According to VSP, the safety initiative will span the counties of Allegany, Bath, Botetourt, Franklin, Henry, Highland and Roanoke along 220.

Route 220 is one of the busiest and most accident-prone corridors in Virginia, according to officials.

The Virginia State Police, Alleghany Sheriff’s Office, Bath County Sheriff’s Office, Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office, Roanoke County Police, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Henry County Sheriff’s Office, Highland County Sheriff’s Office, Boones Mill Police Department, Rocky Mount Police Department, and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will be participating in a combined 24-hour project on May 1, 2026.

VSP said officers will focus on speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving and seatbelt violations. The goal is to reduce crashes and increase driver awareness along one of the region’s busiest corridors.

“When you’re on Route 220, every decision behind the wheel matters. Slow down, stay alert, and help us keep this roadway safe,” said Lieutenant Eric King, “Our agencies stand united in prioritizing safety along Route 220. This operation reflects our commitment to proactive enforcement and community protection.”

Motorists are urged to drive responsibly, avoid distractions, and follow the posted speed limits along Route 220.

The trial, which started Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

The trial's outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to humanity's survival.

Those perceived risks are among the reasons that Musk, the world's richest person, cites for filing an August 2024 lawsuit that will now be decided by a jury and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI's CEO, and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company's founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

OpenAI has brushed off Musk's allegations as an unfounded case of sour grapes that's aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk's own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.

Gonzalez Rogers questioned potential jurors Monday about their views on Musk, Altman and artificial intelligence and whether they'd be able to treat the parties fairly. Some jurors said they had negative views of Musk, but most said they would still be able to treat him fairly and focus on the facts of the case.

Trial promises clashing testimony from two tech titans

Musk, who invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017, initially was seeking more than $100 billion in damages.

But any damages now are likely to be much smaller after a series of pre-trial rulings that went against Musk. Musk has since abandoned a bid for damages for himself and instead is seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI's charitable arm. The money would be paid primarily by OpenAI's for-profit operations, and Microsoft, which became the company's biggest investor after Musk cut off his funding.

Musk's lawsuit also seeks Altman's ouster from OpenAI's board. Musk's decision to stop funding the company contributed to a bitter falling out between the former allies. Musk says he was responding to deceptive conduct that OpenAI's board picked up on when it fired Altman as CEO in 2023 before he got his job back days later.

But the trial also carries risks for Musk, who last month was held liable by another jury for defrauding investors during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022. Any damaging details about Musk and his business tactics could be particularly hurtful now because his rocket ship maker, SpaceX, plans to go public this summer in an initial public offering that could make him the world's first trillionaire.

However it turns out, the trial is expected to provide riveting theater, with contrasting testimony from two of technology's most influential and polarizing figures in the 54-year-old Musk and the 41-year-old Altman.

“Part of this is about whether a jury believes the people who will testify and whether they are credible,” Gonzalez Rogers said during a court hearing earlier this year while explaining why she believe the case merited a trial. The judge will make the final decision on the case, with the jury serving in an advisory role.

Evidence has included glimpses of the AI race's early days

Musk, whose estimated fortune stands at about $780 billion, has long been hailed as a visionary for his roles creating digital payment pioneer PayPal, electric automaker Tesla and rocket ship maker SpaceX. But he has also provoked backlashes with his social media commentary, unfulfilled promises about Tesla's self-driving technology and his cost-cutting role last year in President Donald Trump's administration.

Some of Musk's erratic behavior has been tied to allegations of taking hallucinogenic drugs, but Gonzalez Rogers ruled that he can't be asked during the trial about his suspected use of ketamine. But the judge is allowing Musk to be questioned about his attendance at the 2017 Burning Man festival in Nevada, a free-wheeling celebration known for widespread drug use. The judge is also allowing Musk to be questioned about his relationship with former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, the mother of several of his children.

Altman, currently sitting on a roughly $3 billion fortune, didn't emerge in the public consciousness until the late 2022 release of ChatGPT. The tech boom triggered by that conversational chatbot has led some to liken Altman to a 21st-century version of the nuclear bomb inventor, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Although Altman was initially hailed as trailblazer he is now facing blowback amid worries about AI's potential dangers. Earlier this month, the New Yorker magazine published a profile that painted him as an unscrupulous executive. Days later, a 20-year-old man worried about AI's effect on humanity was arrested on attempted murder charges after throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman's San Francisco home.

The dueling testimonies of Altman and Musk are expected to open a window into some of the thinking that helped trigger the AI race, as well as the unraveling of their friendship. The kinship was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.

Details of the bitter break between the two men were captured in a February 2023 email exchange that surfaced as part of the evidence leading up to the trial.

After letting Musk know “you're my hero,” Altman tells him: “I am tremendously thankful for everything you’ve done to help —I don't think OpenAI would have happened without you — and it really (expletive) hurts when you publicly attack OpenAI.”

Musk's response: “I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake.”

It’s the third time in less than two years that a gunman has come uncomfortably close to Trump, renewing the central tension over how to accommodate the public-facing demands of the president's office while minimizing the risk of an attack.

Saturday’s episode, in which a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the Washington hotel ballroom where the president was set to address the White House Correspondents’ Association, comes ahead of Trump’s expected participation in a stretch of large, high-profile events indoors and outdoors in the months ahead. Among them, he’s set to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, oversee the U.S. co-hosting the World Cup and lead rallies meant to galvanize support for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles will hold a meeting this week with officials from the White House operations team, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss security protocol at events with the president, according to a senior White House official. The meeting will examine security steps that were successful on Saturday while “exploring additional options” for future events, said the official, who insisted on anonymity to confirm private discussions.

Separately, a person familiar with the matter said the U.S. Secret Service was already reevaluating its security footing for the upcoming events. The agency’s posture was already elevated due to the extraordinary number of threats facing Trump — including two back-to-back assassination attempts in 2024 — and the realities of recent events such as the U.S.-Iran war.

“I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that is more dangerous,” Trump said of the presidency Saturday night from the White House.

Inside the Secret Service, agents on protective intelligence and threat assessment teams are also reexamining threats made against Trump in recent months. Copycat violence can follow high-profile attacks, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security planning.

The White House and Buckingham Palace said King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit Monday is going ahead as planned. Still, organizing around large-scale events deeper in the future — including the UFC bout on the White House lawn marking Trump’s 80th birthday in June, World Cup matches and the IndyCar race past the White House — could get more complicated.

An inherent tension in presidential protection is exposed

Lawmakers, event attendees and some allies of the president saw fault in the correspondents’ dinner security planning, questioning why someone like the shooter could reserve a room at the hotel to sneak in weapons around the outermost layer of security.

Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman emeritus of the House Homeland Security Committee, said security protocols for Trump and Vice President JD Vance may need altering.

“I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together at something like that,” McCaul told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Kari Lake, a former unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona and Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, complained about not having to show a photo ID to match her ticket to the event when entering the hotel for the correspondents’ dinner. “I can’t believe how lax the security was,” Lake wrote on X.

The Secret Service is charged only with the safety of its protectees, not of the event itself, and the agency immediately celebrated its response, drawing a high-profile endorsement from Trump himself.

“Our multilayered protection works,” director Sean Curran said Saturday.

“Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job,” echoed Trump on Sunday in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Garrett Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die,” wrote in an analysis of the multiple layers of security around Trump during the dinner, “Seems like the system basically working as designed, amid the always necessary trade-offs of security in a free society.”

Retired Secret Service Agent Thomas D. Quinn, who helped pioneer Secret Service counterassault teams, posted on X that “the Secret Service security plan for the WHCD worked and the assailant was stopped.” He continued, “As long as we are a free people in a freedom loving Nation, the Secret Service responsibilities will continue to be immense.”

More security changes ahead

Ronald Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect,” said authorities are likely to consider placing bulletproof glass around where Trump speaks outside and inside — not unlike after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt during the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Attendees, Kessler said, will likely be more thoroughly screened going forward — exacerbating lines at entrances that can already take hours to clear. An example of what might happen came last fall, when Trump attended the men’s final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and triggered massive security lines.

Such events underscore the complicated security questions surrounding presidential protection in a country where citizens expect their leaders to move through public spaces, hold rallies, attend events and appear before crowds.

“Presidents don’t like to have too much protection,” Kessler said. “I think, by their nature, they’re very outgoing. They want to meet people. They don’t want to be accused of being prisoners of the White House. And so, they’ll try to get around some of these improvements.”

Presidents can have love-hate relationships with security details

The Secret Service took over full-time responsibility for protecting the president during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, who came to office after an assassin killed William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt found the constant security presence tiresome, however, and would sometimes slip away for unprotected hikes or horseback rides in Washington’s Rock Creek Park, according to the White House Historical Association.

Security personnel wanted President Ronald Reagan to exit the building where Saturday night’s shooting occurred, the Washington Hilton, through a covered garage in 1981, Kessler said. Reagan’s staff worried the optics would be bad, however, and the president was shot as he left an open-air exit, ultimately surviving.

After shots were fired Saturday, Secret Service agents surrounded Trump, who appeared to slip slightly as he was whisked away. Another team moved Vance so quickly it seemed as if it might haul him out while still seated in a banquet chair.

Trump told “60 Minutes” on Sunday that he “wasn’t making it easy” for the Secret Service by being “a little bit me.”

“I wanted to see what was happening,” the president said Sunday. “And by that time we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem — different kind of a problem — bad one.”

“I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said: ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Lemme see. Wait a minute,’” Trump said. He said he started walking out but: “They said, 'Please go down. Please go down on the floor.′ So I went down, and the first lady went down also.”

Trump repeatedly praised the Secret Service and his detail, and he has pushed the correspondents’ association to reschedule the dinner. He said it would have “even more security.”

“And they’ll have bigger perimeter security,” he said. "It’ll be fine.”

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Mike Balsamo in New York contributed.

Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell.

“I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,” Bryant told a federal magistrate. “I knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.”

Bryant’s admission brings some closure — but also adds complexity — to a knotty case.

Bryant didn’t name the other people with whom he acted. But a jury in 2024 convicted two other men, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, yet a judge subsequently cleared Jordan.

Washington has also challenged his conviction. His lawyer, Susan Kellman, noted Monday that evidence against Bryant included his DNA on a hat at the crime scene and witness testimony that Bryant once claimed he fired the gun himself. Jordan's lawyers declined to comment.

Bryant, 52, is expected to face a sentence somewhere between 15 and 20 years in prison for killing plus unrelated drug and gun charges to which he pleaded guilty earlier. No sentencing date has been set.

He gave a thumbs-up to someone in the audience before leaving court. The person declined to comment afterward, as did Bryant's attorneys.

Prosecutors had no immediate comment.

Mizell handled the turntables in Run-DMC, a pathbreaking trio he formed with friends Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run.

With such 1980s hits as “It’s Tricky,” “My Adidas,” and a version of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” they helped rap climb the ladder from an urban genre into mainstream popularity. Run-DMC was the first rap group with gold- and platinum-selling albums, a Rolling Stone cover, and a video on MTV. The trio was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Mizell also mentored other hip-hop artists, including a young 50 Cent.

At 37, Mizell was gunned down in his studio in the Queens neighborhood where he’d grown up. His October 2002 death followed the late 1990s killings of two other hip-hop greats, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. Authorities struggled with all three cases for years.

Jordan and Washington — Mizell’s godson and old friend, respectively — were arrested in 2020. Prosecutors said the men were bitter about losing out on a piece of a failed cocaine deal that Mizell had tried to line up. Though Run-DMC was known for its anti-drug message, prosecutors and a trial witness said the DJ moonlighted in the cocaine trade in his later years to cover his bills and keep being generous to friends after music money dried up somewhat.

According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell’s aides to get on the ground. Both men denied the allegations. Jordan’s attorneys said he was at his girlfriend’s home when the DJ was shot, and Washington’s lawyers said he had no incentive to kill the famous friend who helped him financially.

Nearly three years after their arrests, prosecutors abruptly brought Bryant into their picture of the killing.

Saying that Bryant’s DNA had been found on a hat in the studio and that he’d been seen entering the building, prosecutors added him to the murder indictment. He was already jailed on the drug and gun case.

Bryant knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial. But unlike them, Bryant had little, if any, connection to Mizell.

Bryant said in court Monday that he was connected with people who were involved in a cocaine deal with the DJ and that he "helped them kill Jason Mizell by helping them gain entry to the recording studio.”

Bryant’s uncle has said his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. But no one else testified that Bryant even entered the studio.

Instead, prosecutors contended that Bryant was enlisted to make his way into the studio building and open a back fire door, allowing Washington and Jordan to walk in without buzzing up and alerting Mizell they were coming.

While neither Jordan’s nor Washington’s DNA was on the cap, then-prosecutor Artie McConnell suggested one of them had accidentally left it behind, and that Bryant had simply touched it at some point beforehand.

The proposal, backed by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West, would impose a one-time, 5% tax on individuals whose net worth exceeds $1 billion and who were living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026. The goal is to generate $100 billion in revenue, which would largely be used to offset federal funding cuts to healthcare for low-income people.

“California’s health is at stake,” said Liz Perlman, executive director of a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major labor union. “Hospitals are closing and people will die. Why? So billionaires can get another tax cut that they don’t need.”

The California Secretary of State still has to verify the signatures and officially place the measure on the ballot. Backers say they collected more than 1.5 million signatures, well over the roughly 875,000 they needed.

If the measure goes before voters in November, it could prompt one of the costliest ballot fights ever and will draw national attention as a litmus test for voter attitudes on raising taxes on the rich. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has already traveled to California to campaign for the idea.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Silicon Valley tech moguls are adamantly opposed. They warn it will drive California's wealthiest residents out of the state. Nearly half of California's personal income tax revenue comes from the top 1% of earners. Some have already purchased properties out of state in case it passes.

“After playing with matches since October the SEIU has succeeded in lighting a ‘Tax the Rich’ wildfire by getting enough signatures,” said David Lesperance, a tax consultant who's advised some of his wealthy clients who left California because of the proposal. “The many billionaire targets of their efforts have already responded by executing fire escape plans by relocating to other states.”

Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax, said the measure was poorly constructed and would deal a huge blow to the state’s budget.

“Enacting a so-called wealth tax in just one state wouldn’t target a small group -- it would impact all 40 million Californians,” he said in a statement. “This proposal trades a short-term revenue bump for long-term losses.”

At least 25 billionaires listed among Forbes magazine’s 2025 rankings of the world’s 500 wealthiest people either lived in California or had some significant ties to the state, based on a review by The Associated Press. But determining whether they were full-time residents or just frequent visitors could turn into a matter of dispute, since many of them own property elsewhere.

The big tax and spending cuts law President Donald Trump signed last year will cut more than $1 trillion nationwide over a decade from Medicaid and federal food assistance.

A shooting at a Washington dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday sparked a last-minute security review of the four-day state visit, intended to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, and the U.S.-U.K. “special relationship.”

Buckingham Palace said the king “is greatly relieved to hear that the president, first lady and all guests have been unharmed.” After a security review, the palace said the trip “will proceed as planned.”

Trump praises the king but derides Starmer

A rift between the U.K. government and Trump over issues including the Iran war had already raised the political stakes for the British monarch's visit.

In recent weeks, Trump has lambasted Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his unwillingness to join U.S. military attacks on Iran, dismissing Britain’s leader as “not Winston Churchill,” the World War II prime minister who coined the phrase “special relationship” for the U.K.-U.S. bond.

It's part of a wider rift between Trump and the United States’ NATO allies, whom he has called “cowards” and “useless” for not joining action against Iran. A leaked Pentagon email suggested the U.S. could reassess support for the U.K.'s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic. Britain and Argentina fought a 1982 war over the islands, also known as the Islas Malvinas.

The president insists the political chill won’t affect the royal visit. Charles “has nothing to do with that,” Trump said in March, meaning NATO.

The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”

He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with first lady Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after Trump returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the Republican president.

The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press. “The president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.”

Trump, meanwhile, told the BBC that the king’s visit could “absolutely” help repair the trans-Atlantic relationship.

“He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes,” the president said.

Some have called for the trip to be canceled

Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history, said the two governments have very different objectives for the trip.

He said that for Charles, the trip is about “reinforcing long-term ties, showcasing the monarchy’s soft power and reminding the world that Britain still carries diplomatic weight.”

For Trump, it’s more about “a media event,” with emphasis on the optics of a visit that resembles a meeting of “two gilded monarchs.”

Some U.K. politicians worry that the trip is fraught with opportunities for embarrassment. Trump’s recent broadsides at Pope Leo XIV have heightened those concerns.

Ed Davey, leader of the U.K. centrist opposition Liberal Democrats party, earlier this month called Trump “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” and implored the government to cancel the trip.

“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Davey said in the House of Commons. “We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”

Starmer defended the visit, saying “the monarchy, through the bonds that it builds, is often able to reach through the decades” and bolster important relationships.

Andrew and Epstein cast a shadow

Raising the stakes is the shadow of the king’s younger brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been stripped of his royal title of Prince Andrew, exiled from public life and put under police investigation over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied committing any crimes.

Epstein victims have urged the king to meet with them and other sexual abuse survivors. It's unlikely he will do so.

Charles has visited the U.S. 19 times, but this is his first state visit to the country since becoming king in 2022. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S.

The king, who is 77 and was diagnosed in early 2024 with an undisclosed form of cancer, will spend four days in the U.S. accompanied by Queen Camilla.

In Washington, the king and queen will have a private tea with the Trumps and attend a garden party and a formal White House state dinner. The president and the king will also have a one-on-one meeting.

The royal couple will also visit the Sept. 11 memorial in New York and attend a 250th birthday block party in Virginia, where Charles will also meet Indigenous leaders involved in nature conservation — a favorite cause of the environmentalist king.

Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up any real political power, the royals remain symbols of soft power, deployed by elected governments to smooth international relationships and send messages about what the U.K. considers important.

A key moment will be the king’s speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. It’s only the second time, after Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, that a U.K. monarch has addressed a joint meeting of both houses.

Elizabeth praised liberalism on that trip, spoke against the idea that “power grows from the barrel of a gun” and praised the “rich ethnic and cultural diversity of both our societies.”

The king’s treasured causes, including the environment and harmony among religious faiths, are in contrast to Trump’s. He's unlikely to accentuate differences, but Allerfeldt said that, in the monarch’s subtle way, the king could use his speech to send a message.

“He does have an unorthodox way of looking at the world, and I think maybe he can actually have something valid to say when he addresses Congress,” Allerfeldt said.

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Jill Lawless reported from London.

OpenAI relied exclusively on Microsoft's investments in cloud computing services to build the technology that helped make ChatGPT a household name. Microsoft, in turn, relied on OpenAI's technology to build its own AI assistant Copilot.

But the partnership has evolved as San Francisco-based OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit, has shifted to a capitalistic enterprise on a path toward an initial public offering on Wall Street and has balanced its reliance on Microsoft with other cloud partners like Amazon, Google and Oracle.

OpenAI said Monday it will continue to pay Microsoft a share of its revenue through 2030.

The two companies said Microsoft remains the primary cloud computing partner for OpenAI, and products made by the AI company will ship first on Microsoft's cloud platform, called Azure, “unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy described it as a “very interesting announcement” in a social media post Monday and said that Amazon will soon be making OpenAI’s models “available directly" on Amazon's AI platform called Bedrock.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors Monday that the new agreement “puts OpenAI on a strong path forward to going public through IPO given its clearer opportunity in the cloud environment while reducing significant barriers from its original partnership with Microsoft.”

Ives said it's also important for Microsoft as it “looks to develop tech independence from OpenAI” in advancing Copilot's capabilities and partnering with other AI providers such as OpenAI rival Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude.

“So far, 38 passengers from the commuter train have been taken to hospitals for further treatment,” Anne Purba, vice president for corporate communications for state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia, said in a statement.

The Argo Bromo Anggrek long-distance train crashed into the rear car of a commuter train that was stopped at Bekasi Timur Station. The car had been designated for women only, a common accommodation to help avoid harassment.

Rescue teams worked to reach five passengers trapped in the damaged car.

All 240 passengers on the Argo Bromo Anggrek train were safe, officials said.

Police were investigating the cause of the accident, Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri told reporters at the scene.

Local television footage and videos on social media showed passengers at the station panicking, while dozens of people rushed to the station for news of family members.

The state-owned railway company apologized to customers.

Accidents are common on Indonesia’s aging railroad network. In January 2024, two trains collided in West Java province, killing at least four people,

In October 2013, a passenger train slammed into a minibus at an unguarded crossing in West Java, killing 13 people. In 2010, a train from Jakarta plowed into the rear of a train that was sitting at a station in Central Java province, killing 36.

Backyard poultry include birds like chicken, ducks, geese, guinea fowl and turkeys. The animals can carry germs, including salmonella, that make people sick.

Illnesses were reported from Feb. 26 to March 31 and include 13 people who were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sick people range in age from 1 to 78, but more than 40% are children younger than 5, the CDC said last week.

Sick people have been reported in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and West Virginia. But more illnesses in more states could be possible, CDC officials added.

Of sick people interviewed, nearly 80% reported contact with backyard poultry. Of people interviewed who owned backyard poultry, more than 90% had obtained the animals since January. People got the poultry from various places, including agricultural retail stores. Health officials are investigating the sources of the animals.

Bacteria from samples from 34 people showed they might be resistant to at least one drug used to treat salmonella infections. Of those, some also showed they might be resistant to four other common antibiotics. Infections that are unable to be treated with antibiotics can result in serious illness or death.

The CDC has investigated multiple salmonella outbreaks involving backyard poultry in recent years. In 2025, an outbreak sickened more than 500 people in 48 states, with 125 people hospitalized and two deaths.

Young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems are most likely to get sick from these germs. The best way to prevent illness is to wash hands after handling poultry, their food or items in their environment. People should avoid kissing or snuggling with backyard birds, the CDC says.

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

Edwards had an MRI exam that confirmed the absence of structural damage, a relief to the Timberwolves after Edwards' injury occurred in the second quarter of their Game 4 victory over the Nuggets. Still, his availability for the second round if they advance will be in question. The team called his status week to week, so Edwards would likely miss at least the beginning of the next series before he's cleared to return.

“With the two injuries we had in one game, it was as positive as you can get it,” guard Mike Conley told reporters after the team's pregame shootaround in Denver. ”Obviously we want him to get healthy. We want him to be recovered as quickly as he can, but his health is No. 1. He knows his body. When his body’s ready, he’s going to fight through it. We know if we can get out of the series, we’ll get him back."

Minnesota, which took a 3-1 lead on Denver in the series into Game 5, lost their other starting guard, Donte DiVincenzo, for the rest of the postseason and much of next season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon he suffered in the opening minutes of Game 4.

Edwards averaged 28.8 points in the regular season, third best in the NBA behind Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He missed 21 games this season, by far the most of his career, mostly to a right knee injury.

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

Members of the National Science Board received an email on Friday sent from the Presidential Personnel Office “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump" stating that their position was “terminated, effective immediately.”

“I wasn’t entirely surprised, to be honest,” said dismissed board member Keivan Stassun in an email. Stassun, who works at Vanderbilt University, added that the decision was “enormously disappointing.”

The National Science Board was created in 1950 to advise the president and Congress on science and engineering policy, approve major funding awards and guide NSF’s future.

It's typically made up of 25 members appointed by the president who serve staggered, six-year terms. The fired scientists hail from academia and industry and specialize in areas including astronomy, math, chemistry and aerospace engineering.

Every member of the current 22-person board was let go, according to terminated member Yolanda Gil. The board had planned to meet in person next week and was finalizing a report on the state of U.S. science, Gil said in an email.

“I think this is one more indication of the sweeping changes that the administration has in mind for the NSF,” said Gil, who works at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California.

Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a statement the move was “a dangerous attack on the institutions and expertise that drive American innovation and discovery."

The Trump administration tried to cut the science foundation's $9 billion budget by more than half last year. Congress maintained NSF's funding, but a similar slash is once again on the table for the coming year.

Without an advisory board in the way this time, Stassun said, such cuts may be easier to execute.

It could “eviscerate investments in fundamental research and in the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers for our nation," Stassun said.

The science foundation's headquarters was also relocated to a smaller building. Last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would be moving into the NSF's former base in Alexandria, Virginia.

The National Science Foundation directed a request for comment to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond for comment.

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

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and sat beside his lawyers in a brief appearance Monday in Washington's federal court.

Besides being charged with attempting to assassinate the Republican president, Allen also faces two firearms charges. He did not enter a plea.

A judge granted a prosecutor's request Monday to keep Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, detained pending additional hearings. One of Allen's lawyers, Tezira Abe, asked for a detention hearing and noted Allen has no criminal record.

“He also is presumed innocent at this time," she said.

The Associated Press called multiple phone numbers listed for Allen and relatives in public records, and there was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door of his home.

Prosecutors have not revealed a motive, but in a message reviewed by the AP that authorities say was sent by Allen to family members minutes before the attack, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” made repeated references to the Republican president without naming him and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Video posted by Trump shows a man, who authorities say was armed with guns and knives, running past a security barricade as Secret Service agents run toward him. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.

Records show Allen is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.

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Associated Press writer Gary Fields contributed to this report.

He devised a unique way to greet NASCAR Nation after the first Cup Series win of his career.

During a daring victory lap that bordered on dangerous, Hocevar piloted his No. 77 Chevrolet while hanging out the window. He enthusiastically slammed the car's roof and saluted the crowd as he rolled down the Talladega Superspeedway frontstretch and performed a burnout.

“I thought, ‘Man, I have really long legs, and I wonder if I can hit the throttle and sit on the door and ride,’” Hocevar said. “I just wanted them to get as loud as possible. I felt like they would if they could see me seeing them. Hopefully, it was cool.”

Based on the cheers, the thousands in attendance loved the celebration.

Led by its new executive management team, NASCAR was just as eager to christen its newest star at the Alabama track known as the biggest party venue on the circuit.

A 23-year-old who embraces the quintessential Gen Z hallmarks of digital outreach and gaming, Hocevar also has an unvarnished and unapologetically aggressive side that has encouraged comparisons with Dale Earnhardt.

Just like “The Intimidator,” NASCAR broadcasters have affixed the Spire Motorsports driver with a nickname — “Hurricane Hocevar” — reflecting his willingness to stir up trouble as he relentlessly chases victories.

The day after being introduced as the first CEO in NASCAR’s 78-year history outside of the founding France family, Steve O’Donnell sat through Hocevar’s first news conference as a Cup Series winner Sunday and gave a thumbs up to the Portage, Michigan, native for “the coolest celebration I’ve ever seen.”

O’Donnell said his main goal is to bring fun back to NASCAR, whose popularity has eroded from a peak driven by charismatic personalities. Coming off a rough year that ended with settling a taxing lawsuit amid difficult testimony by Jim France (who turned over the CEO position to O’Donnell as nephew Ben Kennedy was named COO), NASCAR launched a “Hell Yeah” marketing campaign intended to emphasize its roots in moonshine running and rabble-rousing.

Hocevar seems the relatable star to carry that message while bridging the gap to a 21st-century audience.

“He’s one of those guys we’re going to rely on as a sport,” O’Donnell said on the “Inside the Race” podcast Sunday night after Hocevar’s win. “What we just watched, the excitement and enthusiasm, that emotion is what fans want to see. They want to embrace a guy like Carson Hocevar, who is not only winning but looks like they’re enjoying themselves.”

Hocevar often hangs out in the grandstands and pits during lower-tier races. On Saturday at Talladega, he cheered wildly from the pits as Garrett Mitchell, a popular YouTube automotive influencer known as “Cleetus McFarland,” nearly won an ARCA race.

“A lot of race fans, they probably always dream of racing,” Hocevar said. “Maybe they vicariously get to drive through me. I’m online a lot and in the stands. I’m not playing a character. I’m not acting for anybody.”

Hocevar said the idea for his Talladega celebration came from his win last November in “The 2.4 Hours of LeMullets,” an event at Cleetus McFarland’s Freedom Factory in Bradenton, Florida, that features souped-up Crown Victorias that once were police vehicles.

This isn’t quite the way Earnhardt would have done it, even if the victory lap evoked an iconic image of him leaning out of his cockpit to clean his windshield as the late seven-time champion drove under caution in a 1986 race.

Hocevar said the mimicry was unintentional, and he has resisted attempts to brand him as a successor to any NASCAR superstar.

“There’s no mold for Carson Hocevar,” said Luke Lambert, Hocevar’s crew chief. “Nobody had a focus group to decide what a driver should look like and came up with Carson Hocevar. He is unapologetically himself. I’ve never met anybody that’s exactly like him.”

When he hired Hocevar straight out of the Camping World Truck Series three years ago, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson believed the team had “a star in the making.” Dickerson noted the juxtaposition of Cup champions who can’t stand Hocevar (who has feuded with Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney) with the fans who love him.

“This kid knows how to stand on the gas,” Dickerson said. “He has probably the most irrational confidence of a driver I’ve ever seen.”

The brashness is natural for Hocevar, who enjoys quoting the comedy film “Talladega Nights” while wearing a goofy firesuit designed to make him look like a cowboy with a big belt buckle and jeans. Smiling widely and sporting a black 10-gallon hat, he gleefully relished the thought of his Talladega ride going viral.

“I”m going to be on my phone all night just watching this stuff,” he said.

Team shake-up

A day after Kyle Busch delivered the first top 10 this season for Richard Childress Racing, the team announced a new crew chief for the two-time Cup Series champion.

Taking the reins of the No. 8 Chevrolet starting at Texas Motor Speedway, Andy Street was reassigned from the role of RCR performance director to replace Jim Pohlman, who will move into a leadership position. Pohlman was the crew chief for only 10 races with Busch, who is mired in the worst slump of his two-decade career and ranked 27th in the points standings.

“This move is about putting our people in the best position to succeed,” team owner Richard Childress said in a release. “We have strong talent across this organization, and we’re focused on having each person in the right position to help deliver the results we expect.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer. The existing ceasefire keeps the U.S. and Iran in a fragile standoff over the strait.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Monday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a trip that included two stops in Pakistan, where leaders are scrambling to reignite stalled talks between Tehran and Washington.

Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up oil prices. Here’s what to know if your flight is canceled.

Here is the latest:

Netanyahu says Hezbollah is down to about 10% of its arsenal

Meeting with army commanders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah’s ability to fire into Israel has been sharply degraded, estimating the group retains about 10% of its arsenal. He did not clarify whether that figure refers to the Lebanese militant group’s stockpile from before the current war, or since the Gaza war began back in 2023.

Iran-backed Hezbollah is believed to still have tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones despite decades of efforts by Israel, U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanon’s government to disarm it. Despite Israeli pressure, it’s unclear whether Lebanese authorities have the capacity or political will to disarm Hezbollah.

Netanyahu said Israeli forces’ occupation of parts of southern Lebanon — which he described as a “security zone” — has made northern Israel safer. He said deals brokered with the U.S. and Lebanon gave Israel a “freedom of action” to counter threats inside that country. Beirut has not acknowledged any such right, and Hezbollah says it will keep firing as long as Israel does.

Trump national security team met and discussed Iranian proposal on Strait of Hormuz

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s national security team met Monday and was discussing Iran’s proposal on reopening the key waterway. But she offered no detail on what came of the discussion and how the proposal was being received. She instead said that Trump would address it later.

Israel cancels major holiday gatherings over fears of a Hezbollah attack

Typically, around 100,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews would gather next week on Mount Meron in northern Israel to celebrate the Lag BaOmer holiday.

However, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the large festival will replaced with a smaller symbolic ceremony, citing concerns about the gathering being attacked by Hezbollah. Similar restrictions were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and previous wars.

Mount Meron is only about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the border with Lebanon. People normally light bonfires, dance and have large meals there in honor Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century sage and mystic who is believed to be buried on the mountain.

Across Israel, even in secular areas, people often celebrate Lag BaOmer with barbecues and bonfires in parks and forests.

US and Iranian officials clash during a UN nuclear weapons conference

Officials from the United States and Iran clashed over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions at the opening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review, a dispute almost certain to continue during the four-week meeting.

At issue was the election of Iran as one of 34 vice-presidents of the conference. Iran was a candidate of the Nonaligned Movement, comprising 121 mainly developing countries.

The United States was backed by Australia and the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, France and Germany also expressed “concern.” Russia objected to singling out Iran.

The U.S. representative, whose name was not immediately available, said the Trump administration was “deeply shocked” that a country that has demonstrated “contempt” for the treaty is now a vice-president.

Iran’s Ambassador to the U.N. in Vienna, Reza Najafi, categorically rejected the U.S. statement, calling the allegations “baseless and politically motivated.”

Iran’s top diplomat says the US wants to negotiate because it failed to achieve its war aims

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a Russian state TV reporter on Monday that despite the U.S. being a superpower, its leaders “have achieved none of their goals” in the war against his country.

