Trump said Monday he is “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not meet his Tuesday 8 p.m. EST deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.

Israel carried out a new wave of attacks on Iran early Tuesday, while Iran responded with missile fire against Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

Here is the latest:

Iran reports fatalities in 2 cities

Iran has reported fatalities from airstrikes overnight into Tuesday.

At least nine people were killed in the city of Shahriar, west of the capital, Tehran, Iranian media reported.

In the city of Pardis, east of Tehran, at least six people were killed in a strike and recovered from buildings, Iranian media reported.

Iran general says: ‘Moms, dads, at night send your kids to man checkpoints’

A Revolutionary Guard general in Iran has urged parents to “send your kids to man checkpoints.”

Gen. Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the all-volunteer Basij force, made the comments on an Iranian state television channel.

“Moms, dads, take your kids hands and go out on streets,” he said. “Do you want your kid to become a real man? Let him feel like a hero standing right at the heart of the battlefield. Moms, dads, at night send your kids to man checkpoints. They become men!”

Basij checkpoints have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.

The Basij has been accepting children as young as 12 to man checkpoints. Amnesty International has warned some even carry firearms, calling their recruitment a war crime.

During nationwide protests in January, Yekta warned parents to keep their children home or they would be shot.

UAE presidential adviser says Iran's government can’t be trusted

An adviser to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, says they have lost trust in the Iranian government after its attacks on Arab neighbors.

“We are facing a perfidious regime that cannot be trusted,” Anwar Gargash wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding that his country had sought to avoid the war.

He also claimed the UAE’s position toward Iran’s attacks in the Gulf Arab countries is appreciated across the region.

Iranian state television claims 14 million people have volunteered to fight

Iranian state television on Tuesday claimed 14 million people had volunteered to fight for the country if there is a ground invasion by the United States and Israel.

The claim by state TV, which included no other information, doubles an April 2 claim by Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf that 7 million had volunteered.

Iran is home to some 90 million people. Iran had conducted a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.

State media and text message campaigns have urged people to volunteer. The government also has called on retired soldiers to express their interest in fighting, while the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force has begun accepting children as young as 12 into its ranks.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for instance, called for a 20-million Basij force.

Synagogue damaged in airstrike in Iran’s capital

Iranian media reported Tuesday that a synagogue in the capital, Tehran, was damaged in an airstrike.

They identified the house of worship as the Rafi Niya Synagogue.

Video from the site showed rescuers moving around and what looked like a book of Hebrew scripture in the rubble.

Iran has a small Jewish population still living in the country. Many fled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Israeli issues warning to Iranians to avoid taking trains

Likely signaling a new target for their airstrikes, the Israeli military warned Iranians in Farsi on Tuesday to avoid taking trains until at least 9 p.m. local time.

“Your presence puts your life at risk,” the warning posted on X read.

Iran has shut off access to the internet for weeks, making it difficult for the average Iranians to see these warnings. However, Farsi-language satellite news networks abroad report them, allowing the information to make its way back into the Islamic Republic.

South Korean official to visit Kazakhstan, Oman and Saudi Arabia to secure oil

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is dispatching his chief of staff as a special envoy to Kazakhstan, Oman and Saudi Arabia in a diplomatic push to secure more fuel and mitigate the energy crunch caused by the war in the Middle East.

Kang Hoon-sik said he will depart Tuesday evening, with the visits aimed at securing additional sources of crude oil and naphtha, a key petroleum product used in plastics manufacturing.

South Korea last month reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to receive 24 million barrels of crude and initial shipments have arrived in recent weeks.

More than 60% of crude and 50% of naphtha supplies imported by South Korea last year passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that is now largely blocked by Iran as it seeks to exert leverage against the U.S. and Israel.

Key bridge linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain closes over attack threats

The King Fahd Causeway, a key bridge linking Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain, closed early Tuesday over threats from Iranian attacks.

The King Fahd Causeway Authority made the announcement on X.

Vehicle movements had been “suspended as a precautionary measure” over Iranian attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, the authority said.

The 25-kilometer (15.5-mile) bridge is the only connection by road for Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, to the Arabian Peninsula.

While there has been no formal threat against the King Fahd Causeway, some hard-liners within Iran have increasingly identified it as a possible target.

That risk likely would grow if Trump carries out his threatened strikes against bridges in Iran.

Saudi Arabia acknowledges ‘debris’ falls near energy infrastructure

Saudi Arabia said early Tuesday that seven ballistic missiles from Iran targeted the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, with “debris from the missiles” crashing into the ground near energy facilities.

The brief statement from Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi military, did not elaborate on the extent of the damage on the ground, though he said an “assessment is underway.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what energies facilities had been impacted.

Police have not confirmed the name of the 47-year-old former soldier who was arrested on Tuesday. But he has been widely reported in the media to be Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan.

He is expected to appear in a Sydney court late Tuesday or Wednesday, police said.

Roberts-Smith is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz, 44, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of war crime murder. He is accused of shooting Afghan man Dad Mohammad three times in the head in an Uruzgan province wheatfield in May 2012.

War crime murder carries a potential sentence of life in prison. It's a federal crime in Australia, defined as the intentional killing in the context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in hostilities, such as civilians, prisoners of war or wounded soldiers.

Police arrested Roberts-Smith at Sydney Airport on Tuesday after he arrived on a flight from Brisbane, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said.

“It will be alleged that the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan. It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed,” Barrett told reporters, referring to the Australian Defense Force.

“It will be alleged the victims were shot by the accused or shot by subordinate members of the ADF in the presence of and acting on the orders of the accused,” Barrett added.

In September last year, Australia's highest court removed Roberts-Smith's last chance to clear his name of court findings that he unlawfully killed four Afghans.

The High Court said it would not hear his appeal against a federal judge's civil court finding in 2023 that he likely killed noncombatants unlawfully in 2009 and 2012.

Three federal court judges had unanimously rejected his appeal against that ruling.

Roberts-Smith sued for defamation after several newspapers published articles in 2018 accusing him of a range of war crimes.

But while the civil courts found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the new charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence that elite Australian SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants.

Barrett said few soldiers were involved in the new allegations.

“The alleged conduct related to these charges is confined to a very small section of our trusted and respected ADF which helps keep this country safe,” Barrett said.

“The overwhelming majority of our ADF do our country proud. Today’s charges are not reflective of the majority of members who serve under our Australian flag with honor, with distinction and with the values of a democratic nation,” she added.

The Office of the Special Investigator was established to work with police on the war crime allegations. The office’s director of investigations Ross Barnett said allegations of 53 war crimes had been investigated and 39 of those investigations had concluded without charges. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Vance's two-day trip, where he is scheduled to hold an official visit with Orbán and later appear at one of his campaign rallies, was the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration was going all-in for an Orbán victory when Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday.

In power since 2010, Orbán is running for his fifth-straight term as prime minister. He and his nationalist-populist Fidesz party are facing their toughest race in two decades against a center-right challenger, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, that could bring an end to Orbán's 16 years in power.

Long accused by critics of taking over Hungary’s institutions, clamping down on press freedom and overseeing entrenched political corruption — charges he denies — Orbán has become an icon in the global far-right movement.

Trump has repeatedly endorsed Orbán’s candidacy for reelection, and many in the Make America Great Again movement approve of the Hungarian leader's opposition to immigration, curtailing of LGBTQ+ rights, and capture of the media and academia.

But with most independent polls showing a double-digit deficit for Fidesz among decided voters ahead of the April 12 vote, Orbán has sought to boost his profile by appearing publicly with his international admirers.

The vice president's visit wasn't the first sign of U.S. support for Orbán.

Hungary, which has broken with most European Union countries by refusing to assist Ukraine with financial assistance or weapons to ward off Russia's full-scale invasion, has remained firmly committed to purchasing Russian energy despite EU efforts to wean off such supplies.

In November, Hungary received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and gas after a White House meeting between Orbán and Trump.

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Budapest where he enthusiastically praised Orbán and the “person-to-person connection” he’d established with the president, telling Orbán: “President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success.”

Late last month, Orbán hosted dozens of allies from around Europe and beyond at the Hungarian iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and at a meeting of the far-right Patriots for Europe party family, the third-largest group in the European Parliament.

Trump sent a video message to CPAC Hungary, saying Orbán had his “complete and total endorsement" and was a “fantastic guy.”

The Trump administration's embrace of Orbán reflects its affinity for European far-right parties broadly, and the admiration, from Spain to France to Germany and the Netherlands, has been mutual.

Still, Trump’s recent approach to foreign affairs has reverberated in Europe, with his actions over Greenland, Venezuela and Iran straining those relationships.

Orbán, however, has remained deferential, and has echoed Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. In comments to state radio just before Trump began his second term, Orbán said Democrats “took the presidency away from Donald Trump through fraud.”

Vance's planned appearance at Orbán's election rally was an unusual step from a foreign leader, and a break with the practice of most politicians who avoid actively taking part in the political campaigns of other countries.

Orbán himself has bristled at the slightest mention of the Hungarian election by other EU leaders, decrying any expressions of support for his opponent as a grave breach of Hungary's sovereignty and meddling in the election.

Trump has threatened to bomb all of Iran's power plants and bridges if Iran does not meet his Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline to allow shipping traffic to fully resume through the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of the world's oil transits in peacetime.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night,” Trump said.

Israel's military warned Iranians in Farsi to avoid taking trains throughout the day, likely telegraphing intended strikes on the rail network.

“Your presence puts your life at risk,” the warning posted on X read.

Iran choked off shipping through the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked on Feb. 28, starting the war. On Monday, Tehran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war.

Early Tuesday, Tehran launched seven ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, which authorities said rained debris on the ground near energy facilities as they were intercepted. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said the damage was being assessed.

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia said it was closing the King Fahd Causeway, a bridge that links Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain over the threat of more Iranian attacks targeting the Eastern Province.

The 25-kilometer (15.5 mile) bridge is the only connection by road for Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, to the Arabian Peninsula.

Elsewhere, activists reported a new wave of strikes on Tehran, for which Israel later claimed responsibility. Iran also fired on Israel, with reports of incoming missiles.

Trump's threats to bomb civilian infrastructure prompt warnings of war crimes

Iran's attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, coupled with its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices skyrocketing and is causing global economic problems.

In early spot trading, Brent crude, the international standard, was above $111 per barrel, up more than 50% since the start of the war.

Under growing pressure at home as consumers feel the pinch, Trump has demanded that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic or see power plants and bridges wiped out. The threat to hit civilian infrastructure has sparked widespread warnings about possible war crimes.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday urged Trump not to follow through, saying the “focus needs to be on not seeing this conflict expand any further.”

“Any of those actions including bombing bridges and reservoirs and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable,” Luxon told Radio New Zealand.

Iran sought to up the ante, calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants ahead of the threatened strikes.

“Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth,” Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, said as he issued the video call in a newscast.

Iran has formed human chains in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.

As the deadline neared, efforts were still underway to reach a negotiated solution. Even though Iran has rejected the latest proposal from the U.S., officials involved in the diplomacy say that talks are still ongoing.

Death toll continues to rise across the region

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

Japan said Tuesday that one of its citizens who had been detained in Iran since January had been released on bail. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that Japan is demanding his full release from Iranian authorities.

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Rising reported from Bangkok. Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.

The five fabulous transfers who make up coach Dusty May's starting lineup got down and dirty with the rest of the Wolverines — coming out with the national title trophy Monday night after muscling their way to a 69-63 victory over stingy, stubborn UConn.

Michigan only made two 3-pointers all night.

The Final Four's most outstanding player, Elliot Cadeau, led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second 3, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving May's team — which had scored 90 points in five straight March Madness games leading to the final — a nine-point lead.

To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish. Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut the deficit to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.

Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration for the program’s second title — the other coming in 1989, a few years before the Fab Five arrived and made two trips to the championship game, but never won a title.

“HAIL TO VICTORS!!!!” Jalen Rose, one of the Fab Five stars, posted on social media. “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!”

It was the first men's hoops title for the Big Ten since Michigan State in 2000. Including UCLA's win in the women's NCAA Tournament Sunday, the conference swept the football (Indiana) and basketball titles this year.

Michigan won this one with defense, holding UConn to 30.9% shooting — the fourth straight game the Wolverines held their opponent to a season-low field-goal percentage.

“These guys have done it all year,” May said. “When one side of the ball has let us down, the other side has picked it up. Our togetherness defensively ultimately got us over the hump.”

Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 beyond the arc and won despite the struggles of their best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

“If you’d told me we would shoot it this poorly and (be) dominated on the glass and still find a way to win, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” May said. “This team just found a way all season.”

The two 3-pointers were tied for second fewest by a winning team in the title game, according to Sportradar. Michigan also got outrebounded 22-12 on the offensive glass by a UConn team that would not go away.

“How are you disappointed at all in your group?” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “These guys have 22 offensive rebounds versus that group of ‘mon-stars’ out there. So, proud of the guys.”

Truth be told, it wasn’t anyone’s prettiest night.

UConn’s hopes of becoming the first team since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty to win three titles in four seasons came up short, done in by massive foul trouble and its own terrible shooting.

Hurley’s team missed its first 11 shots from 3 in the second half.

Braylon Mullins, the hero of the Duke win that put UConn in the Final Four, finished 4 of 17, though he made a pair of late 3s that kept the game in reach. Tarris Reed Jr., the transfer from Michigan, finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds but never took control.

UConn (34-6) covered the 6 1/2-point spread, and Hurley kept his players out on the court to watch the podium get set up for the victors.

About the only consolation: The Huskies clogged things up, slowed things down and made Michigan beat them at their game.

“It’s complicated, because everyone’s crushed,” Hurley said. “We came here to be out there, doing what those guys are doing right now.”

Nobody did it quite like the Wolverines this year. They came into the title game shooting freely and winning big. In each of their five tournament games, they broke 90 and won by 13 or more.

In this one, they didn’t hit 70 and had to battle to the buzzer. It was ugly — the opposite of an instant classic. And yet, in almost every way, it was the prettiest of them all for Michigan — the one that gives the school what the Fab Five couldn’t manage — namely, a natty.

“Nobody cared about stats the whole season,” Cadeau said. “Nobody cared about nothing but winning. I’m just glad to be part of that.”

Style points aside, this was a championship built from outside — the best team money could buy.

All five Wolverines starters played college ball elsewhere, and all but Nimari Burnett came to Ann Arbor this season. That’s a product of the transfer portal that May has shown no reluctance to use since he arrived from Florida Atlantic two seasons ago.

His ability to form a makeshift group into a winner shows the value of a coach and a culture.

“They might be still calling us mercenaries but we’re the hardest-working team,” Lendenborg said. “We’re the best in college basketball and we’ll be one of the greatest ever.”

Pretty much everyone in the maize and blue would second that.

“Go BLUE. …champions!!! Respect- Love!” was the social media post from another Fab Five icon, Chris Webber.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Huskies were physical, controlled the pace and held the Wolverines' potent offense in check. But this time, the big shots that propelled them to the cusp of a third national championship in four seasons simply didn't fall.

Not for fabulous freshman Braylon Mullins, not for record-breaking forward Alex Karaban, not even for Malachi Smith, who missed a layup with 7 seconds left that might have kept hope alive in Storrs, Connecticut. Instead, UConn came up short in a 69-63 loss, its first in seven title game appearances, thwarting its chance to become the first team since the UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s to win three crowns in such quick succession.

“This is where you wanted to be. It hasn’t set in yet,” Hurley said. “On the flight (Monday) it’ll set in, on the bus ride back. Eventually it’ll hit you that you were close to pulling off what would have been a historic third championship. But this team just gave us so much this year — just didn’t make enough shots.”

Karaban also had a shot to become the first player to win three titles since UCLA captured eight during a nine-season span from 1967-75. He played all 40 minutes in his finale and leaves UConn as the school's leader in games played (151), wins (126) and 3-pointers (292).

UConn picked the wrong night to shoot a season-low 30.9% from the field and a dismal 27.3% from 3-point range. The Huskies were even worse in the second half: 28.9% from the field and 4 of 18 from beyond the arc.

Maybe UConn didn't have enough fight left after it survived the tourney's top seed, Duke, with a 19-point comeback in the regional semifinals and after winning a 71-62 bruiser against Illinois on Saturday night.

This loss was UConn's first after the second round of an NCAA Tournament since 2011, ending a 19-game winning streak in the toughest parts of the bracket.

Michigan, which won its second national title and first since 1989, also brought plenty of physicality to the matchup. The Wolverines held each of their last four opponents to season-low shooting percentages.

They relied on the Big Ten's brand of bully ball to get UConn into foul trouble, win the wrestling matches for loose balls and eventually wear down the perimeter shooters who had saved UConn in its incredible 19-point comeback against Duke.

This time, it was the Huskies' shooters who came up empty.

Mullins scored 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including 3 of 10 on 3s. After opening the game by making his first two shots, Karaban made three of his next 12 and converted only one of his last eight 3-point attempts to finish with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Nobody else was much better. Big man Tarris Reed Jr. finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds but was 4 of 12 from the field. And while Mullins and Karaban combined for six 3s, the rest of the team was 3 of 13 beyond the arc.

“We came up short, missed some shots we normally make, but we gave it our all,” Karaban said.

The shooting woes were compounded by UConn's foul trouble.

Reed, Solo Ball and Silas Demary Jr. all finished the first half on the bench with two fouls. Ball picked up his third just 29 seconds into the second half and his fourth with 16:20 remaining.

He finished with 11 points but had no assists while playing on a sprained left foot.

“It’s definitely frustrating not being on the court for that long, and it hurts my team at the moment,” Ball sad. “But this has been the most fun year of my life with this group of guys, and I just cherish this team.”

Even though UConn held Michigan to its worst shooting of the tournament — 38.2% — the Huskies came up just short too many times.

“I’m not real emotional. Players are crying a lot more than I am,” Hurley said. “It’s hard to be upset with your team. We lost the game because we missed. We missed — we didn’t make enough shots.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

As time ticks down on U.S. President Donald Trump's latest ultimatum, their thoughts were clouded by new fears: How long will the power be out if plants are bombed? How would they leave the city if the bridges are taken out?

Five weeks on, they have grown used to the roar of American and Israeli fighter jets, the sound of explosions and sleepless nights. Like many, they've left the capital and returned in search of elusive safety. Married for over a decade, they made it through the COVID pandemic and the 12-day war last June.

They've used clear packing tape to lines the edges of their windows, a precaution against blasts. Mirrors and fragile objects have been moved or secured. A packed bag holds documents, medications and essentials, ready in case they need to leave quickly.

In an expletive-laden threat over the weekend, Trump vowed that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day,” and that Iran's leaders will be “living in Hell” if they don't open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Honestly, the situation is really unclear,” Arghavan said. “We don’t really understand things like how long the power might go out if it does, or what life without electricity would even look like.”

Alishir said he and his wife could handle life without power — and potentially without running water — for a week at most. “If it goes on longer, we’ll definitely run into problems,” he said.

Their struggles began even before the first American and Israeli bombs slammed into Iran on Feb. 28.

The Iranian government's crackdown on nationwide protests in January severely limited internet access. The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks says it's the longest nationwide shutdown ever recorded.

Arghavan runs a small language school that teaches French to Iranians who want to live in the Canadian province of Quebec.

“We were basically an online school, and our students had classes with kids abroad,” she said. “Around 50% of our learners were outside the country. But now, with all these internet outages, it’s really disrupting our work.”

Iranians are divided over the war: Some take part in daily pro-government rallies; others quietly cheer the strikes against their leaders while condemning the deaths of civilians and damage to infrastructure.

The couple blames Israel and the U.S. for starting the war and hope for a diplomatic solution.

“I really hope an agreement is reached soon and that whatever happens, it ends up helping people, because right now people are the ones paying a heavy price,” Arghavan said.

The horn sounded, and Morez Johnson Jr. came over to share a celebratory scream and hearty hug — from one transfer to another — as the Wolverines began running toward midcourt to celebrate a national championship.

Maybe a school really can build an ideal college basketball roster amid the topsy-turvy chaos of the transfer portal, paying players and top-to-bottom overhauls.

Michigan proved it Monday night, rolling out an all-transfer starting lineup that was too big, too strong and too capable of countering anything that UConn could muster — even on a night when the 3-point shot wasn't falling and All-American Yaxel Lendeborg was hobbled by ankle and knee injuries.

The Wolverines still had enough to hold off the Huskies 69-63 and claim the program's first title in 37 years.

And they showed how second-year Dusty May assembled a resilient roster by diving all the way into the portal.

“Man, this whole year, we were a team that played together,” Lendeborg said as he stood amid the confetti on the court at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We didn't have a best player, like I said before. We have a guy that steps up big-time in these games.

“We have players that make plays when they need to make them. And we just played a full all-around team basketball game today. We did it.”

It didn't matter that the Wolverines shot just 38% while making 2 of 15 3-pointers — stunning numbers for a team that entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 8 nationally in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency (126.6 points per 100 possessions).

It didn't matter that they were outrebounded — and gave up an incredible 22 offensive boards.

Nor that Lendeborg carried an awkward gait as he grinded his way through a 4-for-13 shooting effort in 36 minutes after twisting his left ankle and spraining a knee ligament in Saturday's win over Arizona in the Final Four.

Not the way these guys complemented each other on the sport's biggest stage.

Point guard Elliot Cadeau, in his first season after two up-and-down years at North Carolina, had 19 points and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player. Johnson, in his first year from Illinois, had 12 points and 10 rebounds. The 7-foot-3 Aday Mara, in his first year from UCLA, helped hold UConn big man Tarris Reed Jr. — who had been a March Madness force — to just 4-of-12 shooting.

“Nobody cared about stats the whole season. Nobody cared about nothing but winning,” Cadeau said.

Four of Michigan's five starters were in their first year after transferring: Cadeau, Johnson, Mara and Lendeborg (UAB).

The fifth starter, Nimari Burnett, was practically a Michigan lifer by comparison; he was in his third season with the Wolverines, after starting his career at Texas Tech then spending two years at Alabama. A similar story followed Gayle, a reserve who had spent two years at rival Ohio State before these last two years in Ann Arbor.

That left only two players in Michigan's eight-man rotation who would qualify as “homegrown” talent: freshman Trey McKinney and fifth-year graduate Will Tschetter.

It's an approach that tailored to the current era of the sport, with players transferring freely between campuses and cleared to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), along with schools able to pay athletes directly with the arrival of revenue sharing.

Purists have complained that the revolving door of players makes it harder for fans to get behind their schools than it was when most players spent multiple seasons in the same uniform. Transfers even featured prominently in an executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump seeking to reform college sports.

May shrugged off the critics on Sunday, noting, “I think we are all better in certain situations than others.”

Athletic director Warde Manuel offered a similar defense on the court Monday night after the program claimed its first national title since the Glen Rice-led Wolverines cut down the nets in Seattle in 1989.

“A lot of teams around the country benefited from transfers,” Manuel said. “You can't just say, ‘Well, Michigan had the most transfers.’ Dusty put this team together the way he did.”

And it worked to perfection.

By the end, Mara was jumping around with a few teammates after they had watched the “One Shining Moment” music montage of tournament highlights, with someone picking up a handful of confetti and tossing it into the air to flutter around them.

“It's important to get the right people on the bus,” assistant coach Justin Joyner said. “It's important to get unselfish guys that are about winning, that are about the group. We had that with the best of our players. Yaxel Lendeborg's one of the most unselfish superstars you'll ever be around.

“So when you have that from the top, it permeates through your locker room, it permeates through your group. And eventually you can become a unit that's about winning.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Wembanyama took an inadvertent elbow to the ribs from Paul George when the Philadelphia forward was attempting to deflect a pass as the 7-foot-4 Frenchman was sprinting up court on a fastbreak with 10:49 remaining in the first half. Wembanyama tumbled to the court and remained down for a minute while George patted him on the backside apologetically.

The extent of the injury and whether Wembanyama will be available for the Spurs' final three games of the regular season — all at home — against Portland (Wednesday), Dallas (Friday) and Denver (Sunday) wasn't known after Monday's game.

“At halftime I was told he wasn't coming back and I honest to God haven't heard anything else up to this point,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said after the win.

Wembanyama subbed out of the game shortly after the collision and immediately went into the tunnel leading to the locker room while keeping his arm pressed to his side.

Wembanyama returned with 5:33 remaining in the period, but asked Johnson to take him out with 44 seconds remaining in the first half. He again went into the tunnel leading to the locker room while holding his arm to his side and was ruled out at the start the second half.

“I think it would be a positive that he felt like he could come back and he played the last four or five minutes of the half," Johnson said. “So, that’s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing (as far a status update).”

George was not available for comment after the game.

Wembanyama had 17 points, five rebounds and three blocks while playing 15:40 in the first half.

Wembanyama has made it clear that he wants to win the league's MVP award this season. The NBA allows a maximum of two games in which a player logs between 15 and 19.59 minutes to count toward the league-required minimum of 65 games played for award eligibility.

Wembanyama has played 63 games this season, including the NBA Cup Final.

San Antonio (60-19) is is 2 1/2 games behind Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City (62-16) and assured of finishing no worse than second in the conference.

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There's been a lot of thinking to do given the new Giants manager's frustrating 3-8 start in his jump from college coach to the major leagues.

Vitello had a little extra time following Sunday afternoon's game with a night contest the next day to ponder everything that went wrong in San Francisco's third straight defeat, when he was ejected for the first time in his career for arguing in the seventh after Jerar Encarnación was ruled out for running inside the designated lane on his way to first base.

Yes, he constantly dissects the various decisions he makes and is determined to figure this out. The Giants lost again Monday night, squandering an early four-run lead to the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-4 setback.

“At 3-7 and how yesterday went, I didn't think yesterday was the proper time for me to go gallivanting around San Francisco, so, yeah, I was in my condo the whole night,” Vitello said beforehand. “Whether I'm there or sitting with family I apologize to them, ‘Find something better to watch if you’re watching this.' We're at dinner, I am thinking about this more than that. So, yeah, yesterday sitting at home you finish on a day game and you have a night game, you've got a lot of time to go over that stuff. You replay it all.”

Before the start of a three-game series with the Phillies, Vitello and Matt Chapman connected to discuss the third baseman getting caught stealing after his leadoff single in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Mets that gave New York a weekend sweep.

Vitello knows those kinds of mistakes would be more magnified later in the season, and said the Giants are “trying” so hard to win "it's probably something that everybody's been a little guilty of, of not going about it the way they would if they were thinking clearly but when you're trying to win games as hard as possible sometimes it actually contradicts what your end goal is.”

Coming into Monday's game, the Giants had been outscored by 25 runs over their initial 10 contests — the worst mark through 10 games for the franchise since it was minus-49 in 1896. And the club's 3-7 record was tied for its second-worst through 10 games since moving to San Francisco in 1958 — the Giants began 2-8 in 1983.

Chapman, for one, hopes a few things will go the Giants' way so they can grab some much-needed momentum to climb their way up in the powerful NL West after falling to the bottom of the standings, and he is thankful the struggles are happening now when there is plenty of time left. San Francisco has missed the playoffs the past four years.

“Whatever it is, I think it's more of an accumulation of maybe some frustrating things happening because we're right there and we're not able to get the job done,” Chapman said. “... It sucks when it looks like it's sloppy baseball and we're making some sloppy mistakes that kind of shot us in the foot last year and was one of the reasons why we probably weren't able to finish as strong. But I don't think it's going to be something that's going to be the story of our season by any means.”

After his ejection, Vitello offered a long explanation to what had upset him. The former University of Tennessee coach regularly shares stories from his experiences in the college ranks.

“I’m sure he got it exactly technically right,” Vitello said postgame Sunday. “It’s just a play I’ve got a lot of history for. A little frustrated about something else that occurred in the game. … Got a ton of history with that play. Lost a game to Lipscomb on that play, lost the game to (Oklahoma State coach) Frank Anderson and a Big 12 championship on that play. The difference between the two that I’m talking about, and I can talk about others, is the runner in Frank’s instance — and I’ve called his team cheaters — completely interfered with the throwing lane for the pitcher. So again, umpires are held accountable by what the rules are, and they enforce those rules."

Several of his players and coaches have said dating to spring training how much they appreciate the passion, energy and approach Vitello takes.

From Day 1, Vitello acknowledged he would be learning on the fly from the dugout's top step and there would be plenty of ups and downs.

“Listen, Tony's great, I like Tony, he's cool,” said center fielder Harrison Bader, who began the series batting .118 (4 for 34) with a home run and determined to get on track. “At the major league level, a little different in terms of the fans and the speed but he won at a really high level in the SEC. It's the same game, so he's familiar to winning and what it looks like to help players win and what that feeling looks like and how to maintain it. So he's in the right spot.”

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The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.

It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.

After being sworn in, the 69-year-old told the National Assembly that his top priority was to maintain peace and stability, which were the foundation for fast and sustainable growth. “We aim to improve people’s livelihoods so all can share the benefits of development,” he said.

This is To Lam’s second time holding both jobs, after briefly doing so in 2024 when his predecessor as party chief, Nguyen Phu Trong, died.

The concentration of power was significant since it meant that Lam had a “stronger mandate and far more political room to push through his agenda than any leaders” since the 1980s, when Hanoi launched reforms to shed a state-run economy in favor of a market-oriented one open to foreigners, said Nguyen Khac Giang, of Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute research center.

“The opportunity is obvious. Faster decision-making, greater policy coherence, and a better chance of pushing difficult reforms at a pivotal moment. But the risk is that concentration of power can move faster than institutional reform,” he said.

Lam's rise to the top caps the ascent of a career policeman who advanced from Vietnam’s security services to the top of the political system. This was aided by a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by his predecessor, which he oversaw as head of the Ministry of Public Security.

As party chief, Lam has led Vietnam’s biggest bureaucratic overhaul since the 1980s, cutting jobs, merging ministries, redrawing provincial boundaries and advancing major infrastructure projects.

He has focused on economic performance and private-sector growth, aiming to move Vietnam beyond the labor- and export-driven model that has helped lift millions from poverty and build a manufacturing-based middle class. The country is targeting 10% or higher annual economic growth over each of the next five years.

