weeks where anytime Fitzy needed something to happen, he made something happen.

“He definitely earned the win, and he just played great golf.”

It was great theater, but only at the end.

Fitzpatrick started with a three-shot lead and birdied two of the opening three holes, never letting anyone closer than three shots all round until Si Woo Kim birdied the par-5 15th to get within two shots, and then Scheffler came on late with an up-and-down from a bunker for birdie on the 15th, and a bold drive and approach to 10 feet for birdie at the 16th.

That cut the lead to one shot, and both players missed the 18th green well to the right. Scheffler capped off a perfect day of scrambling — 8 for 8 — with a chip that settled a foot from the hole. Fitzpatrick faced his first chip into the grain and came up well short.

They finished at 18-under 268. Kim closed with a 68 to finish alone in third, his fourth top 10 of the year.

Fitzpatrick won for the second time in the last month. After his runner-up finish at The Players, he won the Valspar Championship on the tough Innisbrook track. He has won nearly $8.3 million in his last four tournaments.

The victory, his fourth on the PGA Tour and 13th worldwide, moves him to a career-high No. 3 in the world ranking.

Fitzpatrick’s family used to take holidays to Hilton Head Head when he was a boy, for the golf and tennis and beaches. He came to the tournament and thought it would be cool to win it one day, and now he has done it twice.

“It means the world,” he said. “This is a tournament I wanted to win growing up more than any of the majors before I understood more about the game. To go toe-to-toe with Scottie and get it over the line is special.”

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

Starmer will face a tough barrage of questions in Parliament when he stands up to explain why Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, became Britain’s ambassador to Washington despite failing security checks — and seemingly without Starmer being told about the concerns.

The revelation has left furious opponents calling for Starmer to resign and uneasy allies wondering what else the nation’s leader didn’t know about.

Starmer repeatedly told lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed. He now says he’s “furious” that he wasn’t informed that an intensive vetting process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, cleared him anyway.

Starmer fired the department’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he would never have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

All the main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Right-of-center Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said in the Mail on Sunday that he had “misled Parliament over Mandelson, misled the country and is taking the public for fools.”

Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Starmer had “showed catastrophic misjudgment.”

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about the party’s dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer has already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge is, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of a failure of judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson for one of Britain’s most important diplomatic jobs despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump’s administration.

He lasted less than nine months in the job. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet — one of two women and one of three from Latin America — will be the first to face ambassadors from the U.N.’s 193 member nations during a three-hour question-and-answer session on Tuesday. Bachelet will be followed by U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina.

On Wednesday, U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan will take center stage in the General Assembly hall, and finally, Senegal’s former President Macky Sall.

In 2016, a hotly contested race drew 13 candidates. What has changed?

For starters, the deeply polarized and conflict-wracked world of 2026 is far different from the more peaceful global climate in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president for the first time.

Add to that the diminished stature of the United Nations. A decade ago, the world organization was basking in its success in helping achieve the Paris climate agreement to curb global warming and an agreement by world leaders on 17 goals to promote global economic growth, preserve the environment and close the growing gap between rich and poor nations.

Today, the divisions among world powers are so deep that the U.N. has been unable to fulfill its primary role in ensuring global peace and security. The once powerful Security Council has been blocked from acting to halt wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, among other conflicts, leaving the U.N. on the sidelines of major global crises.

The International Crisis Group’s Richard Gowan, a U.N. watcher and program director, said the current geopolitical scene has affected the race to succeed Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

He said 10 years ago, many candidates entered the race knowing they had little chance of winning, but used it to raise their profiles.

“There was no real cost associated with losing,” Gowan said. (asterisk)This time around, potential candidates and the governments who sponsor them are much more cautious. There is a feeling that if a candidate puts a foot wrong and offends Washington or Beijing, it could cause real diplomatic damage.”

How the selection worked in 2016

In 2016, there was intense pressure to choose the first woman to lead the United Nations. Seven of the 13 candidates were women. But there was widespread agreement that Guterres performed best in what the U.N. calls the “interactive dialogue” with General Assembly members.

The U.N. Charter says little about choosing the secretary-general except that the General Assembly, which includes all members, should do so upon the recommendation of the Security Council. That gives the five permanent members of the U.N.’s most powerful body — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — the decision-making role and veto power over the selection.

By tradition, the secretary-general rotates by region. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief representing Europe, succeeded former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who represented Asia. He followed Ghana’s Kofi Annan, who represented Africa.

Now, it should be Latin America’s turn, though Eastern Europe has never had a secretary-general and lost out in 2016.

Under U.N. rules, candidates must be nominated by a member nation — not necessarily their own. There is no time limit for nominations, and more candidates could appear, but in 2016 the Security Council started doing “straw polls” among the 13 candidates in late July, which basically served as a cutoff.

How the four candidates were nominated

During their sessions this week, the four candidates are likely to be asked about their vision for the job, global hot spots and the future of the United Nations — but anything goes.

Bachelet, 74, who was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights after serving two non-consecutive terms as Chile's president, was initially nominated by Chile, Brazil and Mexico. But after Chile’s far-right leader, José Antonio Kast, became president in March, his government withdrew its support for Bachelet, a leftist, though she remains a candidate because of nominations from Brazil and Mexico.

Grossi, 65, a former Argentine diplomat who has been director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, was nominated by his home country.

Grynspan, 70, a former vice president of Costa Rica, has been secretary-general of the U.N. Trade and Development agency, UNCTAD, since 2021 and was also nominated by her country.

Sall, 64, was nominated by Burundi, but his home country, Senegal, told the African Union that it had not endorsed him. Neither did the divided 55-nation regional organization.

A fifth candidate, Argentine diplomat Virginia Gamba, a former U.N. representative for children in armed conflict, was nominated by the Maldives, but the Indian Ocean nation withdrew her candidacy in late March without giving a reason.

While there are only two female candidates, pressure for a madam secretary-general continues, including from Guterres, who has sought to achieve gender equality in his administration. Britain and France have also said they would like to see a woman at the helm.

The global advocacy group 1 for 8 Billion and GWL Voices, an organization of nearly 80 global female leaders, have been campaigning for a woman. GWL’s president and co-founder, Susana Malcorra, a former Argentine foreign minister and senior U.N. official, was a candidate for secretary-general in 2016.

Bachelet, however, already faces US opposition

In a March 25 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 28 Republican Senate and House members asked the United States to veto Bachelet, calling her “a pro-abortion zealot intent on using political authority to override state sovereignty in favor of extreme agendas.”

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was asked at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska — one of the letter’s signatories — about Bachelet’s fitness for the job. Waltz responded that he wasn’t in a position to say whether the U.S. would support or oppose her, but he said, “I share your concerns.”

Gowan said the odds that a woman would be chosen were seen as changing sharply when Trump returned to the White House.

“Before that, there was a feeling that this time a woman had to win, but now a lot of diplomats assume that Washington will insist on a male secretary-general on principle,” he said. “I am not sure that is necessarily correct.”

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Charlize Theron expanding her already robust action movie resume with “Apex,” Kate Hudson’s “Running Point” returning for Season 2 and a Netflix documentary on country star Lainey Wilson.

New movies to stream from April 20-26

— After nine Oscar nominations, $179 million in ticket sales and a few dings for opera and ballet along the way, “Marty Supreme” begins streaming Friday, April 24, on HBO Max. A24’s biggest box-office hit ever stars Timothée Chalamet as a ping-pong striver in 1950s New York doing whatever it takes to reach greatness. Josh Safdie directs a cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion and Kevin O’Leary. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck called it a “nerve-busting adrenaline jolt of a movie.”

— Another highlight of 2025, the darkly comic Korean thriller “No Other Choice,” lands on Hulu on Friday, April 24. Park Chan-wook’s satire stars Lee Byung-hun as a family man laid off from a paper plant. After analyzing his prospects, he decides to murder his closest competition for a new job. In my review of the Golden Globe-nominated film, I praised Park, the masterful filmmaker of “Oldboy” and “Decision to Leave,” for “archly and elegantly spinning a yarn about a murderous rampage that accumulates wider and wider reverberations.”

— The latest Colleen Hoover hit adaptation, “Regretting You,” arrives Friday, April 24, on Prime Video. In it, Allison Williams stars as a single mother moving on after the death of her husband (Scott Eastwood). Dave Franco co-stars as her new love interest. In her review, Noveck wrote that “the strange way the tears give way to smiles, quips and then full-on rom-com corniness feels a little awkward — and then just weird and annoying.”

— Charlize Theron expands her already robust action movie resume in “Apex,” a survivalist thriller about a grieving woman who heads into the Australian wilderness for outdoor adventure. But when a sadistic local (Taron Egerton) begins terrorizing her, a frantic chase ensues. Catch it on Netflix on Friday, April 24.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

New music to stream from April 20-26

— Laundry started it all. OK, not really, but Kehlani’s first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Folded,” marked a new peak for the singer’s sultry, matured R&B. The AP even deemed it one of 2025’s best of the year. Now, Kehlani’s talents have only grown in a new, self-titled, full-length release, out this Friday, April 24.

— Noah Kahan’s 2022 single “Stick Season” turned the Vermont singer-songwriter into a household name; now, he’s at “The Great Divide.” That’s the title of his fourth studio album, out Friday, April 24. Come for folky ruminations on fame (“Porch Light”), stay for the plucky title track and what exists in between.

— In the decade following her debut album, Meghan Trainor’s bright, cheery pop music has kept one central message: Stay true to who you are and ignore the haters. That continues on her single “Still Don’t Care,” the first tease of her seventh full-length album. And it is found on the whole of the release, titled “Toy with Me,” out Friday, April 24. In December, she told the AP to expect a few self-love bops, songs to anger through and lots of familial love. The singer-songwriter recently canceled a summer tour following the birth of her daughter, Mikey Moon.

— Musician documentaries are a dime a dozen these days; often, they function as promotional material with little editorial value. That is not the case with “Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool,” available to stream Wednesday on Netflix. The country superstar keeps her cool … and gets candid in this feature, which spans her personal and professional lives.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from April 20-26

— A new Netflix competition show called “Funny AF with Kevin Hart” premieres Monday and features Hart traveling to different comedy clubs in the U.S. in search of the next great stand-up sensation. Hart is joined by Keegan-Michael Key, Tom Segura, Kumail Nanjiani, Chelsea Handler and Nikki Glaser, who serve as judges. The semifinal and final episodes will stream live on Netflix and the audience can vote in real-time. The winner will get their own Netflix stand-up special.

— Prime Video has a new series about a different Kevin that also premieres Monday. “Kevin” is an animated series about a cat who moves into a local pet rescue after his owners split up. Jason Schwartzman voices Kevin and Aubrey Plaza, who co-created and co-wrote the series, also voices a character.

— A new “Stranger Things” animated spinoff harks back to the Saturday morning cartoons of the 1980s, with stand-alone adventures each episode. “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85" takes place during Seasons 2 and 3 of the original show and follows its core gang encountering mysteries and monsters from the Upside Down. They’re voiced by new actors, not the live-action cast. It debuts Thursday, April 23, on Netflix.

— Kate Hudson’s “Running Point” returns for Season 2 on Netflix on Thursday, April 23. Hudson plays Isla Gordon, whose family has owned the fictional Los Angeles Waves for years. Hudson takes over as the team's president when her older brother (Justin Theroux) steps down. Her character is based on Jeanie Buss, the governor and former controlling owner (now minority owner) of the Los Angeles Lakers.

— Richard Gadd, whose “Baby Reindeer” drew acclaim and a defamation lawsuit from the real-life woman it depicted, has created and written a new dark drama called “Half Man” where he co-stars with Jamie Bell. Gadd told the AP that he turned down numerous Hollywood offers after “Baby Reindeer” in favor of making “Half Man.” It premieres Thursday, April 23.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from April 20-26

— At first glance, Kiln gives off a mellow vibe, inviting you to sit at a pottery wheel and craft a ceramic masterpiece. Don’t get too relaxed: The next step is to send your creation into battle. You’ll need to team up with three friends for “Quench mode,” a 4-vs.-4 melee in which the goal is to douse the flames of your rivals’ kiln. Expect plenty of flying shards and other obstacles to make the free-for-all more frenetic. Kiln comes from Double Fine Productions, which gave us last year’s trippy Keeper, and project lead Derek Brand is a veteran of the studio’s 2021 landmark Psychonauts 2. Start spinning Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Italian developer Luca Galante unleashed a surprise smash back in 2022 with his low-res indie shoot-'em-up Vampire Survivors. Fans have since gobbled up a half-dozen expansions, and now it’s time for a full-fledged spinoff, Vampire Crawlers. It’s a “casual, turn-based deck builder” in which you explore dungeons and fight monsters by flinging playing cards at them. Think something like Slay the Spire with, well, vampires — then throw in “turboturn,” which lets you pile up damage by slinging cards more quickly. It looks every bit as hectic and silly as the original, and you can take a bite Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Lou Kesten

For the first time since Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades engulfed his apartment building in November, Keung Mak will step into his former home again Monday. But he expected little remained. A photo from his social worker had already shown the devastation.

The ceiling of the apartment where he and his wife lived for over 40 years and raised their children was burned so badly that steel rebar was visible. The floor was littered with broken tiles, and parts of the apartment needed reinforcement to prevent collapse.

“My heart is heavy, I’m very disappointed. I didn’t expect the first floor would be burned like this,” Mak, 78, said ahead of returning.

The fire spread rapidly across seven of the eight buildings in the apartment complex in the suburban district of Tai Po, killing 168 people. Starting Monday, the thousands of residents displaced by the fire were returning to see what is left of their homes and retrieve their belongings. The process is expected to continue into early May.

As the investigation into the cause of the fire continues, survivors have been living as best they can, scattered across the city, many in temporary housing as they wait to find out where they can resettle.

Elders prepare to climb the ruins

The exteriors of some buildings remained blackened from the flames, a reminder of the tragedy.

The return will be particularly difficult for many of the complex's older residents, who made up over a third of some 4,600 people who lived there before the blaze.

With elevators out of service, some have been training to improve their fitness in preparation for climbing the stairs up the 31-story buildings.

Hong Kong Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said over 1,400 people registered for the return are 65 or older, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported.

He later told reporters about 270 people would return to the complex Monday. Some residents remained silent as they left.

A man who refused to give his name, citing his preference not to disclose personal details, said their belongings were burned with nothing much left, because their wood flooring might have helped spread the blaze in the apartment. His family just went back and commemorated, he said.

Limited access

There were many items in Mak's apartment that the family cherishes and longs to retrieve: a fishing rod Mak's son bought him as a gift; wedding photos from half a century ago; letters from their son from years past. They believe almost all of it is destroyed.

“A lot of things with commemorative value are all gone,” said Mak's wife, Kit Chan, 74. “Not even a single piece of paper will be left.”

Residents will typically be allowed to stay in their apartments for up to three hours, with up to four people entering. In some severely damaged units, only one person can go in.

With only two people allowed in due to the condition of their apartment, Mak and his son will go back. Chan hopes authorities can let her take a look too.

Former residents have complex feelings

Cyrus Ng, 39, lived on the 10th floor of the Wang Fuk Court complex with his parents for over a decade before moving out.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, he couldn’t sleep, feeling angry, sad and worried about his parents. Nearly five months later, he is more emotionally settled but has not fully accepted what happened.

“We know there are suspicious issues behind this,” he said. “I hope we can really find the truth.”

A lawyer representing an independent committee conducting an ongoing inquiry into the fire’s cause has said almost all fire safety devices in the apartment buildings failed on the day of the blaze because of human error.

Ng has mixed feelings about returning next week to their apartment, which was spared the worst damage. He fears the emotional impact on his parents, but looks forward to the chance to retrieve their title deed, old photos, clothes and other valuable items.

He also said he is worried about theft after months of vacancy. Police arrested three men in March on suspicion of stealing from the site.

Mixed responses to resettlement offers

The government previously said repairing the damaged buildings cost-effectively would be difficult. Officials were inclined to demolish the seven fire-ravaged buildings, and have proposed to buy back the homeownership rights from the fire victims.

They cited results from a residents' survey, dashing hopes for those who want their homes rebuilt.

Some residents questioned that stance. Data from the fire inquiry showed that only half of some 1,700 apartments in the seven buildings were damaged, to varying degrees.

Ng wondered if some of the buildings could be repaired to allow some residents to return, though his parents were already considering the government’s offer of an apartment elsewhere. He plans to take photos of his apartment during his return to document its condition and help prove that some homes were unaffected.

Other residents who lived in the only building in the complex that escaped the fire face the trauma of living with nightmarish memories.

Stephanie Leung, a resident of that block, is reluctant to live in the same apartment again. She said her family would face great mental stress every time they looked out over the seven other buildings where their former schoolmates or friends died.

She hopes the government will include her block in the same plan as the other buildings, while allowing those who want to remain to stay.

“Whenever I go back, I want to cry,” she said.

The Persian Gulf waterway was closed again after Iran reversed a decision to reopen the strait and President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 5.6% to $87.20 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up 5.3% at $95.16 a barrel.

Despite renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East, share prices were mostly higher in Asia.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 1% to 59,045.45, while South Korea's Kospi was up 1.1% at 6,260.92.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8% to 26,373.71 and the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.6% to 4,075.08.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,943.90.

In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 1.4%.

“The problem for markets is not the absence of hope; it is the overpricing of it,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “The latest move higher in equities has started to feel less like conviction and more like momentum feeding on itself.”

On Friday, oil prices had dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to a fresh record after Iran said the strait was open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

A freer flow of oil could relieve pressure on prices for gasoline and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.

The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high of 7,126.06, closing out a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.8% to 49,447.43. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5% to 24,468.48.

The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude had plunged 9.4% after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait “is declared completely open” as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon.

Brent crude fell 9.1%.

After Araghchi's announcement, Trump said on his social media network that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports remained “in full force” pending a deal on the war, though he also suggested that “should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. had seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get around a naval blockade. Iran’s joint military command said Tehran would respond soon and called the U.S. seizure an act of piracy.

A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz raises questions over new talks to end the war.

Since the war began, market sentiment has swung between optimism and gloom over when the fighting will end and what costs the world economy will endure. A strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has helped support stocks.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.90 Japanese yen from 158.79 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1757 from $1.1742.

Tage Thompson scored goals 3:42 apart to tie it, and Alex Tuch sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net with 1:12 left in nearly blowing the roof off the arena.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 17 shots.

Buffalo hosts Game 2 of the first-round series Tuesday night.

The playoff win was Buffalo’s first at home — and first overall — since a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia in Game 4 of a first-round series April 20, 2011. The Sabres proceeded to lose the series in seven games. The Sabres won their first Atlantic Division this season and snapped an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.

Thompson dismissed the narrative of the team lacking playoff experience by saying players drew on the frustrations of going so long without a postseason appearance.

“I think eight years of adversity is enough experience to get you ready for something like this. I think any time you go eight years not making playoffs and then it’s finally here, the last thing you want is regret,” Thompson said. “There’s just a heightened feeling of hunger. You just don’t want to let this opportunity slip. I thought tonight was really important to make a statement and set our standard.”

David Pastrnak scored with seven seconds remaining, and had two assists for Boston. Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm also scored for the Bruins. who finished the regular season 33-2-4 when leading after two periods. Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves.

“I really don't know," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said, when asked what happened.

“I thought we were in the perfect spot. We were exactly where we wanted to play, being in that position five or six minutes left in the game,” the first-year coach said. “That’s something we have to learn again the hard way. We just have to stick with it for 60 minutes.”

After going 5,473 days between playoff games the Sabres delivered a stunning victory.

Trailing 2-0 after Lindholm scored 1:08 into the third period, Buffalo finally caught a spark from Thompson, who led the team with 40 goals this season.

Thompson’s first goal came on a wrap-around backhander with 7:58 remaining. He then tied it by getting to a loose puck to the left of the Boston net, and firing a low shot inside the far post with 4:16 remaining.

With the crowd still buzzing, Samuelsson scored 52 seconds later. Teammate Jack Quinn got to the puck deep in the Bruins zone and fed Samuelsson, who snapped a high shot in from the left circle.

“I don’t think the belief that was ever wavered,” Samuelsson said. “I just think we just had a lot of belief within the group. Just tried to ride the momentum with the fans and it worked out nice.”

This marked just the second time Buffalo overcame a two-goal third-period deficit. The other time also happened against Boston in a Game 4 first-round series-clinching first-round 6-5 overtime win in 1993. It’s best remembered in Buffalo as the “May Day!” game with Brad May scoring the decisive goal to secure the Sabres' first playoff series victory in a decade.

The Bruins, the Eastern Conference’s seventh-seeded team, unraveled in making their return to the playoffs following a one-year hiatus.

“We just couldn’t finish it. That’s the frustrating point, but it’s a long series,” Sturm said. “We’re prepared. We came to Buffalo wanting to get a win. We didn’t get one today, but we’re going to try our best to get one the next game.”

Pastrnak’s three-point outing upped his career playoff total to 90 points, and moved him ahead of Cam Neely and Wayne Cashman for ninth on the team list, and two back of Bobby Orr.

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Six strokes behind playing partner Sei Young Kim for a few moments on the 11th green, Green closed with a 4-under 68 to match Kim (70) and Jin Hee Im (67) at 17-under 271 on the tree-lined layout.

In the playoff on the par-4 18th, Green hit a wedge from 130 yards and curled in the right-to-left breaking putt after Kim — eight strokes ahead with five holes to go Saturday in the third round — left a 35-foot birdie try short.

“I had that putt, obviously very similar line in regulation, so I felt somewhat comfortable,” Green said. “It still was a tough putt, so really glad it went in the hole.”

Im — penalized a stroke for slow play Saturday — reached the green in three after hitting her drive to the right.

Green also won the event in 2023 and 2024 at Wilshire Country Club. The 29-year-old Australian player joined Hyo Joo Kim as the only two-time winners this season on the LPGA Tour and ran her worldwide 2026 victory total to four.

Green has eight career LPGA Tour victories. She won the tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore early last month and also took the Women’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA.

Sei Young Kim took a two-stroke lead into the round and had a three-shot edge on the back nine.

“Just little disappointed because I had a good chance for the win,” she said. "Yeah, but she’s play well. Strong finish back nine.

The tournament was played at El Caballero for the second straight year because of course renovations at Wilshire.

After Sei Young Kim chipped in for eagle on the 11th to leave Green six shots back, Green followed with a birdie on the hole to get a shot back.

“I honestly didn’t think I was in the tournament still,” Green said. “I was just like, `Oh, well just go for as many pins as possible.′”

She birdied Nos. 13-16 — missing a 5-foot eagle putt on 16 — and pulled even with Sei Young Kim and Im — who made a 60-footer for eagle on 16 — when Sei Young Kim bogeyed the par-3 17th.

“Got on a nice stretch there,” Green said. "I kind of thought the putt that I missed on 16 was the crucial moment. I mean, I’m just fortunate enough that I at least got into the playoff.”

The Chevron Championship, the first women’s major of the year, will start Thursday in Houston.

“It’s going to be really hard to come back down to earth next week, so it’s going to be my next challenge,” Green said. “I’m going to be on a flight tonight to Houston, so I don’t know if I’m getting much rest."

Ina Yoon was a stroke out of the playoff after a 69. She eagled the 16th, birdied the 17th and nearly holed a 30-foot birdie try on 18,

Former UCLA star Patty Tavatanakit (70) was 14 under with Haeran Ryu (66). First-round leader Chizzy Iwai (70) was 12 under with Minami Katsu (68).

Amateur Asterisk Talley tied for 13th at 9 under after a 70. The 17-year-old Talley played her first event since losing the lead on the back nine in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“It’s great just to get to play with the pros and get some learning experience,” said Talley, also in the field for The Chevron.

___

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

Oh, you can bet the NBA Hall of Famer is enjoying this one, too.

Reddick roared by Kyle Larson on the final lap of overtime to win at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, becoming the fourth driver to win five of the first nine races in NASCAR’s top series in a season. Chase Briscoe wound up third while Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing along with Jordan, had to watch from fourth as his driver reached victory lane yet again.

“This kid is on fire. I don’t know what to say. I don’t think I can cool him down,” Jordan said. “When you win it’s always fun, and right now it’s fun for everybody at 23XI. Me being here and being able to see all the wins, I am so happy for the team.”

All four of the 23XI cars finished in the top 15 on a banner day for the team.

“Got to deliver for the boss man,” Reddick said of Jordan. “If he’s going to come hang out with us, we have to get him dubs.”

Sunday’s race had been caution-free except for stage breaks until Cody Ware spun as the white flag was about to fly.

Hamlin was leading at that point, and it looked as if he was about to win his record-extending fifth race at Kansas. Instead, all of the leaders had to pit, and even though Hamlin beat Reddick off pit road, the field was bunched up for the overtime restart.

Larson, trying to end a 32-race winless streak, lined up behind Hamlin on the inside, and he launched to the lead when the green flag flew. Chaos ensued behind them as Christopher Bell bounced off Reddick and Hamlin and the No. 5 car began to pull away.

Reddick came charging down the backstretch on the final lap, though, and he pulled alongside Larson as they went through the final corners. The No. 45 edged ahead as the checkered flag flew, and Jordan began to pump his fist in the pits in celebration.

The last driver to win five of the first nine Cup Series races was Dale Earnhardt in 1987.

“Just really blessed with the late caution,” Reddick said. “Was that nuts or what? I couldn’t believe it.”

Hamlin was happy Reddick won again. But it came at his expense, and he was decidedly unhappy about that. Asked of his frustration level, Hamlin replied: “Obviously it’s not winning. It’s Cody Ware, six laps down, wrecking. I don’t know. Add it up.”

Larson, the defending race winner, said his car’s balance was off after taking two tires on the final stop, leaving him on the podium for the third time without a win this season. Briscoe and Hamlin were followed across by another 23XI driver, Bubba Wallace.

“It was good execution for the restart there,” Larson said. “I got to the lead and I thought I could cruise right there to the checkered.”

Except that Reddick is the only one who seems to be doing that these days. Even when he doesn’t win, he’s had his Toyota running up front. He was fourth last week at Bristol and has been in the top 15 in every start this season.

He’s a big reason Toyota is the first manufacturer since Chevrolet in 2007 to win seven of the first nine races in a season.

“I just think the whole team all year has been really poised,” 23XI President Steve Lauletta said. “It’s not the first time we’ve had any kind of adversity come at us, and they’ve continued to stay calm, keep each other grounded and know we have a fast car. And if you have a fast car, all you have to do is make sure you execute, and that’s what they’ve managed to do.”

Hamlin won the first stage, giving him three consecutive stage wins at Kansas going back to last fall and eight for his career. Larson snapped the streak in Stage 2 with his third stage win of the season.

Ryan Blaney was accelerating out of his pit box during the first stage when he got into the rear of AJ Allmendinger, who was trying to pit, sending him into a half-spin. It took Allmendinger a while to get straightened out, putting him several laps down.

“Our race is done,” Allmendinger told his team over the radio.

The Cup Series heads next week to Talladega, where Austin Cindric edged Ryan Preece by 0.022 seconds for his third career win last season. In the post-race inspection, both Preece and Joey Logano were found to have infractions and were disqualified.

Detroit went into the postseason as the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, openly talking about exceeding modest expectations and winning the franchise's fourth championship.

If the Pistons don't play better than they did in a 112-101 loss to Orlando on Sunday night in Game 1, they might get knocked out in the first round again.

“We’re sick about losing this one,” Cade Cunningham said after scoring a playoff career-high 39 points and not getting much help from his teammates. “It's a long series.”

Detroit, which has lost an NBA-record 11 straight home postseason games, hosts the Magic again on Wednesday night.

The Pistons have not won a home playoff game since 2008, which is also the last year they advanced in the playoffs.

They were sluggish early against the Magic and had a built-in excuse, playing for the first time in a week.

“We didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said.

They were flat early in the third quarter, too, and that's tougher to explain.

“We were chasing them all night,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We made some runs to get ourselves back in the ballgame.”

The Magic, meanwhile, looked ready to play just two nights after routing Charlotte in an elimination game to earn a spot in the playoffs.

“They’ve been off and we’ve found a little bit of a rhythm,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That always plays a part in it.”

Detroit never had the lead.

Cunningham made a 3-pointer to pull the Pistons into a tie midway through the third quarter, but they wasted the opportunity by giving up 14 of the next 17 points and couldn't recover.

Detroit finished with a season-low 31 baskets, connecting on just 40% of its shots. Tobias Harris scored 17 points as the only double-digit scorer other than Cunningham, but he missed 10 of 15 shots.

All-Star Jalen Duren, who averaged nearly 20 points in the regular season, was limited to four shots and eight points.

“They packed the paint,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re going to put a bunch of bodies in the paint to try to make it difficult on him.”

___

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

Leo traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, nestled in the Angolan savanas of baobab trees at the edge of the Kwanza River. It became a major pilgrimage destination after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833.

But the Church of Our Lady of Muxima was originally built by Portuguese colonizers at the end of the 16th century as part of a fortress complex and it became a hub in the slave trade. It was where enslaved Africans were gathered to be baptized by Portuguese priests before being forced to walk to the port of Luanda, over 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the north, to be put on ships to the Americas.

Leo, whose own ancestors include enslaved people and slave owners, prayed the Rosary at the sanctuary, a simple whitewashed church with blue trim and a statue of the Madonna inside. Speaking in Portuguese, he recalled it was here “where, for centuries, many men and women have prayed in times of joy and also in moments of sorrow and great suffering in the history of this country.”

He didn’t refer specifically to slavery. After viewing plans to build a basilica at the site, Leo urged the estimated 30,000 people gathered outside to also build “a better, more welcoming world, where there are no more wars, no injustices, no poverty, no dishonesty."

Muxima’s history is emblematic of the Catholic Church’s role in the slave trade, the forced baptisms of enslaved people and what some scholars say is the Holy See’s continued refusal to fully acknowledge it and atone for it.

“For Black Catholics, Pope Leo’s visit to the Muxima shrine is an important moment of healing,” said Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch Center, Oxford University.

She noted that many Black Catholics are Catholic because of slavery and the “Code Noir,” which she said required slaves purchased by Catholic owners to be baptized in the church.

“Others were already Catholic when they were trafficked from Angola to slave-holding colonies,” said Butler, a Black Catholic scholar whose maternal family hails from Louisiana, where the pope’s ancestors also had their roots.

The role of papal bulls in the slave trade

Angola’s Portuguese colonizers were emboldened by 15th-century directives from the Vatican that authorized them to enslave non-Christians.

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere, said the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.”

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”

That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

The Vatican in 2023 formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and were not to be enslaved.

Ultimately, more than 5 million people left from Angola on the trans-Atlantic slave route, more than any other country and nearly half of the roughly 12.5 million African slaves sent across the ocean.

Kellerman recalled that most of these direct victims were sold into slavery by other Africans and were not captured by Europeans.

“That being said, at the time of the building of Muxima, the Portuguese were doing both — buying enslaved people and colonizing/slave raiding. So they were fully using their papal permissions during this time,” Kellerman said in emailed comments to The Associated Press.

He said the first pope to condemn slavery itself was Pope Leo XIII, the current pope’s namesake, in two encyclicals in 1888 and 1890, after most countries had already abolished slavery. But Kellerman said that pope and others since have continued to perpetuate the “false narrative” that the Holy See always opposed slavery, when the historical record says otherwise.

While Leo's visit to Muxima was to commemorate its role as a shrine, Kellerman said he hoped Leo had also learned about its role in the slave trade.

“The popes repeatedly authorized Portugal’s colonization efforts in Africa and Portuguese participation in the slave trade, but the Vatican has never fully admitted this,” he said. “It would be so powerful if at some point Pope Leo were to apologize for the popes’ role in the trade.”

During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not for the popes' own role in it. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

Leo’s own personal history a point of reflection

According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo's American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in the New York Times.

Gates, a Harvard University professor who hosts the PBS documentary series “Finding Your Roots,” presented his research to Leo during a July 5 audience at the Vatican. According to a report of their meeting in The Harvard Gazette, “The pope asked about ancestors, both Black and white, who were enslavers.”

Leo has not spoken publicly about his family heritage or the genealogical research, and some Black Catholic scholars were hesitant to impose on him a narrative about his identity that he himself has not yet addressed.

