The criminal case is the second in a matter of months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department's relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president. The seashells photo was posted nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured at a time when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, aims to prove to the president that he is the right person to hold the job permanently.

The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case against the ex-FBI director months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could expose the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target Comey, who had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election. Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term as that investigation was underway, and they have openly feuded ever since.

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence to support the claim Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since he Comey said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat to do harm.

At a news conference announcing the indictment, Blanche refused to elaborate on any evidence of intent the government has but said: “How do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it's appropriate. And that's how we'll prove intent in this case.”

And in an effort to rebut claims that Comey was being selectively prosecuted, Blanche contended that the case against the former FBI director was similar in kind to other threats cases the department routinely brings against the lesser known.

“While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” Blanche said.

The case was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the state where Comey found the seashells.

Comey's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Tuesday, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately comment.

The prosecution arises from a May post on Instagram in which Comey shared a photo of seashells he saw on a walk in the arrangement of “86 47.” He has said he assumed that the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Nonetheless, Comey was swiftly interviewed by the Secret Service after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president.

What 86 means

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”

Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview in May, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant."

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. "If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

Comey's first indictment

The former FBI director was indicted in September on charges that he lied to and obstructed Congress related to testimony he gave in 2020 about whether he had authorized inside information about an investigation to be provided to a journalist. He denied any wrongdoing, and the case was subsequently dismissed after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who brought the indictment was illegally appointed.

Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s Republican administration.

But the relationship was strained from the start, including after Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president -- an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that while Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.

Other politically charged prosecutions

Blanche was elevated earlier this month from deputy attorney general to acting attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi, who had frustrated Trump with the department's struggles to build successful criminal cases against his adversaries. Blanche since then has moved quickly to announce politically charged prosecutions, including a case last week against the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which is accused by the Justice Department of defrauding donors by paying donors to infiltrate hate groups. The group has denied any wrongdoing.

Comey is among many Trump foes to face scrutiny over the last year.

The Justice Department, for instance, is also pursuing a criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, another key figure in the Russia investigation -- one of Trump’s chief grievances and a saga that he and his supporters have long sought retaliation for. Brennan has denied doing anything wrong.

CNN was the first to report the second indictment against Comey.

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Follow the AP's coverage of former FBI Director James Comey at https://apnews.com/hub/james-comey.

U.S. Central Command said on social media that Marines boarded the Blue Star III on Tuesday but “released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming its voyage would not include an Iranian port call.” An accompanying video showed American forces fast-roping from a helicopter onto the vessel.

The Blue Star is at least the fourth merchant ship to be boarded since the Trump administration began the blockade of Iranian shipping more than two weeks ago, but it is the first to not be taken into U.S. custody. The U.S. blockade aims to squeeze Iran amid a ceasefire in the war as Tehran's cutoff of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments, ripples across the global economy.

Data from ship tracking websites shows that the Blue Star departed the Pakistani port of Qasim and was en route to the port of Sohar, Oman.

The military offered no information about what prompted it to suspect the ship. U.S. Central Command has become more aggressive in making the case that the blockade works amid skepticism from outside experts.

The military command that oversees the Middle East has not only provided regular updates on the number of merchant ships it says the blockade has turned around but also claimed Tuesday that “U.S. forces cut off economic trade going into and coming out of Iran.”

Shortly after the blockade began, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the enforcement actions would extend beyond Iranian waters and the area under control of U.S. Central Command.

The military also detailed an expansive list of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.”

A notice says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

However, shipping experts like Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University, have said Iranian ships have several ways to sneak through the blockade, including spoofing their location tracking data or traveling through Pakistani territorial waters.

Mercogliano also noted that the sheer volume of shipping traffic that the military needs to screen is a challenging task.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the boarding of the Blue Star on Tuesday “demonstrates our thorough enforcement of the blockade.”

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% from its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9% from its own record.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry led the way lower. Chip company Broadcom was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after sinking 4.4%. Drops of 1.6% for Nvidia and 3.9% for Micron Technology also undercut the market.

The weakness came after a report in The Wall Street Journal said some leaders at OpenAI are concerned about whether it can support its massive spending on data centers after missing targets for new users and revenue. If the maker of ChatGPT pulls back on its investments, it could bolster criticism that the entire AI industry is in a bubble of over-the-top spending that may not produce the profits and productivity that would make it all worth it.

The drops came just a day before several of the biggest spenders on AI are scheduled to report their latest results for the start of 2026. They could offer more clues on whether all the investment in AI is producing the kind of returns that shareholders care about.

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are all reporting their latest quarterly results on Wednesday.

Also weighing on the stock market was another rise for oil prices on continued uncertainty about what will happen with the Iran war.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June climbed 2.8% to settle at $111.26. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the oil market, rose 2.7% to $104.40.

After sitting around $70 in late February, Brent prices are moving closer to their peak of $119 reached when worries about the war have been at their heights.

The focus is on the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure is keeping oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf instead of heading to customers worldwide. The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

The proposal would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out in a Fox News interview Monday.

Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States reached $4.18 on Tuesday, the most since 2022, according to the auto club AAA.

Expensive fuel was one of the reasons JetBlue Airways reported a worse loss for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.

But its stock nevertheless rose 1.2% after CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline saw demand from customers strengthening through the quarter. JetBlue also announced moves to rein in fuel costs, such as cutting some flying.

Another stock helping to limit Wall Street’s losses was Coca-Cola’s. It rallied 3.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, thanks in part to strength from China, the United States and India.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 35.11 points to 7,138.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 25.86 to 49,141.93, and the Nasdaq composite sank 223.30 to 24,663.80.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. consumers are feeling slightly more confident in April, when economists expected to see a decline. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.35%, where it was late Monday.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest decision on short-term interest rates. The widespread expectation is that it will hold the federal funds rate steady and hold off on resuming its cuts. Lower interest rates would help the economy, but they also risk worsening inflation when oil is expensive and tariffs are threatening to push prices higher.

Also Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will vote on whether to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Kevin Warsh, to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The committee is expected to approve Warsh and send his nomination to the full Senate.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 1% for one of the world’s larger losses after the Bank of Japan opted in a split vote to keep its key interest rate unchanged.

“There are various risks to the outlook,” it said in a statement. “For the time being it is necessary to pay particular attention to the impact of the future course of the situation in the Middle East.”

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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The highest scoring semifinal match in Champions League history saw PSG leading 5-2 early in the second half thanks to two goals each from flying winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembélé at Parc des Princes.

Bayern fought back brilliantly.

Defender Dayot Upamecano’s header midway through the second half from Joshua Kimmich’s free kick gave Bayern hope and Luis Díaz’s stinging strike made it a one-goal deficit heading into next Wednesday's return leg in Munich.