But challenges remain, especially the immediate task of turning this ambitious vision into reality with the world economy upended by the energy shock from the war in Iran. Vietnam’s economy expanded at an annualized rate of 7.8% in the first three months of the year, up from 7.1% last year but below the 9.1% target and slower than in late 2025.

Giang said that Lam also faces political hurdles for reform buy-in and the challenge of maintaining Vietnam's pragmatic approach to foreign policy.

Vietnam is facing U.S. pressure over its trade surplus but also has to balance ties with China, its largest trading partner and rival claimant in the South China Sea.

“It has benefited from a careful balancing strategy in foreign policy, but maintaining that position will become harder in a more turbulent world,” he said.

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This year’s Supreme Court election stands in stark contrast to the swing state's previous two, where national spending records were set in battles over majority control. Spending and national attention is down dramatically this year without control of the court at stake.

Democrats are looking to tighten their control of the court just months before a November election in which they seek to keep the governor's office and flip the state Legislature, where Republicans have held the majority since 2011. Democrats aspire to undo a host of Republican-enacted laws that made Wisconsin a focal point for the nation’s conservative movement in the 2010s.

In Tuesday's Supreme Court race, Democratic-backed Chris Taylor, a former state lawmaker who also worked for Planned Parenthood, faces Republican-supported Maria Lazar. Both Taylor and Lazar are state Appeals Court judges.

Liberals would increase their majority on the court to 5-2 from 4-3 with a Taylor win. That would lock in the liberal majority until at least 2030.

Liberals took control of the state's top court in 2023, ending 15 years under a conservative majority. They held onto their majority with last year's victory in a race that drew involvement from President Donald Trump and billionaires George Soros and Elon Musk, who personally handed out $1 million checks to voters in the state.

Liberals argued that democracy was at stake in the 2025 election, noting that when the court was controlled by conservative justices in 2020 it came just one vote shy of siding with Trump in his attempt to invalidate enough votes to overturn his loss in that year's presidential election.

Since liberals took control, the court has reversed several election-related rulings, including one that overturned a ban on absentee ballot drop boxes, and it is poised to once again be in the spotlight around the 2028 presidential election.

Races for the court are officially nonpartisan, but support for candidates breaks down mostly along partisan lines.

Taylor has focused much of her campaign on abortion rights, with one TV ad saying that “abortion is on the ballot.” In another ad, she criticized Lazar for calling the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 “very wise.”

Lazar, who was supported by anti-abortion groups in her run for the appeals court, tried to brand Taylor as nothing more than a politician who will push a partisan agenda on the court.

They sparred over each other's partisanship during the campaign's sole debate last week.

Lazar accused Taylor of being a “radical, extreme legislator” and a “judicial activist.” Taylor said that Lazar would bring “an extreme, right-wing political agenda to the bench.”

Lazar has had a much harder time getting her message out. Taylor had a large fundraising advantage and spent about nine times as much as Lazar on television ads, based on a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.

The liberal-controlled court has already struck down a state law banning abortion and ordered new legislative maps, fueling Democrats’ hopes of capturing a majority this November.

Taylor has been a judge since 2020 and before that she spent 10 years as a Democrat representing the liberal capital city of Madison in the state Assembly.

Lazar, a judge since 2015, previously worked four years under a Republican attorney general in the state Department of Justice. In that role, she defended a law enacted under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers.

A circuit court judge ruled in December that the law is unconstitutional, a decision expected to ultimately land before the state Supreme Court.

Lazar also defended laws passed by Republicans and signed by Walker implementing a voter ID requirement and restricting abortion access.

Democrats are optimistic given the past two Supreme Court elections, which saw candidates they backed winning by double digits.

The seat is open due to the retirement of a conservative justice. Another conservative justice is retiring next year, giving liberals a chance to take 6-1 control of the court if they win on Tuesday.

Raleigh’s homer was pulled deep to right field against two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom of the Texas Rangers to end a 12-pitch at-bat in the first inning. Raleigh fell behind 0-2, fouled off six pitches with two strikes and connected on a 99 mph fastball low in the zone.

His homer was Seattle's lone run in a 2-1 loss.

“Just trying to put the bat on the ball there and fight, don’t punch out,” Raleigh said. “I was able to have a pretty long at-bat, saw some good pitches and put a good swing on that last one.”

It was the second-most pitches in an at-bat that ended with a Mariners homer. Raúl Ibañez homered on the 13th pitch he saw in June 2013.

According to Major League Baseball, it was both the most pitches ever delivered to Raleigh in a plate appearance ending in a hit and the most pitches ever thrown by deGrom during an at-bat ending in a hit.

“That was just an incredible at-bat,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, “to battle all the way through like that and foul off as many pitches as he did and then finally put that perfect pitch into the right-field seats.”

Raleigh's longest home run drought last season was eight games. He had two homers last season through 11 games, hitting No. 3 in his 14th game.

Raleigh entered batting .132 this year with only one run scored. He nearly homered on Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels in the first inning, but the ball was caught above the wall by Jo Adell, the first of three potential homers the right fielder prevented in that game.

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

Dakota Mortensen, who has temporary custody of his and Paul's 2-year-old son, is asking the court to turn a short-term protective order against her into a long-term one as authorities investigate domestic violence reports from earlier this year.

Paul and Mortensen are expected to participate in the hearing remotely while their lawyers appear in person at the Salt Lake City courthouse. Details of the temporary protective order have been kept sealed.

Attorneys are expected to address reports under investigation from February, not a 2023 fight that led to Paul’s arrest and resurfaced just before her “Bachelorette” season was supposed to premiere, though the older issues may be discussed.

ABC last month announced the unprecedented move of shelving an entire, already-filmed new season of “The Bachelorette” with Paul in the title role. The network and its parent company Disney blamed the cancellation on a leaked video, shot in 2023 and posted by TMZ on March 19, in which Paul appears to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her young daughter watches and cries.

Police body camera footage of Paul's arrest in that case was featured in the series premiere of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," which first aired in 2024. Paul is shown calling it “the worst night of my life.” Video of the fight itself, which appears to be from Mortensen's point of view, was not made public until last month's leak.

Paul was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge, and the other counts were dismissed.

Paul has two children with her ex-husband, Tate Paul, along with the son she had with Mortensen after their 2023 dispute.

A Paul representative said after the cancellation that she had been “silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation” and was “finally gaining the strength to face her accuser.”

Mortensen said in a statement that he was “used to these baseless claims about me and our relationship, which I categorically deny.”

Production has also been paused on the fifth season of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the Hulu series that made Paul a reality star. Her casting on “The Bachelorette” offered synergy between the shows for Disney, which owns both Hulu and ABC.

She became known as an influencer in the #MomTok community, a group of women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sharing their lives on TikTok. The group, and Paul's admissions of polyamory within it, helped spawn the hit reality show.

On Sunday, Paul announced she was leaving what is widely known as the Mormon church. She said on Instagram that she will always have love and respect for the Utah-based religious institution but, “It's time to detach myself.”

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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

The trial started last month, nearly a year after Gerhardt and Arielle Konig went on a hike on the Pali Puka trail in Honolulu that ended with her bloodied and screaming that he tried to kill her. Gerhardt Konig has pleaded not guilty.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.

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The couple were on a weekend trip to Hawaii's capital city for her birthday in March 2025 while their two young sons stayed home on Maui. Near a lookout offering sweeping views, Gerhardt Konig, 47 — upset about his wife's relationship with a coworker — tried to push her off the steep trail, bashed her head with a rock and attempted to stab her with a syringe, prosecutors said.

The trial, with testimony livestreamed by Court TV, has aired the couple's marital problems leading up to the hike, along with their versions of what happened on the trail.

Gerhardt Konig testified that his wife was having an affair, which he confirmed by unlocking her phone while she slept. The relationship, which Arielle Konig characterized as an “emotional affair” involving flirty messages with a coworker, came up during the hike.

Arielle Konig testified that her husband grabbed her and moved her toward the cliff's edge, but she threw herself on the ground in an attempt to hold on. He straddled her and had a syringe in his hand, she said, but she batted it away. She bit his forearm and squeezed his testicles in attempt to get him off her, she said.

Her husband denied pushing her toward the edge and testified that she hit him with a rock on the side of her face. He wrestled the rock away and hit her with it twice in self-defense, he said.

He denied having any syringes on the mountain, or trying to stab her. His defense attorney told jurors no syringe was found at the scene.

Two hikers who heard Arielle Konig's screams helped her get down the trail.

Pali Puka, which means “pierced cliff” in Hawaiian, leads to a hole in a rock ridge through which hikers can look out over the forest to see the ocean. The trail is closed because state officials have deemed it unsafe, but hikers often enter through a small clearing, ignoring a warning sign that reads: “Area Closed! Do not go beyond this sign.”

Gerhardt Konig testified that as he watched his wife crawl away, he believed his marriage and career were over, and he decided to jump to his death. But first, he called his adult son from a previous marriage. The son told authorities that his father said he "tried to kill your stepmom” — a confession Gerhardt Konig denied having made.

He spent hours on the mountain before deciding to come down and surrender to police.

His wife has since filed for divorce.

He is being treated at a hospital and being closely monitored, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Offset was formerly married to Cardi B, with whom he has three children.

The Seminole Police Department said a person sustained injuries that were not life-threatening Monday evening at a valet area outside of the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The police department did not identify the victim.

Two people were detained by police and officials are investigating the incident, according to a statement from the police department.

“The site is secure and there is no threat to the public,” according to the police department. “Operations continue as normal.”

Offset's cousin Takeoff, another member of Migos, was shot dead in 2022.

The trio, with its rapid-fire triplet flow, became known as one of the most popular hip-hop groups of all time. It broke out with the 2013 hit “Versace” and later earned Grammy nominations for best rap album with 2018’s “Culture," while a track off it nabbed a nod for best rap performance.

Offset and Cardi B were secretly wed in September 2017 in Atlanta. In 2024, Cardi B announced that she filed for divorce.

Trump's previous deadline was for March 23, but that shifted several times over the ensuing weeks as Trump oscillated between heated threats, announced delays and proclamations that the negotiations were going well, sometimes in the same statement.

Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, the country's state-run IRNA news agency reported Monday. Shortly after, Trump gave an ominous warning to Iran if it didn’t capitulate, and suggested Tuesday’s 8 p.m. deadline was final.

“They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he's “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.

Here are some of Trump's deadlines and threats, and what happened next.

An ultimatum about reopening the Strait of Hormuz

On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran doesn't “FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS.”

Iran had until the evening of March 23.

Then 12 hours before the deadline, Trump took to Truth Social to share the good news: that both countries had productive conversations toward concluding the conflict.

“I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD,” he wrote, adding that was subject to the success of the discussions.

That pushed the deadline out to the end of that week.

A threat to target desalinization plants

Before the deadline, on March 26, Trump doubled down on his threats on Truth Social: “They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”

But later that day, he extended the deadline for another 10 days, to April 6 at 8 p.m., and said on Truth Social that negotiations were “going very well.”

On March 30, Trump put out a mixed statement: celebrating progress in the talks with Iran while also expanding his threatened bombing if a deal wasn't “shortly reached,” adding that “it probably will be."

“We will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” he wrote.

It's unclear how soon “shortly reached” meant for Trump, but a deal was not made as the deadline loomed.

An expletive-filled threat to attack power plants and bridges

“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, "Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

As the deadline approached, his posts had doubled down on his threats until Sunday, when Trump pushed the deadline again in an expletive-filled post.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——-in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” Trump said on Truth Social, followed by another post that specified 8 p.m. as the deadline.

Trump then suggested on Monday that Tuesday's deadline would be final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. “We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night.”

What's next for diplomacy with Iran?

Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” he told The Associated Press.

A regional official involved in the talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

On an Israeli TV station, Channel 13, the evening newscast showed a large digital clock counting down the hours and minutes to Tuesday’s deadline.

“They always say, ‘I’m not trying to hit you,’’’ Contreras said after the Brewers beat the scuffling Red Sox 8-6 at Fenway Park. “That gets old. So, next time they hit me again, I’m going to take one of them out. That’s a message.”

Contreras has been hit by a pitch 131 times in his major league career, including 24 times by the Brewers — which is 10 more than he's been plunked by any other team. He has a testy history with Woodruff, who has nailed Contreras six times.

After the latest one, Contreras yelled at Woodruff from first base. Then, on a force play, Contreras slid hard into second, banging into shortstop David Hamilton’s left knee with his cleats and tearing his pants.

“I mean, we’ve been through that. It’s been like nine years for me. It seems like every year,” Woodruff said. “He’s trying to play a game and he’s trying to get his side fired up, which is fine. Once I knew what was going on, I wasn’t going to let it affect me.”

Before getting traded to the Red Sox in the offseason, Contreras spent his first 10 big league seasons in the NL Central where he played against Milwaukee a lot, first with the Chicago Cubs and then the St. Louis Cardinals.

Contreras was hit Monday night on the left hand with a fastball that grazed his fingers. Brewers manager Pat Murphy challenged the call, which was upheld following a replay review.

“I thought it wasn’t a hit by pitch,” Murphy said. “That’s why we challenged it. Those are really hard to get overturned.”

Contreras’ younger brother, William, was Milwaukee’s catcher Monday night.

Did he try to calm his big brother as he walked toward first with him?

“I tried,” he said. “He plays like that.”

Willson Contreras hit a solo homer in the ninth inning and reached base five times. He flung his bat not only after the homer, but his first-inning walk, too.

From behind the plate, his younger brother challenged a 2-0 pitch to Willson Contreras that was called a ball. The call was confirmed by ABS.

“I was going to check it whether it was my bother at the plate or not,” William Contreras said through a translator. “I saw it a little closer than it was.”

The teams have two games left in their three-game series.

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And it wasn't enough.

Nine Grizzlies made at least one 3 in a 142-126 loss to the Cavaliers. The Grizzlies shot 49.2% (29 for 59) from deep and 45.7% (16 for 35) from inside the arc.

The 3-point record had been shared by Milwaukee and Boston. The Bucks made 29 3s in a 144-97 victory at Miami on Dec. 29, 2020, and the Celtics equaled the record in a 132-109 win against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22, 2024.

“I think we can be pretty proud of how we played with this group today on the court,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “Guys wanted to go for it in the end, and we were all for it. Unfortunately couldn't set a singular record, but tied it. Nonetheless, very proud of our group.”

The Grizzlies made 10 3s in the first quarter, three in the second, six in the third and 10 in the final period.

The Cavaliers went 12 for 32 from 3 for the game.

“Incredible shooting performance by the Grizzlies. Give them credit,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They shot the heck out of the ball.”

Memphis reserves Adama Bal and Dariq Whitehead each made six 3-pointers. Lucas Williamson went 5 for 12 from deep, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper was 4 for 5.

The Grizzlies lost for the 18th time in their last 20 games. They were averaging 13.7 made 3-pointers per game coming into the day.

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

Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off-limits.

Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the conflict.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press.

Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors.

Here is the latest:

Malaysian commercial vessel allowed to pass in Strait of Hormuz

Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that one of seven Malaysian commercial vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz has been allowed to pass and is now heading to its destination.

The ministry said this followed diplomatic talks with Iranian officials led by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. It didn’t give further details.

Malaysia reaffirmed its support for safe and open sea routes under international law, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It called for continued dialogue to maintain peace and stability in the region.

Japan says a Japanese national detained in Iran has been released

Japan said Tuesday a Japanese national who had been detained in Iran since January has been released on bail.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that his release was confirmed Monday and that Japan is demanding a full release from Iranian authorities.

He said the Japanese ambassador to Iran met the person released and that he was in good health without providing further details.

The person is believed to be a journalist at Japan’s NHK public television.

Another Japanese national, who was detained in Iran last June, was released and returned to Japan in March.

Iran official calls for youths to form human chains around power plants ahead of threatened Trump strikes

An Iranian official early Tuesday issued a video message calling on youths of the Islamic Republic to form “human chains” around power plants in the country ahead of threatened strikes by U.S. President Donald

Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, issued the video call in a newscast.

“I invite all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors,” he said.

Gather “Tuesday at 2 p.m. around the power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth.”

Iran has formed human-chain demonstrations, also known as human shields, in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s had similar human-shield demonstrations during the 1991 Gulf War. He also dispersed foreign nationals held by his security services to possible targets of the U.S.-led campaign during the war.

Dwindling naphtha stocks strain medical supplies in South Korea

South Korean officials say the country has about three months’ worth of materials to produce intravenous fluid bags as the war in the Middle East threatens to strain critical hospital supplies.

Senior Health Ministry official Jeong Kyung-sil said Tuesday that the country has about three months’ stock of syringes, and materials for roughly two more months of production.

Health Minister Jeong Eun Kyeong said Tuesday the government is prioritizing medical supplies as it seeks to secure more naphtha, a key petroleum product used in plastics manufacturing, amid supply disruptions caused by the war.

“We will continue to secure additional supplies going forward and we are also reviewing alternative supply sources to ensure there are no issues,” the minister said.

South Korea last week said it imported 2.7 tons of naphtha from Russia as it looks to address the shortage.

South Korean chemical giant LG Chem shut down a major industrial plant in Yeosu last month, citing naphtha supply disruptions.

Israel claims recent wave of airstrikes targeting Tehran

Israel claimed the recent wave of airstrikes targeting Iran’s capital, Tehran, but offered no immediate details on what had been targeted.

Already, Israel had faced one missile barrage from Iran on Tuesday.

New Zealand describes US threats against Iranian infrastructure as ‘unhelpful’

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described Trump’s recent threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure as “unhelpful.”

“Unhelpful because more military action’s not necessary,” Luxon told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.

“I think the bottom line is that the focus needs to be on not seeing this conflict expand any further,” Luxon said.

“We got threats from the president over the weekend. Any of those actions including bombing bridges and reservoirs and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable as well,” Luxon added.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ message to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a meeting in Washington, scheduled this week, would be to de-escalate the conflict, Luxon said.

Peters would “certainly be encouraging the U.S. and Iran to de-escalate quickly,” Luxon said.

UN to vote Tuesday on watered-down resolution on Strait of Hormuz

The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that was watered down for a second time because of opposition from Russia and China.

The original Bahrain-sponsored resolution would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” – U.N. language that can include military action – to ensure transit through the vital waterway, which Iran has largely blocked, and deter attempts to close it.

The sixth revision of the initial text that will be voted on only “strongly encourages” countries using the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate defensive efforts to contribute to safe navigation in the strait.

It says this should include escorting merchant and commercial vessels, and deterring attempts to close, obstruct or interfere with international navigation through the strait.

The vote is scheduled at 11a.m. EDT, hours before an 8 p.m. EDT deadline set by Trump for Iran to open the strategic waterway, where one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, or face attacks on its power plants and bridges.

US Central Command says it struck over 13,000 targets

The U.S. military’s Central Command said early Tuesday that it had struck over 13,000 targets in the war so far.

Latest reports of live fire in the war

Activists reported new strikes targeting Iran’s capital, Tehran, early Tuesday morning.

The United Arab Emirates began firing its air defense Tuesday morning, while Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens in the kingdom, with both Gulf Arab countries facing a new barrage of Iranian fire.

Filipina killed in missile attack in Israel, Philippines says

The Philippine government says a Filipino national was killed in a missile attack in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa over the weekend.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not immediately identify the Filipina but said she was killed with her Israeli husband and parents-in-law in a residential area in Haifa on Sunday.

On Feb. 28, a Filipina caregiver, Mary Ann de Vera, was killed in a missile strike in Tel Aviv while helping bring her charge to a bomb shelter in the first known Philippine casualty of the war in the Middle East.

About 30,000 Filipinos live and work — many as caregivers — in Israel.

Drone strike kills 2 in Iraq

Two people were killed in the Kurdish region of Iraq after a home was hit by a drone that authorities said had been launched from Iran.

The drone hit the home in the village of Zargazawi in Irbil province early Tuesday, the Counter Terrorism Directorate of the northern Kurdish region said in a statement. Officials condemned the attack, calling it a violation of international law.

The strike came as Iranian forces and allied militias targeted areas across northern Kurdistan with a wave of drones, rockets and missiles.

US special forces were on the ground in Iran as part of rescue mission

The special operators were part of the teams sent in to retrieve the pilot and weapon systems officer of a downed fighter jet, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation.

During a briefing Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Our special operators, pilots and support crews performed with near perfection under fire,” but he stopped short of confirming that U.S. troops set foot on Iranian soil.

Hegseth and Trump have said they haven’t ruled out boots on the ground but also repeatedly argued that the conflict was limited in scope.

Hegseth has lambasted previous presidents who oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, insisting that the Iran war “is different. It’s laser-focused.”

— Konstantin Toropin

Shooting by Israel-backed group at a shelter in Gaza is followed by an Israeli strike, killing 8

An Israel-backed armed group in Gaza kidnapped children from a school-turned-shelter on Monday, according to a witness, after which Israel launched an airstrike on the site, health authorities said.

The Israeli military had no response when reached for comment.

An anti-Hamas Palestinian group called Abu Nusseirah posted on social media that they killed five Hamas fighters at the shelter in Maghazi.

An elderly displaced woman sheltering at the school told the AP that dozens of men stormed the site, clashed with people there and forced kids — including girls — into vehicles. Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, she said her son was killed in the fighting.

Bodies were taken to al-Aqsa hospital, where health officials said some had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the school after the clashes. AP footage showed dozens of mourners gathered at the morgue.

Many displaced Palestinians say they fear the Iran war has overshadowed Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation.

3 US troops injured during fighter jet shootdown and rescue

Those injured were the weapon systems officer from the U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter jet that was shot down in Iran late last week as well as two aircrewmen from a helicopter that took fire during the initial rescue for the pilot from the downed jet.

That’s according to a U.S. official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation.

After rescuing the pilot, the HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopters were “engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small arms weapon, and one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits,” said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

At the same White House briefing, Trump said the jet’s downed weapons officer was “bleeding profusely” but still able climb mountainous terrain and communicate his location.

— Konstantin Toropin

A 12-hour drive through Iran offers glimpses of destruction, defiance and daily life

A black banner hangs over a border crossing and portraits of Iran’s killed supreme leader stare down, promising vengeance against the United States and Israel.

But on the 12-hour drive south to the capital, Tehran, daily life continues, with only occasional signs of the ongoing war, including a Shiite religious center that officials say was damaged by a recent airstrike.

Associated Press reporters made the journey on Saturday after crossing into Iran from Turkey. They gained a glimpse of the country at the center of a regional war that has jolted the world economy and shows no sign of ending.

▶ Read more

US stocks drift higher ahead of Trump’s deadline to bomb Iranian power plants

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Like stock indexes, oil prices seesawed through the day amid continued uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of crude oil.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market.

▶ Read more

The US and Egypt are pushing Israel not to strike the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing, official says

That’s according to Lebanon’s General Security chief, Hassan Choucair, who said those “ongoing contacts” by Washington and Cairo aim to protect and reopen the Masnaa border crossing.

It’s been closed since Saturday after Israel warned it could be targeted over alleged weapons smuggling by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Officials in Lebanon and Syria deny that claim, saying vehicles are thoroughly inspected.

The crossing’s closure has forced travelers to take a longer northern route. More than 200,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since the war escalated five weeks ago, many of them fleeing the conflict.

Trump details the rescue of US airmen shot down in Iran

The United States relied on dozens of aircraft, hundreds of personnel, secret CIA technology and a dose of subterfuge to rescue a two-man F-15E fighter jet crew downed deep inside Iran.

Trump and his top defense aides detailed the daring rescue operation in an unusual level of detail during a news conference at the White House on Monday.

The U.S. surged helicopters, midair refuelers and fighter jets deep into Iran to rescue the pilot within hours. But finding and picking up the jet’s weapon systems officer was a more complicated endeavor.

▶ Read more

Israeli TV station counts down to Trump deadline

As reporters spoke on air, Channel 13 TV’s evening newscast showed a large digital clock marking down the hours and minutes until Tuesday night’s deadline.

Trump lashes out at Pacific allies for not assisting in Iran fight

The president continued to grumble about NATO allies’ refusal to get involved in reopening the Strait of Hormuz and their hesitance to assist U.S. offensive operations against Iran.

As he wrapped up his lengthy news conference Monday, he also fumed about the lack of support from Pacific allies.

“You know who else didn’t help us? South Korea didn’t help us,” Trump said. “You know who else didn’t help us? Australia didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Japan. We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well.”

Trump says it would take 4 hours to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants

The president described the consequences that Iran would face if it didn’t reach a deal with the U.S. by Trump’s 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” Trump said during his Monday news conference.

Power plants in Iran, he continued, would be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off limits in the U.S. response.

UN chief warns the US not to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.

“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, an attack would still be prohibited if it risks “excessive incidental civilian harm.”

A court would need to decide whether such attacks were war crimes, he said.

Trump dismisses that his threatened attacks on Iran’s infrastructure would be war crimes

Trump says he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten the destruction of Iran’s bridges and power plants if they don’t meet a Tuesday evening deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.

Israeli military is preparing for weeks of battle against Iran

The military’s chief spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, says the army’s chief has approved battle plans for the next three weeks in the absence of a ceasefire.

“Every day that passes, we hit them more and more. Already we have very good achievements, and we want to reach excellent achievements,” he told a press conference Monday.

Israel’s defense industry to export a $750 million rocket system to Greece

The Israeli and Greek defense ministries signed the four-year export agreement Monday in Athens, said a statement from Israel’s defense ministry.

The Precise & Universal Launching System, is built to launch rockets of different ranges, the statement said.

Israeli defense giant Elbit Systems will supply the rocket launchers and the warheads to Greece. Greek defense industries are expected to produce some parts of the system.

US fighter jet was downed by shoulder-held missile launcher, Trump says

Trump said the F-15E fighter jet that set off a two-day search-and-rescue operation was downed by a shoulder-launched rocket.

Trump described the weapon as a “hand-held shoulder missile — heat-seeking missile.”

The president went on to suggest that the fighter jet was ultimately downed not by the explosion but because of related damage to the aircraft’s engines.

“They shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine,” Trump said.

Trump insists Iranian civilians want the US to keep bombing

Asked why Iranians would want him to follow up on his threat to blow up the country’s infrastructure, Trump says everyday citizens are “willing to suffer ... in order to have freedom.”

“‘Please keep bombing. Do it,’” Trump claimed U.S. officials have heard Iranians say via “intercepts.”

“And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding,” he said.

US warplane that crashed amid search for downed aviators was hit by enemy fire, general says

A U.S. aircraft that crashed amid the search for the downed airmen was hit by enemy fire while engaging Iranian forces, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.

Caine, speaking at a briefing at the White House, said that a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft was “violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep them away” from the pilot of a downed F-15 fighter jet while also being “primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot.”

Caine said that after being hit, “this pilot continued to fight, continued the mission, and then upon exit, flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable.”

The pilot then decided to eject over friendly territory and, according to Caine, “was quickly and safely recovered, and is doing fine.”

Hegseth describes ‘unblinking’ mission in coordination call

The defense secretary said the coordination call held by national security officials during the daring mission to rescue the U.S. airmen lasted nearly two days straight.

“For 45 hours and 56 minutes, we held that call open for coordination,” Hegseth said, describing the call that was held in a secure facility. “Our mission was unblinking.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe says top-secret technology led to rescue of downed airman

Speaking at a White House press conference, Ratcliffe said the agency used “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service” possesses to locate the aviator after the F-15 was shot down in Iran.

At the same time, the CIA mounted a deception operation to mislead the Iranians who were looking.

Ratcliffe said the search and rescue operation was “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

The CIA declined to respond to questions Monday about the kind of technology used to locate the airman.

Hegseth draws parallels between the story of Easter and rescued airman

The Defense secretary, who has frequently infused his leadership of the Pentagon with references to Christianity and the language of his faith, said the airman who evaded capture for more than a day was shot down on Good Friday, “hidden in a cave” on Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, “a pilot reborn, all home and accounted for.”

Hegseth said that when the airman was finally able to activate an emergency transponder, his first transmitted message was: “God is good.”

Trump threatens to jail journalist who first reported on downed airman

Trump threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that U.S. forces were searching for an F-15 weapons officer shot down in Iran, if they don’t reveal their sources.

“The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say, and that doesn’t last long,” Trump said.

Trump didn’t name the journalist or news organization. He said the leak tipped off the Iranians, endangering the officer and his rescuers. He called the leaker “a sick person.”

Iran’s supreme leader issues a rare public statement

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei expressed condolences over the killing of the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence chief.

In a written social media post, Khamenei said Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi joined a “steadfast line of warriors and fighters” to sacrifice their lives. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

The younger Khamenei has not been seen or spoken in public since he succeeded his father as supreme leader.

Trump offers more details of dramatic airman rescue

The president described the scale of the operation undertaken by the U.S. to rescue the second airman from the downed aircraft.

The operation included 155 aircraft — four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, among others, Trump said.

Much of it was an effort to throw off the Iranians, who were also looking for the missing crew member, the president said.

“We were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”

Trump says downed officer rushed to get away from the crash site

Trump says the downed weapons officer followed his training to get as far away from the crash site as possible.

When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.

Trump says the officer was “bleeding profusely” but was able climb mountainous terrain and contact U.S. forces to communicate his location. Rescuers mobilized a massive response that included subterfuge to confuse the Iranians about where they were looking.

Trump says 21 aircraft came to help rescue airmen who crashed in Iran

The president began describing the rescue efforts from Friday and over the weekend after two airmen ejected and landed alive “deep in enemy territory” in Iran.

Trump said 21 aircraft were deployed to help with the search and rescue in the first wave, flying for hours under “very, very heavy enemy fire.” He said the U.S. has one helicopter with many bullets in it.

Trump news conference begins

He is accompanied by his top national security advisers, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Also in attendance are his children, Eric and Tiffany Trump, as well as their spouses.

Declaring that “this was one of our better Easters,” Trump started his news conference by speaking about the dramatic rescue of two U.S. airmen in Iran over the weekend.