“It’s important that we tell our own stories,” said Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist of religion and professor at Villanova University, the pope’s alma mater.

“We haven’t heard anything from him about what he thinks about it, and so to impose anything on him, I think would be completely inappropriate,” said Pratt, author of “Faithful and Devoted: Racism and Identity in the African American Catholic Experience.”

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the retired archbishop of Washington and the first African American cardinal, said he had facilitated the Gates-Leo encounter and was “delighted” to have done so.

“It’s one of the things that I think for many African Americans and people of color, they identify with great pride that the pope has roots in our own heritage,” Gregory told AP. “And I think he’s happy about that too, because it’s another link to the people that he tries to serve and is called to serve.”

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Gerald Imray contributed from Cape Town, South Africa.

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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.

The Metropolitan Police force says counterterror officers are probing fires at synagogues and other sites linked to the Jewish community, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media company.

No one has been injured in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage to a north London synagogue on Saturday night.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said the attacks had been claimed online by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.

“We are aware of public reporting that suggests this group may have links to Iran. As you would expect, we will continue to explore that question as our investigation evolves," she said.

“I’ve spoken previously about the Iranian regime’s use of criminal proxies, and we’re considering whether this tactic is being used here in London," she added.

Israel’s government has described Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy” that has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The police force has deployed extra uniformed and plainclothes officers to northwest London after attacks in the past month on synagogues, Jewish charity ambulances and a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government.

In the most serious incident, four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were torched on March 23 in the Golders Green neighborhood,

No one has been injured in any of the incidents, which all happened within a few miles of each other. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on X that “a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum.

“Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society,” he added.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the attacks, and pledged that "those responsible will be found and brought to justice.

"This is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain," Starmer said.

Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia also posted a video claiming Israel’s London embassy was going to be attacked with drones carrying dangerous substances. Police said the embassy was not attacked, but the force shut the nearby Kensington Gardens park on Friday as officers examined discarded items including two jars containing powder. Police said nothing harmful was found.

The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year to October.

Some security experts say Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia is likely a flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims should be treated with caution.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes said any “thugs for hire” who carried out such attacks would face justice.

“Let’s be really clear — it’s a mug’s game,” he said. “That’s what people who are now serving long prison sentences have found out, and the same fate awaits those responsible for these recent crimes.”

Authorities believe the tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria. The first sample tested positive on Saturday.

“This recall is not due to any product or quality defect on our part. The jars left our HiPP facility in perfect condition,” HiPP said in a statement. “The recall is related to a criminal act currently under investigation by the authorities.”

Burgenland Police in Austria said the suspicious products likely have a white sticker with a red circle on the bottom of the jar. Other warning signs include a damaged or opened lid and an unusual or spoiled smell. There also might not be a popping noise when the jar is first opened.

HiPP said it is recalling all of its baby food jars sold at SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Customers can get full refunds even without a receipt. Vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic have removed all of the brand's baby jars from sale.

A customer reported that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, police said, though no one had consumed the baby food.

Rat poison typically includes bromadiolone, an anticoagulant that prevents the blood from clotting, according to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety. Ingesting rat poison could lead to bleeding like bleeding gums and nosebleeds, as well as bruising and blood in the stool.

Symptoms could appear two to five days after ingestion, the agency said.

The Trump administration's campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 181 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Despite the Iran war, the series of strikes have ramped up again in the past week or so, showing that the administration's aggressive measures to stop what it calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere are not letting up. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

The attacks began as the U.S. built up its largest military presence in the region in generations and came months ahead of the raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.

In the latest attack Sunday, U.S. Southern Command repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It posted a video on X showing a boat moving along the water before a massive explosion engulfs the vessel in flames.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics, meanwhile, have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes.

Slafkovsky fired a snap shot from the left circle that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to the far side for his first career postseason hat trick.

“It's pretty nice. I like that feeling,” he said. “Obviously, we don't want to go to overtime. Hopefully we close out games before that. But now we have to focus on the next game.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night at Benchmark International Arena, where Tampa Bay has lost nine of its last 10 home games in the postseason. The Lightning are 1-11 in their last 12 overtime games in the playoffs.

“We took four offensive zone penalties,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That wasn't over-aggression. That was stupidity. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This isn't game 62. That's extremely disappointing.”

Josh Anderson also had a goal for Montreal, and rookie goalie Jakub Dobes made 20 saves.

“His style of play and energy and speed and physicality is perfect for playoff hockey,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said of Anderson. “He had a big night for us.”

Brandon Hagel scored two goals and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay.

The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three straight seasons after falling two wins shy of a three-peat in 2022.

The Canadiens, coached by Lightning icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, are seeking their first Stanley Cup since winning their NHL record 24th in 1993. They haven’t won a playoff series since the Lightning beat them in the Cup Final in 2021.

Hagel’s power-play goal — a tip-in off a precise pass by Jake Guentzel 8:58 into the third — tied it at 3-3 a few minutes after Slafkovsky put Montreal ahead.

Slafkovsky’s shot from the high slot slid under Vasilevskiy’s left pad for a short-lived lead. He one-timed a perfect seam pass from Ivan Demidov into the net from the right circle to make it 2-2 in the final minute of the second.

Raddysh tied it at 1 with a powerful slap shot in the second. The Lightning went ahead 2-1 just 29 seconds later when Hagel picked up a loose puck from the side of the net and backhanded a shot past Dobes.

Montreal’s fourth line gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the first when Anderson flipped a top-shelf shot into an open net.

Anderson also had a goal overturned by video review midway through the second period. He deflected Mike Matheson’s slap shot past Vasilevskiy but it was waved off because his stick was above the crossbar.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Detroit has dropped 11 straight home games in the postseason, a drought that dates to 2008.

The Pistons will get another chance against Orlando on Wednesday night in Game 2.

Detroit's Cade Cunningham scored a playoff career-high 39 points and Tobias Harris added 17 for the Pistons, but the rest of their teammates were quiet offensively.

Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory for the Magic, who never trailed. Orlando’s Desmond Bane and Wendell Carter scored 17 points each and Jalen Suggs had 16.

The Pistons haven’t advanced beyond the first round in the postseason in 18 years and the Magic haven’t since 2010.

Orlando looked ready and Detroit looked rusty early.

The Magic, coming off a rout of Charlotte in a play-in game on Friday, led 18-5 midway through the first quarter after holding the Pistons to 1-of-6 shooting with four turnovers in their first game in a week.

Detroit rallied to pull within two before Orlando closed with six straight points to lead 35-27 after Banchero and Suggs combined to score 20 points.

The Magic led 55-51 at halftime.

The Pistons came out flat in the second half and Orlando took advantage, scoring eight of the first nine points and prompting Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff to call a timeout.

Detroit scored 10 straight points and 13 of 15 to pull into a 65-all tie on Cunningham’s 3-pointer.

Banchero answered with a long jumper over Jalen Duren and Bane followed with a 3-pointer over Cunningham, leading to the Magic restoring a double-digit lead. Orlando led 81-74 going into the fourth quarter.

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

He said a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom” and that U.S. Marines had custody of the vessel, named Touska, and were “seeing what’s on board!”

Iran’s joint military command said Tehran will respond soon and called the U.S. seizure an act of piracy.

The news threw into question Trump’s earlier announcement that U.S. negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran. That had raised hopes of extending a fragile ceasefire set to expire by Wednesday, but Iran has not confirmed it would attend.

The escalating standoff threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed fighting that has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 civilians and 15 soldiers in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

Tehran says restrictions on Iranian oil come with a price

Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, says global fuel prices could stabilize only if economic and military pressures on Iranian oil exports end.

“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” Aref wrote on X. “The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone.”

Iran’s foreign minister says US is showing ‘bad intentions and lack of seriousness in diplomacy’

Iran’s top diplomat has told his Pakistani counterpart that Washington’s demands in negotiations and its threats to Iranian ships and ports mark “clear signs” of America’s disingenuousness.

Abbas Aragchi made the remarks in a phone call to Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, according to Iranian state media.

It’s another indication of how the Washington-Tehran standoff is sharpening as the ceasefire is to expire on Wednesday. It could also shake up plans for a new U.S.-Iran round of talks in Islamabad this week.

Iran’s military vows swift response to US seizure of Iranian-flagged tanker

The Iranian military headquarters said the attack and subsequent boarding of the Iranian vessel by U.S. forces was a violation of the ceasefire and an act of “maritime piracy,” according to Iran’s state-run broadcaster.

The United States says it fired on the ship and seized it because it had crossed the blockade line after ignoring multiple warnings.

Iranian state media suggest new talks won’t take place

There has been no comment from Iranian officials on Trump’s announcement of new talks in Pakistan this week.

But Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports on Sunday suggesting the talks would not happen. The reports came before the U.S. announcement of its seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM releases video of US firing on Iranian-flagged vessel Touska

U.S. Central Command released a message sent by a U.S. Mariner to the Iranian-flagged tanker in a video posted on X, saying it shows the moments before the U.S. seized Touska for crossing the U.S.-imposed blockade line in the Gulf of Oman.

“Motor vessel Touska, Motor vessel Touska. Vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We are about to subject you to disabling fire,” can be heard in the video. Later, three rounds are fired, leaving smoke in their wake.

CENTCOM said its fire targeted the vessel’s engine room before forces seized the ship. It said Touska was headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and ignored multiple U.S. warnings over six hours to evacuate the engine room. The USS Spruance then fired, after which Marines boarded and took hold of the ship.

“American forces acted in a deliberate, professional, and proportional manner to ensure compliance,” it wrote on X.

Iran’s president calls US blockade actions provocative and illegal

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency has reported on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s phone conversation with Pakistan’s prime minister earlier today. The report says Pezeshkian alleged bullying and unreasonable behavior by the United States during negotiations and the ceasefire.

The report says Pezeshkian warned that the U.S. actions and threatening rhetoric have led to increased suspicion among Iranian officials about the seriousness of the United States and the possibility that it will repeat previous patterns and “betray diplomacy.”

The report did not say whether Iran’s president commented on a second round of talks in Pakistan, or on Trump’s announcement that U.S. forces had seized an Iranian-flagged ship.

French shipping company says one of its ships was targeted

CMA CGM said Sunday that one of its vessels was the target of warning shots. Trump said Iran had fired on French and British ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The International Maritime Organization confirmed that a French-flagged vessel was involved. The IMO, which regulates international shipping, said there have been 24 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and across the Middle East since March 1. The latest, on April 18, involved the CMA CGM Everglade, a container ship sailing under French flag. The IMO said it was damaged north of Kumzar, Oman, though no pollution or injuries were reported.

Trump said Sunday on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Iran had “fired bullets” in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that “many of them were aimed at a French ship and a freighter from the United Kingdom.”

Trump said the US forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship Sunday that tried to get around its naval blockade

Trump, in a post on social media, said the ship was warned by a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman to stop but it did not.

“Our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room,” Trump wrote.

He said U.S. Marines had custody of the cargo ship, named Touska, and were “seeing what’s on board!”

The seizure escalates a back-and-forth with Iran over traffic in the strait and comes as the U.S. was preparing for a second round of in-person talks with Iran as a fragile ceasefire runs out in days.

US energy secretary describes extending waiver on Russian oil sanctions as ‘pragmatic’

The decision announced Friday at the Treasury Department came days after Secretary Scott Bessent had ruled out such a move, and Senate Democrats led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called it “shameful.”

“Putin has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of President Trump’s war against Iran, as Russia saw oil revenues nearly double in March,” the Democrats’ statement said. “Enough is enough.”

But Chris Wright said the Trump administration’s reasoning was to ensure that India and other Asian countries receive oil that would have otherwise gone to China. He noted that India exports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to Europe, where people are also concerned about fuel prices.

“These are short term, pragmatic decisions to allow oil that was already flowing to flow a different direction, and they’re temporary,” Wright said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Pakistan and Iran aren’t confirming Round 2 of US-Iran talks

Six hours have passed since U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday for more talks with Iran, but neither Iran nor host Pakistan have confirmed it.

Pakistan has kept up the diplomacy today, with its prime minister holding a 45-minute call with Iran’s president and Pakistan’s foreign minister speaking with his Iranian counterpart.

But while authorities have begun tightening security in Islamabad, the only player that has openly committed to another round of talks is the Trump administration.

British military says situation in Hormuz ‘critical’

The British military has declared the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to be “critical,” its highest risk level.

The military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, UKMTO, cited “a high level of activity by naval forces in the region.”

It said there is a “risk of attack or miscalculation” in the waterway.

The Iranian navy reimposed tight restrictions on transit through the strait as the U.S. military implements a blockade on Iranian ports and waters. The UKMTO also cited multiple attacks on Saturday by Iranian forces on vessels passing through the strait.

Israel reveals new ‘forward defense line’ in southern Lebanon after ceasefire

The Israeli military says it has established the line and released a map showing troops operating south of it.

The deployment has been described elsewhere as a “Yellow Line.” It says five divisions are working to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure. The line was not mentioned in ceasefire terms published by the United States.

The map shows dozens of villages inside the zone, stretching several kilometers into Lebanon, whose residents would likely be prevented from returning.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese officials, but the move is likely to raise concerns in Lebanon about the scope and duration of Israel’s presence.

Pope Leo XIV sees a ‘sign of hope’ for peace in the Middle East

Celebrating Mass before an estimated 100,000 people outside the capital of Angola on Sunday, Leo praised the cease-fire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah as a “sign of hope” that he prayed would bring peace permanently to the Middle East.

Leo mentioned the conflict as he called on Angolans to denounce the exploitation of their mineral-rich land and people, who still bear the scars of a brutal, post-independence civil war. “We wish to build a country where old divisions are overcome once and for all, where hatred and violence disappear, and where the scourge of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing,” Leo said.

The American pope is on an African odyssey that will take him to an epicenter of the African slave trade with a history emblematic of the Catholic Church’s role in forcing human bondage, and what some scholars say is the Holy See’s continued refusal to fully acknowledge it and atone for it.

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Israeli fire kills 1 Palestinian in central Gaza, health official says

The strike on a group of people in central Gaza also wounded three others, according to a health official at Awda hospital, where the casualties arrived.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

Palestinians in Gaza have reported that Israeli strikes have intensified over the past few days across the enclave. Since a fragile ceasefire deal was reached in October, deadly Israeli strikes have been a near-daily threat in Gaza, and more than 775 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

UK police investigating if Iranian proxies are responsible for arson attacks on Jewish sites

The Metropolitan Police force says counterterror officers are probing fires at synagogues and other Jewish targets, as well as an attack on a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government. No one has been injured in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage to a north London synagogue on Saturday night.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said Sunday that the attacks had been claimed online by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.

Israel’s government has described the group, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as recently founded with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy” that has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

▶ Read more

What’s happening with ships in the Persian Gulf

Vessels trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz have reversed course, according to the MarineTraffic shipping tracker.

The Iranian navy has reimposed tight restrictions on transit through the strait while the U.S. blockades Iran’s ports and waters. The standoff has left hundreds of vessels waiting in both directions for clearance through the waterway where a fifth of the world’s oil supplies normally passes.

Kpler, a maritime data firm, said 19 vessels had passed through the strait on Friday after Iran and the U.S. announced the reopening of the strait late last week as part of understanding between the two governments.

But on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it had sent 23 ships back to Iran since its blockade began, and at least three vessels were attacked by Iran Saturday while attempting to cross the strait, bringing shipping to a standstill again and further straining the global energy market.

US energy secretary says talks with Iranians over Strait of Hormuz are ‘going well’

Chris Wright said the United States “is not too far away from a deal.”

“There are negotiations with the Iranians going on, despite what you hear in the chatter in public, I think those are actually going well,” Wright said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Wright said Trump is “a creative negotiator” who uses “pressure in different ways, uses uncertainty in different ways.”

“I think we’ll have a nice end of this conflict,” Wright predicted, adding that restarting shipping “will take time but probably not too much time” once the strait is reopened.

Waltz calls potential strikes on power plants and bridges ‘an escalatory ladder’

Trump is renewing his threat to “knock out” every Iranian power plant and bridge if Tehran doesn’t agree to U.S. terms for ending the war.

Some experts in military law have said targeting civilian infrastructure can be a war crime, an issue that could turn on whether the power plants are legitimate military targets, whether the attacks are proportional compared with what Iran has done and whether civilian casualties are minimized.

When the war crimes question was posed to Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz said “that would be an escalatory ladder.”

Iran and its proxies “have a long history of actually deliberately hiding military infrastructure in hospitals, schools, neighborhoods and … and other civilian assets. … They have no ground to stand on,” Waltz told ABC’s “This Week.”

“It’s perfectly acceptable in the rules of land warfare,” Waltz added, noting that Iran has used drones and missiles to strike hotels, resorts and homes across the Gulf.

“So this is just a ridiculous argument,” he said.

Iranian official says US blockade amounts to war crime

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Sunday that the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline is an act of aggression that violates the shaky Pakistani-mediated ceasefire between the two countries.

By “deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crimes against humanity,” Baghaei said on social media.

Baghaei’s comments came after Iran’s renewed threats on shipping, in response to the U.S. blockade, fully reclosed the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Bahrain to review citizenship for those deemed threat to its security

Bahrain’s king has ordered a review of citizenship of those deemed a threat to the island kingdom.

The decision has come amid an intensified crackdown on dissent during the war in the Middle East.

According to the state-run Bahrain News Agency, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ordered the government to immediately take measures against “those who have betrayed the nation or undermined its security and stability,” including stripping Bahraini citizenship from those “who don’t deserve it.”

“The situation is still delicate,” the king was quoted as saying.

Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, has been one of the hardest hit by Iranian missile and drone attacks during the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Authorities in the small Shiite-majority island, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, have detained many people over the course of the war.

Spain’s leader wants the EU to end agreement with Israel

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants the 27-nation European Union to tear up its long-standing Association Agreement with Israel.

The agreement, in force since 2000, sets out the legal and institutional framework within which the bloc and Israel conduct trade and cooperation.

“We have nothing against the people of Israel; quite the contrary,” Sánchez said in a post on X on Sunday. “But a Government that violates international law and, therefore, the principles and values of the EU cannot be our partner.”

Spain will present a formal proposal at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday to end the agreement with Israel, he said.

Sánchez has been a vocal critic of the decision by the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran, drawing sharp public criticism from Trump.

Residents of hard-hit Israeli border town protest ceasefire outside US Embassy

About 150 residents from Kiryat Shmona, located near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, traveled to Jerusalem on Sunday to demonstrate against the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The 10-day ceasefire announced by Trump began Friday. It is meant to shore up a broader ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

Residents of northern Israel, whose communities were subject to round-the-clock barrages of Hezbollah rockets, have reacted angrily to the truce. They say Hezbollah remains a threat and has not been disarmed.

“It’s time to remove this threat from over the heads of the northern residents,” said Kiryat Shmona’s mayor, Avichai Stern.

One of the protesters, Einat Dardari, said she’s “very disappointed” that the Israeli military was forced to halt its offensive against Hezbollah. “We want security, I want security at home, I want security for my children,” she said.

Iran rebuilds its stockpile of missiles and drones, commander says

A senior Iranian military official said Sunday that Iran has begun rebuilding its stockpile of weapons and munitions as the two-week ceasefire nears to expire, state media reported.

Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force, said they have repaired missiles and drone launchers during the ceasefire which started on April 8, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

“Our speed in updating and refilling missile and drone launch platforms is even greater than before the war,” he said.

The broadcaster aired a two-minute video paired with uplifting music, showing missiles and drones in warehouses as well as mobile launches of missiles.

The United States and Israel say they have degraded Iran’s military capabilities over the course of the nearly six-week war.

Turkish foreign minister says Israel’s ‘fundamentalist government’ is a global problem

Hakan Fidan was asked whether Turkey could replace Iran as Israel’s main adversary, a question raised in both Turkish and Israeli media in recent weeks.

“This is a fundamentalist government. They are a problem for the whole world. This is not just a problem for Turkey,” Fidan told a news conference at the close of a three-day diplomacy forum in southern Turkey.

Turkish officials have described Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Syria as an “expansionist” threat to global stability. Fidan said stopping this threat is clearly on the international community’s agenda. He also described the defense agreements signed between Israel, Greece and Cyprus in December last year as a “military alliance against the Muslim countries in the region.”

Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran

Vice President JD Vance and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling to Islamabad for the second round of in-person talks, according to the White House.

Trump in his social media post Sunday accused Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement by firing bullets Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz, and threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if it does not take the deal the U.S. is offering.

“If they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is in Israel

The far-right South American leader landed on Sunday for a three-day visit, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting the Western Wall of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Milei is scheduled to sign new binational accords with Israel and receive a Presidential Medal from Israeli President Isaac Herzog celebrating his commitment to fighting anti-semitism, Herzog’s office said. It is at least Milei’s third visit to the Western Wall.

He has backed the United States and Israel’s decision to launch a war on Iran. Earlier this month Argentina expelled Iran’s ambassador from Buenos Aires.

Milei is among a small cohort of right-leaning leaders who have deepened ties with Netanyahu’s government even as Israel faces diplomatic isolation over wartime conduct, including in Gaza and Lebanon. Some of Argentina’s South American neighbors have cut diplomatic ties or withdrawn their ambassadors,

Preparations pick up in Islamabad ahead of possible ceasefire talks

Pakistani authorities have begun tightening security in the capital, Islamabad, ahead of a possible second round of ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Authorities on Sunday deployed troops at roadside checkpoints, closed tourist sites and ordered major hotels to cancel bookings and keep facilities available.

Islamabad’s streets are largely deserted, as residents stayed home to avoid road closures seen earlier this month during the first round of talks.

While there were no formal announcements, Pakistani officials said arrangements are in place for talks in the coming days.

A regional official involved in the mediation efforts said mediators were finalizing the preparations. He said U.S. advance security teams are already on the ground. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the preparations.

Pakistan has led mediation efforts to end the war. Its military chief visited Tehran last week, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with regional leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

Israel says it killed Hezbollah commander just before ceasefire

The Israeli army says it carried out a series of strikes that killed more than 150 Hezbollah fighters.

Among those killed was Ali Rida Abbas, which it said was Hezbollah’s commander in Bint Jbeil. The southern Lebanese town and its surroundings were the site of intense clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in the days leading up to the ceasefire.

Israel gave no evidence to support its claims, and Hezbollah didn't immediately confirm the death of its commander.

The ceasefire took effect early Friday.

Iran wants ‘lasting peace,’ chief negotiator says

Iran’s chief negotiator says his country wants “a lasting peace so that war is not repeated again.”

Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the comments in a televised interview late Saturday, a few days before a ceasefire deadline is set to expire, according to Iranian state media.

“What is fundamental for us is distrust of the United States,” he said. “At the same time, we have good intentions and seek a lasting peace — one that prevents the recurrence of war.”

He said that the Islamabad negotiations didn’t address the mistrust, but that the U.S. and Iranian negotiators “reached a more realistic understanding of one another.”

He said that the two sides achieved progress in the Islamabad talks, but disagreement remained on some key issues, including the nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.

“The gaps remain wide and some fundamental issues are still unresolved,” he said.

He didn’t elaborate with further details.

Lebanon's army reopens some roads in the south

The Lebanese army said in a statement Sunday that it reopened the Khardali road that links the southern city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun.

The army said that it also reopened the road that links the port city of Tyre with the village of Bourj Rahhal. The army is also working on reopening other roads, including a bridge on the Litani River in the village of Tayr Filsay.

During Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon over the past several weeks, Israel’s air force has destroyed several bridges on the river.

After a 10-day ceasefire was declared as of midnight Thursday, the Lebanese army and the Litani Authority have been working on putting up temporary bridges to replace the destroyed ones.

Iran negotiator says strait will remain closed

Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. imposes a naval blockade on Iran.

“It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” he said in televised comments aired by Iranian semiofficial media late Saturday.

Qalibaf, who is Iran’s chief negotiator with the United States, said that the strait is now under Iran’s control, linking the choke point’s reopening to the U.S. lifting of its blockade.

“If the U.S. does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be restricted,” he said.

He said that the ceasefire was on verge of collapse when the U.S. attempted to mine-clear the strait.

He said Iran viewed the U.S. attempt as a violation of the ceasefire.

“The situation escalated to the point of conflict but the enemy retreated,” he said.

Another Israeli soldier dies in combat

Israel’s military says another soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon, the second death announced in under 12 hours.

It brought the total number of soldiers killed in Lebanon to 15, and was the second soldier killed in combat since the ceasefire.

The military said that another soldier was badly wounded, along with four moderately wounded and four slightly injured.

Rahm went all of last season on LIV without winning, though he did claim the points title. And he had experienced disappointment before in 2017 at Chapultepec Golf Club when it was a World Golf Championship.

There was no doubt this time after he made birdie on the reachable par-4 second hole and then holed out for eagle on the next hole. He played bogey-free.

“If you would have told me last week on Thursday afternoon that I’d be winning by a six-shot margin this week, I would not have believed you because of how bad I played,” said Rahm, who tied for 38th in the Masters. “Hell of a an effort.”

The week has been filled with uncertainty surrounding the Saudi-funded league, with CEO Scott O’Neil writing a memo to staff to say LIV was assured of funding through the end of the year amid reports speculating about the league’s financial future.

LIV announced Sunday it would be returning to Chapultepec next year.

There was a power outage on Tuesday, fueling more speculation. The streaming went out for two hours during the opening round. And then Bryson DeChambeau withdrew from the final round, citing an injury to his wrist that he did not want to further aggravate.

DeChambeau, who was trying to become the first player to win three straight times on LIV Golf, was 16 shots behind Rahm when he stopped playing.

“I experienced some discomfort in my wrist during yesterday's round and have decided to withdraw from the the final round of LIV Golf Mexico City to prevent further injury,” DeChambeau said in a social media post. “Not how I wanted this week to go.”

DeChambeau said he would be evaluated and hoped to be at LIV Golf Virginia on May 7-10, a week before the PGA Championship.

Rahm motored along, and so did his Legion XIII team, which won for the first time this year.

David Puig shot 66 to finish second, picking up valuable world ranking points and all but assuring that he will be in the PGA Championship. The Spaniard is close enough that another top finish in Virginia could get him into the U.S. Open.

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

And for the eighth consecutive year, the MVP will be an international one.

Gilgeous-Alexander — the reigning NBA MVP — is one of the finalists for this year's top individual honor, along with Denver's Nikola Jokic and the Spurs' Wembanyama, who is also a finalist for defensive player of the year.

The NBA's run of international MVPs started in 2019 and 2020 with Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is of Greek and Nigerian descent. Jokic, a Serbian, won in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon but since became a U.S. citizen, won the award in 2023, and Canada's Gilgeous-Alexander won last year.

Gilgeous-Alexander is also a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year this season.

The NBA announced the finalists for seven individual awards Sunday night and will start announcing winners on Monday. The Defensive Player award — widely expected to be going to Wembanyama — comes out then, followed by Clutch Player on Tuesday and Sixth Man on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the appeal that got the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic onto the award ballots might earn him All-NBA, but did not lead to him getting his first MVP award. He was not among the top three in the balloting for MVP; voters cast their ballots last week after Doncic and Detroit's Cade Cunningham won appeals that got them on the ballot even though they didn't satisfy the terms of the NBA's 65-game rule for eligibility in most cases.

Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards lost his appeal — but might get an award after all.

Edwards is a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year. He wasn’t on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other honors, but was on the Clutch ballot because those nominees were selected by the league’s coaches.

The finalists

— MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City; Nikola Jokic, Denver; Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Wembanyama; Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City; Ausar Thompson, Detroit.

— Clutch Player: Anthony Edwards, Minnesota; Gilgeous-Alexander; Jamal Murray, Denver.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta; Deni Avdija, Portland; Jalen Duren, Detroit.

— Sixth Man: Tim Hardaway Jr., Denver; Jaime Jaquez Jr., Miami; Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Coach of the Year: J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit; Mitch Johnson, San Antonio; Joe Mazzulla, Boston.

— Rookie of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia; Cooper Flagg, Dallas; Kon Knueppel, Charlotte.

MVP

Gilgeous-Alexander is trying to go back-to-back, Jokic — who has been first or second in five straight seasons, entering this year — is seeking his fourth MVP in six years and Wembanyama is a finalist for the first time.

Coach of the Year

Bickerstaff won the award from the National Basketball Coaches Association, selected by his peers, and is the likely favorite for the official NBA honor. Johnson and Mazzulla both led teams that widely exceeded most preseason expectations.

Rookie of the Year

This will likely be a two-person race in the end, with Flagg and Knueppel — both former Duke players — the presumed frontrunners. That would suggest Edgecombe likely finishes third.

Defensive Player of the Year

Wembanyama was the likely frontrunner to win it last season, but wound up falling short of eligibility after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis at the All-Star break and missing the rest of the season.

Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert’s bid for a fifth DPOY award — which would break a record — will continue for at least one more year.

Clutch Player

Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in clutch scoring per game, with Edwards second. Denver had two legitimate candidates with Murray and Nikola Jokic; voters clearly gave Murray the edge.

Clutch scoring is defined as points that come in the final five minutes of a game where the point differential between teams is five or less.

Sixth Man of the Year

Jaquez averaged 15.4 points in 74 appearances off the bench, Johnson averaged 13.2 points — after playing in all 82 Spurs games as a reserve — and Hardaway also averaged 13.2 points in the 74 games where he came off Denver’s bench.

The winner will be a first-time selection for the award.

Most Improved Player

Avdija averaged 24.2 points and led Portland’s surge to the playoffs, while Alexander-Walker — bidding to give Atlanta its second consecutive MIP winner after Dyson Daniels last season — averaged 20.8 points, by far the most his career.

Duren was a first-time All-Star selection and averaged 19.5 points, almost double what he averaged last season despite playing basically the same amount of minutes.

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

It was the first interception since the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports began last week. Iran's joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said.

With the U.S.-Iran standoff over the strait sharpening and the ceasefire expiring by Wednesday, it was not clear where President Donald Trump ’s earlier announcement on new talks with Iran now stood. He had said U.S. negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday.

The uncertainty sent oil prices rising again. One of the worst global energy crises in decades threatened to deepen.

Trump on social media said a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman warned the Iranian-flagged ship, the Touska, to stop and then “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom." U.S. Marines had custody of the U.S.-sanctioned vessel and were “seeing what’s on board!”

It was not clear whether anyone was hurt. The U.S. Central Command, which didn't answer questions, said the destroyer had issued “repeated warnings over a six-hour period.”

Iranian state media suggest new talks won't take place

There was no comment from Iranian officials directly addressing Trump's announcement of talks. However, Iranian state media, without citing anyone beyond unnamed sources, issued brief reports suggesting that they would not happen.

Minutes after the ship seizure was announced, Iranian state media reported on President Masoud Pezeshkian’s phone conversation with Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, earlier Sunday. U.S. actions, including bullying and unreasonable behavior, have led to increased suspicion that the U.S. will repeat previous patterns and “betray diplomacy," the reports cited Pezeshkian as saying.

Two previous attempts at talks — last June and earlier this year — were interrupted by Israeli and U.S. attacks.

On another phone call, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, that recent U.S. actions, rhetoric and contradictions were signs of “bad intentions and lack of seriousness in diplomacy," Iran’s state broadcaster said.

Pakistan did not confirm a second round of talks, but authorities had begun tightening security in Islamabad. A regional official involved in the efforts said mediators were finalizing preparations and U.S. advance security teams were on the ground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss preparations with the media.

The White House had said Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of historic face-to-face talks over 21 hours last weekend, would lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Iran on Saturday said it had received new proposals from the United States. While Iran’s chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, late Saturday said “there will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy,” he acknowledged a wide gap remained between the sides.

It was unclear whether either side had shifted stances on issues that derailed the last round of negotiations, including Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump's announcement on talks repeated his threats against Iranian infrastructure that have drawn widespread criticism and warnings of war crimes. If Iran doesn't agree to the U.S.-proposed deal, "the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” he wrote.

Iran wants to control strait until ‘war fully ends’

Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance.

Security of the strait is not free and “the choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post calling for a lasting end to military and economic pressure on Tehran.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait, along with critical supplies of fertilizer for the world's farmers, natural gas and humanitarian supplies for places in dire need like Afghanistan and Sudan.

Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon took hold on Friday. But then Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the United States. Iran said it would again enforce restrictions it imposed early in the war. On Saturday, Iran fired at ships trying to transit.

For the Islamic Republic, the strait’s closure is perhaps its most powerful weapon, inflicting political pain on Trump. For the United States, the blockade squeezes Iran’s already weakened economy. Each side has accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

Since most supplies to U.S. military bases in the Gulf region come through the strait, “Iran is determined to maintain oversight and control over traffic through the strait until the war fully ends,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said late Saturday. That means Iran-designated routes, payment of fees and issuance of transit certificates.

The council has recently acted as Iran’s de facto top decision-making body.

The war is now in its eighth week after the U.S. and Israel launched it on Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran’s nuclear program. At least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

___ Magy reported from Cairo and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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An earlier version of this story corrected the name of the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson to Esmail Baghaei.

O'Connor's third-period tally was his first since Game 4 of a playoff series against Dallas on April 26. He missed most of this season with a hip injury. Artturi Lehkonen had a second-period goal for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche.

“Super happy to get it out of the way,” said O'Connor, who underwent hip surgery in early June. "For us, our game translates well to the playoffs. It’s a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down. It was nice to get that one out of the way and finish the job off.”

Wedgewood got the nod in net over Mackenzie Blackwood after leading the league in goals-against average and save percentage. Wedgewood made four career playoff appearances in relief before Sunday's start.

At 33 years, 248 days old, Wedgewood became the third-oldest goaltender in league history to pick up a win in his first career playoff start, according to NHL stats.

“Obviously, a long career to get to this point,” Wedgwood cracked.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Denver.

Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal with 2:22 left to make it 2-1. Shortly after, forward Joel Armia was called for high-sticking and the Kings were unable to tie it up.

“We were kind of coming there late and couldn’t get enough,” forward Scott Laughton said.

Anton Forsberg stopped 28 shots in his NHL postseason debut.

“We’re comfortable in low-scoring games,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We've got to try and keep it tight.”

Nathan MacKinnon had an assist on Lehkonen's goal to give him 32 career points in Game 1s. He trails only Joe Sakic (42) for the most Game-1 points in franchise history.

The game got chippy in the third period, with Cale Makar taking a shove to the back by Adrian Kempe. Captain Gabriel Landeskog later stood up for Makar and got into it with Kempe. Both drew roughing calls.

There were a combined 84 hits.

“We know teams are going to want to push us out of games,” said O'Connor, whose team was 0 for 4 on the power play. “We feel as though we can push back just as hard. That’s one great thing about our group: the versatility within our locker room. You want to go a 1-0 game? We like to think we can beat you at that. Track meet, if it happens? We’ve got that. Physicality, we have guys who are willing to step up.”

Colorado nearly scored earlier in the second when O'Connor sent a shot past Forsberg. But as the goal horn sounded, the officials signaled no goal. It was ruled Jack Drury made contact with Forsberg following a collision with Drew Doughty. The Avalanche challenged but the call stood.

“I’d like to see it count,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They saw it different — not losing any sleep over it.”

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

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This story has been corrected to show Logan O’Connor’s last goal was April 26.

The price of U.S. crude oil increased 6.4% to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel.

The market reaction followed more than two days of lifted hopes and dashed expectations involving the strait. Crude prices plunged more than 9% Friday after Iran said it would fully reopen the strait, which it effectively controls, to commercial traffic.

Tehran reversed that decision and fired on several vessels Saturday after President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect. On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. attacked and forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that allegedly tried to get around the blockade. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond.

Sunday's higher prices wiped out much of the declines seen Friday, signaling renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East.

The US-Israeli war against Iran, now in its eighth week, has created one of the worst global energy crises in decades. Countries in Asia and Europe that import much of their oil from the Gulf have felt the most impact of halted supplies and production cuts, although rapidly rising gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices are affecting businesses and consumers worldwide.

Asked when he thought U.S. motorists would again see gas cost less than $3 a gallon on average, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said prices at the pump might not go down that much until next year.

“But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

The price of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — has fluctated dramatically since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and as Iran retaliated with airstrikes on other Gulf states. Crude traded at roughly $70 a barrel before the conflict, spiked to more than $119 at times, and previously closed Friday at $82.59 for U.S. oil and $90.38 for Brent.

Industry analysts have repeatedly warned that the longer the strait is closed, the worse prices could get.

A fragile, two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire Wednesday, while escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz puts the fate of new talks to end the war into question.

Even if a lasting deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz emerges, analysts say it could take months for oil shipments to return to normal levels and for fuel prices to go down. Backed-up tanker traffic, shipowners concerned about another sudden escalation, and energy infrastructure damaged during the war are factors that could impede production and shipment volumes from returning to pre-war levels.

A gallon of regular gas cost an average of nearly $4.05 a gallon in the U.S. on Sunday, according to motor club federation AAA. That’s about 8 cents lower than a week ago, but far higher than $2.98 before the war.

Pinch-hitter Michael Conforto tied it for Chicago in the ninth with an RBI double off closer Devin Williams.

Pete Crow-Armstrong opened the 10th on second as the Cubs' automatic runner. Dansby Swanson fouled off two bunt attempts before Kimbrel (0-1) threw a wild pitch, moving Crow-Armstrong to third.

After Swanson struck out swinging, Hoerner lofted a flyball to right and Crow-Armstrong scored easily.

Caleb Thielbar (1-1) worked a scoreless 10th for Chicago, which posted its season-high fifth straight win.

MJ Melendez homered for New York, which finished with six hits. David Peterson pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings of bulk relief after manager Carlos Mendoza decided to go with Tobias Myers as an opener.

It’s the longest losing streak for the Mets since they also dropped 11 in a row from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in 2004. They have been outscored 62-19 during the slide, and they are averaging just 2.9 runs over 17 games in April.

The Cubs rallied in the ninth against Williams. Ian Happ hit a leadoff single and pinch-runner Scott Kingery scored from first on Conforto's one-out double into the right-field corner against his former team. Conforto was stranded when Williams struck out Carson Kelly and Crow-Armstrong, both swinging.

Melendez began the fifth with a drive to right-center on a full-count fastball from Javier Assad. It was his first homer since he was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday.

Chicago had at least one baserunner in each of the first seven innings.

Crow-Armstrong hit a leadoff triple in the third, but Peterson retired Swanson on a grounder to third before Hoerner lined to second for an inning-ending double play.

Up next

Mets: Following an off day, RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.28 ERA) starts Tuesday night against Minnesota in the opener of a nine-game homestand. RHP Mick Abel (1-2, 3.98) goes for the Twins.

Cubs: RHP Colin Rea (2-0, 3.63 ERA) starts Monday night in the opener of a four-game series against Philadelphia.

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

It's already pretty noisy.

New York dropped its 11th consecutive game when closer Devin Williams blew a ninth-inning lead in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings Sunday. It’s the longest slide for the club since it lost 11 in a row from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in 2004.

“We've just got to stick together and stay within ourself and fight,” Lindor said. “Fight.”

Led by Lindor and Juan Soto, the Mets began the season with World Series aspirations. They had an opening-day payroll of $352.2 million, tops in the majors.

Soto strained his right calf during a 10-3 victory at San Francisco on April 3 — the beginning of a four-game win streak that lifted New York to a 7-4 record.

That seems like a long time ago.

The Mets have been outscored 62-19 during their losing streak. They are batting .145 with runners in scoring position during the skid after going 0 for 9 in those situations in the series finale against the Cubs.

“We didn't hit that many balls hard today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “So yeah, we've got to get better at-bats, for sure.”

The Mets became the first team to lose 11 or more games in a row in April since the 2022 Cincinnati Reds. The last 12-game slide for the franchise was in August 2002.

Only four teams have reached the postseason after going through a double-digit losing streak, including the Cleveland Guardians last year and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017.

“I think it does compound as you continue to lose, but that's for us to stop it and get ourselves going on the right track,” Mets pitcher David Peterson said.

Most of the noise Lindor mentioned likely will focus on Mendoza, who was hired in November 2023. But president of baseball operations David Stearns backed Mendoza on Friday, and Lindor offered a strident defense of his manager after Sunday's loss.

“Mendy's our guy. He's our leader,” the All-Star shortstop said. “He's in control and he's done a tremendous job. We just haven't executed. It would be unfair to put everything on him because at the end of the day he has gotten the ship in the right direction. The people that are paddling, we've got to paddle and execute.”

Even with the team's struggles at the plate, New York was in position to salvage the finale of its six-game trip.

The Mets had a 1-0 lead before Williams gave up pinch-hitter Michael Conforto's tying double in the ninth. Craig Kimbrel was saddled with the loss when Nico Hoerner drove in Pete Crow-Armstrong with a sacrifice fly in the 10th.

The 31-year-old Williams signed a $51 million, three-year contract with the Mets in free agency.

“I'm really, really disappointed,” Williams said. “They gave me a lead. It's my job to hold it, and I made a mistake. It cost us the game today.”

The Mets are off Monday before beginning a nine-game homestand Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins. Soto is expected to return at some point during the homestand, but Lindor & Co. know the slugger can only help so much.

“It's going to lengthen our lineup, but even when he comes, we've still got to get it done,” Lindor said. “It would be unfair to just throw everything on him. As a team, we've got to come together and execute.”

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

Manchester City swung the race for the championship in its favor by beating Arsenal 2-1 on Sunday thanks to a second-half winner by Erling Haaland.

Haaland’s league-leading 23rd goal of the campaign in the 65th minute allowed City to trim the gap to Arsenal, the long-time front-runner, to three points. City has a game in hand at relegation-threatened Burnley on Wednesday, after which Pep Guardiola’s team is likely to have overturned its goal-difference deficit to Arsenal and taken the lead with five rounds remaining.

“Panic on the streets of London” read a banner held aloft behind one of the goals after the final whistle — a reference to a 1980s song by The Smiths and a nod to Arsenal's end-of-season implosion that has seen Mikel Arteta's team lose four of its last six games in all competitions, including two straight in the league.

This might be a familiar sinking feeling for Arsenal fans, who have seen their team finish as runner-up for the past three Premier League seasons.

“Two weeks ago, this didn’t look very likely, this scenario,” City captain Bernardo Silva said.

An often-frenetic match exploded into life when Rayan Cherki gave City a 16th-minute lead with a weaving run and finish, only for Arsenal to draw level in bizarre circumstances two minutes later after Gianluigi Donnarumma’s clearance was charged down by Kai Havertz and rebounded into the net from close range.

Haaland and Arsenal pair Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes struck the goal frame, before Haaland slotted home a low shot from Nico O'Reilly's cross, dealing a huge blow to Arsenal's hopes of a first league championship since 2004.

City is expected to beat next-to-last Burnley, but has a tougher run-in than Arsenal that includes trips to Everton and Bournemouth and a final-day meeting with Aston Villa.

“Every game is a final,” Haaland said.

Unlike City, which is unbeaten in 10 league games, Arsenal is struggling for form and also has to balance playing in the Champions League after reaching the semifinals.

"It's a new league now — everything is still to play for," Arteta said.

Stoppage-time winners for Liverpool and Villa

Liverpool and Aston Villa look to be headed for the Champions League after grabbing stoppage-time winners on Sunday.

Virgil van Dijk headed home in the 10th minute of added-on time to earn Liverpool a 2-1 victory at Everton in a Merseyside derby featuring a record-tying goal from Mohamed Salah.

Salah, who is leaving Liverpool at the end of the season after nine trophy-filled seasons, marked his final derby by slotting in a low finish in the 29th minute. His ninth Merseyside derby goal drew him even with Liverpool great Steven Gerrard for the most in the Premier League era (since 1992).

It was Liverpool’s other stalwart, Van Dijk, who sealed the win by turning in a corner by Dominik Szoboszlai.

There was so much stoppage time because Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili was forced off on a stretcher after sustaining an injury attempting in vain to save a 54th-minute shot by Beto that brought Everton level.

Villa, meanwhile, beat Sunderland 4-3 thanks to Tammy Abraham’s goal in the third minute of stoppage time.

Fourth-placed Villa moved 10 points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea. Liverpool is in between them, but stretched its advantage over Chelsea to seven points.

The top five in the Premier League will qualify for the Champions League.

Gibbs-White hat trick boosts Forest survival chances

Morgan Gibbs-White scored a second-half hat trick as Nottingham Forest rallied to beat Burnley 4-1 and further boost its survival hopes.

Forest moved five points clear of third-to-last Tottenham in the relegation zone, while next-to-last Burnley slipped closer to the drop to the Championship.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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

The reigning league MVP made just 5 of 18 field goals but went 15 of 17 at the foul line before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Jalen Williams scored 22 points and Chet Holmgren added 16 for the top-seeded Thunder, who will host Game 2 on Wednesday.

Devin Booker scored 23 points and Dillon Brooks scored 18 on 6-of-22 shooting for the Suns, who shot 34.9% from the field. Jalen Green, who scored 35 and 36 points in Phoenix’s two play-in games, had 17 on 6-for-16 shooting.

It was the third straight year that the Thunder earned the top seed and had to wait through the play-in tournament to learn their first-round opponent. Two seasons ago, Oklahoma City beat New Orleans 94-92 in Game 1. Last year, the Thunder routed Memphis 131-80 in Game 1 on their way to the title.

Phoenix claimed the No. 8 seed by defeating the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. The Suns took an early 5-0 lead Sunday as the Thunder started cold following a week off.

The Thunder heated up quickly. Brooks was called for a flagrant-one foul in the first quarter for hitting Holmgren in the face. The Thunder went on a 12-2 surge after that to take a 24-14 lead.

In the closing seconds of the quarter, Oklahoma City's Jaylin Williams threw a pass about three-quarters of the length of the court. Holmgren caught it with his back to the basket, took one dribble to his right, then turned and drained a 3-pointer as time expired to put Oklahoma City up 35-20.

Oklahoma City extended the advantage to 65-44 at halftime. Holmgren had 16 points and Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 at the break.

Gilgeous-Alexander converted a three-point play to push Oklahoma City's lead to 90-63 late in the third quarter, and the Thunder took a 97-66 edge into the fourth.

Nine Oklahoma City players saw at least 13 minutes of action.

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

Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system.

It's the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.

Companies must submit declarations listing the goods on which they collectively put billions of dollars toward the import taxes the court subsequently struck down. If CBP approves a claim, it will take 60-90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said.

The government expects to process refunds in phases, however, focusing first on more recent tariff payments. Any number of technical factors and procedural issues could delay an importer's application, so any reimbursements businesses plan to make to customers likely would trickled down slowly.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court on Feb. 20 found that Trump usurped Congress' tax-setting role last April when he set new import tax rates on products from almost every other country, citing the U.S. trade deficit as a national emergency that warranted his invoking of a 1977 emergency powers law.

Although the court majority did not address refunds in its ruling, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade determined last month that companies subjected to IEEPA tariffs were entitled to money back.

Not all taxed imports immediately eligible

Customs and Border Protection said in court filings that over 330,000 importers paid a total of about $166 billion on over 53 million shipments.

Not all of those orders qualify for the first phase of the refund system's rollout, which is limited to cases in which tariffs were estimated but not finalized or within 80 days of a final accounting.

To receive refunds, importers have to register for the CPB's electronic payment system. As of April 14, 56,497 importers had completed registration and were eligible for refunds totaling $127 billion, including interest, the agency said.

System requires accuracy

Meghann Supino, a partner at Ice Miller, said the law firm has advised clients to carefully list in their declarations all of the document numbers for forms that went to CBP to describe imported goods and their value.

“If there is an entry on that file that does not qualify, it may cause the entire entry to be rejected or that line item might be rejected by Customs,” she said.

Supino thinks the portal going live will require composure as well as diligence.

“Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday,” she said. “So we continue to ask everyone to be patient, because we think that patience will pay off.”

Nghi Huynh, the partner-in-charge of transfer pricing at accounting and consulting firm Armanino, said most companies claiming refunds will have imported a mix of items, and not all will qualify right away.

“It’s about having a clear process in place and keeping track of what’s been submitted and what’s been paid, so nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Each file can include thousands of entries, but accuracy is critical, as submissions can be rejected if formatting or data is incorrect.”

Patience with the process

Small businesses have eagerly awaited the chance to apply for refunds. Brad Jackson, co-founder of After Action Cigars in Rochester, Minnesota, said he starting compiling records and preparing to enter information into the system the minute CPB announced the launch date.

The company imports cigars and accessories from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Last year, it paid $34,000 in tariffs and absorbed much of the cost instead of raising customer prices, Jackson said.

Last spring, he had a two-week delay in a shipment due to a missing document, so he is being more careful with refund documents, he said.

“My main concern is the turnaround time,” Jackson said. “A refund process that takes several months to complete doesn’t solve the cash flow problem that it is supposed to fix.”

Will consumers see refunds?

Tariffs are paid by importers, and some companies pass on the tax costs to consumers via higher prices.

The system starting up Monday will refund tariffs directly to the businesses that paid them, which are not obligated to share the proceeds with customers. However, class-action lawsuits that aim to force companies, ranging from Costco to Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, to reimburse shoppers are winding their way through the U.S. legal system.

Individuals may be more likely to receive refunds from delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, which collected tariffs on imports directly from consumers. FedEx has said it would return tariff refunds to customers when it receives them from the CPB.

“Supporting our customers as they navigate regulatory changes remains our top priority,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are working with our customers as CBP begins processing refunds and plan to begin filing claims on April 20.”

Breakthrough T1D is a global nonprofit focused on accelerating breakthroughs to cure, prevent and better treat type 1 diabetes. Beyond fundraising, organizers say the walk also connects families with support and pushes for improved access to care.

For many participants, the walk is a chance to be seen and heard. Jane Vandeneykel, a walker at the event, said the day carries real meaning for those living with diabetes.

“It’s an opportunity to advocate for ourselves and also to help other people learn about what it means to be diabetic, how you can support, and to raise money,” Vandeneykel said.

Organizers say the event draws attention to just how widespread type 1 diabetes has become in the region. Sally Southard, a Breakthrough T1D walk coach, pointed to numbers that underscore the urgency.

“Here at our Carilion office, they get at least one or two newly diagnosed children a week so it’s pretty prevalent,” Southard said.

The Salem walk is part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness and fund research for type 1 diabetes. Organizers say every step supports local families and moves research closer to new treatments — and, one day, a cure.

The FBI has used social media campaigns to attract applicants, offered abbreviated training for candidates from other federal agencies and relaxed requirements for support staff seeking to become agents, according to people familiar with the changes and internal communications seen by The Associated Press. At the same time, the Justice Department has opened the door to hiring prosecutors right out of law school to help fill vacancies in U.S. attorney’s offices across the country.

Some current and former agents also say the FBI is promoting into positions of leadership employees with less experience than is customary for the jobs.

The moves reflect a broader effort to stabilize a workforce strained by retirements and resignations prompted in part by concerns over the Trump administration's politicization of the department, along with the firings of lawyers, agents and other employees deemed insufficiently loyal to the Republican president's agenda. Critics of the changes say they amount to a reduction in standards for a law enforcement institution that has long prided itself on professional expertise and bears responsibility for everything from preventing terrorist attacks to building complex public corruption prosecutions.

“It’s a sign of, among other things, the difficulty the department is having right now in keeping and recruiting people,” said Greg Brower, a former U.S. attorney in Nevada who left the FBI in 2018 as its chief congressional liaison.

The FBI defended the changes as a necessary modernization of its hiring pipeline, saying it is streamlining, not lowering, standards and removing what it says were “bureaucratic” steps in the application process. It said applicants were still evaluated “on the same competencies.”

“The Bureau holds high standards for potential and current employees, and there is a rigorous application and background process to join the FBI,” the FBI said in a statement.

Waived requirements in some cases to become an FBI agent

The FBI has long been seen as the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency, with a recruitment process anchored around physical fitness tests, a writing assessment, interview and training academy at Quantico, Virginia.

Elements of the regimen have been periodically tweaked to fit the bureau's needs, including over the past year under FBI Director Kash Patel 's leadership.

With a mantra to “let good cops be cops,” Patel announced last year that transfers from other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration would be able to complete a nine-week training academy instead of the traditional academy that spans more than four months. The change rankled some current and former officials who say the FBI's protocols, culture and diversity of cases it handles help to distinguish it from other agencies.

For support staff employees looking to become agents, the bureau more recently said it would waive requirements of a written assessment and an interview with a three-member panel of FBI agents meant to measure life experience and judgment, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the moves and an internal message seen by the AP.

The FBI said onboard employees would still need recommendations from a senior leader and to complete Quantico training.

“We are not lowering standards or removing qualifications in any way. What we are doing is streamlining the process to remove duplicative, bureaucratic steps to the application system for onboard employees,” the FBI said in a statement, adding, "These are changes based on a wide variety of feedback from successful agents with over 20 years’ experience.”

Patel boasted in January of a 112% increase in applications, and the FBI says it has a “clear path” to add around 700 special agents this year and that its current Quantico class is one of its largest in years. But some people familiar with the matter say an applications uptick does not necessarily correspond to a surge in high-caliber recruits that can offset the attrition the bureau has endured.

At the other end of the employment spectrum, the FBI also faces turnover among senior leaders, including special agents in charge, the title given to heads of most of the bureau's 56 field offices. Some were fired by Patel over the past year. Others retired. Many offices are now led by someone who has been in the job for under a year.

Facing what current and former officials say is difficulty in filling some of the positions, the FBI has moved quickly to promote agents up the ladder, people familiar with the matter say. That includes elevating assistant special agents in charge to special agents in charge and opening the door for employees to be considered for leadership roles without the significant headquarters experience the FBI historically regarded as necessary for a holistic view of bureau operations.

As a conservative podcast host before becoming director, Patel talked about shutting down FBI headquarters and transforming it into a museum of the “deep state” and immediately upon his arrival told colleagues that as director he would move hundreds of employees from Washington into the field.

“As a field agent, you have a field agent’s mentality, you have a field agent's view,” said Chris Piehota, a retired FBI senior executive. Without adequate headquarters experience, he added, you don't know “the business side of the FBI, the logistical side of the FBI or the political jungle" that can accompany the job.

Justice Department changes

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has lowered hiring prerequisites for some federal prosecutors.

Department officials recently suspended a policy that U.S. attorneys offices only hire prosecutors with at least one year of experience practicing law. The department did not explain the reason, but said in a statement that it is “proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities safe."

It comes as parts of the agency are struggling to keep up with the workload amid critical staffing shortages, with the department recently acknowledging that it has lost nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys.

In Minnesota, for example, the federal prosecutors’ office has been gutted by resignations amid frustration with the administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement and the department’s response to fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents.

Justice Department headquarters in Washington has endured staffing losses, too.

The number of lawyers in the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, which prosecutes organized crime groups and violent gangs, is down significantly, though the section is looking to hire additional attorneys. A National Security Division section that works espionage cases has reported a 40% drop in prosecutors.

The department said in a statement that it has seen an increase in criminal complaints and indictments despite a loss in prosecutors, underscoring the “bloated, ineffective and weaponized” institution it says the administration inherited.

Officials have enlisted military lawyers to serve as special prosecutors in some offices. The Justice Department has taken to social media to recruit applicants, and the FBI has done the same in search of new agents. One recent post from the FBI's Indianapolis office said: “A calling bigger than yourself. A mission that matters. If you’re ready for the challenge, there’s a place for you on the FBI team.”

Chad Mizelle, who served as chief of staff to Trump's first attorney general, Pam Bondi, recently urged lawyers to contact him on X if they want to become prosecutors, “and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda.” Mizelle’s post raised eyebrows not only because federal prosecutors have not generally been solicited over social media, but also because support for the president has not been a prerequisite for career employees.

“We need good prosecutors,” wrote Mizelle, who left the department in October. “And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.”

The election on Sunday was the country's eighth in five years, illustrating a crippling political impasse that has gripped this Balkan nation. Preliminary results are expected on Monday.

The poll conducted by Trend research group showed Radev's Progressive Bulgaria earning 39.2% support, edging out the center-right GERB party of its veteran leader, Boyko Borissov, which is expected to capture 15.1% of the vote. Despite the huge gap between the two groups, the predicted percentage may not be enough for Radev to form a one-party government, and he will face the uphill task of looking for partners to govern.

The exit poll also predicted that voter turnout stood at 43.4%, and that six parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter a fragmented parliament.

Radev said after the initial projections were announced that “we will do our best to prevent having to go to the polls” again.

“It (new election) will be a disaster for Bulgaria,” he said. "It would mean going from crisis to crisis when what we have to do is work very hard to emerge from these crises.”

The snap vote followed the resignation of a conservative-led government amid nationwide protests last December that drew hundreds of thousands, mainly young people, to the streets. The protesters called for an independent judiciary to tackle widespread corruption.

If confirmed in an official tally, the victory of Radev's coalition could potentially bring to power a left-leaning leader who is seen by critics as pro-Russian. Last weekend, Hungarian voters rejected the authoritarian policies and global far-right movement of Viktor Orbán, who cultivated close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Radev resigned from the mostly ceremonial presidency in January, a few months before the end of his second term, to launch a bid to lead the government as prime minister.

The 62-year-old former fighter pilot and air force commander has promised to give the nation a fresh start. His supporters are split on those hoping he will put an end to the country’s oligarchic corruption and those lining up behind his Eurosceptic and Russia-friendly views.

Radev's popularity surged as he has cast himself as an opponent of the country’s entrenched mafia and its ties to high-ranking politicians. At campaign rallies he vowed to “remove the corrupt, oligarchic model of governance from political power.”

Since 2021, the nation of 6.5 million has struggled with fragmented parliaments that produced weak governments, none of which managed to survive more than a year before being brought down by street protests or backroom deals in parliament.

After voting on Sunday, Radev said that Bulgaria now has a historic chance to change the alleged oligarchic model of governance. He urged people to go to the polls because mass “voting is the only way to drown vote-buying in a sea of free votes.”

Though Radev has officially denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has repeatedly opposed military aid to Kyiv and has favored reopening talks with Russia as a way out of the conflict.

Radev’s relatively vague campaign has left him open for cooperation with almost any party in the future Parliament, according to Mario Bikarski, senior Eastern and Central Europe analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Radev, however, seems reluctant to enter a formal coalition with the hard right and openly pro-Russian Revival party, Bikarski said.

Bulgaria is a European Union and NATO member country that joined the eurozone on Jan. 1, shortly after entering the border-free Schengen travel area. However, it has been plagued by political instability since 2021, when Borissov — a three-time prime minister at the time — resigned following massive protests fueled by anger over widespread corruption and injustice.

Tonight’s low temperatures will be even colder than last night’s, seeing lows in the 30s and 40s.

The National Weather Service has issued freeze warnings for Greenbrier and Pocahontas Counties starting this evening into tomorrow, along with frost advisories during the same time period.

As for the winds, they will quickly calm down overnight. Tomorrow they will pick back up, but be less intense than they were today.

As for tomorrow evening, the entire region is under a freeze watch that extends into Tuesday morning.

There is a high likelihood of frost Tuesday morning in particular. Luckily, temperatures will start to warm up from here, reaching the 80s by the end of the week.

Sunday Morning:

Yesterday had its fair share of gusty winds, but we will actually see those winds intensify this morning.

While a majority of these wind gusts will not exceed the 30 mph range, some areas could see up to 50 mph gusts this AM.

These winds are caused by a strong cold front that pushed through last night, which is also the cause of our over 20 degree drop in temperatures.

Highs will stay in the 50s and 60s today, and will linger around these temperatures for the next few days.

Rain will continue off-and-on throughout the morning. Following the front, there is a large surface high, which will quickly clear our skies and stop the rain.

By about 10 AM, the rain will start to wrap up across the region, with more eastward counties potentially seeing the rain end closer to 11 AM.

This rain has been very light for most, so far. Some areas in the NRV saw some brief heavy rainfall, but a majority of it being more of a drizzle.

Even as we finish up this system, our rainfall totals are not looking too impressive, with a lot of areas seeing trace amounts.

Another system is anticipated next weekend, and is seemingly more likely to have rainfall will come from that.

After the rain wraps up later this morning, that surface high will take over, giving us dry weather to start the week.

Wednesday, that surface high will be displaced by another front that will warm temperatures back up into the upper 70s and potentially producing a few showers.

To end the week, there is a slight chance of seeing a few rain cells across Virginia, but we will remain mostly dry until our next big weather maker comes next Saturday.

Shamim Mafi will face charges that she brokered the sale of “drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition” between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, First U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Sunday on social media.

A phone number for Mafi could not be located and it wasn't known Sunday if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

Essayli posted a photo of someone in an FBI jacket escorting a woman into the back of a sedan outside a terminal at LAX.

Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016, Essayli said.

A criminal complaint dated March 12 alleges that Mafi and an unnamed co-conspirator operated a company in Oman called Atlas International Business through which weapons and ammunition were trafficked. The company received over $7 million in payments in 2025.

Separately, Mafi and the co-conspirator brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, according to the court documents.

“In connection with the transaction, Mafi submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ('IRGC') to purchase the bomb fuses for Sudan,” the complaint said.

Mafi is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.

The Sudanese civil war has created a humanitarian crisis in the North African country where food supplies are dwindling and millions of people have fled their homes.

The teams announced the deal Sunday after agreeing to it Saturday night pending a physical.

Cincinnati then signed Lawrence to an extension that pays him an average of $28 million through the 2028 NFL season, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Giants now have the fifth and 10th picks for the draft that begins Thursday night. They’re heading into their first draft under coach John Harbaugh after finishing 4-13 last season.

The Bengals paid a hefty price for the 28-year-old Lawrence, who asked for a trade because he wanted a new contract. He was set to make roughly $20 million each of the next two seasons and is now under contract for three more.

“I know they gave up a lot for me, and I appreciate that. I don’t take that for granted. I have a fire in me,” Lawrence said Sunday at Paycor Stadium, according to the Bengals' website.

Barring a trade, it’ll be the first time Cincinnati doesn’t have a first-round pick since 1989, when the Bengals traded the next-to-last pick in the draft (No. 27) to Atlanta for a second-round pick (No. 35), a fourth (No. 89) and a 10th (No. 256).

The 6-foot-4, 340-pound Lawrence had a career-high nine sacks in 2024 but only registered a half-sack last season. He made the Pro Bowl in 2022-24 and was a second-team Associated Press All-Pro in 2022 and 2023.

The Bengals ranked near the bottom in several defensive categories last season. They were 31st in yards allowed, 30th in points allowed and 30th against the run.

With Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins leading a dynamic offense, improving the defense was a must this offseason. Lawrence gives Cincinnati a proven star in the middle of the defensive line, though the cost was steep.

The Giants will be the 22nd team in the common draft era (since 1967) to have two top-10 picks and the fifth in the last five years. They did it in 2022 with Kayvon Thibodeaux (fifth) and Evan Neal (seventh). The Bears took Caleb Williams first and Rome Odunze ninth in 2024. The Texans selected C.J. Stroud second and Will Anderson Jr. third in 2023. The Jets got Sauce Gardner fourth and Garrett Wilson 10th in 2022.

On Tuesday, Giants general manager Joe Schoen said the team was having productive talks with Lawrence’s camp.

“We’d like for Dexter to be here, and at some point we’ll come to a resolution here, whatever that may be,” Schoen said. “We’ll see. But conversations have been really good, they’ve been productive and we’ll see what happens here down the road.”

But owning two top-10 picks was too good to pass up.

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AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow and AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Jaylen Brown scored 26 points and Neemias Queta added 13 for the second-seeded Celtics.

Tatum scored 21 points in the first half, playing in just his 17th game this season following surgery last May to repair his Achilles tendon.

“I’m still rehabbing,” Tatum said. “I still attack rehab every single day except for when we have off days. ... Still trying to ramp up.”

Boston never trailed, building a 35-point lead as coach Joe Mazzulla gave minutes to 12 players. The Celtics connected on 16 3-pointers.

“That was Celtics basketball,” Brown said. “We’ve been the harder-playing team all year. That can’t change now that the playoffs have started.”

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Boston.

Tyrese Maxey had 21 points and eight assists for the 76ers, who played without Joel Embiid. The 2023 MVP continues to recover following an appendectomy on April 9. It's unclear when he will be able to return.