Harry Kane's penalty gave Bayern the lead in the 17th minute and Kvaratskhelia equalized soon after for PSG. Midfielder João Neves — who is 5-foot-7 — then headed PSG ahead from a corner.

A dramatic first half saw Michael Olise equalize after bursting into the area before Swiss referee Sandro Schärer awarded a penalty when a video review spotted a handball from Canada defender Anthony Davies.

Spanish side Atletico Madrid hosts London club Arsenal on Wednesday in the other semifinal first leg.

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

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

Here is the latest:

An Israeli military contractor is killed in southern Lebanon

The brief statement by the Israeli army said the civilian employee of an engineering company was working with the military on projects in southern Lebanon. It said his family has been notified but didn’t offer details on how he was killed Tuesday.

Despite a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel forces and Hezbollah militants have been intermittently attacking each other in the south, where Israeli soldiers are occupying a slice of territory along the border.

Israeli strike on a Lebanese army patrol killed 5, including 3 paramedics, and wounds 2 soldiers

That’s according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, which said the toll is still preliminary. The Israeli strike was in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near the coastal city of Tyre.

Israeli forces hit an army patrol that was accompanying Civil Defense medical teams and bulldozers during a rescue operation at the site of a previous Israeli strike, the Lebanese army and Civil Defense said. Some of the responders were trapped under rubble by the second strike, they said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike, saying it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on rescue and emergency workers in violation of international law.

The Western-backed Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines during the recent rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, although dozens of its soldiers have been killed.

Israeli president invites Netanyahu and prosecutors for talks on settling corruption charges

President Isaac Herzog’s office asked for a response by Sunday to his invitation, which came days after he announced he would not decide on Netanyahu’s request for a pardon and instead urge the sides to reach a settlement.

Netanyahu asked Herzog last November to cancel his trial, saying that dropping the charges would help unify the country. Trump has made multiple appeals to Herzog to end the trial.

Herzog’s invitation says he believes that efforts to reach a settlement “must be exhausted first” before he can consider the pardon request. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office or the attorney general’s office.

Netanyahu is charged with breach of trust, fraud and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy associates. He denies all charges.

The trial has dragged on for six years in a case that has bitterly divided the Israeli public. Netanyahu and his supporters claim he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt by the media, police and prosecutors.

Gulf Arab countries jointly condemn Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz

The leaders of several wealthy Gulf nations rejected Iran’s “illegal actions” to close the strait and threaten navigation, warning against any disruption to shipping or charging fees for safe passage.

The statement followed a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and attended by leaders from Qatar and Bahrain, Kuwait’s crown prince, and the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister.

They called for restoring “security and freedom of navigation” to prewar levels and urged deeper military integration, including joint infrastructure projects and a ballistic missile early warning system.

US budget airlines seek billions in aid amid soaring fuel costs

Their trade group is asking the Trump administration for $2.5 billion to offset rising jet fuel costs and keep ticket prices affordable. The Association of Value Airlines said smaller carriers are being hit hardest by the jump in fuel prices, despite carrying more than 90 million passengers last year.

“Temporary government support” would help “preserve vital industry competition,” the association said.

The trade group represents Frontier, Allegiant, Avelo and Sun Country. Another member, Spirit, is separately in talks with the U.S. government on a potential financing deal aimed at keeping the struggling carrier flying as it navigates fuel price shocks during its second bankruptcy since 2024.

Protesters urge boycott of Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s participation

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Serbian state RTS broadcaster on Tuesday, waving Palestinian flags and accusing Israel of atrocities in Gaza while demanding that the Balkan country pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest because of Israel’s participation.

The year’s main competition with 35 competing countries is scheduled to be held May 12-16 in Vienna. Serbia, which has close ties with Israel, will be represented by Lavina, a six-member metal band.

The contest strives to put pop music before politics but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The decision to allow Israel to compete prompted the walkout of Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain.

RTV Slovenia said it will air a Palestinian program at the time of the Eurovision contest.

Israeli ambassador says Lebanese government must disarm Hezbollah

Lebanon’s government has demanded that Hezbollah disarm, but Israel says this has not happened. A ceasefire in the latest Israeli-Hezbollah conflict was recently extended for three weeks.

Danon said that if the U.N. Security Council wants to help Lebanon, it should ask the government how many Hezbollah weapons it has seized, “which tunnels have been destroyed and what is being done to stop arms smuggling from Iran.”

“International support for Lebanon must depend on results on the ground and not more empty statements,” Danon said.

Israel’s UN envoy says Lebanon won’t have sovereignty 'as long as Hezbollah controls the territory’

Ambassador Danny Danon said it’s impossible to talk about peace in Lebanon without mentioning Hezbollah, the militant group with areas of influence in the south bordering Israel and elsewhere in the country.

“Lebanon will not be able to talk about sovereignty as long as Hezbollah continues to fire on Israeli civilians and operate without interference,” he told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Palestinian minister tells UN that Israel must stop killing civilians

Varsen Aghabekian accused Israel of seeking the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli settlers of terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank on a daily basis.

“This has to stop immediately,” she said. “The situation of the Palestinian civilian population must be a top priority.”

Aghabekian said there is no justification for Israel preventing shelter materials from entering Gaza and restricting aid and access for humanitarian workers.

Palestinian minister says 'Palestine must remain a priority’ for action toward an independent state

Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian said the ceasefire in Gaza must be upheld and Israel’s pursuit of “forcible displacement and annexation,” not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, must be stopped.

As phase two of the Gaza peace plan gets underway, she said, “We reiterate our vision of one state, one government, one law and one gun and the need for full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

Aghabekian told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Gaza’s transition must be in line with its reunification with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, “leading to Palestinian self-determination and independent statehood.”

Gaza hospital director’s detention is extended

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel says a court in Israel has indefinitely extended the detention of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, who became the face of health workers’ struggle in Gaza to keep treating patients under Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli military has said Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas. Staff and international aid groups that worked with him have denied the claims.

The rights group in a statement Tuesday says he is held in harsh conditions in Negev Prison. It says the Beersheba District Court approved the extension of his detention without charges having been filed, after his defense had sought his immediate release.

BP earns online backlash as its profit more than doubles during Iran war

The British energy giant reported quarterly earnings Tuesday of $3.84 billion, or $1.47 per share, far exceeding last year’s $687 million, or 26 cents per share. The huge profits beat analysts’ heightened expectations and generated immediate online vitriol.

“Families are being pushed to the brink by spiraling energy bills, while fossil fuel companies turn a war into a windfall,” wrote Clémence Dubois, global campaigns director at 350.org.