Trump, with Easter bunny nearby, talks Iran war

In a surreal scene on the White House lawn with flowers and Easter decor, Trump decided to give reporters an update on the Iran war.

With children waiting nearby, someone in a bunny costume steps away, and soft, cheerful music in the background, the president spoke about the rescue of a missing airman shot down in Iran, defended his expletive-laden threats on social media, and warned that Iran should capitulate or face threats to its bridges and power plants.

Turkey’s president says his country has intensified push to end the war

“We are striving to seize any chance, however small, for hostilities to cease and negotiations to open,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address following a Cabinet meeting. He did not provide details.

Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel, again accused the country of undermining all attempts to stop the fighting.

Trump defends his use of vulgar language in a social media post

The president used profanity in a Sunday social media posting warning Iran he was serious about targeting the country’s infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline. He ended the short post by saying, “Praise be to Allah.”

Asked by a reporter about his language, Trump responded he used it “only to make my point.”

Trump added about his use of an expletive, “I think you’ve heard it before.”

Trump suggests Kurdish groups have held onto guns meant for Iranian protesters

Trump appeared to confirm that the U.S. had intended to arm Iranian protesters after mass demonstrations against the government broke out throughout Iran in late 2025 and continued early into this year.

Thousands of anti-government protesters were killed during the crackdowns by government forces. Fox News reported on Sunday that Trump had told the network’s Trey Yingst in a telephone interview that Kurdish groups who were supposed to be delivering the U.S.-provided weapons held on to them.

“They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs,” Trump told reporters on Monday about the weapons intended for protesters. “You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, ‘What a beautiful gun. I think I’ll keep it.’ So, I’m very upset with a certain group of people and they’re going to pay a big price for that.”

Trump says he’d prefer to ‘take the oil’

Trump said he’d prefer to use U.S. military power to take control of Iran’s vast oil reserves, but he acknowledged there’s not much appetite for such a move among the American electorate.

“Take the oil because it’s there for the taking,” Trump said. “There’s not a thing they can do about it. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I’d take the oil. I’d keep the oil. I would make plenty of money.”

Trump warns Iran they’re making a mistake by not capitulating

Shortly after state media reported Iran had rejected a ceasefire proposal, Trump offered a new harsh warning to Iran.

“They just don’t want to say ‘uncle,‘” Trump told reporters as he and first lady Melania Trump hosted the White House Easter Egg Roll. “They don’t want to cry as the expression goes ‘uncle,’ but they will. And if they don’t, They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything.”

He added another ominous warning: “I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two.”

A regional official involved in the ceasefire talks says the efforts haven’t collapsed

“We are still talking to both sides,” he says, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door diplomacy.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu says petrochemical attack weakens Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

He said Monday’s strike on an Iranian petrochemical facility is part of a systematic campaign aimed at destroying the Guard’s “money machine.”

“We are destroying factories, we are eliminating activists and we continue to eliminate senior figures,” he said in a videotaped statement.

An Iranian university student asks the world: ‘Stop this war’

A resident of Tehran in his early twenties says U.S.-Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure and Trump’s intensifying threats have “terrified” people.

“Everyone is very anxious and scared that the water, power and gas will be cut,” he said, speaking anonymously for his security.

The student first spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of the war, when he participated in anti-government protests at his Tehran university’s campus. At the time, he described heated disagreements with friends who said they hoped a threatened Israeli-U.S. attack would overthrow the Islamic Republic.

“Those who were supporting the war are no longer supporting it,” he said Monday.

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

Key Federal Reserve official open to possible rate hikes amid gas price spikes

Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press that if inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target, the central bank should consider lifting its benchmark interest rate.

While Hammack also said the Fed might have to cut its rate if higher gas prices caused the economy to slow and unemployment to rise, a potential rate hike is a noticeable shift for the Fed from before the Iran war, when officials forecast two rate cuts this year. A hike could lift longer-term interest rates for things like mortgages and auto loans.

“My baseline is that we’re on hold for quite some time,” Hammack said, “but I can foresee scenarios where we would need to reduce rates ... if the labor market deteriorates significantly. Or I could see where we might need to raise rates if inflation stays persistently above our target.”

Houthis claim they hit military sites in Israel

The Iran-backed Houthis said they launched a barrage of cruise missiles and drones at several military sites in southern Israel, “successfully achieving its objectives,” according to the group’s military spokesperson.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal

The agency said it had has conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan, a key mediator.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

Israel to ramp up production of air defense interceptors

Israel’s ministry of defense said Monday that the country’s defense industries would “significantly increase” production and stockpiling of missile interceptors as the war with Iran stretches on.

In a statement, the ministry said production of missile interceptors for the Arrow system, which defends against long-range ballistic missiles, would be sped up. Arrow has been critical in Israeli air defense during the current war, throughout which Israeli authorities have maintained there’s no shortage of interceptor missiles.

Israel’s military says it struck 3 Tehran airports overnight

The military says the strikes hit dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force. It said the strikes targeted Bahram airport, Mehrabad airport and Azmayesh airport.

US-Israeli assault brings ‘destruction and bloodshed’ to Iran’s capital, resident says

A resident of central Tehran has described living with “anxiety and fear” as U.S.-Israeli strikes pummel the capital.

“Constantly, there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety.

At least one strike hit near her home, waking her on Wednesday, she said. Rushing into the neighboring street, she saw it “filled with people in pajamas, some of them wrapped in blankets, some of them crying with fear.”

She also described her anger at the popular satellite channel, Iran International, which is based abroad. She said its coverage had amplified exiled Iranian voices supporting strikes on the Islamic Republic. “Some people thought war might bring good things, but war doesn’t bring anything but destruction and bloodshed.”

— Amir-Hussein Radjy

Although we are a few degrees below average for this time of year, at least we are in good company! Up and down the East Coast, we are a couple of degrees cooler thanks to the cold front that is living up to its name.

In the wake of this past weekend’s weather-maker, high pressure is quickly building into the region and giving us a very boring forecast this week!

We have a week of sunshine and mild temperatures ahead! We will eventually rebound to that early-summertime feel this weekend when our highs reach into the 70s and 80s! Have a great Monday.

According to officials, deputies responded to a report of a disorderly individual at Linkhorne Elementary School at 4:40 p.m. Upon arrival, officers began an investigation that revealed a bus driver, while parked in the school parking lot, had allegedly assaulted a student on the bus.

LPD worked with Lynchburg City Schools and determined that the student had been strangled during the encounter. The child is safe and did not sustain life-threatening injuries.

As a result of the investigation, 73-year-old Effie Wynne of Lynchburg was charged with strangulation and child neglect.

Wynn was arrested on Saturday and is currently being held without bond.

This investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Officer Scruggs at (434) 485-2652.

Council voted unanimously Monday to commit $150,000 toward either transforming the cottage into a community space or preserving pieces of it if the building is torn down. The vote also included backing for a grant letter and a 90-day public survey.

A building with deep roots

The Caretaker’s Cottage is one of Roanoke’s oldest structures, dating to the 1840s, and holds significant ties to the city’s Black community. For years, neighbors have rallied to save the building — a fight that drew emotional testimony Monday from residents and students alike.

“The park itself represents, and the cottage represents, not just a small community, but it represents an entire race of Black people,” one resident told council.

“The Caretaker’s Cottage is part of that story, and when we even consider tearing it down, we risk erasing a piece of that history,” a student added.

Dr. Brenda Hale, president of the Roanoke Chapter of the NAACP, framed the investment in moral terms.

“Haven’t you taken enough from us already? Just consider this investment resolution a reparation to the African American community,” Hale said.

Council debates, then approves

The effort was led by Councilmember Phazhon Nash, who challenged his colleagues ahead of the vote.

“Roanoke City Council has the opportunity to decide which side of the vote you want to be on when you look back in history,” Nash said.

The plan originally called for $400,000 to help convert the cottage into an amphitheater. Council debated the scope and approved amendments before ultimately approving the amended resolution with the lower $150,000 figure.

Councilmember Peter Volosin acknowledged the financial tension.

“It is a 500-square-foot building, which would be very hard to use. We’re also asking for $400,000, which is something that we don’t really have,” Volosin said.

Vice Mayor Terry McGuire voiced strong support for preservation.

“I think that it is an incredibly, incredibly important historic asset to this city,” McGuire said.

Nash pushed back on any hesitation.

“In any way, shape, or form, we need to put money where our mouth is, and this is how we do so,” he said.

Mayor Joe Cobb announced the final result.

“The resolution is amended as approved with unanimous support,” Cobb said.

What comes next

Council was careful to note the vote is not an official green light for a community center. It does, however, signal clear support — through a formal letter backing a potential grant, a 90-day public survey to gather community input, and the $150,000 financial commitment.

It is still unknown where the funding will come from, and if grants will be secured for additional funding. The survey is open for residents to participate until July 6th.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 erased earlier gains to decline 0.2% in morning trading to 53,310.30. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.5% to 8,706.90. South Korea's Kospi was little changed, inching down less then 0.1% to 5,445.80. The Shanghai Composite edged up 0.4% to 3,896.98. Trading was closed in Hong Kong for a holiday.

On Wall Street, stock prices drifted higher, with the S&P 500 rising 0.4%, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 165 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude jumped $2.37 to $114.78 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added $1.40 to $111.17 a barrel. That remains well above its roughly $70 price from before the war.

Oil prices have been seesawing amid uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.

The Mizuho Daily by the research team in Singapore at Mizuho Bank noted Trump's latest actions mark “an escalation cycle that has now been extended several times since his first ultimatum in late March.”

“Given the differing perspectives, hopes of a complete resolution to the conflict remains elusive while countries continue to work on bilateral solutions,” it said.

As talks continued, Iranian and Omani officials also were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.14 points to 6,611.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 165.21 to 46,669.88, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 117.16 to 21,996.34.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The 10-year Treasury yield was sitting at 4.33%. That’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 159.89 Japanese yen from 159.62 yen. The euro cost $1.1529, down from $1.1543.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. He suggested that his Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline was final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.

The U.S. has told Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic or see power plants and bridges wiped out, sparking warnings about possible war crimes.

Israel piled on pressure by attacking a major petrochemical plant and killing the intelligence chief for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Tehran with its rejection conveyed its own, 10-point plant to end the fighting through Pakistan, a key mediator, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.

A regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

And even Trump said negotiations with Iran continued.

Activists reported a new wave of strikes on Tehran early Tuesday. Israel claimed credit but offered no immediate details on what had been targeted.

Meanwhile, Japan said Tuesday a Japanese national who had been detained in Iran since January has been released on bail.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo that his release was confirmed Monday and that Japan is demanding a full release from Iranian authorities. He said the Japanese ambassador to Iran met the person released and that he was in good health without providing further details.

The person released is believed to be a journalist at Japan’s NHK public television. Another Japanese national, who was detained in Iran last June, was released and returned to Japan in March.

Trump says Iranians ‘willing to suffer’ for freedom

Trump has issued ultimatums to Iran before, only to find ways to back off. But he was more explicit this time on plans to follow through.

“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” he said, and all power plants will be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

Asked if he was concerned about accusations of war crimes, Trump responded, “No, not at all." He suggested that Iranians want the U.S. to carry out its threats because it could lead to the end of their current leadership.

Iranian citizens are “willing to suffer," he said, "in order to have freedom.” But there has been no sign of an uprising in Iran as residents shelter from bombardment.

International warnings piled up against expanded strikes. “Any attack on civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law and a very clear one,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later told journalists.

Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators had sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff a proposal calling for the ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, two Mideast officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.

Iranian and Omani officials also were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy.

Tehran has refused to let U.S. and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on Feb. 28.

Iran's new supreme leader makes rare statement

Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the South Pars natural gas field, saying it was aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar and is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy for its 93 million people.

The strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats. An earlier Israeli attack there in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.

Israel also killed the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media. And Israel said it killed the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said of top Iranian officials.

New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who still has not been seen or heard in public, issued a rare statement expressing condolences over Khademi. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.

Israel’s military also said it struck three Tehran airports overnight — Bahram, Mehrabad and Azmayesh — hitting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force.

A Tehran resident said “constantly there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones,” speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety. Another detailed taking sleeping pills to get through nightly bombardments, and said people worry about power, gas and water cuts.

Airstrikes kill at least 29 across Iran

Smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Authorities and Iranian state media reported at least 29 people killed across the country by strikes.

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut. It killed an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

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Weissert reported from Washington, Magdy from Cairo and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo and Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.

The government in partnership with the World Health Organization, the U.N. children's agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance began working to vaccinate children age 6 months to 5 years old in 18 high-risk districts Sunday and will expand nationwide in phases from next month, a joint statement said.

A UNICEF official said the agency was deeply concerned about the sharp rise in cases, which was putting the youngest and most vulnerable children at serious risk. “This resurgence highlights critical immunity gaps, particularly among zero-dose and under-vaccinated children, while infections among infants under nine months, who are not yet eligible for routine vaccination, are especially alarming,” said Rana Flowers, the agency's representative in Bangladesh.

More than 900 cases of measles have been confirmed among 7,500 suspected cases reported since March 15, according to the official data in the South Asian nation of more than 170 million people.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease causing fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash and can sometimes have severe or fatal complications, especially in young children, according to WHO.

Vaccination is crucial to preventing the spread of measles, but the WHO says 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading.

Bangladesh’s Health Minister Sardar Mohammed Sakhawat Husain responding to questions in Parliament said Monday that the new outbreak was caused by the mismanagement and failures of past governments.

He said the previous government of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to make proper decisions regarding vaccine stockpiles, causing shortages affecting vaccines for measles and six other diseases.

The vaccination campaign for measles was disrupted during Bangladesh's recent political upheavals. Hasina was ousted in a mass uprising in 2024, and Yunus led an interim administration that transferred power to an elected government after an election in February.

Authorities are advising parents to go to hospitals whenever someone is suspected to have measles.

““They should avoid taking medicine from shopkeepers unnecessarily. If a child has a fever, especially high fever — 101, 102, 3, 4 (Fahrenheit, or higher than 38.3 Celsius) — they should not rely on medicine from local shops,” said F. A. Asma Khan, deputy director of the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Dhaka.

“Instead, they must take the child to a hospital as soon as possible, because our medical officers are capable of providing proper basic treatment,” she said.

Since the launch of a massive immunization campaign in 1979, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress — raising the coverage of fully immunized children from just 2% to 81.6%.

But UNICEF warned last year that while Bangladesh has made strong strides to increase immunization coverage, stark disparities persist.

Their flyby of the moon — NASA’s first return since the Apollo era — even included some celestial sightseeing besides yielding rich science. It was a significant step toward landing boot prints near the moon's south pole in just two years.

A total solar eclipse greeted the three Americans and one Canadian as the moon temporarily blocked the sun from their perspective. Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn nodded at them from the black void. The landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14 also were visible, poignant reminders of NASA’s first age of exploration more than half a century ago.

In an especially riveting retro throwback, Artemis II shattered the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. NASA’s Orion capsule reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon, 4,101 miles (6,600 kilometers) farther than Apollo 13.

“It is blowing my mind what you can see with the naked eye from the moon right now. It is just unbelievable,” Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen radioed. He challenged “this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

Artemis II astronauts get an Apollo wake-up message

Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell wished the crew well in a recording made two months before his death last August. Mission Control beamed up his message to commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Hansen, before their fly-around began.

“Welcome to my old neighborhood,” said Lovell, who also flew on Apollo 8, humanity’s first lunar visit. “It’s a historic day and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view.”

The Artemis II astronauts carried up with them the Apollo 8 silk patch that accompanied Lovell to the moon. “It’s just a real honor to have that on board with us,” Wiseman said.

Artemis II is using the same maneuver that Apollo 13 did after its “Houston, we’ve had a problem” oxygen tank explosion wiped out any hope of a moon landing.

Known as a free-return lunar trajectory, this no-stopping-to-land route takes advantage of Earth and the moon’s gravity, reducing the need for fuel. It’s a celestial figure-eight that put the astronauts on course for home once they emerged from behind the moon Monday evening.

Astronauts lock in on lunar observations

Artemis II’s lunar fly-around and intense observation period lasted seven hours, by far the highlight of the nearly 10-day test flight that will end with a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday.

Venturing as close as 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) to the gray dusty surface, the astronauts zipped through a list of more than two dozen targets, using powerful Nikon cameras as well as their iPhones to zoom in on impact craters and other intriguing lunar features.

Before getting started, they requested permission to name two bright, freshly carved craters. They suggested Integrity, the name of their capsule, and Carroll, commander Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.

Wiseman wept as Hansen put in the request to Mission Control, and all four astronauts embraced in tears.

“Such a majestic view out here,” Wiseman radioed once he regained his composure and started picture-taking. The astronauts called down that they managed to capture the moon and Earth in the same shot, and they provided a running commentary to scientists back in Houston on what they were seeing.

At one point, Koch reported an overwhelming sensation of emotion for a second or two while zooming in on the moon. “Something just drew me in suddenly to the lunar landscape and it became real,” she said.

The Artemis II astronauts made their closest approach to the moon and reached their maximum distance from Earth while they were out of contact. Their speed at closest approach: 3,139 mph (5,052 kph). The spacecraft accelerated as it appeared from behind the moon and the planned communications blackout and made tracks for Earth.

An Earthrise came into view showing Asia, Africa and Oceania as Mission Control called out: “We are Earthbound and ready to bring you home.” Flight controllers in Houston flipped their mission patches over to signify the return leg.

President Donald Trump phoned the astronauts following the flyby, calling them “modern-day pioneers.”

“Today you’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” the president said, adding that more lunar traveling is coming and ultimately "the whole big trip to Mars.”

Wiseman and his crew spent years studying lunar geography to prepare for the big event, adding solar eclipses to their repertoire during the past few weeks. By launching last Wednesday, they ensured themselves of a total solar eclipse from their vantage point behind the moon, courtesy of the cosmos.

Topping their science target list: Orientale Basin, a sprawling impact basin with three concentric rings, the outermost of which stretches nearly 600 miles (950 kilometers) across.

Their moon mentor, NASA geologist Kelsey Young, expects thousands of pictures.

Artemis II is NASA’s first astronaut moonshot since Apollo 17 in 1972. It sets the stage for next year’s Artemis III, which will see another Orion crew practice docking with lunar landers in orbit around Earth. The culminating moon landing by two astronauts near the moon’s south pole will follow on Artemis IV in 2028.

While Artemis II may be taking Apollo 13’s path, it’s most reminiscent of Apollo 8 and humanity’s first lunar visitors who orbited the moon on Christmas Eve 1968 and read from the Book of Genesis.

Glover said flying to the moon during Christianity’s Holy Week brought home for him “the beauty of creation.” Earth is an oasis amid “a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe” where humanity exists as one, he observed over the weekend.

“This is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we’ve got to get through this together,” Glover said, clasping hands with his crewmates.

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

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the school hasn't publicly discussed its search. Malone would replace Hubert Davis, who was fired March 24 after five seasons as the successor to retired Hall of Famer Roy Williams.

ESPN was the first to report UNC moving toward hiring Malone.

The 54-year-old Malone spent 12 seasons as a head coach in the NBA, including a 10-year run in Denver. He led the Nuggets to the 2023 championship behind three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic.

The Nuggets fired Malone last spring with less than a week left in that regular season. Almost a year to the day, in another surprise move, Malone is on the verge of taking over a blue-blood program with six national titles, a record 21 appearances in the Final Four and alums including Michael Jordan, James Worthy Vince Carter and Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring leader Tyler Hansbrough.

UNC now has big-name former pro coaches leading its two highest-profile programs. The Tar Heels hired six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick as their football coach in December 2024. Belichick struggled to a 4-8 record in his debut season.

Davis’ firing opened one of the top jobs in college basketball for only the fourth time since the late Hall of Famer Dean Smith’s retirement after 36 seasons in October 1997.

The job had stayed in the “Carolina Family” ever since. Longtime assistant Bill Guthridge replaced Smith, followed by former UNC player Matt Doherty, former Smith assistant Williams and then Davis, who played under Smith and worked on Williams' staff.

Names like Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, Michigan’s Dusty May and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan — who led Florida to the 2006 and 2007 NCAA titles — had been linked to the job since Davis’ firing. Lloyd announced Friday at the Final Four that he would return to the Wildcats while praising UNC for “the way they’ve handled this.”

Three days later, the search had turned in an unexpected direction with Malone, who has never been a college head coach and has spent most of his career in the NBA. His primary connection to UNC athletics is the presence of daughter Bridget on the Tar Heels’ volleyball team.

During an October appearance on the UNC athletic department’s “Carolina Insider” podcast, Malone recalled hearing his late father, NBA coach Brendan Malone, talk often about Smith and UNC basketball. He also mentioned attending multiple recent practices and Davis asking him to speak to the team at least once.

“I’ve always been a Carolina fan,” Malone said. “And when (Bridget) decided to come here that made it even that much more special, because now I’m ‘Go Heels’ for everything. I root for all the teams, have fallen in love with Chapel Hill.”

Malone's time in the NBA included a brief stint in Sacramento, where he was fired in December 2014, just 24 games into his second season. He also worked as an assistant with the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets and Golden State Warriors.

Malone had stints in college as an assistant at Oakland, Providence and Manhattan. He spent only one season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, working as director of men's basketball administration at Virginia under Pete Gillen in 1998-99.

David Adelman, Malone's successor in Denver, said he was happy for his friend, adding that Malone would be comfortable with players earning big money through name, image and likeness deals.

“It’s more of a professional environment now, especially at schools like that, where you have to look at it like these guys are under contract now,” Adelman said. “And I think a lot of NBA coaches understand what it means to coach somebody that’s making money.”

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AP freelancer Michael Kelly in Denver contributed to this report.

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U.S. forces rescued the pilot within hours of the F-15E Strike Eagle going down late Thursday, surging helicopters, midair refuelers and fighter aircraft deep into Iran after confirming his location, Trump said in a valedictory news conference at the White House, describing the military operation in an unusual level of detail.

The second aviator aboard the aircraft — the weapons systems officer — was rescued nearly two days later.

Trump boasted of the military resources surged and coordination across U.S. agencies to pull off the daring mission to recover the troops in enemy territory, describing the shootdown of the jet by Iran as “a lucky hit” after claiming in a national address last week to have “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

Another jet is downed in the rescue for the F-15 pilot

The search and rescue operation began in daylight over Iran, with helicopters and other aircraft flying low for seven hours, “at times facing very, very heavy enemy fire,” Trump said.

An A-10 Warthog, which was the attack aircraft primarily responsible for keeping in contact with the downed F-15 pilot on the ground, was hit by enemy fire while engaging Iranian forces, said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The A-10 was “not landable,” Caine told reporters, but the pilot continued fighting before flying to a friendly country and ejecting. He was quickly rescued and is doing fine.

After rescuing the F-15 pilot, HH-60 Jolly Green II helicopters were “engaged by every single person in Iran who had a small-arms weapon, and one of the aircraft, the trailing aircraft, took several hits,” he said. The crew members received minor injuries and were going to be OK, Caine said.

The rescue of the fighter jet pilot, who was flying under the call sign Dude-44 Alpha, occurred before the Iranians could marshal a comprehensive search of their own, but finding and bringing home the weapon systems officer was an even more complicated endeavor.

An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television had been urging residents in the mountainous region of southwest Iran where the fighter jet went down to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward for anyone who did.

The weapon systems officer, who rode in the backseat of the F-15 under the call sign Dude-44 Bravo, was injured but followed his training to get as far from the crash site as possible.

Second airman climbs into the mountains to hide out

“Bleeding profusely,” in Trump's telling, the aviator managed to climb mountainous terrain and call for help Saturday using “a very sophisticated beeper-type apparatus.”

When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the spy agency used “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service” possesses to locate the aviator. At the same time, the CIA mounted a deception operation to mislead Iranians who also were trying to find him.

Ratcliffe said the search and rescue operation was “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

The CIA declined to respond to questions Monday about the kind of technology used to find the airman, but Trump colored in some details.

He said intelligence officials noticed something moving in the dead of night, in the mountains where they were surveilling. Trump said officials kept a camera on the moving object for 45 minutes and when it was no longer moving, they thought maybe they had it wrong.

But “it was the head of a human being,” the president said. “And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot, stood up, and they said, ‘We have him.’”

He added, “And that was really at the beginning of something incredible.”

Protected by an “air armada” of drones, strike aircraft and more, rescuers moved in on Sunday. Cargo planes flew in three small helicopters and assembled them near the patch of mountains where the missing airman was concealing himself inside a cave or crevice.

But when it came time to leave, the cargo planes were too weighed down by equipment and personnel to take off from the sandy terrain. The downed airman and his rescue team were picked up by three “lighter, faster aircraft” and the equipment on the ground was blown up to keep it out of Iranian hands, Trump said.

US makes several efforts to throw off Iranian forces

Many of the dozens of aircraft that were part of the operation were there for deception, Trump said.

“We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”

Back in Washington, national security officials coordinated on a call, keeping the phone line open for nearly two days straight.

“From the moment our pilots went down, our mission was unblinking," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “The call never dropped. The meeting never stopped, the planning never ceased.”

As Trump detailed the operation, his penchant for boasting and flair for dramatic imagery bumped up against some of his aides' instinct to protect military and intelligence secrets. At one point, Trump turned to Caine, his top military adviser, and asked, “How many men did you send altogether, approximately, for the operation?”

Caine equivocated, responding, “Uhhh, I’d love to keep that a secret, Mr. President.”

“OK, well, we are," Trump continued. "But I will tell you — the number, I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds.”

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Cooper reported from Phoenix, and Amiri from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Judge Alan Schneider told the “Old Town Road” rapper and singer on Monday that if he sticks to his treatment program and obeys all laws for two years, his four felony counts will be dismissed.

The court found that the incident was the result of his since-diagnosed bipolar disorder and was an aberration from his usual behavior.

The program, formally known as postponement of prosecution probation, also requires that he not possess guns or threaten violence.

Authorities allege that the 26-year-old was walking naked down a street in LA’s San Fernando Valley in August, and charged at police officers who were responding to calls about him. A criminal complaint says three officers were hurt. Photos and video apparently shot before the police confrontation showed him walking in the street in only white briefs and white boots.

He pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of battery with injury on a police officer along with one count of resisting an executive officer.

A few days later in a video posted to Instagram, Lil Nas X, who was free on bail, said “these last four days have been terrifying” but reassured fans that he would be fine.

Outside court on Monday he told Rolling Stone, which first reported on the diversion agreement, that he is “thankful. Just very thankful,” and that it “could have been much worse.”

The District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Atlanta artist is best known for 2018's country and hip-hop merging “Old Town Road,” which spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won him two Grammys.

Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, Lil Nas X's first full studio album, 2021’s “Montero,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and was nominated for a Grammy for album of the year. Other hits have included “Industry Baby” and “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).”

Co-owner David Blitzer announced Monday that a decision had been made for Fitzgerald to leave the organization. Fitzgerald had been GM since January 2020 and got the title president of hockey operations early in 2024, along with a contract extension.

“Tom and I had a thoughtful conversation today and agreed it was time to move in a new direction,” Blitzer said. “Tom changed the trajectory of our team here, including setting a franchise record for points in a season and helping make New Jersey a hockey destination. He is a well-respected leader across the Devils’ organization and NHL, and I am grateful for our friendship."

Fitzgerald was responsible for building much of the core of the roster around top picks Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, who were drafted when he was an assistant to Ray Shero. The 57-year-old endured criticism in recent months for signing players to contracts with restrictive no-trade clauses and for extending Jacob Markstrom early, before the goaltender's struggles.

“After talking with David Blitzer, it was apparent to everyone that the best course of action is to move on for the benefit of the team,” Fitzgerald said. “The Devils are fortunate to have a core of great players, vocal and passionate fans, but most importantly, tremendous people who worked with me toward a common goal. I’ve always said that New Jersey is a hidden gem, and I’m proud of the effort that we put in to raise the standard and make it a destination."

New Jersey made the playoffs twice in the five seasons with Fitzgerald in charge, losing in the second round in 2023 and bowing out in the first round last year.

“As we prepare to move forward, it is important I acknowledge our fans: I recognize we have not delivered in the way you expect and deserve and I understand and share in your frustration,” Blitzer said. "This is a critical offseason for our franchise, and we will explore all avenues that best position the Devils to compete for a Stanley Cup once again.”

It's unclear what this means for the future of coach Sheldon Keefe, who is nearing the end of his second season. Fitzgerald hired Keefe in May 2024.

Fitzgerald, who was part of USA Hockey's management group that constructed the roster that won gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics, could immediately become a candidate for one of the other GM vacancies around the league. The Nashville Predators with Barry Trotz retiring and Toronto Maple Leafs after firing Brad Treliving are currently searching for a new head of hockey operations.

“I am incredibly appreciative to David, Josh Harris, and the entire New Jersey Devils organization for being a part of my life for the past decade," Fitzgerald said. "I look forward to the next step in my hockey career and will always look back fondly on my time with the Devils.”

Fitzgerald spent time in Nashville and Toronto during his playing career. He was the first captain of the Predators, wearing the “C” from 1998-02 while Trotz was coaching the team and played two seasons with the Maple Leafs from '02-04.

After going into management, Fitzgerald was director of player development when Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup in 2009. He joined the Devils in 2015.

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

“With sharp and striking prose, ‘Small Scale Sinners’ performs the magical feat of encompassing every aspect of humanity in a slim volume of stories, which reveals the hearty landscape of desire, rage, love, and loss contained in nearly every life,” PEN/Faulkner Awards Committee Chair Lauren Francis-Sharma said in a statement released Monday.

Sohail is from Pakistan and now lives in Washington, D.C. In a statement Monday, she said worked on the book for a decade to “map out possible ways of being an independent woman in the world.”

She will receive $15,000 for the award, which in previous years has been given to authors including Philip Roth,Don DeLillo and Ann Patchett among others.

Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator “a truly fine man” who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.”

“With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” Trump added.

The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump's backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.