Paul George scored 17 points and V.J. Edgecombe added 13. Philadelphia was 4 of 23 from 3-point range.

Maxey was hounded by a Celtics defense that contested 12 of his 14 shot attempts in the first half and held him to 8 of 20 from the field.

Philadelphia’s 64-46 halftime deficit was its largest in a playoff game against Boston since 1982. Coach Nick Nurse called the Sixers' effort “absolutely unacceptable.”

“We just didn't do enough at either end to settle into the game,” he said.

Tatum had 10 first-quarter points, punctuated with an emphatic two-handed dunk, to help the Celtics end the period with a 33-18 lead.

Philadelphia struggled at the outset to keep pace with Boston’s shooting, making one of its first nine attempts from 3. The Sixers also had issues keeping Boston out of the paint after Embiid's understudies, Adem Bona and Andre Drummond, each picked up two quick fouls.

That prompted Nurse to bring in Dominick Barlow, who played just 10 minutes in Philadelphia's play-in victory over Orlando.

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

Early voting has closed. For those who have not yet cast a ballot, Tuesday is the final opportunity to weigh in.

Virginia voter John Makay said he made it to early voting just in time.

“On the very last day of the very last hour, what’s 20 minutes before voting,” Makay said.

Makay added that flexibility in the voting process is something he values.

“Early voting is very important for me for the busy lifestyle that I have,” he said.

Voters are being asked whether they support a proposed redistricting amendment that would temporarily redraw Virginia’s congressional map. If approved, the change could shift the state’s current near-even split to a 10-1 Democratic majority and would remain in effect until 2030, when redistricting would return to an independent process.

Supporters say the amendment would help level the playing field. Critics call it unfair.

Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, are urging voters to approve the amendment. Warner argues the measure is a direct response to congressional maps drawn in other states — specifically pointing to Texas and North Carolina — that he says favored Republicans.

“Because of the actions we’ve seen in North Carolina and Texas, to level the playing field, and at least in Virginia, it’s not going to be the politicians, it’s the voters that get to decide, so I think this one time, short-term change, we’ll go back to independent in 2030, I think it makes sense,” Warner said.

Republicans, including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, are urging a “no” vote. Youngkin argues the proposed map is an overreach and sets a troubling precedent.

“Virginians aren’t happy with this and the big opportunity for all of us, Republicans, Democrats, independents, is to stand up and say no, we’re not going to gerrymander Virginia,” Youngkin said.

At the polls, voters said showing up matters — regardless of where they stand on the amendment.

One Virginia voter, tied the election to a broader sense of civic duty.

“It’s very important to exercise your right to vote, especially as a woman,” she said. “Every single woman, young, old, in between needs to remember what has been sacrificed to have this right.”

Virginia voter Jeffrey Harkness said preparation is key to meaningful participation.

“I think voting is important because it’s part of the democratic process in the country and do your due diligence and your research,” Harkness said.

Some voters, regardless of party affiliation, questioned why congressional maps are being revisited in multiple states when redistricting typically occurs once a decade.

Makay said he is frustrated with both parties.

“Both sides, I’m disappointed with both the groups, Democrats and Republicans — what’d we come to? We’ve come to this,” he said.

Harkness echoed that frustration.

“There’s a major problem with democracy at this point, we’re at a crisis point,” he said.

Election Day is Tuesday, April 21. Both Roanoke City and Roanoke County will have polling locations open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Harry Kane scored his league-leading 32nd goal of the season after going on as a second-half substitute, and Bayern should have scored more against the overwhelmed Stuttgart defense.

The win moved Bayern an unassailable 15 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund with four rounds of the German league remaining. Bayern only needed a point to be sure of the title after Dortmund’s defeat to Hoffenheim the day before.

It’s Bayern’s record-extending 35th German championship including the first for the club in 1932. Every other title came after the Bundesliga’s formation in 1963.

Stuttgart’s Chris Führich had riled the home team with the opener in the 21st minute, but Bayern’s Raphaël Guerreiro, Nicolas Jackson and Alphonso Davies replied by scoring in a six-minute spell in the first half.

Spanish player Chema scored a spectacular second goal for Stuttgart in the 88th.

Cockatoo celebrations

Bayern's players lined up wearing cockatoo T-shirts in front of the fans, but there were none of the traditional beer showers that usually accompany league wins.

The Bundesliga is just the first in a potential treble of trophies for Bayern this season. The Bavarian powerhouse faces Bayer Leverkusen away for their German Cup semifinal on Wednesday, and then it has a two-legged Champions League semifinal tie against defending champion Paris Saint-Germain.

“It’s not – hopefully not – the last title,” Bayern president Herbert Hainer said. “Because we’ll definitely win our fourth consecutive German championship with the women’s team, and we’re in the cup final with the women. And I hope that we can wrap everything up on Wednesday so that we can then travel to Berlin (for the cup final) with the men.”

Muted atmosphere

The atmosphere was muted at the start of the game. There were reports of a clash between Bayern and Stuttgart fans before the match.

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany rotated his squad with eight changes to the team that started against Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, with Manuel Neuer, Kane, Michael Olise, Dayot Upamecano and Aleksandar Pavlović on the bench.

Serge Gnabry was out with a thigh injury sustained in training the day before.

The 23-year-old Jamal Musiala became the second youngest Bayern player to reach 150 Bundesliga appearances after Uli Hoeneß, who was 11 days younger, according to stats provider Opta.

Musiala beat two defenders on the left before crossing for Guerreiro’s tap in in the 31st, then Luis Díaz unselfishly set up Jackson for Bayern’s second after a mistake from Finn Jeltsch left three attackers facing one Stuttgart defender. Davies scored with a deflected shot four minutes later.

Kompany took Musiala and Díaz off at the break for Olise and Kane. The 18-year-old Bara Ndiaye later went on for his second league appearance.

Kane’s goal – his 51st of the season across all competitions for Bayern – stretched the team’s Bundesliga record for goals in a season to 109. The previous record, set by Bayern’s 1971-72 team featuring Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, was 101 goals.

“It’s very special,” midfielder Joshua Kimmich said. “I mean, especially this season, it’s a very, very good Bundesliga season, including today’s game. It’s not a given that you come here after the games against Madrid and then play a game like this.”

Other results

Nadiem Amiri scored a penalty with the last kick of the game to earn Mainz a 1-1 draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach that left the home team just five points above the relegation zone.

Two deflected shots gave Europa League semifinalist Freiburg a 2-1 win over last-placed Heidenheim earlier.

Johan Manzambi scored with a deflected shot in the first half and Maximilian Eggestein netted the late winner with another deflection after Budu Zivzivadze had given the visitors hope with a brilliant strike into the top left corner in the 59th minute.

Defeat ended Heidenheim’s three-game unbeaten run and left it seven points behind St. Pauli and the relegation playoff place with four rounds of the league remaining. Heidenheim hosts St. Pauli next weekend.

Freiburg reached the Europa League semifinals with a 3-1 win at Celta Vigo on Thursday. It faces Sporting Braga away in the first leg on April 30.

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

Across the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Przewalski’s horses — stocky, sand-colored and almost toy-like in appearance — graze in a radioactive landscape larger than Luxembourg.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the nuclear power plant in Ukraine sent radiation across Europe and forced the evacuation of entire towns, displacing tens of thousands. It was the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Four decades on, Chernobyl — which is transliterated as “Chornobyl” in Ukraine — remains too dangerous for humans. But the wildlife has moved back in.

Wolves now prowl the vast no-man’s-land spanning Ukraine and Belarus, and brown bears have returned after more than a century. Populations of lynx, moose, red deer and even free-roaming packs of dogs have rebounded.

Przewalski’s horses, native to Mongolia and once on the brink of disappearing, were introduced here in 1998 as an experiment.

Known as “takhi” in Mongolia (“spirit”), the horses are distinct from domestic breeds, with 33 pairs of chromosomes, compared with 32 in domesticated horses. The modern name comes from the Russian explorer who first formally identified them.

“The fact that Ukraine now has a free-ranging population is something of a small miracle,” said Denys Vyshnevskyi, the zone’s lead nature scientist.

With human pressure gone, parts of the exclusion zone now resemble European landscapes from centuries past, he said, adding: “Nature recovers relatively quickly and effectively.”

The transformation is visible everywhere. Trees pierce abandoned buildings, roads dissolve into forest, and weathered Soviet-era signs stand beside leaning wooden crosses in overgrown cemeteries.

Hidden cameras show the horses adapting in unexpected ways. They seek shelter in crumbling barns and deserted homes, using them to escape harsh weather and insects — even bedding down inside.

The horses live in small social groups — typically one stallion with several mares and their young — alongside separate bands of younger males. Many died after their introduction, but others adapted.

Declared extinct in the wild in 1969, Przewalski’s horses survived only through captive breeding before reintroduction efforts rebuilt a global population of about 3,000, according to Florian Drouard, an operations manager at a program for the horses at Cevennes National Park in southern France.

“This species is a remarkable example of successful reintroduction,” he said. “While it is still far from being fully secure, it has shown that with proper preparation, a species kept in captivity can regain the social and ecological behaviors needed to live freely.”

The horse, he said, has proved unexpectedly adaptable, adapted to open landscapes but now also thriving in Ukraine's partly forested environment.

Tracking the animals at Chernobyl takes time. Vyshnevskyi often drives alone for hours, setting motion-sensitive camera traps in camouflaged casings attached to trees.

Despite persistent radiation, scientists have not recorded widespread die-offs, though subtler effects are evident. Some frogs have developed darker skin, and birds in higher-radiation areas are more likely to develop cataracts.

However, new threats have emerged.

Russia’s 2022 invasion brought fighting through the exclusion zone as troops advanced toward Kyiv, digging defenses into contaminated soil. Fires linked to military activity swept through forests.

Harsh wartime winters have also taken a toll. Damage to the power grid left surrounding managed areas without resources, and scientists report increases in fallen trees and dead animals — casualties of both extreme conditions and hastily built fortifications.

“Most forest fires are caused by downed drones,” said Oleksandr Polischuk, who leads a firefighting unit in the zone. “Sometimes we have to travel dozens of kilometers to reach them.”

Fires can send radioactive particles back into the air.

Today, the zone is no longer just an accidental refuge for wildlife. It has become a heavily monitored military corridor, marked by concrete barriers, barbed wire and minefields — a landscape of what some describe as grim beauty.

Personnel rotate in and out to limit radiation exposure. Chernobyl is likely to remain off-limits for generations — too dangerous for people, yet full of life.

“For those of us in conservation and ecology, it’s kind of a wonder,” Vyshnevskyi said. “This land was once heavily used — agriculture, cities, infrastructure. But nature has effectively performed a factory reset.”

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Associated Press writers Dmytro Zhyhinas and Vasilisa Stepanenko in Chernobyl, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

She wore her favorite Indiana Fever practice gear, stretched and ran with teammates and, of course, flashed her trademark smile. And while she didn't line up any 3-pointers during the open portion of the team's first training camp practice, everyone knows those will be back — in time.

For now, just getting back to work in her adopted hometown served as a welcome respite after enduring so many frustrating twists during her injury-plagued 2025 season.

“It’s hard, it’s very isolating to come to practice every single day and spend two hours getting treatment and rehab and then you come out here and you have to show up and be the best teammate you can be,” she said. “I think that taught me a lot about what I can do if I’m not on the court, and I got to be their biggest fan. I think that was a great experience for me because through a lot of my career, everyone else was my biggest fan. That doesn't mean I wasn't cheering for my teammates. It was like I was playing the most minutes, I had the ball in my hands and when you’re not doing that you have to find another way to impact the team.

Clark did her part last year, serving essentially as the WNBA's highest-profile coach on game days while working relentlessly behind the scenes to get back to full strength. But the NCAA Division I’s career scoring leader never fully recovered from what turned out to be a season-ending injured right groin just before the All-Star break.

The seemingly indestructible Clark appeared in just 13 games, missed the All-Star Game and surrounding weekend's festivities in Indianapolis, and embraced the Fever's inspirational playoff run, which ended one win short of the WNBA Finals despite a rash of injuries.

So getting Clark back to practice Sunday was a victory for her and the Fever. Now comes the hard part — keeping her healthy.

“The biggest thing is just making sure we're mindful it's Day 1,” coach Stephanie White said. “It's not like she has to go out there and go through everything. I think with her, Kelsey (Mitchell), with AB (Aliyah Boston), just being mindful of getting them in and out, and we need to get other people integrated anyway, so I think it will give us a good opportunity to do that.”

Clark didn’t just spend the offseason rehabbing. She worked as a television broadcaster and as a sports photographer during an NBA game before returning to action while representing the U.S. during the recent World Cup qualifier in Puerto Rico. That gave her a chance to knock off some rust and get back into playing shape.

But things have changed since Clark last appeared in a WNBA game.

There's a new collective bargaining agreement in place, a deal that helped her All-Star teammates Boston and Mitchell recently sign million-dollar contracts. Longtime rival Angel Reese has been traded to Atlanta, and the league has added two expansion teams as it prepares for its second straight 44-game schedule.

It was about this time last year, Clark said Sunday, she sensed something was off. A few weeks later she missed Indiana's first preseason game, her first absence in six years, with a left leg injury that marked the start of her injury-plagued season.

The good news for Clark fans: She declared herself 100% and said she had no restrictions entering camp. That could set her up for a comeback year — presuming a slightly different approach helps her stay healthy in 2026.

"I’ve been playing pickup, playing live all the time. Eventually, skill workouts get a little boring, so you just want to play and play and play," she said. “I'm the person that doesn't want to miss a rep, I want to be out there every single time. Like I just love competing and none of that has changed. But I think just being a little smarter with my body and understanding what it takes — I think especially through camp days — taking care of my body is probably the most important thing.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The problem with the Italy international, however, was his frailties with the ball at his feet.

Unfortunately for City, that was shown up Sunday in its biggest game of the season.

City had just taken the lead through Rayan Cherki in its much-anticipated Premier League title-race showdown with Arsenal when Donnarumma received a back pass from Matheus Nunes.

There seemed little danger when Donnarumma took a touch but he dallied on the ball, allowing Arsenal forward Kai Havertz to close him down. Donnarumma tried a hurried clearance but a nightmare ensued as the ball was charged down by Havertz’s outstretched leg and rebounded back into the net.

Donnarumma looked down at the ground and was distraught. A number of his City teammates ran over to the goalkeeper and comforted him.

Being able to pass the ball out from the back has typically been a pre-requisite for goalkeepers used by City manager Pep Guardiola.

It was why the signing of Donnarumma seemed at odds with City’s playing approach that was reflected in the raking passes and calmness under pressure with the ball at his feet shown by long-time goalie Ederson Moraes for the previous eight years.

Donnarumma vowed to improve his passing out of the back upon joining City but his issues have proved costly, gifting Arsenal a way back into the game at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

City fought back to clinch a 2-1 win, however, with Donnarumma atoning for his mistake with a crucial save low down from Havertz in the second half.

City manager Pep Guardiola refused to attach any blame on Donnarumma, saying it was the nature of being a goalkeeper.

“Gigi’s mistake is our mistake,” Guardiola said.

“I love seeing his teammates, how they support him unconditionally."

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

But Doug Fiefia, a state representative running to be a state senator, wanted to start with something else — artificial intelligence. Fiefia used to work at Google and, like several other tech employees who have gone into politics, he has made regulating the industry a centerpiece of his campaign.

“I know it sounds like ‘Doug, this is all you talk about,”’ Fiefia said. “That’s because it’s coming, it’s here and it’s going to be our biggest fight.”

Fiefia's focus has put him on a collision course with President Donald Trump's administration, which this year helped block his state proposal requiring companies to include child safety protocols. The White House wants a single national standard for artificial intelligence, arguing that a patchwork of excessive regulation could handicap American innovation in a global competition with China.

But with no progress in Congress, it has been state lawmakers struggling to address concerns about a technology that is poised to reshape the economy. In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis added the issue to a special legislative session that he is convening later this month. Democratic-controlled New York last year required major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state.

All told, there are more than 1,000 state legislative proposals addressing AI, a reflection of the uneasiness that has seeped through the country.

“None of us are really sure," said Brett Young, a structural engineer who attended the backyard event with Fiefia. "Is this something we should be scared about, or is it no so big a deal and it’ll enhance our lives?”

Pressure in the states

Trump has routinely tried to stamp out state-level AI policies, and he issued an executive order that included legal threats and funding penalties to deter new regulations.

The White House recently released a framework for potential congressional legislation that calls for preempting state laws considered “too burdensome” but would allow some rules to protect children and copyright material.

None of these steps has eased the number of proposals in state capitals. Popular ideas include forcing chatbots to remind users they are not human and barring the use of AI to make nonconsensual pornography, which includes replacing or removing clothing from photos that are posted online.

“There's a lot of state lawmakers looking at what the federal government is doing and saying, ‘We want to take action because we’re not satisfied,'" said Craig Albright, senior vice president for government relations for the Business Software Alliance, which represents software companies.

About 8 in 10 people in the United States said they were “concerned” or “very concerned” about AI in a Quinnipiac poll last month, with about three-quarters saying government is not doing enough to regulate the technology. Roughly 9 in 10 Democrats and 6 in 10 Republicans wanted more government involvement.

The most significant regulations have passed in California and New York, solidly Democratic states. The provisions focus on disclosure of catastrophic risk, such as the AI-controlled meltdown of nuclear plants or AI models refusing to heed human direction.

But there is pressure in Republican-led states, too.

DeSantis pushed a bill to implement parental controls for minors using AI and to prohibit systems from using anyone's likeness without permission. It fell short in the state House after overwhelmingly passing the state Senate. AI bills in Republican-controlled Louisiana and Missouri have stalled out because of Trump administration resistance.

‘An army of full-time lobbyists’

Fiefia is part of a loose network of former tech employees turned state lawmakers trying to meet the demand for stronger regulations. He co-chairs the AI task force of the Future Caucus, a network of younger state lawmakers, with Monique Priestley, a Vermont Democrat who also has worked in tech.

Priestley said the group uses video conferences and group chats to share ideas for new proposals and deal with lobbyists who oppose their bills. She said that 166 of her state's 482 registered lobbyists weighed in on her data privacy bill last year, which was ultimately vetoed by the governor.

“It's like you're running around against an army of full-time lobbyists,” said Priestley. Like many state lawmakers, she works a separate, full-time job.

Alex Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement, is also a member of the AI task force. A Democrat, Bores wrote the New York bill that was signed into law last year.

Now Bores is competing in the crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler representing much of Manhattan in Congress, and he is facing payback from the industry. A pro-AI campaign committee has spent $2.3 million against his candidacy.

Bores said tech companies are trying to make an example of him to scare off more regulation at the state and federal level.

“It's one reasons it's so important for me to win this race is because, if I don't, that intimidation they're trying on Congress will be successful,” he said. Bores' competitors in the June 23 primary include Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, and George Conway, a former Republican who has become one of Trump's chief antagonists on social media.

From Google to politics

Fiefia has not attracted the sort of attention as Bores as he tries to move to the state Senate after a single session in the House. The subdivisions and shopping centers of his district are sandwiched between Utah's jagged mountain ranges and the cul de sacs are crammed with children on bikes and scooters.

The son of Tongan immigrants, Fiefia grew up in Utah but moved to Silicon Valley, where he worked as a salesperson for Google.

Fiefia rose to manage a team working with companies on the implementation of Google's early AI model and was disturbed by what he saw.

“What I realized is Big Tech cares about their bottom line, and they were worried about making money, not doing right for the human race,” said Fiefia, who now works at a Utah-based cloud computing and AI company.

Fiefia's legislation was unanimously passed by a House committee this year, but the Trump administration sent a letter to the Senate saying that the measure was “unfixable.” The measure quickly died.

Daniel McCay, the state senator who Fiefia is challenging in the primary, said he thinks that was a good thing.

“I've been around long enough to recognize the invention of fire, the wheel, cars and the internet did not ruin society and I'm very skeptical of anyone trying to scare society into regulations,” McCay said in an interview.

He noted that the bill went beyond child safety, including whistleblower protection for AI workers and public disclosure of risks.

“It would have driven Utah out of the AI innovation business," McCay said.

At the cottage meeting — the Utah term for a small gathering at someone's home to discuss important issues — Fiefia faced several tech-related questions from the crowd.

Asked about defying the Trump administration, Fiefia said it was especially important to stand up for states' rights when a fellow Republican was in power to demonstrate the principles involved.

“The Trump administration is, ‘We want zero regulations on AI,’” Fiefia said. “I think that's wrong. I agree with a lot of what Trump says on taxes. I disagree with him on this.”

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Jerry Nadler’s congressional district in New York City covers much of Manhattan, rather than the borough’s East Side and parts of Queen and Brooklyn.

Perez was the designated hitter Sunday and said things between him and manager Matt Quatraro are fine.

“No frustration, Zero frustration for us,” Perez said before the finale of a three-game series against the Yankees. “The people they don’t want to know what’s going on here. They can think and they can say whatever they want to say, you know, zero frustration. I don’t have time for that.”

On Saturday, Perez was given his first day off since sitting out two games last August.

Quatraro described it as giving him a mental breather.

On Saturday night, Perez posted on social media: “I don’t need a mental breather.”

“I know people were surprised I didn't play yesterday, but I think everybody has off days in the big leagues," Perez said. "It’s kind of hard to play 162, especially behind the home plate."

“Everything’s fine,” Quatraro said. “Salvy and I have talked multiple times about it. We’re in a good spot. I think some of it comes from it’s a story when Salvy doesn’t play and there’s usually a follow-up question to how’d that go, how’s he feeling. “So it was just me trying to provide a little color to the answer that didn’t go the way it was intended and that’s really all there was to it.”

Perez was the DH for the seventh time this season.

Off to a slow start, Perez is hitting .160 with three homers and six RBIs in his first 20 games. Last season, the 35-year-old batted .236 — his second lowest-average in a full season — but hit 30 homers and drove in 100 runs for his third career 100-RBI season.

Perez caught 92 games last season, was the designated hitter in 38 other games and also played 28 games at first base. He played 47 games at first base in 2024.

To give Perez more time at designated hitter, the Royals added a third catcher when they selected the contract of Elías Díaz from Triple-A Omaha. Díaz signed a minor league contract with Kansas City in late-February and was hitting .226 at Omaha.

Last season Díaz batted .204 with nine homers and 29 RBIs in 106 games for the San Diego Padres. He is a career .247 hitter with 71 homers and 326 RBIs in 11 seasons for Colorado, Pittsburgh and San Diego.

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

The Mario sequel has spent all of its first three weekends in the first place spot, this time adding $35 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. The Universal release has now made $747.5 million worldwide.

“Project Hail Mary” meanwhile dropped only 15% in its fifth weekend, earning $20.5 million and bringing its domestic total to $285.1 million. Worldwide it's at $573.1 million. Amazon MGM's hit is in the midst of another run on IMAX screens, after ceding them to “Mario” for two weeks. Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, along with star Ryan Gosling, made an appearance at the industry trade show CinemaCon last week to thank theater owners for helping to make it the year's highest earning original film.

The weekend left “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” which opened wide in 3,404 locations, in third place with $13.5 million. The R-rated movie, directed by the filmmaker behind “Evil Dead Rise” and produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster, did not resonate with critics or audiences, recording a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lackluster C+ CinemaScore.

The film, starring Jack Reynor, follows a family whose missing daughter reappears, mummified and living. It devolves into a “a gross-out bloodfest,” according to a review for The Associated Press. But it also only cost a reported $22 million to produce, and with $20.5 million from international showings, it already has a worldwide total of $34 million.

“Horror movies had their biggest year in 2025,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's head of marketplace trends. “So far that’s not happening in 2026.”

The Bob Odenkirk-led action movie “Normal,” about a visiting sheriff in a Midwestern town, also opened this weekend, earning an estimated $2.7 million. Directed by Ben Wheatley and released by Magnolia, “Normal” was better received by critics (77% on Rotten Tomatoes) but also got a C+ CinemaScore from audiences, who were 65% male.

This weekend also had several high profile limited or art house releases, including the Lorne Michaels documentary “Lorne,” and David Lowery’s “Mother Mary,” starring Anne Hathaway as a tormented pop star and Michaela Coel as her estranged designer. “Lorne,” a Focus Features release, opened in 414 theaters in North America, earning an estimated $270,000. A24’s “Mother Mary” opened on five screens and made $168,063.

Neither were enough to make the top 10, but one independent that did was the comedy “Busboys,” co-starring David Spade and podcaster Theo Von, which managed to land in eighth place with $1.6 million from 800 theaters.

Last year on this weekend, Warner Bros. opened “Sinners” to $48 million. While the weekend is down from a year ago, the overall box office is still up over 16% from this time last year, and Dergarabedian gives a lot of credit to “Project Hail Mary.”

Things will likely pick up next weekend as the Michael Jackson movie “Michael” arrives in theaters. Early tracking suggests the Lionsgate release is poised to earn more than $60 million (some put it as high as $75 to $90 million) in its first weekend in North America, which would make it the biggest ever for a musical biopic. The current record-holder is “Straight Outta Compton” which opened to $60 million in 2015. “Bohemian Rhapsody” debuted to $50 million and went on to earn over $910 million worldwide.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $35 million.

2. “Project Hail Mary,” $20.5 million.

3. “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” $13.5 million.

4. “The Drama,” $4.8 million.

5. “You, Me & Tuscany,” $3.8 million.

6. “Hoppers,” $2.9 million.

7. “Normal,” $2.7 million.

8. “Busboys,” $1.6 million.

9. “Bhooth Bangia,” $977,582.

10. “A Great Awakening,” $823,667.

Whatever concerns Philadelphia might have had about its young core evaporated over 60 minutes of confident, assured hockey in a 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh in Game 1 of their first-round series on Saturday night.

Jamie Drysdale, just 24 and one of 10 Flyers players making his postseason debut, spent part of the first period mixing it up with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, then gave the Flyers the lead midway through the second with a shot that found its way through a perfectly set screen by 20-year-old Denver Barkey.

Porter Martone, 19, provided the game winner late in the third with a wrist shot from the right circle, capping a dazzling sequence in which he hit the brakes and spun around to create a shooting lane in front of Pittsburgh's Noel Acciari.

“I kind of stopped up and shot it and luckily it went in,” Martone said in typically understated fashion.

Despite playing in just the 10th game of his NHL career, Martone could sense the vibe shift from the regular season to the playoffs. The sea of yellow towel-waving Penguin fans that greeted the Flyers with boos when they came out for pregame warmups offered tangible proof. So did the intensity of the opening period, when the curiosity of the cross-state rivals' first postseason meeting in eight years quickly gave way to animosity.

Philadelphia stood its ground, often dictating the terms against the Penguins, who have undergone a retooling of their own but still go as the core of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson — who came in with a combined 573 career playoff games — go.

While Malkin had a goal and an assist, Crosby was unusually quiet, and Letang and Karlsson were part of a Pittsburgh defense that appeared caught off guard by Philadelphia's speed.

“The execution wasn't really what we were hoping for," Karlsson said. “We didn't really set out to do what we needed to do on our game plan. We turned too many pucks over in the wrong spot. We made it hard on ourselves."

Karlsson is confident that first-year coach Dan Muse and the rest of the Penguins coaching staff will have more answers for Monday night's Game 2.

If Pittsburgh wants its return to the postseason after a three-year absence to be anything more than a cameo, it doesn't really have a choice.

Muse didn't think there was anything surprising about the way the Flyers counterattacked. Perhaps the thing that did catch the Penguins off guard was the way Philadelphia's playoff neophytes hardly seemed intimidated by the stage or the opponent.

Then again, it's been that way for most of the last two months for the Flyers, who stormed into the postseason behind a scorching finishing stretch fueled by young legs that don't know any better.

Philadelphia made a not-so-veiled nod to its unlikely rise by arriving for Saturday's morning skate rocking T-shirts with Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent's facemask on the front, the word “Believe” on the back and “3.8” — the percentage chance it had of making the playoffs at one point this season — on the sleeves.

The Flyers are playing with house money in a sense. They're one of the longest shots in the 16-team field to end a Stanley Cup drought that's a half-century old. Not that it matters at the moment. They hardly looked burdened by history in the opener.

No one outside of their dressing room expected them to be here when they were in 13th place in the Eastern Conference coming out of the Milan Cortina Olympic break, a point in time when Martone was finishing up his only season at Michigan State.

Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet, who was just 20 when he made his first NHL playoff appearance for the Flyers more than four decades ago, knows a thing or two about the challenges that come with playing this time of year.

The pressure ramps up. Players start to grasp their sticks a little more tightly. It can be a lot to handle at any age, let alone a handful of weeks into your career. To that end, he's tried to keep things light.

“They might be nervous, so we tried to really relax the atmosphere,” Tocchet said.

Philadelphia certainly looked relaxed afterward, but not too relaxed. While Tocchet saw some “hooting and hollering” from the new kids, they were careful not to get ahead of themselves.

And if they might have been tempted to, there are enough old heads among the fresh faces to keep them in check, veterans like forward Sean Couturier. The 33-year-old captain knows how quickly things can change. He is still waiting for a chance to play beyond the second round.

What happened on Saturday night was a good start, but it was also just a start. Holding the NHL's third-highest-scoring team to 17 shots again, as they did in the series opener, may not be replicable.

The effort and energy the Flyers used to knock the Penguins off-balance, however, is another matter.

Yes, technically Saturday night was the first time nearly half the players in burnt orange, black and white stepped into the crucible of the playoffs. The reality, however, is that Philadelphia's postseason began a while ago.

“We’ve been playing big games for the last month, month and a half, meaningful games, must-win games," Couturier said. "We’re put to the test and thought we did a good job of preparing ourselves and being ready.”

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Guilherme Peixoto is a Portuguese Catholic priest who, in his 50s, has become a celebrity in the world of electronic music. He hosted a rave Saturday in Buenos Aires in homage to the Argentine-born leader of the Catholic church who died in April 2025.

As young and old, Catholics and agnostics alike, danced to the music Peixoto controlled from his DJ booth, three enormous screens projected images of the late Popes Francis and John Paul II as well as white doves.

“God bless you, and let’s dance,” a voice-over said before Peixoto appeared in priestly attire and headphones at the historic Plaza de Mayo. He then placed his hands on the console and for the next two hours mixed techno and religious melodies.

“This is a unique opportunity to see him, and it’s free,” said Jesús Martín, a 54-year-old Spaniard and electronic music fan. “In Ibiza, you have to pay 150 euros, and up to 2,000 euros for VIP.”

Inspiration leads to global sensation

Peixoto — better known as Padre Guilherme — has become a global sensation, performing around the world to large audiences and amassing a following of 2.8 million people on Instagram and over 220,000 monthly streams on Spotify. He was ordained a priest in 1999, partly out of religious vocation and partly to fulfill a promise his mother made to God when he suffered a life-threatening illness as a child.

Electronic music became a hobby alongside his priestly career. In the 2000s, he began playing at universities and organizing parties to raise funds for his parish, but he asked that no one take his picture for fear of reprisals from his superiors.

Those fears dissipated when Monsignor Jorge Bergoglio assumed leadership of the Catholic Church as Pope Francis in 2013.

“He often said, ‘Don’t be afraid,’ that we had to go out to the peripheries and that ‘We shouldn’t be afraid to use our hands.’ These messages were an inspiration,” Peixoto recalled in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of his performance in Buenos Aires.

So, he enrolled in a DJ school, contacted electronic music producers and began composing his own tracks. Eventually, invitations to participate in festivals and play in clubs across Portugal began to arrive.

The priest burst onto the world stage after his performances at World Youth Day in 2023, before the open-air Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.

“I will never lose this connection with Pope Francis," Peixoto said. "He was the one who touched my heart with this facet of music."

Many attending his Saturday rave knew little about the priest-DJ.

“I learned about him when the tribute to Francis was first announced. I came to remember the Pope, but I think what he does is very original, as long as it’s done respectfully,” Silvia Garaggiola, 60, said.

Saturday’s set list included Peixoto’s hit “El Grano de Mostaza” and remixes of Bad Bunny and Queen.

Evangelizing youth from the DJ booth

From the Medusa Festival in Cullera, Spain, to Dreamfields in Mexico, or the Hï Ibiza club — in that Spanish resort town often dubbed the “Vatican” of electronic music — Peixoto broadcasts a message of peace and coexistence to thousands of young people, the vast majority of whom are not practicing Catholics.