“These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay,” wrote Simon Francis, coordinator with End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

BP shares rose more than 1%, close to a 52-week high, as did shares of other major oil producers. It was BP’s first earnings report since the Iran war began, previewing what to expect when Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips report earnings later this week.

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Israeli strike wounds two soldiers, traps three rescuers in southern Lebanon

Two Lebanese soldiers were wounded and three Civil Defense personnel were trapped under rubble after an Israeli strike targeted an army patrol accompanied by rescue teams and two bulldozers in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near Tyre, according to the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense.

The strike hit during a rescue operation, the statements said, adding that Civil Defense crews were working to extract those still trapped.

The Israeli army has not immediately commented on the attack, which came as clashes and intermittent air strikes continue despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

At least seven Lebanese army soldiers have been killed since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2.

Israeli strike wounds two soldiers, traps three rescuers in southern Lebanon

Two Lebanese soldiers were wounded and three Civil Defense personnel were trapped under rubble after an Israeli strike targeted an army patrol accompanied by rescue teams and two bulldozers in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, near Tyre, according to the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense.

The strike hit during a rescue operation, the statements said, adding that Civil Defense crews were working to extract those still trapped.

The Israeli army has not immediately commented on the attack, which came as clashes and intermittent air strikes continue despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

At least seven Lebanese army soldiers have been killed since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2.

Oil prices climb again amid more uncertainty over the Iran war

Another climb in oil prices because of the Iran war is helping to halt Wall Street’s record-setting rally. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June climbed 2.7% to $111.18. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where traders are focusing more in the oil market, rose 2.6% to $104.33 Tuesday.

After sitting around $70 in late February, Brent prices are moving closer to their peak of $119, reached when worries about the war were at their heights.

The Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade. Iran also wants to postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which Rubio appeared to rule out.

Average U.S. gasoline prices reached $4.18 a gallon on Tuesday, the most since 2022, according to the auto club AAA.

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US envoy says Hamas is the ‘obstacle’ to Palestinians in Gaza living in peace and prosperity

Ambassador Mike Waltz urged countries with influence on Hamas to press the militant group to demilitarize and accept that it will not have a direct or indirect role in Gaza “through weapons and terrorism and violent intimidation.”

“The moment Hamas agrees to demilitarize, a new chapter in Gaza’s history will be written,” he told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Middle East.

“Every day we either move closer to a future where Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live in freedom and prosperity, at peace with Israel — or we drift back toward chaos, rockets, hostages and rubble,” Walz said.

He said there is a plan for reconstruction and development of Gaza and financing, and there is a pathway to peace and eased security restrictions, but Hamas is holding Gaza back.

Netanyahu says drones are Israel’s next target in Lebanon

The Israeli leader says “we are not done yet” after destroying the Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon.

“I gave instructions a few weeks ago for a special project to eliminate the drone threats. It will take time — but we will blow that up too,” he says.

US military boards another ship as it enforces blockade on Iranian ports

The U.S. military said Tuesday in a social media post that it boarded and released another commercial ship that was suspected of heading for Iran.

The post by U.S. Central Command on X included a video showed marines fast-roping from a helicopter onto the vessel, which it said was the Comoros-flagged M/V Blue Star III. It happened in the Arabian Sea, east of the Strait of Hormuz.

“U.S. forces released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming the ship’s voyage would not include an Iranian port call,” the command said.

The command said it has now redirected 39 vessels since start of the blockade on ships going to and from Iranian ports.

Head of international group backing Palestinians urges Hamas to decommission weapons `without delay’

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza hinges on Hamas’ disarmament, which “must be a sequential process.”

He called on the Palestinians to continue their reform efforts and prepare to resume governing Gaza as called for in the peace plan.

Eide called on Israel to lift restrictions on aid deliveries, ensure revenue is sent to the Palestinian Authority, which faces a financial crisis, and reverse its expansion of settlements.

Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Eide said he's made “crystal clear” that there are transitional arrangements in Gaza but the Palestinian Authority is the only recognized government.

Israel destroys alleged Hezbollah tunnel network in southern Lebanon

The military detonated a large explosion late Tuesday in Qantara, and Israel’s Geological Survey said the blast was so powerful it registered as a “seismic event.”

The army said the network included two large tunnels — one about 800 meters (yards) long and the other 1.2 kilometers (0.7 miles) — that were equipped with sleeping rooms, toilets, kitchen facilities and launchers aimed at Israel. It released photos and video footage of what it said were the tunnels.

An Israeli military official said the network included large rooms where over 100 Hezbollah fighters could gather at once. He also said it ran underneath and alongside a mosque, school and soccer field.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules.

In a statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army has been instructed to destroy any Hezbollah infrastructure it finds, “just like in Gaza.”

— By Josef Federman

Amnesty International urges Israel to stop destroying civilian property in southern Lebanon

The human rights organization made the statement Tuesday after a video circulated on social media showing Israeli military excavators destroying solar panels for the Lebanese border village of Debel and its water station.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it was investigating the incident after the footage emerged. Debel is the same village where a soldier was filmed earlier this month smashing a statue of Jesus, prompting international condemnation.

“Amnesty International has previously documented extensive destruction by the Israeli military along Lebanon’s border before and after the November 2024 ceasefire,” the group said, adding it had called for reparations and war crimes investigations. “So far, neither has appeared.”

Israeli strike in northern Gaza kills 4 Palestinians

Shifa Hospital said the Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza City on Tuesday, killing four men, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the so-called Yellow Line separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck “a terrorist” but provided no further details.

Although a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October eased large-scale fighting after two years of war, Israeli forces still carry out near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones of the tiny Palestinian territory. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 818 people in Gaza, including 226 children and 179 women, according to health officials there.

Away from the spotlight, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank is ‘steadily worsening,’ UN official says

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said Gaza is facing “ongoing and deadly Israeli strikes and dire humanitarian conditions,” with 1.8 million people — nearly its entire population — living in camps and dependent on aid.

He told a U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting Tuesday that in the West Bank, “violence, including rampant settler attacks, displacement and accelerating settlement activity, is threatening entire communities and further eroding prospects for a political process” toward a two-state solution.

In Gaza, he said, “the ceasefire is increasingly fragile as Israeli strikes and armed activity by Hamas and other groups continue.”

Khiari, whose portfolio includes the Middle East, warned that while diplomatic efforts are underway to consolidate the ceasefire and implement Phase II of the peace plan, “talks on the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups have thus far not resulted in an agreement, raising concerns over the potential return to widespread hostilities.”

Red Cross aims to assess the humanitarian situation in Iran and encourage respect for the rules of war

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in Iran to meet with officials and local affiliates and assess the war’s humanitarian consequences.