With a large field, Democrats have been fearful that a quirk in the state's unusual “top two” primary system could allow only two Republicans to reach the November general election ballot — Hilton and GOP rival Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. Trump's decision — a strong signal to undecided conservative voters — will make that outcome less likely by helping Hilton lure additional support.

Democratic consultant Paul Mitchell called Trump's decision “the safe bet” for Republicans. Rather than cling to a long shot hope that both Republicans reach the November ballot — or risk that both Hilton and Bianco fall short — Trump's blessing should consolidate support behind Hilton and allow him to emerge from a large primary field and reach November.

“Having a Republican on the top of the ticket is essential” to drive turnout in critical down-ballot races, with control of the U.S. House in play,” Mitchell added. In an unpredictable, wide-open race, the smart play for the GOP is to “get one Republican on the ballot.”

There are more than 50 candidates on the ballot — including eight established Democrats and along with Hilton and Bianco, the two leading Republicans. An all-GOP general election is possible in California, which puts all candidates on one primary ballot and only the top two vote-getters advance to November, regardless of party.

Polling in early February by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found the field had broken into two distinct groups, with Bianco, Hilton and three Democrats — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer — in close competition, with other candidates trailing.

In a statement, Hilton, who hosted a Fox News show for six years and worked as an adviser to former British prime minister David Cameron, thanked Trump for his support and promised to grow jobs and bring down the state's punishing cost of living. “Together we can turn things around,” Hilton said.

Republicans have not won a statewide election in California in two decades. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the state by nearly 2-to-1.

Bianco — Hilton's chief GOP rival — said in a video posted on X that “This race is about the future of California, not any one endorsement.” He also posted a photo of Hilton hugging outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom at a 2016 charity event.

“I have repeatedly said that a Fox News host courting a president's endorsement will never win in California,” Bianco said in the video.

Back home for the first time in 561 days after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium, the Rays beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4 on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of 25,114.

“It felt pretty good to say the least,” Baker said of his reaction to the final pitch. “I think that was an encapsulation of how everybody felt getting back in this building and playing in front of these fans. To get out there and seal the deal for the boys was really fun.”

It cost nearly $60 million to replace the titled roof and rebuild the Trop after a hurricane swept through downtown St. Petersburg on Oct. 9, 2024.

High wind ripped sections of the original roof, allowing rain to fall into the stadium bowl for months. Water caused mold and damage to electrical, sound and broadcast systems.

The new roof was installed last August while the Rays played their 2025 season across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field — the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

The final panel was put in place Nov. 21. Luxury suites and the stadium video board also were upgraded. Players enjoyed playing on the new artificial turf and welcomed upgrades that include new clubhouse carpet and lockers.

“It was an important day for Rays baseball and unique for what we’ve gone through,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Very well done.”

The Rays don’t often draw well but it was the 20th consecutive sellout for a home opener, excluding the 2020 season when fans weren’t allowed to attend because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was great. Shout out to the city of St. Pete and the fans for showing up for us after everything they’ve been through,” said Chandler Simpson, who had two hits and two stolen bases.

Tampa mayor Jane Castor and St. Petersburg mayor Kenneth Welch threw out the first pitches, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also was in attendance.

It was the first home win for the team’s new owners. A group led by Florida-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski purchased the Rays for $1.7 billion last year. Zalupski and top executives Ken Babby and Bill Cosgrove are pursuing a new ballpark that would be built in Tampa, in the shadows of the Yankees’ spring training complex and across the street from Raymond James Stadium, home to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Rays are under lease to play at the Trop through at least the 2028 season.

“The fans’ support was amazing,” said Junior Caminero, who hit one of three home runs for Tampa Bay. “It was exciting to be back at Tropicana.”

The Rays debuted the newly renovated “Cownose Clubhouse,” home to the seven cownose stingrays from The Florida Aquarium who weathered Hurricane Milton. After the storm, the stingrays returned to The Florida Aquarium. In January, they were at TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center at Apollo Beach, before making their return to their permanent home at Tropicana Field ahead of the opener.

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

The issue could turn on whether the power plants were legitimate military targets, whether the attacks were proportional compared with what Iran has done and whether civilian casualties were minimized.

Trump's threat was so broad it did not seem to account for the harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.

The president's eventual actions often fall short of his all-encompassing rhetoric in the moment, but his warnings about the power plants and bridges were unambiguous both on Sunday and Monday as he set a deadline of Tuesday night for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that attacking such infrastructure is banned under international law.

“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective,” Stephane Dujarric said, an attack would still be prohibited if it risks “excessive incidental civilian harm.”

Rachel VanLandingham, a Southwestern Law School professor who served as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force, said civilians are likely to die if power is cut to hospitals and water treatment plans.

“What Trump is saying is, ‘We don’t care about precision, we don’t care about impact on civilians, we’re just going to take out all of Iranian power generating capacity,’" the retired lieutenant colonel said.

Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint in the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows, has been all but halted, sending oil prices soaring and roiling the stock market.

Trump said Monday that he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten destruction. He also warned that every power plant will be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.

When asked for further comment Monday, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said “the Iranian people welcome the sound of bombs because it means their oppressors are losing.”

“The Iranian regime has committed egregious human rights abuses against its own citizens for 47 years, just murdered tens of thousands of protestors in January, and has indiscriminately targeted civilians across the region in order to cause as much death as possible throughout this conflict,” Kelly wrote in an email.

‘Clearly a threat of unlawful action’

As the conflict has entered its second month, Trump has escalated his warnings to bomb Iran's infrastructure, including Kharg Island, central to Iran’s oil industry, and desalination plans that provide drinking water.

In a Truth Social post on March 30, Trump warned that the U.S. would obliterate "all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’“

On Easter Sunday, Trump threatened in an expletive-laden post that Iran will face "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one,” while adding that “you’ll be living in Hell” unless the strait reopens.

“This strikes me as clearly a threat of unlawful action,” said Michael Schmitt, a professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College and an international law professor at the University of Reading in Britain.

A power facility can be attacked under the laws of armed conflict if it provides electricity to a military base in addition to civilians, Schmitt said. But the strike must not "cause disproportionate harm to the civilian population, and you’ve done everything to minimize that harm.”

Harm does not include inconvenience or fear, said Schmitt, who has taught military commanders. But it does mean severe mental suffering, physical injury or illness.

Schmitt said military commanders should consider alternatives, such as targeting a substation or transmission lines that feed electricity to a base, before destroying an entire power plant.

“If you look at the operation and you’ve got a valid military objective, but it’s going to cause harm to civilians and you go, ‘Whoa, that’s a lot,’ then you should stop,” Schmitt said. “If you hesitate to take the shot, don’t take the shot.”

‘He’s using that leverage'

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said Monday that Trump is “absolutely not” threatening a war crime when he said he might bomb civilian infrastructure.

The infrastructure is also used by the military, Ernst said, and “it’s an ongoing operation.“

“If he needs leverage, he’s using that leverage,” she said while presiding over a brief pro forma session of the Senate.

But Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, also in the Capitol for the brief session, said it would be a “textbook war crime.”

“If you target civilian infrastructure for the purposes the president was talking about, it clearly is a war crime,” Van Hollen said.

Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the question of whether attacks on civilian infrastructure would be considered war crimes would have to be decided by a court.

However, Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said any accountability would more likely come from Congress.

She said thinking otherwise would mean believing that the U.S. would allow its president to be held accountable by foreign entities.

“This is the persnickety, inconvenient truth about international law: It only works if sovereign nations are willing to cede their sovereignty to a foreign body for accountability,” she said.

But Congress would have to say the president has gone too far. And then both houses would have to take action and with enough support to overcome a presidential veto, a highly unlikely prospect.

Trump also appears to have broad legal immunity under the Supreme Court’s ruling in the criminal case before his reelection, said VanLandingham. And the president could also grant preemptive pardons to top officials if needed.

‘We’re giving them a gift'

Even if technically justified under the law of war, strikes that bring harm to civilians could backfire for the U.S. long term, VanLandingham said.

“There's a lot of violence that can still be justified as lawful, but lawful can still be awful,” VanLandingham said. “How far did that get us in Iraq? How far did that get us in Afghanistan? How far did that get us in Vietnam?”

Trump’s rhetoric risks spreading fear among regular Iranians and communicating that the U.S. isn’t worried about their well-being, VanLandingham said. The country’s leaders could use it as propaganda to create and harden opposition, contributing to a longer, tougher war.

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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Edith M. Lederer in New York and Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Florida authorities determined Woods was impaired March 27 when his Land Rover struck a trailer and flipped on its side on a residential street. They found two painkiller pills in his pocket. Woods was arrested and briefly jailed for refusing to submit to a urine test.

“He's just a human being like everyone else and we have struggles,” Day said. "It's unfortunate. The only thing that I don't understand is that it's a little bit selfish of him to drive and put other people in harm's way, as well.

“But when you're the player that he was and how strong-willed he is, he thinks he can do almost anything,” Day said. “And that's probably why he's driving and a little bit under the influence.”

This is the second straight year Woods has missed the Masters, under entirely different circumstances. He had ruptured his Achilles tendon in March of 2025 and didn't even make it to the Masters Club dinner for champions.

Woods entered a plea of not guilty last week, and then sought — and was granted — a motion to seek treatment outside the country.

“He was my hero — he's my hero,” said Day, the Australian who reached No. 1 in the world a decade ago. “The reason why I play golf is because of this tournament and Tiger. It’s hard to see him go through what he’s going through, and especially under the microscope. It must be hard to be who he is and have everything, everyone look on, kind of down on him.

“Some people want him to fail. Some people obviously want him to succeed,” Day said. “It’s really difficult for me to go through that and watch him, and I know that he’s getting the help now, which is good. I’m just hoping he comes out on the other side and is better.”

Woods is a five-time champion at the Masters, the last one in 2019 to complete a most remarkable comeback in golf. In the 14 years between winning green jackets, he had reconstructive knee surgery (2008) and four back surgeries (2014-17), and one arrest for taking what he said was a bad mix of painkillers when he was found asleep behind the wheel of his running car (2017).

Since winning his last Masters, his right leg and ankle were crushed in 2021 when his SUV going about 85 mph ran over a median and tumbled down a hill on a coastal road in Los Angeles. He also had surgery on the Achilles tendon and a seventh back surgery last year.

Nick Faldo was particularly critical of Woods in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph last week when he said, “There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s like ... let’s care for Tiger. And then there has got to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well.”

“Forget about golf. We are not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket,” Faldo said. "The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying, 'Welcome back,’ in three or four months or whatever it might be.”

Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion who was a runner-up in 2023 at age 52, also is skipping the Masters as he deals with a family health matter at home. It's the first time since 1994 neither Woods nor Mickelson was at Augusta National for the first major of the year.

Mickelson is with LIV Golf and plays on a big stage only four times a year at the majors. Jacob Bridgeman, one of the 22 newcomers to the Masters, didn't know Mickelson wasn't playing and is young enough in golf to have only played two majors with him last year.

Woods is a huge part of the Masters, not only from the records he shattered in 1997 at age 21 but recently with his work on a short course during the refurbishing of a municipal course in town known as “The Patch.” He also is opening a TGR Learning Lab in Augusta.

“He’s such a legend in this game, somebody I looked up to,” Harris English said. “Watching him win around this place in ’97 is kind of the reason I started getting into golf. I know he’s going to get through this. He has a big fight ahead of him. He’s a fighter. That’s what he does.”

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

In a span of three announcements, Virginia secured the return of players accounting for roughly 35%-45% of its production across major statistical categories, including minutes, scoring, assists, steals, blocks and rebounds from last season.

Mallory was the first to confirm his return after emerging as one of the ACC’s most reliable bench options. He averaged 9.5 points per game and provided consistent scoring in reserve minutes. With five departures from the roster, Mallory is expected to compete for a starting role heading into the new season.

De Ridder’s decision followed, marking the most impactful return for the Cavaliers. The first-team All-ACC selection led the team in scoring at more than 15.5 points per game while also pacing the roster in rebounds, making him a central figure in Virginia’s offensive and defensive schemes.

Grünloh, a rising sophomore, rounded out the trio of returnees. As a freshman, he averaged 7.1 points and more than five rebounds per game, showcasing developing versatility and physical presence in the frontcourt.

The effort to remove the soldier's wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in a time of war and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.

Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's practice of leniency toward families of military members.

“I never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me,” said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. “What was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest.”

Ramos' detention was first reported by The New York Times.

Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.

“She has no legal status to be in this country,” DHS said in an emailed statement. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”

In 2020, Ramos applied to receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained “in limbo” amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.

Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Prior to the Trump administration's mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.

Ramos' case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises — including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.

“It doesn’t make any sense — they’re going to get arrested for following the law? That's stupid," Stock said. “It's bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers' readiness.”

In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that arrests of military personnel and veteran's family members was “betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security."

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she's anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.

“It just sends a really bad message — we don’t care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing,” Owiti-Otienoh said. “If military families are not stable, national security is not stable.”

Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for — someone who “loves my son with her whole heart.”

“We absolutely adore her,” Rickling said. “I believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this — for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear.”

Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.

“I want my wife home," Blank said. “And I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side.”

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The decision removes the federal obligations for the schools to keep up measures such as faculty training on abiding by a students' preferred name and pronouns and allowing students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

One of the school systems, Delaware Valley School District in rural eastern Pennsylvania, received notice of the change from the Trump administration in February and has since voted to roll back its antidiscrimination protections for transgender students. Another district, Sacramento City Unified, said Monday it "remains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff.”

The other affected districts are Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, Fife School District in Washington, and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District and Taft College in California.

Under the Biden and Obama administrations, the department interpreted Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, to include protections for transgender and gay students.

The Trump administration has penalized schools that have made efforts to accommodate students based on their gender identity. It has filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over state policies permitting transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports, and opened civil rights investigations into schools and universities over their policies on transgender students.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the action reflects the administration’s efforts to keep transgender students from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams and accessing shared locker rooms.

“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools in its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” she said in a written statement.

Rescinding civil rights agreements is an unusual step, but one the Trump administration has taken before on education issues. Last year, the Education Department terminated one agreement involving books removed from a school library in Georgia, and another targeting harsh discipline and unequal education opportunities for Native students in the Rapid City Area School District in South Dakota.

The rescission of the agreements would mean a step back from protecting vulnerable students in schools, said Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center.

“This is part of the Trump administration’s assault on education and assault on those who are most vulnerable to experiencing discrimination and harassment, including trans students,” Patel said. “They’ve made their intention very clear in wanting to erase protections for trans people.”

Taft College, a community college in California’s Central Valley, settled a case in 2023 with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights after a student accused faculty of discrimination that included refusing to use the student’s preferred pronouns. The college agreed to faculty training on Title IX and a revision of college policies to clarify that refusal to use a person’s preferred name and pronoun could constitute harassment.

The agreement with Sacramento City Unified School District stemmed from a complaint brought in 2022 by a student after a teacher refused to use preferred pronouns or to place the student, who identified as male, in a boys’ group for a class activity. The 2024 resolution agreement mandated training for employees on civil rights law, sexual harassment and how to handle formal complaints.

Under a settlement the Delaware Valley School District reached with the Obama administration, the district was required to permit students to use bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity.

In February, the Trump administration sent the district a letter saying it was rescinding the settlement. The administration went further, requiring the district to roll back antidiscrimination protections for transgender students.

The school board voted in late March to change its transgender student policies to abide by the Trump administration’s demands.

Since the day he returned to the White House more than a year ago, Trump and his administration have aimed at the rights of transgender people in several ways — and not just in schools.

He has tried to end participation of transgender women and girls in women’s and girls' sports competitions and has sued states that don’t comply. He’s also blocked transgender and nonbinary people from choosing the sex markers on passports. His administration has also tried to stop those under 19 from receiving gender-affirming medical care. ___

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco, Moriah Balingit in Washington and Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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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.

Melvin Benn, the managing director at Festival Republic, shared a statement on Monday backing his company's decision to book Ye.

“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world,” he wrote. "I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.”

Ye, who changed his name in 2021, is booked to perform in front of around 150,000 revelers over the course of the festival’s three nights, July 10 - 12.

The rapper has drawn widespread condemnation in recent years for antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized this past January for his antisemitic remarks in a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo have pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as the headliner, although lead sponsor Pepsi didn't offer a reason. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the booking “deeply concerning.”

“Ye’s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country. It is available via live streams and downloads in this country without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country,” Benn's statement said.

“We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions,” the statement continued.

Last week, Ye held two concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, marking his first major U.S. performances in nearly five years. There, fans appeared to separate his personal beliefs and public statements from his music — and were ready to forgive after his January apology letter.

“I don’t really bring into politics or the way someone’s personal opinion are. I’m into the music artistry," said Yovani Contreras, one fan in attendance. "Like, I just, to me, Ye is always gonna be Ye. Kanye is always gonna be Kanye.”

A representative for Ye didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Monday.

The Bulls fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, ending a six-year run that produced just one playoff appearance.

Chicago was 224-254 during their tenure. The Bulls entered Monday sitting in 12th place in the Eastern Conference at 29-49 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement that Karnisovas and Eversley “led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls” and that the change is “about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead.”

“I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand your frustration," Reinsdorf said. "I feel it as well. I know this will take time, and I am fully committed to getting this right. At the Chicago Bulls, our focus remains on building a team that can compete at the highest level and ultimately contend for championships. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud.”

The Bulls tore up their roster leading up to the trade deadline in February, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota in an effort to shake up a franchise mired in mediocrity. They hung on to Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey with the idea of building around those two. The Bulls have the salary-cap room to make some big moves this offseason.

“Being in the middle is what we don’t want to do,” Karnisovas said at the time. “I think we’ve seen that for the past four years and we want to change that.”

That's mostly where the franchise has been since Karnisovas was hired out of Denver's front office in April 2020. The Bulls brought in Eversley from Philadelphia a few weeks later and hired coach Billy Donovan that September. Donovan's future is uncertain.

The Bulls' lone playoff appearance since all three were hired came during the 2021-22 season, when they finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost point guard Lonzo Ball to a knee injury during that season, and he missed the next two years.

Chicago's most recent All-Star was DeMar DeRozan in 2023. The lack of a franchise cornerstone player was glaring, and Karnisovas' reluctance to launch into a major rebuild was a big source of frustration among Bulls fans. Rather than give the team the best shot at winning the lottery, he stressed patience and not skipping steps.

That changed this year when Karnisovas made seven trades before the deadline. The Bulls mostly loaded up on second-round draft picks and didn't get any first-rounders in return.

Among the players they acquired were Jaden Ivey from Detroit, hoping the No. 5 pick in the 2022 NBA draft could regain the form he showed before knee surgery. But the Bulls waived him last week following anti-LGBTQ+ comments about religion he made in videos posted on his Instagram account.

Ivey had been sidelined since Feb. 11 and appeared in just four games for Chicago. His contract was set to expire at the end of the season.

The 60-year-old Donovan, meanwhile, got a contract extension last offseason. He could seek another NBA coaching job or return to the college game if he doesn’t remain in Chicago. If he stays, the Bulls could give him a bigger say in basketball operations while remaining their coach.

Donovan has consistently said he still has a passion for coaching, is committed finishing the season and will then discuss the direction of the franchise with management and ownership. He did it again prior to the Bulls' win over Phoenix on Sunday.

“I love the organization,” he said. “I love the relationship with Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf and the relationship with the front office. All those things have been great, the players have been great.”

Donovan has a 467-411 record in 11 seasons as an NBA head coach. He was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020 to replace the fired Jim Boylen following a five-year run in Oklahoma City. He led the Thunder to a 243-157 record and playoff appearances each season while working with stars such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Chris Paul.

Donovan previously coached for 19 seasons at the University of Florida and won back-to-back NCAA titles. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

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

Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said in an interview with The Associated Press that her general preference is for the Fed keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged “for quite some time."

And she also said the Fed might have to cut its rate if higher gas prices caused the economy to slow and unemployment to rise. But if inflation remained elevated, a rate hike could be needed, she said.

“I can foresee scenarios where we would need to reduce rates ... if the labor market deteriorates significantly,” Hammack said. "Or I could see where we might need to raise rates if inflation stays persistently above our target.”

Hammack's comments suggest a growing concern among at least some policymakers that inflation, which was elevated before the Iran war, may require rate hikes to tame further. Rate increases by the Fed would be a sharp shift from late last year, when the central bank cut its key rate three times. Rate hikes could lift borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.

Other Fed officials have recently opened the door to rate hikes, including Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed. And minutes of the Fed's meeting in late January said that several of the 19 officials on the rate-setting committee supported altering the post-meeting statement to reflect the possibility of “upward adjustments” to rates.

A rate hike would almost certainly prompt President Donald Trump to lash out at the Fed, which he has harshly criticized for not cutting rates further. He has called for the central bank's key rate to be lowered to 1%, down from its current level of about 3.6%.

The government will update two inflation measures this week, though only one will likely reflect the impact of the jump in gas prices since the Iran war began Feb. 28. Gas prices averaged $4.12 a gallon nationwide Monday, according to AAA, up 80 cents from a month earlier.

On Friday, the government will issue the March inflation report, providing a first read on the impact of higher gas and energy prices. Economists forecast that annual inflation will worsen significantly, jumping to 3.1% from 2.4% in February, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. On a monthly basis, they expect consumer prices rose 0.8% in March from February, which would be the biggest increase in almost four years.

The Commerce Department will report the Fed's preferred inflation gauge for February on Thursday, though that won't incorporate any impact from the Iran conflict.

Hammack said that the Cleveland Fed's own estimates show inflation could reach 3.5% in April, which would be the highest since 2024. Inflation spiked to 9.1% in June 2022 before slowly declining.

“Inflation has been running above our target for more than five years now,” Hammack said, and a further increase would mean it is “moving in the wrong direction, away from our 2% objective.”

The Federal Reserve is required by Congress to seek low inflation and maximum employment, and higher gas prices could threaten both those mandates, creating a challenging situation for Fed officials.

Consumers may react to higher gas prices by cutting back on their spending elsewhere in the economy, Hammack said, which could lead to weaker growth and layoffs, which the Fed would need to respond to with rate cuts.

How the war impacts the economy will depend on how long it lasts and how high it lifts gas prices and other costs, Hammack said. Now in its sixth week, the conflict has already lasted longer than she expected when the Fed last met March 17-18, Hammack said.

Hammack said rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war are “the No. 1 thing” she hears about from people in her district, which covers Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

“We know that causes a lot of pain personally, as it eats up a bigger and bigger share of people’s paychecks. So it’s important for us to stay focused on it,” she added.

The Rays were back in their domed stadium after playing the 2025 season across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field — the spring training home of the New York Yankees — because Hurricane Milton destroyed the Trop’s roof and caused extensive damage.

A sellout crowd of 25,114 welcomed the Rays home.

Shane McClanahan, making his first start at the Trop since July 22, 2023, allowed two runs and one hit in four innings. He struck out five and walked four.

McClanahan returned to the mound last week for the first time after a series of injuries forced him to miss two full seasons. The lefty underwent his second Tommy John surgery in August 2023 and then missed the entire 2025 season due to an inflamed nerve in his left triceps.

Kevin Kelly (1-1) pitched a perfect fifth to earn the win and Bryan Baker finished for his first save, yielding Matt Shaw's solo shot in the ninth.

Mullins lined a 3-2 changeup into the seats in right field to tie it at 2 in the bottom of the second inning against Jameson Taillon (0-1).

Taylor Walls then drove a double to left-center, and scored when shortstop Dansby Swanson made a throwing error on Yandy Diaz’s infield single.

Caminero blasted a solo shot to left, extending Tampa Bay’s lead to 4-2 in the third.

Michael Busch’s sacrifice fly in the sixth cut it to 4-3.

Aranda connected off Phil Maton in the seventh to put the Rays up 6-3.

Nico Hoerner’s two-run single with two outs in the second inning gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

Taillon allowed four runs — three earned — and seven hits in six innings.

Up next

RHP Javier Assad makes his season debut for the Cubs against Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (0-0, 1.80) on Tuesday night. Assad, who has a 3.43 ERA across four seasons, is taking Matthew Boyd's spot in the rotation. Boyd was placed on the 15-day injured list with a a left biceps strain.

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

The funds will be used to improve safety and the visitor experience for more than 50,000 annual hikers at McAfee Knob and the Appalachian Trail, including expanding and paving a parking lot, adding restrooms, a shuttle stop and new NPS signage.

Kaine has long backed investments, including the bipartisan Appalachian Trail Centennial Act in 2025 and the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020.

County leaders are in the process of rewriting zoning codes for the first time in nearly 40 years. The proposal includes new regulations on agricultural activities, minimum lot sizes and permitting requirements.

Among the changes, the draft would limit residents to six hens per acre and prohibit using them for commercial purposes such as selling eggs or meat. Beekeeping would also be affected, with a proposed limit of four hives per acre, though commercial use would still be allowed.

“It really just seems like there’s so many new rules that I don’t know how anyone can sort this out and make sense out of it,” said resident Tim Wall.

Wall said he is particularly concerned about a proposed increase in minimum lot sizes to 10 acres. He said his family had planned to divide their more than 100-acre property among their children.

“We’ve got children and our long-term goal with our 100-plus acres was to deed off some property to them, and now having to shift to 10 acres was just a huge jump,” Wall said.

As a business owner, Wall also worries the changes could increase costs.

“I would absolutely be concerned with having to have special use permits and things for this and that, that we have never needed in the county before,” he said.

Lorie Smith said the proposal is still in its early stages and not yet finalized.

“It’s really important that our citizens understand this is a first draft. It’s a draft that in draft form is going to be amended,” Smith said.

Smith added that many of the recommendations came from a consulting firm hired by the county as part of the rewrite process, rather than directly from the board.

“A lot of it, I think personally, has been the result of our consultants working with other localities and seeing perhaps what the norm might be,” she said. “What I am going to be seeking to do is to make this about Franklin County. This needs to be about our folks.”

Some areas of the county would not be affected by the proposed changes, including Rocky Mount, Ferrum, Snow Creek and the Blackwater District.

County officials say the draft will continue to be revised as public feedback is considered. To fill out a survey on the proposed changes, click here.

The video — from a city-owned security camera — captured part of the incident in which federal officers chased a Venezuelan man to his residence. Another Venezuelan man who lives there was shot during the confrontation. Federal authorities in February dropped all charges against the two immigrants and opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about what had happened.

The city released the video after the New York Times, which obtained a copy earlier, reported that the footage raised questions about why it took weeks for the federal government's case against the two men to collapse. The Times reported that federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the Jan. 14 shooting, but did not watch it until nearly three weeks after they had charged the two men.

“The video makes it crystal clear that, just like in other situations during Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s account of what happened simply does not match the facts,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement.

Federal authorities initially accused Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis of beating an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the incident. The officer fired a single shot from his handgun, striking Sosa-Celis in his right thigh. Protesters quickly flocked to the scene and clashed with other officers, who were wearing gas masks and helmets.

The city provided no narrative on what the video depicts except to say that it was “related” to the shooting. A statement added, “The City has no additional information and will not be making further comments at this time.”

The video, shot from a distance in the dark, appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up, and keeps heading toward the house.

The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn’t clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.

The camera actively panned over to view the street where the incident happened before any vehicles arrived, indicating that someone may have been manually controlling it in real time.

The cases against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis were dropped after a highly unusual motion from the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, who said “newly discovered evidence” was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” that were made in the criminal complaint and with evidence presented at a hearing at their preliminary hearing. He said dismissal with prejudice, which meant the charges couldn't be refiled, “would serve the interests of justice.”

Rosen and other federal prosecutors involved in the case, as well as the Department of Justice, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Monday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not mention the video in a statement, but reaffirmed its earlier statement that two officers involved appeared to have given untruthful testimony under oath, and that they were immediately placed on administrative leave pending completion of an internal investigation. Their names were not made public.

“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements,” the ICE statement said. “Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution.”

The statement did not elaborate on the status of their case.

Aljorna's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Sosa-Celis' attorney, Robin Wolpert, said, “The video is evidence in ongoing state and federal investigations so I can't comment."

Both men are free while they seek legal status. They were ordered released even before the criminal charges were dropped, but ICE took them back into custody for alleged immigration violations before releasing them, again under court order.

State and county prosecutors have been frustrated by the refusal of federal authorities to share information on the incident, as well as the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers. They sued the Trump administratio n late last month for access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate the three shootings.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office declined to comment on the video, citing the active investigation.

At Meadow Creek Dairy, Farm Manager Jim Feete said diesel touches every corner of the business.

“Everything we touch uses diesel fuel,” Feete said. “It’s almost anything we do — at some point it has to be moved a significant distance.”

Costs climbing, milk prices flat

While diesel costs have surged, Feete said the price dairy farmers receive for their product has not kept pace. Milk prices, he said, remain stuck in decades-old territory.

“The prices are very comparable to the ’80s and the ’90s still,” he said, “and the cost of moving that milk from your farm is going to be a huge issue for the majority of dairies.”

That gap between what it costs to produce and ship milk — and what farmers are paid for it — is widening with each price increase at the pump.

Surcharges trickling to consumers

Feete said local farms are not choosing to raise prices on their own, but fuel surcharges from shipping partners are already passing costs down the chain — from farm to retailer to consumer.

“A lot of the costs are being added to the customer without our choice,” he said. “Everybody we ship through has a fuel surcharge, and that’s just rising every day. That’s just transferred to our customers, who transfer it to retail. I’m sure that the prices are already changing, but we haven’t chosen to change our prices yet — but we may be forced to soon.”

Feete added that raising prices carries its own risk. “We can’t afford to raise them to a point where they can’t be sold,” he said.

‘Do I really want to do this anymore?’

Feete said the instability created by rising fuel costs has made long-term planning nearly impossible and is forcing farmers to ask hard questions about the future of their operations.

“I don’t see how you can take risks right now because things are so unstable,” he said. “This last year has been the first year that it’s becoming clear that this may not be as sustainable as we thought in the long term. So if something doesn’t change in the next few years, I think a lot of agriculture is going to be asking itself, ‘Do I really want to do this anymore?’”

He said he does not expect fuel prices to meaningfully retreat.