“That’s why they ask for negotiation,” Iran’s top diplomat said. “We are now considering it.”

Araghchi was in St. Petersburg on Monday, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top officials.

Asked by another reporter about Russia’s support, the minister said only that “Iran and Russia are strategic partners,” and that the two counties “have always supported” each other. “Our cooperation would continue,” Araghchi said.

French FM says international waterways are ‘not for sale’ while blaming the US, Israel and Iran for Hormuz crisis

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on maritime security, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the energy and humanitarian crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz began after “operations launched by the United States and Israel without a clearly set of goal, which were conducted in a manner that flouts international law.”

But Barrot added that Iran now holds responsibility for what it is doing with the critical waterway.

“Straits are the arteries of the world. They are not the property of any individual. They are not for sale, therefore, they cannot be impeded by any obstacles, tolls, nor bribery, neither by Iran, nor by any other party, and under no pretext,” he said.

UN officials and dozens of countries call for immediate action in releasing Iran’s hold over the Strait of Hormuz

In a joint statement led by Bahrain, dozens of countries reiterated their weekslong “call for the urgent and unimpeded opening” of the critical waterway as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran remain stalled.

Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told the Security Council on Monday that given the impasse in the negotiations, the world body should support an emergency framework in the meantime put forth by the International Maritime Organization.

The U.N. chief warned about the consequences of waiting to address the “worst supply chain disruption since COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.”

“These pressures are cascading into empty fuel tanks, empty shelves — and empty plates,” he told the 15-member council. “The humanitarian toll is mounting.”

UK doesn’t support US blockade of Iranian ports, deputy minister says

Stephen Doughty, minister of state for Europe and North America, said that while the U.K. doesn’t support the U.S. blockade, it supports working with the United States and others to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — where he said the Iran is holding “the rest of the world to ransom.”

Maritime traffic must flow safely and unimpeded through the strait, he said, “and that includes no tolls, no security risk and, of course, adherence to the international laws on freedom of navigation.”

Diplomacy is crucial, Doughty told a small group of U.N. reporters ahead of a Security Council meeting Monday on the safety of navigation in the critical waterway, through which around 20% of the world’s crude oil normally passes.

He said de-escalation and a ceasefire are also crucial, stressing that Iran can’t be allowed to block the strait, attack its Gulf neighbors and civilian infrastructure, and develop nuclear weapons.

Rubio says a purported Iranian offer on the Strait of Hormuz is not acceptable

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says a purported offer from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or others.

Speaking in a Monday interview with Fox News, Rubio said Iran has a different view of the strategic waterway than most of the rest of the world.

“What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,” Rubio said.

“That’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll there to 2,521

The ministry added Monday that 7,804 people were wounded since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war started March 2.

Despite a ceasefire that’s been in place since April 17, there have been repeated violations by both sides.

Merz says the American nation ‘is being humiliated’ by the Iranian leadership

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday criticized the U.S. for going into the Iran war without any strategy, saying this also makes it harder to end the conflict.

“The problem with conflicts like these is always the same: it’s not just about getting in; you also have to get out. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan, for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,” the chancellor said while speaking Monday to students in Marsberg in the Sauerland region of Germany.

The lack of U.S. strategy and the fact that the Iranians are stronger than previously thought made it hard to end the conflict now, he said.

“Especially since the Iranians are negotiating very skillfully — or rather, very skillfully not negotiating,” he added. “And then letting the Americans travel to Islamabad, only to send them back without any results. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards.”

Germany, he said, maintains its offer to send minesweepers in order to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting is over.

Pakistan clears transit of third-country goods to Iran

Pakistan has cleared the way for Iran to import goods from third countries through its territory by opening new transit routes.

According to a government notification issued Saturday, six routes have been designated linking ports including Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar with key border crossings in southwestern Balochistan province.

The notification was issued during a visit to Islamabad by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met Pakistani officials for talks amid tensions between the United States and Iran.

The order took immediate effect.

Analysts said Monday the new policy allows cargo bound for Iran to move across Pakistan swiftly without facing delays due to bureaucratic hurdles. They said it could also help Pakistan strengthen its role as a regional transit route and improve connectivity with Iran and beyond the region in future.

Iran turns to the Caspian Sea for food with Persian Gulf routes choked by the US blockade

With the United States trying to squeeze Iran by blockading goods from entering or exiting its ports, food suppliers are rerouting imports via the Caspian Sea to ensure food keeps getting into the country.

The head of the Association of Iran’s Food Industries said Monday that alternative import routes are being “incorporated into the supply chain for essential goods.”

“At present, there is no problem with the country’s food security, but maintaining this situation requires careful planning,” Mohammad Reza Mortazavi said, according to the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

The Caspian is the world’s largest inland body of water and its southern coastline stretches more than 430 miles (700 kilometers) in northern Iran. Iran is a net importer of food staples like grain and cooking oil.

US stocks are mixed as their record-breaking rally slows, while oil prices rise

The U.S. stock market’s record-breaking rally is slowing Monday after uncertainty rose over the weekend about what will happen next in the Iran war, while oil prices are rising.

The S&P 500 edged down by less than 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high driven by strong profit reports from U.S. companies and hopes that the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the economy because of their war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 86 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq was 0.3% lower after setting its own record.

The moves were stronger in the oil market, where prices climbed more than 1.5% as tankers still find the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. That’s keeping crude stuck in the Middle East and away from customers worldwide, including crude produced by Iran that’s being blockaded by the U.S. Navy.

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Israeli military videos show weapons discovered and homes leveled as fighting in Lebanon grinds on

It released videos Monday showing troops operating in Lebanon, including coordinated explosions in unnamed villages, toppling homes it said were infrastructure used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Footage also showed a brigade discovering a cache of rifles and missile launchers stashed in a children’s room, which it said were hidden beneath toys, beds and elsewhere in kids’ rooms.

Despite a ceasefire nominally in place in Lebanon, both Israel and Hezbollah continue to strike each other, while Israeli forces occupy a buffer zone in Lebanon and have been demolishing neighborhoods in towns and villages in that area.

The military says it destroys buildings that were used as outposts by the Iran-backed militant group, but the wide scale of destruction has Lebanese officials and residents increasingly worried that displaced people will have nowhere to return.

Bahrain strips 69 people of citizenship

The island kingdom’s interior ministry said it revoked citizenship rights “of those who expressed sympathy and praise for Iran’s hostile and criminal acts.” It noted the move also applied to the families of individuals accused.

Bahrain is among several countries in the region that tightly controlled information about Iranian strikes during the war, arresting residents and foreigners who filmed them. The Sunni-ruled monarchy, like Iran, has a majority Shiite population and saw pro-Iran demonstrations early in the conflict. Authorities arrested protesters and those who filmed demonstrations en masse, charging dozens with misusing social media, inciting hatred or treason, an offense that can carry the death penalty.

The country is also one of several in the Gulf with laws allowing courts to strip citizenship from people convicted of certain crimes, potentially rendering them stateless. Such measures in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have drawn criticism from rights groups, which say the laws are tools of repression, used to squash and punish dissent.

For ships stuck in the Gulf, crew changes are difficult

Fleet Management Limited usually communicates multiple times a day with dozens of stranded ships that are staffed by more than 400 seafarers, its CEO Capt. Rajalingam Subramaniam said.

Stock checks are regularly maintained for food supply, and pickups have been arranged to ensure availability by moving vessels to the nearest points where they can pick up fresh and dry provisions, he said.

Some crew changes were still happening, but in limited numbers. “Who wants to go on the ship?” Subramaniam said. “The inbound crew has the right to refuse and we respect (that).”

Most of the stranded mariners have been in the Gulf since the war began. “(For) mariners who did not sign up to be in warlike area, they also (need) to be respected so that they do not become the unintended collateral,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

The meeting happened Monday in Saint Petersburg, Russian state news agency Tass said.

Putin praised the Iranian people as bravely fighting for their sovereignty and said Russia would do everything possible in the interest of Iran and other countries in the region to bring peace to the Middle East, Tass reported.

Tired and worried, seafarers have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for weeks

Around 20,000 seafarers on hundreds of vessels, including oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Gulf, unable to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Normally about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transits the waterway.

Roughly 80 vessels passed through the strait in the week of April 13-19, according to the maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, compared to approximately 130 or more transits per day before the war. Dozens of ships have come under attack since the war started, and the U.N. says at least 10 seafarers were killed.

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump last week extended the ceasefire indefinitely, the U.S. kept the blockade of Iranian ports. In response, Iran fired on ships in the strait and seized two.

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Israel and Iran spent less on defense in 2025 than 2024, tracker says

Military spending in the Middle East plateaued in 2025, even as it climbed in other parts of the world, according to a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The think tank, which goes by the acronym SIPRI, said regionwide spending increased 0.1% but actually fell in both Israel and Iran.

Israel’s military spending fell 4.9% to $48.3 billion, reflecting a less intense year of fighting than in 2024 after it entered ceasefires in Lebanon in November 2024 and in Gaza in October 2025. Even as large-scale combat subsided, Israel continued carrying out lethal strikes and maintained a ground presence in both. Spending remains sharply elevated — up 97% compared with 2022 — and the war has strained public finances, with Israel reporting wider deficits and increased borrowing since it began.

Iran’s spending fell 5.6% to $7.4 billion. SIPRI attributed that to inflation and broader economic strain, though researchers warned that government reports are likely understated.

“Iran also uses off-budget oil revenues to finance its military, including the production of missiles and drones,” SIPRI researcher Zubaida Karim said.

Lebanon president blasts Hezbollah for rejecting talks

Lebanon President Joseph Aoun blasted militant group Hezbollah on Monday over its rejection of direct talks with Israel.

Lebanon’s decision to hold negotiations with Israel is not “treason,” Aoun said in a statement, adding that treason is when “someone takes the country to war to achieve foreign interests.”

Harshly criticizing Hezbollah without naming it, Aoun asked whether there was a “national accord” when the Iran-backed group took Lebanon to war last month.

Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The fighting has killed over 2,500 people, wounded more than 7,000 and displaced over 1 million people.

Aoun asked how long people in south Lebanon will pay for the wars of other nations or groups, “the latest of which was the war for backing up Gaza and the war for backing up Iran.”

“I totally reject this war” when the goal is to benefit others, he said.

Aoun said he wants to end the state of war with Israel in the manner of the 1949 Armistice Agreements that brought calm along the border for years without normalizing relations.

“Was the armistice agreement humiliation? I will not accept reaching a humiliating deal,” Aoun said.

French airline Transavia cancels flights over fuel costs

Transavia France said late Sunday it is canceling some flights in May and June because of rising fuel costs.

The low-cost airline, part of the Air France-KLM group, said in a statement “the current geopolitical context in the Middle East and its repercussions on the price of aviation fuel” forced the cancellations.

French media reported the cancellations represented less than 2% of the company’s May and June flight program.

Transavia said affected passengers would be able to choose between a voucher, full refund or free rebooking, which will be offered within 24 hours for the majority of canceled flights.

China opposes US sanction on oil refinery

China said Monday it opposed a decision by the United States to sanction one of its refineries for purchasing Iranian crude oil shipments.

The U.S. announced Friday it would sanction Hengli Petrochemicals in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian.

The measure blocks the company and others that transport Iranian oil from accessing the U.S. financial system.

Hengli Petrochemicals is among dozens of Chinese buyers of Iran’s oil. China is Iran’s largest overall oil customer.

“China always opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that lack a basis in international law and urges the U.S. to stop its wrong practices of abusing sanctions and exercising long-arm jurisdiction,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“We will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Lin said.

World’s largest condom company raising prices due to strait closure

Karex, the world’s largest manufacturer of condoms, said it has raised prices by up to 30% to cope with escalating costs due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is a vital channel for petrochemical supplies.

CEO Goh Miah Kiat said the company has little choice but to pass higher costs to customers for condoms, personal lubricants, probe covers and catheters as raw materials, logistics and production expenses surge.

Karex produces 5 billion condoms annually, or about a fifth of global market share, with its biggest market in the United States, according to company data.

The Malaysian firm believes demand will rise at least 30% this year as “people use more condoms during periods of economic uncertainty,” Goh said.

Karex faces rising costs for nitrile latex, silicone oil and lubricant materials, natural rubber latex and aluminum foil packaging, Goh said, adding that freight costs and supplier delays have forced Karex to hold larger inventories of key materials.

Iran offers proposal to US to reopen Strait of Hormuz without nuclear agreement

Iran is offering to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, two regional officials with knowledge of the proposal said Monday.

Iran also wants the United States to end its blockade of the country as part of its proposal, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

The new proposal, passed onto the U.S. by Pakistan, is not likely to receive the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants to end Iran’s atomic program as part of an overall deal including the Strait of Hormuz to make the ceasefire permanent.

“We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us,” Trump told Fox News Channel on Sunday.

Axios first reported Iran’s proposal.

— By Samy Magdy

Iran’s foreign minister says Russia trip an opportunity to coordinate after war

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that his trip to Russia offered an opportunity to coordinate with Moscow after the war with Israel and the United States.

Araghchi made the comments in a pretaped interview posted by the state-run IRNA news agency.

“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” he said.

Araghchi said it was America’s approach that “caused the negotiations to be delayed” that had been planned in Islamabad.

“The previous one, despite the progress that had been made, could not achieve its goals,” he said, blaming what he called Washington’s “excessive demands.”

Trump has questioned who is in charge in Iran at the moment and said confusion within its theocracy made it difficult to reach a deal.

Iran’s foreign minister arrives in Russia

Iran’s top diplomat arrived Monday in Russia ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The state-run IRNA news agency said Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg for his meeting with Putin.

Araghchi has visited Islamabad twice and Muscat, Oman, on the foreign trip as negotiations with the U.S. appear stalled over the Iran war.

The justices heard nearly two hours of arguments in an appeal from Okello Chatrie, who pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia.

Chatrie eluded the police until they turned to the geofence warrant, a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them to locate cellphones that were near the bank around the time it was robbed in May 2019.

The justices did not appear to embrace arguments offered by Adam Unikowsky, Chatrie's lawyer, that geofence warrants are too general to comply with the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the warrant that led to Chatrie's identification as a suspect did not seem to be general. “This isn't that. It identifies a place, a crime, a timeframe,” Sotomayor said.

The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld Chatrie's conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

The case is the court's latest contemplation of how a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 applies to technology the nation’s founders count not have envisioned.

The justices seemed eager to avoid a broad ruling. They could limit the time and geographic area covered by such warrants, and they might even decline to say whether what police did in Chatrie's case even amounted to a search that requires a warrant.

Instead the court might rule that, assuming a warrant is required, police can constitutionally conduct geofence searches.

A ruling for Chatrie, who is serving a prison term of nearly 12 years, might not ultimately help him. Even the federal judge who ruled that the search violated Chatrie’s rights allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, coming off its latest all-time high driven by strong profit reports from U.S. companies and hopes that the global economy can avoid a worst-case scenario because of the war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 80 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:58 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq rose 0.1% above its own record.

The moves were stronger in the oil market, where prices climbed roughly 3% as tankers still find the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. That’s keeping crude stuck in the Middle East and away from customers worldwide, including oil produced by Iran that’s being blockaded by the U.S. Navy.

Iran has offered to reopen the strait if the United States ends its blockade, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear program would come in a later phase. But U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan.

Over the weekend, Trump told U.S. envoys not to go to Pakistan, which has been playing a crucial mediating role. By saying the Iranians could call Washington with any proposal, Trump appeared to signal he’s content to try to continue to squeeze Iran with the blockade.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude to be delivered in June climbed 3.2% to $108.73. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the oil market, rose 2.9% to $101.99 per barrel.

Brent prices were at only about $70 per barrel before the war and have briefly shot to nearly $120 a couple times when fears about the war have hit their heights.

Most big U.S. companies have nevertheless been reporting profits for the start of 2026 that have topped analysts’ expectations. That’s helped the S&P 500 jump nearly 13% since hitting a low in late March.

Verizon Communications joined the list, and its stock climbed 3% after the company said it added more postpaid phone customers than it lost during a first quarter for the first time since 2013. It also raised its forecast for profit growth this year, even though its revenue for the first quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Domino’s Pizza helped drag on the market and fell 9.5% after it reported weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Several of Wall Street’s most influential stocks are scheduled to deliver their own profit reports this week, including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft all on Wednesday. Apple will report on Thursday.

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher with the rise in oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.34% from 4.31% late Friday.

The Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on interest rates Wednesday, and the consensus expectation among traders is that it will hold rates steady. Lower rates would give the economy a boost, but they would also threaten to worsen inflation when oil prices are in flux and tariffs are also threatening to raise prices for all kinds of products.

Wednesday will likely be the final meeting where Chair Jerome Powell will lead the Fed. His term as chair is scheduled to expire next month, and Trump has already named a nominee for his replacement, Kevin Warsh.

The European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England will also be announcing their own interest-rate decisions this week.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slipped in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.2%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.4% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

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

The strikes were the first violent incident since Chinese-mediated peace talks between the two sides earlier this month.

Pakistan and Afghanistan had been embroiled in months of deadly fighting that has killed hundreds of people since late February, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan. Islamabad had declared it was in open war with Afghanistan, in an escalation of violence that alarmed the international community.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting dismissed Afghan media reports and official statements about the strikes on the university as “a blatant lie.”

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants that carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. The group is separate from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.

Afghan and Pakistani officials met in Urumqi in western China in early April, and had agreed not to escalate their conflict and “explore a comprehensive solution,” China’s government had said after mediating the talks.

Monday’s strikes marked the first major attack since the talks, highlighting the tenuous nature of peace efforts mediated by the international community. Apart from China, other nations that have been involved in mediation between the two sides at various times include Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The fighting largely subsided in March, after the two sides declared a temporary truce for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The truce followed a deadly Pakistani airstrike on March 17 on a drug treatment facility in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that Afghanistan said killed more than 400 civilians. Pakistan denied targeting civilian facilities and disputed the death toll.

Still, sporadic cross-border fighting had continued even while delegations from the two sides were attending the talks in Urumqi.

Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Monday’s mortar and missile attack struck the city of Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, as well as various areas in another district in the province on Monday afternoon.

Kunar Information and Culture Director Najibullah Hanafi said the death toll stood at seven, with 85 people wounded.

Fitrat said the wounded included women, children and students at the Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University, and described the attacks as "an unforgivable war crime, barbarity, and provocative act.”

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education said about 30 students and professors were injured in the strike on the university, which it said had caused extensive damage to the facility’s buildings and grounds.

In a statement, Pakistan's information ministry said that “Pakistan’s targeting is precise and intelligence based. No strike has been carried out on Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan University. The claims are frivolous and fake.”

On Saturday, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqi described the recent negotiations in China as “positive.”

“You are all aware of our recent problems with Pakistan. The latest negotiations were held in Urumqi under the mediation of China, and these negotiations were positive,” he said during a graduation ceremony at the foreign ministry’s Diplomacy Institute.

The issues between the two countries “are very sensitive between neighbors and between two Islamic neighboring countries and should not be treated irresponsibly,” he added.

Earlier this month, the United Nations’ office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in Afghanistan said the conflict had displaced 94,000 people overall.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

Ross died at home Sunday, according to the singer's daughter, Nedra K. Ross, and the Ronettes' official Instagram account. “Nedra’s voice, style and spirit helped define a sound that would change music. Her contribution to the group’s story and their defining influence will live forever,” a statement read.

The Ronettes’ sexy look and powerful voices — plus songwriting and producing help from Phil Spector — turned them into one of the premier acts of the girl-group era, touring England with The Rolling Stones and befriending the Beatles.

“Show business is a thing that can be great, but it can be bad, too,” Ross said during her acceptance speech to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. “For us, we had a family that gave us a core to help stabilize us in a very difficult crazy world. It was a fun time. I thank God truly for it.”

Ross, born and raised in New York City, together with sisters Veronica “Ronnie” and Estelle Bennett, released their debut album in 1964, “Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes, Featuring Veronica.” Five of its 12 tracks had made it to the U.S. Billboard charts, and it was listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. It was the only studio album for the trio.

They also did a memorable version of “Sleigh Ride” that appeared on Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You” album and was recently highlighted in the “Roofman” soundtrack and on “The Bear.” But their string of hits had tailed off by the time they split around 1967.

In March 1963, Estelle Bennett managed to arrange an audition in front of Phil Spector, known for his big, brass-and-drum style dubbed the “wall of sound.” They were signed to Philles Records in 1963. After being signed, they sang backup for other acts until Spector had the group record “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You.”

Martin Scorsese used “Be My Baby” to open his 1973 film “Mean Streets,” and the song appears in the title sequence of “Dirty Dancing” and the closing credits of “Baby Mama.” It also appeared on TV in everything from “Moonlighting” and “The Wonder Years” to “How I Met Your Mother” and “Money Heist.”

When the Ronettes were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones remembered opening for the trio in England in the mid-1960s. “They could sing all their way right through a wall of sound,” Richards said. “They didn’t need anything. They touched my heart right there and then and they touch it still.”

After the Ronettes disbanded, Ross turned to Christian music, including the album “Full Circle” in 1978. Ross was married to DJ and television personality Scott Ross from 1967 until his death in 2023.

For nearly 15 years, the women waged a lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, court battle with Spector over royalties. A judge ordered Spector to pay $2.6 million in past royalties and interest, but New York State’s highest court threw out that ruling on appeal in 2002.

Ronnie Spector died at 78 in 2022. Bennett died at 67 in 2009. Ross is survived by four children.

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s national security team met Monday and was discussing Iran’s proposal. But she offered no detail about the discussion or how the proposal was received. She said Trump would address it later.

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.

Renewed demands to end blockade

Frustration among many nations is mounting, with renewed demands Monday to end the blockade that has had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, including raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.

The Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country's nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

The two officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. Iran's proposal was first reported by the Axios news outlet.

The offer emerged as Iran’s foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It’s unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.

Iran’s ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began, and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Gulf, unable to safely pass through the strait to reach global distribution points.

On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $109 per barrel, about 50% higher than when the war began.

Dozens of nations push for reopening of strait

Dozens of nations repeated calls to open the critical waterway in a joint statement led by Bahrain.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Monday that the humanitarian toll is mounting.

“These pressures are cascading into empty fuel tanks, empty shelves — and empty plates,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. for going into the war with what he said was no strategy. “The problem with conflicts like these is always the same: It’s not just about getting in. You also have to get out,” Merz said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot blasted all sides. He said the crisis began after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran without clear goals "in a manner that flouts international law.”

But he said Iran is responsible for closing the passageway. “Straits are the arteries of the world. They are not the property of any individual. They are not for sale, therefore, they cannot be impeded by any obstacles, tolls, nor bribery,” he said.

Top Iranian diplomat meets Putin in Russia

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the U.S. and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russian state news agency Tass said. Putin praised the Iranian people as “bravely and heroically fighting for their sovereignty,” and he said Russia would do everything possible to bring peace to the Middle East, Tass reported.

Araghchi told a Russian state TV reporter that the U.S. and its leaders “have achieved none of their goals” in the war. “That’s why they ask for negotiation,” he said. “We are now considering it.”

Iran’s top diplomat said Iran and Russia “are strategic partners” and that their “cooperation would continue.”

The meeting came as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the U.S., and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.

Iran wants to persuade Oman, which shares the strait with Iran, to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Oman’s response was not immediately clear.

The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the U.S. blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.

Trump says Iran offered a ‘much better’ proposal

Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.

He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.” Iran insists its program is peaceful, but the U.S. wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,521 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Despite the truce, both sides continue to strike each other.

Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

During these events, Spanberger is expected to highlight her Affordable Virginia Agenda, a package of bills focused on addressing housing, health care and energy costs. The agenda was first introduced by the governor and the General Assembly in December.

At 1:30 p.m., Spanberger will sign a series of education bills at the Roanoke Higher Education Center alongside state, local and education leaders. The legislation is intended to expand apprenticeship opportunities for high school students, increase the number of instructors qualified to teach career and technical education courses, and make the Roanoke Community Builders Pilot Program permanent.

Spanberger will be joined by Sen. David Suetterlein, Sen. Christopher Head, Del. Sam Rasoul, Del. Lily Franklin, Del. Ellen McLaughlin, Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb, Roanoke Superintendent Dr. Verletta White, and Roanoke College President Frank Shushok.

The new districts, which could net Democrats four additional seats, won narrow voter approval last week. But a Republican legal challenge contends the General Assembly violated procedural rules by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week's statewide vote meaningless.

The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November midterm election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House.

President Donald Trump kicked off a tit-for-tat round of gerrymandering last summer when he urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia's new map.

Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed a congressional redistricting plan that could essentially cancel out Virginia's changes by giving Republicans an improved chance of winning additional seats. The redistricting is on the agenda for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.

Virginia arguments focus on what counts as an 'election'

During Monday's arguments, the Virginia Supreme Court focused on whether the new congressional districts should be invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers. The justices issued no immediate ruling.

Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.

The legislature's first vote occurred last October — while early voting was underway but before it concluded on the day of the general election. Judicial questioning focused on whether that was too late, because early voting already had begun.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the legislature, argued that the “election” should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, the legislature's first vote on the redistricting amendment occurred before the election and was constitutional, he told judges.

But an attorney arguing for the plaintiffs, Thomas McCarthy, said “election” means the entire period during which people can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If that's the case, then the legislature's initial endorsement of the redistricting amendment came too late to comply with the state constitution, he said.

Attorneys argue over the rights of voters

The purpose of Virginia's two-step amendment process, with an intervening election, is so voters can know whether legislative candidates support or oppose a proposed constitutional amendment, McCarthy said.

He pointed to the case of Democratic voter Camilla Simon, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit alongside Republican state lawmakers, who cast an early vote last fall for Democratic Del. Rodney Willett. After she voted, Willett sponsored the Democratic redistricting amendment, and Simon wished she could have undone her vote, McCarthy said.

“None of these voters had any idea this was coming, and that’s not how this process is supposed to work,” McCarthy told the justices.

Those defending the Democratic redistricting plan also contend that the voters' will should be respected.

The people voted to ratify the constitutional amendment, “and the challengers are asking to overturn that democratic result,” Seligman told reporters after the arguments.

Nationwide redistricting battle has no clear winner so far

So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw in the states that have redrawn their congressional maps for this year's midterms.

Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts, which won voter approval last Tuesday, could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.

Some candidates already have begun campaigning based on the new districts in advance of the state's Aug. 4 primary election.

More court battles could remain in Virginia

In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.

The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley's order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case.

During Monday's arguments, justices also raised questions about the ability of lawmakers to expand the agenda for their special session and whether the three-month public notice requirement was important enough to thwart a voter-approved amendment.

Republicans have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding their way through the courts.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in Richmond and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

During an emotional hearing in a Queens courtroom packed by uniformed police officers and Officer Jonathan Diller’s family, the judge said Guy Rivera “most certainly will” die in a prison cell.

“Your sentence to me was determined the second you pulled that trigger,” Judge Michael Aloise told Rivera. “It took me five minutes to calculate the numbers. It’s going to take you a lifetime to calculate the damage you caused.”

A jury found Rivera guilty earlier this month of aggravated manslaughter and other charges in Diller's killing, but acquitted the 36-year-old Queens resident of murder.

The shooting happened on March 25, 2024, when Diller and other officers were on patrol in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. Authorities say one of the officers spotted a suspicious object bulging from Rivera’s hoodie as he and another man walked to a parked car and got in.

Police say the officers were questioning the driver when Rivera, who was in the passenger’s seat, suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Diller. The bullet struck the officer below his bulletproof vest, mortally wounding him. Another officer then shot and wounded Rivera.

At the time, Diller was the first NYPD officer to be killed in the line of duty in two years. The 31-year-old’s wake and funeral in his hometown on Long Island drew thousands of people, including President Donald Trump, and the case briefly became a focal point during his 2024 campaign to reclaim the White House on a message of “law and order.”

The Republican president hailed Diller an “unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer” in a March 2025 speech to a joint session of Congress.

Prosecutors had argued that Rivera was deserving of life behind bars because he was a “persistent felon” with prior criminal convictions who had made a “calculated, deliberate and evil choice” to inflict violence.

“This was not an accident,” Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Zawistowski said. “We ask that you honor Jonathan’s life. We ask that you honor his sacrifice."

Rivera's lawyer, Jamal Johnson, argued, as he did during the three-week trial, that Rivera was “not a murderer” because he did not intend to kill Diller.

He maintained the gun accidentally discharged as officers pulled the firearm from Rivera’s pocket. He pleaded with the judge not to issue a “sensational” sentence and complained that Rivera did not receive a fair trial.

Johnson, in a statement after the court hearing, said he intended to appeal his client's conviction.

“The fact that the court stated it had already made up its mind about sentencing well before the trial was conducted reveals the bias and uphill battle the defense faced throughout this case,” he said.

The second suspect, Lindy Jones, is due back in court Tuesday as he awaits trial on weapons charges.

On Monday, Rivera declined to address the court but members of Diller's family delivered tearful remarks.

Stephanie Diller, the officer's wife, said she and the couple's young son had been given a life sentence without their husband and father, so Rivera should also be given one.

“You took my husband and the life we were building,” she said speaking directly to Rivera through tears. “In a single moment, everything that was my life was gone.”

Fran Diller, the officer's mother, said she is haunted by her son's death every day.

“He had a future so incredibly bright,” she said. “My world has been completely shattered. Everything feels empty without him. All I feel is unbearable ache."

Patrick Hendry, president of the police officers’ union, said after the hearing that the manslaughter verdict “did not send the right message” to police officers but that the sentence had.

“He should never ever walk the streets again, and he won't,” Hendry said of Rivera.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

Texas Tech and Sorsby announced the move in a statement released on Monday.

The school said it is “committed to supporting Brendan through his recovery process and to ensure his long-term health and well-being.”

Sorsby was one of the biggest names in this year’s transfer portal. He transferred from Cincinnati, which then announced on Feb. 26 it would sue the quarterback for breaching his name, image and likeness contract.

According to the lawsuit, Sorsby signed an NIL agreement in July 2025 covering the 2025 and ’26 seasons and that there would be a $1 million buyout if he transferred, payable within 30 days. Sorsby announced on Dec. 15 that he was entering the transfer portal and announced on Jan. 4 that he would play for Texas Tech.

Sorsby received the most lucrative deal of the portal period — a reported $5 million — to return to his home state for his final season.

It was not immediately known how Monday’s announcement could impact Sorsby’s availability for the season.

“We love Brendan and support his decision to seek professional help,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said in a statement released by the school. “Taking this step requires courage, and our primary focus is on him as a person. Our program is behind Brendan as he prioritizes his health.”

In the statement, Texas Tech said its “primary focus remains on fostering an environment where student-athletes feel empowered to prioritize their mental health and seek professional assistance.”

The school said it would have no further comment on Sorsby’s status “to protect the integrity of the recovery process.”

Sorsby began his career at Indiana before transferring to Cincinnati. In 35 career games, including 31 starts, he has passed for 7,208 yards and 60 touchdowns, along with 1,295 rushing yards and 22 TDs.

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The digital portrait represents a man who was among two victims discovered as they attempted to flee the city toward the coast of what is now Italy during the volcanic eruption. Researchers believe the man died earlier in the disaster, during a heavy fall of volcanic debris.

The reconstruction was developed by the Pompeii Archaeological Park in collaboration with the University of Padua and is based on archaeological survey data from excavations near the Porta Stabia necropolis, just outside the walls of the ancient city.

Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage site near Naples, was buried under ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, preserving the city and the remains of thousands of its inhabitants in remarkable detail.

Archaeologists found the man holding a terracotta mortar, which they interpreted as an improvised attempt to shield his head from falling small volcanic stones that rained down during the eruption.

Ancient accounts — including those of Roman writer Pliny the Younger — describe Pompeii's residents using objects to protect themselves as ash and debris blanketed the city.

The man was also carrying an oil lamp, a small iron ring and 10 bronze coins, personal objects that offer insight into his final moments as well as into daily life in Pompeii before the catastrophe.

The digital portrait was created using AI and photo-editing techniques designed to translate skeletal and archaeological data into a realistic human likeness.

“The vastness of archaeological data is now such that only with the help of artificial intelligence will we be able to adequately protect and enhance them. If used well, AI can contribute to a renewal of classical studies,” Pompeii park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said in a statement.

The project aims to make archaeological research more accessible and emotionally engaging for the public while maintaining a scientific foundation, researchers said.

The activists, all of whom were Kazakh nationals, protested near the border with China in November, burning Chinese flags and portraits of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and calling for the release of a Kazakh citizen detained in Xinjiang last year.

Eleven activists were sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting discord,” while the other eight were given restrictions on their movement. Shinquat Baizhan, a lawyer representing the activists, confirmed the sentences, which were also reported in local media.