Mirjana Spoljaric will also discuss efforts of the Geneva-based humanitarian organization to ship more relief supplies to Iran, notably through the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The ICRC says it delivered more than 170 tons of essential relief items to help people affected by the conflict this month, with more medical items and forensic supplies on their way.

Her visit is part of a trip through the region that involves bilateral discussions to help ensure respect for the rules of war, the organization said.

US consumer confidence inches higher in April despite Iran war and soaring gasoline prices

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 from 92.2 in March, despite growing anxiety over soaring energy prices brought on by the war in Iran. It remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices to an average $4.18 a gallon this week, up more than a dollar since before the war, will stretch budgets and erode incomes, making it harder for lower- and middle-income American households to afford food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

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Without OPEC production limits, UAE could help lower postwar oil prices

The announcement doesn‘t change anything regarding the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, but could help speed the oil market’s return to lower prices after the war, said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone foreign exchange brokerage.

Once the war ends, the UAE could reach its pre-conflict goal of increasing production to 5 million barrels per day, “in turn helping crude benchmarks to normalize in shorter order once the ongoing Middle East conflict comes to an end,” he said.

The UAE’s exit from OPEC won’t expand global oil supplies right away

The UAE’s move appears to be part of an effort to assert themselves as leaders and independent actors in the region, and sell oil and gas when and how they see fit, said Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well — including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia,” she said.

The exit won’t immediately change export capacity, since the UAE’s lone pipeline around the Strait of Hormuz to the port at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman is already running at full capacity, she noted.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll of Israel-Hezbollah war to 2,534

The ministry added on Tuesday that 7,863 have been wounded since the war broke out on March 2.

The war has displaced more than 1 million people and caused destruction worth billions of dollars.

Peak oil means sell barrels now or leave money on the table

Leon said the approaching peak in global oil demand has shifted the incentive for producers from collective restraint to earning money from their reserves now.

He said the UAE, with its 4.8 million barrels per day of production capacity and potential to increase output, is “particularly well positioned to pursue such a strategy outside the group.”

An OPEC without the UAE could increase global energy supply volatility, analyst says

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with ability to quickly increase production — the mechanism through which the cartel manages oil prices, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices,” Leon said. “The net effect points to a more fragmented supply landscape and a potentially more volatile oil market over time as OPEC’s capacity to smooth imbalances diminishes.”

Trump claims Iran has ‘just’ informed the US it’s in a ‘State of Collapse’

“They want us to “Open the Hormuz Strait,” as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation,” Trump posted on social media.

He added that he believes they will be able to sort out reported divisions within the Islamic Republic government about negotiations with the U.S.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who on the Iranian side delivered the message, who in the Republican administration received it and whether the communications were conducted directly with the U.S. or through an intermediary.

Israel to investigate ship carrying what Ukraine says is ‘stolen grain’

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that Israel’s tax authority has opened an investigation into a ship expected to dock in the Haifa port that Ukraine said carries stolen grain.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukraine is preparing sanctions against companies that profit from grain harvested from areas of Ukraine under Russian control. Saar dismissed Zelenskyy’s comments as “Twitter diplomacy” and said Ukraine had not provided information about the cargo’s contents or a request for legal assistance.

“The vessel has not entered the port and has yet to submit its documents. It is not possible to verify the truth of the Ukrainian claims regarding the forgery of the bill of lading,” Saar said.

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Israel has ‘no territorial ambitions’ in Lebanon, Israel’s foreign minister says

Gideon Saar said the Israeli military-occupied “buffer zone” that stretches 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon is necessary to protect residents in Israel’s north.

“Hezbollah has transformed the entire front line of southern Lebanon into a network of terrorist infrastructure, and this threat has not been properly addressed by the Lebanese government,” he said during a press conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić in Jerusalem.

Saar refused to comment on the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah, which both sides have violated multiple times since Trump announced it last week, and whether Israel might expand its military operations beyond southern Lebanon. He did note Israel’s first direct negotiations with Lebanon in decades.

Iran’s economy has been battered. Its leaders still think Trump will blink first

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes crippled thousands of factories in Iran, and the economic damage is reverberating — millions more Iranians could lose their jobs. Most damaging, Israeli strikes knocked out most steel and petrochemical production, causing a surge in prices for metals and plastic. Things could get worse as the U.S. blockades Iranian ports. Economic woes sparked the mass protests that were crushed before the war, and could again push Iranians into the streets. But Iran’s leaders are betting that economic self-reliance built under decades of sanctions can help them endure the pain longer than Trump. ▶ Read more

Edward Eastland’s words came as dozens of the girls’ family members sat just a few feet behind him during the second day of a special legislative hearing looking into the devastating July 4 flood. A written report of findings is expected later this year.

“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” said Eastland, a member of the family that owns the 100-year-old camp. “I’m so sorry.”

Eastland said he and his father Richard Eastland were on the campsite that night, and that they made a desperate attempt to save the girls when they realized that heavy rain had created a raging flood that ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Richard Eastland died in the flood and Edward survived only after being swept into a tree.

“These girls were our youngest campers and their amazing counselors who we watched grow up,” Eastland said. “The world was a better place with them in it and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe is completely reasonable.”

The apology came in the opening moments of the hearing before he and several members of the Eastland family were questioned for about four hours by state lawmakers who at times said the family remained unprepared to reopen the camp and repeatedly questioned the lack of emergency training for staff last year, along with several of the decisions made during the flood that delayed an evacuation and ultimately cost lives.

Lawmakers press camp owners on emergency training

Britt Eastland, another director, said the camp will dramatically improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. Legislative investigators on Monday noted the camp’s previous lack of flood training as a critical problem that contributed to the deaths.

"All of these things should have been being done in the first place,” said Sen. Charles Perry.

The panel pressed the Eastlands on why they didn't make a last-ditch effort to get on the camp PA system and order everyone to head to higher ground.

Edward Eastland said it didn’t even occur to him to leave the girls they were trying to rescue to go back to the camp office and make such an announcement.

“Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said. “If we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”

Camp owners makes plans to reopen

Camp Mystic’s owners want to reopen in late May and have said they will only use the parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900 attendees this summer. Those plans have angered victims’ families, and some prominent state officials have called for regulators to deny or delay renewal of the camp’s license, which is under review.

Another of the sons, named Richard Eastland after his father, said while the family doesn't plan to open the camp if their license isn't renewed, they would likely appeal if that was the state's decision.

“We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” he said.

But that seemed to spark disagreement among the victims' family members. Britt Eastland quickly interjected that it would a a “family decision.”

The special legislative committee does not control the review of Camp Mystic’s license. Because the camp has applied to renew its previous license, it could reopen while its application is pending. If denied, it still could operate while its case is under appeal.