“Usually what happens with fuel prices is they don’t go down significantly,” Feete said. “We’ll see a dip, but over the years, every time they’ve taken a step up, they’ve never really retreated.”

Southwest Virginia among the cheaper markets

According to AAA and GasBuddy, Southwest Virginia still has some of the lowest diesel and gas prices in the state. Even so, Virginia’s average price remains higher than most surrounding states — and prices across the region have topped six dollars per gallon at many stations.

Agriculture is among the industries most dependent on diesel, and analysts and farmers alike say the current price environment is compounding pressures that were already challenging for small and mid-size farms.

The new location will be at the Old Country Plaza near Mill Mountain Coffee and Buffalo Wild Wings off Starkey and Ogden roads. Owner Patrick Gardner says it has long been a goal to open a location in the Star City.

“I grew up in this part of town, I went to Cave Spring High school graduated long time ago. It’ll be fun to see old friends and people I haven’t seen in a lot of years come in the doors.”

Construction is the next big challenge. Gardner hopes to open between mid-June and the beginning of July.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Country hitmaker Ella Langley releasing her sophomore album, Nintendo dropping the monster combat game Pokémon Champions and “Malcolm in the Middle” fans getting a four-episode revival with Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek.

New movies to stream from April 6-12

— Sydney Sweeney stars as real-life boxing legend Christy Martin in David Michôd’s “Christy” (HBO Max, Friday, April 10). The film, which Sweeney also produced, drew some of her best reviews. Her distinctly unglamorous performance spans Martin’s small-town West Virginia beginnings to a professional career shadowed by her abusive manager-turned-husband (Ben Foster). In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote that Sweeney “imbues her no-holds-barred portrayal of Martin with both sweetness and rage, with brio and real vulnerability.”

— One of the highlights of last year, Akinola Davies Jr.’s tender father-son drama, “My Father’s Shadow,” begins streaming Friday, April 10, on MUBI. The film, penned by Davis and his brother, Wale, is loosely autobiographical. Their father died when they were young. But in “My Father’s Shadow,” two Nigerian boys have unexpected day with their father ( Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù ) in Lagos, at a pivotal time for the country. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr called it “a gem, a deeply felt memory piece and vibrant portrait of Nigeria in 1993.”

— Jonah Hill made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age skate film “Mid90s.” He returns to directing in “Outcome,” a Hollywood satire starring Keanu Reeves as a movie star named Reef Hawk who fears a video could destroy his reputation. Hill, who co-wrote the movie, also co-stars as Reef’s crisis-management lawyer. It debuts Friday, April 10, on Apple TV.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

New music to stream from April 10

— A chart-topping country hitmaker preps her sophomore album: Ella Langley — known for such radio mainstays like the throwback “You Look Like You Love Me” with Riley Green and the George Strait-referencing No. 1 “Choosin’ Texas,” co-written with Miranda Lambert — will release a new record on Friday, April 10. If the whole of “Dandelion” is anything like those songs, she’s got a long career ahead of her.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from April 6-12

— “The Boys” launches its fifth and final season Wednesday on Prime Video. The critically acclaimed series is based on comic books and follows villainous superheroes and the crew trying to thwart them. Series regulars Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty and Jessie T. Usher and Chace Crawford are all returning, as are more recent additions played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jensen Ackles. “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs also joins the cast.

— Hulu’s sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” called “The Testaments,” also premieres on Wednesday. Ann Dowd reprises her Aunt Lydia character from the original and is now in charge of a school for girls that basically prepares them for adulthood, marriage and babies. These young women have never known anything other than Gilead. It stars Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday and is also based on a novel by Margaret Atwood.

— Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen lead a new sci-fi comedy, “The Miniature Wife,” for Peacock. They play a couple working on their marriage when their lives are further complicated after an unusual accident. It premieres Thursday.

— Another series launching its fifth and final season is “Hacks” on HBO. The show, debuting Thursday, follows the love-hate relationship between a legendary comedian (Jean Smart) and a talented writer played by Hannah Einbinder. The series has racked up a lot of hardware, including an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. Smart has won four consecutive Emmys for the show while Einbinder has taken home one.

— Do you ever wonder how your favorite former TV stars would fare in the present day? “Malcolm in the Middle” fans are getting their wish. Twenty years after their show went off the air, Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek return to TV for a revival where Muniz’s character is now a dad to a teenage girl. The four episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” premiere on Friday, April 10, on both Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from April 6-12

— Nintendo is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokémon. Just a month after releasing the cozy community-builder Pokémon Pokopia, it’s dropping the considerably less comfortable Pokémon Champions. This time it’s all about the combat, as you recruit and train monsters before pushing them into the arena to fight other trainers’ creatures. You can compete in ranked events with players from around the world, or enjoy casual or private battles that won’t affect your ranking. It’s a free-to-start challenge, but you may want to set some cash aside for in-app purchases. The fight club opens Wednesday on Switch and Switch 2, with iOS and Android versions coming later in 2026.

— Annapurna Interactive’s People of Note tells the tale of a pop singer named Cadence who decides she wants to start a band. That means she’ll need to trek across the world of Note, where each city is defined by its own style of music. In her travels, though, Cadence learns that a Harmonic Convergence is disrupting music itself, and she and her bandmates will have to solve puzzles, explore dungeons and fight tone-deaf villains to stop Note from going silent. Los Angeles-based Iridium Studios promises that “each battle is an interactive musical performance,” and you can pump up the volume Tuesday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Lou Kesten

Entering Saturday night’s regular-season finale, Roanoke’s playoff seeding had yet to be determined, with the team needing both a win and help elsewhere to finalize its position.

Gustav Müller delivered in dramatic fashion, scoring the game-winner in overtime to cap the regular season and clinch the No. 3 seed for the Dawgs in the 2026 SPHL President’s Cup Playoffs.

Roanoke will face the Birmingham Bulls in the opening round, as part of the SPHL postseason that follows a regular season running from October through early April.

The best-of-three series begins on the road April 9th. The Dawgs will return home for Game 2 on April 11 at Berglund Center, with a decisive Game 3, if necessary, scheduled for April 12.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its first winning week in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 165 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Oil prices likewise rose after seesawing through the day amid uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of oil and natural gas. Iran on Monday rejected the latest ceasefire proposal and instead said it wants a permanent end to the war.

“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”

Fighting continued in the war, meanwhile, including an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical plant. And in the background was the clock ticking toward a deadline, one that Trump has moved multiple times, where he has threatened to attack Iranian power plants if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through the strait during peacetime.

Trump on Monday suggested that his latest deadline of Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time will be the final one, saying he’d already given enough extensions. “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.

Monday also offered the first chance for U.S. stock prices to react to a report from Friday that said U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected. The unemployment rate unexpectedly improved.

They’re encouraging signals for an economy that’s had to absorb painful leaps in costs for gasoline since the war’s beginning. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is nearly $4.12 across the country, according to AAA. It was below $3 a couple days before the United States and Israel launched attacks to begin the war in late February.

For countries that don’t produce as much oil as the United States, the pain has been even worse. That’s because they are more reliant on oil coming from the Middle East, and the war has blocked in much of the crude produced in the Persian Gulf area. That oil typically gets to customers around the world by exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.8% to settle at $112.41 after erasing an earlier modest dip. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.8% to $109.77 per barrel and remains well above its roughly $70 price from before the war.

On Wall Street, a split performance for the Big Tech stocks that dominate the U.S. market kept things in check. Apple rose 1.1%, and Amazon added 1.4%. Tesla slid 2.2%, and Microsoft fell 0.2%.

Bank stocks were strong, including a 1.3% rise for JPMorgan Chase.

CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual letter to shareholders released on Monday that the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, and businesses still look healthy. He, though, also acknowledged that prices for stocks and other assets are high, which could imply “anything less than positive outcomes could have a dramatic impact on global markets.”

All told, the S&P 500 rose 29.14 points to 6,611.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 165.21 to 46,669.88, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 117.16 to 21,996.34.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The 10-year Treasury yield was sitting at 4.33%. That’s still well above its 3.97% level from before the war. The rise has pushed up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which slows the economy.

A report on Monday said that finance, transportation and other U.S. businesses in services sectors grew in March for a 21st straight month of expansion. But the growth was slightly slower than economists expected, and a measure of prices accelerated at its fastest pace since 2022 in a potentially discouraging signal for inflation.

In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.4%. Many other markets in Europe and Asia were closed for holidays.

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

What’s changing at the interchange

The project will replace the existing bridge over the expressway with a new, taller structure that meets current clearance requirements. Two loop ramps will be removed, eliminating the need for drivers to weave across lanes of traffic. On- and off-ramps will also be extended, giving drivers more room to safely accelerate onto the highway or decelerate when exiting.

Len Stevens, VDOT’s Lynchburg communications manager, said the problems at the interchange have been building for years.

“We have so many incidents there and it’s a challenge to get on to the freeway from that loop. We needed to make a change,” Stevens said.

The elevated bridge design will also create space for longer merge lanes to run beneath it.

A three-year timeline

The project is expected to take approximately three years to complete, with work beginning July 1, 2026. Crews will work in phases — driving piles, setting steel girders, pouring the bridge deck, adding railings, fixing drainage and relocating a waterline where necessary. Drivers should expect lane shifts and temporary traffic impacts as each phase of construction wraps up.

Stevens described what the finished project will look like for commuters.

“It’s going to take about three years for us to complete this project. When we’re done, we’re going to have a whole new bridge. We will be dismantling the current bridge which is too low and we’re going to be adding acceleration lanes,” Stevens said.

Impact on local businesses, Liberty University

The interchange sits near a dense commercial corridor, and the construction is expected to affect more than just daily commuters. Stevens said no one in the area will be untouched by the project.

“There are a lot of businesses there. This impacts them all. This is not far from Liberty University. There are many businesses around there and they’re certainly going to get an impact from this,” Stevens said.

The overall success rate in the Automated Ball-Strike System was 55.2% (299 of 542), with fielding teams winning 59.7% of challenges (175 of 293), including 60.4% by catchers (169 of 280).

“I like it a little more. I was pretty staunch against it, which I still may be to some degree,” New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

There were just 13 challenges by pitchers, who won six. Batters were successful on 49.8% (124 of 249).

“I think it’s fun. It’s its own game inside the game, almost," Tampa Bay catcher Hunter Feduccia said.

Success rate was up from 49.5% last year at Triple-A, where defense won 53.7% and batters 49.5%

Detroit won the highest percentage of calls at 75% (15 of 20) while Arizona was at 71%, and Baltimore and Cincinnati both 67%.

Minnesota called for the most challenges with 32, winning 20 for a 63% success rate. Texas had the fewest, winning 4 of 10.

Cleveland was the least successful at 32%, with Washington at 38% and St. Louis and Texas at 40%

Detroit catchers were 8-0, with seven wins by Dingler.

ABS' impact could be seen when Atlanta played at Arizona last Thursday. The Braves were ahead 2-1 when the Diamondbacks' Ryne Nelson threw a 3-2 curveball on the upper, outside corner to Ozzie Albies that was called a strike by Malachi Moore. Albies challenged and headed toward first even before ABS showed the pitch missed the strike zone by 1.1 inches. The walk started an eight-run rally in a 17-2 romp.

“In some of these games, it’s had a more of a swinging effect on outcomes of at-bats and how things change than maybe even you thought,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said.

Logan O’Hoppe of the Los Angeles Angels had the most victories, successful on 10 of 12. The Marlins’ Agustín Ramírez won 7 of 9 and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Will Smith 8 of 11.

Seattle’s Cal Raleigh won 4 of 9 and the Athletics’ Shea Langeliers 3 of 9.

Among batters, Mark Vientos of the New York Mets and Iván Herrera both went 3-0. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels was 3-1 along with Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber and Tampa Bay's Jake Fraley.

Colorado's Hunter Goodman and Washington's Luis García Jr. were both 0 for 3.

Boone said Yankees staff and players daily review challenges made and opportunities missed.

Players still are getting used to ABS. Washington's Jorbit Vivas tapped his helmet signaling for an appeal on March 31 when the Nationals already had exhausted their two challenges.

Among umpires, Mike Estabrook had 11 of 12 calls overturned (91.7%), Andy Fletcher had 15 of 17 (88.2%), Ron Kulpa and Paul Clemons each 7 of 9 (77.8%) and Chris Segal 10 of 13 (76.9%), according to taptochallenge.com.

Will Little had just 1 of 10 calls reversed while Erich Bacchus was perfect with no overturned calls in five challenges. Others with low overturn rates with at least five challenges included Emil Jiménez (1 of 5), Jordan Baker (2 of 8), Ryan Additon and Nick Mahrley (both 2 of 7) and David Rackley (3 of 10).

Offense at record low

Offense again lagged through the first 139 games of the 2,430-game season.

The .234 big league batting average is down from .239 through 12 days last year (including the two games in Japan), when it finished at .245. The average usually increases as the weather warms. The full-season low of .237 was set in 1968.

Runs per game averaged 8.8, up from 8.7, and stolen bases dropped to 1.4 per game from 1.6

Fastball velocity at record high

Average fastball velocity is 94.6 mph, up from 94.1 mph through the first full week last year. The final figure increased in each of the last five seasons to a record 94.5 mph in 2025. It was 91.9 mph when MLB first started tracking in 2008.

“I wish I was facing the same pitching as I did my rookie year back when guys were throwing 88-mile-an-hour sinkers over the plate," said 33-year-old Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges. “That pitch doesn’t exist anymore.”

Game time

The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 43 minutes, up from 2:37 at this point last year, when it finished at 2:38.

Pitch clock violations averaged 0.17 per game, down from 0.22 through 139 games last year.

Attendance

MLB's average crowd of 31,725 through 138 dates was up 1.5% over 31,255 for the same period last year.

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AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston and Steve Megargee, and AP freelance writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.

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

Necessity so that he can start playing closer to home again.

One of the early and polarizing defectors to LIV Golf a few years ago, the 2018 Masters champion made the similarly difficult decision to leave the lucrative, Saudi-backed tour earlier this year and return to the PGA Tour. But under the terms of his reinstatement, Reed cannot play in its events until after Aug. 25, which means most of this season will be spent on the European tour.

Where he already has won twice ahead of his return to Augusta National this week.

“Everyone kind of gets to be a creature of habit, and wants to eat what they're comfortable with and go," Reed said after a practice round Monday, “but I like checking out all the local places and really experiencing the culture."

Pimento cheese sandwich, anyone?

The truth is as much as Reed enjoyed playing in Dubai and Qatar, where he packed wins around a playoff loss in Bahrain — 1,200 miles (7,500 km) from home, wife Justine and their two kids — there are few things Reed loves more than walking among the Georgia pines.

It's not exactly home; that's The Woodlands, Texas. But it sure feels like it.

Reed played college golf down the road at Georgia, and he recalls practice rounds spent at Augusta Country Club, where certain holes offer a teasing glimpse through the trees of the par-5 13th hole of its much more famous neighbor.

“There's just something so special about this place, the traditions behind it, and then on top of it, it's the one major that stays in the same place,” Reed said. “All the way back from when I played my first time ever here, even when we played in November that one (COVID) year, and any time I’ve come back and played it, it’s always in perfect shape. It’s one of those golf courses that you can’t hit just one golf shot. You have to play golf kind of old-school way. You have to hit shots, different shapes, different flights.”

Indeed, the Masters has been one of the few constants on Reed's ever-changing global calendar.

When he resigned from the PGA Tour, Reed effectively said farewell to familiar, high-profile places like Pebble Beach and Bay Hill for LIV events in far-flung corners of the world. But his status as a former Masters champion meant that, despite the deep rift that once appeared to threaten the game itself, Reed was always welcomed back to Augusta National.

He tied for fourth a few years ago. He was third last year.

"I feel like it’s the best test of golf we play all year round," Reed said. “For a guy that’s played just about everywhere in the world — just about — it’s one of those places that I say, hands down, it’s the best test of golf and best golf course I’ve ever played.”

Reed acknowledged Monday that LIV had presented him with a contract earlier this year to remain one of its biggest stars. But when he talked with his family, “I felt like the best decision for us was to come back and join the PGA Tour.”

Even when he left, Reed said, he always considered the PGA Tour to be the best barometer of golf greatness.

“I’ve played now every tour. I’ve played on every single one of them,” Reed said. "That’s the place that I feel like is best for us to go and compete against the top guys year in and year out, week in and week out, but at the same time, to be able to spend more time closer to home makes it a lot easier to spend time with the kids.

“My daughter is now 11. My little man's 8. It seems like time has flown," the 35-year-old Reed said. "I definitely want to watch them grow up and be home a little bit more, yet still at the same time to play against the best guys.”

Reed will be able to do that this week. And again on a weekly basis soon enough. But until his PGA Tour return this fall, Reed is building out a DP World Tour schedule that includes a few weeks spent on the road followed by a few spent at home.

It's a work-life balance that seems to work at this point in his life.

“You not only sharpen your game, but you get a lot of family time," Reed said. “Those travels overseas, it’s going to be a lot this year, but at the same time, I can’t wait to obviously go out there and compete, but at the same time, come home and see the family.”

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

Those questions began to be answered Monday as several players entered the NCAA transfer portal, headlined by junior guard Kymora Johnson, a Charlottesville native and one of the program’s most accomplished recent standouts.

Johnson averaged 19.5 points and 5.9 assists per game during the 2025–26 season, making her one of only three players nationally to meet both benchmarks. She played a central role in leading Virginia to its first NCAA Women’s Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2000, a milestone achievement for the program.

A two-time All-ACC first-team selection, Johnson also earned honorable mention All-America honors in consecutive seasons. Known for her scoring ability, court vision and leadership, her departure represents a significant loss for Virginia as the program navigates a coaching transition and prepares for the 2026–27 season.

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.

Despite changes – the company has doubled the number of video journalists it employs in the United States since 2022 – remnants of a staffing structure built largely to provide stories to newspapers and broadcasters in individual states have remained.

That has its roots well back in American history; the AP was started in the mid-19th century by New York newspapers looking to share the costs of reporting outside their immediate territory.

Exact numbers of staff reduction unclear

The number of AP journalists who will lose jobs is murky, in part intentionally. The AP does not say how many journalists it employs, though it has a large international presence as well as its U.S. staff. Pace said the AP's goal is to reduce its global staff by less than 5%.

Since buyouts are being offered now to only U.S. journalists, it stands to reason that the cut among that workforce will be more than 5%. Whether there are layoffs depends on how many people take the offer, Pace said.

“The AP employs hundreds of talented journalists who are willing and able to adjust to the changing media landscape,” the union said in a statement. “However, the company refuses to offer them appropriate training and tools. Instead, AP continues to get rid of experienced staff and flirt with artificial intelligence — ignoring the opportunity to differentiate AP news stories as ones that are and always will be created by human journalists.”

The union said AP ignored a request last week to bargain over artificial intelligence. The news outlet had no immediate comment on that claim, or the union's estimate of how many people were offered buyouts. It's not clear whether the buyout offers were concluded by Monday afternoon.

Over the past four years, the AP’s revenue from newspapers has declined by 25%. Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest traditional newspaper publishers, dropped AP in 2024.

In recent days, the company learned that Lee Enterprises — publishers of newspapers like The Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Richmond Times-Dispatch — is seeking an early exit from a contract due to expire at the end of 2026.

Pace said the buyout plan was in the works before learning about Lee Enterprises. “We made a decision earlier this year that we needed to be bolder in this transformation,” she said.

An even higher focus on the day’s biggest stories

Besides the transition to more video capabilities, the AP is deploying rapid-response teams where staff members, no matter their geographic base, contribute to the day’s big stories, she said. The AP is putting more journalists on beats to break news on topics of known customer interest. But it is committed to maintaining a presence in all 50 states.

“The AP is not in trouble,” Pace said. “We’re making these changes from a position of strength but we’re doing so now to recognize our changing customer base.”

Those customers now are dominated by broadcast, digital and technology companies, an illustration of where people are getting news. The AP has seen 200% growth in revenue from technology companies over the last four years, said Kristin Heitmann, senior vice president and chief revenue officer.

The AP was among the first news outlets to make a deal with an AI company, agreeing in 2023 to lease part of its text archive to OpenAI as it built out its capabilities. The AP launched on Snowflake Marketplace last year to license data directly to enterprises building their own system. It has launched AP Intelligence, a division designed to sell data to financial and advertising sectors, for example.

Google contracted with AP last year to deliver news through the Gemini chatbot, the tech giant’s first deal with a news publisher.

“If you can think of a large technology company,” Heitmann said, “they are a customer of ours.”

Predictions markets now part of the picture for AP

Last month, the AP agreed to sell U.S. elections data to Kalshi, the world’s largest predictions market.

AP’s long tradition in counting and analyzing elections data is another growth area; the company saw a 30% increase in customers between the 2020 and 2024 cycles. It got an additional boost last year when ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN signed on to the service.

The company, traditionally a wholesaler of news to other companies, has also seen growing interest in its direct-to-consumer product, apnews.com, which provides revenue through advertising and donations.

The new business frontiers do not indicate a weakening in the AP’s standards of providing fast, accurate, non-biased news, leaders said. “If anything, it makes it more important that we retain these values as we make the transition,” Pace said.

The AP is trying new forms of fact-checking, including use of video, and more often putting its journalists in public to explain how they got particular stories, she said.

“I think that authenticity, and the fact that you can associate a real person who is often quite experienced and quite deep on their beats … it builds more credibility,” she said. “We’re really trying to embrace that because I do think it’s vital when there is so much misinformation out there.”

Officials say the legislation will create 3,250 new jobs and bring $7.1 billion in business investment to Virginia.

The bills the Governor signed into law will support economic development projects, including the more than $500 million investment in Pittsylvania County, Spanberger announced in February.

“From my very first day in office, I have been working to create a stable business environment so companies can hire, expand, and continue to invest in our Commonwealth,” said Governor Abigail Spanberger. “I am signing these bills into law so we can continue to grow Virginia’s economy and create opportunities for Virginians.”

Governor Spanberger signed the following bills into law to support business investment in the Commonwealth and create jobs for Virginians, including two bills that will affect development in our region:

• HB1531 (Delegate Luke Torian), SB835 (Senator L. Louise Lucas) — Avio USA will invest more than $537 million and create more than 1,500 jobs in Pittsylvania, building solid rocket motors for the defense, tactile propulsion, missile systems, and commercial space sectors. Passed with bipartisan support.
• HB799 (Delegate Luke Torian), SB403 (Senator L. Louise Lucas) — Hitachi Energy will invest more than $457 million and create more than 825 jobs in Halifax to produce critical electrical grid infrastructure. Passed with bipartisan support.
• HB800 (Delegate Luke Torian), SB404 (Senator L. Louise Lucas) — Eli Lilly and Company will invest more than $2 billion and create more than 450 jobs in Goochland to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients for cancer, autoimmune, and other advanced therapies. Passed with bipartisan support.
• HB1076 (Delegate Amy Laufer), SB527 (Senator Creigh Deeds) — AstraZeneca will invest $4 billion and create 500 jobs in Albermarle to manufacture medication for chronic diseases and antibody-drug conjugates. Passed with bipartisan support.

“Attracting new businesses and jobs to Virginia is a core focus of my administration — and I’m proud of the hundreds of millions of dollars in investment we have already announced this year. I look forward to continuing to work with legislators, local communities, and business leaders as we make clear that Virginia is the top state in the nation to grow or start a business," Spanberger said.

Officials say the event will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and those who attend can enjoy a fun-filled day of kite flying, where the sky will be filled with thousands of kites in the sky.

Kite demonstrations will be provided by the Richmond Air Force Kite Club, who will be flying kites and educating the public on various flying techniques. Additionally, free kites will be available, courtesy of United Healthcare, while supplies last.

An Activity Zone will have crafts and activities for families and children to enjoy throughout the day. Vendors will be on-site offering a diverse array of kites as well as handmade artisan items.

The Kite Festival is a free, rain-or-shine event! Visit here for more details.

Karl Jordan Jr. wasn't automatically let go because he still faces drug charges unrelated to the pioneering DJ's 2002 death. For now, Jordan remains behind bars while prosecutors decide this week whether to appeal the bond decision. If they don't, he'll go free as soon as his bond paperwork is in order.

“There's a real chance, Mr. Jordan, that you may be released in the very near term,” U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said. If that happens, she added, “I wish you luck. And you will stay out of trouble.”

Jordan quietly agreed as more than a dozen of his relatives and supporters looked on from the audience. Some have attended nearly six years of court dates in his case and 17 agreed to cosign his bond. Jordan’s loved ones also agreed to put up Southern properties worth a total of $525,000. If released, he will be under electronic monitoring.

His lawyers declined to comment after court.

Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was fatally shot in his New York City recording studio in 2002. As the DJ in Run-DMC, he helped rap reach music's mainstream with 1980s hits including “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” He later mentored up-and-comers including a young 50 Cent.

After the case went cold for years, Jordan and Ronald Washington were arrested in 2020. Washington, now 61; and Jordan, 42, denied the charges.

A jury convicted the men in 2024, after hearing eyewitness testimony that Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door. But in December 2025, DeArcy Hall unraveled Jordan’s conviction and acquitted him, while upholding the verdict against Washington.

Her reasoning centered on whether prosecutors had proven that the killing was narcotics-related, a requirement of the federal murder charge in this case. Witnesses testified that after Run-DMC’s heyday, Mizell dabbled in cocaine deals to pay his bills and was providing drug-trade opportunities to Jordan and Washington — the DJ's godson and old friend, respectively.

The judge concluded that the jury heard sufficient evidence that Washington was bitter at Mizell about the collapse of a planned drug transaction in Baltimore. But there wasn't such proof, “just conjecture," that Jordan had the same animus, DeArcy Hall wrote.

Prosecutors are appealing her decision to acquit Jordan of Mizell's killing.

Jordan's attorneys argued that he ought to get bond while that appeal and the outstanding drug and weapons charges play out.

Jordan, whose girlfriend is a city jail official, “is not a danger to the community. But his continued detention is a danger to Mr. Jordan," lawyer John Diaz said at a March 13 hearing. Jordan was stabbed and seriously wounded in Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail last year; other inmates were charged with assaulting him.

Prosecutors deplored the stabbing but urged the judge to continue detaining Jordan, maintaining that he remained a flight risk.

DeArcy Hall concluded Monday that Jordan's bond package outweighed concerns that he might flee. But she told him, “At the end of the day, sir, bond is about you giving me your word.”

“Yeah, I'm aware of that,” he replied.

Turning toward the audience, she sought to make sure his family also got the message that Jordan needs to comply with bond conditions.

“You all know I do not play,” the judge warned. “We all understood, folks?”

A collective “yes, your honor” rose from the audience.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are in plea talks with a third man charged in Mizell's killing, prosecutors and his lawyers told the judge in a March 12 letter. The third man, Jay Bryant, was indicted in 2023 after his DNA was found on a hat at the shooting scene. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors claimed that Bryant slipped into the studio building and opened a back door for Jordan and Washington, having met them through a mutual acquaintance. Jordan's lawyers have argued that the case against Bryant raised doubts about the now-dismissed allegations against Jordan.

Beltrán will become the ninth player in franchise history to have his number retired. Previously, Tom Seaver (41), Mike Piazza (31), Jerry Koosman (36), Keith Hernandez (17), Willie Mays (24), Dwight Gooden (16), Darryl Strawberry (18) and David Wright (5) had their numbers retired.

The Mets also have retired the numbers of former managers Gil Hodges (14) and Casey Stengel (37) and all major league teams have retired No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Mets outfielder Tyrone Taylor, who currently wears No. 15, will change his number to 28.

Beltrán was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame earlier this year. He announced he would wear a Mets cap on his plaque. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be on July 26.

Beltrán was hired as the New York Mets’ manager on Nov. 1, 2019, then fired on Jan. 16, 2020, without having managed a game. New York announced its decision three days after he was the only Astros player mentioned by name in a report by Major League Baseball regarding the team’s illicit use of electronics to steal signs during Houston’s run to the 2017 World Series championship — his final season.

He was hired by the Mets as a special assistant to the general manager in February 2023. He continues to work as a special assistant to president of baseball operations David Stearns.

Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen released a statement on Monday praising Beltrán as “one of the greatest offensive players in team history, combining power and speed with elite defense.”

Beltrán said having his number retired and entering the team's hall of fame is "the highest possible tribute, and I truly feel blessed. The Mets hold a special place in my heart. This summer will be incredibly meaningful, from my induction into the baseball Hall of Fame to this Mets hall of fame honor, with the cherry on top being my number retirement. I’m deeply grateful.”

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

The Mets announced Monday that scheduled night games against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday and Wednesday have been changed to afternoon games because of expected cold and windy conditions.

The Mets scheduled the first pitch for each game for 4:10 p.m. ET. The games had been set for 7:10 p.m. starts.

Tuesday’s game between the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians has been moved up five hours to a 1:10 p.m. ET first pitch. The change was made because temperatures are expected to be below freezing at night.

The time change was also made to avoid a backlog in the schedule or another doubleheader early in the season. Kansas City had a twinbill against Milwaukee on Saturday after Friday’s game was postponed, while Cleveland is coming off a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday when Saturday’s game was rained out.

Meanwhile, the White Sox moved up the first pitch for Tuesday's game against the Baltimore Orioles from 6:40 p.m. CT to 2:10 p.m. because of expected cold temperatures.

The Mets said in appreciation for the fans' “understanding, commitment and flexibility” the team was offering a limited number of complimentary tickets to each game.

The Mets said the complimentary tickets to the afternoon games will be offered on a first-come, first-served bases. Fans can log onto Mets.com/Tickets and enter code THANKYOU to claim up to four tickets for each game.

Additionally, the Mets are offering vouchers to a future game to fans who have already purchased tickets for the Tuesday or Wednesday games. The vouchers will be good for home regular-season games scheduled for Monday through Thursday.

All tickets for the previously scheduled night games will be valid for the afternoon games.

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

Despite an intense search involving thousands of law enforcement officers and volunteers, there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1. Her children, including the NBC host, have made heartbreaking video pleas for help, but to no avail.