Though Kazakhs speaking out against China’s policies in Xinjiang have long faced pressure, advocacy groups say this is the first time such a large group of Xinjiang activists has been imprisoned in the country.

“This is unprecedented,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It signals that Kazakhstan is willing to sacrifice freedom of its people to maintain good relations with Beijing.”

The Chinese government launched a brutal crackdown in Xinjiang starting in 2017, sweeping a million or more Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other predominantly Muslim ethnicities into prisons and internment camps. Though many have since been released, the region remains under tight control, with strict limitations on religious and cultural practices.

Xinjiang has long been a touchy issue in neighboring Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of 20 million people that relies on China as a major trading partner. The Kazakh government opened criminal investigations targeting the protesters after receiving a diplomatic note from the Chinese consulate in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, Uluyol said.

The note, which The Associated Press obtained and reviewed, called the protest “an open provocation against the national dignity of the People’s Republic of China and an insult to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese leader.”

In a statement, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the sentencing an “internal affair” and praised Kazakhstan as a “friendly neighbor” that is “familiar with China’s policies on governing Xinjiang."

The Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

The protesters were members of Atajurt, an organization that advocates for the rights of Chinese-born Kazakhs facing repression in China. Xinjiang is home to over a million ethnic Kazakhs, thousands of whom were detained and many more who face restrictions on their movement to this day.

Atajurt has long faced pressure from the Kazakh government, an authoritarian state with little tolerance for dissent. Authorities arrested Atajurt’s founder Serikzhan Bilash in 2019, releasing him into exile after extracting a promise not to engage in political activities.

But the Kazakh government remained tolerant of the organization’s activities to a certain extent, mindful of widespread sympathy in Kazakhstan toward the Chinese-born Kazakh population,

That appears to have changed, Uluyol said, as Kazakhstan has edged closer to China and authorities in Kazakhstan show less tolerance for groups protesting Beijing's policies.

Bilash, Atajurt’s founder, says the arrests would have widespread ramifications. The group's work included providing financial support for the relatives of people who were detained in Xinjiang, writing letters supporting them to embassies and the United Nations, and taping hundreds of testimonies by people looking for missing loved ones.

“The world will lose more than just a human rights organization; it will lose the biggest window into the humanitarian disaster in neighboring Xinjiang,” said Bilash, who is now living in exile in the United States.

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This story has been corrected to show that the Chinese diplomatic note said that the protest was an insult to the “Chinese leader," not the “Chinese people."

In a one-line statement, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top planning agency, said it was prohibiting the foreign acquisition of Manus and had required all the parties to withdraw from the deal. It did not specifically name Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

Manus, which has Chinese roots but is based in Singapore, provides a general-purpose AI agent that can autonomously carry out sophisticated tasks like coding an app, doing market research or preparing quarterly budgets.

The decision was made by the commission’s Office of the Working Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, the statement said. It came after Chinese authorities said they were looking into the deal earlier this year.

The commission did not elaborate on the reasons for the ban. The announcement came less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump's planned visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in May.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, on Monday said in a statement that the Trump administration “will continue defending America’s leading and innovative technology sector against undue foreign interference of any sort.”

Meta announced in December that it was acquiring Manus, in a rare case of a major U.S. tech group buying an AI company with strong links to China. Its deal with Manus was expected to help expand AI offerings across Meta’s platforms.

Meta had said there would be “no continuing Chinese ownership interests in Manus” and that Manus would discontinue its services and operations in China. But China said in January that it would investigate whether the acquisition would be consistent with its laws and regulations.

China’s commerce ministry said at the time that any enterprises engaging in outward investment, technology exports, data transfers and cross-border acquisitions must comply with Chinese law. Meta had said most of Manus’ employees were based in Singapore.

Before the deal, Manus’ parent was Singapore-based Butterfly Effect Pte, but the AI startup traces its roots back to Beijing-registered entities with similar names that were established several years earlier.

Manus did not respond to a request for comment. Its website says the company “is now part of Meta," indicating that the deal had already been completed.

Meta said on Monday that the Manus transaction “complied fully with applicable law.”

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” the California-based company said in a statement.

Analysts said the decision is a sign that China’s communist leaders are tightening scrutiny of the AI industry amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry with the U.S. over the technology.

“China is showing the world that it is willing to play hardball when it comes to AI talents and capabilities, which the country views as a core national security asset,” said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia. “It is strongly indicative of what Chinese authorities may do going forward regarding acquisitions involving Chinese deep-tech companies.”

Beijing’s acquisition ban could deter similar acquisition plans by U.S. tech giants going forward, he said. “In the context of rivalry, it mirrors U.S. export controls, entity lists, and investment curbs on China,” said Su.

Meta’s interest in Manus reflects a broader tech industry race to lead in the development of AI agents that can go beyond a chatbot’s capabilities to take computer-based actions on people’s behalf.

Meta last month acquired Moltbook after it attracted viral attention as a social network built for AI agents to make posts and interact with each other. That was after OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, hired the creator of AI agent OpenClaw, formerly called Moltbot and the technology upon which Moltbook was built.

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Chan reported from London. AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, and writer Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.

Rapid development has been shrinking the jungle habitat of the critically endangered species, and fatal conflicts with people have been increasing.

The fleeting scene, captured by a motion‑sensitive camera, showed a young Sumatran orangutan pause at the forest’s edge, grip a rope with deliberate care and step out into open air. Halfway across, it stopped, casting a glance down at the road below. Moments later, it crossed.

Conservationists said that it marks the first documented case of an Sumatra orangutan using an artificial canopy bridge to cross a public road that had divided its habitat.

“This was the moment we had been waiting for,” Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of Indonesian conservation group Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, or TaHuKah, told The Associated Press. “We are very grateful that the canopy here provides benefits for orangutan conservation efforts."

He said that the bridge spans the Lagan–Pagindar road in Pakpak Bharat district, a vital corridor connecting remote villages to schools, healthcare and government services. But the road also cuts directly through prime orangutan habitat, splitting an estimated 350 orangutans into two isolated forest areas: the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve and the Sikulaping Protection Forest.

When the road was upgraded in 2024, the gap in the forest canopy widened, eliminating natural crossings for tree‑dwelling wildlife.

“Development was necessary for people,” Siregar said. “But without intervention, it would have left orangutans trapped on either side.”

TaHuKah, working with the Sumatran Orangutan Society, or SOS, and local and national government agencies, proposed a simple solution: rope bridges suspended between trees, allowing arboreal animals to cross above traffic.

Five canopy bridges were installed each with a camera trap, carefully positioned after surveys of orangutan nests, forest cover and animal movement. The structures were designed to support the orangutan’s weight — no small feat for the world’s largest tree‑dwelling mammal.

The program is closely monitored, with camera traps on every bridge and regular patrols to prevent forest encroachment. Conservationists hope more orangutans will follow the first pioneer.

They waited two years for the first orangutan to cross the bridge. Before the accomplishment, only smaller animals used it. Camera traps recorded squirrels, langur monkeys and macaques, followed by gibbons — a promising sign.

The orangutan’s approach was slower, building nests near the bridge, lingering at its edges and testing the ropes over time.

“They observe,” Siregar said. “They don’t rush. They watch, they try, they retreat. Only when they’re certain it’s safe do they move.”

Then, one day, he crossed fully — a first not just for Sumatra, but for the species globally on a public road, conservations say.

Similar bridges have been used by orangutans elsewhere, but usually over rivers or on private industrial forest road. Conservationists say public roads — noisy, busy and unpredictable — pose a far greater challenge.

For orangutans, the stakes are high. Isolation leads to inbreeding, genetic weakening and eventual population collapse. Restoring connectivity gives them a chance to survive.

Once widespread across southern Asia, the animal now only survives on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild, alongside just 800 Tapanuli orangutans and about 104,700 Bornean orangutans, according to conservation groups

“These bridges allow orangutans to move, to mix, to maintain healthy populations,” Siregar said. “It reduces the risk of extinction.”

The 29-year-old Kenyan pulled off the feat that was long considered unthinkable when winning the London Marathon on Sunday in a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds.

There have been a slew of high-profile doping cases involving Kenyan runners in recent years, notably women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepng’etich getting a three-year ban in October.

So, in agreement with his coaches and management team, Sawe said he volunteered to undergo “multiple” doping tests to dispel any suspicion around his own performances, including victories at last year’s marathons in Berlin and London.

“Doping has become a cancer in my country,” Sawe told reporters on Monday.

Sawe said he and his team decided to implement the stringent testing regime because the possibility of people looking at his results “with a lot of doubts was not good,” and he wanted to “show the world that we can run clean and also run fast.”

The BBC, which holds the broadcast rights for the London Marathon, reported that Adidas provided $50,000 to the Athletics Integrity Unit, track and field’s anti-doping body, to frequently test Sawe over a 12-month period, including 25 out-of-competition tests leading up to the Berlin Marathon in September and a similar number ahead of the London race.

The Athletics Integrity Unit didn't immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment on Sawe's testing regime.

Sawe is urging other runners to volunteer for more doping tests.

“Everyone will feel comfortable running with his fellow athlete because there will be no doubt thinking (that) someone is using what he’s using," he said. “And so, it’s important to run clean and to show the world (that) talent, with hard work, discipline and patience,” can lead to big achievements.

Sawe also credited his footwear for helping him break the marathon record by an astonishing 65 seconds in Sunday’s race.

He wore an Adidas shoe that weighed less than half the weight of an average running shoe. After the race, he held up the shoe, which had his winning time written next to it.

“The shoe is very nice, very light, comfortable and so supportive,” he said, “and is pushing (me) forward.”

Sawe was already a superstar in marathon running but has suddenly become a global sensation, something the softly spoken Kenyan is going to have to get used to.

“Being in the history books is not something easy,” he said. “So it means a lot to me in my life and I’m so happy.”

Sawe said he kept things simple after his world-record run.

“I just celebrated in style — I just relaxed and slept well and woke up,” he said.

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Douglas reported from Sundsvall, Sweden.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

On Sunday, the state passed the threshold of 42 days with no new outbreak-related cases. In the end, 997 people were sickened by the vaccine-preventable disease since October and at least 21 of them were hospitalized, based on voluntary reports to the state. State health officials estimate the outbreak response cost $2.1 million.

“The outbreak was predominantly contained to one area of one county and never went statewide, thanks to timely investigations, identification of those exposed, and people’s willingness to stay home,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health.

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known to medicine. Most recover after a high fever, cough, runny nose and a telltale rash. But some, including very young children and people with weak immune systems, can get pneumonia, brain swelling or even die. Measles can also cause health problems later in life for those who recover. The vaccine is safe and 97% effective after two doses.

Outbreak spurred some to get vaccinated

Centered in northwestern Spartanburg County, the measles outbreak was the fastest-growing the U.S. has seen in decades, state health officials said. Public health officials confirmed more than 650 cases in January alone, and the outbreak quickly eclipsed the 2025 outbreak in West Texas that sickened at least 762 people and killed two school-age children.

But a sooner-than-predicted decline in cases came as welcome news to doctors and health workers. A few things may have helped, Dr. Brannon Traxler, chief medical officer for the state health department, said last week. To some extent, it's possible that the outbreak waned as more people got sick, she said, but more people also got vaccinated.

While uptake was slow to begin with, public health workers, doctors' offices and pharmacies administered nearly 82,000 measles vaccines from October to March. That was an increase of more than 30% from the same time period a year prior. Spartanburg County saw a 94% increase in vaccinations.

The public health department also worked to contain the spread, sending nearly 2,300 quarantine letters, making more than 1,670 case investigation calls and working across seven school districts to quarantine 874 students.

The US is on pace for more cases than last year

Measles continues to spread nationwide. So far this year, the U.S. has logged 1,792 cases — nearly 80% of 2025's record-breaking total — and 22 new outbreaks. Florida has confirmed 134 cases this year and Texas has 180, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of greatest concern now is an outbreak that started on the Arizona-Utah border and has since spread across much of Utah. Since August, 607 people have been sickened in Utah. Mohave County, Arizona, has also confirmed 282 cases. Genetic analysis indicates the outbreak could have started six weeks earlier and may have been much larger than reported, according to research presented at a CDC conference last week.

Cases have slowed a bit, but it’s still too soon to say an end is in sight, said Dr. Ellie Brownstein, a Utah pediatrician and president-elect of the state’s American Academy of Pediatrics chapter. State data show that southwestern Utah still has the most cases — 258 — but each of the state's 13 local health districts has logged at least one case.

“It has marched through the state and is everywhere,” Brownstein said.

South Carolina officials are still on guard

In South Carolina, the end of the outbreak has given health workers only a slight reprieve. Last week, a case linked to international travel in Saluda County, west of Columbia, led to 41 people having to quarantine.

“We are certainly not letting our guard down, and I don't think that South Carolinians who are still vulnerable to the virus, that don't have immunity, should let their guard down,” Traxler said.

The virus has resurged across the Americas since a major outbreak started in Canada in fall 2024. In the U.S., childhood vaccination rates against the measles have fallen for years, as more parents opt out of shots required for school. In November, international health officials will determine if the U.S. has lost its measles elimination status, which it has maintained since 2000.

Dr. Martha Edwards, president of the South Carolina chapter of the AAP, said the end of the outbreak brought a mix of gratitude and anger.

“I’m angry that many children and their parents had to worry about contracting or suffering through a disease that should have been nearly 100% preventable,” she said.

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

A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and a few others, causing some concern.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she's trying to avoid illness by sticking to a simple diet of chicken breast, rice and salad.

The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame.

Sabalenka knocked on wood and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos (laughing). I stick to the same food, same meal that I’ve been having since the very beginning of the tournament.”

Sabalenka said she was spending as little time as possible on site at the Caja Magica tennis complex.

"I try not to stay for too long," she said. “Extra vitamin C, I guess, extra IM8, and I’m good to go, hopefully."

Gauff vomited on the court on her way to a victory over Sorana Cirstea on Sunday. The American didn't show signs of illness on Monday in her 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5) loss to Linda Noskova, last year's runner-up to Sabalenka.

Cilic couldn't play his match against João Fonseca on Friday.

“Unfortunately, I got food poisoning,” Cilic said. “After trying to recover all night my body is unfortunately exhausted and not at the proper level to get into the battle.”

Sabalenka rallies

Sabalenka rebounded from a set and a break down against Osaka in their fourth round contest.

She prevailed against No. 15 Osaka 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to reach the quarterfinals and stay on track to defend her title.

“Oh my God, that was an incredible level,” Sabalenka said. “She played incredible tennis. I feel like I just got lucky in a couple of shots in the third set, that’s why it went that fast. I’m happy she brought that fight, I had to fight through to level up my game.”

Sabalenka won her 15th straight match and advanced to her 17th consecutive quarterfinal. She hasn't lost before that round since February 2025 in Dubai. The Belarusian said her team kept pushing her to “keep fighting, keep going.”

“I'm really happy that I didn't give up and I was pushing until the very last point,” Sabalenka said.

Longest tiebreaker since 2024

Sabalenka will next face American Hailey Baptiste, who defeated Belinda Bencic 6-1, 6-7 (14), 6-3 after losing the second set in the longest tour-level regular tiebreaker since 2024, according to the WTA.

Baptiste broke the racket on her leg in frustration after the loss in a set in which she wasted six match points, including five during the tiebreaker.

The 32nd-ranked American was able to rebound and clinch the victory in 2 hours, 42 minutes.

Rybakina's line-calling frustration

World No. 2 Elena Rybakina said she has no trust in the electronic line-calling system in Madrid. She complained to the chair umpire after her opponent, Zheng Qinwen, was awarded an ace in the second set. Rybakina said the mark on the court was out. The umpire refused to inspect the mark and backed the system. Rybakina eventually won in three sets on Sunday.

“Well with this thing, I won’t trust it at all,” Rybakina said. “Because there was no mark even close to what the TV showed."

She felt it was a similar situation to what happened to men's player Alexander Zverev last year in Madrid, where he ended up grabbing his cell phone and taking a photo of a mark of an alleged wrong call. Zverev was warned for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“You can’t not see it,” Rybakina said. "It’s kind of a stolen point. I understand it was her serve and she was serving really well, but it’s really frustrating.”

Jódar only Spaniard left

Daniel Mérida lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-2 and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina lost to defending champion Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-1 on Monday, leaving 19-year-old Rafael Jódar as the only Spaniard left in the tournament.

Jódar, one of the promising stars on tour, needed three sets to get past Fonseca, another teen sensation.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, Spain's current top player, withdrew from the home tournament because of a right wrist injury.

Unusual rally

There was an unusually long rally in the Rudd vs. Davidovich Fokina match when the Spaniard resorted to 15 straight lob shots to the back of the court.

The high returns in the 32-shot rally kept Rudd from attacking until one shot came up a little short and allowed him to power a forehand and take the point.

In the match between Francisco Cerundolo and Luciano Darderi, Cerundolo won a point after reaching over the net to get to a high return that spun back into Darderi's side of the court. Cerundolo won the match 6-2, 6-3.

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

Trump and other conservatives have made a renewed push for the ballroom in the wake of Saturday's media dinner shooting, arguing it exposed the difficulties in ensuring presidential security at large events outside the White House grounds, and urging the National Trust for Historic Preservation to drop its lawsuit.

Top Justice officials said the government would ask a court to dismiss the lawsuit “in light of last night’s extraordinary events" if the Trust did not voluntarily drop it.

Trust attorney Gregory Craig declined that request, writing to the Justice Department that the legal issues at the heart of the lawsuit are unchanged.

“What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so," Craig wrote.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The preservation group sued in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for a below-ground bunker and security upgrades.

In its lawsuit, the Trust argued that Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

A federal appeals court has allowed Trump to continue the project, ruling a day after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction on the site and scheduling a June 5 hearing to review the case.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed Gov. Vladimir Saldo said Monday. A man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany, he said.

In Odesa, drones hit residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s administration. Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa, a key Black Sea port for Ukraine, since Moscow launched the war more than four years ago on Feb. 24, 2022.

Five of the wounded, most of them with shrapnel wounds, were hospitalized, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia has fired approximately 1,900 attack drones, nearly 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and around 60 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week.

Ukraine’s wartime development of cutting-edge military technology means that it's intercepting more than 90% of the drones that Russia launches, Zelenskyy said in an X post. However, Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defense missiles, which are able to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles.

Ukraine has recently been helping Middle Eastern and Gulf region countries counter attacks on their territory by Iranian drones.

Norway is the latest European country to enter into a joint drone manufacturing agreement with Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his government plans to build a “drone armada” with Ukraine’s help, to defend both itself and the rest of Europe.

Zelenskyy also announced that Ukraine is massively scaling up the production of ground robots that can deliver supplies, evacuate injured soldiers and fire automatic weapons. The uncrewed vehicles can help to ease the pressure on Ukraine's short-handed infantry along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (770-mile) front line.

Ukraine has ordered 25,000 ground robots for this year, twice as many as in 2025, and the number is set to grow, he said in a separate post on X.

Zelenskyy noted a recent raft of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners, excluding the United States, have contributed to a financial arrangement to buy American weapons; the European Union has approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan to Ukraine; and the EU intends to place more sanctions on Moscow.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has been assailing oil terminals and refineries deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, aiming to disrupt Moscow’s economy.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday it has seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks.

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Claudia Ciobanu contributed to this report from Warsaw, Poland.

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

Chad's deputy prime minister, Limane Mahamat, said another 10 people were wounded in Saturday's clashes in Igote village in Wadi Fira province near the border.

The situation is under control after the army intervened, Mahamat said Sunday, adding that a mediation process in the village had begun, as well as judicial proceedings to determine criminal responsibility.

Such clashes over resources are common in the Central African country. Last year, clashes between farmers and herders in southwestern Chad left 42 people dead and homes burned.

Mahamat said the government will take “all necessary measures” to prevent a destabilization of the border area.

In February, Chad closed the border with Sudan until further notice, calling it an attempt to limit the spread of that country's war into its territory after multiple crossings by fighters with warring Sudanese factions.

The high court's ruling leaves in place a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati last May. Householder and Borges had appealed to justices after the lower court denied their requests for an en banc hearing before all active judges.

The Department of Justice secured Householder's and Borges' convictions in March 2023 after a yearslong investigation and a more than six-week trial.

Householder, now 66, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for masterminding a scheme illicitly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. to elect allies, secure power, pass a $1 billion bailout of two of its affiliated nuclear plants and then defend the bill, known as House Bill 6, from a repeal effort.

Borges, 53, got a five-year sentence for helping undermine the repeal effort. A former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, he was released to a halfway house in Cincinnati in October, from which he's to be released Nov. 12, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Although the rain helped the firefighting efforts, it wasn't “nearly enough to put the fires out" and crews responded to 10 new blazes throughout the drought-stricken state Sunday, the Georgia Forestry Commission said Monday.

The biggest blaze, the Pineland Road Fire, has scorched more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) and at least 35 homes in a sparsely populated and heavily wooded part of the state about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Florida, which is also dealing with wildfires. The area has been full of highly combustible dead trees and other vegetation since Hurricane Helene carved a destructive path northward in September of 2024.

The second-biggest, the Highway 82 Fire, has been burning since April 20 about 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the northeast. It has destroyed at least 87 homes and torched more than 35 square miles (90 square kilometers), according to figures released Monday. It is only 6% contained.

“The fire basically doubled last night in size,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said in a Facebook post Sunday. “It is a dynamic fire event that will be impacted by the wind.”

Authorities believe the Highway 82 blaze was sparked by a foil balloon hitting live power lines. That created an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground. They think the Pineland Road fire was started by sparks from a welding operation.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast. Firefighters have been battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida alone.

Scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees and other vegetation.

No fire deaths or injuries have been reported in Georgia. But in northern Florida, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office volunteer firefighter James “Kevin” Crews died Thursday evening after he suffered an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire.

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Martin reported from Atlanta.

“I was confident that this combination, which would have been about adding and not subtracting, creating a truly great airline that customers love, could get regulatory approval,” Kirby wrote in a press release. “I was hoping to pitch that story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door.”

The stocks of both airlines soared two weeks ago when reports surfaced that Kirby had floated the idea of combining two of the biggest U.S. airlines to the White House. Kirby said Monday that he had approached American directly about a tie-up, but it's unclear whether that was before or after the White House meeting.

Days after the meeting in Washington, American shot down the idea of a merger.

“American Airlines is not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines,” the company said in an April 17 press release. Additionally, a combination of the two carriers “would be negative for competition and for consumers” and possibly raise antitrust concerns, the company said.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines is itself the product of a 2013 merger with US Airways Group.

President Donald Trump also said last week that he was against a merger of the airlines.

In his press release Monday, Kirby argued that a merger between the iconic airlines would expand service, create a globally competitive airline and boost the U.S. economy by creating millions of jobs and strengthening the aircraft manufacturing sector.

Shares of Chicago-based United shares fell 1.4% on Monday, to $91.72. They are down about 20% since the war in Iran began in late February, sending fuel prices soaring. American shares were down 2% in morning trading Monday, to $11.84. American is down about 15% since the war began.

For filmmaker Christopher Nolan, “The Odyssey,” out July 17, isn't just a story. It's the story: A foundational piece that deserved to be done on the biggest possible scale, with all the resources modern Hollywood had to offer.

“There’s a massive amount of pressure,” Nolan told The Associated Press. “Anyone taking on ‘The Odyssey’ is taking on the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere and that comes with a huge responsibility.”

It's a familiar feeling, though. He did three Batman films after all.

“What I learned from that experience is that what people want from a movie about a beloved story, a beloved set of characters, is they want a strong and sincere interpretation,” Nolan said. “They want to know that a filmmaker has gone to the mat for it. I really tried to make the best film possible.”

Three summers ago, “Oppenheimer” made nearly a billion dollars. “The Odyssey” has battles, gods, creatures and an army of movie stars — Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Tom Holland included. It's also the first movie shot entirely on IMAX film. Tickets for some IMAX 70 mm showings sold out in under an hour a full year in advance.

“The Odyssey” will be shorter than “Oppenheimer”; Three hours is the longest they’ve been able to get onto an IMAX film projector, after all.

“It’s an epic film, as the subject matter demands,” Nolan said. “But it is shorter.”

Summer movie season's fashionable kickoff

Hollywood may not save all its blockbusters for the hottest months anymore, but the 18 week corridor running from the first weekend in May through Labor Day remains the industry’s most important, accounting for around 40% of the year’s box office. And it's only surpassed $4 billion once since the pandemic, in 2023.

Marvel movies often kick off the season, but last year filmmaker David Frankel got a call from Disney: “Avengers: Doomsday” wasn’t going to be ready by the first weekend in May; Could “The Devil Wears Prada 2” step up?

May 1 is just days before the Met Gala and it would give the movie a long runway to play, he figured. It would also require a bit of a sprint — they finished the film just weeks ago. But the enthusiasm was motivating, from fans snapping photos of Hathaway and Meryl Streep on the New York streets, to support from Anna Wintour.

Love for “Prada” isn’t the only thing that’s changed in 20 years; Magazines have also become an endangered species.

“How does Miranda Priestly deal with this changing world and what’s her future?” Frankel said. “The same with Andy Sachs: If all your ambition has been funneled in this one direction, what happens when you have to pivot and how do you adapt?”

The $4 billion question

The movie industry is also adjusting to a new paradigm. Box office is down over 20% from pre-COVID levels. The rise in streaming, the pandemic and shifting theatrical windows altered people’s moviegoing habits, perhaps permanently. And there may be one less major studio if Paramount acquires Warner Bros.

But, as James Cameron said, “hope springs eternal.

“We still have a very robust theatrical industry at a time when it was kind of almost pronounced dead,” Cameron said.

The gap is not widening. Studios are committing to longer exclusive theatrical windows. Original movies and premium formats are drawing crowds. And the market continues to expand globally.

Cameron is behind one of those only-in-a-theater experiences with the 3D Billie Eilish concert film (May 8). Using new technology, they used 17 camera systems to capture four nights of her Manchester shows last year.

“Seeing it in 3D is astonishing,” Cameron said. “You really feel an intimacy with her and yet you feel the scale of the spectacle.”

A summer for heavyweights

Nolan isn’t Universal’s only giant of cinema on its summer roster: Steven Spielberg is also returning to one of his most beloved genres with “Disclosure Day” (June 12). There are superhero movies as well, with “Supergirl” (June 26), which DC Studios co-head Peter Safran said is “is something cool and original and we haven’t seen before,” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (July 31). The last Spidey film, which made over $1.9 billion, ended with Holland’s Peter Parker erasing himself from everyone’s memory.

“This is a blockbuster action movie with all the humor and emotion we love about Spider-Man,” director Destin Daniel Cretton said. “But at its heart, it’s a story about learning how to reconnect with the ones you love.”

A lot of power recently has shifted to PG-rated offerings. This summer has “Toy Story 5” (June 19), “Minions & Monsters” (July 1) and a live action “Moana” (July 10), which could all very well hit a billion dollars each.

One non-franchise family friendly film is “The Sheep Detectives” (May 8), in which the animals (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston) investigate the death of their beloved owner (Hugh Jackman). Writer Craig Mazin understands the hurdle: There have been a lot of stupid talking animal movies. But this one is different, he said, it's not just silly sheep doing silly things.

“There are some really beautiful moments and themes and things that parents can talk about with their kids,” Mazin said. “And most importantly, it is legitimately a movie that is meant for everyone.”

Then there's “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” (May 22), which is rated PG-13 but has an impossibly cute alien going for it. It’s also one of several made for IMAX.

“People have got great TVs at home,” said director Jon Favreau. “You’ve got to give them a reason to go out.”

The scary movies

Movie studios also continue to lean into horror and this summer has both franchises, like “Evil Dead Burn”(July 10) and “Insidious: Out of the Further” (Aug. 21) and unnerving indies, including the “conversion therapy” horror “Leviticus,” “Rose of Nevada” (both June 19), “Backrooms” (May 29) and a new Jane Schoenbrun, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (Aug. 7).

And then there is “Scary Movie 6" (June 5), which sees the return of Regina Hall and Anna Faris, as well as Marlon and Shawn Wayans, who haven't been involved in the franchise they helped create since the 2001 sequel. And there were so many movies ripe for parody, like “M3GAN,” “Get Out,” “Weapons,” the just-released “Michael,” and “Sinners,” which Marlon Wayans was most excited about.

“Mockery is the greatest form of flattery,” Wayans said. “Sending up their movie was definitely tipping our hat to them.”

The festival darlings and other gems

Audiences want more than brands and blockbusters though. This year moviegoers have already proven they’ll turn out when the buzz is right, whether it’s for a big crowd pleaser like “Project Hail Mary” or for something more challenging like “The Drama.”

One that has the potential to break through is Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” (June 26), a chamber dramedy about two very different couples (Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over one wine-filled night that sparked a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival. Wilde was heartened that most studios were offering theatrical releases, and ultimately chose A24. They’ve even made a 35 mm print.

“The whole project for me is really tipping my hat to Mike Nichols,” Wilde said. “We thought of the audiences that have always loved those films.”

There are plenty of indies and originals to choose from throughout the summer, including Daniel Roher’s “Tuner,” about a piano prodigy turned safecracker, Boots Riley’s colorful shoplifting movie “I Love Boosters,” (both May 22) a John Carney musical with Paul Rudd (“Power Ballad,” June 5) and David Wain’s wholesomely raunchy comedy “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” (July 10).

As Wilde said, there’s room for both originals and franchises.

“The audience really likes to recognize risk,” she said. “There’s something exciting about that.”

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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

Leslie John feared she had killed her career. Instead, it became an asset.

“Those two grand poo-bahs, they became my closest mentors,” said John, a Harvard business professor and author of “Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing.” “And it’s not in spite of my having shared my embarrassing story with them, because they’ve told me it’s because of it.”

John acknowledges that she may have gotten lucky, since her openness caused the professors to see her as different from other junior colleagues. But the experience illustrated a point.

Most people worry about the risks of oversharing, but in reality, opening up often builds trust and leads to stronger relationships, she said. (Her advice is for in-person relationships; sharing online is something different, carrying different risks.)

So, how do you know when it’s TMI or if you’re not sharing enough?

Context is key

Kathryn Greene, a communications professor at Rutgers University, has been studying what’s known in academia as "disclosure" since the 1980s. She said people may not realize how often they make decisions about whether to disclose something personal.

“We’re constantly making these evaluations in all of our relationships and reassessing as it goes along,” Greene said.

She said context is key. Telling your doctor about a sexually transmitted infection is clearly different from telling your boss.

Being open about personal aspects of your life can bring people together, but if you reveal too much too soon, it will turn people away.

Greene offered the example of when two people start dating. They first offer only a trickle of information to test if their values align.

“There’s a pretty predictable pattern as we test for a positive rather than neutral or negative reaction,” she said. “It’s going to lead to us potentially sharing more.”

Why you share is as important as what

John suggested analyzing why you want to share and questioning if it’s with the right person at the right time, which “requires a lot of self-honesty.”

When she was pregnant during the pandemic, she told her landlord because she was dying for connection. The landlord, apparently wary of tenants with children, put the place up for sale the next day, and she had to move.

“If I had been honest with myself, why do I want to reveal this? Because I want love and excitement,” she said. “Well, the landlord is not the right person to reveal to.”

When to share

People rarely think of the risks of revealing too little information, however, John said. Without opening up to acquaintances, they’ll never become close friends. If you don’t tell the love of your life that you love them, it’s a missed opportunity that’s hard to recover from.

On the other hand, revealing too much is recoverable. John argues that the answer to feeling like you’ve overshared is to share more, not less.

For instance, if you think you may have offended someone at work, it presents an opportunity to stop by their office to clear things up.

“What feels like overcommunicating is just communicating,” she said.

What not to share

Greene said one kind of oversharing won’t get you anywhere — the kind where someone dumps personal information on another person without letting them speak.

Over time, such an imbalance will degrade a relationship.

“Most people will try to distance themselves if they’re finding time after time that this balance doesn’t ever shift,” she said.

Gossip is another. John’s research includes examining what’s called “spontaneous trait transference.” Essentially, that means that when you share someone else’s personal information, or if you speak badly about someone, the recipient of the information will implicitly associate those negative things with you and your character, John said.

“It happens automatically, outside of conscious awareness,” she said. “Literally, it makes you look bad.”

But she said anything else is fair game, especially if the goal is to feel more known. Besides, sharing feels good.

John pointed to studies that have shown that pleasure centers in the brain light up when people self-disclose.

“Nature has a way of making what’s good for us pleasurable,” she said. “In moderation.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Stumm writes about wellness, travel and food. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

In Roanoke and surrounding counties, emergency department visits for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have all declined since last week. COVID-19 is at very low levels, while influenza and RSV are at low levels.

Officials are seeing the same pattern across Virginia, with all three viruses continuing to trend downward, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security.