Amid the smoke of tobacco and marijuana cigarettes, several groups of teenagers danced and imitated the DJ priest’s hand movements, while laser lights gave Plaza de Mayo the appearance of a nightclub.

“It sounds really good,” commented 17-year-old Ileana González. “I have zero religion, but I’m having fun.”

The Curia’s resistance to modernization, its rejection of sexual diversity and the scandals involving the abuse of minors have erected a wall between the Catholic Church and younger generations —a barrier that Pope Francis sought to dismantle through his revolutionary papacy.

An admirer of English musician Carl Cox and the Italian American artist Anyma, Peixoto seeks to carry forward that mission from behind his DJ decks.

“I believe it is incredibly important to make young people smile, to help them feel happy with themselves, rather than associating happiness with merely possessing this or that material thing,” he said.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

ACSO said they were notified by the Florida Bay County Sheriff’s Office that they have pinged the cell phone of a suspect in an attempted murder case to an area near Low Moor around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The suspect was identified as Amy Brown of Panama City, Florida. After receiving details about Brown, law enforcement said they began to canvas the area and found her vehicle in the parking lot of the Travelodge by Wyndham Low Moor Near Covington.

Deputies said they spoke to the manager on site and were informed the woman had checked into the hotel around 2:40 p.m. that day. Deputies then called for a lockdown of Lewis Gale Alleghany Hospital, the Brian Center Nursing facility and Penny’s Diner, all of which are near the hotel. The hotel was also evacuated.

Authorities said they attempted to negotiate with Brown to get her out of the hotel, which was initially unsuccessful. After more attempts, she willingly gave up and was taken into custody without further resistance.

Brown is now being held in the Alleghany Regional Jail until Florida authorities are able to interview her.

This incident is still under investigation. We will update you with more information as it becomes available.

A “massive” nighttime drone strike on Chernihiv in northern Ukraine killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded four others, according to the head of the city's military administration.

Rescuers found the teenager’s body as they cleared away rubble, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi reported on Telegram on Sunday morning. He said the drone strike also wounded three women and one man. Several houses were set on fire, he added.

Russian drones also attacked the southern city of Kherson on Sunday, local officials reported.

A man died of his wounds after a drone hit a van driving through the city center, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional administration. A second man was hospitalized with blast injuries, regional authorities said.

Russia launched 236 drones into Ukrainian territory overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s air force reported. Of those, 203 drones were shot down while 32 hit targets in 18 separate locations, it said.

Kyiv says it struck a Russian drone factory

Meanwhile, Ukraine hit a drone factory in the city of Taganrog, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. The site lies some 55 kilometers (35 miles) east of Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine in southwestern Russia.

According to the military, Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at the Atlant Aero factory, which designs and produces strike and reconnaissance drones, as well as components for more powerful UAVs that can carry guided bombs weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds).

Ukraine’s navy said it carried out the attack on the drone factory in southern Russia, using domestically manufactured Neptune cruise missiles.

“This defense enterprise is an important part of the Russian military-industrial complex, where drones were developed and manufactured,” the navy said in an online post.

It also posted images showing a huge cloud of smoke over the city, which it said was the impact of the strikes.

Three people were injured in a nighttime air attack on commercial infrastructure in Taganrog, according to the Russian regional governor, Yuri Slyusar. He did not specify what facility was hit, but said warehouses were set on fire following the strike.

Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said the strike damaged “commercial enterprises” in the city, as well as a vocational school and multiple cars.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 274 Ukrainian drones during the night, as well as guided aerial bombs and a Neptune cruise missile. The ministry did not say how many struck targets.

Ukraine launches inquiry into mass shooting in the capital

Ukraine's Interior Ministry on Sunday launched an official inquiry into a mass shooting in Kyiv the previous day that killed six people and wounded at least 14 others.

A gunman wielding an automatic weapon killed six people and barricaded himself inside a supermarket with hostages in the Ukrainian capital before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko described the attacker’s mental state as “clearly unstable.”

The 58-year-old gunman has not been named, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said he was born in Russia. Authorities worked to piece together a motive for the violence.

Several police officers were suspended for allegedly failing to respond appropriately in the initial stages of the shooting. Klymenko, the interior minister, described their behavior as “shameful and unworthy” of their role as police officers.

He said there was no plan to toughen gun ownership laws, arguing that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens had helped the country’s defense against Russia.

The mass shooting — unheard of in wartime Kyiv following Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — took place in a busy central district of the city, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center, leaving bodies on a crowded street as bystanders fled for safety.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw victims’ bodies covered with emergency blankets before they were taken away.

Zelenskyy hits out at U.S. sanctions waiver for Russian oil

Elsewhere, Zelenskyy responded with dismay to the Trump administration's decision on Friday to extend its pause on sanctions on Russian oil shipments.

“Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X, arguing that any additional revenue the Kremlin gets from oil sales “is directly converted into new strikes against Ukraine."

“That is why it is important that Russian tankers are stopped, not allowed to deliver oil to ports. The aggressor’s oil exports must decrease, and Ukraine’s long-range sanctions continue to work toward that goal," he added.

The so-called general license, intended to ease supply constraints resulting from the Iran war, means U.S. sanctions will not apply for 30 days on deliveries of Russian oil that has been loaded on tankers as of Friday. It extended a similar 30-day license issued in March for Russian oil that had been loaded by March 11.

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

Organizers say this year’s celebration will be especially meaningful, as the community comes together to mark America’s 250th anniversary with a weekend full of patriotic spirit, entertainment and family-friendly activities.

The festival kicks off Friday night with a concert featuring Camel City Yacht Club, known for their 70s and 80s favorites. Gates open at 6 p.m., with music starting at 7 p.m. Attendees can also enjoy food vendors, drinks, and a kids zone with dancing and bubbles. Admission is $5.

Saturday brings a full day of festivities, starting at 10 a.m. with more than 150 craft and food vendors lining downtown streets. Families can explore live entertainment, including music and magicians, along with a kids zone at the Vinton Farmers Market featuring bounce houses and activities.

Festival traditions continue with the Dogwood Queen Coronation at noon, followed by a walking parade at 2 p.m. featuring local groups and marching bands. A car show on Walnut Avenue, petting zoo, and other attractions will also be set up throughout the day.

Lauren Tilley with the festival joined us in the studio on Sunday to preview the festivities.

But there are not only ways to reduce the stress of entertaining at home, but strong arguments for throwing a party, planning a game night or bringing guests together over a shared meal, according to mental health experts and experienced hosts. Without in-person social gatherings, adults can become increasingly lonely and isolated, especially as more work is done remotely and conversations take place via text messages.

“Oftentimes, we expect someone else to reach out to us. But if the vast majority of people are expecting someone else to do it, then it’s going to become a rare thing," said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University and the lead author of a 2023 U.S. surgeon general’s report on the widespread health risks of loneliness.

Seasoned party-planners say that striving to create meaningful interactions instead of for perfection alleviates some of the stress of hosting. Organizing activities that give guests a way to settle in or mingle, planning a simple menu and asking for help are some of the strategies they use to create an event that everyone, even the host, can participate in and enjoy, they say.

“When we are more socially connected, we are not only happier, but we’re healthier and live longer,” Holt-Lunstad said.

Gatherings are not just for the guest

Madeline Johnson, 24, posts recipes, decoration tips and ideas for backyard parties on social media under the name Madeline May. She said she got into hosting because she was seeking social connection.

“As an only child, I always wanted community,” said Johnson, who hosted about a dozen large events with friends and at least five smaller gatherings with family members last year. “I started to realize if I wanted that village around me that I would have to build it on my own."

Now, she wants to help other people build the courage to invite guests over and facilitate bonds between them.

“There’s just way too much unnecessary pressure that makes people feel like the bar to host is up here when it’s much lower,” Johnson said.

As someone who is more naturally reserved, she likes planning an activity for her gatherings, such as painting a flower vase or answering trivia questions, to reduce the initial anxiety of socializing, especially when the group includes people who don't know each other.

Asking guests to bring different foods or assigning them shared tasks like setting the table also can spark conversations and reduce work for the host, Holt-Lunstad said.

“In the U.S., we are so time deprived and have over-scheduled everything that it is difficult to sit down and be present, but a meal allows us to do that. We should not underestimate the power of what food can do,” she said.

Kitchen shortcuts for hosts

Shared appetizers like charcuterie and grazing boards, and meals that can be prepared in advance such as casseroles, soups and other dishes, are simplifying how people host, reducing time in the kitchen on the day of and making serving and cleanup easier.

Oregon-based chef and cookbook author Josh McFadden, who is known for turning seasonal ingredients into approachable, shareable dishes, talks in one of his books about grazing-style eating having roots in communal farm tables.

Butter boards, which involve spreading soft or whipped butter on a platter topped with honey, herbs or spices and dipped into with bread and crackers, are a modern interpretation that have gained popularity.

“You can put a lot of variety and textures and different flavors into things in an easier way, showing off the seasonality of the food. It becomes a mobile meal," McFadden said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It also creates conversation, and it's just a fun way to eat.”

Serving food arranged for picking from a platter is a quick way to serve guests, he said. McFadden also suggests incorporating store-bought foods and asking guests to bring specific dishes or beverages as other ways hosts can lighten their loads.

Katie Eu, 26, who lives in New Hampshire, says she loves a “bring your own” type of gathering, especially since hosting can get expensive if it's not a potluck or friends don't take turns playing host, like she and hers do.

“It is pretty low pressure because what you are providing is not the food, but the space for people to gather,” Eu said.

Supporting the host as the guest

Providing a setting for social connection matters more than how great the food is, what the decor looks like or how spacious a home is, said Richard Slatcher, a social psychology professor at the University of Georgia.

“The other stuff is a bonus,” Slatcher said. “It’s really about the people.”

Inviting people into your home for the first time nevertheless creates a feeling of vulnerability since guests can learn a lot about the host’s taste, interests and beliefs through the color scheme, the books on the shelves, and the art work and mementos on display.

Try to remember that vulnerability also is an essential element in fostering authentic human connections, said Slatcher, who co-led research with Holt-Lunstad on how attending live events can combat loneliness.

Guests also have a responsibility when it comes to making a social event fulfilling for themselves and their host, Holt-Lunstad said.

“If you're passively being an attendee, you are not going to feel connected,” she said.

For Johnson, guests not confirming their attendance, showing up late or not showing up at all are a major sources of stress.

“I put my heart and soul into everything,” she said. “If you want to truly be a good guest, put the invitation on your calendar, don’t double book yourself and try to show up on time.”

Guests also show consideration for their host by cleaning up after themselves to the extent possible and not overstaying their welcome, according to Eu.

“Hosting is hard, so being aware of space that you’re coming into and space you’re taking up” matters, she said.

“Seeing all of my family, all my kids, my beautiful wife, and seeing all the different people I worked with, I’m just really filled up,” said Murphy, who received the life achievement award at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday night. “This is a special moment. I wish y’all could feel what I’m feeling, see what I’m seeing. I almost teared up. I’m going to get backstage and cry.”

Just before accepting the award, Murphy was met with a standing ovation, stepping onstage and moving through the ballroom as the applause followed. Along the way, he passed Spike Lee, Martin Lawrence, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Arsenio Hall and Judge Reinhold.

The tribute, which also featured appearances from Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Eva Longoria, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Kenan Thompson, will premiere as a special on Netflix on May 31.

Murphy, 65, has moved from a teenage stand-up sensation to a breakout force on “Saturday Night Live” to a box office mainstay with films like “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” “The Nutty Professor” and the “Shrek” franchise.

Large images from those defining moments filled the venue stage, tracing a career that has crossed stand-up, television and film.

“Eddie made us laugh and made our nation feel better,” said Lee, who presented the award to Murphy. “I took a camera and told stories on how our nation could be better. … We both pushed culture forward. ... Every step of this journey, Eddie has been true to himself.”

Comedians pointed to Murphy’s influence across generations.

“There is no us without you,” Rock said.

Lawrence, who starred in the film “Life” with Murphy, shared a personal moment from early in his career, recalling how Murphy once declined his request for a photo. But now, that shouldn't be a problem since their children married each other in 2025.

“Now I can get all the pictures I want,” Lawrence said with a smile. “Because we're in-laws.”

Arsenio Hall, Murphy’s longtime collaborator on “Coming to America,” spoke about Murphy advocating for him in the film and highlighted the depth of his talent.

“When Eddie does a family film, he plays a whole damn family,” Hall said.

Chappelle reflected on studying Murphy’s stand-up as a teenager watching “Raw.” He described Murphy as one of the defining figures in the industry and shared a recent visit to his home, where seeing Murphy’s grandchildren playing offered a deeper perspective on his life.

“I would watch him every day after school like I was taking a class,” said Chappelle, who also spoke on an interview where he considered revisiting “Chappelle's Show,” a project he once stepped away from, calling it one of the most meaningful experiences of his career.

Chappelle said Murphy encouraged him to revisit the idea, and even joked about joining the project if it comes to fruition.

“You are still the hero I want to be,” he said.

Stevie Wonder described Murphy’s impact as something that extends beyond comedy. He showed his deep admiration for the comedian-actor.

“Laughter can make life livable,” Wonder said. “Eddie is more than a comedian … he is a universal reminder.”

Mike Myers, who co-starred in the “Shrek” films with Murphy, credited him with helping define one of animation’s most beloved characters, calling his character portrayal of Donkey a “masterpiece.”

Jennifer Hudson delivered a musical tribute with performances from “Dreamgirls,” backed by a house band led by Rickey Minor.

The gala, which raised more than $2.5 million to support AFI’s nonprofit education programs, also included the presentation of the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal to cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who spoke about finding her voice through the institute.

Murphy’s career has spanned nearly 50 years, from stand-up stages to blockbuster films, with a versatility that has kept him relevant across generations. In 2023, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes and has spoken about embracing a deeper appreciation for his journey.

“Thank you for giving me this night that I will remember forever and ever and ever,” Murphy said. “I love you.”

Officers responded to multiple calls of shots fired around 11:36 p.m. on April 18 in the 700 block of Arlington Road. When they arrived, they found a man lying in a driveway suffering from a gunshot wound.

Police say the victim, identified as 34-year-old Christopher Darnell Moore of Danville, was given life-saving aid at the scene and transported to the SOVAH Danville emergency room, where he later died from his injuries.

As officers were responding, four additional victims arrived at the hospital in personal vehicles with gunshot wounds.

Investigators say a large gathering was taking place at a home on Arlington Road when multiple shots were fired, striking all five victims at the same location.

The four surviving victims - a 48-year-old man, a 33-year-old man, a 25-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old woman, all from Danville - were treated for what appear to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say the shooting was not a random act.

The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Danville Police Department.

Husted was recently called to testify as a defense witness in the related criminal trial of two former energy executives, testimony he might have to reprise after a hung jury led to a mistrial in the case in March. A judge in Akron scheduled the retrial to begin Sept. 28, meaning Husted could be back on the witness stand a week before early voting begins for the November elections.

The former lieutenant governor and Ohio secretary of state has never been charged with or accused of any wrongdoing. But the vast public record that has emerged from the scandal has raised questions about Husted's dealings with key players who have been indicted or imprisoned in the scheme, which revolved around legislative approval of a $1 billion bailout for the state's two nuclear power plants.

It's too early to know whether Husted's association with the trial will be a political liability for the first-term senator, who in the fall is expected to face Sherrod Brown, a Democrat ousted from the Senate in 2024.

In a potential sign of concern, Senate Republicans’ main super political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, recently announced plans to spend $79 million on Husted's behalf. That's roughly one-quarter of its planned national spending in eight tightly contested Senate races.

Husted says he had no role in the bailout bill

Asked in 2022 what role he played in the bailout legislation, known as House Bill 6, Husted answered, “None.” He has reiterated that stance many times since, even as evidence disclosed in the case has raised questions about his involvement.

Husted calendars that came to light during the recent trial involving executives for the utility, Akron-based FirstEnergy, showed a number of additional meetings or phone calls that he had with former CEO Chuck Jones, with the state's former top utility regulator, who has since died, and with then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. They formed the triangle of influence at the heart of scheme as laid out by federal prosecutors. Husted's calendars were obtained by the Ohio Capital Journal through a public records request and have been reviewed by The Associated Press.

Jones and former FirstEnergy lobbyist Michael Dowling were charged for their alleged roles in the bribery scandal and will be retried in the fall. Householder is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2023 of orchestrating the scheme, which FirstEnergy has admitted to underwriting.

The interactions noted in Husted's calendars were around the time the bailout bill was being developed and passed. Evidence presented in various cases showed Jones and Dowling discussing a push by Husted for additional subsidies in the legislation.

Husted has consistently denied that he played a role in creating the legislation as well as having any knowledge of criminal activity surrounding the bill.

In an NBC4 interview in January, Husted said, “My role was very clear. I wanted the nuclear power plants to remain operational.” He said it was “about keeping those plants open and keeping the lights on for millions of Ohioans.”

Husted referenced in a text exchange about subsidy negotiations

In June 2019, Jones texted Dowling screenshots of a conversation he had with Householder that suggested Husted was working on FirstEnergy’s behalf to extend the term of the nuclear plant subsidies from six years to 10 years.

Jones urged Householder to “negotiate hard” for 10 years of subsidies or he would be forced to revisit the issue again before his speakership ended. “Ugh, that adds $600M,” Householder wrote about an additional amount that has not been previously reported. The bill called for charging Ohio ratepayers $150 million a year in nuclear subsidies.

“Husted called me 2 nights ago and was supposed to get it in the Senate version,” Jones replied.

“He’s not a legislator,” Householder replied about Husted, who was by then the lieutenant governor.

“I know but he said Senate leaders would listen," Jones replied. "He didn’t deliver.”

The texts were part of evidence gathered in Householder's criminal trial. When Husted has been asked previously about the exchanges, he has been adamant that they do not prove he was part of the deal-making.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We weren’t involved," Husted said when asked about the texts during an unrelated news conference in 2024. "Texts to other people — texts to other people shared amongst themselves — have nothing to do with me. And I wasn’t involved in that conversation.”

Cases surface utility donations to benefit Husted

A longtime Ohio lobbyist told federal agents that FirstEnergy and FirstEnergy Solutions, the subsidiary that owned the nuclear power plants helped by the bailout, funneled dark money to nonprofits that benefited Husted and Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.

According to the notes from his Department of Justice interview obtained by The Associated Press and not previously reported, lobbyist Neil Clark identified one of the groups as Freedom Frontier. That was the very group that received a $1 million contribution in 2017 marked internally by FirstEnergy as “Husted campaign.” The donation was brought to light through documents filed in a lawsuit by FirstEnergy shareholders and obtained through a records request by cleveland.com. Husted was a candidate for governor at the time.

Dark money refers to political contributions flowing to certain nonprofit organizations whose donors do not have to be publicly identified. Coordinating between those groups and candidate campaigns is generally prohibited by federal law.

Internal FirstEnergy communications from 2017 and 2018, which is evidence in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, include discussions involving Jones, Dowling and others about attending Husted events as far back as 2016. They also reflect Dowling's concerns about dark money contributions becoming public.

Jones and Dowling also discussed strategies to contribute under alternate names. In July 2018, for instance, as the two were planning a DeWine-Husted fundraiser in Naples, Florida, they discussed contributing under one name while covering event costs under another — so there would be “no cost billed to (the) campaign.”

Husted declined a request for further comment about the details that have emerged as the various cases surrounding the bribery scandal play out.

“Sen. Husted has commented extensively with the media and given testimony under oath and doesn’t have anything additional to add,” said Josh Eck, his spokesperson.

Pellegrino “Rino” Matarazzo led Sociedad to its fourth Copa del Rey title on Saturday with a penalty-shootout win over Atletico Madrid.

It was the first career title for the coach who left the United States to try to play soccer professionally and ended up becoming a manager in Germany.

“Just the feeling you have of ‘wow, wow, this happened, we did it, we did it,’" said Matarazzo, who in less than four months took Sociedad from near the relegation zone in the Spanish league to lifting the prestigious Copa del Rey trophy.

The New Jersey-born coach was hired in December when Sociedad was two points above the relegation zone. He guided it back to safety and to its title run in the Copa in what he called "an unbelievable journey."

“If you think about all the games that we played, every game has been very very special since I arrived and I think we finished with a very special game," the soft-spoken Matarazzo said. "Wow, wow...”

Matarazzo downplayed his role in the team's turnaround and credited his players' talent and character for the improvement and the title run in the Copa.

“I'm very grateful to be manager of this club, very very grateful,” Matarazzo said. “Being part of its history now is, of course, something special, and I'm also very grateful to have this team, these players, this staff, this club. It’s a product of the work we've done together in the past weeks.”

Italian roots

Matarazzo is from an Italian family whose parents met in the United States after emigrating to the country for work.

Matarazzo's first language was Italian before he went to school. He used to watch Serie A matches on a small television in his father's bedroom during the time that Argentina great Maradona played for Napoli.

In an interview with Sociedad's TV channel, Matarazzo said he was always passionate about soccer even though the sport was far from popular while he grew up in the United States.

Before moving to Germany to try to play, Matarazzo earned a degree in mathematics from Columbia University, which he said has helped him as a coach even though he knows that the job is about people and not just numbers.

Career in Germany

Matarazzo, a defender, first tried to play in Italy but ended returning to the United States after what he called broken promises by agents. He was then invited by a friend to go to Germany, where he moved in his early 20s without knowing a word of German. He ended up staying and working in the country for 25 years.

Matarazzo started playing in the fourth division and eventually moved into coaching with Nuremberg’s reserves and youth sides. He was an assistant to Julian Nagelsmann when both were at Hoffenheim in 2018, then landed the Stuttgart job in December 2019. He steered the club back to the Bundesliga at the first attempt and guided it to a commendable finish in his first top-flight season.

He was fired by Stuttgart in late 2022 and about four months later was hired by Hoffenheim, where he stayed until the end of 2024, when he was let go following a disappointing season.

Matarazzo got off to a great start in Spain, and he hoped it could be "just the beginning” of a long and successful stint for him and the club.

“I hope that we continue to stay ambitious because we still have seven games left in La Liga and we can do more,” he said. “I'm not done yet, and hopefully we are not done yet.”

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

French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to an actor “with whom we loved, dreamed and grew.” French media reported that Baye died on Friday in Paris from a neurodegenerative disease, quoting a statement from her relatives.

“We loved Nathalie Baye so much,” Macron wrote in a message on X. “Through her voice, her smiles, and her modesty, she accompanied the past decades of French cinema, from François Truffaut to Tonie Marshall.”

Baye featured in more than 80 movies, switching from mainstream comedies to auteur films with ease in a career that spanned over five decades. She twice claimed the prize for best actress at the Césars, France’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Baye, who was Leonardo DiCaprio’s on-screen mother in Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can,” won both popular and critical acclaim for her role in “Venus Beauty Institute,” a romantic comedy that follows three women working in a Parisian beauty salon as they search for fulfilment. Marshall won the César award for best director in 2000 for the movie.

The daughter of artists, Baye first trained as a dancer then honed her acting skills at the famed Cours Simon and the Conservatoire. She took the spotlight in François Truffaut's “Day for Night” in 1973 and, five years later, worked with him again on “The Green Room.”

Baye worked with directors Maurice Pialat, Claude Sautet and Bertrand Tavernier, among others. She rose to fame with “The Return of Martin Guerre” in 1982. A year later, her role as a tough-talking streetwalker devoted to her down-and-out gangster boyfriend Philippe Leotard in “La Balance” earned her a César.

Baye liked to work with emerging filmakers such as Xavier Beauvois. She won the César for best actress for his movie “The Young Lieutenant” in 2006.

Starmer will face restive lawmakers in Parliament Monday to fight for his job after the explosive revelation that Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the United States despite failing security checks.

Starmer says he’s “furious” that he wasn’t told at the time, in January 2025, that an intensive vetting process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, cleared him anyway.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told Sky News on Sunday that Starmer “is a man of integrity and there is no way he would have proceeded” with Mandelson’s appointment had he known.

The top civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, was forced to resign on Thursday — though allies say he was just doing his job and is being made a scapegoat. Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Simon McDonald, who was top civil servant in the Foreign Office until 2020, said Robbins had been “thrown under the bus.” He told the BBC that vetting information was highly sensitive and “would never be shared” with the prime minister or his staff.

All the main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Right-of-center Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister’s position is “untenable.” Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Sunday that the government is “in perpetual crisis, and I don’t think they can get out of that unless Keir Starmer moves aside.”

Starmer’s Labour Party holds a large parliamentary majority, so power to topple him lies with his own lawmakers, who are already glum about the party’s dire poll ratings.

Starmer defused a potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers called for him to resign over the Mandelson appointment. But he could face a leadership challenge after local and regional elections on May 7, in which Labour is expected to do badly.

Some Labour lawmakers think it would be damaging to change leaders at a time of global instability, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and with three years until a national election must be called.

Others despair at the prime minister’s repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

Critics say the Mandelson appointment reveals the prime minister's lack of judgment. Documents released by the government in March, after being forced to by Parliament, showed Starmer was warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump's administration.

He lasted less than nine months in the job. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

The release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Department of Justice in January brought more revelations, showing that Mandelson’s relationship with the financier continued even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for sexual offenses involving a minor.

Emails also suggested Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

In an interview with The Associated Press on the margins of a diplomacy forum in Turkey, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh also said his country will not hand over its enriched uranium to the United States, rejecting claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States,” Khatibzadeh said. “This is non-starter and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are nonstarters.”

On Friday, Trump said that the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

Khatibzadeh said there have been many exchanges of messages between the sides but accused the United States of holding firm on demands Iran deems to be excessive.

“We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position,” Khatibzadeh said. Iran was seeking the finalization of a “framework agreement” before moving to an in-person meeting, he added.

The Iranian official would not go into specifics of the negotiations with the United States or say which issues remain unresolved but called on Washington to address Iran’s concerns, including sanctions imposed on Iran.

“The other sides also should understand and address our main concerns, which are illegal unilateral sanctions that Americans have imposed on Iranians and this economic terrorism which has targeted Iranian people to suffocate them and make them to revolt against the political structure inside Iran,” Khatibzadeh said.

Asked whether Iran would respond to renewed attacks by Israel on Lebanon despite the ceasefire, Khatibzadeh said: “Iran has no option, just to stop aggressors once and forever.”

Trump said that Israel is “prohibited” by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defense.

The Iranian official renewed Iran’s position that Tehran’s actions were defensive and in response to unprovoked aggression occurring in the middle of negotiations.

He also reiterated Iran's position that the ceasefire must extend to Lebanon, where Israel had been fighting with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

When the U.S. and Iran declared a temporary truce last week, Pakistan and Iran said it extended to Lebanon, but Israel — and later the U.S. — denied this. Israel then launched a series of airstrikes on central Beirut, prompting Iran to announce it was once again closing the Strait of Hormuz. Following implementation of a truce in Lebanon Friday, Iran said it had reopened the strait.

“Iran negotiated with good faith, accepted a ceasefire and told everybody that this ceasefire should include all countries, including Lebanon,” Khatibzadeh said. “Then the other side said that, it is not committed to this and then started atrocities.”

He said that a “new protocol” would be put in place for the Strait of Hormuz as part of the negotiations with the U.S. and it would “remain open and safe for all civilian passage.”

Trump has said a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will remain and attacks will resume if no agreement is reached with Iran.

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

The rest of the Rockets were neither ready nor able to pick up the slack.

Houston is in an early postseason hole and the Lakers are feeling awfully good about their upset chances after Los Angeles' 107-98 victory on Saturday night.

Both teams were without their top scorer to begin the first-round series, but only the Lakers responded to the challenge with the necessary determination and production. With Durant, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves — a combined 82.8 points per game — all watching in street clothes, Los Angeles surprisingly controlled Game 1.

While the Lakers got double-digit scoring from all five starters and 60.6% shooting overall, the Rockets didn't have a 20-point scorer or anybody who could make more than 50% of his shots except reserve Tari Eason. Those results were even more disturbing because Houston grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and coach Ime Udoka thought his team got plenty of good looks.

“Whoever (is) playing, we play with them,” Rockets center Alperen Sengun said. "But we missed (Durant) for sure tonight, and hopefully we see him soon.”

Sengun had 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting, while Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson got 17 points apiece on a combined 13 of 38 from the field. Sheppard went 5 for 14 on 3-point attempts, and his teammates combined to hit just six additional 3-pointers.

The Rockets seem confident Durant’s bruised right knee isn’t a long-term problem, although Udoka said Durant’s knee is “very tender. ... Tough to bend in certain ways. Hit it in a very awkward spot, I suppose. Pain tolerance is one part, but (also) limited movement.”

The fifth-leading scorer in NBA history collided with a teammate during practice on Wednesday, and he was added to the Rockets’ injury report on Friday. He led the Rockets with 26.0 points per game this season, his first in Houston.

Durant was a late scratch, while the Lakers have had more than two weeks to adjust to being without Doncic and Reaves, who both got hurt April 2 and are still out indefinitely.

That preparation time showed. Most notably, Luke Kennard continued to step up as a starter with a career playoff-high 27 points and 5-for-5 shooting on 3-pointers, providing more reason for the Lakers to be grateful for his midseason arrival in a trade with Atlanta.

“Since I've been here, we haven’t been really healthy a lot, so this just speaks on the guys in the locker room staying ready, being ready,” Kennard said. “Guys stepping up in big moments, making big shots. I feel like everybody did that tonight.”

Deandre Ayton delivered a confident 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Rui Hachimura also showed offensive aggression — an all-too-rare quality in the forward — while scoring 14 points. Veteran guard Marcus Smart added 15 points and eight assists, and 41-year-old LeBron James merely controlled the floor while racking up 19 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds.

“It’s just our playoff mentality,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “You can’t worry about who’s in or out of the lineup. It’s our game plan. It’s our standards. It’s how we play, and we’ve built towards that. I thought our guys just responded well and met the moment. That’s the biggest thing. You’ve got to meet the moment in every game, and (the Lakers) were able to do that. There’s a lot that you have to do (against) Kevin, and you just kind of scrap that and you move on to all the other stuff we worked on.”

Durant’s absence and the Lakers’ performance in Game 1 have both suddenly provided significant credibility to the Lakers’ determination to hang with the Rockets long enough for Doncic and Reaves to have an opportunity to return to the postseason. This series schedule even contains an extra day off before three of the next four games.

“We’re going try to make this season as long as possible so that we can get those guys back at some point,” Redick said Friday. “We don’t know what that is, but that’s just our job. And their job is to do everything they can to be in a position to come back at some point. It may not work, but that’s what we’re trying to do.”

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

Deandre Ayton had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Lakers, who pulled off an impressive win without their top two scorers.

Both teams played the opener without their most important player. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have been out indefinitely with injuries since April 2, while Durant was a late scratch with a bruised right knee.

Los Angeles thrived by hitting 60.6% of its shots while holding the Rockets to 37.6% shooting with pesky defense. That disparity allowed the Lakers to win despite attempting just 66 shots — the fewest in an NBA game in the past three seasons — and giving up 21 offensive rebounds.

“That’s what it has to be — a collective group,” the 41-year-old James said after beginning his 19th NBA postseason. “When you’re missing so much firepower like we are right now with AR and Luka being out, we all have to do our job and maybe have to do a little bit more, protect one another offensively and defensively, and I think we did that tonight.”

Alperen Sengun scored 19 points and Jabari Smith Jr. had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the fifth-seeded Rockets. Amen Thompson added 17 points.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

The Lakers acquired Kennard from Atlanta in early February, and the NBA’s most accurate 3-point shooter became a key reserve before he seized a major role over the past two weeks. He hit four 3-pointers in Game 1 while making nine of his first 12 shots.

Durant banged knees with a teammate in practice Wednesday. Reed Sheppard five 3-pointers while scoring 17 points, but the Rockets struggled to score consistently.

“We won a lot of areas, but just shot poorly,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “That’s going to be tough to beat, but there are some things we left on the table, opportunities missed."

Los Angeles also got a boost from Marcus Smart, who had 15 points and eight assists with four 3-pointers. Smart said before the series that success would come down to “willpower” — and the Lakers clearly had more for starters.