Here is a timeline of events:

Saturday, Jan. 31

5:32 p.m. — Nancy Guthrie takes an Uber to her family’s home for dinner.

9:48 p.m. — Guthrie is dropped off at her Tucson-area home by a family member. The garage door opens and closes minutes later.

Sunday, Feb. 1

1:47 a.m. — The doorbell camera is disconnected.

2:12 a.m. — The camera’s software detects movement. Investigators initially said there was no video available since Guthrie didn’t have an active monitoring subscription. But digital forensics experts kept working to find images in backend software that might have been lost, corrupted or inaccessible.

2:28 a.m. — Her pacemaker app disconnects from her phone.

11:56 a.m. — Her family checks on her after learning she didn't attend church. Moments later, they call 911 to report her missing.

12:15 p.m. — Investigators arrive and launch a search operation, including the use of drones and dogs.

Monday, Feb. 2

Authorities say they believe Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will.

KOLD-TV says it received an email Monday night that appears to be a ransom note. It includes a demand for money with a deadline set for 5 p.m. Thursday and a second one for Monday, investigators say.

Tuesday, Feb. 3

A person familiar with the investigation tells The Associated Press that investigators found signs of forced entry at Nancy Guthrie’s home.

President Donald Trump tells reporters the situation is “terrible.”

Wednesday, Feb. 4

After allowing Guthrie's family back on her property earlier in the week, authorities return for a “follow-up investigation.”

That evening, Savannah Guthrie posts video on social media in which she tells her mother’s kidnapper that her family is ready to talk but wants proof she is alive.

Thursday, Feb. 5

Officials reveal that DNA testing determined that blood found on the home's front porch was Nancy Guthrie's.

The FBI offers a $50,000 reward for information about Guthrie’s whereabouts.

Friday, Feb. 6

Tucson TV station KOLD receives an email tied to the Guthrie case. The station didn't disclose it's contents and forwarded the message to federal investigators.

Investigators return to Guthrie’s neighborhood to gather more evidence.

Saturday, Feb. 7

Savannah Guthrie post another social media video aimed at her mother’s potential abductors.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

Monday, Feb. 9

Savannah Guthrie posts another video, saying her family is at an “hour of desperation” and believes her mom is still alive. She asks for prayers and for people to report anything they might see or hear to law enforcement.

An FBI spokesperson says the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Nancy Guthrie’s family and the possible kidnappers, despite a deadline set for Monday evening.

Later, in a March interview, Savannah Guthrie clarifies that some of the purported ransom notes were fake, but that she believes the two that she and her siblings responded to were real.

Tuesday, Feb. 10

The FBI says it managed to recover doorbell camera video of what it describes as an armed person tampering with a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door.

Video shows the person wearing a backpack and balaclava who tries to cover a camera near the front door with their gloved hand before ripping out a plant from the yard to block the camera’s view.

Following the FBI’s announcement, Savannah Guthrie posts images of the apparent kidnapper on Instagram. She writes: “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home,” and includes phone numbers for the FBI and sheriff.

Later, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department says a person was detained for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. The man is released. He tells reporters that he made deliveries in the Tucson area.

The sheriff’s department also says it searched a location in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson, with the help of the FBI.

Wednesday, Feb. 11

Authorities confirm that the man detained a day earlier was released but do not say what led them to stop him.

FBI agents and sheriff’s deputies knock on doors and search the desert terrain in the neighborhoods surrounding the homes of Nancy Guthrie and her oldest daughter, Annie Guthrie, whom she had visited hours before disappearing.

Thursday, Feb. 12

Investigators ask residents in a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) radius of Nancy Guthrie’s home to share any camera footage and report any suspicious activity they noticed in the month before she disappeared.

The FBI later doubles the reward, to $100,000, for information that would lead to Nancy Guthrie or an arrest and conviction.

It also describes the person seen in the video from Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing as a male with an average build and about 5-foot, 9-inches (175 centimeters) tall. In the video, the FBI says he is wearing a black, 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.

Sunday, March 22

Savannah Guthrie posts a family statement on Instagram urging the public to think back to Jan. 31 — when her mom was last seen — and Feb. 1, as well as the evening of Jan. 11.

“Please consult camera footage, journal notes, text messages, observations, or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance. No detail is too small,” the statement says.

The family also acknowledges that Nancy Guthrie might not be alive.

Monday, March 26

The “Today” show airs the first television interviews with Savannah Guthrie since her mothers disappearance.

“We are in agony,” she tells NBC News colleague Hoda Kotb, saying she wakes up every night thinking about what her mother went through.

She also shares new investigation details, including that her mom's home's back doors were found propped open and her phone and purse were found inside.

Monday, April 6

Savannah Guthrie returns to the “Today” show, which she has co-hosted since 2012.

“Here we go, ready or not,” Guthrie says as it opens. “Let’s do the news.”

After running through a series of headlines, Guthrie says “we are so glad that you started our week with us and it’s good to be home.” Her co-host, Craig Melvin, says “It’s good to have you back at home.”

The nation's second-leading scorer is one of more than 1,100 Division I women's basketball players who entered the portal after it opened just after midnight, according to an Associated Press review of the portal.

In January, the NCAA approved moving the portal's opening to the day after the national championship game for a 15-day window. It didn't take long for players to enter.

The portal used to be open after the second round of the NCAA Tournament for 30 days until the change this year. Last year there were 1,570 Division I women's basketball players in the portal in the entire time it was open.

President Donald Trump signed an order last week intended to stabilize college sports that included limiting athletes to one transfer, with another available once they get a four-year degree.

With revenue sharing and name, image and likeness deals, players have been able to make more money while playing college sports. Financial incentives is one of the top reasons players change schools.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said at the NCAA Tournament's Sacramento Regional last month that money is now one of the top questions in conversations with transfers and high school players.

“How much is it going to cost us? That’s the conversation. You’ve got to lead with that,” Staley said. “Because you don’t really want to waste your time. You either are going to have enough to pay players, or you don’t. And you move on.”

Iowa State wasn't the only school hit hard by the transfer portal. Tennessee already has five of its players in the portal: Talaysia Cooper, Kaniya Boyd, Alyssa Lathan, Lauren Hurst and Jaida Civil.

Civil was part of coach Kim Caldwell’s highly ranked recruiting class for 2025. Other Lady Vols freshmen Mia and Mya Pauldo announced their intent to enter the portal last week on social media.

Miami and Georgia each have eight players in the portal. The Lady Bulldogs made a coaching change over the weekend. Stanford has four players in the portal, including star Nunu Agara.

UCLA coach Cori Close said she was going to be very active in the portal after winning the national championship Sunday. She needs to replace the six seniors who scored all the Bruins' points in the Final Four and title games.

She said, smiling: “transfer portal just got easier.”

There were nearly 900 players combined from Division II and III in the portal already as well by Monday afternoon.

Last season the portal allowed movement among many top stars, including Ta'Niya Latson from Florida State to South Carolina; Olivia Miles from Notre Dame to TCU, MiLaysia Fulwiley from South Carolina to LSU and Cotie McMahon from Ohio State to Mississippi.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Jonathan Jackson of Illinois met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and members of Parliament during a five-day trip that ended Sunday.

Díaz-Canel wrote on X Monday that upon meeting with Jayapal and Jackson, he “denounced the criminal damage caused by the #blockade, particularly the consequences of the energy embargo imposed by the current U.S. administration and its threats of even more aggressive actions.”

Díaz-Canel added: “I reiterated our government’s willingness to engage in serious and responsible bilateral dialogue and find solutions to our existing differences.”

Both the U.S. and Cuba have acknowledged recently that talks are ongoing at the highest level, but no details have been disclosed.

Jayapal told reporters she believes that recent steps taken by Cuba, such as opening the economy to certain investments by Cuban Americans living abroad; the recent announcement that more than 2,000 prisoners would be pardoned; and the arrival of an FBI team to collaborate in the investigation of a fatal shooting involving a U.S.-flagged boat, “indicate that the moment is here for us to have a real negotiation between the two countries and to reverse the failed U.S. policy of decades, a Cold War remnant that no longer serves the American people or the Cuban people.”

Cuba's government has released the pardoned prisoners who were accused of a variety of crimes, although none so far appear to be political prisoners.

In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that would sell or provide oil to Cuba, although he made an exception for a Russian ship that reached the island last week with 730,000 barrels of crude oil. It was the first petroleum shipment in three months to dock in Cuba, which produces only 40% of the oil it needs.

“This is cruel collective punishment — effectively an economic bombing of the infrastructure of the country — that has produced permanent damage. It must stop immediately,” Jayapal and Jackson said in a statement released Sunday.

Critical oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Cubans already suffering from five years of economic crisis have acutely felt the impact of the fuel shortage: national blackouts, gasoline shortages and rationing, lack of public transport, cuts in working hours, paralyzed hospitals and surgeries, and suspension of flights, among other things.

Russia has promised a second delivery of petroleum, although it’s not clear when it might arrive. Experts have said that the first shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily demand for nine or 10 days.

Jayapal said that while such shipments are critical, they are only temporary solutions: “We need a longer, permanent solution for the Cuban people and the American people.”

Meanwhile, Jackson compared the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast to the oil blockade in Cuba, adding that the island “is the most sanctioned part of Earth.”

“Our government is fighting to keep the Strait of Hormuz open so there is a free flow of oil around the world. We want, for humanitarian reasons, a free flow of oil, fuel, and energy in our own hemisphere,” he said.

Jackson and Jayapal said they would prepare a report and continue to work on initiatives proposed by fellow members of the U.S. House of Representatives to lift sanctions against Cuba to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The law, criticized by free speech advocates, allows a top official at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to designate a group as a domestic or foreign terrorist organization, with the governor and three other members of the Florida Cabinet approving or rejecting the designation. Besides the governor, the Cabinet is made up of the state attorney general, the chief financial officer and the agriculture commissioner, all of whom are elected separately.

Once designated a terrorist organization, a group can be dissolved and it can no longer receive any state funding through school districts or state agencies. Universities also would have to report the status of expelled students attending on visas to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“So this will help the state of Florida protect you. It’ll help us protect your tax dollars,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa. “It’ll help us protect things that should not be happening in the United States of America, but certainly shouldn’t be happening in the free state of Florida.”

DeSantis last December designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhoods as foreign terrorist organizations. A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the enforcement of DeSantis' executive order.

PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, said the new law has vague language that could restrict education programs deemed to be “promoting” terrorism and that it could target student protesters who criticize Florida officials.

The new law “could chill education at every level,” said William Johnson, PEN America's Florida director. “The implications are fraught.”

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because discussions were not being made public.

Lawrence has played his first seven NFL seasons with the Giants since they selected him with the 17th pick in the 2019 draft out of Clemson.

Now 28, he still has two years left on his contract, set to earn $20 million and $19.5 million in each of the next two seasons.

Coming off a dislocated left elbow from a game on Thanksgiving in 2024, Lawrence started all 17 games last season. He finished with a career-low 31 tackles and a half-sack for a defense that ranked 30th out of 32 teams in the league.

Lawrence has 341 tackles and 30 1/2 sacks in 109 regular-season games in the league. He made 12 more tackles in two playoff games.

The Giants began spring workouts Tuesday under new coach John Harbaugh, who along with general manager Joe Schoen hired Dennard Wilson as the team's defensive coordinator. They have the fifth pick in the upcoming draft after going 4-13.

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

This Boil Water Advisory has been lifted as of April 6, officials said.

Following flushing the service line and premise plumbing, residents can safely resume normal use of their tap water.

For more information, please contact The City of Covington Public Works Department.

Original:

The City of Covington issued a Boil Water Advisory on Thursday due to a main water line break that occurred off S. Carpenter Drive near the CSX railroad.

The city issued the following statement that reads in part:

BOIL WATER ADVISORY

Notice of Customers of the City of Covington Waterworks

PWSID# 2580100

BOIL YOUR TAP WATER

Failure to follow this advisory could result in stomach or intestinal illness.

03/26/2026

City of Covington Public Works advise all customers to boil their drinking water.

The boil water advisory is in effect until further notice for the following reason:

A main water line break has occurred off S. Carpenter Dr. near the CSX railroad. This has caused a complete loss of water or low water pressure to numerous areas. If you have lost all water. If you live in or around the Parrish Court Area, Edgemont Drive area and surrounding side streets, Jackson St. and all streets adjoining Jackson St. As well as any additional streets that may have complete water loss. When your water supply is shut off or if water pressure drops significantly this could potentially allow contaminants to enter the system, making the water unsafe to drink.

DO NOT DRINK OR COOK WITH TAP WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.

Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, beverage, and food preparation, and making ice until further notice. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water. Boiling the preferred method to assure that the tap water is safe to drink.

To boil your water- Bring all tap water to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.

If you cannot boil your tap water an alternative method of purification for residents that do not have gas or electricity is to use liquid household bleach to disinfect water. The bleach product should be recently purchased, free of additives and scents, and should contain a hypochlorite solution of at least 5.25%. Public health officials recommend adding 8 drops of bleach (¼ teaspoon) to each gallon of water. The water should be stirred and allowed to stand at least 30 minutes before use. Water purification tablets may also be used by following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Once the Boil Water Advisory has been lifted, residents will be notified through the same method of communication used to notify you of the advisory.

For more information please contact:

City of Covington Public Works at 540-965-6321

For frequently asked questions about boiling your tap water visit:

Virginia Department of Health – Office of Drinking Water FAQ website.

City of Covington

New York put the four-time All-Star on the 10-day injured list Monday, a move retroactive to Saturday. The Mets said the typical timeframe for a return to play for this type of injury is about two to three weeks.

Infielder Ronny Mauricio was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

Soto, 27, is in the second season of a record $765 million, 15-year contract. He is hitting .355 with one homer and five RBIs in eight games after batting .263 with 43 homers, 105 RBIs, 38 stolen bases, 127 walks and a .921 OPS in his first season with the Mets.

Soto was hurt Friday night trying to run from first to third during the Mets’ 10-3 win at San Francisco.

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

After running through a series of news headlines, Guthrie said that “we are so glad that you started our week with us and it's good to be home.” Her co-host, Craig Melvin said that “it's good to have you back at home.”

She greeted longtime co-worker Al Roker with “Good morning, Sunshine,” when he noted that it was good to see her on the set. At the end of the first 25-minute portion of the show, she offered Melvin a high-five.

Emotions got the better of her before the last half hour, when she joined her colleagues in front of fans gathered at the show's Rockefeller Center studio. She fought back tears when one fan was seen with a “Welcome home Savannah” shirt, and clutched colleague Jenna Bush Hager's arm and thanked people for their support.

Guthrie says it's hard to go forward not knowing what happened

Guthrie, one of morning television's most recognizable faces, has been a “Today” host since 2012. She has acknowledged that she's a changed person and that it's hard to go forward not knowing what happened to Nancy Guthrie, who authorities believe was taken against her will from her Arizona home.

Despite an intense search involving thousands of federal and local officers and volunteers, there has been no sign of the 84-year-old mother of three since she was reported missing Feb. 1.

The “Today” show has followed the story closely for the past two months, but it wasn't mentioned during the first hour of her return on Monday. Bringing things back to normal was clearly intentional: Her return wasn't referenced during interviews with NBC's Gabe Gutierrez at the White House and military analyst Steve Warren on the show's set.

Hoda Kotb, the former anchor who had filled in for Guthrie for much of the past two months and interviewed her former colleague, wasn't on set Monday.

“Today” has seen a ratings boost over the past two months and has even eclipsed ABC's “Good Morning America” as the leader in the morning show ratings. The shows aren't the profit generators they once were for the networks, but the rivalry is still intense.

“Today” averaged 3.1 million viewers for the first three months of the year, up nearly 9% in an era most broadcast programs lose viewers. It's hard to tell how much the Guthrie story had to do with that: NBC also aired the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in February, and both events tend to help a morning show's ratings.

“Good Morning America” averaged 2.93 million viewers, up 2% over 2025 while “CBS Mornings” plunged 17% to 1.76 million, according to the Nielsen company.

As part of a video message released by her New York church on Easter Sunday, Guthrie spoke about feeling “moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment.” But she said the resurrection is not fully celebrated “if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain, and yes, death.”

In announcing her return to NBC's flagship morning show, Guthrie said she was uncertain whether she'll feel like she still belongs.

“It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness,” she said just over a week ago on “Today” during her first interview since the disappearance. “I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back because it’s my family.”

She didn't anticipate faking her way through the show, which is normally light-hearted with a mix of serious, breaking news.

Guthrie's mom had made occasional visits to show's set

There had been a great deal of speculation about whether she would return.

“I want to smile, and when I do it will be real,” she told Hoda Kotb, who came back to “Today” to fill in while Guthrie focused on the search. “Being there is joyful, and when it's not I'll say so.”

Nancy Guthrie made occasional appearances on “Today” over the years, once taking part in a cooking demonstration and surprising her daughter on the set. When Savannah Guthrie returned to her hometown of Tucson in 2025 for a segment recorded for the show, the two visited one of their favorite restaurants and talked about their love of Arizona.

The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will after finding blood near the doorstep of her home in the foothills outside Tucson. The FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night. Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the first weeks after she vanished.

But attention has faded from an investigation that was declared to be a top priority for the FBI and local authorities. Investigators have not released new evidence in weeks and say the number of tips has slowed. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department both said late last week that they had no updates.

Early on, some media outlets reported receiving ransom messages tied to the case. Guthrie said she and her siblings responded to two that they believed were real and offered to pay.

Guthrie said her celebrity status might be the reason her mother was taken, but said that possibility was “too much to bear.”

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Associated Press correspondents John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Sarah Brumfield in Washington contributed to this report.

Atlanta also receives the right to swap second-round picks with Chicago in 2028.

The 6-foot-3 Reese averaged 14.1 points and 12.9 rebounds in her two seasons with Chicago, earning All-Star honors each year while finishing as the runner-up for rookie of the year in 2024.

"Angel is a dynamic talent and a perfect fit for what we are building in Atlanta,” general manager Dan Padover said in a statement released by the Dream. “She has already proven herself as one of the most impactful players in the league, and her competitiveness, production and drive to win align seamlessly with our vision. This is an exciting moment for our organization and our fans.”

Reese, 23, was the No. 7 overall pick by Chicago in the 2024 WNBA draft after leading LSU to the 2023 national championship.

The trade comes after Reese expressed frustrations late in last season's 10-34 finish for the Sky. She told the Chicago Tribune that she “might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me” if the team didn't improve its outlook. She later apologized to the team for the comments.

“I’m not settling for the same ... we did this year,” Reese told the newspaper. “We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me. I’m willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that’s what I’m going to do this offseason.

“So it’s going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can’t settle for what we have this year.”

The Sky suspended Reese for half of a game for comments deemed “detrimental to the team.” The team listed her as dealing with a back injury for its final three games, raising speculation about her long-term future in Chicago.

"This trade is designed to achieve roster balance and represents a great opportunity for all parties,” Chicago general manager Jeff Pagliocca said in a statement released by the Sky.

“Angel has achieved many record-breaking milestones in her first two years in the WNBA and has been a competitive force for the Sky. We are thankful for her many important contributions to this league and this game, and we know she will continue to have a big impact on the court and beyond. We wish Angel all the best in her next chapter.”

Reese averaged 14.7 points last season and led the WNBA with 12.6 rebounds per game. She joins an Atlanta roster that boasts other established stars and flourished under the leadership of coach Karl Smesko.

Allisha Gray finished fourth in the MVP voting last season. Rhyne Howard became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 300 career 3-pointers. Naz Hillmon was named Sixth Player of the Year and Brionna Jones was an All-Star.

“I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to join the Atlanta Dream organization,” Reese said. “I’m focused on continuing to grow my game, competing at the highest level, connecting with the fans, and giving everything I’ve got to the Dream.”

Atlanta set a franchise record with 30 wins in 2025. Smesko said Reese will add elite skills.

“Angel’s ability to impact the game on both ends of the floor is elite,” Smesko said. “Her energy, toughness and instincts will thrive in our system, and we’re excited to integrate her into the style of play we are constructing here in Atlanta.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Prodded by the Trump administration, the justices threw out an appellate ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

The move frees a trial judge to act on the Republican administration’s pending request to dismiss Bannon’s conviction and indictment “in the interests of justice.”

The dismissal would be largely symbolic. Bannon served a four-month prison term after a jury convicted him of contempt of Congress in 2022. A federal appeals court in Washington had upheld the conviction.

The justices also issued a similar order in the case of former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who was pardoned by Trump last year.

Sittenfeld had served 16 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of bribery and attempted extortion in 2022. The high court order allows a lower court to consider dismissing his indictment.

The Justice Department brought the case against Bannon during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, but it changed course after Trump took office again last year.

Bannon had initially argued that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of executive privilege. But the House panel and the Justice Department contended such a claim was dubious because Trump had fired Bannon from the White House in 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with the then-president in the run-up to the Capitol riot.

Bannon separately has pleaded guilty in a New York state court to defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, as part of a plea deal that allowed him to avoid jail time. That conviction is unaffected by the Supreme Court action.

Hummingbirds travel thousands of miles each year, with a few even making the nonstop trek across the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. Out of the 350 species of hummingbirds found around the world, only 15 breed in the United States. The ruby-throated hummingbird is the one you’re most likely to spot in our region. While rare, someone might catch a glimpse of a rufous or Allen’s hummingbird, but those sightings are far from the norm.

If you’re hoping to spot one, keep an eye out for the males first. They usually arrive ahead of the females and can be recognized by their bright red throats. The females tend to show up just a little later.

Have you spotted any hummingbirds in your area? Send us your pics here: wsls.com/pins

Planning on putting your hummingbird feeder out? Here are some tips the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center recommends:

• Clean your feeders every 3-5 days with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water; be sure to clean the inside thoroughly, too.
• Ensure you’re using the proper water-to-sugar ratio, which is 1/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water. Bring the solution to a boil and then let it cool before setting out. Leftover sugar water can be refrigerated for up to a week.
• Never leave out a dirty feeder! This can develop a fungus that causes a hummingbird’s tongue to swell, which prevents them from being able to withdraw their tongue. This condition, called Hummers Candidiasis, means they can’t eat and they will slowly starve to death.
• Do not use dyes, honey, molasses or raw sugar. If the syrup looks cloudy after being stored for a long time, do not use it.
• Avoid placing the feeder in direct sunlight as this will make the water go bad even faster.

Dimon described inflation as the potential “skunk at the party” this year, cautioning that turmoil in oil and commodity markets could ripple through the economy, affecting everything from gasoline prices to manufacturing costs. He also warned that sustained inflation could force the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer, posing risks to the broader economy and financial system.

“Given our complex global supply chains, countries are experiencing disruptions in shipbuilding, food and farming, among others,” Dimon wrote. “The outcome of current geopolitical events may very well be the defining factor in how the future global economic order unfolds — then again, it may not.”

Dimon has long used his annual letters to weigh in on major economic and policy issues. Past letters have focused on topics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, political upheaval in the United States, the global financial crisis and trade tensions.

Despite the risks, Dimon struck a generally optimistic tone.

“Despite the unsettling landscape, the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, with consumers still earning and spending (though with some recent weakening) and businesses still healthy,” he wrote.

While acknowledging the geopolitical context of the conflict, Dimon pointed to broader risks tied to instability in the region.

“We should not turn a blind eye to the role the current regime in Iran has played in fostering terrorism and killing thousands of people, including Americans and many of its own citizens, over many years,” he wrote.

But on the 12-hour drive south to the capital, Tehran, daily life continued, with only occasional signs of the ongoing war, including a Shiite religious center that officials say was damaged by a recent airstrike.

Associated Press reporters made the journey on Saturday after crossing into Iran from Turkey. They gained a glimpse of the country at the center of a regional war that has jolted the world economy and shows no sign of ending five weeks after Khamenei was killed in the opening U.S. and Israeli salvo.

The Associated Press has been granted permission by the Iranian government to send an additional team into the country for a brief reporting trip. AP already operates in Iran. The visiting team must be accompanied by a media assistant from a government-affiliated company. AP retains full editorial control of its content.

A religious center damaged by an airstrike

The first major sign of the war's destruction came in the northwestern city of Zanjan, about six hours' drive from the border.

Iranian officials say an airstrike hit a religious community center, known as a husseiniyah, killing two people and destroying a clinic and a library. Other parts of the compound, some of which is centuries old, suffered damage, including its golden dome.

When asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it had hit “a military headquarters,” and that it tries to avoid harming civilian facilities, without elaborating.

“It has hurt me a lot and distressed me a lot,” said Somayeh Shojaei, a local resident who has attended religious and cultural events at the center. “With these airstrikes, (the U.S. and Israel) are showing their malicious intent to the whole world,” she said.

The strike killed the library's caretaker and a volunteer with the Iranian Red Crescent first responders, according to Jaafar Mohammadi, the provincial director of cultural and Islamic guidance.

He said poor people had received free treatment at the clinic and students had made use of the library that housed more than 35,000 books, including antique manuscripts.

He said he did not know why the complex was targeted.

“Iran wanted to negotiate for peace with (U.S. President Donald) Trump, but Trump responded with war,” Mohammadi said. “He started the war, but we will definitely be the victorious side.”

Life goes on in much of Iran despite fear and uncertainty

The U.S. and Israel have carried out thousands of strikes across the country, and Trump has threatened to bomb Iran “ back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” Over the weekend, he reiterated a Monday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas.

Iran's surviving leaders have remained defiant and in control, rejecting what they say are unreasonable U.S. peace proposals. Israel has given no indication it plans to let up on its strikes, and has called on Iranians to overthrow their leaders.

Even as the war generates global turmoil — and fear and anxiety within Iran — daily life goes on.

In city after city on the road to Tehran, AP reporters saw normal traffic, businesses open and people walking the streets. A restaurant served Iranian delicacies like grilled lamb and rice, barley soup and saffron drinks as R.E.M.'s “Losing my religion” played on loudspeakers.

Many women could be seen going about their day without wearing the theocracy's mandatory head covering, the enforcement of which has eased in recent years.

The team passed through two checkpoints on the approach to Tehran without being stopped.

Destroyed government buildings and police stations in Tehran

The city was eerily quiet after midnight. There had been heavy airstrikes on the mountains overlooking the capital the previous night.

Tehran is on the front lines, having seen wave after wave of strikes that the U.S. and Israel say are aimed at the military and internal security forces. Authorities in Iran say over 1,900 people have been killed. It's unclear how many were soldiers or civilians.

The AP reporters saw several government buildings and police stations that had been destroyed. They passed a number of checkpoints operated by plainclothes Basij, an internal security force, and uniformed members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

They were stopped once and asked to open the car and show press cards before being waved onward.

Fuel is heavily subsidized, such that a gallon (4 liters) of gasoline costs around 15 U.S. cents. But people are only allowed to purchase around 5 gallons (20 liters) at a time. There were no signs of gas lines.

Back in Zanjan, Mohamoud Maasoumi, a retired soldier, said the conflict with the U.S. — “the world's arrogance” — goes back to a 1953 CIA-backed coup that is seared into the minds of many Iranians. He expressed hope that Iran's leaders would defend the country.

“The enemy sees that we are not ever succumbing,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed.

The Bruins were a unanimous choice from the 31-member national media panel, ending the season as the top choice for the first time in school history. Their first No. 1 ranking came after they also beat South Carolina in November 2024.

The Gamecocks were second behind the Bruins with Final Four participants UConn and Texas third and fourth, respectively. The Huskies, who have finished in the top 10 of the final poll for 33 straight years, had been the No. 1 team all season until Monday. They had been unbeaten until a loss to South Carolina on Friday.

No. 5 Duke, No. 6 TCU and No. 7 Michigan, which all reached the Elite Eight, followed the Longhorns. LSU was eighth and Notre Dame ninth. The Fighting Irish made the biggest leap in the poll, climbing 13 spots after reaching the regional final with an upset of Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16.. The Commodores were 10th.

Celebrating history

The Bruins are one of only three teams that were in both the first women’s basketball poll 50 years ago and the final Top 25 this season. Maryland and Baylor are the other two. The Terrapins ended the season ranked 20th and the Bears were 23rd.

Ranked Cavaliers

No. 19 Virginia earned its first ranking since 2011 after reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time in 26 years. They also became the first team that played in the First Four to reach the regional semifinals.

Even with their success, the Cavaliers made a coaching change over the weekend, firing Amaka Agugua-Hamilton. The Cavaliers had been a mainstay in the poll until dropping out on Nov. 10, 2011.

Conference supremecy

The SEC and the Big Ten each had eight teams in the final Top 25 of the season. The ACC had five and The Big 12 three. The Big East had one.

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Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

The bill, which passed with bipartisan support, was introduced by Delegate Sam Rasoul and is identical to SB 820, a bill introduced by Republican Senator David Suetterlein.

The Community Builders Pilot Program was set to expire on July 1, 2027, and was also expanded to the Petersburg City Public Schools.

The program helps introduce kids to good habits early, which can help limit the amount of gun violence amongst even the youngest of students.

“They go through an intense summer school, and then the program follows them all throughout their eighth-grade year and even into high school,” Del. Rasoul said. “[It’s] trying to ensure that they have good habits instilled, that they meet people from a variety of different professions, that we give them a vision for the future that is brighter than they may be in right now.”

Rasoul told 10 News that, ever since the program has been implemented, there has been a reduction in gun violence among juveniles by up to 80% within the community.

“What we learned is that if you want to help kids build good habits, you want to start in middle school,” Del. Rasoul said. “So if we want to limit gun and gang violence, especially with our youngest, we started middle school, we started this a few years ago, got some pilot funding and now we’ve made the program permanent moving forward.”

The program will be funded by the General Assembly.

You might be a fighter against book bans, like Valerie Byrd Fort at the University of South Carolina; or a mentor for graduate students researching biomedicine, like Joanne Doucette at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, or transform a dark basement into a gathering space for families, like Mary Anne Russo at the Hubbard Public Library in Ohio.