Pulaski County, Giles County, Montgomery County, the city of Radford and Wythe County continue to report high levels of RSV-related emergency department visits as of April 17. COVID-19 and influenza remain low across those areas.

What to know about tick season

Ticks are most active from March through October, when people also tend to spend more time outdoors. Ticks are present throughout the Blue Ridge Health District and are commonly found in wooded areas, brushy fields, along trails and around homes, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Ticks can spread diseases including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis. The CDC recorded Virginia as one of the top 10 states with the highest number of tick-borne illness cases in 2023.

As of April 19, the Northeast has recorded 35 emergency department visits for tick bite incidents, the most of any region in the country so far this year. That region includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Using insect repellent on skin and clothing, especially near the ankles, is one of the best ways to protect against tick bites. Because ticks can take up to 24 hours to transmit disease, checking for ticks daily after spending time in tall grass or brush can significantly reduce the risk of infection.

How Virginia compares nationally

The number of acute respiratory illnesses prompting people to seek medical care continues to remain very low nationally.

RSV activity is elevated but has peaked in most regions of the country. COVID-19 activity remains low in most areas of the country, according to the CDC.

Isle Royale is a 134,000-acre (54,200-hectare) national park in far western Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Minnesota, and Thunder Bay, Canada. The island is a natural laboratory, offering scientists a rare opportunity to observe wolves and moose largely free from human influence.

Researchers have conducted wolf and moose population surveys on the island since 1958. The surveys had been an annual winter event when the roadless island is closed to visitors, but researchers have run into obstacles in recent years.

The pandemic in 2021 forced scientists to cancel the survey for the first time. The National Park Service ordered researchers to evacuate the island during their 2024 winter survey after weeks of unusually warm weather left the ice surrounding the island unsafe for ski-plane landings. Researchers rely on the planes for easier wildlife tracking but the island has no runway, forcing them to land on iced-over Lake Superior. Things didn't go much better last year when researchers were forced to scrap the effort after their pilot suffered a last-minute medical issue.

But this year a team of researchers led by scientists from Michigan Tech University were able to conduct a survey from Jan. 22 through March 3. Their findings led them to estimate the island's wolf population at 37 animals. Data gathered before researchers evacuated in 2024 showed the population at 30.

The 2026 estimates are the highest since the late 1970s and represent a marked improvement since the population dwindled to just two wolves a decade ago. Researchers believe inbreeding led to depressed survival rates in pups.

The island's moose population, though, is declining dramatically. This year's survey put the population at 524 moose, down 75% from a high of 2,000 in 2019. Wolves likely killed almost a quarter of the moose population over the last year, scientists estimated. For the first time in almost 70 years, researchers observed no moose calves during the winter survey.

Sarah Hoy, a Michigan Tech researcher who specializes in predator-prey interactions and one of the survey's co-leaders, said scientists had to brave wind chills that dipped to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 45.5 Celsius) and it was difficult to keep warm with the woodstoves in their cabins.

But clear skies facilitated exceptional observations. The scientists spotted wolves on all but one survey flight, she said. One of the highlights was watching a pack snuggle up together on the ice on Valentine's Day, she said.

“It's always such a privilege to get to see wolves interacting, witnessing courtship behavior, pups playfully tugging on each other's tails, or a pack working together to take down a moose,” she said.

Scientists plan to conduct summer research on the island with an eye toward how the burgeoning wolf packs can maintain balance with the rest of the ecosystem.

The 7-footer from Cameroon became so debilitated by the ailment that he struggled walking, stayed awake deep into the night and even going to the bathroom became a chore. Embiid was finally forced to tell team officials this sickness was worse than food poisoning or any other malady he suspected, and he required a hospital visit.

The test results almost seemed preordained for bad news for Embiid around NBA playoff time.

One of the dominant big men of his era when healthy, Embiid has had a postseason career curtailed by a cornucopia of injuries — sprains, fractures, even facial paralysis — and this April was no exception.

Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston on April 9 after the two-time NBA scoring champion was stricken with appendicitis overnight and sidelined indefinitely.

No Sixers' stretch run. No play-in tournament game. He watched from the bench as the Sixers went down 2-1 to Boston in their first-round series.

“You probably go through a couple of days where you feel bad for yourself,” Embiid said late Sunday. “Then it’s right back to it. Are you going to give up or are you going to try and come back as early as possible?”

Embiid indeed returned early and was welcomed by a roaring ovation in Game 4 only 17 days after having surgery, desperate to give the Sixers the punch — scoring, rather than gut — needed to try to upset a Celtics team that beat the Sixers by 32 points in a Game 1 victory.

The result was familiar, the 76ers again lost by 32, 128-96 on Sunday night and now trail the series 3-1 headed into Game 5 on Tuesday night in Boston.

Embiid had 26 points and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes, a gutsy effort in his latest return from injury that the Sixers otherwise did little to suggest they could win the next three games. The numbers were brutal: Boston hit 24 3-pointers to the 76ers' nine; the Celtics won the rebounding battle 51-30; and Boston at one point had a 13-0 edge in second-chance points to build a 21-point lead.

Give the Sixers this much: They know how to get blown out.

With All-Stars in Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George on the roster, the Sixers this season were the first team in NBA history to lose three home game by 40-plus points. Throw in two 32-pointers (one each at home and the road) in the playoffs and team president Daryl Morey and coach Nick Nurse figure to sit on the hot seat if the Sixers can't recover and win this series.

“I think those are going to kind of happen a couple of times a year,” Nurse said. “Listen, our kind of MO all year was to have a lot of things thrown at us, pick ourselves up and fight back. We're just going to have to do it again.”

To have any chance at resuscitating their chances, the Sixers need ruthless aggression and production from Maxey and rookie standout VJ Edgecombe. The Sixers have muddled roster construction in trying to win with two young, speedy, flashy guards while at the same time trying to force an aging, brittle, big man the ball.

Sure enough, Embiid sank two free throws for the Sixers’ first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team’s first eight points.

Maxey took a backseat to Embiid and took only three shots in the first half. He scored 22 points for the Sixers in 40 minutes.

“That can’t happen,” Maxey said of the slow start. “That’s on me. That’s just unacceptable by me. I was playing within the flow of the game. It kind of happened that way. It wasn’t meant to happen that way.”

Maxey and Edgecombe combined for 23 shots. Embiid attempted 21.

“There's a couple of times when he had opportunities to shoot the ball, but he's got to take them,” Embiid said of Maxey. “You've got to want it.”

Embiid said he had unspecified complications after the surgery but still went out “to do the best job possible with the conditions.” He was limited to 38 games this season, sitting out primarily to manage injuries to his knees, and hasn’t appeared in as many as 40 games in a regular season since 2022-23, when he averaged a career-best 33.1 points and earned MVP honors.

Embiid said he no choice but to push through his latest setback and try to salvage the Sixers' season. It's a familiar refrain in Philadelphia. While anything can happen, the final result for the Sixers seems as inevitable as Embiid pulling up lame — no NBA title since 1983, no conference final since 2001.

“I just told them again, way out of character,” Nurse said. “We played another, about as bad as we could play, game. That's two in the series.”

The third one ends another empty postseason.

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

From now until July 2026, you can recognize your favorite educator. Each month, one exceptional educator will receive a $250 check for themselves and their school, courtesy of Blue Eagle Credit Union.

Tell us why YOUR educator should be chosen to win this award and our judging panel will choose a recipient based on the following criteria:

1. Originality/creativity of statement
2. Inspirational power of Nominee’s story
3. Embodiment of “Education Impact” theme.

Nominees must be a K-12 educator within the WSLS viewing area to be considered.

Click here to view the official contest rules.

Here’s a look at some of our previous recipients:

• Jason Long - Woodrow Wilson Middle School - August 2023
• Tami Oliver - W.E. Cundiff Elementary School - September 2023
• Paul Craft - Lord Botetourt High School - October 2023
• Daniel ‘Squeaky’ Valentine - Andrew Lewis Middle School - November 2023
• Sydney Hepler - Mountain View Elementary - December 2023
• Dawn Custalow - William Fleming High School - January 2024
• Moir Hill - James Breckinridge Middle School - February 2024
• Consuela Stokley - Northside Middle School - March 2024
• Seth Davis - Eastern Elementary and Middle School - April 2024
• Steven Williams - Liberty Middle School - May 2024
• Gregory Souder - Dublin Elementary School - June 2024
• Kit Prillaman - North Cross - July 2024
• Elise DeMoss - North Cross School - August 2024
• Ron Snow - E.C. Glass High School - September 2024
• Sheri Marlowe - Mountain View Elementary - October 2024
• Courtney May - Central Academy Middle School - November 2024
• Bryce Vandenberg - Patrick Henry High School - December 2024
• Chrystal Shawn - Cave Spring High School - January 2025
• Sara Rhodes - Burlington Elementary - February 2025
• Josh Whitlow - Hidden Valley High School - March 2025
• Debra Williams-Arthur - William Byrd - April 2025
• Ashley Adams - Rich Acres Elementary School - May 2025
• Amanda Waldron - Northside Middle School - June 2025
• Chris Badgett- Lucy Addison Middle School- July 2025
• Cassie Long - Appomattox County High School - August 2025
• Madison Webb - Blacksburg High School - September 2025
• Lauren Burgess- Northside Middle School- October 2025
• Ryan Clifton- Natural Bridge Elementary School- November 2025
• Kacey Day - Burlington Elementary School - December 2025
• Megan Emanuel - Brookville High School - January 2026
• Matthew Payne - Susie G. Gibson Science and Technology Center - February 2026
• Michelle Fulcher - Campbell Court Elementary School - March 2026
• Jamie Nichols - William Byrd Middle School - April 2026

Venezi was due to take up the role this coming October.

But general manager Nicola Colabianchi cited her “repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful” to the theater and its orchestra for the decision to cancel future collaboration, the theater’s foundation said Sunday.

They included an interview with Argentine daily La Nación, in which she accused the theater of nepotism, saying that “positions were handed from father to son.”

Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said that he hoped the move would “clear misunderstandings, tensions and manipulations” that had surrounded Venezi’s selection.

La Fenice's unions welcomed the decision to part ways with Venezi, calling it “a necessary act of respect” and underlining that the theater's professionalism had been “subject to serious, unfounded public statements damaging to the dignity of labor.”

Musicians, singers and backstage hands had vociferously opposed her appointment, citing a lack of transparency and lack of experience necessary to lead the theater.

Their escalating protests included a strike that forced the cancellation of a performance and a march through Venice joined by workers from other opera houses, reflecting concerns of political interference in artistic decisions.

The audience and orchestra erupted in applause during a performance Sunday night at the news that Venezi’s appointment had been blocked, according to video circulated by Italian media.

Colabianchi, who appointed Venezi on Sept. 22, initially defended the move, saying her youth and dynamism would attract a younger audience to the theater. Giuli had also supported hiring her.

Venezi, 36, was appointed as an adviser to the culture minister after Meloni came to power in 2022. She previously was principal conductor of the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti Young and guest conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana, and has conducted internationally, including in Armenia, Uruguay and Argentina.

A sheep owned by O'Connor, who runs Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill, Vermont, with her husband, Gunnar, gave birth to a rare batch of six lambs earlier this month. The sextuplets and their mother are all doing well, making the lamb windfall even more remarkable.

The same ewe previously had quadruplets, and while a recent checkup indicated she would have two lambs this time, O'Connor suspected more. When the big day came, the baby lambs seemed to have kept coming and coming, she said.

“I was a little bit suspicious, just given how big she was and that she was going a little earlier, that she might have more than two,” she said. “Six is great, but it's definitely — it's plenty.”

Sources differ on how uncommon sheep sextuplets are, with O'Connor putting the number around 1 in 1,000 and some agricultural websites placing it at one in a million or higher. O'Connor said she has been in touch with the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association about the births, and the group found only one other shepherd had a sheep give birth to so many lambs.

“They do take longer to reach full body weight, but most do just fine,” said Kristen Judkins of Gilead Fiber Farm, who owned a ewe that had sextuplets three years in a row, in an email. “You have to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks to make sure they are getting enough to eat.”

The lambs, which are partially the Finnsheep breed, are named the numbers one through six in Finnish. Their mother is named Teemu after Finnish hockey player and Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne. The O'Connors plan to keep the four ewes and find homes for the two male lambs.

The farm raises sheep for wool and also grows herbs and berries. It's headed for its fifth summer raising sheep. The flock is booming — along with two other recent babies, the six new lambs have brought the total up to 21. And five ewes are currently pregnant.

Teemu's breeding days are likely not over. She'll be allowed a respite, but odds are good she'll have more lambs in the future, O'Connor said.

“She’s a great mom, she’s doing awesome with this,” O'Connor said. “She’s still very much in her reproductive years, so probably a year or more and she’ll just, you know, be able to put her hooves up.”

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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

The fire happened on Sunday around 8 p.m. in the 5400 block of Indian Grave Road. Crews were able to get the fire under control within about 15 minutes.

One dog was rescued from the home, and the family will be receiving aid from the American Red Cross. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

The Roanoke County Fire Marshal’s Office said the fire resulted in about $20,000 in damage. Officials say the fire was caused by a “combustible too close to a heat source.”

But the rise of artificial intelligence has scrambled those calculations. The basic skills she was learning in things like statistical analysis and coding can now easily be automated. “Everyone has a fear that entry-level jobs will be taken by AI,” said the 20-year-old at Miami University in Ohio.

A few weeks ago, Timperman switched her major to marketing. Her new strategy is to use her undergraduate studies to build critical thinking and interpersonal skills — areas where humans still have an edge.

“You don’t just want to be able to code. You want to be able to have a conversation, form relationships and be able to think critically, because at the end of the day, that’s the thing that AI can’t replace,” said Timperman, who is keeping analytics as a minor and plans to dive deeper into the subject for a one-year master’s program.

Today’s college students say that picking a major that’s “AI-proof” feels like shooting at a moving target as they prepare for a job market that could be fundamentally different by the time they graduate.

As a result, many are reconsidering their career paths. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling finds U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies.

Students seeking majors that teach ‘human’ skills

The uncertainty appears most concentrated among those pursuing degrees in technology and vocational areas of study, where students feel a need to develop expertise in AI but also fear being replaced by it. A recent Quinnipiac poll found the vast majority of Americans believe it’s “very” or “somewhat” important for college and university students to be taught how to use AI, as Gallup Workforce polling finds AI is getting adopted in technology-related fields at higher rates. Meanwhile, students studying healthcare and natural sciences may be less impacted by AI overhauls, Gallup found.

“We see students all the time change majors. That’s not new or different. But it’s usually for a ton of different reasons,” said Courtney Brown, a vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the number of students who seek education beyond high school. “The fact that so many students say it’s because of AI — that is startling.”

A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults, between the ages of 14 and 29, found increasing skepticism and concerns about AI. Although half of Gen Z adults use AI at least “weekly,” and teenagers report higher use, many in this generation see drawbacks to the technology and worry about AI's impact on their cognitive abilities and job prospects. About half — 48% — of Gen Z workers say the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh the possible benefits.

Part of the challenge for college students is that the experts they would typically turn to for advice, like advisers, professors and parents, don’t have any answers. “Students are having to navigate this on their own, without a GPS,” says Brown.

That uncertainty was evident last month at Stanford University, where the leaders of several prominent universities gathered for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of higher education. Topics of concern included the AI revolution that is transforming how students learn and forcing educators to rethink pedagogy.

“We need to think really hard about what students need to learn to be successful in the job market in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Brown University President Christina Paxson.

“And none of us know. We don’t know the answer to that,” Paxson said. “I think it’s communication, it’s critical thought. The fundamentals of a liberal education are probably more important than learning how to code in Java right now.”

Anxiety also reaches computer science majors

Computer science major Ben Aybar, 22, graduated last spring from the University of Chicago and applied for about 50 jobs, mostly in software engineering, without getting a single interview. He pivoted to a master’s degree in computer science and meanwhile has found part-time work doing AI consulting for companies.

“People who know how to use AI will be very valuable,” said Aybar, who sees new jobs emerging that require AI skills, particularly for people who can explain the complexities in layman's terms. “Being able to talk to people and interact with people in a very human way I think is more valuable than ever.”

At the University of Virginia, data science major Ava Lawless is wondering if her major is worthwhile but can’t get concrete answers. Some advisers feel that data scientists will be safe because they’re the ones building AI models, but she keeps seeing gloomy job reports that indicate the contrary.

“It makes me feel a bit hopeless for the future,” Lawless said. “What if by the time I graduate there’s not even a job market for this anymore?”

She is considering switching to studio art, which is her minor.

“I’m at a point where I’m thinking if I can’t get a job being a data scientist, I might as well pursue art,” she said. “Because if I’m going to be unemployed, I might as well do something I love.”

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

Voters are choosing an increasing number of nonwhite Hispanic leaders to local elective office — and many of the leaders are the first Latinos to hold their seats. Some political science experts attribute the rise of Latino leadership to years of grassroots organizing, coupled with ongoing demonization of their communities by Trump administration officials and conservative activists.

“That's the difference now, is that there's this extra incentive of an unrelenting attack on Latinos across the country,” said Anna Sampaio, an ethnic studies professor at Santa Clara University who specializes in race and gender politics.

There are currently an estimated 7,700 Latino elected officials nationwide, according to data from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. That's up from 6,883 officials in 2020.

Estimated to number as many as 55 million people — 16% of the U.S. population — Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the country, with politics, interests and priorities as diverse as the national origins represented within their population. But Latinos also are underrepresented as a demographic across elective offices.

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term, Latino communities have been a target of his hard-line immigration tactics. The feeling of attack doesn't stop there. From memes shared from the official White House page perpetuating Hispanic stereotypes, a federally led English-only initiative and an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion push have painted a target on Latinos across the country.

It's all led to more Latinos seeking office to defend their communities and give voice to those who may be afraid to speak out in the current political climate. As a result, legislators have proposed measures that include providing community members with protections against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, halting the approval of ICE detention centers in their cities, and calling for a stop to ICE funding, among other actions.

Pennsylvania Latino mayor makes history

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a roughly 40% Hispanic population, recently elected Jaime Arroyo their first Latino mayor. Arroyo took office in January, after being elected with 85% of the vote.

“I think being the first Latino to be in this role and the first person of color to be mayor of Lancaster City has been exciting,” Arroyo told The Associated Press, adding that he finds it “extremely exciting to lead and represent our community in this role.”

With rhetoric and national policies — such as heightened immigration enforcement — hurting the Latino communities, Arroyo said, diverse representation in government is more important than ever. He also believes that the rise of elected Latino officials over the last couple of years is the result of generations of Latinos being politically active fighting for civil rights.

“We're starting to see a lot of the fruits of that labor come to fruition,” Arroyo said. “There's never a perfect time to serve your community, there's the right time. And I think right now is the right time for a lot of Latinos to step up into these roles, especially with everything that is going on.”

Latino representation expanding in city councils

Many more Latinos made history when they took office in earlier this year.

In Iowa, Rob Barron was sworn in Jan. 12 as the first Latino representative on the Des Moines City Council. Antonio Pacheco was sworn on Jan. 7 to be the first Latino member of the city council in Conyers, Georgia. In Ohio, Eileen Torres became the first Mexican American women to win a city council seat in Lorain. Sabrina Gonzalez also took office there as the first Puerto Rican women to serve.

And in Michigan, Clara Martinez and Deyanira Nevarez Martinez were sworn in Jan. 1 to the Lansing City Council, making the city the first in the U.S. to have a council with majority Latino representation.

Martinez said her election, and that of Nevarez Martinez, makes a bit statement about “what people are truly open to despite the national rhetoric.”

“I think because of the rhetoric that we are having to face and some of the backlash on the national stage, I think that’s just fueled the fire for so many people,” she said.

The Salt Lake City Council also has a Latino majority, with four of seven seats, after Erika Carlsen, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, was sworn in on Jan. 5. Carlsen said her success is possible because of current and previous generations that put in the work to create spaces where Latinas were encouraged to take leadership positions.

“I feel like I'm building on early generations of leadership,” Carlsen said. “That's both an honor and responsibility to improve Salt Lake City for the people who live here.”

Carlsen said even if representation at the federal level is not high or visible she said having representation at the local level can have a huge impact.

“I think that it's critically important that we continue to build on this momentum,” Carlsen said. “The majority of change that can happen starts locally, it doesn't start in Washington but in City Hall, school boards and neighborhoods conversations. That's the kind of momentum I'd love to see all across the United States.”

Carolina Welles, executive director of The First Ask, an organization that supports first-time female candidates at the state level, said the reason why Latino representation is more visible at the local level is because those leaders are able to built trust with their community much easier given their proximity.

“They actually know what people care about,” Welles said. “They have a stake because they are facing similar things.”

Local level Latino leadership builds on state and federal representation

It's not just at the local level. Latinos are making inroads at the federal level too.

The 119th Congress has 56 Hispanic or Latino members. That shakes out to 10.35% of total membership, according to the Congressional Research Service.

For comparison, there were only 14 Hispanic or Latino members and all were male in the 99th Congress, 40 years ago.

At the start of 2025, there were seven Hispanic U.S. senators. That number decreased to six when then Sen. Marco Rubio resigned to become the Secretary of State, the first Latino to hold the position.

Last year also marked a record for Latinas at the state level. Latinas held 214, or 2.9%, of seats in state legislatures, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. That was up from 192 seats in 2024.

Currently, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the only active Latina governor in the U.S. Only two Latinas have been elected governor in U.S. history, and both were in New Mexico.

In March, Gina Hinojosa won the Democratic nomination for governor, making her the second Latina to win a major party gubernatorial nomination in Texas.

Latinos saw the biggest rise in elected officials during the Trump administration in response to attacks on their fundamental rights, said Sampaio, the Santa Clara University professor. She said that trend is likely to continue as the administration continues its attacks on immigrant communities.

“We’re likely to see more Latinos run for office at the local level, at the state level and even at the national level in response to the attack on simply their existence,” Sampaio said. “It is unwittingly both terrorizing the Latino community as well as mobilizing communities.”

Such is the promise sung by the artist known as Melanie C, or Mel C and Sporty Spice of the game-changing ‘90s girl group Spice Girls, in the lead single from her ninth album of the same name. Atop a sample of Diana Ross’ “Work That Body” and sleek house-pop production, it is equal parts club banger and workout anthem, something for the DJ booth and a runner's playlist.

Surprised? Don't be. Eight or so years ago, Melanie C began deejaying, reinvigorating her love of rave and dance music — early loves that predate her girl group days. “Deejaying is so much fun, and it’s brought so much joy into my life that it made it really important that this album, as an artist, was a lot closer to what I love to play as a DJ,” she told The Associated Press.

It might come as a surprise to some of her fans, but the truth is, this musical world has always held a special place in her heart. “Before I was part of the Spice Girls, I discovered rave culture,” she explains. “I was 19. I went into this nightclub. I was on holiday with some friends. I heard this music. I saw people dancing. It was like this utopia I’d never experienced.”

Then superstar fame happened, which makes “Sweat” an unusual release for her in at least one very specific way: “I feel like I brought some of my life pre-Spice Girls into this album,” she said. “Which is something I haven’t really done before.”

Dance floor therapy

Melanie C was hard at work on “Sweat” for two and a half years, writing and recording across London, Stockholm and Los Angeles, a period that proved to be uniquely transformative. “My life had twists and turns. You know? I had a long-term relationship that ended. I had a management change. I’m back with Virgin Records,” she lists. “I’m in a new relationship. So, there’s been difficult moments within it and there’s been great times. And all of that is reflected in the album.”

Appropriately, catharsis appears to be a major theme. Like on the song “Attitude” — with its sample of Inner Life's ’80s disco classic, “Moment Of My Life” — where she cheers, “Every night’s a Friday!”

Or, even more directly, the song “Pressure.”

“Under the pressure,” she sings on the explosive electronic track, before offering a one-word solution: “Release.”

“We’re under such incredible pressure and I think we put ourselves under it, too. And that’s why I’ve loved bringing in this joy of, you know, the club,” she said. “For me, as a human, that is the release.”

There has long been a connection between dance music, joy and resiliency — particularly in queer club culture. Melanie C says honoring her LGBTQ+ audience has always been key to her work.

“It’s a community that’s been important to myself and the Spice Girls for such a long time,” she said. “It's always going to be a big part of the music that I make.”

From Sporty Spice to Melanie C

If “Sweat” is an album about the freedom of a dance floor, it's a destination Melanie C has worked hard to arrive at— particularly considering her life now, three decades removed from the Spice Girls' heyday. For many, she is still Sporty Spice. And she understands that.

“I’m not Sporty Spice or Melanie C; I’m both of those things. And not just some of the time, but all of the time,” she said. “I think it’s really important to acknowledge that,” to embrace her legacy and build a new one.

“I want to make people feel good,” she says of this new musical era. “I want to empower them. I want to motivate people.”

But she also hopes they use “Sweat” as a break, an escape, some downtime.

“Recovery is a really important part of working out,” she laughs.

Spoken like Sporty Spice — and Melanie C.

Otherwise, the first round might soon be winding down.

So far, only two conference quarterfinal series — New York vs. Atlanta and Cleveland vs. Toronto — have a Game 6 that's guaranteed. The other six remaining opening-round matchups still could end in either four or five games.

It's possible that six first-round series are completed by Wednesday. Some might even end on Monday, when the schedule features three games: Orlando will seek a 3-1 lead at home against Detroit, Phoenix will look to avoid a sweep against Oklahoma City, and Denver looks to stave off elimination against short-handed Minnesota.

If Phoenix beats Oklahoma City, there will be no sweeps in Round 1 — something that hasn't happened since the 2003 playoffs.

Sunday recaps

— Raptors 93, Cavaliers 89 to tie series at 2-2.

— Spurs 114, Trail Blazers 93 for 3-1 series lead. Wemby has concerns.

— Celtics 128, 76ers 96 for 3-1 series lead. Embiid returned, to no avail.

— Rockets 115, Lakers 96 to get within 3-1 in series. Might Durant play?

Stories of note

— Edwards out, DiVincenzo has surgery

— An interesting year for Tiago Splitter

— There's a standard in Oklahoma City

— Taylor Jenkins set to return to Milwaukee

— AJ Dybantsa formally enters NBA draft

— Donovan steps down as Chicago's coach

— Warriors brace for possible Kerr departure

— Some news, notes going into the postseason

— Heat equipment manager needs transplants

Awards watch

Awards season is in full swing in the NBA and will resume Monday with the Rookie of the Year announcement (7 p.m. EDT, Peacock/NBCSN).

The rookie finalists: VJ Edgecombe of Philadelphia, Cooper Flagg of Dallas and Kon Knueppel of Charlotte.

Other awards being announced this week are Basketball Executive of the Year on Tuesday, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year on Wednesday and the Hustle Award on Thursday. They'll all be announced at 1 p.m. EDT on one of the NBA's social media channels.

A breakdown on awards handed out to this point:

— San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama became the youngest Defensive Player of the Year, and the first to win the award in a unanimous vote.

— Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nearly became the first unanimous winner of the Clutch Player of the Year award. He got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes.

— San Antonio's Keldon Johnson topped Miami's Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Sixth Man of the Year, getting 63 first-place votes.

— Boston's Derrick White was revealed as the Sportsmanship Award winner, as selected by the league's players. Indiana's TJ McConnell — who got more first-place votes than anyone else — was second.

— Atlanta now has back-to-back Most Improved Player winners, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker taking that trophy this year. Dyson Daniels won for the Hawks last year.

Among the announcements still to be scheduled:

— Most Valuable Player, which will be either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year, which will be either Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Monday's games

8 p.m. EDT — Game 4, Detroit at Orlando (NBC/Peacock)

9:30 p.m. EDT — Game 4, Oklahoma City at Phoenix (Peacock/NBCSN)

10:30 p.m. EDT — Game 4, Minnesota at Denver (NBC/Peacock)

Tuesday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Philadelphia at Boston (ESPN)

8 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Atlanta at New York (NBC/Peacock)

9:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Portland at San Antonio (ESPN)

Wednesday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Orlando at Detroit (Prime)

7:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Toronto at Cleveland (ESPN)

9:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Phoenix at Oklahoma City (Prime), if necessary

10 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Houston at LA Lakers (ESPN)

Betting odds

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (-120) are favorites to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+400), Boston (+550), Cleveland (+1600), New York (+2500) and the Los Angeles Lakers (+2500).

Denver is +3000, followed by Detroit (+3500). Minnesota, even with a 3-1 series lead entering Monday, is at +20000 after the injuries to Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards.

Key dates

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“We need to find the answers before having our back against the wall. But that also shows the strength of our team. In adversity, we stick together. We get closer to each other. We feed off of each other's energy." — San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, after the Spurs rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit before blowing out Portland for a 3-1 series lead. It was San Antonio's league-best ninth win after trailing by 15 or more in a game this season.

Stats of the day

— Boston has beaten Philadelphia by 32 points on two separate occasions so far in their Eastern Conference first-round series. The last time the Celtics had two wins by 32 or more points in the same series was 1965 — in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

— LeBron James' teams are now 12-3 in Game 4s with a chance to sweep a series. His teams had been 9-0 in such games since 2013, before Sunday night's loss in Houston.

— Toronto scored 93 points in its Game 4 win. Teams scoring 93 or less are now 3-94 this season — but teams allowing 89 or less (as the Raptors did against Cleveland on Sunday) are 46-0.

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

It’s that delicate balance that leads to April’s Education Impact Award honoree.

[NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITE EDUCATOR HERE]

Jamie Nichols has been teaching math at William Byrd Middle School since 2012. By definition, math doesn’t always inspire excitement or thoughts of being “enjoyable,” but Nichols has seemingly cracked the code when it comes to engaging her students.

“I always hate that whenever you say you teach math, they’re like, ‘I hate that.’ But I just try to engage, like we play games. I will try to make a theme of the sports season, like we turn it into a baseball game, hockey, golf, just a little bit of everything to keep them engaged,” Nichols said.

Whether serving as a math teacher, a track coach or a mentor to other teachers, Nichols is a leader in the William Byrd community.

But it might be her relationships with her middle school students during a key time in their lives that make her more than just “an answer,” but rather “the solution.”

“She is all in about being a Terrier, and she just knows these kids, whether it’s through her coaching or through her teaching, because as you said, middle school is the absolute critical point for our students, and she just loves this age group,” said William Byrd Middle School Principal Katherine Hutchison.

Short of paying for your food, there isn’t much math happening in a lunchroom, but that didn’t stop us from turning the cafeteria into a hall of honor for April’s Education Impact Award honoree.

“Obviously, she makes it fun, but she also embodies what life is beyond math class, right? The critical thinking, the problem-solving, the celebrating successes, and helping them believe in themselves that will carry them through to adulthood,” said Blue Eagle Credit Union Senior Brand Specialist Laurissa Thompson.

“They drive you crazy, but then there are little things that they show that they are good kids at heart that make you want to come back,” Nichols said.

Nichols is also the head girls track coach at William Byrd Middle School and coordinates community service projects, such as school food drives, involving her team in these efforts.

Now, her stove is often cold as she crouches over a charcoal burner, coaxing a smoky fire to cook for her family outside her tin-roofed home in Kibera in Kenya's capital Nairobi, one of Africa’s largest informal settlements. Cooking gas is too expensive and often unavailable. Charcoal is always there.

“We don’t have many options,” she said. “You use what you can afford.”

Stories like hers are becoming more common because of the energy disruptions caused by the Iran war. Governments had promoted cleaner fuels like LPG for health and conservation reasons, but rising costs are undermining those gains.

The impacts are spreading beyond gas pumps to kitchens, forests, and wildlife habitats. Across Africa and South Asia, governments have spent years trying to shift households away from burning charcoal and firewood to cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG.

That push was driven by concerns over risks from air pollution, which killed 2.9 million people in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. But it also was focused on conservation, since use of firewood or charcoal increases pressure on forests and wildlife. Cutting trees faster than they grow back accelerates deforestation.

As more people search for fuel in the forest, they are encountering wildlife. At the same time, economic pressures can drive more poaching and bushmeat hunting, increasing the chance of diseases spreading from animals to people. Falling tourism means less funding for conservation, while high fuel costs make it harder for field teams to operate and respond quickly when wild animals enter human areas.

“The longer this debacle runs, the harder it is going to hit conservation,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's co-chair for its conflict and co-existence specialist group.

Rising costs push families into forests for fuel

When LPG, kerosene or electricity become too expensive or unreliable, many families turn to firewood and charcoal because they are easier to get in cash-poor settings, even though they harm the environment, said Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist, and CEO of Nairobi-based WildlifeDirect.

"The first conservation risk from an energy shock in Africa is not abstract. It is household fuel switching,” she said.

Rising demand for biomass fuels also degrades watersheds and wildlife habitats as people go deeper into previously undisturbed areas, increasing pressure on ecosystems and the species that depend on them.