Bronny James began the second quarter playing alongside his famous father in the first significant playoff minutes of the 21-year-old's career.

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

The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.

Steyer's ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.

If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.

Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.

“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.

Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell's dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.

But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he's getting value for his dollars.

“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”

In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.

“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.

History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.

Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso's total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.

Steyer has never held elected office.

In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”

His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.

“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.

The governor's race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.

Still, there is no clear leader.

Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.

Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.

Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell's exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.

In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state's punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.

The missiles fired from the North's Sinpo area flew about 140 kilometers (87 miles) each in a direction toward the country's eastern waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It said South Korea maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea and is closely exchanging information with the U.S. and Japan.

In an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, senior South Korean officials expressed concerns about North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile tests and urged it to stop them immediately. Sunday's launches came hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung left the country to visit India and Vietnam.

The U.S. and Japanese militaries also said they detected the launches. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it remains committed to the defense of the U.S. homeland and its allies in the region. Japan's Defense Ministry said Tokyo strongly protested to Pyongyang, saying the launches threaten regional and international peace and violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that bans any ballistic activities by North Korea.

Sinpo, the launch site, is an eastern coastal city in North Korea where it has a major shipyard use for building submarines.

South Korea’s military was analyzing whether the latest launches were made from a submarine, a land-based launcher or both platforms, according to South Korean media. Asked about where the missiles were launched, Japan's Deputy Minister of Defense Masahisa Miyazaki told reporters that Japan was analyzing launch details in coordination with the U.S. and South Korea.

If the launches involved a submarine, it would mark North Korea’s first submarine-launched ballistic missile test in four years.

North Korea obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater would be a worrying development because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance. Last year, North Korea unveiled a nuclear-powered submarine under construction for the first time.

Sunday's launches were the latest in North Korea's run of weapons tests this year.

Last week, North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un supervised missile tests from the country’s destroyer. In the previous week, North Korea said it had three days of testing activities to examine ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads and other new weapons systems. Last month, it said it tested an upgraded solid-fuel engine for missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

Kim has focused on enlarging his nuclear and missile arsenals since his high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Kim, and the North Korean leader has recently left open the door for dialogue with Trump but urged Washington to drop demands for the North’s nuclear disarmament as a precondition for talks.

Trump is to travels to Beijing for a rescheduled summit with Xi Jinping in May. Some observers North Korea's recent testing activities were likely meant to increase its leverage in future dealings with the U.S., as the Trump-Xi meeting could provide a diplomatic opening with Pyongyang.

On Wednesday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said that his agency has confirmed “a rapid increase” in activities at nuclear manufacturing facilities in North Korea. Grossi told reporters in Seoul that activities in North Korea point to “a very serious increase” in its nuclear weapons production capabilities.

His comments echoed a view by many outside observers that North Korea has taken steps to expand its main Yongbyon nuclear complex and build additional uranium-enrichment sites in recent years. Last September, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said that North Korea was operating four uranium enrichment facilities and that they were running everyday.

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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

The scrimmage, played before a large crowd, featured a strong defensive showing by the White team, which shut out the Maroon offense after halftime and forced consistent pressure on the quarterback.

Maroon struck first, marching downfield on its opening drive and taking a 7-0 lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Grunkemeyer to Que’Sean Brown.

The White team answered in the second quarter with a 48-yard field goal from Will Love. Maroon responded with a 27-yard kick from John Love, and another long field goal by Will Love late in the half gave Maroon a 12-7 advantage at the break.

The second half belonged to the White squad.

Quarterback Kelden Ryan connected with Chanz Wiggins on a 20-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to give White the lead, and Bryce Baker later found Cam Sparks for a 2-yard score to extend the margin.

White’s defense sealed the outcome, holding Maroon to 220 total yards and recording seven sacks. Jason Abbey led the pass rush with 1.5 sacks, while Amauri Polydor paced the defense with seven tackles.

Antwone Santiago and Joshua Clarke each had seven tackles for the Maroon side.

The final margin was extended by a postgame kicking competition, pushing White’s total to 30 points in the exhibition format.

The game marked Franklin’s debut on Worsham Field and the first public showing of a revamped roster, offering a glimpse of both offensive playmakers and a defense that set the tone after halftime.

The Rail Yard Dawgs jumped out to a 3-1 lead courtesy of Matt Dorsey, Ryan Reifler and Gustav Muller finding the back of the net all before the beginning of the third period.

In the third however, the Thunderbolts battled back to tie the game at 3-3, putting the Dawgs in a tough spot with under 10 minutes to play.

Noah Finstrom would play postseason hero Saturday night, finding twine with just over six minutes to go.

The win evens the series at 1-1 and heads back to Evansville, making it a best of three series now. Puck drops in Evansville on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Confusion over the critical chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence a new deal was within reach.

Iran’s joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

Two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It reported the tanker and crew as safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination. TankerTrackers.com reported vessels were forced to turn around in the strait, including an Indian-flagged supertanker, after they were fired on by Iran.

Saturday's developments came after U.S. President Donald Trump said the blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S. that includes its nuclear program. Tehran had reopened the strait Friday to commercial vessels.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again. Iran’s Friday announcement about the opening of the crucial body of water, through which 20% of the world’s oil is shipped, came as a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to hold.

Despite the escalation, Pakistani officials say the United States and Iran are still moving closer to a deal ahead of the April 22 ceasefire deadline.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

Another Israeli soldier dies in combat

Israel’s military says another soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon, the second death announced in under twelve hours.

It brought the total number of soldiers killed in Lebanon to 15, and was the second soldier killed in combat since the ceasefire.

The military said another soldier was badly wounded in the same incident, along with four moderately wounded and four lightly injured.

It was the second soldier to die since the ceasefire. The first died because of wounds sustained during combat, the military said.

UN chief condemns attack in Lebanon that killed French peacekeeper

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, says Guterres has strongly condemned the killing of a French peacekeeper and the wounding of three others in an attack in southern Lebanon.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small-arms fire Saturday morning. Two of the injured were hurt seriously, France’s president and the force known as UNIFIL said.

Both President Emmanuel Macron and the UNIFIL force blamed Hezbollah, but the Lebanese militant group denied involvement.

Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz fully closed, state media reports

The navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it extended the closure to the corridor it had earlier designated for the safe passage of vessels through the strategic waterway and declared the strait fully closed until the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and ships is lifted.

On Friday, Iran said vessels could move through the strait in coordination with it and against the payment of a toll.

But in a statement late Saturday carried by Iran’s state media, the navy warned that any violating vessel would be targeted.

Iran considers the U.S. blockade a violation of the ceasefire between the two countries. Two vessels were attacked earlier on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz and off Oman’s coast, at least one of them by Iranian gunboats.

Israel says one of its soldiers has been killed in Lebanon

The military said the soldier, an officer, was killed in south Lebanon on Friday, the day after the start of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that has otherwise largely held.

It said two other soldiers were injured in the incident, but didn’t release any more details.

This brings to 14 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the latest war in Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader dismisses ceasefire paper published by US

Naim Kassem, head of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in a statement read on the group’s al-Manar TV said a paper published by the U.S. State Department that it described as the text of a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel “means nothing at the practical level, but it is an insult to our country.”

“Everyone knows that the government of Lebanon has not met or approved this statement,” he said.

The text published by the U.S. described the 10-day truce as a gesture by Israel “to enable good-faith negotiations” toward a permanent peace agreement with Lebanon. The text gives Israel the “right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.” It does not mention any similar right for Lebanon or Hezbollah.

Kassem said the truce should entail “a complete cessation of all hostilities” and that Hezbollah “will respond to enemy violations.”

Israel’s military kills two UNICEF-contracted truck drivers in northern Gaza

The Israeli military killed two UNICEF-contracted truck drivers at a water point in northern Gaza Strip, forcing the UN agency to suspend its operations in the area, UNICEF said.

Two other people were also injured in the attack that occurred Friday at the Mansoura water filling point in Gaza City, UNICEF said in a statement.

The firing took place “during routine, water trucking operations, with no changes in movement or procedures,” it said.

The Israeli military claimed that troops opened fire on suspected militants in the area of the so-called Yellow Line, which separates Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. It said the incident was being investigated.

UNICEF said the point is being used multiple times a day to keep providing hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City with clean water from the Mekorot water supply line.

The agency said it suspended on-site activities until security conditions in the area are restored.

India summons Iran’s ambassador after Indian-flagged tankers shot at near Strait of Hormuz

India on Saturday summoned Iran’s ambassador in New Delhi after two Indian vessels were forced to reverse course in the Strait of Hormuz following reports of gunfire from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

India’s foreign secretary conveyed New Delhi’s “deep concern at the shooting incident” at two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranian ambassador, a statement by India’s External Affairs Ministry said.

The foreign secretary told the Iranian envoy that Tehran had earlier facilitated the safe passage of several ships bound for India. The statement said the Indian official urged the Iranian ambassador to “convey India’s views to the authorities in Iran and resume at the earliest the process of facilitating India-bound ships across the Strait.”

Macron says a French soldier was killed and 3 were wounded in attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon

A U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small-arms fire Saturday morning leaving one French peacekeeper dead and three wounded, two of them seriously, France’s president and the force known as UNIFIL said.

The attack near the southern Lebanese village of Ghandouriyeh came after a 10-day ceasefire went into effect at midnight Thursday between Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

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Pakistan prime minister returns home after regional visits ahead of expected US-Iran talks

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif returned home Saturday after visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey ahead of an expected second round of talks between the United States and Iran.

Sharif’s office said in a statement that he was received by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi upon arrival in the eastern city of Lahore.

It said Naqvi, who visited Iran earlier this week along with army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and other officials, later met Sharif and briefed him on their talks with the Iranian leadership.

Hezbollah denies links to attack that left one French peacekeeper dead in south Lebanon

The Iran-backed group in a statement called for caution when assigning blame and judgment, until the Lebanese army completes its investigation of the incident.

Hezbollah said the peacekeeping forces should coordinate with the Lebanese army in their operations.

Hezbollah expressed surprise at the hasty accusations leveled against it, especially given the silence of these same parties “when the Israeli enemy attacks UNIFIL forces.”

Iran says it is reviewing new US proposals

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that Pakistan’s army chief, serving as an intermediary, presented the proposals to Iran when he recently visited Tehran, and they were still under review.

It was not revealed what was in the proposals.

The council said Iran has yet to respond, but further talks would require the U.S. to abandon “excessive demands and adjust its requests to the realities on the ground.”

It also said that Iran will maintain full control over traffic through the Strait of Hormuz until “the war fully ends and lasting peace is achieved in the region,” adding that it would collect detailed information on passing vessels, issue transit certificates and impose tolls.

The council added that it considered the U.S. naval blockade a violation of the ceasefire, and there would be no reopening of the Strait of Hormuz until that was lifted.

Trump says Iran ‘got a little cute,’ but there are good conversations happening

President Donald Trump says that U.S. talks with Iran are going well and that he expects to have more information “by the end of the day.”

Trump made the comments Saturday morning during a White House event where he signed an executive order directing the Food and Drug Administration to expedite review of certain psychedelic drugs designed as breakthrough therapy for mental illness.

Trump declined to take reporters’ questions about Iran but said, “We have very good conversations going on.”

He says Iran “got a little cute,” later adding, “They wanted to close up the strait again,” referring to the Strait of Hormuz.

“They can’t blackmail us,” Trump said.

Pope Leo XIV says ‘not in my interest at all’ to debate Trump but will keep preaching peace

Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate U.S. President Donald Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.

Leo spoke to reporters aboard the papal plane flying from Cameroon to Angola.

He addressed the spiraling back-and-forth saga of Trump’s critiques of his peace message, which have dominated news headlines this week. But the American pope also sought to set the record straight, insisting that his preaching isn’t directed at Trump, but reflects the broader Gospel message of peace.

“There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the president of the United States made some comments about myself,” he said.

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Turkish Vice President says US-Iran negotiations will take time to conclude

Cevdet Yilmaz, whose country has been supporting Pakistan’s efforts to bring the sides together, told The Associated Press there are many “complex issues” on the table.

Yilmaz said he still believes talks between Iran and the United States would continue.

“We would all like these talks to end all at once, in a very short time. But we need to be realistic. These comprehensive negotiations will take some time,” Yilmaz said.

The vice president also said that a comprehensive settlement between Iran and the United States would be a prerequisite for free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

“What is the root cause here? The ongoing war. Therefore, the end of this war will provide the greatest guarantee,” he said.

US says 23 ships turned back since Iran blockade started

The U.S. military says it has forced 23 ships to turn around near the Strait of Hormuz since it imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In a post on X, the Central Command said U.S. forces are still enforcing the blockade “against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

The blockade ordered by President Donald Trump started April 13 as part of U.S. pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In response to the continued blockade, Iran reimposed restrictions on transit through the strait.

British military say container vessel attacked near the Strait of Hormuz

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said an unknown projectile hit the vessel, 25 nautical miles (46 kilometers) northeast of Oman.

Some containers on the vessel were damaged, it said.

The attack is the second on Saturday, after two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the key waterway.

Iran’s supreme leader sends defiant message

Iran’s “valiant navy” is “ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said.

Khamenei’s defiant remarks came as Iran swiftly reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz.

In a message celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Iran’s army, he hailed Iran’s drone strikes that targeted Israel and the U.S. interests across the region during the war.

Indian ships reverse course in Hormuz strait, vessel tracker says

Two Indian vessels have had to reverse course in the Strait of Hormuz following reports of gunfire from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a vessel-tracker said.

TankerTrackers.com said the vessels include an Indian-flagged supertanker, carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

Iranian gunboats fire on tanker, British military says

The British military says two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it had reimposed restrictions on the vital waterway.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the tanker and crew were reported safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.

Iran said earlier it was reimposing restrictions on the strait in response to a U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping and ports. Iran has prevented vessels from crossing throughout the seven-week-long war, except for ones it authorizes.

Iran says it won’t hand over enriched uranium to US

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh dismissed claims from U.S. President Donald Trump over the uranium and sounded a note of caution with regard to future talks between the two countries.

Speaking to the Associated Press in the Turkish city of Antalya, Khatibzadeh said the Iranians were not ready for a new round of face-to-face talks with the U.S. because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”

On Friday, Trump said the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

Lebanese leaders discuss future talks with Israel

The meeting between President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam came during a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

According to a statement from Aoun’s office, the pair discussed Lebanon’s “readiness for negotiations” with Israel. Lebanon and Israel have been in a state of war since 1948.

Earlier this week, the two countries’ ambassadors to the U.S. held a meeting, in the first direct talks in decades.

U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, although no date has been set yet.

Aoun has said he is ready to go anywhere to “liberate my country, protect my people and save my nation.”

Iran reimposes restrictions in Strait of Hormuz

Iran has reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway after the U.S. said the move would not end its blockade.

The country’s joint military command said “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.

The announcement came the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.

Pakistani leader heads home from Turkey ahead of U.S.-Iran talks

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left for home after visiting Turkey, where he attended a diplomacy forum in Antalya.

Whiie there, he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani ahead of the second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.

While at the forum, Sharif discussed recent regional developments and ongoing diplomatic efforts between Tehran and Washington with Erdogan and the Qatari emir.

Pakistan is expected to host the second round of talks between Iran and the United States early next week

Iran announces partial reopening of its airspace

Iran has announced a partial reopening of its airspace after a seven-week hiatus because of the war, state media reported.

The Civil Aviation Organization said air routes over eastern Iran were reopened at 7 a.m. (0330 GMT), according to the state-owned IRAN newspaper. It said flights at the country’s airports would gradually resume but did not give a timeframe.

Iran’s airspace had been closed since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28. The partial reopening has come more than a week into a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.

Iranian lawmaker clarifies conditions for transit through Hormuz

A senior Iranian lawmaker said only commercial vessels authorized by the Revolutionary Guard are allowed to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliamentary National Security Commission, said in a social media post late Friday that commercial vessels must pay “required tolls” before transiting the strait, using a route set by Iran last month.

“The time has come to comply with the new Maritime Regime of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “These regulations are determined by Iran, not by social media posts!”

He warned that the mechanism could change “if the U.S. attempts to create any disturbance for Iranian ships.”

Strait of Hormuz only open during ceasefire, Iranian military official says

Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesperson said the Strait of Hormuz is only open during a ceasefire and conditionally, two Iranian semiofficial news agencies reported.

Brig. Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik said “military vessels and those linked to hostile forces have no right” of transit, according to the ISNA and Mehr news agencies.

The only question surrounding the Heisman Trophy winner is when he’ll make his debut.

Mendoza, who led Indiana to its first national championship, is an overwhelming favorite to be the No. 1-overall pick in the NFL draft next Thursday. He won’t be in Pittsburgh to hear NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announce his name, choosing instead to celebrate his big night with family and friends in Miami.

The intrigue starts with the second pick. Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese was widely considered the choice for the New York Jets but Texas Tech edge David Bailey has gained momentum.

Here’s the third edition of the AP’s 2026 mock draft in order of picks:

1. Las Vegas Raiders: FERNANDO MENDOZA, QB, INDIANA

Mendoza is a precise pocket passer with prototypical size, poise and maturity. The Raiders have some playmakers — Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty — and spent more than a quarter-billion in free agency. Cousins gives Mendoza a mentor in the QB room. Part-owner Tom Brady can provide Mendoza with valuable advice. The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since losing the Super Bowl following the 2002 season and have only reached the postseason twice in that span. They need Mendoza to be a franchise QB.

2. New York Jets: ARVELL REESE, EDGE RUSHER, OHIO STATE

We’re sticking with Reese. He’s a freak athlete — he ran a 4.47 40-yard dash — who played off-ball linebacker and standup edge. He has the talent to be an elite edge rusher who can make an immediate impact for the Jets.

3. Arizona Cardinals: DAVID BAILEY, EDGE RUSHER, TEXAS TECH

Bailey is another immensely athletic edge with elite upside. The Cardinals could trade down to add more draft assets or look at bolstering the offensive line. Bailey would join Josh Sweat to give Arizona two pass rushers who can create havoc.

4. Tennessee Titans: JEREMIYAH LOVE, RUNNING BACK, NOTRE DAME

The Titans reloaded in free agency, revamping the secondary and adding depth on defense along with another target for Cam Ward in wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson. They have a tough choice here between Love or giving new coach Robert Saleh a star on defense: edge Rueben Bain Jr. and linebacker Sonny Styles. If general manager Mike Borgonzi sticks with the best available player, it’s Love.

5. New York Giants: SONNY STYLES, LINEBACKER, OHIO STATE

Styles’ impressive combine performance helped him soar into the top five on many draft boards. Protecting Jaxson Dart is a priority for the Giants so they’d have their choice of best offensive lineman in the draft at this spot but Styles is a supremely gifted defensive player.

6. Cleveland Browns: CARNELL TATE, WIDE RECEIVER, OHIO STATE

Tate is a consistent route runner with excellent hands and enough speed to be a top playmaker. The Browns added three veteran offensive linemen but still could target a tackle. Tate gives them a No. 1 receiver that’s hard to pass up.

7. Washington Commanders: MANSOOR DELANE, CORNERBACK, LSU

Delane is the best cover corner in the draft. He’ll provide a significant boost for a defense that’s thin in the secondary.

8. New Orleans Saints: RUEBEN BAIN JR., EDGE RUSHER, MIAMI

Bain is a versatile rusher who can line up on the edge or inside against guards, creating mismatches. He’ll be a huge asset for the Saints.

9. Kansas City Chiefs: FRANCIS MAUIGOA, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, MIAMI

Mauigoa is a three-year starter at right tackle who would replace Jawaan Taylor and provide Patrick Mahomes more protection. Getting Mahomes a playmaking receiver is also an option. So is an edge rusher. But Mauigoa is strong value slipping to this spot.

10. New York Giants: SPENCER FANO, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, UTAH

After getting this pick for Dexter Lawrence, the Giants get a blocker for Dart. Fano’s arm length became a topic after the Super Bowl but he has the natural talent to succeed.

11. Miami Dolphins: MAKAI LEMON, WIDE RECEIVER, USC

After trading Jaylen Waddle and releasing Tyreek Hill, the Dolphins need to get Malik Willis a top receiver. Lemon is an elite playmaker who creates matchup nightmares for defenses in the slot.

12. Dallas Cowboys: CALEB DOWNS, SAFETY, OHIO STATE

Downs is an elite, versatile playmaker who gives new Dallas defensive coordinator Christian Parker a potential superstar to anchor the secondary. Downs has top-five talent but only slips because of potential value.

13. Los Angeles Rams: JORDON TYSON, WIDE RECEIVER, ARIZONA STATE

He’s an exceptional route-runner with speed who catches the ball in traffic. The Rams were interested in some high-profile wideouts so drafting Tyson upgrades a dynamic group that includes All-Pro Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.

14. Baltimore Ravens: OLAIVAVEGA IOANE, GUARD, PENN STATE

Ioane fills a big need for the Ravens on the interior of their offensive line and fits their run-blocking scheme nicely.

15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: KELDRIC FAULK, EDGE RUSHER, AUBURN

Scouts rave about Faulk’s leadership and he has obvious talent. The Buccaneers need a standout pass rusher and Faulk’s the type of player who fits general manager Jason Licht’s character criteria. A trade down to add more picks also is a possibility.

16. New York Jets: DENZEL BOSTON, WIDE RECEIVER, WASHINGTON

Boston is strong, fast and has elite ball skills. He has the frame (6-foot-4, 212) of receivers that new offensive coordinator Frank Reich has relied on in his system. The Jets could trade down and still get Boston or Omar Cooper Jr. and stockpile even more picks.

17. Detroit Lions: KADYN PROCTOR, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, ALABAMA

Proctor started at left tackle as a freshman and allowed just two sacks in his three seasons. He has great size — 6-foot-7, 352 pounds — and plenty of athleticism. Proctor even had five runs for 16 yards.

18. Minnesota Vikings: DILLON THIENEMAN, SAFETY, OREGON

Thieneman had an impressive combine, running a 4.36 40-yard dash that was faster than some of the NFL’s best receivers. A three-year starter, he’ll step right into Brian Flores’ defense.

19. Carolina Panthers: KENYON SADIQ, TIGHT END, OREGON

The Panthers improved their defense in free agency by adding edge rusher Jaelan Phillips and linebacker Devin Lloyd. If Sadiq is available, they’d get the best tight end in the draft at this spot, giving Bryce Young a potential favorite target.

20. Dallas Cowboys: JERMOD MCCOY, CORNERBACK, TENNESSEE

McCoy is a consistent corner with outstanding ball skills often mocked to the Cowboys at No. 12. Dallas gets a defensive back who can anchor the secondary.

21. Pittsburgh Steelers: MONROE FREELING, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, GEORGIA

Freeling has elite athleticism and is considered a potential top-10 pick. He just needs more experience after starting one season on the right side. Freeling has the athletic ability to adapt to a new spot.

22. Los Angeles Chargers: PETER WOODS, DEFENSIVE TACKLE, CLEMSON

Woods is a powerful, versatile defensive lineman who fits the type of player coach Jim Harbaugh wants on defense.

23. Philadelphia Eagles: BLAKE MILLER, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, CLEMSON

Miller started 54 games in college and can step in right away and play if the Eagles need him. He provides an eventual successor to right tackle Lane Johnson.

24. Cleveland Browns: T.J. PARKER, EDGE RUSHER, CLEMSON

Parker’s production dipped after big numbers in 2024 but he’s a strong, powerful edge with potential to flourish. He makes it three straight Clemson players in this mock.

25. Chicago Bears: ZION YOUNG, EDGE RUSHER, MISSOURI

The Bears lost several starters in the secondary and adding a defensive back is an option but a strong rusher also helps significantly. Young is a disruptive force who brings energy and leadership.

26. Buffalo Bills: CASHIUS HOWELL, EDGE RUSHER, TEXAS A&M

Despite acquiring D.J. Moore, another playmaking receiver is an option. Edge also is a priority and Howell has proven he gets to the quarterback and finishes.

27. San Francisco 49ers: K.C. CONCEPCION, WIDE RECEIVER, TEXAS A&M

Concepcion is a speedy, elusive wideout who gives Brock Purdy and the 49ers a top target and another playmaker on offense. Despite signing Mike Evans in free agency, San Francisco can’t pass up a confident player who already declared he’s the best receiver in the draft.

28. Houston Texans: KAYDEN MCDONALD, DEFENSIVE TACKLE, OHIO STATE

McDonald is another Buckeyes player going in the first round. He’s a natural run defender who’ll clog the middle of the line.

29. Kansas City Chiefs: OMAR COOPER JR., WIDE RECEIVER, INDIANA

After giving Mahomes a blocker with the ninth pick, the Chiefs add a potential top target late in the round. Cooper is a versatile playmaker who is known for getting yards after the catch.

30. Miami Dolphins: AVIEON TERRELL, CORNERBACK, CLEMSON

Terrell is an athletic cornerback who is projected higher in the draft. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is a possibility if he’s still available but the Dolphins signed Malik Willis.

31. New England Patriots: MAX IHEANACHOR, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, ARIZONA STATE

Iheanachor is an athletic former basketball player with ideal size who will need time to develop but projects as a potential starter right away.

32. Seattle Seahawks: JADARIAN PRICE, RUNNING BACK, NOTRE DAME

Price replaces the departed Super Bowl MVP and provides the Seahawks with a natural runner in the backfield. With Kenneth Walker III gone and Zach Charbonnet recovering from a knee injury, Price fills a need. Seattle could trade out of the first round, add more picks and potentially get Price early in the second.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

OG Anunoby added 18 points and Josh Hart had 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Knicks in their first postseason game under Mike Brown after making four trips in five years under Tom Thibodeau, capped by their first trip to the Eastern Conference finals since 2000 last year.

The No. 3 seed in the East again this season hosts Game 2 on Monday night.

CJ McCollum had 26 points and Jalen Johnson added 23 for the Hawks, who went 20-6 after the All-Star break to earn the No. 6 seed.

“We know that they’re going to be ready for Game 2,” Brunson said. “So quick turnaround and extreme focus.”

Brunson, who already owns the Knicks' record with eight 40-point games in the postseason, was almost halfway to another in the first quarter. He made his first six shots and had 19 points as the Knicks led 30-24.

Brunson didn't do as much in the second half, but Towns took over after he was just 1 for 6 for six points at the break.

“We did a great job as a team just fighting and continuing to find ways to score and also impact winning,” Towns said.

The teams got off to sizzling starts, with the Knicks opening 8 for 9 and Atlanta 6 for 7, before play slowed to a crawl in the third quarter. McCollum was reviewed for a hostile act and called for a technical foul after kicking his leg up on a jumper into Brunson's groin area, and the Hawks twice intentionally fouled Mitchell Robinson, and the poor foul shooter went 1 for 4.

By the time the Hawks got going again, it was too late.

With the Knicks up by eight, Towns hit a 3-pointer, and after Gabe Vincent's basket, Jordan Clarkson had two buckets and Towns had a three-point play and a 3-pointer for a 10-0 burst that made it 106-87 with about 4 1/2 minutes remaining.

Atlanta ran off 11 straight to cut it to 106-98, but Towns scored to restore the double-digit lead.

“I like the way we came back at the end of the game,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “They were resilient in that situation, it was just too little, too late.”

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

Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and two assists and Mats Zuccarello had three helpers for the Wild, who have lost nine consecutive playoff series since 2015. This was an impressive start in a long-expected matchup of Central Division rivals who finished behind Presidents' Trophy winner Colorado.

“A great stepping stone for us,” said defenseman Quinn Hughes, back after missing the end of the regular season with an illness.

“I think throughout the lineup tonight we came in and the guys were focused,” coach John Hynes said. “The thing I like is when we came in, I thought that we executed well. When it was time to check, we checked well. But I just thought we had the right mindset in how we need to play. And that was throughout the lines.”

Game 2 is Monday night in Dallas.

Dallas allowed the first goal in 15 of its 18 playoff games last year, and gave up three power-play goals in a 5-4 win over the Wild just nine days earlier.

The Stars trailed for good only 5 1/2 minutes into the series when Ericksson Ek scored on a pass from Boldy to make it 1-0. Ericksson Ek added another power-play goal past Jake Oettinger in the third.

Even though the Stars have made the West final each of the past three seasons, they are 1-7 in Game 1s at home during that span.

“I don’t even know what the record was coming into it,” said Glen Gultzan, who returned last summer for his second stint as the Stars coach. “The first period was tight, they executed on the power play. But we couldn’t get our game going at all in the second. I thought that they certainly, to a man, were better than us.”

Kaprizov and Boldy, the first Wild teammates with 40 goals in the same season, scored during a three-goal surge in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second period for a 4-0 lead. Ryan Hartman scored in between, after having the primary assist on Kaprizov's goal.

Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston both had 45 goals as the first Dallas teammates with 40 goals in the same season. They combined on the Stars' power-play goal with 4:50 left in the second, Robertson scoring on a back-hander after gathering a pass from Johnston.

Minnesota went with the 23-year-old Wallstedt in net over playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, who in his playoff debut three years ago had 51 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win at Dallas.

“He’s done a lot so far,” Hughes said. “I think we’ve got a lot of belief in both of those guys, and to be honest I didn’t think about it for a second. ... We’ve got a lot of good pieces around here that keep everyone calm.”

Wallstedt's first NHL game was a 7-2 loss at Dallas in January 2024, but that was only one of five games he played for the Wild until this regular season, when he went 4-1 with a 1.82 goals-against average and .936 save percentage his last five starts. He also had four shutouts in a six-game span early this season.

The Wild still led only 1-0 with Dallas on the power play midway through the first period when Wallstedt, shielded and looking to the right of traffic, reached back to his left to make a glove save on a shot by Robertson.

Oettinger, who grew up about 30 miles from Minnesota's home arena, stopped 23 shots to open his 11th postseason series as the Stars starting goalie.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

It was a season to forget last year for the Flames - just 4-8 in 2025 - but just like Spring flowers, a new roster has bloomed in Lynchburg with the hope of returning Liberty to national prominence.

Similar to last year’s spring practice, the Flames are holding a quarterback competition, with Ethan Vasko missing all of spring camp.

Zooming out, the roster has been overhauled. especially in the era of the transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness, but Flames leaders are ready to get to work with their teammates.

“We want to win and it’s not just on the field, it’s off the field, it’s in the classroom. Everybody is holding everybody accountable and it’s just a blessing, to be in a role where I can be in my fourth year and have an opportunity to lead these guys and be able to, you know, help the new guys understand how we do things around here,” said Jamari Person, a senior wide receiver.

“My sense right now about this group is they do want to win,” said Head Coach Jamey Chadwell. “They compete when there’s combat and they want to win. That’s what they care about and so that’s actually great. There’s a lot of times when there’s a lot of other things people care about. So far this group has all been about winning and do what it matters to win.”

Liberty kicks off their season against James Madison on September 5th.

Hoyos, who had been serving as club's sporting director, took over coaching duties after Javier Mascherano unexpectedly left the club due to personal reasons. Mascherano led Inter Miami to the 2025 MLS Cup title in his only full season with the club.

Messi, who opened the scoring when he converted a penalty kick in the 13th minute, scored the go-ahead goal in 79th minute. After a Colorado turnover near midfield, Messi cut back near the right corner of the penalty box and flicked a rising shot that split a pair of defenders and slipped inside the back post.

Messi has seven goal this season, tied with Sam Surridge and Petar Musa for most in MLS.

Miami (4-1-3) hasn't lost since a season-opening 3-0 defeat to Los Angeles FC.

Yannick Bright was shown a straight red car in the 87th minute and Miami played a man down the rest of the way.

The Rapids (4-4-0) had won back-to-back games and three of their last four

Bright drew a penalty conceded by Josh Atencio and Messi converted from the spot to open the scoring.

Mateo Silvetti, along the right end line, played an arcing cross to the back post where Berterame slammed home a header to make it 2-0 in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time.

Bertarame made his first career start and scored his first goal in MLS last time out in a 2-2 tie with the New York Red Bulls.

Rafael Navarro scored in the 58th minute for the Rapids. The 26-year-old forward scored two goals in a 6-2 win over Houston last time out and has six goals this season.

Darren Yapi subbed on for Hamzat Ojediran and, moments later, scored on the counter-attack to make it 2-2 in the 62nd minute.