The Eastland family also said it’s still an open question whether they would eventually try to reopen the river camp. If they do, no campers would be placed in the buildings that flooded.

“We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do,” Britt Eastland said.

Camp's readiness to host girls questioned

Several lawmakers questioned how the camp could be ready to reopen this summer.

State regulators last week notified Camp Mystic of 22 deficiencies in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical director, acknowledged Tuesday she has not officially reported last summer’s deaths to state health officers.

“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children,” for camp this summer, asked Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted state agencies have shut down licensed residential living centers for a single death, let alone dozens.

“The license is a privilege to have," Kolkhorst said.

“We are ready,” Britt Eastland said, adding that he believes Camp Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer.”

That drew an audible gasp from some in the room, and several of the victims' family members walked out.

No details about possible crimes were disclosed, though armed agents were seen at childcare centers in the Minneapolis area. KSTP-TV said one crew even had a battering ram.

The searches occurred months after right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video that alleged members of Minnesota’s Somali community were running fake childcare centers so they could collect federal subsidies. It caught the attention of the Trump administration and conservative activists, though the claims were disproven by inspectors.

Minnesota has been dogged by fraud: At least 65 people, many of them Somali Americans, have been convicted of ripping off a federal program that was meant to provide food to children. The investigation began during the Biden administration.

Separately, a federal prosecutor in December said as much as $9 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has been on the defensive about not doing enough to root out fraud, welcomed the raids Tuesday. Minnesota’s child welfare agency said it shared key information with law enforcement to “hold bad actors accountable.”

“We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz said.

The searches were being conducted at daycares, businesses and some residences, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

Various state and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, participated in searches, including a stop at one of the childcare sites in Shirley's video. Officers from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were removing boxes at some locations.

“The American people deserve to know how their taxpayer money was abused. ... No stone will be left unturned,” said DHS, which also noted the cooperation of local and state authorities.

On social media, FBI Director Kash Patel mocked Walz for taking credit "while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.”

Jason Steck, an attorney who represents childcare centers, said the names of targeted businesses that were shared with him show they're operated by Somali immigrants. They were not his clients.

“A few childcare centers, a few autism centers, a few healthcare agencies of some type," Steck said, adding that it appeared to be a "particular sweep for fraud.”

The executive director of Child Care Aware of Minnesota, a nonprofit that serves childhood educators, said the publicity will be unflattering.

“The majority are in business to do good business. You’re going to come across individuals who try to capitalize on systems that are broken and need to be fixed," Candace Yates said.

Walz ended his bid for a third term as governor in early January amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on fraud allegations and the state’s Somali community. Trump has used dehumanizing rhetoric, calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and “low IQ.”

Tensions between Walz and the federal government subsequently rocketed during an extraordinary immigration crackdown that led to the deaths of two people before Operation Metro Surge was eased in February.

In February, Vice President JD Vance said the government would temporarily halt $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families, but a judge on April 6 declined to grant a restraining order.

Walz told Congress in March that he wanted to work with the federal government in fraud investigations, but that the immigration surge had made it more difficult.

“The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” he said at the time.

___

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. AP reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Corey Williams and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

But it’s Thursday and Friday night, when we’re most concerned about the risk of frost/freeze.

A few showers are possible on Wednesday, especially in the morning.

Temps will be quite a bit cooler on Wednesday with a high of 57 degrees.

We stay below our average high of 64 until at least the end of the weekend.

We do dry out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as morning lows dip down into the 30s.

Find the latest forecast from the 4Warn Weather team here

Remember to download the free 4Warn weather app -- it’s easily one of the best in the nation. Just search your app store under WDIV, and it’s right there, available for both iPhones and Androids! Or click the appropriate link below.

• Download for iPhone
• Download for Android

Judge Colleen McMahon said each year she feels “assaulted by SantaCon” and must stay home on the day when “drunken kids who are wearing Santa costumes” crowd the city’s sidewalks.

McMahon made her observations as the event’s organizer, Stefan Pildes, appeared before her for the first time.

The 50-year-old Hewitt, New Jersey, resident was arrested a week ago and freed on bail.

His lawyer, Noam Biale, said in a statement that Pildes “did not defraud anyone.”

He added: "Every participant in SantaCon got exactly what they bargained for: mirth, merriment, and drunken debauchery. We look forward to advocating on Stefan’s behalf.”

Pildes did not comment as he left McMahon's Manhattan courtroom.

A prosecutor said the government would build its case on financial institution records, information from a ticketing company, and evidence collected from dozens of bars and restaurants that pledged to donate 10% to 25% of their sales during SantaCon to charity.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Pildes gave only a small portion of the $2.7 million raised from 2019 to 2024 to charity. They say he diverted more than half of the money he raised to finance various personal ventures and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more on himself.

Pildes used money earmarked for charities on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury vacations, extravagant meals and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors contend.

The event traces its origins to a 1994 flash mob-style event in San Francisco dubbed “Santarchy,” intended to mock Christmas consumerism. As the idea spread to cities nationwide, it moved away from its countercultural origins and became more of a mass bar crawl.

While some New York residents decry SantaCon for the chaos it brings to city streets and subways, others are amused by thousands of costumed merrymakers crowding Manhattan’s streets with numerous Saint Nicks, along with a few Mrs. Clauses, elves and the occasional Grinch.

The Seattle coffee giant said global same-store sales for the January-March period rose 6.2%. That was higher than the 4% increase Wall Street was anticipating, according to analysts polled by FactSet. In the U.S., same-store sales jumped 7%.

Starbucks said it now expects both global and U.S. same-store sales to rise 5% for the full year, up from previous guidance of 3%. The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance to $2.25 to $2.45 per share, up from $2.15 to $2.40 per share.

Starbucks shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading.

Over the last year, Starbucks has been adding employees to stores during rush times and using technology to better sequence its in-store and mobile orders. It has also encouraged friendlier service and is redesigning stores to give them a cozier, coffeehouse feel.

Starbucks has also gotten leaner, and vowed to plow those savings back into its turnaround. Last year, the company closed hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and laid off at least 2,000 non-retail employees.

In a video message to employees Tuesday, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol called the quarter “the turn in our turnaround.”

“Put simply, more customers are getting back to Starbucks as we deliver the best of Starbucks more consistently,” Niccol said.

Starbucks said its revenue rose 9% to $9.5 billion for the second quarter. That was also ahead of analysts' forecast of $9.2 billion.

Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 50 cents per share. That also came in ahead of analysts' forecast of 43 cents.

The concept for the special passport, including a rendering of Trump’s stern-looking visage, had been under consideration for months before finally being approved late Monday. Between 25,000 and 30,000 of the new passports will be available to applicants at the Washington, D.C., passport office beginning shortly before July 4.