Experts fear that rising diesel prices and higher fertilizer costs will also hurt farm productivity, reducing yields and increasing food insecurity.

“The crisis is impacting more than forests,” Kahumbu said.

Charcoal, made by slowly burning wood in kilns, is one of the most widely used cooking fuels in sub-Saharan Africa and a major driver of deforestation. Demand is climbing among customers in Nairobi’s low-income settlements, according to charcoal seller Munyao Kitheka.

A similar shift is underway in India, the world’s second-largest LPG importer, with about 60% of its supply coming from the Gulf region, according to S&P Global.

Rama, a social worker who goes by only one name, spent years encouraging waste-picking families in Bhalswa, a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of the capital New Delhi, to adopt LPG. But with incomes below $3 a day, many can no longer afford pricier LPG cylinders and are reverting to stoves that burn firewood, or returning to villages where wood is easier to find.

“Things are very, very bad,” she said.

The shift places a heavier burden on women and girls who end up spending hours each day hunting for fuel, limiting their time for work or school, said Neha Saigal, a consultant with the environmental and social justice startup Asar Social Impact Advisors.

“Years of work went into making LPG aspirational. But a global issue like this can reverse some of those gains,” she said.

Reducing pressure on habitats by reducing fuelwood use has been central to conservation efforts in Asia, said Chatterjee, the conservationist. He cited an elephant conservation project in India's northeastern Assam state where eateries had reduced wood use, but warned those gains could unravel as households shift back from LPG, which is produced from refining oil or natural gas.

“That all risks going back to square one,” he said.

Broader ripple effects on conservation

Experts warn that the war in Iran and the resulting fuel shocks can strain funding and disrupt field operations, hindering global conservation.

Airlines are cutting routes to Africa, potentially hitting tourism as rising fuel prices raise travel costs. Disruptions to aviation routes through Middle Eastern hubs make access to some destinations more difficult.

Even a modest drop in visitor numbers can have outsized effects in countries that rely on wildlife tourism to fund protected areas.

Tourism contributes about 14% of the GDP in countries like Kenya and Tanzania, where it underpins park management, anti-poaching patrols, and community conservation initiatives.

“Less tourism means less income for conservation initiatives, fewer rangers and more opportunistic poaching," Kahumbu said, adding that rising food and fuel costs could also push more people toward bushmeat as an affordable source of protein, increasing pressure on wildlife populations.

Moreover, conservation work in remote areas requires extensive and regular travel, often by motorbike or other vehicles. Higher fuel prices can disrupt that movement.

Chatterjee pointed out that in cases of conflict between wildlife and people in South Asia, rapid deployment of forest staff and conservation teams is critical to secure the area, manage crowds, and safely guide or tranquilize animals before situations escalate.

Delays increase the risk of injury or death on both sides, and fuel shortages can slow response times.

African governments have options to cushion the impact, but action has often lagged. Kahumbu called for protecting households from reverting to polluting fuels through targeted subsidies and stronger local supply chains and by backing local energy sources such as biogas, solar, and geothermal.

“Treat conservation as essential infrastructure during economic shocks,” she said.

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Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.

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

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This version corrects the name of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and corrects to say India is the world’s second-largest LPG importer.

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, bettering the previous men’s world record by an astonishing 65 seconds. He beat Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who was running his first marathon and finished in 1:59.41.

“What comes today is not for me alone,” Sawe said, “but for all of us today in London.”

Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda came in third, finishing in 2:00.28. That was seven seconds better than the previous world record held by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum and completed a podium in which all three men broke Kiptum’s three-year-old mark.

Legend has it that the marathon's distance is the same as the run a Greek soldier made from Marathon to Athens to announce a military victory in ancient times.

On a relatively flat London course on a mostly sunny day in the low 60s (15 Celsius) — ideal for running — Sawe ran a faster second half, covering the second half of the race in 59:01.

He and Kejelcha pulled clear after 18.5 miles (30 kilometers), then Sawe made his solo break in the final two kilometers. Fans showered him with loud cheers as he sprinted to the finish on The Mall.

“I think they help a lot,” Sawe said, “because if it was not for them you don’t feel like you are so loved ... with them calling, you feel so happy and strong.”

Sawe, who came in as the defending champion in London, said it was a “day to remember for me” and thanked the huge crowds who lined the streets of the British capital to witness one of the greatest performances in a sport that asks a simple question: How fast can a person run?

Under two hours has been done before — unofficially

After Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile in 1954, the mark was lowered 18 more times until it reached the current world record: 3:43.13, by Morocco's great runner, Hicham El Guerrouj.

The mile has been largely replaced by the 1,500 meters as the main four-lap race in major events. The marathon, however, remains a staple of world-class running and the 2-hour barrier — a nice, even number at a distance that has been around since ancient times — has been in the sights of the world's greatest runners (and shoe companies) for about the last 20 years.

Kenyan long-distance great Eliud Kipchoge did, in fact, break 2 hours in 2019, but it did not go into the record books, as it was a specially tailored race — the “1:59 Challenge” — run in favorable conditions on a 6-mile track with a stable of 41 rotating pacemakers. Kipchoge finished in 1:59.40.

Sawe beat that time by 10 seconds on one of the world's less-taxing marathon courses.

“The goalposts have literally just moved for marathon running,” Paula Radcliffe, a former winner of the London Marathon, said during commentary of the race for the BBC.

The first sub-2:30 marathon came in 1925 and the 2:15 barrier was broken 38 years after that. At the turn of the century, the world's best time for the men's marathon was 2:05:42, set by Khalid Khannouchi in Chicago in 1999.

Khannouchi broke his own record by four seconds in 2002 — the previous last time the fastest men's marathon was run in London — and it has been whittled down gradually over the last 24 years by a succession of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, including Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipsang, Kipchoge and, most recently, Kiptum.

Now that the 2-hour mark has been broken, a few other iconic track-and-field records to watch include Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters (2009), Mike Powell's 8.95 meters in the long jump (1991) and Marita Koch's 47.60 in the women's 400 meters (1985).

Lightweight shoes with cutting-edge technology help fuel the speed

Part of the lowering of the times is about improvements in training, nutrition and technique.

Another key element is the streamlining of shoes, defined through a battle of shoe companies who use carbon-fiber plates and other materials as part of an effort to make shoes lighter and springier.

There's been ongoing debate about whether the advances in shoes amount to “technology doping." Seven years ago, Kipchoge wore Nike in his controlled run at sub-2 hours. On Sunday, Sawe was in Adidas, which is making a men's size 9 shoe that weighs 3.4 ounces — less than half the weight of an average running shoe, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“When you give them the box, they think it’s a joke,” Patrick Nava, general manager of Adidas running, told WSJ. “They think the box is empty.”

Assefa wins fastest-ever women's-only marathon

A record also went down in the women's race, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulling away with about 500 meters remaining to win in 2:15:41 and defend the title in the fastest-ever time in a women’s-only marathon.

However, it was 16 seconds slower than the course record set by Radcliffe in 2003 when it was a mixed race.

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri was 12 seconds back in second place in a personal-best time on her London debut and compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei was third, a further two seconds adrift. It was the first time three women have run under 2 hours, 16 minutes in a marathon.

“I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record," Assefa said.

“I felt much healthier today and have worked really hard on my speed and all my training has paid off.”

Swiss double in wheelchair races

In the wheelchair races, there was a Swiss double with Marcel Hug powering to a sixth straight men’s title – and eighth in total – and Catherine Debrunner beating Tatyana McFadden in a close finish to defend the title.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The central African country's General Inspectorate of Mines said in a statement the new unit would be deployed gradually, with an initial 2,500 to 3,000 personnel expected to be operational by December following six months of training in military collaboration.

The paramilitary force is projected to have more than 20,000 personnel across all of Congo's 22 mining provinces by the end of 2028, with the aim of boosting investor confidence and strengthening state oversight of mineral production.

The $100 million program is funded through partnerships with the United States and United Arab Emirates, the statement said.

Congo is a major supplier of coltan, a metallic ore that contains the rare metal tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines.

The vast country has long struggled with illicit mineral trafficking and chronic insecurity, particularly in its eastern provinces, where fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Congo's president aims to "clean up the entire mining sector, by eliminating practices that run counter to good governance, transparency and the traceability of minerals,” the inspector general of mines, Rafael Kabengele, said in the statement.

The paramilitary guard will take over security duties currently performed by conventional military forces. Its mandate includes securing mine sites, escorting mineral shipments to processing facilities and border crossings and protecting foreign investments.

Washington is trying to reduce China’s dominance over critical mineral supply chains. Congo and the U.S. signed a minerals partnership last year under which American firm Virtus Minerals has taken over copper-cobalt miner Chemaf. Other Western companies have expressed interest, including some assets located in rebel-held territory.

Congo produced about 40% of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. More than 15% of the world’s supply of tantalum comes from the rebel-controlled Rubaya mines in the east.

Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades, with dozens of armed groups active.

Last year, the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal brokered by the U.S., which also opened up access to critical minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.

Negotiations continue between M23 rebels and Congo. However, fighting continues on several fronts in the east.

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Mwanamilongo reported from Bonn, Germany.

Korda was so untouchable at The Chevron Championship that no one got closer than four shots of her the entire weekend. She played her last 29 holes at Memorial Park in even par and still won by five, the largest margin at this major in 18 years.

And it was one of the toughest times she ever had.

“It's not easy going in with that big of a lead,” said Korda, “I think that was the challenging point with like, where do I still play like Nelly and where do I play a little defensive?”

That's why where was much relief as joy when she holed a 7-foot par putt to close with a 2-under 70 to capture her third major championship and return to No. 1 in the women's world ranking for the first time since August.

She celebrated in the best manner possible — a cannon ball into the 4 1/2-foot pool built to the right of the 18th green to keep with the tradition at this major that dates to 1988 when the winner jumped into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills in the California desert.

“Feet first,” she said with a smile, dressed in the winner's white robe. “I knew it was 4 feet, so I was expecting to hit the ground very fast.”

No one else expected anything else.

Staked to a five-shot lead at the start, Korda was efficient as ever with two early birdies, and two more on the back nine that put the final touches on this masterpiece.

Playing it safe left her a couple of par putts in the 6-foot range, the ones that had given her fits in the third round. She made one on the 11th. She left the next one short, and her lead was down to four shots.

Time for Nelly golf.

Her caddie told her she should play well short of the pin on the heavily contoured green at the 13th. Korda had other ideas.

“I actually just sent it at the pin and I had a tap-in birdie,” she said.

Korda followed by hammering a 3-wood to just short of the green for a simple up-and-down for birdie. And then it was back to playing it safe — so conservative that instead of hitting a mid-iron onto the par-5 16th over water, she opted to lay up with a gap wedge and then hit lob wedge to 25 feet for a two-putt par.

The victory was her 17th on the LPGA and 21st worldwide. Not since Meg Mallon in 2000 had an American reached three majors in her career, and the 27-year-old Korda is just getting started.

She doesn't care for comparisons with her 2024 season when she won seven times, including that record-tying streak of five in a row that was capped off at The Chevron.

But it's the start to a season that will get everyone's attention. She has played in the final group in all five of her tournaments, winning twice and being runner-up the other three times. And then she won a major by leading the final 57 holes of the tournament.

Korda joined Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991), both at Nabisco Dinah Shore, as the only players in the last 50 years to win LPGA majors when leading by multiple shots after each round.

About the only drama in the final hour — all weekend, really — was whether Korda could break Dottie Pepper's 72-hole scoring record that has stood since 1999. Korda was playing it safe with a big lead, hitting to the fat of the green and settling for pars, along with another three-putt bogey.

She finished at 18-under 270, one short of Pepper's record at Mission Hills.

Korda made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole Friday, and didn't make another putt over 10 feet the rest of the week. That included a trio of 4-foot misses that kept it from being a blowout, and it stayed in her heard.

But that was part of Korda's new outlook. Don't worry about mistakes, knowing she could make up for them, and she did.

‘What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s OK to miss short putts and still win a major championship," she said with a laugh. "You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.

“I wanted to show it to myself and I wanted to show it everyone looking up to me.”

Ruoning Yin (69) and Patty Tavatanakit (70) tied for second. They were the only ones who could even think about having a chance on Sunday.

Tavatanakit walked in a 25-foot birdie on the sixth hole to get within four shots, only to make bogey with a wedge on the par-5 eighth. Yin went 56 consecutive holes without a bogey until making one on the 17th.

Korda won $1.35 million for a victory that puts her back as the best in women's golf without any debate. And now it's off to the Gulf Coast of Mexico for the next LPGA event, taking Monday to celebrate and getting back to work on Tuesday.

She loves competition. In this case, she was competing mainly against her herself. It was a big win in many ways because she had self-doubts when she missed those short putts Saturday. Korda told her caddie she did not want those thoughts to creep in during the final round.

"I want to go out and play golf. Whatever happens — if I jump into that pond, if I have the trophy in my hands at the end of the day — then great. I gave it 100%. If I don’t, then I have next week. I have the week after.

“That's going to be my mindset for the rest of the year.”

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

Paris Saint-Germain vs. Bayern Munich on Tuesday pairs two easy-on-the-eye attacking teams playing arguably the highest quality technical soccer in the world today.

Atletico Madrid vs. Arsenal on Wednesday is a clash of traditionally durable styles with tight defenses.

Titleholder PSG and Bayern each has won the Champions League in the past six seasons.

Atletico and Arsenal never have been European champion and are a combined 0-for-4 in finals.

PSG and Bayern have a total of 24 domestic league titles between them in the last 14 seasons. Bayern is already Bundesliga champion this season and another French title is likely coming to Paris next month.

Atletico was twice Spanish champion in that period, while Arsenal is in a duel with Manchester City to earn a first English title in 22 years.

What the semifinals have in common is being rematches from this season’s league phase, which were won by Bayern and Arsenal.

The real final?

PSG vs. Bayern would be many people’s choice of the ideal final, after their majestic displays in the quarterfinals to eliminate, respectively, Liverpool and Real Madrid. They are the tournament joint top scorers this season, each with 38 goals.

It was the final in 2020 when Bayern became European champion for the sixth time and PSG lost its first title match appearance.

That game in Lisbon was the strange climax to the delayed, pandemic-affected season — played in an empty stadium in mid-August. It was decided by Kingsley Coman, the former PSG trainee who eventually starred in Munich.

It was also the only time Bayern advanced to the final in its last six semifinal appearances. The five losses were against Spanish opponents and the one victory was against a French team. Lyon was beaten in a single-leg game at the lockdown Lisbon mini-tournament.

Bayern won on its trip to Paris in November. Luis Díaz scored twice then was sent off before halftime for a tackle on Achraf Hakimi.

Still, PSG under coach Luis Enrique peaks in the second half the season, finding a new level since signing Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in January last year.

The return game is on Wednesday next week in Munich, where PSG routed Inter Milan to win its first European title.

A-game in Madrid

Arsenal’s record as the only unbeaten team in this season’s Champions League will be tested in the intense atmosphere of the Metropolitano Stadium.

Arsenal has conceded just five goals in 12 games so far, the kind of record associated with Atletico during coach Diego Simeone’s long reign of mostly feisty soccer.

This is a more expansive Atletico version, with a surprising 26 goals conceded in 14 Champions League games this season. Julián Alvarez has got nine of the 34 scored at the other end.

The semifinal pairs two of Europe’s long-serving top-tier coaches: Simeone in a remarkable 15th season — often described as the highest paid club coach in world soccer, earning about $35 million — and Arteta in his seventh with Arsenal.

Still, Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Atletico in October feels a long time ago. A four-goal burst in 15 second-half minutes, including two from Viktor Gyokeres, showed a freedom Arteta’s team has found hard to recapture in a tense second half the season.

Atletico’s path to the semifinals has been taking first-leg leads — ambushing Tottenham at home then winning at Barcelona — before riding out severe pressure in the return game. That will be in London on Tuesday of next week.

Rwanda partners

All four semifinalists have a sponsor deal with the same nation state in Africa.

Arsenal led the way with a “Visit Rwanda” sleeve patch deal eight years ago that ends after this season. The club posts annual messages on its social media account marking the genocide there three decades ago.

The sponsorships with Arsenal, Bayern and PSG were criticized last year by neighboring Congo because of Rwanda’s backing for the M23 ­militia in conflicts in the eastern part the country.

Weeks later, Atletico announced a three-year deal with Rwanda, noting “the club’s values of resilience, discipline, and excellence closely align with Rwanda’s national ethos and transformation journey.”

When the Congolese government’s request for European soccer clubs to end the sponsorships — worth tens of millions of dollars — had no effect, it started a similar strategy. Congo now sponsors Barcelona, AC Milan and Monaco.

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

Today we are a couple of degrees below average, but still nice! We will reach the lower 70s in the afternoon with skies clearing during the late morning and early afternoon.

Futurecast keeps us dry all day today with a few showers passing to our north. Besides that, there is nothing much to write home about in terms of active weather!

That does change tomorrow as widespread rain is back in the picture starting around 7 AM, so be sure to pack the umbrella for the morning and early afternoon.

Our temperatures will remain consistently below average for this time of year, in the upper 60s and lower 70s this week. After the rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday, we get a break from the rain on Thursday before resuming with a few isolated showers for the latter half of the week.

Federal prosecutors have been conducting a preliminary investigation since mid-February 2026 into alleged cyberattacks on Signal accounts, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors confirmed on Saturday.

Among other things, the investigation involves an initial suspicion of espionage, she added, without specifying which country might be involved.

The German government has still not officially attributed the attacks to Russia.

Germany and other European countries have been under increased pressure from cyberattacks and other malign activity linked to Russia by Western officials since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Around 300 Signal accounts belonging to individuals within the political sphere were compromised in the attacks, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, quoting governmental sources.

There is no official confirmation of the names of the victims.

According to Der Spiegel, the targeted users received messages from a fake Signal security chatbot that informed them of suspicious activity on their accounts and asked them to take immediate action. If the user followed the instructions, including entering a PIN or scanning a QR code, their Signal accounts were linked to an external device controlled by the hackers.

This allowed the attackers to read past chats, follow ongoing conversations and even see address books and other data stored by the users.

In February, Germany's domestic intelligence service BfV and the federal cybersecurity authority BSI had issued a public warning about such a phishing campaign, saying it was “likely being carried out by a state-controlled cyber actor.” According to the German press agency dpa, German authorities also contacted several politicians personally to warn them such attacks may have happened.

In March, Dutch intelligence and security services also warned that “Russian state hackers are engaged in a large-scale global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to dignitaries, military personnel and civil servants.”

Targets include Dutch government employees, the Dutch authorities warned at the time, and journalists may also have been targeted.

The Russian embassy in Berlin did not respond to an AP request for comment. Moscow has repeatedly ​denied ⁠it is spying on other countries.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the German ambassador to Russia, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday morning, dpa reported, regarding alleged contacts between German politicians and terrorist organizations. No connection has been made between the summons and the German media revelations about the Signal phishing attacks.

“I will, of course, comply with the summons. I consider it unlikely that the Russian side will be able to substantiate its accusations,” Lambsdorff said in advance. Relations between the two countries have been tense for years.

———

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

The deal comes as New Delhi moves to diversify export markets to offset the impact of steep tariffs imposed by the United States and instability in shipping and energy routes due to the Iran war. For New Zealand, the agreement is part of a broader push to reduce reliance on China, its largest trading partner.

The agreement was signed in New Delhi by India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and visiting New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay.

Negotiated over nine months and agreed in December, the deal will cut or eliminate tariffs on 95% of New Zealand’s exports to India, while making all Indian exports to New Zealand duty-free. Wellington has also committed to invest $20 billion in India over the next 15 years.

McClay said the deal marked a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to deepen economic ties at a time of rising global trade tensions and uncertainty. India is New Zealand’s 12th-largest export market, with bilateral trade valued at $2.15 billion in the year through June 2025, according to official data.

“This agreement is also being concluded at a time of heightened global and regional uncertainty. In this context, strong, reliable partnerships matter more than ever before,” McClay said.

Goyal called the deal a “defining milestone” and said India and New Zealand had “chosen each other” at a time ”when the world economy is being recast.” He said the agreement offers market access across sectors and creates frameworks for investment and regulatory cooperation.

Indian sectors expected to see expanded market access include textiles and apparel, engineering goods, leather and footwear, and marine products. New Zealand is likely to register increased exports in horticulture, timber, coal, wool and meat.

India has excluded dairy and certain agricultural products from the deal to protect its farming sector.

Indian exporters have been under pressure from higher U.S. tariffs since August last year, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, auto components and metals, even as New Delhi continues negotiations with Washington on a separate bilateral agreement.

New Zealand’s trade deals are usually bipartisan. The agreement now requires ratification by parliament and is expected to pass after the opposition New Zealand Labour Party backed it, despite resistance from coalition partner and populist minor party New Zealand First.

——

Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

The club did not give details on the severity of the injury or when Mbappé is expected to return. It said his recovery will depend on how the injury progresses.

Spanish media said the injury was not expected to sideline the France star for too long.

Madrid will play the clasico against Barcelona on May 10 at the Camp Nou stadium. Madrid trails its Catalan rival by 11 points with five matches remaining in the season.

Mbappé had to be replaced in the 82nd minute of the team's 1-1 draw at Real Betis on Friday.

The France striker had already lost playing time this season because of a knee ailment. The World Cup begins in June.

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

As of Monday, April 27, the average price for regular gasoline in Virginia is $3.954 per gallon, a dip from previous weeks, according to AAA. Diesel is averaging about $5.629 per gallon, while premium gasoline sits at $4.790.

Looking closer at our region, AAA reports that drivers in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are still paying the most for regular gas, with an average of $3.917 per gallon. Premium is averaging $4.758, and diesel is at $5.525.

In Roanoke specifically, average gas prices have risen 3.8 cents per gallon in the last week, to $3.88 per gallon today, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 155 stations. Prices in Roanoke are 15.5 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand 94 cents per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has decreased by 9.2 cents compared to a week ago and stands at $5.408 per gallon.

Statewide, the highest prices are in Washington, D.C., where regular gas averages $4.052 per gallon.

To find out where the lowest fuel prices are near you, visit GasBuddy’s website.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline, has spiked and swung rapidly. That’s because the conflict has caused deep supply chain disruptions and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.

Tokyo Electron was also fined 150 million new Taiwan dollars ($4.8 million) and four other people were sentenced to up to six years in jail.

The heavy sentencing under Taiwan’s national security act and other statutes underscores Taiwan's efforts to protect the self-ruled island’s advanced technology and semiconductor sector, which are vital for its export-oriented economy as artificial intelligence booms.

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., is one of the world’s most valuable companies and counts Nvidia and Apple as key customers.

In handing down the 10-year sentence at Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court, Judge Chang Ming-huang said Chen Li-ming, who worked at TSMC before moving to Tokyo Electron's subsidiary in Taiwan, was believed to have used his relationships with his former TSMC colleagues to illegally access and collect the chip maker's trade secrets.

Chen photographed, copied and passed along the materials to help Tokyo-based Tokyo Electron improve its bids as a TSMC supplier, according to the court.

Chen's motivation was mainly to “improve his personal work performance,” Chang said, but he jeopardized the competitiveness and economic security of Taiwan and its chipmaking industry.

Taiwan’s prosecutors indicted Chen and others in August on alleged trade secret theft. Tokyo Electron said in a statement at the time it had dismissed an employee involved in the case but also said its internal investigation had not confirmed evidence of the relevant confidential information being leaked.

The Japanese company said Monday that it takes “the court’s finding with the utmost seriousness” and will strengthen its "information management systems and other relevant measures.” But it stressed that the court and its own probe had not found any organizational involvement by Tokyo Electron.

TSMC said in a response that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any actions that compromise the protection of trade secrets or harm the company’s interests” and that such kinds of violations “are dealt with strictly and pursued to the full extent of the law.”

___

Chan reported from Hong Kong.

Authorities say Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was taken into custody at the dinner Saturday night in Washington that was attended by Trump and top members of his administration. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.

In a message sent to family members minutes before the attack, the 31-year-old the described himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin” and railed against recent actions taken by the U.S. government under Trump, though he did not name the Republican president directly, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

The writings ran more than a thousand words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers, fellow travelers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack.

Elsewhere, the document veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics, at times reading as if he were arguing with detractors in real time.

Authorities said Allen will face charges including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer, as well as other potential counts. A search of state and federal court databases showed no indication Allen had ever previously been charged with a crime.

He signed the document using a moniker that matches social media accounts that have since been taken offline. A defunct account using the same name on the platform Bluesky reposted others who offered commentary critical of Trump as well as members of the media who attend the annual black-tie dinner.

The AP limits the use of attackers’ writings and social media posts to avoid amplifying their views or encouraging copycat actions. The AP chooses to summarize their words and focus mainly on the victims and investigations.

Allen was arrested Saturday night trying to rush past a security checkpoint with two firearms and knives. Law enforcement officials told the AP that Allen legally bought a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in October 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun last year.

Canvassing the suspect's neighborhood

Voter registration records from California lists Allen’s home address as his parent’s house on a tree-lined street in one of the most historic neighborhoods in Torrance, a city within the Los Angeles metro area. Public records show he is the oldest of four adult siblings, with two younger sisters and a brother.

Two cars were parked in the driveway Sunday morning. A blue scooter that a neighbor said Allen rode was on the front lawn. No one answered the door when an Associated Press reporter knocked. By the afternoon, several people who appeared to be law enforcement agents were canvassing the neighborhood, with one wearing an FBI sweatshirt.

A yard sign displayed at the family home supported a local candidate for judge who was endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Federal campaign finance records show Cole Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024 and listed his employer as C2 Education.

A 2024 post on the C2's Facebook page listed Allen as the company’s teacher of the month. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday night and an office in Torrance was closed on Sunday.

Allen's profile photo on LinkedIn shows him wearing a cap and gown when graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills. The photo appears to have been taken May 2025. Bin Tang, a computer science professor at the school, told the AP that Allen took a few of his classes.

“He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft-spoken, very polite, a good fellow. I am very shocked to see the news,” Tang wrote in an email.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, according to his profile on the social networking site LinkedIn. The small university is academically prestigious with a very low acceptance rate. He also listed his involvement there in a campus group that battled with Nerf guns and a Christian student fellowship.

The suspect’s father, Thomas Allen, is listed as an elder at Grace United Reformed Church Torrance. The webpage for the congregation describes it as a “Bible-believing church” following the “infallible Word of God.” Security guards posted at the sanctuary during worship services on Sunday escorted parishioners to the door and kept reporters at bay.

Allen also posted that he had developed a video game for the Steam platform based on molecular chemistry. A post under Allen’s name said he was working to develop a new “top-down shooter” combat game set in outer space.

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Biesecker and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Michael Kunzelman, Brian Slodysko and Byron Tau in Washington contributed to this report.

That news could have come from any of three major markets.

The Red Sox actually took two of three at Baltimore, but they're still in last place in their division at 11-17. The New York Mets have been even worse, scoring one run Sunday while getting swept in a home doubleheader against lowly Colorado. The Mets have lost 15 of 17 to fall to 9-19.

And they actually have company in the NL East cellar, because the Philadelphia Phillies have dropped 11 of 12 and have the same 9-19 record.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was still employed as of Sunday night, and so was Philadelphia's Rob Thomson. And all three of these big-market teams can take solace in the notion that it's hard to play your way out of contention before the end of April — if you have enough talent to recover.

Right now, FanGraphs still gives the Red Sox a 34% chance of making the playoffs, and the Phillies and Mets each a 33% chance. That means there's a decent shot one of those three teams will turn it around and reach the postseason.

But so far this season has been dire for each of them. The Mets and Phillies have the two worst run differentials in baseball, and New York will be without shortstop Francisco Lindor for at least a few weeks because of a calf injury. That won't help an offense that has scored the fewest runs in baseball.

Ace Zack Wheeler finally made his 2026 debut for Philadelphia on Saturday, and the Phillies snapped a 10-game skid, but a loss Sunday dropped them to 10 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta.

The Red Sox are a little closer to first place, trailing the Yankees by only seven, but their run differential (minus-11) looks tolerable only because of a 17-1 win Saturday in which the Orioles brought in a position player to pitch during a 10-run ninth inning.

The next month is critical for these three teams. If they keep playing like this through Memorial Day, then it really might be too late to come back.

Trivia time

Both the lowest batting average in the National League and the highest ERA — among qualifying players — belong to members of the Phillies. Who are they?

Unfriendly schedule

The Milwaukee Brewers had to face each of last year's Cy Young Award winners in back-to-back games Thursday and Friday. Tarik Skubal took the mound for Detroit against Milwaukee, and the Tigers eventually won 5-4 on a home run by Spencer Torkelson. Then Paul Skenes took a perfect game into the seventh against the Brewers in a game Pittsburgh won 6-0.

Slugfests

The most surprising pitchers' duel of the week may have occurred Sunday, when the Nationals and White Sox played nine scoreless innings before Washington won 2-1 in 10. The Nationals are averaging 5.38 runs per game, the fourth-most in the major leagues. They've allowed 5.9, the second-most in baseball. Washington was actually leading the majors in both runs scored and runs allowed entering Wednesday's action.

The pitching was expected to be bad. The offense has made the team watchable thanks to James Wood (10 homers), CJ Abrams (.897 OPS) and a good start from Joey Wiemer (.320 average).

In 14 of Washington's 29 games, at least one team has scored eight runs.

Performance of the week

Milwaukee's Kyle Harrison struck out 12 in six one-hit innings in Sunday's 5-0 win over Pittsburgh. That prevented the Pirates from sweeping a series at Milwaukee for the first time since 2016.

Comeback of the week

Kansas City was down by three with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth before rallying to tie it Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals eventually won 11-9 in 10 innings.

The Angels actually led 6-0 in the fifth, and it was 8-5 in the ninth before a triple by Vinnie Pasquantino, an RBI single by Salvador Perez and a two-run homer by Jac Caglianone sent the game to extra innings. Kansas City's win probability had been 0.5%, according to Baseball Savant.

The Royals were down to their last out again in the 10th when Lane Thomas' three-run homer won it.

Trivia answer

Alec Bohm is batting .143, and Jesús Luzardo has a 6.91 ERA.

___

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

You may want to consider a glass of water instead.

“People have lots of GI water loss, what we call insensible losses. So, in a typical eight hour sleep, you would lose about 300 to 400 cc of water while you sleep. And that’s through your breathing, for example, your skin. You sweat quite a bit overnight,” said Adrienna Jirik, MD, gastroenterologist at Cleveland Clinic. “I tell patients to drink at least a cup of water when you wake up in the morning. You don’t really know what’s going to happen for the rest of the day. We’re all guilty of not drinking enough water.”

Dr. Jirik said drinking water right after you wake up can also help boost metabolism, improve digestion and prevent urinary tract infections.

So, does the temperature of the water matter?

She said not really. What matters more is that you’re staying hydrated.

However, if you aren’t a fan of plain water, you could always add a slice of lemon or another fruit to give it some flavor.

Other options include carbonated or sparkling water.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be water. It can be some sort of liquid. Something heavily caffeinated has what we call a diuretic effect and can make you urinate a little bit more. So, before your coffee, why don’t you drink a little non-caffeinated tea, for example. Even some juice is fine,” she said.

Dr. Jirik said while drinking water is important, there are other factors that play a role in digestion.

She recommends eating smaller meals throughout the day and making sure you are getting regular exercise.

The Malian government confirmed the death of the defense chief, Gen. Sadio Camara, in a post on the defense ministry's Facebook page, and expressed its condolences to his family. State-run television also broadcast the announcement of his death by spokesman Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly.

Mali was struck on Saturday by one of the biggest coordinated attacks on its army in the capital, Bamako, and several other cities and towns in an assault that also challenged Mali’s security partner, Russia, which has forces on the ground in the West African country.

The government said Sunday the attacks appear to be over, but several questions remain, including who was in control of a key northern city that the separatists claim to have taken.

The government has not provided a death toll from Saturday and previously said only that at least 16 people were wounded in what it denounced as terror attacks.

The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaida and IS-aligned militants have been fighting the government for over a decade.

According to the government statement, Camara's residence was targeted by a suicide car bomber and other attackers on Saturday.

“He engaged in an exchange of fire with the assailants, some of whom he managed to neutralize,” it said. "During intense clashes, he was wounded and then transported to the hospital, where he unfortunately succumbed to his injuries."

Separatists claim control of the northern town of Kidal

A spokesperson for the separatist Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, said the Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian military withdrew from the city of Kidal following the attack on Saturday, after an agreement was reached for their peaceful exit.

“Kidal is declared free,” said FLA spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadan.

In a statement on state TV late Sunday night, Gen. Oumar Diarra, head of the armed forces, confirmed that the Malian army had left the city and that its forces were repositioning in Anefis, a city about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kidal.

The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali.

Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.