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

It was a discrepancy not lost on Minnesota coach Chris Finch.

“Well, the 16 free throws from Murray was a head scratcher,” Finch said after a 116-105 loss to the Nuggets in Game 1 of their first-round series Saturday. “I thought we played really good defense on him.”

Murray, though, begs to differ.

“I thought I got fouled on every single one of them,” Murray said after finishing with 30 points. “I don’t know what everybody’s talking about. Real fouls.”

By going 16 of 16, Murray earned a spot in the Nuggets' record book. It's the most free throws without a miss in a playoff game in team history, breaking the mark of 14 by Bryant Stith at Utah on May 17, 1994. It's the most free throws Murray has attempted in a game in his NBA career.

When his long-range jumper wasn't falling — he was 0 for 8 from the 3-point line — Murray simply took it closer to the hoop. He shot eight free throws in the second quarter alone.

“A lot of those ones in the second quarter, we were there,” Finch said. "We were physical. We were vertical. He initiates the contact, he spills away and then he gets rewarded for it.

“Sixteen free throws is a lot. It’s almost as many as we shot all game.”

Murray and Nikola Jokic were quite a 1-2 combo. Jokic finished with his 22nd playoff triple-double. He had 25 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Denver improved to 15-7 when Jokic has a triple-double in a postseason game.

It was Murray's show for much of the game. He also had seven assists and five rebounds in more than 39 minutes.

“He’s been so good all year,” said Nuggets coach David Adelman, whose team gears up for Game 2 on Monday night. "Jamal has been Jamal all year, tough-minded.”

Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards is finding his stride, too, as he rounds back from a right knee injury. He had 22 points and seven assists in just over 38 minutes.

“It wasn’t the Ant we’re used to seeing, but is pretty much as expected in where he is in trying to find his rhythm,” Finch explained.

Edwards felt the same way.

“A little fatigued,” Edwards said. “Other than that I felt good."

Edwards was 6 of 7 from the foul line.

“Jamal helped them. He shot, what 19 — how many free throws did he shoot?” Edwards said, looking down at the stat sheet. “Sixteen for sixteen from the free-throw line. So that helped them a lot.”

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

The Lexington Minutemen are marking the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts on Saturday, as they do every year. Thousands of people — some in colonial costumes, gathered on the Lexington Green to witness the historic clash, many booing the British troops and cheering on the patriots. The battle, which marked the start of the American Revolution 251 years ago, ended with eight Americans killed and 10 wounded — the dead scattered on the grounds as the British marched off.

Among the soldiers represented there was Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who joined his white neighbors on Lexington Green in April 19, 1775, as British troops approached. He was wounded that day but went on to serve in multiple deployments throughout the war.

“I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t know about it,” said Price, a 95-year-old Black Korean War veteran who played the role of Estabrook for 50 years. “I was surprised that there was one Black soldier out here.”

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Estabrook and other patriots of color are being celebrated through programs nationwide that aim to tell a more complete story of the birth of the nation.

Telling the whole story

Museum exhibits, documentary films and lectures have traditionally focused on the white leaders of the American Revolution, such as Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere.

Christopher Brown, a British Empire historian at Columbia University, said the Revolution has long been portrayed as a “simple story and a moral story that celebrates American origins and that looks to the American past in a kind of idealized version of what the present is.”

But in recent decades, “a more accurate view of the past” has emerged that showcases the diverse collection of men and women who played critical roles in the fight for freedom.

“There were Black men in the ranks who were fighting in Concord and Lexington and fought on Bunker Hill,” he said. “They knew all of the work that women were doing to support the revolutionary effort. The fact that we didn’t know that is more of a sign of our lack of curiosity and the need for greater research.”

The National Park Service estimates that by the end of the Revolution more than 5,500 patriots of color — including Black and Indigenous people — served on the colonial side, while many runaway slaves fought for the British.

“Finding this out, I was very proud,” said Jason Roomes, a descendant of three formerly enslaved men from Rhode Island, Cato, Pero and Ceasar Rome. Roomes learned in his 40s all three Black men fought in the American Revolution for the colonial side.

“Proud that my family has been here and fought for the creation of this United States,” he said.

The stories of Black patriots cannot be told without mentioning slavery, which was legal at the time in all 13 Colonies. Some Blacks who fought were enslaved and others fought in the hopes of gaining freedom. Indigenous soldiers made similar calculations, even as tribes fought for their very survival.

But despite the documented military diversity of that time, efforts to promote such stories are under pressure. The Trump administration has ordered the removal or censorship of some exhibits highlighting the history of slavery and enslaved people, the Civil Rights Movement and the mistreatment of Indigenous people.

Roger Davidson, Jr. an associate professor of history at Bowie State University, said failure to recognize that important part of history can impact communities of color today.

“If you’re not seen as having contributed to society, to the military, to any of it, then people can sort of overlook you,” Davidson said. “It plays into, and I hate to put it this way, but it plays into some people’s biases. Why should we pay any attention to you in the present day, politically, socially, economically, if you have not contributed?”

Remembering patriots of color

MA250 has handed out millions of dollars in grants to commemorate the battles across Massachusetts that helped lead to America's independence. Among the beneficiaries is the Black Heritage Trail in Concord that highlights the lives of Black residents in the town during the Revolution.

Museum exhibitions celebrating Black patriots have also received grants. Among those highlighted is Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry who died on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired on a crowd in what is known as the Boston Massacre. Another, Salem Poor, was born enslaved but purchased his freedom before fighting at Bunker Hill.

American Ancestors, a nonprofit history and heritage center in Boston that also received MA250 funding, opens its “Patriots of Color” exhibit next week, throwing a spotlight on the lives of 26 Black and Indigenous men and women who played a role in the American Revolution. They include: Prince Ames, a Black and Narragansett man from Andover, who was forced to join the Continental Army in place of his enslaver; and Paul Cuffe, a Black and Wampanoag businessman, who petitioned the Massachusetts government to reject taxation without representation.

Some of their descendants will attend the opening of the exhibition.

“By telling these lesser known stories, we want to highlight that ordinary people made a tremendous difference in the arc of the country’s history,” Ryan Woods, president and CEO of American Ancestors, said.

The details of Estabrook’s life

Records about Prince Estabrook's life are scant, but according to the National Park Service, he was likely born in the Lexington area around 1740. His father was enslaved by landowner Benjamin Estabrook, so Prince was born into slavery.

It is unclear what his life was like before he trained as a soldier in the Lexington militia. The Park Service says he was serving under the command of Colonel John Parker on April 19, 1775, when his left shoulder was struck by a musket ball. He recovered from that injury and went on to serve eight years with the militia and the Continental Army.

After the Revolution, he was granted freedom and returned to Lexington, where tax records from 1790 indicate he joined Benjamin Estabrook’s payroll as ‘a non-white freeman.’ It is unclear if he ever married, had children or owned property.

According to family records, he died in 1830, around the age of 90, and was buried in the same cemetery as Benjamin's son, Nathan, in Ashby, Massachusetts.

Price, who has handed reenactment duties to a younger colleague but still attends the early morning reenactment every year, says it is important to know about the soldier's life.

“Keep the story alive to make sure that everybody knows, everybody that we can get in touch with, everybody knows that Prince Estabrook was here,” Price said. “He was a viable person. He did his role, he did his part in fighting for the country.”

Leo's arrival in Angola, the oil-and-mineral rich former Portuguese colony, marked the third leg of his four-nation African voyage. En route from Cameroon, he spoke again of the ongoing back-and-forth with U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran war.

Leo, history’s first U.S.-born pope, said that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, justice and brotherhood in Africa.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance later wrote on social media that “I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this.” Vance, a Catholic convert, suggested earlier in the week that Leo “be careful” when speaking about theology.

In Angola, Leo met with President Joao Lourenco and delivered his first speech to Angolan government authorities, in which he referred repeatedly to Angola’s tortured history of colonial plunder and civil war.

“I desire to meet you in the spirit born of peace and to affirm that your people possess treasures that cannot be bought or stolen,” he said. "There dwells within you a joy that not even the most adverse circumstances have been able to extinguish.”

A long-suffering people

Angola, which has a population of around 38 million, gained independence from Portugal in 1975. But it still bears the scars of a devastating civil war that began straight after independence and raged on and off for 27 years before finally ending in 2002. More than a half-million people are believed to have been killed.

For years, the civil war was a Cold War proxy conflict, with the United States and apartheid South Africa backing one side and the Soviet Union and Cuba backing the other.

Angola is now the fourth-largest oil producer in Africa and among the world’s top 20 producers, according to the International Energy Agency. The country is also the world’s No. 3 diamond producer and has significant deposits of gold and highly sought after critical minerals.

But despite its varied natural resources, the World Bank estimated in 2023 that more than 30% of the population lived on less than $2.15 a day.

“You know well that all too often people have looked — and continue to look — to your lands in order to give, or, more commonly, in order to take,” Leo told the Angolan authorities.

The pontiff said: “It is necessary to break this cycle of interests, which reduces reality, and even life itself, to mere commodities.”

While in Cameroon, Leo had railed against the “chains of corruption” that were hindering development, as well as the “handful of tyrants” who were ravaging Earth with war and exploitation. He raised similar points in Angola.

“How much suffering, how many deaths, how many social and environmental disasters are brought about by this logic of extractivism! At every level, we see how it sustains a model of development that discriminates and excludes, while still presuming to impose itself as the only viable option.”

Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the late former president who led Angola for 38 years from 1979 to 2017, was accused of diverting billions of dollars of public money to his family, largely from the country’s oil revenue, as millions struggled in poverty.

After Lourenco took over as president, his administration estimated that at least $24 billion was stolen or misappropriated by dos Santos. Lourenco’s administration has vowed to crack down on corruption and has worked to recover funds allegedly stolen during the dos Santos era.

But critics note that Angola still has deep problems with corruption and have questioned if Lourenco’s actions were more aimed at political rivals so as to consolidate his power.

In his speech Saturday, Lourenco said that the Angolan government was committed to improving the lives of its people, but it was a “complex and difficult challenge.” He also called for an end to the Iran war and asked the pope to continue using his “moral authority” to push for peace and understanding among people.

A legacy of slavery

Angola, on the southwest coast of Africa, was considered to be the epicenter of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a Portuguese colony. More than 5 million of the roughly 12.5 million enslaved Africans were sent across the ocean on ships departing from Angola, more than any other country, though not all of them were Angolans.

The highlight of Leo’s visit to Angola is expected to be his visit on Sunday to Muxima, south of Luanda. It’s a popular Catholic shrine in a country where around 58% of the population is Catholic.

The Church of Our Lady of Muxima was built by Portuguese colonizers at the end of the 16th century as part of a fortress complex and became a hub in the slave trade. It remains a reminder of the inextricable link hundreds of years ago between Roman Catholicism and the exploitation of the African continent.

Leo has Black and white ancestors who included both enslaved people and slave owners, according to genealogical research. He's going to Muxima to pray the rosary, in recognition of the site becoming a popular pilgrimage destination after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833.

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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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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.

After the game finished 2-2 following extra time, Sociedad goalkeeper Unai Marrero saved shots by Alexander Sorloth and Julián Álvarez and Pablo Marín converted the last kick to clinch the shootout 4-3.

“It has been an unbelievable journey and my feeling is it could be just the beginning,” the 48-year-old Matarazzo said. “You visualize success, and you trust your players, but until you cross the line you don’t feel it. With that penalty I took a few moments to realize it, and it was pure joy for our players and staff.”

Sociedad needed 14 seconds and just three players to touch the ball directly after kickoff to take the lead through Ander Barrenetxea.

Ademola Lookman equalized for Diego Simeone’s side with a goal in the 19th minute, but a penalty by goalkeeper Juan Musso allowed Mikel Oyarzabal to restore Sociedad’s advantage in first-half injury time.

Álvarez stroked a shot into the right corner to make it 2-2 in the 83rd.

The New Jersey-born Matarazzo took over Sociedad in December when it was two points above the relegation zone in the Spanish league. Four months later, the Basque Country club has won the cup and is in the upper half of the La Liga table.

Atletico will now turn its focus to the Champions League semifinal against Arsenal staring later this month.

“We fought back from the 1-0 and 2-1 and had chances to win it. We can only congratulate our rival, which was more clinical at key moments,” said Simeone, who after a point-blank miss by Alex Baena in the final minutes went down on his hands and knees with his head briefly pressed to the turf.

Fastest goal in a cup final

Opta Statistics said Barrenetxea’s goal was the fastest ever in a Spanish cup final.

The opening goal against Atletico’s vaunted defense was about as simple as they come: ball to goalkeeper, long ball down the right flank, where Gonçalo Guedes was free to send in a cross for Ander Barrenetxea to head it home.

The sequence exposed a series of less-than-ideal defending. Neither Nahuel Molina nor Giuliano Simeone intercepted reachable balls; Matteo Ruggeri let the shorter Barrenetxea outjump him for the header; and goalkeeper Juan Musso perhaps could have made a more sprightly effort to stop the shot from bouncing past.

Lookman again proved the most-impactful winter signing by a Spanish side – his goal was his seventh for Atletico – when the former Atalanta forward received a pass from Antoine Griezmann just inside the area and sent a left-footed shot inside the post.

Oyarzabal went to the spot after Musso slammed into Guedes while disputing a high ball in the box. Oyarzabal lived up to his reputation as a penalty expert, slotting his try home. The Spain striker also scored a penalty for the only goal in the 2020 cup final against Athletic Bilbao.

Sociedad was in control and only minutes away from the title when Atletico finally mounted a good team move to unsettle Sociedad’s defense for the first time and set up Álvarez in the second half.

Goalies shine late

Musso made up for his earlier mistakes by making back-to-back saves in extra time. And Álvarez went close to netting a winner when he hit the woodwork in the 100th.

Otherwise, Atletico created several chances it couldn’t finish off to get the title-clinching goal.

Then it was Marrero’s turn to shine as he guessed right on the first two penalties by Atletico’s strikers before Marín fired his shot into the top corner.

“I knew that if we got to penalties, I believed in myself, my teammates believed in me, our fans believed in me,” the 24-year-old Marrero said before the winners received the trophy and medals from Spanish King Felipe VI.

“I still can’t believe it,” Marrero said. “The boy who dreamed about this since he was young has fulfilled his dream.”

Griezmann will now need to help steer Atletico past Arsenal in the European semifinals to have another shot at finishing his final season in Spain with a title before the club’s all-time leading scorer joins Orlando City in the MLS next season.

“We want to win the Champions League,” Atletico’s veteran midfielder Koke Resurrección said. “But tonight is a hard night. We will have time to think about the Champions League.”

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

Jokic had 25 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists and a bloody nose in a physical game between the Northwest Division foes. There were 42 fouls called, along with an unsportsmanlike technical on Jaden McDaniels for pushing Jokic in the back and a technical on Nuggets coach David Adelman. Julius Randle and Aaron Gordon picked up late technical fouls, too.

Denver has won 13 straight since losing on March 18.

Murray, who was 0 for 8 from 3-point range, and the Nuggets trailed by as many as 12 points early, but used a 17-2 run in the third quarter to build a double-digit lead. The Timberwolves, who were held scoreless for more than four minutes at one point in the third, trimmed the deficit to 97-95 with 6:23 left.

Jokic had a five-point stretch to help hold off Minnesota. Murray had one of the biggest shots of the game from halfcourt. With the shot clocking winding down, he heaved it at the hoop and it grazed the rim to reset the clock. It eventually led to a dunk from Gordon that gave Denver a 108-101 lead with 1:50 left. Gordon had 17 points despite early foul trouble.

“Winning a grimy game, it's good,” Adelman said. “Both teams are experienced and used to winning these games. They know what it means to play in a physical matchup.”

Game 2 is Monday night.

Anthony Edwards scored 22 points while playing on a sore right knee. He also had seven assists to become the franchise's career postseason assists leader. Donte DiVincenzo had four 3-pointers.

“We’ve got to make smarter, more solid plays,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. ”We've got to be more composed."

These teams are so evenly matched that the Nuggets lead 15-14 in regular-season and playoff matchups since the 2022-23 season. Both have won a playoff series against each other during the stretch.

The first quarter featured two challenges, a technical foul on Adelman and a flagrant on McDaniels for not giving Murray enough room to land on a long jumper. It also saw Gordon pick up three fouls, with his third on an offensive call that led to Adelman's technical.

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

Fitzpatrick felt he was playing well enough there was no need to panic.

One big swing with the driver, two shots holed from off the green — for birdie and eagle — and Fitzpatrick steadied himself for a 3-under 68 to lead Scheffler by three shots going into Sunday.

Scheffler opened with five birdies in six holes to get back in the tournament, and he closed with two birdies on the last two holes for a 64 that put him in the final group Sunday.

“The bogeys that I made today, I didn’t feel like I kind of hit it off the planet and I was scrambling and stuff,” Fitzpatrick said. “I just felt that they were holes that I didn’t really make my par on, and I felt like I was making good enough swings to make a turnaround on the back nine. Obviously, some nice momentum with the hole-outs.”

Scheffler finished by smashing a 9-iron from 196 with the wind at his back to 10 feet that briefly tied Fitzpatrick for the lead, just not for long.

Fitzpatrick rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt from off the green at the par-3 14th. He was right of the green on the par-5 15th and chipped in for eagle to restore the margin to three shots.

Fitzpatrick, the 2023 winner of the RBC Heritage, closed with three pars to reach 17-under 196.

He started another warm, breezy day with a one-shot lead over Viktor Hovland (73), four clear of everyone else. Fitzpatrick goes into the final round with four players within four shots of the lead, starting with the No. 1 player in the world.

“Good to be back in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “I was a little bit behind the 8-ball going into today, but had a nice round to put myself back in position.”

So did Brian Harman, who recovered from a slow start for the second straight week. The former British Open champion opened with a 71 and had his best score ever at Harbour Town with a 63 that left him four behind along with Si Woo Kim (66) and Sepp Straka (67).

Even before Fitzpatrick teed off, Scheffler was making a move — a pair of birdies in the 6-foot range, a pair of birdies from the greenside bunkers on the par 5s and a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 6.

“It felt like I had already gotten myself into contention there,” Scheffler said, figuring the last group had not even started.

Fitzpatrick went long on the first hole and left and long on the third, both times failing to save par. He made another bogey on the par-3 seventh, and by then an entire cast of contenders were back in the tournament.

Scheffler, Harman and Kim each had at least a share of the lead at one point. Harman closed out his round by holing a bunker shot on the par-3 17th.

“Just tried to keep the pedal down. It’s going to take a low number to win,” Harman said.

But it started to turn for Fitzpatrick when he ripped driver on the 315-yard ninth, the ball landing on the front of the bunker and hopping onto the green to about 75 feet away, leading to a two-putt birdie. Three holes later, he converted a 10-foot birdie putt and was on his way.

Scheffler and Fitzpatrick played together the opening two rounds, and the Englishman put seven shots between them to the 36-hole lead.

Scheffler, coming off a runner-up finish in the Masters, figured he would need one of his best rounds to at least have a chance. He also needed a little help. His 64 was the best score of the 14 players ahead of him, and all but three of those players did no better than 68.

“Fitzpatrick goes out today and shoots 64, that’s going to make things really hard for me,” Scheffler said. "You need a tiny bit of help, but I can’t control what those guys are going to do. If somebody shows up and shoots 28 under on this golf course, sometimes you just get beat.

“So going into today I was just going to do my best and see where that left me.”

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

The HC-130 Hercules crew saw the vessel early in the day about 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) northeast of the Mariana’s last known position, the Coast Guard said. It was 34 nautical miles (63 kilometers) northeast of Pagan, a small island north of Saipan in the western Pacific Ocean.

The agency said in a statement that it confirmed the overturned ship matched the description of the Mariana, a 145-foot (44-meter) dry cargo vessel registered in the U.S.

The Mariana suffered engine failure Wednesday as a massive typhoon bore down on Saipan and nearby islands with fierce winds and relentless rain. After the crew reported that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, the Coast Guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel.

But contact was lost Thursday. A HC-130 plane launched that morning to conduct a search, but it returned to Guam due to heavy winds.

The Mariana's last known position was about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north-northwest of Saipan, which is about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometers) west of Hawaii.

Coast Guard officials in Honolulu were gathering information on the capsized ship, the agency said in a statement.

The guard did not know the nationalities of the Mariana's missing crew members.

A U.S. Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon crew; a Coast Guard cutter; and a Japanese coast guard aircrew and vessel equipped with a specialized dive team were to take part in the search.

Typhoon Sinlaku triggered floods, tore off roofs and overturned cars on Saipan. Officials said the storm’s large size meant that the island endured roughly 48 hours of fierce winds, which delayed responders’ ability to assess damage and help communities.

Often called “America’s Toughest Road Marathon,” the Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Marathon challenges competitors with thousands of feet of elevation gain. Runners of all levels — from first-timers to seasoned marathoners — took part in events ranging from the double full marathon to shorter distances, including a half marathon and 10K.

For first-time marathon runner Ezekiel Arnole, crossing the finish line was a moment he won’t soon forget.

“It’s a lil emotional, just cause it was the first one but it was so much fun and I would do it over again,” Arnole said.

The course didn’t make it easy, though.

“It was so hard, it was nothing but uphill that I feel like just spawned in,” Arnole said.

For locals Lily Kreps and Zach Cohen, who ran the 10K and half marathon, respectively, the race offered a unique way to experience the city they call home.

“We live in Roanoke so we run on the greenway all year, so it’s a really cool race to get to run through the city, run up and down Mill Mountain,” they said.

Second-year half marathon runners Craig Sowers and Brie Beddingfild say the challenge is well worth the reward.

“The feeling and just knowing that you did it, I gotta do it again, and the views at the top of the peak are really worth it too,” they said.

For many runners, the Blue Ridge Marathon is not something they tackle alone. It is a shared experience with family, friends and the community around them.

Josue, who said he came from Honduras and is part of a local Spanish-speaking community, was making it a milestone moment.

“I come from Honduras, we have a community of Spanish-speaking people here and this is my third marathon,” he said.

For others, the support system is closer to home. One runner, Emilia, said she signed up for the 10K largely to cheer on her partner.

“I’m just doing the 10K and he’s doing the full marathon. Well, he’s the runner, and I’m really just here to support him so if I can do anything I can do a 10K,” she said.

Sowers and Beddingfild both had loved ones waiting at the finish line.

“My sister will be at the end cheering me on,” said Beddingfild.

“My kids will be here at the end and then we have friends like we were with that didn’t want to be on-camera that I talked them into doing this crazy race,” they said.

Cohen’s family summed up the crowd’s energy simply: “We’re gonna cheer them on.”

After the final steps across the finish line, the celebration continued at Elmwood Park, with live music, food and a chance for runners to recover and reflect on what they accomplished.

Emilia said she and her group had plans to stick around after the race.

“We’re definitely gonna hit up the Elmwood party going on so we’ll be there,” she said.

Kreps and Cohen were looking forward to the post-race festivities as well.

“There’s a free beer ticket ... and we’ll hang out in Elmwood Park, we did that last year and it was a lot of fun,” they said.

Organizers say events like the Blue Ridge Marathon not only bring the community together, but also draw visitors from across the country to Roanoke.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Friday put on temporary hold the order by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halting part of the project. The panel scheduled a hearing for June 5 to review the case.

In his ruling Thursday, Leon continued to block above-ground construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom addition while allowing only below-ground work to continue on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.

Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build the massive ballroom in that space. The National Trust for Historic Preservation later sued to block construction, arguing that Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

Leon ruled in favor of the nonprofit group at the end of March, but put his decision on hold for a brief period while allowing the underground work to continue. The administration appealed.

Trump has said the ballroom is a long-overdue addition to the White House complex and argues that he has the right to build it because the cost will be covered by donations from wealthy individuals and corporations, though taxpayer dollars will pay for the security aspects.

But even with the deeper roster, Mitchell still has the mentality of delivering the statement in the first game of a series.

The All-Star guard did that again Saturday afternoon with a game-high 32 points in the Cavaliers' 126-113 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

It is an NBA-record nine straight games in which Mitchell has scored at least 30 points in a series opener.

“It’s not something like I’m searching for,” said Mitchell of trying to put up at least 30 to start a series. “It’s just something that I’m playing my game. Just trying to set a tone of aggression by getting downhill, taking the open shots, taking what’s given to me and obviously making the defense have to react.”

Mitchell’s streak began with the Utah Jazz during the 2020 playoffs — held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic — when he scored 57 points against the Denver Nuggets. That remains a Jazz playoff record and the third-highest-scoring performance in NBA postseason history.

Mitchell is 5-4 during this run in series openers, including 3-3 with Cleveland since coming over in a trade from Utah in September 2022.

James Harden, who was acquired from the LA Clippers in a trade-deadline shocker, helped settle the Cavaliers during a close first half, but it was Mitchell and Max Strus who helped deliver the knockout blows to the Raptors in the second half.

Mitchell had 13 points in the first half to Harden's 15 as the Cavaliers were up 61-54 at halftime. Mitchell scored 11 and Strus added eight as Cleveland dominated the third quarter and were up by 21 going into the final 12 minutes.

“That’s his job. That’s what he gets paid the big bucks for being aggressive, taking shots and doing his thing. We understand that, so our job is to just go out there and fulfill the roles and do other things to impact the game,” Harden said. “I think for me, it's trying to get more assists and trying to get into the paint. We've got shooting, we've got bigs who are versatile and athletic. My job is to get them the ball.”

Harden finished with 22 points and 10 assists that led to 23 points. Six of the assists went to center Jarrett Allen and forward Evan Mobley.

Mitchell's 30th point came on a driving layup with 9:28 remaining to extend Cleveland's lead to 106-84. The nine-year veteran shot 7 of 13 from inside the paint, which is something that pleased coach Kenny Atkinson.

“I said that before the game, how we’ve changed our mindset where we’ve become more rim- and paint-oriented. Don, he can try to do those pirouette 3s, but I think he was locked in on getting to the rim and made some really good decisions," Atkinson said.

Mitchell is averaging 33.1 points in series openers, second-highest in NBA history for a player who has taken part in at least 10 postseason series. His playoff average of 28.4 points is tied with LeBron James for sixth-best among players with at least 50 games.

“I thought we handled the environment and the crowd pretty well. They had a lot of guys scoring at a high rate and they got a lot of easy shots, getting to the rim and dunks," said Toronto's Scottie Barnes, who scored 21 points.

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

It was certainly a bit windy today, with wind gusts peaking around 4 pm.

Winds will calm down slightly overnight, but will gradually increase as we head into tomorrow following a cold front this evening.

The front is anticipated to roll through the area around midnight, but we will see some isolated rain cells ahead of it. More rain is expected behind it and should last through the morning tomorrow.

Temperatures tonight will drop due to a large mass of cooler air in the wake of the front. We will see a below average trend to last through the beginning of the week and will return to normal and above average conditions by Wednesday.

As for tomorrow, there is a large track of moisture being transported from the Gulf, aiding in the development of some widespread showers to start the day.

By the afternoon, the rain will have wrapped up and we will end the day with clear skies.

Saturday Morning:

Perfect weather for the Blue Ridge Marathon runners this morning! We have abundant sunshine with nothing more than just a few passing clouds. Unfortunately, this clear weather will fuel showers and thunderstorms later on this afternoon and evening.

The rainfall is much needed, with much of our area still under a fire risk. Please stay fire weather aware again today!

Our drought conditions are not helping the fire risk as well. The state of Virginia is now under drought watches and warnings. Our rainfall deficit in Roanoke is just over the 4-inch mark, and we are in desperate need of rainfall. The system headed our way this weekend will not be a drought-buster, but at this point, we will take what we can get!

As the cold front makes its way through our region this afternoon, some of the storms could be on the stronger side. Areas highlighted in green and yellow show the slight and marginal risk for damaging wind gusts and small hail this afternoon. I believe that the Highlands Zone is a larger concern for the damaging wind gusts and small hail this afternoon and evening. Be sure to stay weather aware and be in a place where you can hear warnings if they are issued!

By 8 PM, scattered showers and storms will move over the NRV, Highlands, and Roanoke Valley Zones. If you have plans this evening, don’t forget to pack the umbrella!

Overnight and into Sunday morning, showers will remain in the area off and on. Once the cold front clears Southwest and Southside Virginia, we will wrap up rainfall and start clearing skies starting at 10 AM.

Clean Valley Council organized Roanoke’s Earth Day Celebration on Saturday. It brought people outside for a day of education, shopping and hands-on activities centered around living a little greener.

“Even the smallest new item that you take in and decide to apply to your daily life is a positive, and so we want to give people an oppurtunity to interact with positive practices, hear really great music, or ionteract with diffierent vendors.”

Courtney Plaster, Clean Valley Council Executive Director

Organizers say events like this make sustainability feel simple and help others feel like they can do their part.

Before the kickoff for Virginia Tech’s 2026 Spring Football Game, a parachuting team of three came down from the skies, with one person carrying an American flag. The parachuter with the flag was blown off course by the wind, crashing into the upper right corner of Lane Stadium’s video board.

After an initial rescue attempt, other rescue squads were brought in to assist.

Virginia Tech spokesperson Mark Owczarsk said the parachuter was rescued within 15 minutes and sustained no injuries.

You can see the footage of the rescue below:

No deaths were reported following Friday's storms, which barreled through the Upper Midwest and delivered the latest round of severe weather to batter the region. Officials braced residents for a long recovery in some rural communities.

“We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury,” Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall said of the storm that hit Lena, Illinois.

Officials in Wisconsin and Minnesota echoed those sentiments.

In central Wisconsin, a reported tornado that tore through the cities of Kronenwetter and Ringle left behind damaged homes and some residents briefly trapped in their basements, Ringle Fire Chief Chris Kielman told reporters.

Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb said he had not seen this much devastation during his 34 years in law enforcement.

“A lot of people are going to need a lot of help,” Billeb said.

In Kronenwetter, neighbors were helping each other clear debris from their properties, and Wisconsin Public Service was working to restore power. Police Chief Terry McHugh said it could be a lengthy process.

He noted that the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin has partnered with United Way of Marathon County to help residents whose homes were damaged.

In Olmsted County, Minnesota, sheriff's officials said tornadoes caused “multiple levels” of damage. At least 30 homes were damaged in Marion Township, with a number of those sustaining damage that was described as significant. Officials went door to door to check on people.

The National Weather Service said the damage was likely caused by tornadoes and surveys of the affected areas would be conducted over the weekend.

On Friday in Illinois, Leo Zach, 14, had just gotten to the high school band room for a music competition when the building started shaking and the power went out. The room was packed with students, and some were very scared and had panic attacks.

“I’m definitely on the luckier side of how that could’ve happened,” he said. “I was just trying to stay calm, help other people.”

When they got outside, they found some of the windows blown out in the gym and part of the school's roof ripped off.

Photos and video posted online showed a garage totaled, bricks torn from buildings and fences demolished.

Lena is a village of nearly 3,000 people, located about 117 miles (188 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.

Rachel Nemon was going to pick up her stepson from Lena's middle school when she had to pull into a car wash to take cover from the storm. She watched a large tree get ripped from the ground and sparks fly feet in front of her.

“This is something that you see online, not in real life, especially in a small town in Illinois,” she said.

The meeting comes as Mamdani, a democratic socialist who marked his 100th day in office just over a week ago, is also trying to build a working relationship with Republican President Donald Trump.

Obama and Mamdani did not take questions after reading the book “Alone and Together” to the children and leading a singalong of “The Wheels on the Bus.”

The former two-term president and standard-bearer for the Democratic Party has offered to be a sounding board for Mamdani, 34, whose star power, youth and progressive agenda has made him stand out in Democratic politics.

Mamdani took office in January after a campaign centered on making New York City a more affordable place to live, centering his agenda on refocusing the vast power of government toward helping the city’s struggling working class.

Mamdani has met twice with Trump at the White House in November and February to discuss issues affecting New York.

Despite those friendly meetings, their relationship has shown signs of strain recently, with Trump posting on social media Thursday that Mamdani was “DESTROYING New York” with his taxing policies and threatened to pull federal funding for the city.

It was a disappointing Saturday for the two London giants in the Premier League, starting with Tottenham conceding an equalizer deep into stoppage time to draw 2-2 with Brighton.