They are among 10 recipients of the I Love My Librarian Award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize and a $750 stipend for the American Library Association's annual convention, held this year in Chicago from June 25-29. The winners were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 submissions by library patrons who explain how a “librarian made a difference in your life or gone above and beyond to serve your community.”

“We recognize the remarkable contributions these 10 librarians make for our communities, for learning, for our health and for the public good,” ALA President Sam Helmick said in a statement Monday. “These librarians are people who power possibility in our neighborhoods, our schools, and our places of higher learning. Their leadership, creativity, and innovation strengthen the communities they serve, and we are proud to honor them.”

Other winners include Tracy Fitzmaurice from Jackson County, North Carolina, praised by the ALA as a “transformative leader for rural libraries”; Deb Sica of the Alameda County Library, in Fremont, California, a champion of diversity and intellectual freedom; Zachary Stier, who has worked for years on literacy projects at the Ericson Public Library, in Boone, Iowa; and Christine Szeluga of New Jersey's Cranford High School, where she secured grants for a podcast studio and history archive.

Also cited were Mahasin Ameen, whose initiatives at Indiana University cover everything from health literacy to information literacy; Mia Gittlen, who transformed the shuttered library at California's Milpitas High School; and Jenny Cox of South Carolina's Georgetown Middle School who worked to boost funding for thousands of new books.

The awards, established in 2008, are presented by the ALA, the New York Public Library and Carnegie Corporation of New York.

According to an end of service announcement published on the tech giant's U.S. support website, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in July. Impacted owners of Samsung smartphones and other gadgets are being asked to switch to Google Messages in the meantime, “to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.”

All Samsung Galaxy phones run on Google's Android operating system. To switch to Google Messages, Samsung's website gives users instructions to download the app from the Play Store, if not already on their phone, and set it as the default. Some people may also receive an in-app notification to guide them through the process.

Samsung says switching to Google Messages will give users access to updates like the latest artificial intelligence features from Google's Gemini — which includes an experimental feature called “Remix” to generate images during conversations and AI-powered reply suggestions — and the ability to share higher quality photos between Android and Apple iOS devices through RCS-enabled messages.

Users of older Android operating systems (dating back to Android 11 or older) will not be impacted by the end of Samsung Messages, the company noted. To check what Android OS you have on a Samsung device, open the settings app, click on “software information” and scroll to “Android version.”

Meanwhile, owners of Samsung's latest Galaxy 26 lineup and other newer phones cannot download the Samsung Messages app from the Galaxy Store today.

All devices will no longer be able to download Samsung Messages after it's officially discontinued in July, the company noted. Samsung said users can check their app for the exact date for when service will go offline.

Beyond the U.S., Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for further information about whether its guidance for Samsung Messages was the same globally.

Vinícius spoke Monday, less than a week after Yamal criticized the chants by Spanish fans in Spain’s friendly against Egypt last Tuesday. Yamal, who is Muslim, said the chants were disrespectful and intolerable.

Vinícius, a Brazil international, has been often subjected to racist taunts while playing in Europe and is vocal about the fight against racism. He said “it's always complicated” to talk about the subject but “these things happen a lot.”

“Hopefully we can continue with this fight,” he said. “It's important that Lamine speaks about it. It could help others. We are famous, we have money, we can balance these things better, but the poor people and the Blacks who are everywhere, they surely struggle more than we do. So we have to stick together, those who have a stronger voice, the players …”

In a Champions League match last month in Lisbon, Vinícius accused Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni of calling him a monkey after the Brazil forward celebrated in front of the home fans when he scored for Madrid. Benfica fans insulted Vinícius from the stands.

“I'm not saying that Spain or Germany or Portugal are racist countries, but there are racists in these countries, and in Brazil and other countries as well,” Vinícius said. “But if we keep fighting together, I think future players and people in general won't have to go through this again.”

Vinícius spoke on the eve of the first leg between Madrid and Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

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

The nighttime attack on Odesa heavily damaged an apartment block, killing the women and a 2-year-old child, officials said. Rescuers working under floodlights pulled four people from the rubble.

Eleven people were hospitalized, including a pregnant woman and two children — the youngest less than a year old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine since it invaded its neighbor just over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Over the past week, Russia has launched at Ukraine more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 powerful glide bombs and more than 40 missiles of various types, according to Zelenskyy.

In the southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed an elderly woman and three other women, 86, 79 and 44, were hospitalized, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration. The injured women sustained shrapnel wounds, concussion, blast injuries and head trauma, he said.

Seven people were injured by Russian drones and shelling in the southern city of Nikopol, leaving a 62-year-old in critical condition as the strikes damaged a multistory building and a pharmacy.

Drones also hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, injuring three people, according to regional military administration head Oleh Sinehubov.

Russia has taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid, and overnight barrages hit energy infrastructure in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, Zelenskyy said.

More than 300,000 households were without electricity in northern Chernihiv after distribution facilities were damaged in the attacks, according to the regional power utility.

Zelenskyy expressed concern in a weekend interview with The Associated Press that the war in the Middle East is draining stockpiles of weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself, especially American-made Patriot air defense systems that can stop missiles.

Zelenskyy said Monday that the country’s partners “need to strengthen air defense together so that the interception rate of drones and missiles continues to increase.”

With U.S.-led peace efforts stalled, Zelenskyy added: “Russia has no intention of stopping” its invasion.

Ukraine has fought back by developing its own long-range drones, which now reach targets some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) inside Russia.

Ukraine has used them recently to hammer 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.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian drones struck the Novorossiysk oil terminal, one of Russia’s largest Black Sea ports, overnight. The attack damaged a pipeline, loading and unloading berths, and set fire to four tanks holding petroleum products.

The strike damaged assets belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium run by U.S. and Kazakhstani companies, it said.

Eight people, including two children, were injured in the Novorossiysk attack that damaged six apartment buildings and two private houses, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

Last week, Ukraine’s drones struck oil facilities in the Gulf of Finland, in northwest Russia.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine’s armed forces claimed they hit a Russian Black Sea frigate, the Admiral Makarov, and a drilling rig.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.

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

Enter now through April 3rd to win a family 4-pack of tickets to see the Salem RidgeYaks live in action.

Winners will be selected every weekday starting March 23rd-April 3rd.

Winners will be selected at random and contacted upon winning. Tickets will be available at Will Call at Carilion Clinic Field at Salem Memorial Ballpark.

Entering is easy, simply register to win below:

Detroit will be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and 10 other teams know their seasons will come to an end on Sunday. Everything else remains a guessing game.

Some of that guesswork isn't really much of a mystery.

— Oklahoma City and San Antonio will almost certainly be No. 1 and No. 2 in the Western Conference, in that order.

— Boston will probably be No. 2 in the East, with New York No. 3.

— Denver looks like it has the inside track to be No. 3 in the West, especially with the Los Angeles Lakers now missing Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves because of injuries.

— Golden State will be in the 9 vs. 10 play-in game, almost certainly as the road team.

— Minnesota gets the No. 6 seed in the West in nearly every possible remaining scenario, with Phoenix No. 7.

This brings us to the rest of the East, and in an annual tradition of sorts, it's a mess.

Orlando and Miami seem like they're headed to the play-in tournament, but there are scenarios where either club could finish in the top six and earn a guaranteed playoff berth on Sunday. In fact, there are paths — highly, highly improbable paths in some cases, but paths nonetheless — for Atlanta, Philadelphia, Toronto, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami to all finish in the No. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 spots when the regular season ends.

Who's in and who's out?

Here's what we know so far regarding the NBA playoff field for this season.

— Eastern Conference playoff teams: Detroit has locked up the No. 1 seed and will open the postseason on April 19. Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Philadelphia would get the other two guaranteed spots, but those are not clinched.

— East play-in teams: Nobody is locked into the play-in yet, but entering Monday, the four teams headed there are Toronto, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami.

— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.

— Western Conference playoff teams: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver and Houston are in. Minnesota is likely to grab the sixth and final guaranteed spot.

— West play-in teams: Phoenix is probably going to the play-in tournament. Portland, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State definitely are.

— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.

Sunday recap

— Celtics 115, Raptors 101: It's looking very much like Boston will end with the No. 2 seed.

— Nets 121, Wizards 115: Brooklyn made six more 3s than Washington, won by six points.

— Suns 120, Bulls 110: Devin Booker scored 30, Phoenix pulled away in the fourth quarter.

— Bucks 131, Grizzlies 115: Memphis' Rayan Rupert 31st player with triple-double this season.

— Cavaliers 117, Pacers 108: Donovan Mitchell scores 38, Cleveland pulls away in the fourth.

— Hornets 122, Timberwolves 108: Charlotte is very much in the race to avoid East play-in.

— Magic 112, Pelicans 108: Orlando's 7th win after trailing by 15, tied for most in NBA (Spurs).

— Thunder 146, Jazz 111: OKC was 25.5-point favorite, top odds in at least a decade, and covered.

— Mavericks 134, Lakers 128, OT: Cooper Flagg, at 19, scored 45. LeBron James, at 41, scored 30.

— Clippers 138, Kings 109: Sacramento's DeMar DeRozan moved into 16th on all-time point list.

— Rockets 117, Warriors 116: Stephen Curry returned, scored 29, nearly won game at the buzzer.

Monday's schedule

— New York at Atlanta: Hawks are 18-2 in their last 20 games, likely No. 5 seed in East. Knicks could make a statement here.

— Detroit at Orlando: Magic have three players who finished at Michigan, Pistons have two. This during the NCAA title game — featuring Michigan — is just wrong.

— Cleveland at Memphis: Cavs could still catch Knicks, with some help. A slipup here wouldn't be ideal.

— Philadelphia at San Antonio: Spurs won’t play another road game until Game 3 of West quarterfinals.

— Portland at Denver: Trail Blazers in extremely close race with Clippers for No. 8 seed in play-in tournament.

Tuesday's schedule

— Timberwolves at Pacers: Wolves still vying to clinch 6 seed, then focus on health before Round 1.

— Heat at Raptors: Miami plays at Toronto twice in a three-day span, huge stakes for both teams.

— Hornets at Celtics: Probably game of the night, which nobody would have predicted in October.

— Kings at Warriors: This week is basically preseason for Golden State and its play-in tune-up plan.

— Thunder at Lakers: Oklahoma City on verge of getting No. 1 overall seed for second straight year.

— Mavericks at Clippers: Dallas' Cooper Flagg’s final-week rookie of the year push tour continues.

— Rockets at Suns: Kevin Durant goes back to Phoenix, one of his former stomping grounds.

— Bulls at Wizards: All about lottery odds.

— Bucks at Nets: All about lottery odds.

— Jazz at Pelicans: For Utah, all about lottery odds. (New Orleans’ pick should convey to Atlanta.)

National TV schedule

Monday on Peacock and NBCSN: New York-Atlanta.

Tuesday on NBC and Peacock: Charlotte-Boston, Houston-Phoenix.

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (+130) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1200), Cleveland (+1200) and New York (+1900). Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2500. The Los Angeles Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt; they're +50000 now.

Key dates

— Friday: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.

— Sunday: All 30 teams play their regular-season finales.

— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.

— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.

— 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).

Numbers watch

The NBA's single-season total points record is set to fall Sunday, the final day of the season. The league's teams are on pace to score a combined 284,300 points or so this season — which would top the record of 282,127 set last season. Teams are averaging 115.6 points per game this season, and that would be the biggest per-game number since 1969-70 (116.7).

Stats of the day

— The Clippers shot 53% from the field, 49% from 3-point range and 95% from the foul line Sunday. It was the 1,000th time NBA regular-season history that a team had 50-40-90 shooting splits in a win.

— Cooper Flagg, 19, scored 45 points and LeBron James, 41, scored 30 points in Dallas’ OT win over the Lakers on Sunday. It was the first time in NBA history that a teen and a 40-something both reached 30 points in the same game.

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

That all changed when he was 13. A family friend and babysitter came over to his house in Newton, Massachusetts and handed him a binder filled with accessible instructions for building a Middle Eastern palace. The instructions, written in braille, allowed him to complete the set without having to rely on the brightly colored pictures that typically come with Lego sets.

“This was the first time that I was able to build a Lego set on my own,” Shifrin said at his home, surrounded by sets he has built including a Statue of Liberty figurine and NASA's Apollo Saturn V rocket. “It was truly an amazing experience because I was completely in control of the whole building process. I knew where the pieces went and I was able to learn about the world around me.”

Inspired to reach more blind Lego builders

After Shifrin's babysitter died, he wanted to honor her memory. So he set about fine-tuning the instructions the two had posted online to reach other blind builders.

Three years ago, Shifrin launched Bricks for the Blind. The 28-year-old now works with a team of 30 sighted writers and blind testers. His website makes the downloadable instructions available for free to anyone who's blind or visually impaired. They can either print the step-by-step instructions in braille, use braille computers or turn to screen readers, which are software applications that convert the text into speech.

The instructions allow a blind person to build on their own, but Shifrin's website also says a sighted person might be needed to sort Lego bricks. Otherwise, the blind builder could turn to one of several apps that identify bricks using artificial intelligence.

So far, the nonprofit has created instructions for more than 540 Lego sets, ranging from a 100-piece car to a 4,000-piece bridge. About 3,000 builders have used their instructions across the United States and as far away as Australia.

Shifrin also approached the Denmark-based Lego Group in 2017 about making their products more accessible, which inspired the company to create audio and braille instructions for a growing number of Lego sets. That launched in 2019.

Separately, the company also introduced Lego Braille Bricks in 2020, which are available in French, English and Spanish, and feature studs on the bricks that correspond to letters, numbers and symbols. It also has introduced several characters in their sets with vision loss.

Blind parents, children and their families find connection

Shifrin, who also is an actor, composer and opera singer, said he has gotten messages from many people who couldn't build Lego until now.

He's heard from grandparents who are blind and say they're now able to build with their grandkids. “We couldn’t build with our kids. They didn’t want our help, but now we can teach our grandkids about Lego,’” Shifrin said. “Or blind parents who say, ‘My kids are sighted, they don’t want my help, but it’s amazing to really understand what all this hype about Lego is about because now I can build on my own

Daniel Millan, who lost his sight in 2024, turned to Bricks for the Blind after a tumor crushed his optic nerves. The 31-year-old master's student from San Diego, who's studying to be an assisted technology instructor, first completed a Lego ornament set. Then on his anniversary, he completed a Lego rose set with his wife.

“Being able to do it independently, it’s freedom,” he said, adding that his sudden vision loss left him wondering about what he wouldn't be able to do again.

But after building Lego sets, he soon learned that “It’s not about what I can’t do anymore. It’s more about what I can do,” he said.

Building with their children

For Natalie Charbonneau, who is blind, the instructions have allowed her to complete sets without relying on her sighted husband. It's also allowed her to have fun with her 5-year-old son — and build many fire trucks and other vehicles.

“If he has questions, I have the ability to check his work or to follow along instead of saying, ’You have to wait for your dad' or ‘You have to ask your dad.’ It’s something that I can now do with him as well, which is empowering,” she said. Charbonneau, a tester for Bricks for the Blind, is a doctoral student who lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Teri Turgeon, the education director for community programs at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts — where Shifrin went as a baby — said the accessible instructions allow blind children to experience the same pleasure as their sighted peers. It also helps them visualize a wider world and develop “fine motor and tactile skills.”

“He’s created a space around innovation and accessibility that was otherwise not there prior and he’s done so with a toy that children play with every day,” she said.

In the founder's Lego room

Back at his house, Shifrin helped fellow blind builder Minh Ha to build a go-kart. Ha grabbed Lego bricks and elements from two bowls and began to first put together a driver figurine.

“It’s just legs, torso, head, helmet. You’ve built this before. It’s a piece of cake. I believe in you,” Shifrin told her.

“Awesome,” she said with a smile. “All right, I’m gonna put the helmet on the head. And then … put the legs on the body.”

She reflected on a journey that began two years ago when she built a lotus flower.

“A lot of blind people have been left out of this cultural and kind of childhood phenomenon of being able to build Lego, play with Lego,” Ha said. “There is something incredibly satisfying and also relaxing to be able to put together these very intricate, very beautiful and architecturally complex builds.”

As each one takes flight, snapping through the air, more than 1,000 spectators cheer and applaud — families, off-duty soldiers, and bat enthusiasts, a few dressed in Goth outfits.

Hundreds of bats, many rescued from war-torn areas in the east of the country, were released late Saturday at one of multiple events around Ukraine planned to coincide with the arrival of spring.

“This is important for us as an organization because these are on a red list of endangered animals. Preserving them is very important,” said Anastasiia Vovk, a volunteer at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center, which organized the release.

All 28 bat species in Ukraine are listed as protected animals due to declining populations.

For many attendees, the event offered welcome relief and an excuse for a family outing after a harsh winter marked by subzero temperatures, nightly Russian drone and missile attacks and crippling power cuts.

Late Saturday, children, many wearing bat-themed T-shirts and hats, watched as volunteers fed the animals mealworms with tweezers before letting them go. Some were allowed to wear gloves and handle the bats themselves.

“Life goes on despite the war,” said Oleksii Beliaiev, a 54-year-old Kyiv resident who attended with his family. “The war is the main thing right now, but there has to be something else as well.”

Beliaiev runs a small printing business and spends time volunteering for army projects.

The war has displaced animals as well as people. Buildings destroyed by shelling damage bats’ shelters, and explosions terrify the tiny mammals, experts say.

“In winter, bats hibernate, and if they are disturbed, they can die. They reproduce slowly — one or two offspring per year — so populations recover very slowly,” said Alona Shulenko, who headed Saturday’s release.

“As natural hibernation sites disappear, bats move into cities, into cracks in buildings and balconies. But repairs or destruction of these places can kill entire colonies,” she said.

All Ukrainian bat species are insect-eating and legally protected, while the country lies on an important east European migratory route.

The charity says it has rescued more than 30,000 in total, including 4,000 bats last winter.

“We are all living in wartime, and everyone has their own struggles,” Shulenko said. “But we are doing what we know best. … If we stop what we are doing, thousands of bats will die.”

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Associated Press writers Volodymyr Yurchuk and Dan Bashakov contributed to this report.

Gabriela Jaquez, Lauren Betts and the rest of the UCLA seniors secured the first NCAA women's basketball national championship in school history — a goal that was set after losing in the first Final Four last season.

Jaquez scored 21 points, Betts added 16 and UCLA routed South Carolina 79-51 Sunday in the title game.

“I knew we were going to do it. Coming to UCLA we all set out for a goal, and I imagined this moment,” Jaquez said. "I imagined it so many times, and I am just so, so proud. ... Crying a lot, the confetti, all of the fans being here to support us, my family being here, it just means everything. Celebrating with this group, like ... I’m so happy.”

The near-record lopsided victory completed the Bruins’ journey through this year’s March Madness. The Bruins ran through their opponents this season with their only loss coming in November, to Texas in a Thanksgiving tournament.

“It’s immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

UCLA (37-1) was led by Betts and her fellow seniors and graduate students, like Jaquez — who played all four years with the Bruins. She also had 10 rebounds and five assists in front of her brother Jaime, who plays for the Miami Heat and flew in to attend the game to watch his alma mater win.

The group that coach Close put together through a combination of high school commitments and transfer portal players capped off their stellar careers with a championship, scoring all the points in the title game.

“Connectivity. Attention to detail. You know I looked them in the eyes before in the locker room, before the game, and I said, ‘I’m so proud to be able to say this,” Close said. "Because all year we’ve been saying the talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling.’”

The title is UCLA’s first since winning the 1978 AIAW championship, which was the postseason tournament for women’s basketball before the NCAA took over in 1982.

The championship game loss was the second straight for the Gamecocks, who won the title in 2024. Dawn Staley and her Gamecocks (36-4) will be favored to return to the game’s biggest stage with a talented group of expected returnees, led by Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer.

Like their 51-44 semifinal win over Texas, the Bruins were locked in defensively, anchored by Betts. She finished with 11 rebounds and exited the game with 3:45 left, giving Close a huge hug. The 6-foot-7 senior earned Most Outstanding Player honors of the Final Four.

“UCLA is a quality team with very experienced players who got a taste of being in the Final Four last year, and you make adjustments,” South Carolina's Staley said. "From last year to this year -- they played determined last year, but they played more determined this year because they were so close.”

Offensively, the Bruins had a much easier time than in the semifinal game that saw the team score only 20 points in the first half. The Bruins surpassed that total in the opening 10 minutes against South Carolina. Kiki’s Rice 3-pointer just before the first-quarter buzzer made it 21-10 as the Bruins got off to a strong start and South Carolina struggled with 17% shooting, it’s poorest quarter of the season.

The Bruins extended the lead to 15 points in the second quarter by clogging up the paint on defense and working the ball inside on offense for a 36-23 lead at the half.

UCLA put the game away in the third quarter, opening the period with a 12-3 run. Jaquez had five points during the spurt. South Carolina never threatened again as the Bruins outscored them 25-9 in the period.

“We just didn’t have it today. We tried, but we just didn’t have it today,” Staley said. "They were the better team.”

South Carolina avoided the most lopsided loss in championship history of 33 points, set in 2013 when UConn defeated Louisville. The Gamecocks also surpassed the title game record low of 44 points by Louisiana Tech in 1987 against Tennessee.

The Gamecocks were trying to cement their name as the premiere program in the sport with a fourth championship and third in the past five seasons. It just wasn’t meant to be Sunday as they had their worst shooting game of the season against a talented UCLA team.

“This is not the ending we wanted, but we got here. No one thought we would, and we did it,” said Tessa Johnson, who led South Carolina with 14 points.

Makeer added 11 for the Gamecocks.

“The score speaks for itself.” said Gamecocks senior Raven Johnson, who played in five Final Fours in her career.

Close has been at UCLA for 15 seasons, but her connections go deeper with the school as she was mentored by the legendary Bruins men’s coach John Wooden, who won 10 national championships at the school.

Their bond began when she was 22 years old and he was 83. She shares the same first name with one of his great-granddaughters. Close visited Wooden bi-weekly, adopting his “Pyramid of Success” and focus on character and its paid off with her team.

“Coach Wooden always said, ‘You got to do it the way you’re wired to do it, not the way anyone else did.’ And I just tried imperfectly to stay true to that," Close said.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

First-year general manager Mathieu Darche announced the abrupt decision to part ways with Roy and name Peter DeBoer his replacement with four games left in the season. The Islanders have lost four in a row and seven of their past 10 games, going from comfortably in a playoff spot to needing help down the stretch in a competitive Eastern Conference race.

Getting outshot 40-16 and losing 4-3 at division-leading Carolina on Saturday night in another must-win game was the final straw for Darche, who took over last summer and decided at the time to keep Roy behind the bench.

Roy is the second head coach fired over the past eight days. The Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy and hired John Tortorella on an interim basis a week ago.

This is not an interim move. DeBoer is taking the job full time.

The 57-year-old is fresh off serving as an assistant on coach Jon Cooper's Canada's staff at the Milan Cortina Olympics, serving as an advanced scout and helping a talented group reach the final before losing to the U.S. in overtime.

“More of preparation was just when everybody arrived here and you’ve got basically three days to prepare, that a lot of the grunt work is done,” DeBoer said in Milan. “I was involved in the scouting selection process. That was totally different for me and an exciting kind of wrinkle in what we usually normally do as coaches.”

DeBoer has taken two teams to the Stanley Cup Final and most recently coached the Dallas Stars to three consecutive trips to the Western Conference final before being fired last year following their latest exit.

Internationally, DeBoer was an assistant for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year and has filled that role at multiple world championships. He called it a great opportunity for learning and perspective, even if being a head coach suits him better.

“Oh yeah, I’m a head coach,” DeBoer said. “I’m a short-term assistant coach. ... You always come back a better head coach for, I think, doing that.”

Roy, a Hall of Fame goaltender considered one of the best to ever play the position, was hired by former GM Lou Lamoriello in January 2024 as a midseason replacement for fired coach Lane Lambert. Sparked by his arrival, the team made the playoffs that year and lost in the first round to Carolina. Regression has followed since, though players in recent days still had praise for Roy.

“He cares about the guys in the room,” captain Anders Lee said last week. “I think his messaging this season has been on point and he’s been able to read the room in a really good place and done his best to continue us on this journey of an 82-game hockey season.”

Roy did not make it to game No. 82, nor did he have the kind of public outbursts during games that were part of his first NHL gig with Colorado.

“I heard (about) his temper and stuff, or I’ve seen it over the years, like everybody,” said winger Ondrej Palat, who joined New York in a trade from New Jersey in late January. “He seems very calm. On the bench, he could get heated with all the circumstances that happen in a game. But in the room and around the boys, he’s pretty calm and positive.”

Parting ways with Roy comes at crucial point for the organization. Rookie of the year front-runner Matthew Schaefer has been a revelation in his first NHL season at the age of 18, and several other top prospects are on their way.

Roy was in his second job running a team in the league, following a three-year tenure with the Avalanche from 2013-16 that included winning the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year and abruptly resigning in the middle of the summer. They hired Jared Bednar, who then coached them to the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Darche and the Islanders are hoping for the same trajectory after making this change.

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

In Virginia, as of Monday, April 6, the average price for regular gasoline is more than $4 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s a little over $1 higher than last month’s average. Diesel is averaging about $5.81 per gallon, while premium gasoline is $4.90.

Within the region, AAA reports that Lynchburg currently has the most expensive gas in the area, with an average of $3.96 for regular and $4.77 for premium.

In Roanoke, average gas prices have climbed 13.3 cents per gallon over the past week, now averaging $3.90 per gallon, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 155 stations in the city. Prices in Roanoke are 77 cents higher than a month ago and nearly 95 cents higher than this time last year.

GasBuddy also reports that the cheapest station in Roanoke was selling regular gas for $3.59 on Sunday, while the most expensive was $3.99 per gallon.

Across the state, the highest prices are in Washington, D.C., where regular gas averages $4.17 per gallon. Overall, the lowest price in Virginia on Sunday was $3.59 per gallon, while the highest was $5.09, according to GasBuddy.

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.

These seasonal and hourly positions are ideal for anyone who enjoys nature, likes sharing their knowledge of history or the environment, or wants to help plan events and programs.

The day-to-day duties, pay rates and employment dates will vary depending on the job and the specific park’s needs. There’s also room to grow, as many of these roles can lead to full-time careers.

Some of the positions currently open include:

• Administrative assistant
• Contact ranger
• Education support specialist
• Food service ranger
• Groundskeeper
• Housekeeping ranger
• Lifeguard
• Maintenance ranger
• Office assistant
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For more information about seasonal, part-time and full-time opportunities and how to apply, please go to www.virginiastateparks.gov/jobs.

The tensions played a prominent role during last year's elections in Georgia, New Jersey and Virginia, and now they're sweeping through Arizona and Alabama, where once-sleepy contests are becoming political brawls.

Even national groups like Turning Point Action — better known for its role mobilizing young conservatives behind President Donald Trump — are getting involved by knocking on doors and texting campaign messages. The organization wants to curb environmentalists' influence over the Phoenix-area Salt River Project, the largest public utility in the country, in a Tuesday election.

The skirmishes are a preview for more campaigns later this year, when at least a half-dozen states will hold elections for utility regulators. That includes Georgia, where a second-straight hotly contested campaign is anticipated.

The burst of attention is dragging the behind-the-scenes politics of elected utility commissioners — long dominated by power brokers or monopolistic companies, critics say — into an intensely national debate over how to power artificial intelligence without driving up electricity costs.

"And that means suddenly there’s all this pressure,” said Dave Pomerantz of the Energy and Policy Institute, which pushes utilities to keep rates low and use renewable energy sources.

Arizona race draws massive players

In Tuesday's election that will determine control of Salt River Project, more than three times as many people requested early ballots than two years ago. Yard signs pepper street corners and ratepayers — they must own land to vote — are getting text messages, fliers and door-knockers.

The utility has already been under pressure to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels like coal and natural gas that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases. But now campaign organizations are converging on the race as the fast-growing Phoenix area becomes a destination for data centers and semiconductor factories. The utility projects that it will need to double its power capacity within a decade.

Two rival slates are vying for the board's majority. One is backed by Turning Point Action, which wants to stop “radical environmentalists.” The other is supported by the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which is opposing “oil-loving candidates.” Also involved are local chapters of progressive groups, energy interests, construction firms and data center developers.

“If they want to just overnight switch us to solar, there’s a reliability issue, there’s a cost issue there, and we just can’t keep up," said Jimmy Lindblom, a construction executive who formed the business-backed Arizonans for Responsible Growth. “We’d have blackouts. And so these things are really important to the growth of Arizona.”

Turning Point Action is putting its muscle behind the Arizonans for Responsible Growth slate. They're also using the election to build momentum ahead of this year's midterms in the battleground state.

The slate running as the “clean energy” team said Salt River Project's current majority is too eager to hook up to natural gas, raise rates and embrace data centers. They also said the board is too dismissive of clean energy technologies to meet spiking demand and offers no incentives to install solar panels.

“It’s insane, especially now,” said Randy Miller, a clean energy advocate on SRP's board.

About a dozen supporters gathered around picnic tables last week at a park in Tempe, arriving as the sun set to canvass for voters who had requested ballots but not returned them. After a brief pep talk, they fanned out.

Some voters were bothered by Turning Point's involvement.

“Very, very, very troublesome,” said Laura Kajfez, a 66-year-old retiree from Tempe. “We don’t need that intervention in our local politics. We have enough problems as it is."

In the last two elections, an average of 7,500 ballots were turned in. As of Thursday, with five days of voting remaining, turnout had already topped 22,000, according to SRP.

Campaigning for the Salt River Project board is a complex puzzle. The utility has more than 2 million power and water customers and is governed by byzantine rules. Votes for most positions are weighted by acreage, so large landowners carry outsized sway.

Rising bills fuels push to reshape Alabama commission

In the heavily Republican state of Alabama, anxiety over rising power bills is spilling into the statehouse and onto the campaign trail, fueling a push to reshape the Alabama Public Service Commission. Alabama has some of the highest power rates in the South, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

State lawmakers this week voted to overhaul the commission, effectively shifting more authority to the governor. Supporters described it as a way to address affordability. But it comes ahead of this year's elections, which some candidates are seeking to make a referendum on electricity prices — similar to how Georgia Democrats won blowout victories in two races for their state's commission in 2025.

Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, who is a Democratic candidate for Alabama governor, called the bill a “first-rate con job” on voters.

“Republicans in the Alabama Legislature want to completely revamp the PSC because all of the sudden after two wins in Georgia, they realize that maybe the people don't like what's going on with the PSC,” Jones said on social media.

The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, will expand the three-member commission to seven elected members. The four new members will be initially appointed by the governor. In addition, utilities will be forbidden from raising retail base rates until 2029.

Republican legislative leaders said the bill was a significant step forward for consumer protection.

“The Alabama Legislature passed HB475 to put a freeze on electric rates and to give the people of Alabama broader representation on the Public Service Commission," Ivey said. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger said in a joint statement that lawmakers “stood united to reform how utilities are regulated and demand an unprecedented amount of accountability for consumers across the state.”

Two of the current three seats on the commission are up for election this year, and Republican incumbents face both primary challengers and Democratic opponents running on the message of affordability.

Democrats are pointing to Georgia’s election as a model for how the party can be successful, even in a GOP-dominated state like Alabama.

“What happened in Georgia could happen in Alabama,” said Tabitha Isner, vice chair of the Alabama Democratic Party. “That’s why the alarm bells are going off and so much money is being poured into maintaining the status quo.”

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pa., and Chandler from Montgomery, Ala.

The contests are among the notable highlights of Wisconsin’s spring election, where races for judicial, municipal, educational and other traditionally nonpartisan offices will be decided beyond the din of the more explicitly partisan November elections.

In the race for the high court, state Appeals Court judges Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar are running to replace retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley from the court’s conservative bloc. Taylor is a former Democratic state representative who has endorsements from the court’s four sitting liberal justices. Lazar served as assistant state attorney general under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. She is endorsed by conservative Justice Annette Ziegler, who announced in March she will not seek a third term in 2027.

This year’s contest has not generated the same level of attention as recent Wisconsin Supreme Court races, since the ideological balance of the bench is not at stake. But the winner will be a part of a panel that could be at the center of a political firestorm if there are any disputes related to either the 2028 presidential election or the next round of congressional redistricting in the early 2030s. Justices are elected to 10-year terms.

Liberals are looking for their fourth consecutive state Supreme Court victory. Liberal justices gained a 4-3 majority on the court in 2023 for the first time in 15 years after Justice Janet Protasiewicz won a seat previously held by a conservative. In 2025, Justice Susan Crawford joined the court and preserved the liberal majority after a campaign where Elon Musk and groups associated with him spent millions in support of a conservative candidate.

In any statewide election in Wisconsin, Democrats tend to win by large margins in the populous counties of Milwaukee and Dane (home to Madison), while Republicans win by wide margins in the smaller, more rural counties that stretch across most of the state. Republican candidates also tend to rely on strong showings in the “WOW” counties — Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington in suburban Milwaukee — which help counter Democratic advantages in urban areas. Victory is determined by how big those margins are in the respective party strongholds, as well as which side can win over the more competitive swing areas.

In the 2024 presidential election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris won Milwaukee County with 68% of the vote and Dane County with 75%, while narrowly losing statewide. In comparison, Protasiewicz and Crawford in their successful state Supreme Court races received 73% and 75% of the vote in Milwaukee County and 82% of the vote in Dane County. They both won statewide with double-digit margins of victory.

Protasiewicz and Crawford each also won more than 10 swing counties that voted for Trump in 2024, most notably in Brown County, home to Green Bay, which Trump carried in all three of his White House campaigns.

In the race for Waukesha mayor, Common Council President Alicia Halvensleben and state Rep. Scott Allen are running to replace Mayor Shawn Reilly, who is not seeking a fourth term. Allen has been one of the most conservative Republicans in the Legislature since his election in 2014. Halvensleben is the preferred candidate of the Waukesha County Democratic Party.

Reilly is an independent who left the Republican Party after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He has endorsed Halvensleben.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts are not automatic in Wisconsin, but a trailing candidate may request one if the winning vote margin is less than a percentage point. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. local time, which is 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in the races for state Supreme Court and Waukesha mayor.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in Wisconsin may participate in the spring election.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of April 1, there were about 3.6 million active registered voters in Wisconsin out of about 4.5 million eligible voting-age adults. Voters in the state do not register by party.

Nearly 2.4 million votes were cast in the 2025 spring election for state Supreme Court, which was about 62% of registered voters. About 29% of voters cast their ballots before election day.

As of Friday, nearly 281,000 ballots had already been cast.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2025 spring election, the AP first reported results in the race for state Supreme Court at 9:09 p.m. ET, or nine minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 2:12 a.m. ET with about 99% of total votes counted. The race was called at 10:16 p.m. ET.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In previous Wisconsin elections, counties varied in terms of when and how they released results from early and absentee voting. In the 2024 general election, roughly a third of the counties released all or most of their early and absentee voting results in the first vote update, while the rest released them throughout the night along with results from in-person Election Day voting.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 210 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Tuesday’s special congressional runoff marks the second time in less than a month that voters in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District cast ballots for their representative in Washington. None of the 17 contenders in a March 10 special election received a majority of the vote, triggering Tuesday’s contest between the top two vote-getters.

The outcome will almost immediately affect the fragile balance of power in the closely divided U.S. House, where Republicans cling to a 217-214 majority. An additional seat is held by a former Republican who became an independent in March, while twoseats remain vacant.

Democrat Shawn Harris received the most votes in the Georgia special election, where all candidates ran on the same ballot regardless of party affiliation. Harris edged Republican Clay Fuller by about 2 percentage points, aided in part by the fact that the district’s sizable Republican vote was split among a dozen Republican candidates.

Harris is a retired Army brigadier general who lost to Greene in the 2024 general election. Fuller is a district attorney who has Trump’s endorsement. Both are also seeking their parties’ nominations for a full term in the May 19 primary ahead of the November midterm elections.

The district has a history of heavily favoring Republican candidates in general elections. Trump carried the district in 2024 with 68% of the vote. The 37% Harris received in March was slightly better than the roughly 36% of the vote he notched in his head-to-head matchup with Greene in 2024.

Harris modestly improved his vote share in nine of the district’s 10 counties since 2024. He also outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential vote share in all 10 counties. But to win the seat, he needs to far surpass the overall mid-30% range that Democrats have received in the district in recent general elections.

His best performances in the special election were in Cobb and Paulding counties, two metro Atlanta counties that are the two most populous in the northwest Georgia district. But Greene still carried every county in the election that year.

Harris, who did not face major Democratic opposition in the special election, raised a total of $6.4 million for his campaign, compared to about $1.3 million for Fuller. As of March 18, Harris had about $745,000 in the bank, while Fuller had about $53,000.

Trump’s endorsement should be a boost for Fuller, considering the president outperformed Greene districtwide. But turnout in special elections is typically much lower than in presidential elections, and turnout for runoffs tends to be even lower.

Elsewhere in Georgia on Tuesday, runoffs will also be held in state Senate District 53 and state House District 94. Republicans control both chambers of the General Assembly, and the outcome of the two special runoffs will not threaten their majorities.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

There is no automatic recount provision in Georgia, but a losing candidate may request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 0.5% of the total vote. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in the special runoff elections for the 14th Congressional District, state Senate District 53 and state House District 94.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter may participate in the special runoff election in their district, regardless of whether they voted in the March 10 special election.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of Friday, there were about 571,000 total registered voters in the 14th Congressional District, including about 524,000 active voters. Georgia voters do not register by party.

About 116,000 votes were cast in the March 10 U.S. House special election, roughly 52% of which was cast before Election Day.

Nearly 47,000 ballots had already been cast in the U.S. House special runoff election as of Friday.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the March 10 special election, the AP first reported results in the 14th Congressional District at 7:05 p.m. ET, or five minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was from Paulding County at 9:51 p.m. ET with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

When are early and absentee votes released?

All 10 counties in the 14th Congressional District tend to release some or all of their absentee voting results in the first vote update of the night. Four counties, including the two largest, Paulding and Cobb, also tend to include all of their results from early voting in the first vote update. Since the 2020 election, Democrats have been more likely to cast their votes early or by mail. In jurisdictions that release mail and early vote results at the start of the night, this could result in the Democratic candidate taking an initial lead in the vote count until votes from in-person Election Day ballots are tallied.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 210 days until this seat is up again in the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

At about 2 a.m. Sunday, deputies were called to the Acorn Road area in the northern part of Halifax County for a reported shooting. When they arrived, they found a man who had been shot. He was transported by North Halifax EMS and airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he later died.

Lucas Markee Witcher is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall and approximately 200 pounds. He is wanted on charges of second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Authorities said if you see Witcher, do not approach him.

Anyone with information regarding Witcher is asked to contact the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office at 434-476-3334.

Authorities said the incident appears to be isolated. The investigation is active and ongoing.

Bogus calls, fake emails, phony job listings: more people are losing more money than ever before to scammers. Consumer Reports looks at the scams, and how you can protect your money and identity

To reach people beyond the pews, Pastor Alan Beauchamp shares his sermons on social media. But recently, his message was hijacked when his Facebook account got hacked.

“So, they tried to use it against me,” Beauchamp said.

Scammers stole one of his videos and used AI technology to try to trick his followers into believing he’s promoting cryptocurrency.

In the video, Beauchamp was seen stating: “First of all, I want to assure you my account has not been hacked I am fully in control of my Facebook account. I believe that crypto trading offers an incredible opportunity for financial growth.”

Beauchamp doesn’t believe anyone fell for this. Still, these types of scams dupe many people. New data from the Federal Trade Commission shows that consumers reported losing more than $5 billion to investment scams alone.

“Scammers use AI technology as a microtargeting tool, and to impersonate others through fake voices, photos and video,” Chuck Bell with Consumer Reports said. “It’s an effective way to personalize messages and convince people to hand over money.”

Job scams are also on the rise, costing consumers about $750 million. Fraudsters pose as employers, asking people to pay up front for equipment that never arrives.

“Whether it’s an email about a job, a text that appears to be from your bank or a phone call from the IRS – don’t respond to dubious communications from out of the blue," Bell said. “Scammers make urgent requests to get you to act now – but don’t fall for it.. Hang up and call the bank or IRS yourself.. And never send money or give out passwords and information to someone you don’t know.”

“I don’t want our people to get taken advantage of,” Beauchamp said. “But then too, someone’s got to fight it, right?

Pastor Beauchamp eventually regained control of his Facebook account, but only after his U.S. state senator stepped in to draw attention to the issue.

Consumer Reports says one of the best ways to protect yourself is by turning on two-factor authentication, which adds an extra layer of security beyond your password.

That’s according to a recent study involving more than 130,000 people.

“This study was in line with previous studies that have shown a reduction in dementia risk and cognitive decline risk in individuals who ingest coffee and tea. This particular study was also careful to include individuals who ingested decaffeinated coffee. So, they were able to look at the difference between those people who were drinking coffee with caffeine and those who were drinking coffee without caffeine,” said Dylan Wint, MD, neurologist at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Wint was not involved with the study, but said researchers found that those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day saw a lower risk for developing dementia.

Similar results were found for those who drank one to two cups of caffeinated tea.

He said based on the findings, it’s not the actual coffee or tea that seems to be offering the benefit, but the caffeine in them.

“Caffeine might reduce the accumulation of amyloid-beta, which is a toxic protein that can be found in the plaques that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. There are also chemical effects of caffeine that may be neuroprotective,” he said.

While this study seems like good news for coffee and tea drinkers, Dr. Wint said more research is needed.

In the meantime, it’s still important to take other measures to protect brain health – including a healthy diet, regular exercise and maintaining high levels of cognitive engagement.

Shohei Ohtani hadn't driven in a run until Friday, then homered in that game and again Sunday. He and Aaron Judge each have three straight multihit games.

Judge hasn't needed to carry the Yankees, who are 7-2. They had allowed a paltry 15 runs on the season before a 7-6 loss to Miami on Sunday. Cam Schlittler has made two scoreless starts and New York ran wild against the Marlins — with even Giancarlo Stanton stealing a base.

It wasn't a great first week for the Dodgers' quartet of sluggers — Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — but then they broke out in a big way as Los Angeles posted 31 runs in three games at Washington. The Dodgers are 7-2 with Andy Pages off to a 16-for-34 start at the plate, so they can afford to be patient with their stars.

That includes Betts, who went on the injured list with an oblique strain.

Los Angeles now heads to Toronto for a three-game series — the first meeting between the teams since the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series in Canada last year.

Battling Bucs

On the topic of teams succeeding while waiting for stars to get untracked, Pittsburgh swept three straight from Baltimore to improve to 6-3. The Pirates have won five straight, although Paul Skenes has allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings through his first two starts.

They haven't needed much from top prospect Konnor Griffin either. The infielder is 1 for 9 since being called up, but he has yet to play in a loss. The Pirates have 10 of their next 13 games at home, with Skenes expected to take the mound Tuesday when they host San Diego.

Trivia time

When is the last time the NCAA men's basketball champion and baseball's World Series champion came from the same state in a given year?

Performance of the week

Jo Adell went 1 for 3 at the plate Saturday, but it's what he did defensively that made a real impact. The Angels' outfielder made three home run-robbing catches to help Los Angeles to a 1-0 win over Seattle.

Adell made spectacular catch while crashing into the seats when J.P. Crawford led off the ninth with a drive to right. Adell also denied Cal Raleigh what would have been the catcher's first homer of the season.

Comeback of the week

Arizona trailed Detroit by four Tuesday night before scoring six times in the bottom of the eighth to win 7-5. The Tigers had a win probability of 96.4% after seven, according to Baseball Savant.

Corbin Carroll hit a bases-loaded double that scored two runs, and Jose Fernandez added a three-run homer. It was the second home run of the game for Fernandez, who was making his major league debut.

Trivia answer

In 1973, UCLA won the national title and the Oakland Athletics won the World Series. That pairing also won in 1972.

There was a recent near-miss in 2021 when Baylor won the NCAA Tournament and the Houston Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. The only way this double can happen this year is if Michigan wins in basketball and the Tigers prevail in baseball.

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

Three sloppy basketball games later, it feels like another missed opportunity. Much like last year's lopsided title game. The sport is on the rise but the last two Final Fours have featured blowouts, long-distance shooting struggles and point-blank misses.

That's not to take anything away from UCLA, which understandably thought Sunday's result was beautiful after beating South Carolina 79-51 for its first NCAA tournament title and first overall since an AIAW championship in 1978.

“I want to grow the game so bad, I felt guilty walking off the floor because it was not pretty in any way, shape or form,” UCLA coach Cori Close acknowledged Friday after her team’s 51-44 win over Texas in the semifinals wasn’t very easy on the eyes.

In that game, Texas All-America selection Madison Booker, one of game's best mid-range shooters, was 3 of 23 from the field, missing 17 straight shots at one point.

“The reality is, too, it’s really all about toughness at this point and finding a way to make a winning play,” Close added, "even if it’s a winning play you wouldn’t have predicted or chosen.”

The UCLA-Texas game wasn’t the only one that wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. South Carolina beat previously undefeated UConn 62-48 in the first semifinal game, holding the Huskies to just 31.1% shooting and a season low in points.

The lasting memory from this year's Final Four likely won't be a basketball moment. UConn coach Geno Auriemma angrily confronted South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, leading to a tense moment between two of the game's top coaches.

The clunky basketball continued into the final.

UCLA — led by Final Four MOP Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez — played well. South Carolina did not. The Gamecocks shot just 29% from the field and made only 2 of 15 3-point attempts.

The lack of execution the past two years was somewhat surprising, considering the pedigree of the four programs. UConn, South Carolina, Texas and UCLA are accustomed to the bright lights and were all back in the Final Four for a second straight season.

“Sometimes in this moment things happen,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “We came out of a timeout on two different occasions and people are in the wrong place. So sometimes it happens like that.”

Double-digit outcomes happen often in women's title games. Over the last 20 years, only six women's championship games have been decided by single digits — the last one was in 2021, Stanford beat Arizona 54-53.

One factor for the elite teams is that often the don't face much competition in the NCAA Tournament until the final weekend. Through the first two weeks, UConn won its tournament games by an average of 32.5 points while Texas (35.5), South Carolina (40.3) and UCLA (27) also cruised with huge margins of victory.

Once the elite teams have to face each other, the contrast in talent can be shocking.

“You could tell. Shots were short,” Staley said after the title game loss. “I thought we didn’t really do a good job at making extra passes, like the things we were doing probably worked for other teams, but other teams didn’t have a (Betts). You have to navigate differently.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

They lose their top six players to graduation after putting on one of the most dominant performances in championship history to win their first NCAA title and second overall, routing South Carolina by 28 points Sunday.

But with the transfer portal open now, the UCLA coach can build a new team quickly. Close has said that the school will be very active, looking to add five players.

“Transfer portal just got easier,” Close said smiling.

Challenging the Bruins will be the runner-up Gamecocks and coach Dawn Staley. They look to get over the loss and reach a seventh consecutive Final Four next season and win a fourth national championship. With young stars Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer returning along with a strong complementary crew they will be one of the favorites for the title when the Final Four moves to Columbus, Ohio.

Joining them should be other Final Four participants UConn and Texas, who have two of the best players in the country with Sarah Strong and Madison Booker. Each will have to replace a key player with Azzi Fudd for UConn and Rori Harmon for Texas gone to the WNBA.

After the four Final Four teams, it could be interesting to see who the women's basketball powers will be in 2027.

So much can change through the transfer portal. Over the past few years so many big name players have changed their schools by entering it. TCU, which reached the Elite Eight the last two seasons has added a half dozen players each of the past two years.

Michigan and Duke also reached the regional final this year and each has potentially a strong nucleus of players coming back.

A few teams have already been hit hard by the portal with many players announcing on social media they were transferring.

Iowa State has lost most of its top players, including the nation's second-leading scorer in Audi Crooks.

Stanford and Tennessee, which had been two of the women's basketball staples in the sport over the past 40 years have been hit hard already with so many of their players announcing on social media that they will enter the portal.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

So the 6-foot-11, 265-pound St. Louis native stayed in the transfer portal, found a school willing to give him a fresh start and a coach committed to helping him turn raw talent into real productivity.

On Monday, two years after giving up a starting job at Michigan to become a backup for a UConn team seeking a third straight national title, Reed's journey will complete his college career against the university he called home for his first two college seasons in the championship game.

“We're just chopping it up and talking a little bit, but like I said it's the national championship on the line,” Reed said Sunday, referring to the two former Michigan teammates still on the Wolverines' roster. “It's not personal. We know it's just competing for the best outcome of our team."

The era of college players facing former teams in March Madness is becoming more routine in a college sports world where players often use their freedom to transfer to find more NIL money and more playing time with coaches and systems that better their natural skills.

Forward Nimari Burnett, Reed's former teammate at Michigan, logged 17 minutes in a Sweet 16 matchup against his former team, Alabama. And Illinois guard Kylan Boswell could have faced his former team, Arizona, Monday night — if Saturday's semifinal results had been reversed.

The reasons for finding new schools vary, and in Reed's case it was all about opportunity.

“Tarris had heard that Vlad (Goldin) was probably going to be coming with us,” May said, explaining Reed's decision. "So he came in, and I talked to his parents, and I talked to everyone around him and he basically said, ‘Coach, I know Vlad is coming with you. Do you think you can make that work?’ I said, ‘Tarris, you both are really good; it won’t be easy. We haven’t played like that before. But I’m very confident that because of both your skill sets and talent we can figure it out.’”

Then Danny Wolf decided to transfer to Michigan and suddenly Reed felt he was out of a job.

Goldin and Wolf are, in fact, no longer at Michigan either, replaced by newcomers such as Big Ten Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg and 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara.

Yet Reed, a two-time all-state selection in Missouri thought he'd found the perfect landing spot at UConn.

While his 2024-25 stats improved slightly from his final season at Michigan — 9.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in 35 games as a backup on an NCAA Tournament team compared with 9.0 points and 7.2 rebounds as a full-time starter on an 8-24 squad. — the transition didn't always go smoothly.

Hurley acknowledged their relationship was sometimes strained because of his demands. Still, Reed tried to epitomize the rugged, gritty nature of the Huskies culture on the court, though behind the scenes Reed sometimes struggled.

“There were days where, after that season, I’m in my room just crying, ‘What the heck do I do?’ I’m writing in my journal, and I’m trying to think, ‘Do I stay? Do I go?’ When I started writing in my journal, it was obvious I had to stay at UConn," said the Big East's 2024-25 Sixth Man Award winner. “Coach was coaching me so hard that there was a point where we were about to split ways after the season, after my junior year,”

Instead, Reed returned stronger both physically and emotionally, more committed to proving he was the right fit in Storrs, and his final college season couldn't have gone any better.

He blossomed into a first team all-Big East selection, teamed up with the likes of Alex Karaban and Braylon Mullins to lead the Huskies (34-5) to their third national championship game in four years. A win Monday night would give UConn its seventh title — all since 1999.

In tourney play, nobody has fared better. Reed registered 31 points and 27 rebounds, both career highs, in an 82-71 first-round win over Furman. He was named the East Region's Most Outstanding Player after averaging 21.7 points and 13.5 rebounds in four wins and then he added 17 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 71-62 victory over Illinois.

Even his relationship with Hurley changed.

“It’s really improved since he’s been on a tear. Now we’re best friends,” Hurley said Sunday with a laugh. “But I’ve been saying that, go back six weeks, go back two months, go back three months, our season is going to be determined by what Tarris Reed does, which Tarris Reed we get, does the light switch go on for Tarris Reed.”

Burnett, for one, couldn't be happier to see Reed excel.

“He’s always been just a happy person, someone who is always joyful of the moment and just a joyful teammate even during that time, that year where things weren’t as happy (at Michigan), he brought joy,” Burnett said. “He brought enthusiasm. He’s just a great person, and we also have similar beliefs and faith. So I have a good connection with him."

If Burnett wasn't playing Reed on Monday, Burnett might even be cheering for his friend.

But this a game that goes beyond friendship. The winner will forever be called a national champion forever, and the runner-up will likely be relegated to the history books.

Regardless of the outcome, Reed insists he'll have no regrets helping UConn finish what he started at Michigan.

"I started my career at Michigan and now I’m about to play them in my final game of college basketball. I never would have thought that would happen in a million years,” he said. “It's the national championship game, so I feel like they’re going to be coming at my neck, we’re going to be coming at their neck, so it’s going to be a great, fun bloodbath and just a competitive game.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

“They know,” Tocchet said. “They see the standings.”

The standings in the Eastern Conference look a lot different than they did in late March. For one thing, Tocchet's Flyers have crashed the party and are in a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 12.

Way ahead of them, the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens have solidified their positions, while the Detroit Red Wings have dropped from what was once a comfortable lead to the outside looking in. Things went so sideways for the New York Islanders that they fired coach Patrick Roy, and the Washington Capitals look to be running out of time to give Alex Ovechkin possibly one more postseason appearance at age 40.

"It’s just frustrating," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said after an 8-1 loss at the New York Rangers. “It’s frustrating because we fought as hard as we have to get back into this spot where we’re within striking distance.”

Race turns upside down

Before play began on March 26, only four points separated the Canadiens (88), Columbus Blue Jackets (87), Penguins and Bruins (86), Ottawa Senators and Islanders (86) and Red Wings (84). With the Flyers all the way back at 80, it looked like seven teams vying for five spots.

Montreal reeled off six consecutive victories and clinched Sunday before its eight-game winning streak that began March 21 came to an end at night. Pittsburgh won five of seven, and Boston went 4-2-1 to erase any doubt of postseason hockey in those markets this spring.

“With where the league’s at, our division, there’s pressure every night on every team,” said Canadiens winger Cole Caufield, who's on the verge of being the franchise's first 50-goal scorer since 1990. "That’s what makes this thing so fun. It’s just the guys in this group, in this room that are pushing each other and the staff that we have is unreal. We’re just going to keep this thing going.”

Philadelphia beating the Bruins in overtime Sunday on top prospect Porter Martone's first NHL goal leapfrogged the Flyers over the Islanders into third place in the Metropolitan Division. Long before Martone arrived following the completion of his college season at Michigan State, the Flyers were 13th out of 16 teams in the East out of the Olympic break and have since won 14 of 21 games to burst into contention.

“These past 10 or so games, they’ve been playoff games and we’ve been playing the right way,” forward Noah Cates said. "It’s been the simple things, the little things that just kind of get us over the hump and in the win column.”

Red Wings and Blue Jackets are falling

Detroit led the Atlantic Division and was tied for the most points in the East on Jan. 15. The cushion ahead of the conference's ninth-placed team was 12 points.

After falling behind by three goals, rallying to tie it and losing 5-4 in regulation to Minnesota on Sunday, the Red Wings have gone 8-9-3 since that point and sit two points out with five games left to play.

“Obviously, we would have loved to be in a playoff spot, but that’s not the case,” forward Lucas Raymond said after a dud of a 4-1 loss at the Rangers on Saturday. “We’ve got a great opportunity here. We’ve got these games left here to really do something special with this team. The faith is high in here. We have a lot of faith in ourselves, in our team, so it’s just about going out there and getting it done.”

Raymond and his teammates have failed to score in the first period in 43 of 77 games, the most in the league.

“I wish I had the answer,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We can get out of the gate quicker: don’t dip our toe in the water.”

Columbus made a coaching change from Dean Evason to Rick Bowness in mid-January and won 19 of 27 games to surge to second in the division. The Blue Jackets have lost seven in a row since.

Islanders and Capitals running out of gas

Since March 18 when it looked like they'd cruise into the playoffs in Matthew Schaefer's magical rookie year, the Islanders have lost seven of 10 games, including four in a row. First-year general manager Mathieu Darche dismissed Roy and hired Peter DeBoer on Sunday with four games left, hoping the new-coach bump could get his team in.

The Capitals are not contemplating any such change with Carbery, the reigning Jack Adams Award winner who should see them through the post-Ovechkin transition, whenever that is. Veteran defenseman John Carlson and depth center Nic Dowd got traded at the deadline with a youth movement afoot, but going 8-3-2 from March 9 through Saturday made the playoffs seem possible.

Getting blown out by the already-eliminated Rangers unearthed some of the defensive issues Carbery thought were there for the past dozen games or so that were covered up by strong goaltending, outscoring the problems and getting lucky. Washington needs a lot of that, plus some help, now three points out with four games remaining.

“It’s tough we put ourselves in this spot,” forward Aliaksei Protas said. “But those big games, I feel like they can really show who we are as a team and where we’re at as a team.”

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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LeBron James woke up from a nap to find out about the prognosis on Reaves' strained left oblique. He had gone to sleep knowing the outlook on a strained left hamstring for Doncic, the NBA scoring leader.

“It was a shot to the heart and to the chest and the main frame with Luka, and we got that news kind of quick,” James said after the Lakers' 134-128 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night. “And (Reaves), he's kind of dealing with the pain, we're saying, ‘OK, whatever the case may be.’

“I woke up from my nap yesterday and then saw that news, I was like ... (expletive),” James said, pausing for several seconds before punctuating his thought.

For now, the playoff-bound Lakers will lean on James as their primary scorer and floor leader, while keeping in mind the 41-year-old is wrapping up his record 23rd NBA season.

Sure enough, James had 30 points and 15 assists against the Mavericks, but did struggle in the fourth quarter after sparking a rally in the second. He was 2 of 7 from the field in the final 12 minutes, and missed both free throws when the deficit was eight with 3:50 remaining.

“I think we have to be mindful of that. I think that’s a valid question,” coach JJ Redick said before the game. “For all our guys, him included, we want to put them in positions to be successful. Certain guys are gonna be tasked with doing stuff they haven’t done a lot of this year.”

Doncic and Reaves, LA's No. 2 scorer, both were injured in a blowout loss to Oklahoma City on Thursday night.

Of course, Doncic is the centerpiece of that conversation as an MVP candidate who will finish the season one game short of the 65 required to be eligible for that and other postseason awards.

“I just know that he’s gonna do everything he can to try to be back,” Redick said. “I talked to him Friday, I talked him again (Saturday), I talked with him again (Sunday) morning. He’s gonna go through all the necessary things to be back at some point, and it’s our job again to extend the season so that both those guys can get back.”

On Sunday, ESPN reported that Doncic will go to Europe to seek specialized treatment on his hamstring, citing agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball.

Redick spoke of point guard by committee, an approach made necessary by another absence in Marcus Smart, who has a right ankle injury. Redick included James' son, Bronny James, in that mix along with Luke Kennard, Nick Smith Jr. and the seldom-used Kobe Bufkin.

Kennard had his first career triple-double with 15 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and 11 assists, but had a rough shooting nigh against the Mavericks, going 5 of 17. Among the others mentioned by Redick, only Bronny James played more than five minutes, scoring five points in nine minutes.

“I think simplicity wins,” Redick said. “It’s nothing too crazy. But it’s just being really simple with the menu and hopefully over the next five games, we can really figure out what works for this group. And that’s obviously trial and error.”

James had a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a victory over Washington last week when Doncic was serving a one-game suspension for receiving his 16th technical foul this season.

The loss to Dallas dropped the Lakers into a third-place tie with Denver in the Western Conference. Fifth-place Houston could end up chasing home-court advantage in the first round as well, particularly with the Lakers so wounded.

Rui Hachimura scored 12 of his 21 points in the first quarter against the Mavericks, who built a 22-point lead before halftime and held on despite James' strong showing and 23 points from backup center Jaxson Hayes.

The Lakers shot 52% with 36 assists, two off their season high, but let the Mavs match that 52%. Dallas, one of the NBA's worst teams from 3-point range, made 14 of 32 (44%).

“We’ve got a week left of the regular season and then a week to prepare and we’ve gotta have the commitment to do it on both ends,” Redick said after the game. “That’s the reason that we’ve put ourselves in the position to be in the playoffs is because we became a really good offensive team and a really good defensive team. So it’s gotta be the commitment to both ends.”

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