Militants unite with separatists to coordinate attacks

Saturday's wave of attacks was the first time the separatists joined forces with the al-Qaida-linked group JNIM, which said it was also part of the attack on Kidal and had also targeted a town outside of the capital of Bamako and three other cities on Saturday.

The FLA spokesperson confirmed the coordinated push.

“This operation is being carried out in partnership with the JNIM, which is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako,” Ramadan said.

The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta" in Mali, saying its "actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”

Wassim Nasr, a specialist for the region and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said this “coordination, conducting attacks all over the country at the same time,” the united push by the two groups and the call for the Russian military to leave was a first.

It extended beyond the military, he said, to the political level because both groups “acknowledged that they worked together.”

Following the attacks, a three-day overnight curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., was also announced for the Bamako district.

Mali's government spokesperson, Coulibaly, said civilian and military personnel were among the 16 wounded and that several militants were killed. He did not provide a death toll.

A threat to the wider region

The Economic Community of West African States condemned Saturday's attacks in Mali and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat this scourge.”

Following military coups, the juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help in combating Islamic militants.

But the security situation in the region has worsened in recent times, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.

In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako’s airport and a military training camp in the country's capital, killing scores of people.

Ulf Laessing, from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said that the separatists and JNIM are unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near term due to opposition from the local population.

Still, the attacks undermined the Malian junta's Russian partners.

“The attacks are a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities,” Laessing said.

The popular event kicked off Saturday, April 25, and offers four days of fishing for kids, seniors and special needs individuals. Just remember to bring your own gear, and if you’re an adult, you won’t be able to fish for your kids during Saturday events.

Each child can catch up to six trout, and they’ll need to keep every fish they reel in. There are also special days set aside for children with special needs and for nursing home residents, but be sure to pre-register for those sessions.

Here’s what the schedule looks like:

• Children ages 3-8: Saturday, April 25, 9 a.m. to noon
• Special needs children: Monday, April 27, 10 a.m. to noon
• Nursing home residents: Wednesday, April 29, 10 a.m. to noon
• Children ages 9-12: Saturday, May 2, 9 to 11 a.m.

Prizes will be handed out throughout the events, and the top anglers each Saturday will take home a trophy. Plus, “The Tailgate” food truck will be there as well. Lake Spring Park is at the corner of West Main Street and Green Street.

Call the Salem Parks and Recreation Department at 540-375-3057 for more information.

“May the Lord bless from his height, the meal our belly will take with delight,” they chanted in unison before beginning their lunch, a ritual that takes place three times a week in the dining hall adjacent to the church.

Among the nearly 50 elderly people was Carmen Casado, an 84-year-old retired chemical engineer who attends without fail. Her monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos is equivalent to $4 at the informal exchange rate that people use on a daily basis. She lives alone, has no children and does not receive remittances from relatives abroad.

She says the church meals are a needed supplement to the meager rations, such as bread, rice and beans, that she can obtain for free from state-run stores, or bodegas.

“This is a lifeline for us retirees with small pensions," said Casado, speaking in a rapid-fire tone. “What we get from the bodegas alone is not enough.”

The elderly are among the hardest hit by the severe economic crisis on the island, which has worsened dramatically since the beginning of the year following an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Most are former government employees — teachers, doctors, nurses, technicians, custodians, lawyers — whose pensions are usually less than $10 a month and who must face cuts to the basket of goods that have been subsidized for decades, as well as the loneliness brought on by the growing emigration of young people.

They were young when Fidel Castro entered Havana and lived through all the major events on the island, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to U.S. President Barack Obama shaking the hand of Raúl Castro in 2016.

Now, their revolutionary spirit is being tested in the latest crisis, which is forcing them to sell cigarettes on the streets, line up for a loaf of bread and seek free meals offered by churches and some state institutions.

An aging country

After lunch, Casado walked the four blocks home to tend to household chores she still performs without assistance. Her home is on the second and top floors of a 19th-century building that, like many in the capital, is falling apart.

Born in 1942, Casado was a teenager when the revolution led by Castro triumphed. Her life has spanned the island’s most defining moments, from the 1962 Missile Crisis to the so-called Special Period following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She also lived through the 1970s and 80s, when the island's economy was heavily subsidized by the Soviets and when the Cuban system seemed to promise a brighter future.

“This is our life; we were born and raised here,” she said.

Even before the economic crisis worsened and before the wave of emigration over the past five years, Cuba was already one of the countries with the oldest populations in Latin America, a trend nudged further by high life expectancy and low birth rates.

According to Cuba's National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2024, almost 26% of the population was aged 60 or older. That is almost twice the regional average of 14.2% in the same year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL.

The last five years have seen a population decline in Cuba of nearly 1.5 million, primarily due to migration. The number of Cubans residing on the island, which stood at 11.1 million, has fallen to just 9.7 million.

The impact of the crisis and the exodus of youth is visible at a glance. Elderly people walk the streets alone —some rummaging through trash, others standing in long lines for the bread and rice provided by the ration book, the basic subsidized foods the state guarantees to every Cuban.

The plight of the elderly is so critical that the government recently authorized private entrepreneurs to operate elder care services and residential facilities, a move marking a significant departure from the island’s traditional model of total state control.

Casado insists that she is still privileged. She is mentally sharp and has no physical impairments — she doesn’t even use a cane — and manages entirely on her own. Her only medication is half a tablet for blood pressure, which, “so far,” remains available at the state-run pharmacies.

Despite the poverty and loneliness, she continues to have faith in the government and blames the country’s woes on the United States.

“We’re doing everything we can here to move the country forward,” she said. “But the thing is, we have a very powerful enemy, and he’s right there, right on our doorstep."

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Jeffrey Viel tied it with 6:29 left in regulation for the Ducks, who rallied from an early two-goal deficit and another third-period hole before taking a 3-1 series lead with their third consecutive victory over the back-to-back Western Conference champion Oilers.

The Ducks completed their NHL-best 10th multi-goal comeback of the season when Poehling’s sharp-angled shot hit an Edmonton skate in front and reluctantly trickled under goalie Tristan Jarry, who had played well in his first playoff start for his new team. Poehling celebrated immediately, even though he wasn't totally sure the game was over.

“I thought I saw some white (between the puck and the goal line) when I was behind the net,” Poehling said. “Then everyone was celebrating. Did it go in? I'm like, ‘I think so?’ But yeah, I thought so right away."

An extensive video review revealed no reason to overturn the judgment on the ice that the puck had barely crossed the goal line underneath Jarry’s skate. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch was unconvinced.

“I can’t see it going in,” Knoblauch said. “I can’t see the line. ... The (initial) goal call on the ice was probably about 60 to 90 seconds after (the shot), maybe even more. They huddled when they got to center ice and then they made the (initial) call that it was a good goal. I don’t know. Wasn’t very definitive.”

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Edmonton.

Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund scored power-play goals in the second period for the Ducks, who have scored 20 goals in four games to begin their team's first Stanley Cup playoff series in eight years. Lukas Dostal stopped 24 shots and made a pair of spectacular saves on McDavid in the final minutes.

“We're just playing so connected right now, and we're doing a good job of doing the right things,” said Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who leads the NHL in postseason scoring with eight points after recording two assists in Game 4. “We're all just feeling great, and I think we're all competing to the best of our ability, and it's just paying off right now.”

Evan Bouchard scored a tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Jarry made 34 saves for the Oilers. Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored first-period goals.

Edmonton nearly won it late in regulation, but Dostal made a sprawling pad save to deny McDavid on a late breakaway — and Dostal added another big stuff of McDavid in the final minute. The Oilers’ superstar center, who is suspected to be dealing with an injury, had two assists in Game 4.

Jarry struggled for Edmonton right after arriving in a midseason trade with Pittsburgh, losing his job to Connor Ingram. But with the Oilers struggling mightily to stop the fast, exciting Ducks, Knoblauch made the switch and got a solid effort from Jarry, who hadn’t played since April 8.

The Oilers also improved their defensive structure after a shambolic Game 3 – and yet the energetic, hungry Ducks still pumped in four more goals despite never leading.

Kapanen silenced the raucous sellout crowd at Honda Center 38 seconds after the opening faceoff with his fourth goal in four games. Nugent-Hopkins then scored just Edmonton’s second power-play goal of the series.

The Ducks began yet another comeback with vicious wrist shot from Gauthier, their 22-year-old top scorer. Anaheim’s once-awful power play has scored in eight consecutive games.

Granlund and Leo Carlsson then teamed up for a fluid give-and-go to tie it.

Bouchard ripped a wrist shot for a tiebreaking goal just 4 seconds into an Oilers power play, but the Ducks’ fourth line tied it again, with Viel punching home a rebound of John Carlson’s shot for his second career playoff goal.

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

Udoka said Durant has a bone bruise on his ankle that is painful and he has limited his mobility, but didn't rule out his return this season.

“Yeah, a possibility, for sure,” Udoka said. “I didn’t know how bad it was initially and then we got that prognosis. But he’s doing what he can to get swelling out and mobility back. And just like the knee, we weren’t sure when he was going to come back, but he snapped back pretty quickly to be available for Game 2. So it is a true game-to-game, day-to-day thing.”

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Durant missed Game 3 on Friday night with the ankle injury, when the Rockets blew a six-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation of an eventual 112-108 overtime loss to fall to 0-3 in the series.

Sunday's 115-96 win was the third game of the series that Durant has missed after he sat out the opener with a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.

His injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

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

A foul was called after Ayton hit Sengun when he had the ball and was heading toward the basket with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter. The play was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant foul 2 and Ayton was ejected.

The referee announcing the foul called the contact "unnecessary and excessive.”

“We’re both sweaty guys,” Ayton said. “I just slipped off his shoulder and literally my elbow hit him right there above his shoulders and it looked crazy on camera. But I’m not no guy who’s a dirty player or plays like that. ... I just hope he’s all right and didn’t think it was intentional.”

Players and coaches from both teams questioned whether Ayton should have been ejected.

“It looked intentional, but I was surprised at the flagrant 2,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “But that’s the NBA nowadays and they call it a little softer than they used to.”

Sengun was glad that they called it, but wasn't sure if it was worthy of an ejection.

“I don’t want to make the officials crazy, but I didn’t expect him to get ejected, to be honest,” he said. “I think it was a little bit soft.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Ayton would never do something like that on purpose.

“He’s got such a sweet, kind soul, and no, that wasn’t dirty or intentional,” he said. “It looked from our vantage point like he was trying to brace himself with that off arm ... and it looked like his arm just kind of slipped and obviously hit him in the head.”

The Lakers trailed 76-57 at the time of the foul and lost 115-96 to send the series back to Los Angeles Wednesday night. Ayton led the team with 19 points and 10 rebounds despite the ejection.

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

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

The Rockets got their first win in the series after falling into an 0-3 hole despite missing Kevin Durant for a third game thanks to a balanced scoring attack. Durant sat out a second straight game with a sprained left ankle after missing Game 1 with a bruised right knee.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Thompson said. “Backs against the wall, us coming to perform, but we know we can do that all the time. And I feel like today we were making shots. It’s the first time we were really making shots and we were capitalizing on the turnovers.”

Houston’s entire starting lineup scored at least 16 points with Alperen Sengun adding 19, Reed Sheppard 17 and Jabari Smith Jr. 16.

The Lakers were led by Deandre Ayton, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds before being ejected with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter for a flagrant foul 2 on a hit to Sengun’s head. His output wasn’t nearly enough to allow the Lakers to close the series out on a night when LeBron James didn’t have his best game.

He had 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting with nine assists and eight turnovers before sitting with about 7½ minutes to go after scoring 19, 28 and 29 points in the first three games. But he wasn’t the only Laker who struggled. Los Angeles made just five 3-pointers after combining for 35 through the first three games.

James was 0 for 3 from long range, Marcus Smart missed both of his attempts and Luke Kennard was 0 for 3.

The Lakers had 23 turnovers Sunday night.

“If we want to win this series, we have to protect the ball and we have to defensive rebound and we have to be able to obviously bring that toughness which we did tonight,” James said. “I’m not worried about that. But the turnovers obviously killed us from start to finish.”

Houston looked good from the start in this one after squandering a six-point lead in the final 26 seconds of regulation in a devastating 112-108 overtime loss Friday night.

“The focus was good today and I think just in general guys have pride,” coach Ime Udoka said. “You obviously don’t want to get swept. And we understood how well we played last game and that was a big picture and the perspective we had was we played a really good three quarters, don’t let that last 30 seconds take away from what you did and I think it was a good carryover tonight.”

The Rockets led by nine at halftime and used a 12-4 run to start the third and make it 68-51 with about 8½ minutes to go in the quarter. They were up by 19 later in the quarter before going on a 9-3 run to end the quarter and push the lead to 90-65 entering the fourth.

Houston led by 23 with about 7½ minutes remaining when coach JJ Redick cleared the Lakers' bench.

Ayton was ejected with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter after receiving a flagrant foul 2 for hitting Sengun in the face with his elbow and forearm. The referee announcing the foul called the contact “unnecessary and excessive.”

Durant was on the bench Sunday night to support his team after he was absent Friday night because Udoka said he was receiving treatment on his injured ankle.

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

The Trump administration's campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has gone on since early September and killed at least 186 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the Caribbean Sea.

The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

After Sunday's attack, Southern Command posted a video on X showing a boat moving swiftly in the water before an explosion left it in flames. It repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.

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.

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.

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

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: a TV adaptation of Isabel Allende’s beloved novel “The House of the Spirits” on Prime Video, the anime hit “Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” on Crunchyroll and two Matthew Rhys projects — the movie thriller “Hallow Road” and the Apple TV horror comedy “Widow’s Bay.”

New movies to stream from April 27-May 3

— Emerald Fennell’s loose adaptation of Emily Brontë’s“Wuthering Heights” is on its way to heat up the small screen, streaming on HBO Max on May 1. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi play Catherine and Heathcliff in the hyper stylized film which lets its tortured characters do something about all that pent up lust. In my review for The Associated Press, I wrote “There are myriad pleasures to be had in the bold, absurd pageantry and devilish scheming. Yet for all the big swings, Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ amounts to something oddly shallow and blunt: garish and stylized fan fiction with the scope and budget of an old-school Hollywood epic.”

— Newly minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan voices a tiny woodland creature who switches bodies with his sworn enemy, a majestic bird (voiced by Juno Temple) in “Swapped,” streaming on Netflix on Friday, May 1. “Tangled” filmmaker Nathan Greno directs the movie, which also features the voices of Cedric the Entertainer and Tracy Morgan. If it sounds a bit like “Hoppers,” remember, that was an “Avatar” situation. This is “Freaky Friday.”

— The anime hit “Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” will be streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursday. Tatsuya Yoshihara directed the film, based on the manga series by Tatsuki Fujimoto about a teenager who was murdered by the Yakuza and reborn with a unique ability: transforming body parts into chainsaws, which he uses to help fight devils now. It’s also a romance! And rated R.

— “Conbody vs Everybody,” about an ex-con attempting to rebuild his life in New York, might not technically be a movie (OK, it’s a five-part docuseries), but it’s from the great Debra Granik (“Winter’s Bone” and “Leave No Trace” ) and it’s debuting exclusive on the Criterion Channel on Friday, May 1. Filmed over eight years, Granik chronicles Coss Marte’s journey to building a New York gym that employs formerly incarcerated people.

—And finally, in the eerie “Hallow Road,” streaming on Hulu on Saturday, May 2, Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys play parents rushing to help their daughter after an accident late one night. I wrote in my review for The Associated Press that “it’s an effectively minimalistic thriller that leaves much room for interpretation and debate.”

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

New music to stream from April 27-May 3

— Hold her beer, Sabrina Carpenter. It’s time. Kacey Musgraves has returned to corner the market on too-clever, comedic country-pop songs about arousal. Such is the case of Musgraves’ “Dry Spell,” the first single from her highly-anticipated seventh studio album, “Middle of Nowhere,” out Friday, May 1. But a one trick pony she is not. The release was inspired by her home state of Texas, as evidenced by a song she premiered at Coachella earlier this month: “Uncertain, TX,” which on the album features the patron saint of the Lone Star State, Willie Nelson. Yeehaw and carry on.

— Many might know the Irish-language, Belfast-based hip-hop trio Kneecap from the headlines they inspire: From criticism for their political statements, which previously saw them banned in Canada and Hungary — they’ve accused critics of trying to silence them because of their support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war in Gaza — to their BAFTA award-winning self-titled biopic. But Kneecap is a hip-hop group with a DIY ethos, and a hip-hop group with a DIY ethos they remain. On Friday, May 1, listeners will be able to form their own opinions: They’ll release another new album, titled “FENIAN,” a reference to the 19th-century Irish revolutionaries dedicated to independence from British colonial rule. It opens with “Éire go Deo,” a rallying cry for the protection of the Irish language, and builds in intensity from there.

— Even if you haven’t heard of them, you’ve heard them — or the results of their legacy. American Football, like the cult classic film version of a rock band, have been undeniably influential in independent music circles for the last three decades. That’s namely for their role as progenitors of a very distinct guitar sound often referred to as “twinkly,” or with the genre term “Midwest emo.” It is an immediately recognizable sound, defined by it's characteristics: An unusual, complex time signature, intricate fingerpicking and tapping but with a clean tone, no distortion, generous reverb and so on. If that’s too technical an explanation, just press play on their latest album, “LP4.” It’s not too late to become obsessed. And “No Feeling,” which features Brendan Yates of the Grammy-award winning Turnstile, is not a bad place to begin.

— A new high-concept album from Tori Amos? Why not! On Friday, May 1, she’ll release “In Times of Dragons,” a 17-track release that sees the singer performing an alternative universe version of herself as she “continues her flight from a dangerous and powerful billionaire husband,” according to the record’s official press materials. It’s allegorical and political, to be sure, and she’s not going it alone. She’s joined by the “Gasoline Girls” — there’s power in numbers — which is also a jaunty piano number about not giving up the good fight.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from April 27-May 3

— Roku has a new program for younger first time home buyers. “This First House ” follows millennial and Gen Z families as they go through the daunting process of buying a home. They’re guided by renovation experts Zack and Camille Dettmore. The show is a spinoff of the PBS staple “This Old House.” It hits The Roku Channel on Monday.

— The TV adaptation of Isabel Allende’ s beloved novel “The House of the Spirits” debuts on Prime Video on Wednesday. The Spanish-language series follows the trials and tribulations of a multi-generational Latin family. The cast includes Alfonso Herrera, Dolores Fonzi and Nicole Wallace with Allende and Eva Longoria among executive producers.

— Matthew Rhys plays the mayor of a small coastal town that’s more creepy than charming in a new horror comedy for Apple TV called “Widow’s Bay.” He wants to make the island a tourist destination but the locals aren’t on board. The reason? They think it’s haunted. The series launches Wednesday.

— If you don’t scroll through real estate websites fantasizing about your dream home then what do you do with your downtime? HGTV’s “Zillow Gone Wild” is hosted by Jack McBrayer and takes you on a tour of some of these outrageous houses. A new season begins streaming Saturday, May 2 on HBO Max.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from April 27-May 3

— Artemis II made space travel look fun, but things get scarier the farther you get from Earth. Take Carcosa, the setting of Sony’s Saros. Not only is it filled with hostile life-forms, but the planet itself is a shape-shifter — meaning its geography changes with each new mission. Fortunately, you have an arsenal of high-tech weapons as well as a nifty shield that absorbs alien projectiles and sends them back as missiles. Housemarque, the Finnish studio that helped launch the PlayStation 5 with 2021’s Returnal, calls it “bullet ballet, evolved.” Start dancing Thursday on PS5.

— Aphelion hits a little closer to home. It takes place on Persephone, a frozen planet on the edge of our solar system. Two astronauts are separated after their spacecraft crashes, and they have to use their exploratory skills and sharp observation to figure out what went wrong and find each other. French developer Don’t Nod says it collaborated with the European Space Agency to create “a realistic depiction of near-future space exploration” — but don’t relax too much, because there’s a hostile life form on your trail here too. Break the ice Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Lou Kesten

Are prediction markets safe places for news junkies to bet on events — or dens of insider trading?

A lot is at stake as states vow to heavily regulate or even ban what they view as illegal gambling operations. Even the Trump family could be impacted as it lays plans to open its own prediction market.

Just how fair prediction markets are now depends partly on the trading venue. They all have different internal policies and different rules, though recent headlines suggest they are all going through adolescent growing pains — and the adults are worried.

Part of the problem is no one on the outside can tell who exactly is placing the winning bets, fueling suspicion some participants are trading on non-public information and triggering demands for Washington to crack down.

“There has been very much a laissez-faire" attitude toward the industry, said Richard Warr, professor of finance at NC State University. “Regulation always takes time to catch up.”

Polymarket versus Kalshi

They're the two dominant players in the industry but approach the business differently.

Polymarket operates primarily outside the U.S. and gives the impression of being a no-holds-barred wild child. It was even banned for a time from operating in the U.S. after the Biden administration ruled it wasn’t complying with regulations.

Polymarket uses cryptocurrencies to settle bets, allowing customers to use pseudonyms and remain anonymous. Critics say that encourages people with inside information to take a chance, though experts note that Polymarket should know who such people are from when the accounts and payments were verified.

Kalshi has been a U.S.-regulated exchange since 2020. By contrast, it requires its customers to show ID and so knows all their names on the back end, though it is shields their identities from other bettors on its site. And since it operates onshore, it also has to follow U.S. “Know Your Customer” rules to make sure money launderers and other assorted crooks are not using its market for criminal activities.

In the competition for customers, Kalshi is seeking to portray itself as the responsible, clean actor.

“Not all prediction markets are the same," said Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana as calls grew for a crackdown earlier this month following the ceasefire bets. She added, “We support Congress and regulators taking action to police insider trading."

Capturing Maduro, and making a killing

The latest news of alleged insider trading came this past week after the arrest of an army special operations soldier accused of using inside information to bet in Polymarket before the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Polymarket emphasized that it had alerted federal authorities that something was awry with the soldier's account, though it's not clear whether customers view this as evidence the company is a good policeman or just overwhelmed by too many bad actors. “We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process," Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan posted on X. “This happens constantly behind the scenes, despite what many are led to believe.”

Kalshi took a different take and seized upon the news to say the same soldier — Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who had netted $400,000 on his trades — had tried to make a Maduro bet earlier on Kalshi but didn't pass muster and was turned down.

“Unlike competitors whose trading activity is mostly offshore and unregulated, we ban and police insider trading and don’t allow war markets," a Kalshi spokesperson told the AP.

Israeli soldiers, and congressmen

Earlier this year, Israeli authorities arrested two soldiers for allegedly trading on secret information on its country's operations against Iran last year among other things.

On Wednesday, Kalshi announced that three politicians running for federal office had gambled on their own elections. The candidates, one running for the Senate in Virginia and two congressional hopefuls from Texas and Minnesota, were fined and banned from Kalshi for five years.

The industry is scrambling to clean things up.

Last month, Kalshi said it would ban political candidates from trading on their own campaigns, and it would preemptively block anyone involved in college or professional sports from trading contracts related to the sports they play or are employed by.

Polymarket also recently rewrote its rules to say clearly that users cannot trade on contracts where they might possess confidential information or could influence the outcome of an event.

State crackdown

The federal government maintains that oversight belongs to one of its agencies, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and prediction markets are not under the purview of state gambling laws. After all, it argues, the CFTC already oversees financial derivatives sold by banks to companies as a hedge against risks, and these prediction market bets are similar.

Some states fervently dismiss that argument.

“Gambling by another name is still gambling,” said New York state attorney general Letitia James after suing two new players — Coinbase and Gemini — for allegedly operating illegal gambling businesses. “It is not exempt from regulation.” In big states like California and Texas where bettors are using the markets to get around sports betting bans, the pushback to the CFTC's support for prediction markets has been especially fierce. “I don’t remember the CFTC having authority over the ‘derivative market’ of LeBron James rebounds,” Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah wrote in response to a social media post from CFTC chairman Michael Selig in February. Cox vowed to use “every resource” to block the market from his state.

Congress is vowing a crackdown, too.

Members on both sides of the aisle are pushing for more oversight of bets on war, assassinations, terrorist attacks and a person's death. Federal law already gives the CFTC the authority to bar some of these so-called event contracts, but some lawmakers are seeking an outright ban. “There is no justification for gambling on lives,” said Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff last month, noting that bets on war could also tip off U.S. enemies and therefore are national security risks.

What Trump thinks

Trump's family stands to profit if the industry grows, yet another conflict in a presidency rife with them.

His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has a stake in Polymarket through a venture capital fund in which he is a partner. He is also an adviser to both Polymarket and Kalshi. And the Trump business that runs the social media platform Truth Social has plans to build its own prediction market, called Truth Predict.

As for the president himself, its not clear if he's going push for more regulation, though he has turned somewhat critical.

“I was never much in favor, and I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is," he said Thursday, referring to the online bests. "Now, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”

Embiid had 26 points and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes, a gutsy effort in his latest return from injury that wasn't enough to overcome the Celtics in their 128-96 Game 4 win Sunday night for a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

“You try to do the best job possible with the conditions,” Embiid said. “You've still got to go out there and try and play and win a basketball game. We didn't do that tonight. We didn't play well.”

Embiid — who received a roaring ovation in pregame introductions — wasted little time scoring in his first game since April 6. The two-time NBA scoring champion sank two free throws for the Sixers' first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team's first eight points.

Embiid withered after the fast start and missed seven straight shots before converting a three-point play in the third quarter. That cut the Sixers’ deficit to 23 points.

Embiid was listed as doubtful to start the day and was upgraded to questionable about 90 minutes before the scheduled tipoff. Embiid returned to the court wearing a protective brace around his midsection, and was cleared to play about 40 minutes before the start of Game 4.

The 32-year-old Embiid averaged 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds this season after playing in only 19 games in 2024-25. He hasn’t appeared in as many as 40 games in a regular season since 2022-23, when he averaged a career-best 33.1 points and earned MVP honors.

Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston — he said he had unspecified complications after the surgery — on April 9 after Philadelphia’s star big man was stricken with appendicitis overnight.

Embiid provided nothing more than an early emotional lift to a Sixers team that was a 7 1/2-point home underdog to the Celtics, according to oddsmakers.

“I thought he had a lot of good looks,” coach Nick Nurse said. “A lot of them went in and out. That wasn't certainly helping our offense.”

The Celtics won Game 1 by 32 points and the Sixers responded with a surprise 111-97 win in Boston in Game 2. Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points and shot the Sixers into a fourth-quarter lead in Game 3 before Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown took over down the stretch for the Celtics in a 108-100 victory.

Embiid joined Maxey, rookie standout VJ Edgecombe, Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. in the starting lineup.

Embiid's absence in the play-in tournament win over Orlando and the first three playoff games against Boston continues a trend of injury-plagued postseasons.

Such as:

In 2024, Embiid played in the playoffs through a bout with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis. He wore sunglasses to the podium after he scored 50 points in the Sixers’ Game 3 win over the Knicks and said at the time he was dealing with various symptoms such as blurred vision and dry eyes.

A year earlier, Embiid missed a playoff game in two series because of a sprained right knee.

In 2022, the Sixers won 51 games under coach Doc Rivers and had a great chance at a deep playoff run until Embiid suffered a right orbital fracture and a concussion when he was hit in the face by Toronto’s Pascal Siakam. He also suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb. Embiid missed two games in a second-round series against Miami. The Sixers lost both games and the series, 4-2.

Embiid missed one game in the 2021 playoffs with a torn meniscus in his right knee.

He missed one playoff game in 2019 and two in 2018 with injuries.

Embiid said he no choice but to push through his latest postseason malady headed into Game 5 Tuesday night in Boston.

“You probably go through a couple of days where you feel bad for yourself,” Embiid said. “Then it's right back to it. Are you going to give up or are you going to try and come back as early as possible?”

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

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Boston.

“It's going to have to be a big pick-up mentally,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said.

Jaylen Brown scored 20 points for the Celtics, who thumped the Sixers by 32 points for the second time in the series. The Celtics outrebounded the Sixers 51-30.

Embiid scored 26 points in 34 minutes just 17 days after having an appendectomy. Embiid wasted little time scoring in his first game since April 6. The two-time NBA scoring champion sank two free throws for the Sixers’ first points of the game, added a monster two-handed jam and scored the team’s first eight points.

Embiid withered after the fast start and missed seven straight shots before he converted a three-point play in the third quarter. That cut the Sixers' deficit to 23.

The Celtics hardly needed much production from Brown or Tatum — they combined for 50 points in a Game 3 win and only 13 in the first half of Game 4 — and used a whopping 14-rebound edge in the first half that sparked a 13-0 shutout in second-chance points to build a 21-point lead.

All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey took a backseat to Embiid and took only three shots in the first half. He scored 22 points for the Sixers.

“That can't happen," Maxey said of the slow start. “That's on me. That's just unacceptable by me. I was playing within the flow of the game. It kind of happened that way. It wasn't meant to happen that way.”

Maxey and the Sixers largely tried to get Embiid rolling early.

Embiid had an appendectomy in Houston on April 9 after Philadelphia’s star big man was stricken with appendicitis overnight. He returned to the court Sunday wearing a protective brace around his midsection and was cleared to play about 40 minutes before the scheduled tipoff.

“What am I going to do? Cry about it?” Embiid said of his latest postseason malady.

Whatever emotional lift he provided lasted only minutes into the first quarter.

Pritchard buried a long 3 on one leg to end the first quarter and give Boston a 34-18 lead.

“He’s just a guy that finds the game. He dictates the pace for us,” Celtics coach Joe Mazulla said. "He did a good job of that for himself and others tonight. When we’re at our best, he’s aggressive.”

Embiid shot 3 of 5 in the first quarter while the rest of the Sixers missed 10 of 13 shots.

There were some questions about how Tatum’s return in early March from the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered in the playoffs last May would affect the flow of a group that had learned to adjust and thrive without the six-time All-Star.

Instead, Tatum has reacclimated himself in short order and the Celtics are dominating like a team that feels as though the East will go through Boston.

Embiid's gutsy return mattered little, and now the Celtics can clinch the series at home and wait for the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-New York Knicks series.

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

Fredericksburg broke the game open with early run support and never looked back, scoring in multiple innings while its pitching staff kept Salem’s offense off balance throughout.

Salem struggled to generate offense against Fredericksburg pitching, managing only three hits and failing to capitalize on limited opportunities. The RidgeYaks were unable to advance runners consistently and did not mount a serious rally at any point in the game.

The RidgeYaks are back in action on Tuesday, taking on Wilson at 6:05 p.m.

After outdueling Chris Buescher with a last-lap pass Sunday, Hocevar celebrated with one of NASCAR’s most unconventional victory laps. While sitting on the windowsill of his No. 77 Chevrolet to salute the crowd with fist pumps and waves, the lanky Hocevar managed to keep his left hand on the wheel while driving down the frontstretch.

He steered the car nose-first into the outside wall to perform a burnout before climbing onto the roof.

“He looked like Shamu hanging out the window,” said Jeff Dickerson, a co-owner of Hocevar’s Spire Motorsports car.

The unique revelry was appropriate for the rising star who has made headlines by angering veterans with aggressive moves.

“I’ve had this thought up for a while,” Hoecvar said after becoming the 13th driver to earn his first Cup win at Talladega. “I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I was going to figure out how to do it. It took me a while.

“I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it any better way.”

Hocevar joined Ty Gibbs ( who won two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway ), as the second first-time winner this season by winning his 91st start in NASCAR’s premier series.

The 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan, used a drafting push from Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet to edge past Buescher’s No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds.

Buescher had been getting drafting help from Erik Jones, who spun after contact from Hocevar while battling for second with seven laps remaining. Jones’ No. 43 Toyota stalled to bring out the final yellow and set up a three-lap shootout in which Buescher and Hocevar ran side by side virtually all the way to the checkered flag.

“That was a fun race,” Buescher said. “I felt really good where we were at coming off Turn 4. Felt like we were in a spot to take this Ford Mustang into victory lane. Man, it was close.”

Bowman finished third (his best finish since missing four races with vertigo ), followed by Chase Elliott and Zane Smith.

“To be blunt, it just feels good to get out of here without crashing,” Bowman said. “I’m getting old and don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean.”

With tight packs at nearly 200 mph, Talladega is known for massive wrecks, and some contact at the front involved 26 of the 40 cars in the field.

Bubba Wallace was leading on Lap 115 when he lost control of his No. 23 Toyota on a push by the No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson were among those eliminated from contention in the crash, along with Wallace, who finished outside the top 30 for the third time in five races.

“It’s a bummer,” said the 23XI Racing driver, who was making his 300th Cup start. “But we’ve got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. And we’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better at being pushed and maybe not have that happen.”