That kept Spurs, ever-presents in England's top flight since 1978, in third-to-last place and in grave danger of relegation with five games left.

Chelsea then lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United in a showdown between teams fighting for a place in the top five and therefore Champions League qualification. Matheus Cunha scored the only goal.

While United strengthened its grip on third place, Chelsea stayed in sixth and is looking increasingly unlikely to get back into Europe's top competition next season. That would be a huge financial blow to Chelsea's American ownership which has spent heavily to build an underperforming playing squad.

Tottenham still winless in 2026

Tottenham is still without a win in the Premier League in 2026 — a stretch of 15 matches. That's a remarkable run for one of the country's so-called “Big Six” which played in the Champions League this season as the reigning Europa League winner.

Yet Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi still believes his team is capable of winning all of its remaining games and staying up.

“Now it's difficult to hear my words,” he said, "but if you watch the players and analyze the level of the players, I think we can win five games in a row.

“Not to be arrogant because I am not arrogant, especially now, but we have the quality enough to fight and win games in a row.”

Georginio Rutter's late equalizer for Brighton at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium meant last-place Wolverhampton's impending relegation was put off for bit longer. However, Wolves are destined for the drop, with their 3-0 loss at Leeds meaning they are 15 points from safety with five matches remaining.

Xavi Simons looked as if he'd won the game for Tottenham when he cut inside and curled a finish into the top corner in the 77th minute, sparking joyous celebrations by newly hired manager Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian, formerly Brighton's manager, was taking charge of his second game and first at home.

Earlier, Pedro Porro gave Tottenham the lead with a 39th-minute header, before Kaoru Mitoma volleyed home an equalizer in first-half stoppage time.

Tottenham is a point behind West Ham, which visits Crystal Palace on Monday, and two behind Nottingham Forest, which hosts Burnley on Sunday.

Wolves have been in the Premier League for the past eight seasons but are now on the brink.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted a stoppage-time penalty to round off the win for Leeds after early goals by James Justin — with a bicycle kick — and Noah Okafor.

Leeds is eight points clear of the relegation zone.

Fernandes nears assist record

Man United moved 10 points clear of Chelsea and looks certain to qualify for the Champions League after a big win sealed despite not having four center backs available.

Cunha converted a cut-back from Bruno Fernandes, who now has 18 assists for the campaign — two off the Premier League record held jointly by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry.

Chelsea was without Joao Pedro, who was injured in training this week, and lost Estevao to an injury midway through the first half.

Chelsea has lost its last three league games and five of its last six games in all competitions, piling the heat on inexperienced manager Liam Rosenior.

“At the moment, any small mistake we are making and the ball ends up in the back of our net,” Rosenior said, “and that has to change.”

Howe under more pressure afte

r latest Newcastle loss

Newcastle's players were jeered after a 2-1 home loss to Bournemouth, the team's third straight defeat in the Premier League.

It left Newcastle in 14th place in the 20-team top flight with five games remaining of the campaign and manager Eddie Howe under increasing pressure.

Adrien Truffert grabbed the winner in the 85th minute as eighth-place Bournemouth extended its unbeaten run to 13 straight league matches.

Brentford's fifth straight draw

Brentford failed to boost its unlikely Champions League qualification hopes by drawing a fifth straight game in the Premier League, this time 0-0 at home to Fulham.

Brentford could have climbed above Chelsea, which plays Manchester United later, and into sixth place with a win but missed a slew of chances. Top scorer Igor Thiago hit the goal frame.

Leicester heading for third tier

Ten years after winning the Premier League, Leicester looks to be heading to the third tier of English soccer.

A 1-0 loss at Portsmouth on Saturday left Leicester in second-to-last place in the Championship, eight points from safety with just three games left.

Wrexham, the Welsh club owned by Hollywood celebrities, moved just two points off the playoff places with a 2-0 win over Stoke.

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

James Harden had 22 points and 10 assists while Evan Mobley had 17 and seven rebounds for fourth-seeded Cleveland, which hosts Game 2 on Monday night.

It was a playoff career high in points for Strus, who missed the first 67 games this season with a broken left foot that occurred during offseason training.

“When you see the work he’s put in all season, it’s for this moment, right? This is a regular occurrence with Max, maybe not 24 (points), but just the energy level and boost he gives us,” said Mitchell, who has scored at least 30 points in an NBA-record nine straight series openers. “You give him credit for his journey, it can be a lot on the mental for him to continue to stick with it.”

RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Scottie Barnes had 21 for the Raptors, who were playing in their first playoff game since 2022. Toronto was missing point guard Immanuel Quickley because of a mild right hamstring strain.

Jamal Shead started in place of Quickley and had 17 points, including five 3-pointers.

Barrett's 3-pointer pulled the Raptors to within 45-41 before Cleveland broke it open with a 27-9 run over the last 1:11 of the second quarter and first seven minutes of the third.

Strus scored 11 points during the spurt and made all three of his 3-pointers as the Cavaliers went 10 of 16 from the floor, including 5 of 8 beyond the arc.

“We just kept saying in the timeouts (during the first half to) stay with it. We’re going to get separation,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We needed that separation for our confidence. Going into halftime if you are down, it’s a harder conversation with the players to trust what we’re doing.”

Cleveland's largest lead was 24 points (100-76) on Sam Merrill's 3-pointer 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Toronto came into the game averaging a league-leading 18.9 points per game, but Cleveland held them to a season-low three.

“If we allow our opponent to score 126 points, it’s going to be tough to beat them," Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. "Unfortunately, we had a very bad start to the third quarter with lack of execution. We were way too stagnant tonight.”

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

She’s 48 years old, works at a hospital, describes herself as a conservative and voted for Trump in the last election. But that doesn't mean she's going to vote out her Republican state senator just because he defied the president's demand to redraw Indiana's congressional map.

“I’m not going to say that ‘because this is what the president wants, this is how I’m going to vote,’" Wise said from her front step on a sunny, springtime afternoon.

Indiana's primary on May 5 has become an unlikely test of Trump's grip on the Republican Party. After state senators defied White House pressure by opposing redistricting, Trump has endorsed seven primary challengers in races that rarely attract any attention from Washington.

The campaign, backed by national organizations such as Turning Point Action and pro-Trump groups that have spent more than $4.2 million on advertising, has no precedent in recent memory. Gov. Mike Braun and U.S. Sen Jim Banks, both Republicans, are also working against incumbent state senators in a display of deference to Trump.

One of their targets is Spencer Deery, a first-term state senator who knocked on Wise's door while canvassing her West Lafayette neighborhood via electric scooter.

“This is about one thing only,” he told The Associated Press. “And that’s control.”

An avalanche of campaign spending

Deery represents the 23rd Senate District, a seven-county swath of farmland that borders Illinois to the west, runs north to West Lafayette and touches the outskirts of Terre Haute to the south.

Four years ago, Deery's campaign spent $142,000 to win his seat in a race where fewer than 11,000 people voted. One of the primary candidates he defeated was Paula Copenhaver, a veteran Republican activist and local party chair.

Now Trump has endorsed Copenhaver, an aide to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, and Deery is facing a nearly $1 million avalanche of spending. One television advertisement declared that “State Sen. Spencer Deary voted against President Trump’s agenda.”

“It’s about sending a message that any state that does not get in line or any lawmakers that do not get in line with the political forces in D.C. should be on the lookout,” Deery said. “That should concern you in a constitutional democracy.”

Deery has spent $167,000 so far, and he hasn't had any help from outside groups.

A Trump-backed opponent

Copenhaver declined to respond to telephone calls and text messages from The Associated Press after originally saying she was willing to discuss the campaign. Trump endorsed her in January by calling her a “MAGA Warrior” — a reference to Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement — and “a terrific Candidate for Indiana’s 23rd State Senate District.”

He wrote on social media that Copenhaver was “running against an incompetent and ineffective RINO incumbent named Spencer Deery who, for whatever reason, betrayed his voters by voting against Redistricting in Indiana.” RINO means “Republican in name only.”

The White House leaned heavily on Indiana lawmakers last year to break with precedent and adopt a new congressional map, part of an unusual nationwide cascade of redistricting that Trump hopes will help Republicans protect their thin U.S. House majority in November's elections. Vice President JD Vance met with Indiana politicians in Washington and Indianapolis, and Trump weighed in by conference call.

Some opponents of the proposal faced threats. Deery was targeted by a false police report intended to provoke a dangerous situation by sending a SWAT team racing to his home.

But the Republican-controlled state Senate voted against redistricting in December, a defeat for the president.

Trump tried to brush it off afterward, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “I wasn't working on it very hard.”

Making the rounds on the campaign trail

As Deery moved from door to door in the neatly manicured suburb at the edge of a clover field in northwest West Lafayette, a pair of motorcyclists out on a Saturday ride stopped to encourage him.

“I wanted to thank you for having the courage to vote against the redistricting,” one of them said.

Annette and Curtis Williams politely chatted with Deery at their door. Curtis said Trump’s threat to unseat Deery is “inappropriate.” Neither he nor his wife would say how they planned to vote.

Beckie Eikenberg, a quality assurance associate at an Indiana pharmaceutical company, has seen the advertisements targeting Deery, but she does not trust them. The 47-year-old who calls herself “libertarian on the conservative side,” spoke with the state senator at the end of her cul-de-sac.

She voted for Trump but wrinkled her brow when asked if the president should have a say in Indiana’s congressional map.

“He doesn’t necessarily know what’s going on within our state. He’s not here. He doesn’t see the day to day,” she said.

Governor stays allied with Trump

The campaign to oust incumbents is also intended to dislodge Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodrick Bray, who helped block redistricting and has faced criticism from Trump.

Bray is not up for reelection this year, but Braun wanted primary challengers to commit to opposing him as Senate leader, according to three people familiar with the demand. The people were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump political aides said they were monitoring the campaigns. Representatives for Banks, the U.S. senator allied with the White House, did not return messages seeking comment.

Braun, the Republican governor, said he is backing the primary challengers not because of redistricting but because he needs help to advance his agenda. For example, he was at odds with Bray over property taxes earlier in his term.

Braun is putting $500,000 from his political action committee into state Senate races.

“Whether you supported this or that, my goal is to get enterprising senators and representatives,” Braun said Monday. “So when it comes to what you do to either support or not support certain legislators, for me, it’s going to mostly be based on, ‘Are you willing to help me take Indiana into places that all states would want to be?’”

One of Braun's predecessors is working against him in the primary. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican who stepped away from politics after leaving office in 2015, has been quietly working to protect incumbents targeted by Trump.

Daniels recorded a video and helped raise money for Deery, who was chief of staff to the former governor when he became president of Purdue University.

Deery said his vote against redistricting was not about defying Trump or the president's allies.

“I don’t work for them,” Deery said. “I work for my voters, my constituents.”

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Associated Press videojournalist Obed Lamy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

“I actually wasn’t arguing,” Quatraro said. “I was just trying to get some clarification. We’ve been told that if the pitcher’s on the rubber, he’s about to start and then he goes to touch the PitchCom, it should be a balk because it’s essentially doing starting and stopping twice.

“That’s what I was trying to get some clarification on. So, I was not out there to get ejected, but that’s the way it ended up."

After Maikel Garcia was stranded at second base and nearly picked off, Quatraro raced out to start arguing with Ceja and Chris Guccione as the Royals took the field.

“They said it wasn’t a balk,” Quatraro said. “Their interpretation of it was that it was not a balk.”

The argument did not appear heated initially, but when Quatraro turned away he was tossed. Bench coach Paul Hoover took over as manager for Kansas City.

“It's just a difference in how different crews interpret it and how they call it,” Quatraro said.

It was Quatraro’s eighth career ejection since becoming Kansas City’s manager in 2023.

After Quatraro was tossed, the Royals lost their sixth straight and for the ninth time in 11 games.

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

Everyone gathered for the annual Run in Remembrance, a 3.2-mile run meant to honor the 32 people killed on April 16, 2007.

Organizers and participants say the event is designed to keep the focus on the people who were lost — and on the community’s ongoing commitment to healing.

Nineteen years after the shooting, participants said the day is about remembering classmates, professors, friends and family members — and ensuring tragedy does not define the university.

The victims ranged in age from 18 to 76 and represented “a variety of academic areas and faith and ethnic groups,” according to the event’s remembrance message.

For some students, the run is also about safety and prevention.

“It’s a prominent issue and to keep others safe,” said Gabrielle DeJoseph, a student at Virginia Tech. “Doing runs like this really keeps what happened in mind and prevents things like this from happening in the future.”

Others said the event is a way to connect across generations of Hokies.

“It’s just a great way to contribute to everybody that was here before us and here with us right now, and sharing memories with them,” said Jimmy Lin, a student at Virginia Tech.

Participants said the run offers a tangible way to show support for the families who continue to grieve.

“Those families went through a lot so I think it’s only right that we show them the respect,” said Kevin Kiernan, a student at Virginia Tech. “This is an awesome way for the community to come together.”

The stated goal of the event is to center victims’ stories on campus — not the violence that took them.

Virginia Tech’s remembrance message encourages the community to reflect on “the tremendous promise each of them embodied for our world with creativity, intelligence, humility, and humanity.”

The strait is closed until the U.S. blockade is lifted, Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy said Saturday night, warning that “no vessel should make any movement from its anchorage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and approaching the Strait of Hormuz will be considered as cooperation with the enemy” and be targeted.

New attacks on the strait, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, threatened to deepen the global energy crisis and push the countries into renewed conflict as the war entered its eighth week.

A fragile ceasefire is due to run out by Wednesday. Iran said it had received new proposals from the United States, and Pakistani mediators were working to arrange another round of direct negotiations.

Iran’s joint military command earlier said “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

Revolutionary Guard gunboats opened fire on a tanker and an unknown projectile hit a container vessel, damaging some containers, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. India's foreign ministry said it summoned Iran's ambassador over the “serious incident” of firing on two India-flagged merchant ships, especially after Iran earlier let several India-bound ships through.

For Iran, the strait's closure — imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28 during talks over Tehran's nuclear program — is perhaps its most powerful weapon, threatening the world economy and inflicting political pain on President Donald Trump. For the United States, the blockade keeps up pressure and could strangle Iran's already weakened economy.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, issued defiant remarks on Saturday, saying the navy stands “ready to inflict bitter defeats on its enemies.” He has not been seen in public since being elevated to the post following his father's death in Israel’s opening barrage.

A turnaround a day after Iran said the strait was open

On Friday, Iran announced the strait's reopening to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The reopening caused oil prices to fall.

Trump, however, said the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the United States. Trump had imposed the blockade after a round of historic face-to-face talks in Pakistan between the countries ended without an agreement.

U.S. forces have sent 23 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, U.S. Central Command said Saturday. Trump's comments triggered an outcry.

“Americans are risking the international community, risking the global economy through these, I can say, miscalculations,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told The Associated Press, adding that the U.S. is “risking the whole ceasefire package.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement calling the blockade a violation of the ceasefire and said Iran would prevent “any conditional and limited reopening” of the strait. The council has recently acted as Iran’s de facto top decision-making body.

Since most supplies to U.S. military bases in the Gulf region come through the strait, “Iran is determined to maintain oversight and control over traffic through the strait until the war fully ends,” the council said. That means Iran-designated routes, payment of fees and issuance of transit certificates.

The Revolutionary Guard navy statement later indicated that no vessel should attempt a transit at all.

Pakistan pushes for progress toward a new deal

The renewed standoff over the strait came hours after Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country was working to “bridge” differences between the U.S. and Iran. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of negotiations early next week.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said “new proposals” from the U.S. had been put forward during a visit to Iran by Pakistan’s army chief and were being reviewed.

But Khatibzadeh said the Iranians were not ready for a new round of face-to-face talks because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”

He also said Iran will not hand over its stock of 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium to the United States, calling the idea “a nonstarter.” Khatibzadeh did not address other proposals for the enriched uranium, saying only that “we are ready to address any concerns.”

Trump said Saturday that Iran “got a little cute” but that “very good” conversations were happening, and more information would come by day's end. “They can’t blackmail us,” he added.

On Friday, Trump said the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

French peacekeeper is killed in Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed and three others were wounded Saturday during an attack on U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. “Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah,” Macron wrote on social media. The UNIFIL peacekeeping force also blamed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah denied involvement.

Pakistan's foreign minister said fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point in U.S.-Iran talks, and the declaration of a ceasefire in Lebanon was seen as a boost to efforts for an Iran agreement.

It was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it didn't play a role in negotiating, especially with Israeli troops still occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and the capital's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return home until it was clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

The Iran war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed.

__ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Suzan Frazer and Andrew Wilks in Antalya, Turkey, contributed to this report.

The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that European countries could run low on jet fuel within weeks, forcing the continent's airlines and carriers that fly to Europe to significantly reduce flights. Many airlines have already raised checked bag fees or added fuel surcharges as the global price of jet fuel increased from about $99 per barrel at the end of February to as high as $209 a barrel at the beginning of April.

In a sign of the conflict’s ongoing repercussions for travel, Air Canada said Friday it planned to suspend its service to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport from June 1 until Oct. 25 to lower its fuel costs. Other airlines, ranging from U.S. carriers like United and Delta to Air France-KLM, SAS, Philippine Airlines and and Cathay Pacific in Europe and Asia, have reduced routes and either increased ticket prices or said they would hike them if the war keeps oil from passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“It’s very hard for the airlines to make predictions in this environment, so they’re going to be conservative, and that’s why it’s likely that their prices will remain elevated for some time until things really stabilize,” said Shye Gilad, a former airline captain who now teaches at Georgetown University’s business school.

With airfares and fees on the rise, consumers still can make choices that determine how much of their travel budgets will get taken up by paying to get to and from their destinations.

Act quickly

While consumers may be tempted to see if the war ends before buying airline tickets, the “wait-and-see" approach to booking flights is riskier this year, travel experts say, especially the longer the war goes on and the closer to summer and other peak travel periods it gets.

“Presuming there is a lasting ceasefire — or better yet, peace agreement — it will take a few months for normal levels of jet fuel production and delivery to resume,” airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said.

Iran's reversal on Saturday of its decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and President Donald Trump's insistence on maintaining a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports illustrated the shakiness of prospects for oil flowing reliably again from the Persian Gulf and with it, an easing of the price pressure on airlines and their customers.

“My advice to travelers is this: If you find a flight whose schedule fits yours, with a fare you can afford, and on an airline you can at least tolerate, book it,” Harteveldt said. “But — and I cannot emphasize this enough —do not book a Basic Economy fare,” the cheapest but also the most restrictive airline ticket class.

Along with charging for checked bags and seat selection, most North American airlines do not give refunds or travel credits to passengers with Basic Economy tickets if they don't cancel their trips within 24 hours of purchase. Policies may vary, but spending more for a Standard Economy ticket provides more flexibility, according to Harteveldt.

Paying more up-front for a refundable ticket also prove advantageous because “if the prices start to dramatically change, you can cancel and rebook for the better price,” Gilad said.

Travel experts say that for now, longstanding booking guidance offers a baseline for how early to reserve a flight to get the lowest airfare: international flights are typically the cheapest about two to five months in advance, and domestic trips about three to six weeks out.

Last-minute bookings and other situations that typically command higher prices are likely to keep climbing, Gilad said.

“Remember, especially if you’re traveling on the major airlines, they’re going to have more ability to adjust fares. If you book too close to your travel date, you’re going to pay more," he said. "The farther out you can book, the better.”

Keep an open mind

Travelers who don't want or need to reach a specific place at a specific time can find it easier to save on airfare. Shifting departure or return dates by a day or two — especially from peak weekends and holidays to midweek — often yields big price differences.

Choosing a different destination also may pay off. A flight from the U.S. may be significantly cheaper to one European city than another. Since budget airlines and trains connect much of Europe, and trains, an airport it cost less to get to can still provide easy access to a lot of other places.

Consumers not set on a certain arrival destination can try tools like Skyscanner’s “Explore Everywhere” feature to look for less-expensive options.

Looking beyond the closest airport for departures also can make a meaningful difference. Major hubs tend to offer more flights and lower fares than smaller regional airports.

In some cases, booking a separate short flight or train to a hub will unlock a cheaper long-haul airfare — think Milwaukee versus Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Travel light

Sticking to a carry-on bag, when possible, can help avoid the higher fees for checking luggage that many major U.S. airlines introduced recently, including Delta, American, United, Southwest and JetBlue.

If packing light is not an option, plan ahead because airlines typically charge more to add bags closer to departure, especially within 24 hours of a flight.

Redeem your points

While fares are going up, the number of airline points needed for many flights has not increased at the same pace, said Adam Morvitz, CEO of points.me, a loyalty rewards redemption search platform.

Airlines still need to fill seats, Morvitz said, and offering more of them for fewer points is one way to do it.

Customers without enough frequent-flyer miles or credit card points for a round-trip ticket still can redeem their travel rewards for one leg of a journey and free up cash for other travel expenses.

Many travelers redeem points directly through their credit card’s booking portal, where they’re typically worth about 1 cent each, Morvitz said. Transferring points to airline loyalty programs often unlocks significantly better value because most major credit card issuers partner with a range of airlines.

Take American Express, whose points can be transferred to Air France’s Flying Blue program. Travelers who don’t want to book with Air France still can use those points with the airline's partner carriers, such as Delta, Morvitz said.

“Points are a form of wealth, and consumers should recognize that those points increase spending power," he said.

Explore travel credit cards

For those new to travel credit cards, sign-up bonuses may yield benefits that can be put to use as soon as this summer. Some bonuses are large enough to cover a flight after meeting a minimum spending requirement.

"Even if you were to travel the entire year, taking one trip per month, you would still earn more points simply by signing up for the card than actually sitting on a seat and flying,” Morvitz said.

Points and rewards can add up through everyday spending on groceries, dining and gas. Some cards include perks like free or discounted checked bags.

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AP writers Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Mae Anderson in New York and Lisa Leff in London contributed to this story.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, hosted two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics in Spain’s second-largest city.

Democrats U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were present alongside the leaders of Brazil, South Africa and high-ranking officials from other left-leaning governments.

While no foreign leader criticized Trump by name in public, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, including his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings.

“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said.

Trump again lashed out on Saturday on social media at Sánchez, who has faced Trump’s scorn for not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in Spain for operations related to the Iran war and for refusing to raise military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP.

“Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Sánchez says the right's time is running out

Spain, like the U.S. and other developed countries, is in debt, but it has one of the world’s leading economies under Sánchez.

Sánchez told the rally of progressive politicians and party members held later on Saturday that the populist right “screams and shouts not because they are winning but because they know their time is running out.

“They know their vision of how the world should be ordered is falling apart due to the tariffs and wars,” he said. “Their embrace of climate change denial, of xenophobia, or sexism is their greatest error.

“They have tried again and again to make us embarrassed of our beliefs. That ends now. From now on they can be the ones who feel ashamed.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and other leaders and officials, including Cabinet members from the United Kingdom and Germany, were in attendance at the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy that kicked off Saturday's double-header of political events at the Barcelona convention center.

Later in the day, Sánchez, Lula and Ramaphosa stayed put to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 6,000 left-leaning elected officials, policy analysts and activists exchanged ideas.

“The far right is international, so we must be too,” German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told a crowd of activists.

Democrats join rally

Sen. Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, spoke at the progressive rally and he didn’t shy away from blasting Trump while celebrating the loss of power of Trump's ally Viktor Orbán in elections in Hungary last week.

“Donald Trump is out to end our democracy,” Murphy said. “We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover, we are in the middle of it.”

But, he said, “Americans are watching what is happening across the world, and the victory in Hungary just one week ago lifted our sails.”

Walz, Kamala Harris' vice presidential candidate who has faced a violent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement migration crackdown in Minnesota, threw barbs at U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned for Orbán and has backed far-right parties in Europe.

“Unlike our current vice president, I’m not here to arrogantly lecture or scold you, I am not here to pick a fight with the Pope or host a rally for any local wannabe authoritarians,” Walz said.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders all sent video messages played at the rally.

Progressives exchange ideas

Among concrete proposals to come from the events, Ramaphosa said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish an International Panel on Inequality, aiming to tackle the growing wealth gap both within and between nations, to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10% of their military budgets on reforestation projects.

“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.

Sánchez argued for the importance of regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation. His government also said that it is working with Lula's Brazil on a tax for the ultrarich.

Lula, who met with Sánchez in a bilateral summit on Friday in Barcelona, kept the focus on how to invigorate the progressive moment. He avoided naming Trump except when he called for U.N. Security Council members to “fulfill their obligation and guarantee peace.”

“Stop this madness of war because the world cannot bear any more wars,” Lula said.

The California Insurance Department said the three used a person in a bear suit to stage fake attacks inside a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes in 2024, then submitted fraudulent claims seeking nearly $142,000 in payouts from insurance companies. The department called it “Operation Bear Claw.”

Two Los Angeles-area men and a woman pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to a weekend jail program, followed by probation, the department said in a news release Thursday. Two of them were ordered to pay over $50,000 in restitution.

A fourth person faces a court hearing in September.

The group is accused of providing several videos from the San Bernardino Mountains of a bear moving inside the vehicles to the insurance companies as part of their damage claims, the department said. Photos provided by the insurance department show what appeared to be scratches on the seats and doors.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist reviewed the footage and concluded it was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the insurance department said.

After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home, the department said.

Bears breaking into homes or trash cans in search of food have become a problem in California from Lake Tahoe in the Sierra down to the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, where some have been known to raid refrigerators and take dips in backyard pools and hot tubs.

Eta was feted by the Union Berlin fans before the game, but the team was unable to live up to the sense of occasion as it slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Wolfsburg, which was previously winless in 12 games.

Eta had spoken before the match of just wanting to get on with the job, deflecting attention from her own barrier-breaking achievements, and focusing instead on her task of securing Bundesliga survival for Union.

She was appointed as interim coach with five games to go before the end of the season. Now it’s four, and Union is a point closer to the relegation zone, just six points away, despite dominating toward the end against Wolfsburg.

“First of all, of course I’m disappointed that we lost this game. But I’m very happy with how we approached it today, with the lads’ performance," Eta said. "We talked about a lot of things this week. We also saw the lads training with good energy, with great conviction, and we implemented the plan we’d developed over the past few days very well today.”

Her team missed a host of good chances, with Wolfsburg goalkeeper Kamil Grabara proving to be the decisive figure, while lapses at the back allowed Patrick Wimmer and Dženan Pejčinović to score early in each half for the visitors.

“Today it was simply about focusing on the essentials. In the end, it was about football, and I was really looking forward to playing this Bundesliga match here," Eta said. "Ultimately, it’s bitter and disappointing that we’re leaving here without any points.”

The 34-year-old Eta became the first female coach across the top divisions of the “big five” European leagues in men’s soccer, but she didn’t dwell at all on her achievement.

‘Football-goddess’

Before the game, Union fans greeted each player’s name during the lineup announcement with a roar of “Fussballgott!” (football-god), and there were cheers and applause when it came to announcing the coach’s name.

“Fussballgottin!” the fans roared — football-goddess.

Eta previously became the first female assistant coach in the men’s Bundesliga in 2023, also at Union, and had been coaching the under-19 men’s team at the club, where she’s affectionately known as Louie.

She made four changes to the team that lost at bottom side Heidenheim the weekend before, bringing back Union veteran Christopher Trimmel.

“For Louie, of course it’s difficult to impose all the new things in just three or four days so everything can be implemented immediately. That’s perfectly understandable. It would have been difficult for any coach, and yet we still managed to execute a solid match plan well. A lot of things worked out,” Trimmel said. “I’m staying positive.”

Union next faces Champions League-chasing Leipzig away, then relegation-rival Cologne at home. It will face former coach Urs Fischer – who led the team to promotion in 2019 – at Mainz, before ending the season at home against Augsburg on May 16.

“We clicked quickly,” Union defender Derrick Köhn of Eta’s impact as head coach. “She shared her game plan with us, and we implemented what she gave us. There’s not too much new, so we feel very, very comfortable with her. We tried, especially today, to give her the win as a present, but unfortunately, we didn’t succeed. As I said, we’ll move on. We’ll try to analyze this and then prepare for Leipzig and try to give her her present there.”

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

At least 14 people were wounded and taken to hospital.

The 58-year-old attacker was not named by police, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was born in Russia, as authorities worked to piece together a motive for the violence.

The mass shooting — unheard of in wartime Kyiv following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — took place in a busy central district of the city, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center, leaving bodies on a crowded street as bystanders fled for safety.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw victims’ bodies in the street covered with emergency blankets before they were taken away.

“The assailant has been neutralized. He had taken hostages and, tragically, killed one of them. He also murdered four people on the street. Another woman died in the hospital due to severe injuries,” Zelenskyy said.

“It has been established that the attacker set fire to an apartment before taking to the streets with a weapon," Zelenskyy said in a video posted online. "He had a prior criminal record, had lived in the Donetsk region (in eastern Ukraine) for a long period, and was born in Russia.”

Ukraine’s special tactical police units stormed the convenience store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

The hostages were supermarket customers and staff.

“We tried to persuade him, knowing that there was likely a wounded person inside. We even offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he did not respond,” Klymenko said. “Consequently, the order was given to neutralize him.”

The minister said the gunman had a valid weapon's permit.

During the 40-minute standoff, a female negotiator wearing body armor and standing behind an armored vehicle used a loudspeaker to call out to the assailant, urging him: “The people are not to blame for this. Please let them go, and we will talk with you.”

Ukraine’s security service, or SBU, described the killings as an act of terrorism.

The shooting took place in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, where several residents said they recognized the gunman.

“I knew him by sight. He seemed like an educated, refined man. You’d never guess he was some kind of criminal,” said 75-year-old Hanna Kulyk, who lived in the same apartment block as the attacker.

“He didn’t socialize much with people — just a greeting and he’d be on his way,” she said. “He lived alone.”

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Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dan Bashakov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

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An earlier version of this story was corrected to say the gunman shot bystanders, not the government.

Sánchez, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was hosting a summit of like-minded progressive leaders from around the world Saturday, while Machado extolled Trump's ouster of Nicolás Maduro in January.

Earlier this year, she presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize.

“What happened in the last few hours at the meeting (Sánchez) held in Barcelona with several leaders and political figures from different countries demonstrates why such a meeting was not advisable,” Machado told reporters Saturday.

Machado insisted at an earlier event she will be returning to Venezuela, but declined to say when, or how, and acknowledged the challenges implicit in a return to her country.

Her multistop European tour, during which she met with the leaders of France, Italy and the Netherlands, comes while Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez has continued in her temporary role, exceeding its initial 90-day limit, while the U.S. government has lifted some sanctions against her.

Machado criticized Rodríguez’s government, saying it represented “chaos, violence and terror,” and reiterated her belief in the need for democratic elections in Venezuela. Machado added she did not regret presenting Trump, whose administration has largely sidelined the crusader for democracy, with her Nobel.

She said she was in permanent contact with officials in the Trump administration and trusted Washington's phased process in Venezuela since Maduro's removal.

“There is one leader in the world, one head of state, who has risked the lives of his country’s citizens for the freedom of Venezuela. And that is Donald Trump,” Machado said, referring to the U.S. military operation in January.

The opposition leader drew a huge crowd in the Spanish capital’s Puerta del Sol, standing beside Madrid’s conservative regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who feted her earlier in the day.

Some 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, home to the largest population anywhere outside the Americas. Many fled political persecution and violence, but also the country’s collapsing economy. A majority live in the capital, Madrid.

Ahead of Venezuela's 2024 presidential elections, Machado crisscrossed the country, rallying millions of voters looking to end 25 years of single party rule. When she was barred from the race, a previously unknown former diplomat, Edmundo Gonzalez, replaced her on the ballot. But election officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary.

Machado, revered by millions in Venezuela, went into hiding but vowed to continue fighting until democracy was restored. She reemerged last December to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the first time in more than a decade that she had left Venezuela.

On Saturday, 27-year-old Venezuelan migrant Grehlsy Peñuela said she still placed her hopes for her country in Machado and her eventual return to Caracas.

Peñuela, who held signs with the faces of her two cousins she said remain incarcerated in Caracas as political prisoners, would consider returning to Venezuela only under one condition.

“That the current government completely steps down,” she said.