It’s the latest instance of Trump having his name and likeness added to buildings, documents and other highly visible tributes. There are efforts to put Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency, also a first for a sitting president, as well as to include his image on a gold commemorative coin to celebrate the country's founding.

The commemorative passport will be the default document for people applying in person at the Washington office, although those who want a standard passport will be able to get one by applying online or outside Washington, officials said.

“As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports to commemorate this historic occasion,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

“These passports will feature customized artwork and enhanced imagery while maintaining the same security features that make the U.S. passport the most secure documents in the world,” he said.

The limited release passport will feature Trump’s picture over a gold imprimatur of his signature to an interior page, while the cover will feature the words “United States of America” in bold gold print at the top and “Passport” at the bottom — a reversal of the standard cover.

In addition, a small gold laminate American flag, with the number 250 encircled by stars, will be at the bottom of the back cover.

The Bulwark reported earlier on the commemorative passports.

The only presidents featured in current U.S. passports are in a double-page depiction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Other depictions include the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and scenes of the Great Plains, mountains and islands. Current passports also contain quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.

The addition of Trump's picture and signature to the passport book is the newest step his aides have taken to increase the president's visibility, including adding his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace building and the Kennedy Center performing arts venue.

Trump also has made waves with his plans for a new White House ballroom and a massive arch to be built at one of the entrances to Washington from Virginia.

Eastpointe is the first city in Michigan to adopt an ordinance requiring microchips for both cats and dogs.

At a popular dog park in Eastpointe, pet owners said the changes are generating plenty of conversation.

“I’m happy about it. I think it’s a good idea. To get the dogs microchipped,” said pet owner Edie Duggins.

Eastpointe Animal Control says the ordinance requires all dogs and cats four months and older to be microchipped and registered.

A microchip is a small device placed under a pet’s skin. When scanned, it can provide the owner’s contact information, helping reunite lost pets with their families.

Officer Ashley Sanchez, who leads Eastpointe Animal Control, called the new requirement a major step forward.

“The mandatory microchipping is a game-changer. It is going to help save a lot more lives,” Sanchez said.

Another ordinance targets how pets are transported in vehicles.

Eastpointe is now prohibiting animals from riding in the flatbed of pickup trucks, even if they are in a crate or carrier.

“Whether they are in a crate or in a carrier, it’s prohibited in Eastpointe now,” Sanchez said.

The rule requires pets to travel inside the vehicle, and the city also stresses that animals cannot be left alone in extreme weather.

Duggins said she supports the change.

“I think it’s a good idea. A really good idea. I hate to see animals in the back of the pickup trucks,” Duggins said.

The city is also adopting stricter rules to curb cat breeding.

“We’re no longer allowing any kind of breeding whatsoever when it comes to cats,” Sanchez said.

Under the ordinance, residents cannot keep an intact male cat living with an intact female cat, meaning one of the cats must be spayed or neutered.

“There’s too much reproducing that it’s just not healthy for them. It’s not healthy for humans,” Sanchez said.

Eastpointe Animal Control says officers will enforce the new ordinances, and violations could lead to citations and misdemeanor charges.

Sanchez said microchipping is a simple process, and the city often holds free microchipping events for residents, funded through a grant she secured.

Residents with questions can contact Eastpointe Animal Control for details on microchipping and compliance with the new rules.

The filing submitted Monday by the Justice Department is chock-full of the kind of Trumpian touches the president uses in written communication, such as erratic capitalization, exclamation points, non sequiturs, rhetorical questions, praise for the president and accusations that his opponents are insane.

The 16-page filing, which was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and submitted by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, is a sign of the extraordinary degree to which the president has demolished the wall of independence that the Justice Department has historically had separating itself from the White House.

"The National Trust for Historic Preservation' is a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not," the filing's first sentence reads.

The Trust sued in December after the White House demolished the East Wing to make room for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, but public money is paying for security upgrades and an underground bunker.

The Trust argues in its lawsuit that Trump overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without getting approval from Congress and key federal agencies.

Trump and Republicans have made a renewed push for the ballroom in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, arguing it showed the need to have a secure facility for large events. The Justice Department asked the Trust to withdraw its complaint, but it has declined.

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

The Justice Department on Monday said the court should dismiss the lawsuit, saying it “greatly endangers the lives of all Presidents, current and future.”

When asked about the court filing, the White House did not deny that the president had a role in drafting or editing the Justice Department's arguments.

“President Trump is intimately involved in the ongoing disgraceful lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is working diligently with his team of lawyers to bring this charade to an end," White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.

The Justice Department did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The filing comes as the department in Trump's second term has fired employees involved in cases that were criticized by conservatives or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to Trump’s agenda. The department has also pursued aggressive investigations of the president's perceived enemies, including the unveiling Tuesday of a second criminal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump shared the filing on social media Tuesday morning, posting screenshots of each of the 16 pages without comment.

In the filing, the Justice Department said that the Trust is “very bad for our Country," a phrase the president uses repeatedly. The filing twice accuses the Trust of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,” a fictitious and satirical malady that the president has used to diagnose his critics.

Trust attorney Craig — a former White House counsel — is described in the filing as “the lawyer for Barack Hussein Obama.” Trump has for years used the former president's full legal name, a usage that recalls his longtime questioning of Obama's loyalties, his faith and birth in the United States.

The Justice Department also argued in the filing that, “because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

___

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

Starting immediately, the Wyandotte Police Department will issue citations not to teens caught breaking the law, but to their parents or guardians.

Those citations carry a mandatory court appearance.

“At this moment, effective immediately, any violators we come across, special habitual offenders, our department will be issuing a citation. Not to the juvenile but to the parents themselves,” said Wyandotte Police Chief Archie Hamilton.

Complaints pour in

Hamilton says the department has been flooded with complaints about reckless biking, particularly teens in the city’s downtown district.

The complaints include e-bikes and regular bicycles.

“They are playing chicken with cars. They are traveling down the roadway, amongst motor vehicles, and they are doing wheelies the length of the roadway,” Hamilton said.

In some cases, Hamilton said the reckless riding has led to serious injuries, including a 16-year-old who collided with a car the other week.

Officers have issued warnings, but Hamilton says that approach has had little effect. Now, the department is changing course.

“We have to fix this problem one way or another, and it starts with the parents,” Hamilton said.

E-bikes outpacing the law

The crackdown comes as Michigan communities across the state grapple with a surge in e-bike use, and a state law that hasn’t kept pace.

Currently in Michigan, e-bikes are treated the same as traditional bicycles under state law, despite traveling at significantly higher speeds.

That legal gap has pushed municipalities to act on their own.