In an attempt to blunt the fuel conservation strategies that have become prevalent at superspeedways, NASCAR instituted a 98-lap first stage that covered more than half the race distance (which is typically the length of the final stage). The change resulted in an opening segment that ran for 85 minutes under green as drivers cautiously raced well below their maximum speeds to achieve optimum mileage.

They opened the second stage at full throttle, and the big pileup erupted only 10 laps later.

“It’s frustrating,” Logano said. “What do you want? Save fuel or crash? Pick one. That’s what it feels like right now. You’ve got round bumpers on these things. The cars are unstable. And once everyone starts pushing and racing aggressive, it’s going to happen. So until we fix that stuff, we’re going to continue seeing it, unfortunately.”

Points leader Tyler Reddick announced on the Fox prerace show that he had finalized a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin recently had guaranteed the return of Reddick, who has 10 of his 13 career wins (including five this season) since joining 23XI Racing in 2023.

“Excited to have it all done and be able to continue building on what we’ve done,” Reddick said. “Just really glad that myself and 23XI were able to get to a good place and get the deal done. So I’ll be here for hopefully a long time.”

The NASCAR Cup Series will race May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway, the lone stop this season at the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. Joey Logano won at Texas last year, the most recent Cup victory for the three-time series champion.

Abbas Araghchi had left Pakistan’s capital late the previous day, creating confusion around an expected second round of talks there, but he returned before continuing on to Moscow on Sunday, Iranian state media said. He had been in Oman, which previously mediated talks and is on the other side of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The White House last week said it would dispatch envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad to follow up on historic face-to-face talks earlier this month. But shortly after Araghchi's departure Saturday, Trump said he had called off the mission because of a lack of progress with Iran.

“If they want, we can talk but we’re not sending people," Trump told Fox News on Sunday. He said earlier on social media: “All they have to do is call!!!”

Indirect talks between the two sides were ongoing, two Pakistani officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the U.S. and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted the fighting that began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken the global economy.

Strait of Hormuz at center of Iran’s discussions in Oman

A standoff remained on in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passes, as Iran has restricted movement through it and the U.S. enforces a blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Oman’s response wasn’t immediately clear.

The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insists on ending the U.S. blockade before a new round of talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.

Araghchi also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said any talks would be indirect and Pakistani officials would act as go-betweens, reflecting Tehran's wariness after rounds of indirect talks last year and earlier this year ended with Iran being attacked by the U.S. and Israel.

Trump said Iran has offered a ‘much better’ proposal

The economic fallout is growing two months into the war as global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies are disrupted by the near-closure of the strategic strait.

Both sides have continued to make military threats. Iran’s joint military command Saturday warned that “if the U.S. continues its aggressive military actions, including naval blockades, banditry, and piracy” it will face a “strong response.”

Trump last week ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines in the waterway.

Trump told journalists on Saturday, before a security incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, that within 10 minutes of him canceling Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Islamabad, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.

He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.” The status of Iran's enriched uranium has long been at the center of tensions. Tehran has 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Syed Mohammad Ali, an independent political analyst in Pakistan, said the delay in the talks must not be seen as a setback and that indirect talks were progressing. He said tensions between Washington and Tehran cannot be eased overnight and the negotiation process requires patience.

"But the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding, and both sides have a desire to end the conflict in a way that does not backfire at home,” Ali said.

A growing toll even as fragile ceasefires hold

Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah fighting resumed two days after the Iran war started.

Also, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.

Another ceasefire — between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group — has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

Oil prices rise again as Pakistan talks fail to materialize

Oil prices rose when the market opened Sunday as traders absorbed the news of the stalled ceasefire talks.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S.-produced light, sweet crude, was selling for $96.50 a barrel Sunday, up 2% since the market closed on Friday. The price was 44% higher than before the start of the Iran war, when oil was selling for about $67 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $107.75 per barrel Sunday, up about 3% since Friday and 48% since the war began, when oil was selling for $72 a barrel.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.

Bauer (1-0) allowed just one baserunner in seven innings and struck out seven on 84 pitches, 54 strikes. The 35-year-old right-hander retired the first 15 batters he faced.

Bauer gave up a one-out walk to Kevin Watson Jr., and he followed by retiring the next five hitters to finish off the third no-hitter in Ducks' history.

The Ducks won, 13-0.

Bauer has been trying to revive his big-league career after serving a 194-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He was never charged with a crime in the matter, and civil claims against him were settled.

Bauer was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in January 2023. He pitched in Japan in 2023 and ’25, sandwiched around one season with Diablos Rojos in the Mexican Baseball League in ’24.

Bauer was 4-10 with a 4.41 ERA with Yokohama last year. He was named the Mexican Baseball League’s pitcher of the year in 2024.

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

Riegle, who began his career as a Republican and later became a Democrat, died Friday of cardiac arrest at his home in San Diego, according to a family statement.

“The cornerstone of our family, Don was a kind, loving, courageous leader who taught us to stand up for justice, economic opportunity, and fairness for everyone,” the statement said.

His family said Riegle was proud of fighting for the rights of working people and leading the Senate opposition to NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement that resulted in the loss of many jobs in his home state. He pushed for economic development and the expansion of health insurance in Michigan.

The native of Flint, Michigan, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1966 at age 28. As a congressman, he challenged President Richard Nixon's policies on the Vietnam War and crossed the aisle to join the Democratic Party in 1973. Three years later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1994.

As chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Riegle pushed for financial reforms of the savings and loan industry. Later he was instrumental in getting treatment for Gulf War syndrome for military veterans who fought in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

Riegle was caught up in the Keating Five controversy, when he and four other senators faced Ethics Committee hearings in 1990 about whether they pressured federal regulators to go easy on savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating after receiving campaign contributions from him. The committee found Riegle did not break any federal laws or Senate rules, but determined his conduct gave the appearance of being improper.

In 2001, Riegle became chairman of government relations for public relations firm APCO Worldwide.

In retirement, he spent time with his grandchildren and other family at his homes in Michigan and California, his family said. His wife of 48 years, Lori Hansen Riegle, was by his side when he died, the statement said.

Memorial services are pending.

Cale Makar also scored and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves as the Presidents' Trophy-winning Avs advanced to face the winner of the heavyweight first-round series between Dallas and Minnesota.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar praised his team's defensive acumen after holding the defense-first Kings to five goals in four games, noting that his high-powered lineup would probably prefer to emphasize offense.

“It's not as fun to commit on the defensive side and really dig in there and spend a bunch of energy there to chip away at the game, but I think they bought into the way we needed to play the LA Kings,” Bednar said. “And that may change a little bit for the next opponent ... but they did a heck of a job playing the right way in order to win it.”

Colorado also ended the 20-year career of Kings captain Anze Kopitar, who announced his pending retirement in September.

The Slovenian center is the top scorer in franchise history and a two-time Selke Trophy winner, and he was a star on the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championship teams in 2012 and 2014 before spending the past decade as their captain. The Kings crowd repeatedly chanted “Kopi! Kopi!” in the final minutes of the blowout, and he got standing ovations when he came out for his final two shifts.

With a masterful four-game demonstration of the roster-wide talent on a team ready to win it all, Colorado earned at least five consecutive days off before the second round, and quite possibly more. The Wild and Stars are tied heading to Game 5 on Tuesday.

“(A sweep) just shows that we stuck to the details this entire series,” Makar said. “I felt like they were pushing us at times, and we were able to weather it. It's a good test for us. That's a stingy defensive team over there that has a lot of offensive threats, and we found different ways to shut them down.”

Joel Edmundson scored and Anton Forsberg stopped 27 shots for the Kings, whose fifth consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs ended with their eighth consecutive postseason defeat over the past two years and their seventh straight first-round exit since hoisting the Cup 12 years ago.

Although interim coach D.J. Smith was able to extend his team’s streak of postseason appearances with a late surge into the last wild-card spot, Los Angeles has not won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup for the second time.

“We fought hard, there's no doubt about that, but they're the best team in the league for a reason,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We were in games, but didn't ultimately get the job done. Proud of our effort.”

After scoring 53 goals in the regular season, MacKinnon got his first goal of these playoffs in the first period on a power play, ending the Avs’ 0 for 9 start to the series with the man advantage. Colorado never trailed in Game 4, putting it away with two goals in less than three minutes early in the third.

Although Los Angeles began the series by slowing down the powerhouse Avs and even holding MacKinnon to one assist in three games, the Kings scored just four goals while being pushed to the brink.

Makar glided past Taylor Ward early in the second period and fired a beautiful wrist shot for the Conn Smythe Trophy winner’s second goal in two games.

MacKinnon added an empty-net goal, giving him 57 goals in 99 career playoff games.

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

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the anniversary with a warning that Russian attacks risk repeating history.

“Russia is once again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster — Russian-Iranian Shaheds regularly fly over the plant, and one of them struck the confinement last year,” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the Iran-designed drones that have wreaked havoc since Moscow launched its all-out war in February 2022.

“The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro killed at least nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday.

One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal, and has used it as a staging and supply point during the war.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed governor in Ukraine’s Luhansk region — of which Russia earlier this month said it had taken full control, a claim denied by Ukraine — said three people were killed in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike on a village, after reporting two people were killed in the early hours of Saturday.

Ukraine did not comment on either attack, which could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.

Earlier, a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod border region, according to local authorities.

Ukrainian forces also struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, deep inside Russian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday. The strikes sparked fires at the facility, which processes 15 million tons of oil a year and produces gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the Russian military. Russia did not immediately comment.

Ukraine has developed its own long-range drones, which can reach targets some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) inside Russia.

It has used them recently against Russian oil facilities as Moscow looks to boost its exports after the Trump administration gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints. Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.

Concerns for Chernobyl on a grim anniversary

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, echoed Zelenskyy's concerns over Chernobyl during a visit to Kyiv, saying repairs to the plant’s damaged outer protective shell must begin immediately.

IAEA assessments show the damage sustained after a strike last year has already compromised a key safety function of the structure, he said, warning that years of inaction could heighten danger to the original sarcophagus beneath it.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said repairs would require at least 500 million euros ($586 million).

Energy Minister Denys Smyhal said on Sunday that partner commitments to fund repairs at the facility totaled 100 million euros ($108 million). That is in addition to a previously agreed 30 million euros ($32 million).

Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone struck the outer shell of the plant’s New Safe Confinement structure — a $2.1 billion archlike enclosure completed in 2019 over the remains of Reactor No. 4 — in February 2025. Moscow denied targeting the plant, alleging Kyiv staged the attack.

Russia's honors its allies from North Korea

Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov visited North Korea on Sunday for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about future military cooperation between the countries.

Belousov said the countries agreed to “transition military cooperation to a sustainable, long-term basis,” according to Russia state news agency Ria Novosti.

During the visit, he presented the Russian Order of Courage to Korean service members who served in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion in August 2024.

Kim has sent thousands of troops and large weapons shipments to support Russia's war against Ukraine.

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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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

Pakistan-led mediators are working to bridge significant gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Iran still insists on ending the U.S. blockade on its ports before launching a new round of talks with the Trump administration, the official said.

Trump said he told his top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to travel to Pakistan this weekend to negotiate with Iran.

“If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Trump said on social media.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the U.S. “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies in Iran.

As the U.S. enforces its blockade of Iranian ports, a standoff also remained on in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil typically travels, with Iran restricting movement through the key waterway.

Early on Monday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it has so far turned around 38 ships during the blockade.

Here is the latest:

Oil prices rise after US-Iran talks in Pakistan fail to materialize

Oil prices rose when the market opened Sunday as traders absorbed the news that talks between the U.S. and Iran about a potential ceasefire have stalled again.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S.-produced light, sweet crude, was selling for $96.50 a barrel Sunday, up 2% since the market closed on Friday. The price was 44% higher than before the start of the Iran war, when oil was selling for about $67 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $107.75 per barrel Sunday, up about 3% since Friday and 48% since the war began, when oil was selling for $72 a barrel.

Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which one-fifth of the world’s oil typically travels.

Iran’s foreign minister leaves Pakistan for Russia

Abbas Araghchi made a brief visit to Islamabad a day after leaving the city and throwing the prospect of a second round of talks with the United States into question.

He had gone to Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, before his latest three-hour visit to Islamabad. He then left for Russia late Sunday.

The U.S. didn’t send envoys to Pakistan for a second round of talks, but Pakistan continues to mediate, and two officials there said indirect talks are still ongoing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Araghchi’s low-profile visit contrasted with his earlier one, when he met with Pakistan’s military and political leaders and presented Tehran’s proposals to end conflict in the region.

Pakistan lifts Islamabad lockdown after stalled US-Iran talks

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said late Sunday that the government has lifted all restrictions around the high-security zone in the capital of Islamabad.

Iranian and U.S. delegations held rare face-to-face talks there earlier this month. The area had remained under lockdown for more than a week as Pakistan hoped to host a second round of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire.

Dar’s remarks signaled that there was no immediate prospect of further direct talks between the United States and Iran. Still, Pakistan’s government says it continues to mediate by conveying messages between the two sides to promote lasting stability in the region.

In a post on X, Dar thanked residents of Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi “for their patience and cooperation.”

Trump says US, Iranian officials can talk by phone

In an interview Sunday on Fox News Channel, Trump said he made that decision rather than send a delegation on a 17-hour flight.

“We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us,” Trump said, not indicating when the call would take place.

Talks appeared to fall apart on Saturday, with Tehran’s top diplomat leaving Pakistan, and Trump soon afterward saying he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad.

Asked about NATO, Trump said he was “very, very disappointed” in the military alliance, which he has suggested the U.S. may consider leaving after member countries ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ve been serving them for many years, spending trillions of dollars, and when we wanted to help they were not there, so we have to remember that,” Trump said.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said early Monday that it had turned around 38 ships so far during its blockade of Iran.

Israel strikes Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon

The Israeli military says it carried out artillery and airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

They targeted Hezbollah militants and weapons sites, including rocket launchers and storage facilities, north of what it calls the Forward Defense Line, as fighting has picked up in recent days despite a ceasefire.

Israeli strikes raise death toll to 2,509 in Lebanon

The country’s health ministry added in figures released Sunday that 7,755 people were wounded in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out on March 2.

The war broke out after Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on April 17. The ceasefire was extended by three weeks on Thursday.

Hezbollah calls its attacks on Israel ‘a legitimate response’

The Iran-backed group on Sunday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ceasefire remarks, in which he said Hezbollah’s actions are threatening the truce between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its shelling of Israeli targets is “a legitimate response” to what it described as Israel’s violations of the ceasefire.

The group also criticized Lebanese authorities, saying they “have placed themselves in a dangerous predicament when they chose to be photographed in a disgraceful image alongside representatives of a usurping and illegitimate entity that violates its land and sovereignty and continues killing its people.”

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was extended for three weeks, with Trump hosting talks flanked by Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.

Israeli girl wounded in Iran missile strike dies weeks later

An 11-year-old Israeli girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian missile strike earlier this month has died of her injuries, according to Sheba Medical Center.

The girl had been hospitalized at Sheba since the attack. She died on Friday after several weeks in critical condition.

She was wounded when a missile struck a residential area in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak on April 1 and had remained in critical condition for several weeks.

Her death raises Israel’s death toll from the war to 39.

Top Iranian diplomat arrives in Pakistan in effort to resume peace talks

Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Islamabad on Sunday after a visit to Oman, Pakistani officials said, as Islamabad steps up efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table.

Abbas Araghchi will hold more talks with Pakistani officials during the visit and is expected to travel to Moscow afterward, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on the record.

Top diplomats for Iran and Qatar speak by phone about peace efforts

Iran’s top diplomat has briefed his Qatari counterpart about his country’s “latest initiatives and diplomatic efforts” to end the war in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone Sunday with Qatar’s top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The two ministers affirmed the importance of diplomatic coordination to back peace efforts, Araghchi wrote in his channel on Telegram.

Egypt’s foreign minister speaks with his Qatari and Iranian counterparts

Egypt Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed efforts to relaunch negotiations between the United States and Iran with his Qatari and Iranian counterparts.

In separate calls with the ministers, Abdelatty affirmed the importance of the diplomatic path to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire in a way that leads to an end to the war.

Israeli president delays decision on Netanyahu request to halt trial

Israeli President Isaac Herzog delayed a decision on a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt his corruption trial.

Herzog’s office said the president has stated “on several occasions” that a settlement between Netanyahu and prosecutors is the best way to resolve the case and this position hasn’t changed.

“The president therefore believes that before addressing the pardon request itself, efforts should first be exhausted to reach an agreement between the parties, outside the courtroom,” the office said.

The announcement marked a setback for Netanyahu, who faces new elections later this year. It also came despite multiple calls by Trump for Herzog to end the trial.

Netanyahu filed his request in November, saying that dropping corruption charges against him would help unify the country. His office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza

At least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Sunday morning in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.

Two men were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a group of people in the Kuwait roundabout in southeastern Gaza City, according to Shifa hospital, which received the casualties.

Another man was shot and killed close to the Saqqa mosque in central Gaza, the hospital said.

Nasser hospital said a 40-year-old woman was shot and killed by Israeli forces close to the Turkish slaughterhouse in the southern part of Khan Younis city.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians near military-held zones.

At least 811 Palestinians have been killed including at least 226 children and 179 women, according to Gaza health officials.

Israeli military tells Lebanese in 7 towns to flee ahead of strikes

Israel’s military on Sunday warned Lebanese living in seven southern towns to flee their homes ahead of strikes in the area.

Col. Avichay Adraea, a military spokesman, claimed without evidence that Hezbollah violated a ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel. He didn’t provide evidence.

Adraea said in a social media post that the military will operate in the area south of Zahrani river and ordered the residents to leave.

Israel previously issued a sweeping warning for people in southern Lebanon to flee their homes during its war against Hezbollah.

Analyst says indirect US-Iran talks progressing

Syed Mohammad Ali, an independent political analyst in Pakistan, said indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran were progressing despite Trump’s decision not to send envoys to talks that had been set to begin this weekend.

“The delay in the second round of Islamabad talks must not be seen as a setback to ceasefire negotiations and peace efforts, which remain on track,” Ali told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Ali said ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran cannot be eased overnight and the negotiation process “requires wisdom and patience from both sides.”

“This is a sensitive and complicated process, and there will be ups and downs, which are normal in such matters. But the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding, and both sides have a desire to end the conflict in a way that does not backfire at home,” Ali said.

Pakistan mediation attempts moving forward

Pakistan’s top political and military leadership is continuing to mediate between the United States and Iran, with indirect ceasefire talks still alive despite mounting tensions between the sides, two Pakistani officials said Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Sunday evening for a second visit in as many days after a short trip to Oman.

Araghchi was in Islamabad on Saturday and presented Tehran’s position on ending the regional conflict to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other senior officials.

There were no immediate plans for U.S. envoys to return for talks, according to the Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Netanyahu expresses shock after shots fired at event attended by Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close Trump ally, said Sunday morning he was shocked by what he called an “attempted assassination” at an event attended by Trump.

Trump was uninjured and rushed off the stage at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night after a man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside the event in Washington.

Police believe the man opened fire and acted alone but did not say who was his intended target or describe a motive. He was taken into custody.

One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said.

“We send our wishes for a full and speedy recovery to the wounded police officer and salute the US Secret Service for their swift and decisive action,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

Islamabad resumes normal life

Life began returning to normal in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday morning.

Authorities in Islamabad eased near-lockdown measures imposed during a week of heightened security prior to planned ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran.

The restrictions enforced across Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi disrupted daily life for hundreds of thousands. Commuters were forced to make long detours, traffic thinned along major arteries and parents struggled to reach schools.

By Sunday, barriers were being lifted and traffic was gradually building on the city’s main roads. Residents described a sense of relief after days of gridlock and uncertainty.

The government said in a social media post late Saturday that tourist destinations, parks and bus terminals were being reopened.

Security remained tight around the heavily guarded Red Zone, home to key government buildings and the site where U.S.-Iran talks were held earlier this month.

Iran hangs man convicted of terrorism

Iran on Sunday hanged a man who was convicted of carrying out terrorist activities in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, state media reported.

Amer Ramesh was hanged after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence issued by a primary court, according to Iran’s judiciary news outlet, Mizanonline.

Mizanonline did not report where he was hanged or when and where he was arrested.

Mizanonline said Ramesh received training in a regional country and was a member of militant group Jaish al-Adl, which reportedly aims to achieve greater rights for people in the Baloch ethnic group.

Iran has executed other people over similar charges and in recent weeks has hanged more than a dozen people accused of terrorist activities.

Iran’s president tells US to end blockade to negotiate

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won’t negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports, according to Iranian media.

Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the U.S. “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies reported.

The Pakistani premier described the call as a “warm and constructive discussion.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded a one-day trip to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Saturday after meeting with Pakistani military and government officials.

The trip did not produce a breakthrough in efforts to relaunch negotiations after Trump canceled a planned trip by his envoys to Islamabad.

Iranian foreign minister plans a return to Pakistan

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will return to Pakistan after his current visit to Oman on his way to visiting Russia.

The report said he was expected to be back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday and would join other members of his delegation who had gone to Tehran for consultations and “instructions on the topics related to the end of the war.”

The writings, sent shortly before shots were fired Saturday night at the Washington Hilton, made repeated references to President Donald Trump without naming him directly and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions, including U.S. strikes on boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence yet of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.

Authorities uncovered what one law enforcement official described as numerous anti-Trump social media posts linked to the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California man accused of trying to breach a security checkpoint at the dinner while armed with multiple guns and knives.

Suspect's brother reached out to Connecticut police

Allen’s brother contacted police in New London, Connecticut, after receiving the writings, according to the law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New London Police Department said in a statement it was contacted at 10:49 p.m., about two hours after the shooting, by an individual who wanted to share information related to it. The police department said it then immediately notified federal law enforcement.

Allen’s sister, who lives in Maryland, told investigators her brother had legally purchased several weapons from a California gun store and kept them at their parents’ home in Torrance without their knowledge, according to the official. She described her brother as prone to making radical statements, the official said.

The writings examined by the AP ran more than 1,000 words and read as a rambling, deeply personal message, opening almost jarringly with a casual “hello everybody!” before shifting into apologies to family members, co-workers and even strangers he feared could be caught in the violence. The note moved between confession, grievance and farewell, with Allen thanking people in his life even as he sought to explain the attack.

Elsewhere, he veered between political anger, religious justifications and rebuttals to imagined critics. He also made a taunting critique of security at the Washington Hilton, mocking what he described as lax precautions and expressing surprise he was able to enter the hotel armed without detection.

The AP limits the use of attackers' writings and social media posts to avoid amplifying their views or encouraging copycat actions. The AP chooses to summarize their words and focus mainly on the victims and investigations.

Allen legally bought a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol in October 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun two years later, according to the law enforcement official and another one who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Acting head of Justice Dept. says Trump officials were targets

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He is believed to have acted alone and is set to face criminal charges Monday.

Authorities say Allen attempted to charge toward the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage unharmed and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

A profile of the shooting suspect emerges

Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.

A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump. The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.

A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as part of a story about new technologies to help people as they age. He had developed a prototype for a new type of emergency brake for wheelchairs.

Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records.

Chaotic scene unfolded minutes after gala began

The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realized something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.

“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.

After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.

Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.

“It’s always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organized news conference at the White House late Saturday.

Matt Fitzpatrick and younger brother Alex combined for a 1-under 71 in alternate-shot play Sunday to pull out a dramatic, single-stroke victory in the Zurich Classic team event and usher the younger Fitzpatrick onto the PGA Tour.

“To win a team event on the PGA Tour with my brother — I don't know if it does gets better than that," said 31-year-old Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the US Open in 2022. “That's how special it feels. To get in over the line the way we did and to hang in there on the back nine is incredible.”

The Englishmen finished with a tournament-record 31-under 257 total, but only after losing a four-stroke lead on the back nine.

They recovered when Matt Fitzpatrick, the third-ranked player in the world, stuck a bunker shot on the par-5 18th a foot from the hole. Alex Fitzpatrick, a 27-year-old European tour regular, smiled and put his hand on his head as he went to mark the ball, knowing that all he had to do to earn a two-year exemption on PGA Tour was sink a virtual gimme.

As his putt dropped, he crouched and put one hand over his face, and then rose to embrace his approaching older brother.

“I couldn’t feel my hands. I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t feel anything,” Alex Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a pretty life-changing thing.”

Watching from the clubhouse tied at 30 under were the teams of Americans Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer and Norwegians Kristoffer Reitan and Kris Ventura. All four players' bids for a first PGA Tour victory had come up just short.

Matt Fitzpatrick arrived in New Orleans as arguably the hottest player in golf with two previous wins since March, including last weekend at Harbour Town.

Now he's won three of the last four PGA Tour events he's entered, starting with the Valspar.

Having shot a tournament record 57 in better ball play Saturday, the Fitzpatricks began the final round with a four-shot lead which stood on the back nine until a near collapse, starting with a double-bogey on No. 12 that ended a 47-hole streak of bogey-free play.

Just after making am 11 1/2-foot bidie putt on the par-5 11th, Matt Fitzpatrick sliced his tee shot on 12 into a cluster cypress trees. Alex tried to punch out from a awkward lie, but hit another tree, and the ball came to rest on the edge of the cart path, still 209 yards away. They double-bogeyed from there, shrinking their lead to a single stroke.

Matt made another error when his short approach shot from the 13th fairway went off the back of the green. Alex’s flop from next to a television camera tower helped them save par.

Matt pulled his tee shot on the par-3 14th into a greenside bunker, and after Alex’s shot skipped 24 feet past the hole, Matt missed the par putt, and they lost the lead.

A week after facing down World No. 1 and crowd favorite Scottie Scheffler in a playoff hole on Hilton Head Island, Matt Fitzpatrick experienced a new kind of pressure, understanding how consequential it would be for his brother if they failed to capitalize on their final-round lead.

“Certainly today I didn’t expect to be as nervous as I was,” Matt Fitzpatrick said about his back-nine stumbles. “I kind of felt like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ I felt like I lost my swing.”

But as he made his way up the 15th fairway, Matt caught sight of his father, Russell, walking along the ropes and gesturing at him.

“That was a really nice moment for me personally,” Matt said. “It was, like, ‘Yeah, come on, mate. Let’s keep going here.’”

Moments later, Matt stepped up to an 8-footer to save par and keep the Fitzpatricks at 30 under — where they remained as they walked to the 18th tee — tied with two teams in the clubhouse.

It's rare for brothers to win in tandem on the PGA Tour. There haven't historically been many team events, but brothers Danny and David Edwards did it at the Walt Disney World Team Championship in 1980.

“Amazing to have them win together. It’s been brilliant,” mother Sue Fitzpatrick said as she walked from a post-tournament concert toward the clubhouse. “What a great finish.”

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

After outdueling Chris Buescher with a last-lap pass Sunday, Hocevar celebrated with one of NASCAR’s most unconventional victory laps. While sitting on the windowsill of his No. 77 Chevrolet to salute the crowd with fist pumps and waves, the lanky Hocevar managed to keep his left hand on the wheel while driving down the frontstretch.

He steered the car nose-first into the outside wall to perform a burnout before climbing onto the roof.

“He looked like Shamu hanging out the window,” said Jeff Dickerson, a co-owner of Hocevar's Spire Motorsports car.

The unique revelry was appropriate for the rising star who has made headlines by angering veterans with aggressive moves.

“I’ve had this thought up for a while,” Hoecvar said after becoming the 13th driver to earn his first Cup win at Talladega. “I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I was going to figure out how to do it. It took me a while.

“I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it any better way.”

Hocevar joined Ty Gibbs ( who won two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway ), as the second first-time winner this season by winning his 91st start in NASCAR’s premier series.

The 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan, used a drafting push from Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet to edge past Buescher’s No. 17 Ford by 0.114 seconds.

Buescher had been getting drafting help from Erik Jones, who spun after contact from Hocevar while battling for second with seven laps remaining. Jones’ No. 43 Toyota stalled to bring out the final yellow and set up a three-lap shootout in which Buescher and Hocevar ran side by side virtually all the way to the checkered flag.

“That was a fun race,” Buescher said. “I felt really good where we were at coming off Turn 4. Felt like we were in a spot to take this Ford Mustang into victory lane. Man, it was close."

Bowman finished third (his best finish since missing four races with vertigo ), followed by Chase Elliott and Zane Smith.

“To be blunt, it just feels good to get out of here without crashing,” Bowman said. “I’m getting old and don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean.”

Big wreck

With tight packs at nearly 200 mph, Talladega is known for massive wrecks, and some contact at the front involved 26 of the 40 cars in the field.

Bubba Wallace was leading on Lap 115 when he lost control of his No. 23 Toyota on a push by the No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson were among those eliminated from contention in the crash, along with Wallace, who finished outside the top 30 for the third time in five races.

“It’s a bummer,” said the 23XI Racing driver, who was making his 300th Cup start. “But we’ve got to figure out how to be pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. And we’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better at being pushed and maybe not have that happen.”

Mileage still matters

In an attempt to blunt the fuel conservation strategies that have become prevalent at superspeedways, NASCAR instituted a 98-lap first stage that covered more than half the race distance (which is typically the length of the final stage). The change resulted in an opening segment that ran for 85 minutes under green as drivers cautiously raced well below their maximum speeds to achieve optimum mileage.

They opened the second stage at full throttle, and the big pileup erupted only 10 laps later.

“It’s frustrating,” Logano said. “What do you want? Save fuel or crash? Pick one. That’s what it feels like right now. You’ve got round bumpers on these things. The cars are unstable. And once everyone starts pushing and racing aggressive, it’s going to happen. So until we fix that stuff, we’re going to continue seeing it, unfortunately.”

New deal

Points leader Tyler Reddick announced on the Fox prerace show that he had finalized a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin recently had guaranteed the return of Reddick, who has 10 of his 13 career wins (including five this season) since joining 23XI Racing in 2023.

“Excited to have it all done and be able to continue building on what we’ve done,” Reddick said. “Just really glad that myself and 23XI were able to get to a good place and get the deal done. So I’ll be here for hopefully a long time.”

Up next

The NASCAR Cup Series will race May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway, the lone stop this season at the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. Joey Logano won at Texas last year, the most recent Cup victory for the three-time series champion.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

De'Aaron Fox added 28 points for the Spurs, who will return home for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

The Spurs announced about an hour before the game that Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 Defensive Player of the Year, would play after clearing the league's concussion protocol.

After the game, he indicated that the way his return to play was handled was “very disappointing” but emphasized that he was treated well by the Spurs’ medical staff. He would not elaborate, saying he did not want to be a distraction.

The Spurs trailed the Blazers by 17 points at the half, but the game was knotted at 74 going into the fourth quarter. Fox and Keldon Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Spurs up 90-77 with 7:14 left.

Johnson's dunk with 4:31 remaining made it 101-81 for San Antonio and all but sealed the win.

“We need to find the answers before having our back against the wall,” Wembanyama said about the second-half comeback. “But that also shows the strength of our team in adversity. We stick together. We get closer to each other, we feed off of each other's energy.”

Deni Avdija led the Trail Blazers with 26 points. There was tense moment with 2:13 left when Avdija and Stephon Castle exchanged shoves. They were given offsetting technical fouls.

“You can be tough, you can be, you know, physical, but there’s a level of disrespect that I’m not gonna accept,” Avdija said about the dustup.

Wembanyama sustained a concussion in the first half of San Antonio's 106-103 loss on Tuesday and was unavailable Friday night for Game 3. But the Spurs rallied in the third quarter and won 120-108 to take the series lead.

Wembanyama, who was listed as questionable going into Sunday's game, started and drew gasps from the crowd at the Moda Center with an emphatic dunk with 9:58 to go in the first half.

Portland went ahead 45-28 in the first half on an 18-3 run. Robert Williams III dunked before a pair of quick 3-pointers from Jerami Grant and Scoot Henderson. Avdija capped the run with a fadeaway jumper.

The Blazers led by as many as 19 in the half and were ahead 58-41 at the break.

Stephon Castle, who had 33 points in San Antonio’s Game 3 win, appeared to injure his left hand in the first half but returned.

The Spurs went on a 13-0 run to open the second half and closed the gap to 58-54 as the Blazers went cold. Devin Vassell's jumper with 4:38 tied it at 62 for the Spurs. He hit another to put San Antonio in front.

“I think there's no useless drama in between us,” Wembanyama said. “We thrive when we do the invisible efforts that benefit others. There’s no jealousy. There’s nobody who cares about their stat line. So it’s our greatest strength.”

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

The Nuggets bounced the Wolves 4-1 in 2023 on their way to the franchise's first NBA championship but Minnesota won the rematch a year later, capped by a 20-point second-half comeback in Game 7 in Denver.

This year the Nuggets rolled into the playoffs on a 12-game winning streak and handled the Timberwolves in the opener of their Western Conference playoff series only to blow a 19-point lead in Game 2 before getting throttled twice in Minneapolis.