Earlier this month, Birmingham issued a memo reminding parents that e-bikes should not be ridden on sidewalks.

South Lyon and Wixom have also launched awareness efforts.

In Dearborn Heights, the city council is moving toward approving an ordinance that would regulate who can ride e-bikes and where, including potential fines.

In Wyandotte, Hamilton says discussion of a local e-bike ordinance is underway, though nothing has been formalized yet.

What parents, riders should know

The Wyandotte Police Department has been clear: the crackdown is not targeting teens or adults who are riding responsibly.

For families unsure about where e-bikes can legally be ridden, checking the bike’s class specifications is a good starting point.

Reaching out to local city officials or the local police department for guidance is also recommended.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court after he was charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He was released on $250,000 bail and his travel was restricted to portions of New York, North Carolina, California and points necessary to travel between.

Prosecutors said evidence in the case will include information resulting from grand jury subpoenas, cryptocurrency exchange records, search warrants and social media accounts.

Defense attorney Zach Intrater told Judge Margaret M. Garnett he doubts there will be many disputes arising from “the actual event,” but suspects the case will rise and fall on motions he will make on behalf of his client.

The judge ordered Van Dyke to return to court on June 8 for a pretrial conference.

The case comes during heavy scrutiny on prediction markets, which allow people to trade or wager on almost anything, as policymakers call for stricter regulation of the platforms amid concerns about insider trading.

The Trump administration has been supportive of the prediction market industry’s expansion. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi, and he is a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.

Prosecutors said Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Maduro's capture and had signed nondisclosure agreements centered on the operations, but he eventually placed a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

According to a criminal complaint, the bets totaling $33,000 were placed over a three-day period and resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits.”

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, flagged the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government, according to CEO Shayne Coplan.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was granted bond after a court hearing in North Carolina last week and will continue his case in New York. He was represented in court by attorney Zach Intrater.

The Homeowners Property Tax Exemption (HOPE) Program is holding a series of free, in-person application events across Detroit starting next month.

The income-based program can reduce or even eliminate a homeowner’s property tax burden, and in some cases, help wipe out back tax debt, too.

Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency (Wayne Metro), the Gilbert Family Foundation, and the Rocket Community Fund are among the nonprofits leading the effort.

“We’ve received thousands of requests for property tax assistance,” said Jasmine Carson, Executive Director at Wayne Metro. “The need is there. And we’re happy to be able to provide those services for our community.”

Upcoming HOPE events

The next event is happening next weekend. Here’s the full schedule:

• Saturday, May 9 | 10:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Islamic Center of Detroit, 14350 Tireman, Detroit
• Saturday, June 20 | 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. | Eastside Community Network, 4401 Conner, Detroit
• Saturday, July 18 | 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Crowell Recreation Center, 16630 Lahser, Detroit
• Saturday, August 15 | 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center, 8431 Rosa Parks Blvd., Detroit
• Saturday, September 19 | 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Patton Recreation Center, 2301 Woodmere, Detroit
• Saturday, October 23 | 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers, Detroit

‘You’re not alone’

Laura Grannemann, Executive Director of the Gilbert Family Foundation and Rocket Community Fund, said the issue is widespread and often systemic.

“150,000 families have struggled with property tax foreclosure in the last 15 years,” Grannemann said. “So, it’s not just you. You’re not alone.”

The Gilbert Family Foundation says it has helped eliminate property tax debt for at least 13,000 families to date. The work addresses a long-standing crisis: in 2014, 48% of properties in Detroit were delinquent on property taxes, according to the organizations involved.

Grannemann said the in-person events are designed to meet residents where they are.

“We work with a network of nonprofits all across the city, who do direct outreach,” she said. “They have resources in community centers to be able to meet people where they are at and help them fill out the Homeowners Property Tax Exemption application.”

One homeowner’s story

For Brittany Jackson, a first-time homeowner, the HOPE program came after months of stress trying to manage overdue taxes on her own.

“Hectic. Like chaos. And worry. Frustration,” Jackson said.

She tried payment arrangements, repeated calls, partial payments, and multiple programs — but nothing was enough on its own. After being referred to Wayne Metro, she applied for HOPE.

“It was a huge relief,” Jackson said. “Like, being able to start fresh and know that you’ve got someone that’s got your back.”

How to apply

You don’t have to wait for an event. Wayne Metro says you can apply online or in person anytime.

• HOPE Program info (Wayne Metro): waynemetro.org/propertytax
• Gilbert Family Foundation / Rocket Community Fund / Detroit Tax Relief Program: gilbertfamilyfoundation.org

On April 28, after less than three hours of deliberation, the jury found Michael Lopez guilty of the murder of Melvindale Police Officer Mohamed Said.

Lopez was found guilty of all charges.

He was charged with the following in the case:

• Murder of a police officer
• Felon in possession of a firearm
• Felon in possession of ammunition
• Carrying a concealed weapon
• Possession of methamphetamine/ecstasy
• Possession of under 25 grams of a controlled substance
• Carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent
• Five felony firearm violations

Lopez claimed he shot and killed Said in self-defense, saying he had to in order “to survive, to not get killed.”

The trial lasted about a week, during which Lopez had a few outbursts in court. This led to Lopez being removed from the courtroom as the trial continued and having his testimony abruptly end for the day on Monday.

He also expressed that he was uncomfortable around police, resulting in his demeanor towards Said and running away from him. Prosecutors argued Lopez ran away because he didn’t want to get caught for an armed robbery incident that happened the day before the officer’s murder.

Lopez admitted to robbing an Autozone during his testimony, but denied that it was the reason he ran away from police.

Lopez also testified that he thought he was shot in the back, which led to him believing his life was in danger -- resulting in him fatally shooting Said with the weapon he used in the armed robbery. He also believed Said pointed a gun at him.

Prosecutors countered that claim, saying Lopez was actually tased and Said could be heard saying “taser, taser, taser” before deploying the taser on Lopez. Lopez claimed he did not know he was tased, but later said he knew what being tased felt like in his testimony. Footage shown in court also proved that Said was not pointing a gun at Lopez before he was shot.

Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on May 18 at 9 a.m.

Previous coverage:

• Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer kicked off witness stand in trial
• Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer removed from courtroom after another outburst
• ‘Give me a chance’: What man accused of killing Melvindale police officer said in courtroom outburst
• Jury seated in trial against man accused of killing Melvindale police officer
• Law enforcement holds memorial ride for fallen Melvindale police officer
• Oakland County man charged with killing on-duty Melvindale police officer
• Listen to the ‘End of Watch’ call for fallen Melvindale officer Mohamed Said

Now the administration is scrambling to put more durable tariffs in place to keep revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury and to shore up the president’s protectionist wall around the American economy.