Even with their starting backcourt of Donte DiVincenzo (Achilles) and Anthony Edwards (knee) getting hurt Saturday night, the Wolves raced past the Nuggets 112-96 behind Ayo Dosunmu's career-best 43 points, the most by a reserve in a playoff game in half a century.

Game 5 is in Denver and another flop could send the Nuggets into a stunning early exit and an offseason of change after an injury-marred first full season under coach David Adelman, who has had no answers for the Nuggets' sudden struggles.

The Minnesota-Denver game is the nightcap of a three-game slate Monday, one that also could see the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder get their third consecutive first-round sweep. The Thunder lead Phoenix 3-0, with Game 4 on the Suns’ home floor.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, was a maestro in Game 3, scoring 42 points on 15-for-18 shooting.

“He doesn’t need a ton of direction from me,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “But I thought he was obviously outstanding. The efficiency was ridiculous. For him to score like that, on 15 of 18, is a really impressive game.”

And leading off the night is Game 4 in Orlando, where the eighth-seeded Magic will aim to take a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal matchup.

“Being up 2-1 at home is a good thing, but again, you got to come out and do it again,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday’s Game 3 win. “And that’s why I’ll keep saying it’s the one game. ... We’ve got to learn from this game and what we could do better.”

The only fight the Nuggets have put up since their series-opening win came when Nikola Jokic took offense to Jaden McDaniels scoring an uncontested layup with 2.1 seconds left after the Nuggets had conceded their double-digit defeat Saturday night.

Jokic ran from one end of the court to the other to shove McDaniels, who labeled all of the Nuggets bad defenders after Game 2. Players from both teams converged around them to broaden the scuffle. Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, who was livid with Jokic, was ejected along with Denver’s center.

“He scored when we’d stopped playing,” Jokic explained. “You guys saw what happened.”

On Sunday, the NBA fined Jokic $50,000 for initiating the dustup and Minnesota's Julius Randle $35,000 for escalating the altercation.

Both will be eligible to play when the series resumes Monday night in Denver.

The Nuggets have long odds to bounce back and advance. In NBA history, only 13 of 298 teams facing a 3-1 deficit came back to win the series. The last team to do it? The Nuggets in 2020, against both the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets

When/Where to watch: Game 5: 10:30 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock)

Series: Wolves lead, 3-1

Betting line: Nuggets by 10 1/2

What to Know: DiVincenzo’s season is over with an Achilles tendon injury and Edwards is facing a long recovery from a bone bruise and hyperextended knee. ... The Nuggets were the highest-scoring team in the NBA this season and were held under 100 points just twice, back in January. But they managed just 96 points in both of their losses in Minneapolis.

Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic

When/Where to watch: Game 4, 8 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock, NBC Sports)

Series: Magic leads, 2-1

Betting line: Pistons by 2 1/2

What to Know: Behind 25 points each from Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane, the Magic beat the Pistons Saturday. It’s the 13th time since 1984, when the NBA went to the 16-team format, that a No. 8 seed has taken a 2-1 lead in a first-round series over a No. 1 seed. Of the previous 12, five finished off the upset: Miami in 2023, Philadelphia in 2012, Memphis in 2011, Golden State in 2007 and New York in 1999.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Phoenix Suns

When/Where to watch: Game 4, 9:30 p.m. EDT (NBC Peacock)

Series: Thunder lead, 3-0

Betting line: Thunder by 10 1/2

What to Know: Devin Booker should be ready to play in Game 4 when the Suns try to avoid a four-game sweep after leaving Game 3 briefly because of a left ankle injury he sustained after tripping over Lu Dort’s foot. The five-time All-Star returned a few minutes later and said he was fine. Booker said he thought Dort stuck out his foot a little on the play, but didn’t know if it was on purpose.

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

The Spurs announced about an hour before tipoff Sunday that Wembanyama could play in Game 4 of the team's first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers after clearing the league's concussion protocol. He went on to score 27 points with 11 rebounds and seven blocks in San Antonio's 114-93 win.

Wembanyama, the league’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, was ruled out of Game 3 on Friday in Portland because of the concussion. The Spurs won 120-108.

“The way the situation was handled was very disappointing,” Wembanyama said Sunday. He would not elaborate, but emphasized that he was not referring to San Antonio's medical staff.

“I’m not saying that not playing was a good or bad decision. It was a decision, I’m not saying it was good or bad," he said. "But the way the situation was handled, very disappointing.”

Wembanyama sustained the concussion in the first half of Tuesday’s 106-103 loss to the Blazers in San Antonio and did not return to the game. He traveled to Portland while continuing to complete the steps mandated by the league’s concussion protocol.

“I won’t get into details, I don’t want it to become a distraction. Ask me again after the end of the season,” Wembanyama said.

A versatile 7-foot-4 forward from France, Wembanyama averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and a league-best 3.1 blocks per game this season.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said before tipoff Sunday that the team was prepared to play with or without Wembanyama, who was listed as questionable going into the game.

“Fortunately, we have a little experience preparing for a variety of lineups and rotations,” Johnson said. “I think the guys have really empowered us as a staff, I’d say, throughout the season, of being able to have a brand and identity regardless of availability."

With Sunday's win, the Spurs took a 3-1 lead in the first-round series, which shifts to Game 5 in San Antonio on Sunday.

Luke Kornet got the Game 3 start against the Trail Blazers in Wembanyama’s absence, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Players must clear a series of benchmarks before they are allowed to play under the concussion protocol. The results are compared to baseline neurological evaluations players take at the start of the season.

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

In the aftermath, safety and coverage blended as some of the nation's most powerful reporters and editors tried to figure out what was unfolding in front of them.

Or in many cases, above them. Many of the journalists, clad in tuxedos and gowns, had ducked for cover in fear, bewilderment or just plain instinct. “We were under the table before we knew what was happening,” The Atlantic magazine journalists Missy Ryan, Matt Viser and Michael Scherer wrote of their experience.

When they emerged, mobile phones were the tools of their trade — to shoot pictures or video, record interviews or keep a phone line open to describe the scene to colleagues working the story off-site.

“For many people who have either been in a war zone or in the midst of a crisis, I don't think there was any fear,” said former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky, who was attending. “It was get it, find it, shoot it, report it. But it was very frustrating not getting a signal out of the room.”

Struggling to get the news out of the room

She added an expletive. Cellphone service at the Washington Hilton is notoriously spotty.

The bad service, however, was a key factor in Alex Brandon, a photographer for The Associated Press, securing one of the night's most memorable images: shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen on the ground and in custody outside the ballroom, his shirt stripped off.

Brandon, who was attending as a guest and didn't have his usual gear, stood up at his table after hearing the shooting and trained his mobile phone camera on Trump, capturing photos of him as he was surrounded by Secret Service agents and then hustled off the dais.

He knew he had significant photos and had to transmit them to the world. But he had no cell service. He rushed to a doorway to leave the ballroom and outside that, spotted a person lying on the ground being watched by authorities. Brandon immediately sensed it was the suspect and began taking more pictures.

“Frankly, it was muscle memory,” the veteran photographer said. “The whole thing was muscle memory.”

Moments earlier, CNN's Wolf Blitzer got uncomfortably close to the shooter before he was in custody, when Blitzer was returning to the ballroom following a bathroom break. A police officer threw Blitzer to the ground and later hustled him back into the men's room for safekeeping, he described on the network.

“I happened to be a few feet away from him as he was shooting and the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Is he trying to shoot me?’” said Blitzer, a veteran of conflict reporting. “I don't think he was trying to shoot me but I was very close to him as the shots were fired and it was very, very scary but I'm OK now.”

Because it was a room full of journalists, “most of the crowd immediately began to cover the story,” wrote The Washington Post's Maura Judkis, who was there documenting the social scene. “Print journalists interviewed eyewitnesses. Television reporters shot selfie-style video, angled so that the now-empty dais was in the background. Non reporters reached for the wine on the tables, hoping to steady their nerves.”

After diving under her table, Judkis sent a Slack message to colleagues: “shots fired.” In retrospect, she said she should have noted that those reports were unconfirmed. Did she really hear shots or was it something else?

In a fast-developing story, getting news out fast while being careful that it is solid information is a journalist's biggest test. At one point, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, reporting live, said the alleged shooter “is confirmed dead.” She cited a security official working for the nation’s education secretary, who had been seated near her, as her source. But it was wrong.

A change in attitude for administration at odds with reporters?

Hours earlier, the biggest concern for many of the journalists as they prepared for the party was whether they would be subject to a tongue-lashing from Trump, whose animus for the press — expressed in words, policies and legal action — has been a hallmark of his second term. It was his first time attending the correspondents' dinner as president.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a particularly ill-timed comment to Fox News' Jimmy Failla on the event's red carpet, previewed the president's speech. “It will be funny,” she said. “It will be entertaining. There will be some shots fired in the room.”

The speech never came. Trump and the correspondents have expressed interest in rescheduling the event, but it's not clear whether that will happen. The logistics of such a rescheduling after Saturday's events would be daunting, to say the least.

Trump, in remarks at the White House after the incident ended the evening prematurely, said he saw “a tremendous amount of love and coming together” after the shooting.

“This was an event dedicated to the freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press and in a certain way it did,” he said. “I saw a room that was totally united — in one way, it was a very beautiful thing to see.”

Trump praised CBS News' Weijia Jiang, president of the correspondents' association, who had been sitting next to him Saturday night. Like with many reporters, Trump has had contentious exchanges with Jiang, but he said she had done a “fantastic job” with the correspondents event. He gave her the first question at his news conference.

In a interview that aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” Trump told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell: “I hope we’re going to do it again. Norah, tell ’em to get it going, and we should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine.”

Not all of Trump's supporters were generous of spirit. Kari Lake, who has been overseeing the U.S. Agency for Global Media and faces legal action for her work in that role, wrote on social media that she berated CNN's Jake Tapper when she saw him leaving the dinner. “These reporters have spent a decade spreading absolute lies about President Trump,” she wrote. “They share some of the blame for what happened tonight.”

But CBS' Zirinsky said she sensed, in Trump's remarks, a new sense of respect. They now had something in common, as CNN's Brian Stelter noted in his newsletter Sunday. “Thousands of media and political elites now have gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls and churches,” Stelter wrote.

“I felt it,” Zirinsky said. “I may have been the only one. But I was literally sensing when I was listening to him at the White House that there was this shared experience and the relationship, is this a change? Is this the mark of a change of a relationship?”

Still, the combative Trump came through clearly on "60 Minutes." After O'Donnell quoted a sentence from a message written by the alleged gunman, the president responded: “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, the night sky feels infinite. Considered the driest place on Earth, its darkness is also one of the clearest windows to the universe.

A rare combination of dry climate, high altitude and, crucially, isolation from urban light pollution, makes the Atacama an unrivaled hub for world-class astronomy and home to the world’s largest ground-based astronomical projects.

“The conditions in the Atacama Desert are unique in the world,” said Chiara Mazzucchelli, president of the Chilean Astronomical Society. “There are more than 300 clear nights per year, meaning no clouds and no rain.”

But the world's darkest skies may be at risk.

Last year, the desert became a battleground between scientists and an energy firm proposing a green power complex just kilometers (miles) from the Paranal Observatory. Managed by the European Southern Observatory, ESO, the site also is the future home to what is to be the most powerful optical telescope ever built.

Although the energy project was canceled in January following a massive appeal from astronomers, physicists and Nobel laureates, it exposed deep concerns that existing sky preservation laws are lax, outdated and unclear. Since then, several environmental regulations have come under review, including one from Chile's science ministry targeting protected astronomical zones.

“We are working to ensure the new criteria are strict enough to guarantee that there will be no impact on astronomical areas,” said Daniela González, director of the Cielos de Chile Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to protect the quality of Chile’s night skies.

The best skies

The Associated Press spent three days visiting the Paranal facilities in the heart of the so-called Photon Valley. In this high-altitude corridor, several observatories operate side by side using some of the most sophisticated instruments ever engineered.

“Many of these large facilities are located in Chile, and ESO's telescopes in particular are the most powerful astronomical facilities on the planet,” said Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, the intergovernmental organization’s representative in Chile.

Paranal is one of nearly 30 astronomical sites in northern Chile, most of which are managed by international organizations. Every year, the Atacama Desert draws thousands of astronomers and scientists from around the world to investigate the origins of the universe.

“We are lucky to be here,” said Julia Bodensteiner, an assistant professor at University of Amsterdam, noting that the chances of being selected as a visiting astronomer at Paranal are just 20% to 30%.

Walking across the Atacama's rocky, uneven terrain is no easy task. At altitudes exceeding 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), oxygen becomes a luxury, while scorching days give way to relentlessly cold nights. But for space observation and exploration, these more than 105,000 square kilometers (40,500 square miles) of desert are the perfect setting.

The exceptional conditions of the Atacama have enabled some of the most ambitious astronomical projects ever conceived, like the Extremely Large Telescope, ELT — a $1.5 billion endeavor by ESO scheduled for completion in 2030.

With 798 mirrors and a light-gathering area of nearly 1,000 square meters (a quarter of an acre), the ELT will be 20 times more powerful than today’s leading telescopes and 15 times sharper than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

All the data compiled at these observatories play a fundamental role not only for life on Earth, but also for the possibilities of its development beyond our planet. Preserving these research spots is essential.

With the ELT, said ESO astronomer Lucas Bordone, “we should be able to see Earth-like planets in what we call the habitable zone, so basically the planets which are candidates towards life.”

Darkness under threat

Twenty years ago, the Atacama Desert was “an ocean of darkness,” recalled Eduardo Unda-Sanzana, director of the Astronomy Center at the University of Antofagasta. “It was just you and the universe.”

Over the years, however, the landscape has changed drastically.

Driven by urban sprawl, industrial development, and the arrival of mining and wind farms, the desert has become a coveted territory where balance is not always easy to reach.

In Paranal, specialists live like moles in an underground residence designed to keep their presence almost undetectable. Windows must remain covered, hallways stay dark, and any outside movement is guided only by flashlight. Even the faintest light can interfere with the telescopes.

The announcement last year of an imminent green energy project sent shock waves through the international scientific community. Experts pressured authorities to protect Chile’s night sky from the proposed site, which was slated for construction just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Paranal.

The case raised the alarms due to its impacts, such as increased light pollution, micro-vibrations and dust, as well as greater atmospheric turbulence. These conditions would make astronomical activities unviable.

“If you place the ELT next to a city, it doesn’t matter that its diameter is 40 meters long. It’s just the same as having a tiny telescope,” Gregorio-Monsalvo said.

Although the company canceled the project in late January, scientists warn that without new, updated regulations, similar projects could be proposed at any moment.

“Despite all the media hype in 2025, we find ourselves exactly where we were last year,” said Unda-Sanzana, who is also part of a ministerial advisory commission that recently delivered recommendations to Chile’s government following the incident.

There is no shortage of precedents. The first international heliophysics observatory in Chile — a major solar station operated by the U.S. Smithsonian Institution in the early 20th century — was forced to shut down operations in 1955 due to environmental pollution caused by the expansion of mining activity in the area.

“We’ve had 70 years to learn from history and avoid repeating those same mistakes,” Unda-Sanzana said.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Today stayed pretty chilly! As for our low temperatures, we will not drop too much further than what we saw during the daytime.

If you are heading out early tomorrow morning, make sure to grab a jacket for it will be a chilly start to your workweek!

Temperatures will rise into the upper 60s to low 70s in the afternoon, so it will not be cold for long.

Our next weather maker comes early Tuesday and will bring some much needed rain.

Ahead of the warm front we will see isolated to scattered showers throughout the region early Tuesday. Later in the evening the cold front lingers shortly behind, and the rain will become more widespread into Wednesday.

Though this event will not be the drought buster we need for our area, it certainly will be a help!

Sunday Morning:

After a cold front pushed through the region that gave us widespread showers yesterday afternoon, our high temperatures will be decently cooler.

Highs will top out in the upper 60s to low 70s for the day, and we will continue to see these temperatures linger around through the week.

We will be at our warmest around dinner time tonight and quickly cool off into the 50s as we approach 10PM.

It will be a bit breezy today, with wind gusts peaking at around 18 mph later this afternoon.

All-in-all, today will be much calmer that yesterday. Though much more cloudy, the only precipitation we have the potential to see would be a brief sprinkle.

Tomorrow will have loads of sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures. Yet another weather-maker comes Tuesday and will last through Wednesday, bringing beneficial rain.

It remains the largest art theft in history — far surpassing more recent museum thefts, including a daylight heist at the Louvre involving far fewer works that was resolved more quickly. In 2013, the FBI said it knew who was responsible for the Boston museum heist but declined to name them, fueling speculation that persists today.

A former FBI agent who led the investigation for more than two decades is now offering the first detailed account of how investigators reached that conclusion — and publicly identifying the men he believes were involved. In a new book, “Thirteen Perfect Fugitives,” Geoffrey Kelly traces how the artworks moved through criminal networks, where violence took the lives of key suspects and witnesses, and challenges long-circulating theories by revisiting key details.

The irony at the center is Gardner’s intention for the museum to remain frozen in time, stipulating in her will that nothing in the Venetian palazzo-inspired building would be changed after her death. Gardner, who lived in the museum and died there in 1924, intended for the paintings, sculptures and architectural fragments to remain exactly as she had arranged.

The empty gilded frames of the missing paintings still hang in the museum today — silent witnesses to what was taken.

The art heist

Early on March 18, 1990, as Boston wound down from St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, two men dressed as police officers arrived at the museum and persuaded a security guard to let them in, violating protocol.

The men handcuffed the guards in the basement and made their way to the museum’s Dutch Room, where they cut Vermeer’s “The Concert” and Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" from their frames, also taking works by Degas and Manet.

They also took a Napoleonic eagle finial — a decorative metal piece of comparatively little value that investigators later found puzzling — and the museum’s security videotapes.

The museum offered a $5 million reward that they then doubled a decade later for information leading to the recovery of the works.

Boston-area network of criminals

Some tips pointed to the Irish Republican Army and to Boston mob figures, including notorious crime boss Whitey Bulger.

Kelly followed one lead to France, where he watched through binoculars as FBI agents, posing as wealthy intermediaries, lounged on a yacht — drinking Champagne and eating strawberries — in an effort to draw out suspected Corsican mob figures.

Closer to home, agents searched houses across New England, relying heavily on informants. A triple murderer known as “Meatball” who was terminally ill secretly recorded conversations with suspected associates in hopes of earning money for his family.

But none of the tips led to the paintings.

Violence complicates matters

In the decades since the robbery, several people believed to have ties to the heist were killed, and another died under suspicious circumstances.

Robert “Bobby” Donati, a Boston mob associate long suspected in the case, was found stabbed to death in 1991, his body left in the trunk of a car after his home had been ransacked.

Years earlier, Donati visited the Gardner with another known art thief, Myles Connor, to scope it out for a robbery and said that if he ever took the museum’s Napoleonic finial, it would be his “calling card.” Years later, a jeweler told investigators Donati tried to sell a finial but the jeweler declined, saying it was “too hot.”

A separate line of evidence centered on George Reissfelder, who investigators believe owned the getaway car.

Kelly tracked down Reissfelder’s brother, a retired military officer who had initially not believed his brother was involved. He broke down after being shown Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” saying he recognized it as a painting he himself hung above his brother’s bed.

Reissfelder later died under suspicious circumstances. When investigators searched his home, the painting was gone.

Both men had ties to TRC Auto Electric, a Dorchester shop linked to Charles “Chuck” Merlino’s crew.

Investigation with limited resources

Though investigators believed they knew who was responsible, they had a difficult time finding definitive proof.

In the investigation's early stages, the FBI assigned a single agent to the case, which Kelly said slowed progress.

“You have to keep in mind when you’re talking about investigations, they come down to dollars and cents,” Kelly said. It was “like pulling teeth” to secure resources. At the time, federal investigators in Boston were heavily focused on violent crime, drug trafficking and organized crime cases.

Kelly said a decision to release surveillance footage despite investigators’ objections became a lasting distraction. With no usable video from the night of the robbery, prosecutors released footage from the night before that showed a museum employee entering the building after his car broke down. Kelly said he objected to the theory that the employee was casing the museum, since that possibility had already been reviewed and dismissed. The footage fueled years of misplaced suspicion; the man was later determined not to have been involved.

Despite those challenges, Kelly credited supervisors who pushed to give the museum’s security director access to the case so investigators could share leads — a rare level of collaboration — and said earlier investigators left extensive notes, first in paper binders and then later transferred to CDs.

Theories about an inside job at the museum

In photos from that night, a museum guard is seen handcuffed in the basement, his head wrapped in duct tape.

Investigators noted that shortly before the robbery, the guard opened a door against policy — one that faced the area where the thieves were later seen waiting — a move investigators considered highly unusual and suspicious.

“It’s the immutable laws of time and space,” Kelly said. “I think that there was enough information back then that he could have been charged. Would it be enough to convict him? I don’t know.”

By the time investigators examined those questions more closely, Kelly said, the statute of limitations had expired, leaving them with little leverage to compel cooperation.

The museum guard, Rick Abath, denied any involvement in the theft. He died in 2024.

The artworks that disappeared

Kelly personifies the missing artworks and describes them as “perfect fugitives.”

“They don’t go to the doctor. They don’t get stopped for speeding. They don’t leave fingerprints,” he said. “They can just disappear.”

Unlike human fugitives, he said, artworks can also be copied.

Over the years, that has meant chasing down false leads — including paintings spotted in a Reno antique market, hanging in private homes and even one that appeared in an episode of the TV show “Monk.”

Because the works are so recognizable, it's nearly impossible to sell them publicly.

“Stealing the artwork from the museum, that’s the easy part,” Kelly said. “Profiting from it, that’s the difficult part.”

He imagines the paintings will surface one day — outliving those who carried out the heist.

“I have no doubt they still exist,” he said

“It’s time to build the ballroom,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said plainly Sunday on X, posting a letter in which Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has sued to block construction, until 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss its lawsuit.

If it doesn't do so, Shumate wrote, the government would ask a court to do so “in light of last night’s extraordinary events," calling the Washington Hilton — the site of Saturday's gala — “demonstrably unsafe” for events with the president “because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service."

The White House ballroom, Shumate wrote, “will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton.”

Asked about the letter, Elliot Carter, spokesperson for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Sunday the group would review it with legal counsel.

The preservation group sued in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades.

A crowd of 2,300 attended Saturday night's event at the Hilton, home to one of the few rooms in Washington large enough for the event. It packs in attendees at round tables whose chairs are back to back, and room to move around is tight. The dinner is not a White House event — it is run by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a nonprofit organization of journalists from media outlets that cover the president.

Republicans amp up their push for White House ballroom

For months, Trump has mentioned the ballroom project at nearly every chance, often talking about the lawsuit or his desire to construct the space during events on a number of other topics. As he addressed tuxedo- and ball gown-clad reporters who scurried from the Washington Hilton to the White House for a Saturday night news conference, Trump called for tougher security measures and pointed to the incident as a reason his ballroom is needed.

In the wake of the shooting, Trump, Blanche and a number of supporters of the administration have taken the opportunity to push for the project across social media platforms and news programs. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he agreed with Trump “100%” on the massive White House construction project, which Jordan said on Fox News Channel “obviously would be much safer location for these type of events.”

Sunday morning on X, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he agreed with Trump that the White House ballroom “is a national security necessity" that would give the Secret Service “immense control over the security environment of future events with a very hardened facility.”

Even some Democrats agreed. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who attended Saturday’s dinner, said on X that the proposed White House space should be used “for events exactly like these.” On CNN later Sunday, Fetterman said attendees and Americans overall were in a “vulnerable” position during Saturday's event, in part because many in the presidential line of succession were present and could have been harmed

Fetterman responded, “I certainly hope so” when asked if the incident would spark more support for the White House project.

Gate crashers, party crashers, a plane — security breaches at the White House

In the century-plus since its grounds were largely closed to the public, dozens of events are evidence that even the White House complex is not impervious to intrusion.

There have been a number of documented incidents in which people have scaled security barriers around the White House. One of them, a disturbed Army veteran carrying a knife, jumped the fence in 2014 and raced into the White House, making his way into the East Room before heading back down a hallway on the State Floor deep within the mansion.

A Homeland Security Department review of the case determined that lack of training, poor staffing decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing failure that ultimately led to the resignation of the head of the Secret Service.

In 1994, a pilot died when he crashed a small stolen plane on the South Lawn, hitting a tree and a first-floor corner of the building. And in 2009, uninvited guests Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a state dinner, passing through security checkpoints and meeting President Barack Obama in an incident that sparked security investigations.

How is the White House ballroom project going?

In litigation since December, work is ongoing, although there have been recent hiccups.

Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build the massive ballroom in that space. In its lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that Trump had overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without first getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue construction of the $400 million project, ruling a day after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground construction on the site and scheduling a June 5 hearing to review the case. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's ruling had blocked 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.

On Fox News Channel on Sunday, Trump forecast that, by the end of his current term, his project would be complete.

“In the year '28 you’re going to have something, you’re going to have a ballroom, the top of the line, security,” Trump said. “You’re not going to have problems.”

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

The International Street Fair drew thousands to campus, with student-run booths representing dozens of countries, live performances and food from around the world.

Afghan culture takes center stage

Among the booths was one spotlighting Afghan culture, run by members of the Afghan Student Union. Co-President Machelle Rahimi said the event offers something deeper than just a cultural showcase.

“When you come to an event like this and you go around each booth, you start to see similarities — we’re not very different from each other, we’re all connected,” Rahimi said.

Co-President Zaki Wali said the booth is an opportunity to push back against narrow perceptions of Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan is always in the news, always being talked about in terms of war, in terms of struggle, but we want to show people there’s more to our culture than what’s shown to the eye,” Wali said.

For Rahimi, the club has become more than an extracurricular — it’s been a lifeline.

“It’s really hard growing up with your family and having a deep sense of culture and coming here and kind of having that stripped away from you,” Rahimi said. “So joining this club, I found my best friends, I found so much peace and it made me love my school even more.”

Service, solidarity, community

Other groups used the fair as a platform to raise awareness for causes beyond campus. Members of Students Helping Honduras, a club that organizes annual service trips, said the event captures exactly what their mission is about.

“It’s a great way to give back to everyone — this is a diverse club,” said Beverly Zapata, a member of the organization. “It’s a fun way and a great way to unite us.”

For member Zoe Pena-Palma, the cause is personal.

“My parents are from Honduras,” Pena-Palma said. “So this is a great way to work behind the scenes and help a good cause.”

K-pop, community, connection

The fair also featured a booth from Shidae at VT, a K-pop dance community open to anyone who wants to join.

“Because it’s a college town, there are a lot of different people from different backgrounds and stuff like that,” said Andy Yanto, president of Shidae at VT.

“Coming straight into college, I did not know anyone of my ethnicity, so it’s good to kind of see and branch out,” Yanto said.

A shared takeaway

Local food vendors added to the international flavor. Jason McLain, who works with Kefi Greek Food with Passion, said the fair has become a favorite stop.

“This is our fourth year — we love it here, this place is awesome,” McLain said. “It’s just everybody getting together. You see all the different customs, all the different people — it’s really awesome.”

Wali said events like these challenge the way people think about cultural differences.

“The way we see different cultures, we see it by dividing lines,” Wali said. “But it’s events like these that kind of let us change the narrative and let us see how does it connect us rather than separate us.”

Attendees left Alumni Mall Saturday with a shared takeaway: no matter where people come from, they may have more in common than they think.

The event had performances, parties, and celebrations of acceptance and love for the LGBTQ+ community. There were also plenty of local vendors, nonprofits and advocacy groups in attendance.

A major theme of this year’s celebration was making others feel confident in their true identities.

“Every single hairstylist goes to school because they want to make people feel beautiful. I want to makes people feel seen. Some people go to the salon and don’t quite get what they need. Some people to the barber shop and they don’t quite get they need, and I want to bring those two industries together so that way people can truthfully get the services that they need.”

Refsnyder was initially called out by plate umpire John Bacon on an 0-2 pitch that the replay showed was outside. After two more balls, he hit a 412-foot blast into the left-field bullpen off JoJo Romero (0-1) to give the Mariners their first lead.

Jose Ferrer retired the Cardinals in order in the ninth for his first save of the season.

Each team successfully challenged four ball-strike calls by Bacon during the game, all during Mariners plate appearances, before JJ Wetherholt had an unsuccessful bid in the ninth.

During J.P Crawford’s eighth-inning plate appearance, each team had a successful challenge. Crawford had a strike overturned early in the at-bat, and then had ball four changed to the third strike on a challenge by catcher Iván Herrera. Herrera also secured a strikeout against Randy Arozarena in the second inning with a challenge.

Eduard Bazardo (1-1) got four outs in relief to record the victory.

Wetherholt led off the third inning with a line drive that traveled 375 feet into the right-field bullpen for the rookie's fifth home run.

Cal Raleigh answered in the fourth with a 401-footer that also landed in the Cardinals' bullpen.

Nathan Church added a 407-foot home run down the right-field line in the sixth to put St. Louis up 2-1.

Emerson Hancock gave up seven hits, including the Cardinals' two solo home runs, in six innings for Seattle. He walked two and struck out four.

Michael McGreevy allowed one run and five hits in six innings while striking out six and walking none.

Up next

Seattle: RHP Luis Castillo (0-1, 5.01 ERA) starts the opener of a three-game set Monday at Minnesota against LHP Connor Prielipp (0-0, 4.50).

St. Louis: RHP Dustin May (3-2, 5.84) takes the mound Monday at Pittsburgh to open a four-game series. The Pirates had not yet announced a probable starter.

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

Gauff, a finalist in Madrid last year, rallied to beat Sorana Cirstea 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Sunday.

The American threw up on court in the middle of the second set.

“When I actually threw up on the court, that was like a little bit embarrassing," Gauff said. “Then after that first game and the second, I was like that took everything out of me."

On Saturday, fourth-ranked Iga Swiatek withdrew due to an unspecified illness while playing her round-of-32 match against American Ann Li.

Gauff said she was determined to carry on her match.

“I’m someone who doesn’t like to pull out. I don’t like to do that unless I really feel like I have no other options,” Gauff said. "So the plan was to always just try to finish, even if it ended up with me just playing just to get through it.”

She recovered from a break down three times before winning the set 7-5.

The third-ranked Gauff said she doesn't know how she “got through that," and said she almost threw up in the middle of a point.

“I felt fine all this morning. I felt a little weird last night, but I was OK. Woke up this morning, felt fine. And mid-first set, I was feeling like I was going to throw up. And then I did," she said. "They gave me some pills and that definitely helped. After that, once I felt the feeling of throwing up, then I just felt nauseous and tired. I just didn’t want to throw up in the middle of the point, which I almost did at one point.”

Gauff will next meet No. 13 seed Linda Noskova.

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

The Palestinian Authority, which administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank but is left out of the U.S.-drafted ceasefire plan for Gaza, has described Saturday’s local election in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah as a largely symbolic pilot while the authority seeks to politically link the territories.

It was the first election in part of Hamas-run Gaza in more than two decades. Deir al-Balah, like much of the territory, is devastated by two years of war but was spared an Israeli ground invasion. Turnout there was 23%, but officials cited challenges including large-scale displacement and outdated civil registry records.

Hamas, which controls the half of Gaza that Israel withdrew from last year under the current ceasefire, did not field candidates and did not try to block the vote.

Turnout in the West Bank elections was 56%, or over a half-million people, not dramatically different from elections there in recent years.

Many races were not contested, and candidates were required to accept the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which leads the Palestinian Authority. The program calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.

Election results, then, were dominated by independents and Fatah, the faction that leads the authority and claimed victory.

“Everyone is aware of the political, security and economic conditions, the fragmentation of Palestinian territory, the war on Gaza, and the regional conflict in Iran,” Rami Hamdallah, chair of the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission and a former prime minister, told journalists.

“Simply holding the elections in Deir al-Balah is a significant achievement, and we hope to hold elections in other bodies across the Gaza Strip in the near future,” he said.

The elections in both territories were for the makeup of local councils tasked with overseeing water, roads and electricity.

The elections were the first to take place since reforms were enacted in response to international pressure. Elections now allow voting for individuals rather than slates. With faith in political parties low, they were less important than families and clans in campaigning.

Hamdallah called the vote a reflection of national unity, adding that “we hope that presidential and legislative elections will follow.”

The Palestinian Authority, however, has not held a presidential election in 21 years, and support for it and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has withered during years of corruption and frustration over the sometimes violent advances of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control. Abbas, 90, was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa called Saturday’s elections “another step on the path to full independence.” Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, opposes a Palestinian state.

Many Palestinians want more than local votes as they seek a greater say in their future.

“Municipal elections are an important step, but they are not enough. ... We want general elections,” Bashar Masri, a prominent Palestinian-American business owner, said on social media.