Starting this week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin hearings in two investigations that are expected to lead to a new round of U.S. tariffs — taxes paid by importers in the United States and usually passed on via higher prices to consumers who are already fed up with the high cost of living.

Trump’s newest tariff push is sure to face more challenges in court but is likely to prove sturdier than the one the Supreme Court tossed out.

First up is a hearing Tuesday and Wednesday into whether 60 economies — from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports — do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in March. The administration could punish scofflaws with new tariffs.

Then, next week, the administration will hold hearings on whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. The economies being investigated account for 70% of U.S. imports, according to Erica York of the Tax Foundation. Again, the probe could result in new tariffs.

Most major economies, including China, the EU and Japan, are on both lists.

Trump's top trade official insists he won't prejudge the investigations

The administration has brought the cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer, who is overseeing the investigations, has insisted he won’t prejudge them.

But importers and foreign countries have doubts the process will be fair. After all, Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, did not wait for the investigations to be completed to proclaim that the U.S. government will replace its original tariff revenues with new import taxes, including ones to be imposed under Section 301. The president himself has said that new tariffs “are going to get us more money.’’

“If you believe the Treasury secretary and the president, then the cake is already baked,” said Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies. “These investigations will result in tariffs that approximate what the Supreme Court overruled in February.’’

On Feb. 20, the high court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth. Trump had used the act to plaster taxes on imports with eager abandon. For example, he conjured up a new tariff on Canada (though he never actually imposed it) because he didn’t like a Canadian television ad criticizing his trade policies.

He used the threat of IEEPA tariffs to strong-arm top U.S. trading partners – including the EU, Japan and South Korea – into accepting lopsided trade agreements. The levies also brought in a lot of revenue -- $166 billion – before the Supreme Court shut them down, ruling that IEEPA couldn’t be used to impose tariffs. Now the federal government must refund money to importers who paid those tariffs.

Tariffs remain Trump's go-to

Trump had a handy way to quickly recoup some of the lost revenue — which had been expected to hit $1.6 trillion over the next decade – at least temporarily. Section of 122, also of Trade Act of 1974, allows the president to impose global tariffs as high as 15% for up to 150 days.

The administration wasted no time. Two days after the Supreme Court decision, it slapped 10% Section 122 tariffs on imports. Trump said he’d raise the levies to the maximum 15% but hasn’t.

The clock runs out on those tariffs July 24. Congress could extend them. But lawmakers have little enthusiasm for approving what amounts to a big tax as November’s midterm elections approach: American voters are already furious about the high prices, for which tariffs are at least partly to blame.

Section 301 offers another opportunity to replicate the the protectionist impact of the IEEPA tariffs. There are no limits on the size of Section 301 tariffs. They expire after four years but can be extended.

Perhaps best of all, from the Trump administration’s perspective after its Supreme Court defeat, Section 301 tariffs withstood legal challenges when the president used them in his first term to pound China in a dispute over Beijing’s sharp-elbowed policies to promote its own tech companies.

Any new 301 tariffs are sure to be challenged again in court. But judges might not throw them out.

“Even if it is a veiled — or less-than-veiled — attempt to reinitiate the IEEPA tariffs, he still has the cover of the process itself,’’ said trade lawyer Joyce Adetutu, a partner at law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Importer calls investigation a "sham''

Critics have latched onto the speed with which Trump’s latest investigations are proceeding. Imposing the Section 301 tariffs against China in the president’s first term took nearly a year of investigation and public comment. If the latest investigations produce new tariffs in time to replace the expiring Section 122 levies, the process will have taken less than half that long.

“It’s such a short timeframe,’’ said Kenya Davis, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner who has done pro bono work on human trafficking and forced labor. “It’s so condensed that it doesn’t make a lot of sense that they can do it that quickly.’’

Importers bracing for the return of painful tariffs can take some comfort in knowing that Trump’s Section 301 tariffs likely won’t be as erratic as his IEEPA levies. He has to follow procedures before imposing them.

“One of the reasons Trump used IEEPA is because it was just a complete blank slate’’ — or seemed to be before the Supreme Court ruling, Cato’s Lincicome said, describing it as “a little tariff switch in the Oval Office that Trump could flip on and off anytime he wants; he wakes up in the morning and he doesn’t like a Canadian television commercial, he flips the switch ... You really can’t do that with 301.’’

In a sworn affidavit dated April 23, 2026, FBI Special Agent Eli Bowers stated there was probable cause to charge Paul Edward Maher, 61, of Romulus, with several federal offenses.

The complaint alleges violations of federal statutes, including attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, distribution and receipt of child sexual abuse material, possession of such material, and attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

Investigation begins with found phone

The investigation began on April 6, 2026, when a complainant brought a found cellphone to the Romulus Police Department.

While attempting to identify the device’s owner, the complainant and an officer discovered material that prompted further investigation.

The device was later turned over to the FBI.

Subscriber data, search warrant link phone to suspect

Authorities said subscriber information linked the phone to Maher.

Investigators also identified social media accounts and communications allegedly associated with the 61-year-old man.

A court-authorized search of the device on April 14, 2026, reportedly revealed multiple files and conversations that investigators believe meet the federal definition of illegal child exploitation material.

Online communications cited in complaint

The affidavit further states that investigators identified online communications in which Maher allegedly engaged in inappropriate conversations with individuals who identified themselves as minors, as well as exchanges involving illicit material.

The complaint was submitted to U.S. Magistrate Judge David R. Grand in support of a request for an arrest warrant.

The case, filed under seal, remains pending.

How a lost cellphone led to federal charges in Romulus child exploitation case by brandon carr

“For all that time,” Charles said, “our destinies have been interlinked.”

Charles is only the second British monarch to address a joint session of Congress. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered a similar speech in 1991 highlighting the historic ties between both countries and the importance of their democratic values.

The king picked up on those themes during his remarks on Tuesday, which were delivered in a far different environment than when his mother spoke to the same chamber in the U.S. Capitol. President Donald Trump is in open conflict with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the war in Iran. Many of the lawmakers in the room were at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, which was disrupted by a shooting that authorities have described as an attempted assassination against Trump.

“Let me say with unshakeable resolve,” Charles said. “Such acts of violence will never succeed.”

Even as the king focused on common interests, there were subtle nods at issues that have divided the U.S. and the U.K., particularly when it comes to global affairs. He said the countries “cannot rest on past achievements” as the Iran war tests their relationship. And he urged “unyielding resolve” in backing Ukraine against Russia, while heralding the NATO alliance that Trump has repeatedly undermined.

The king began his day at the White House, where he and Trump greeted each other warmly during a ceremony on the South Lawn. Appearing under gray, drizzly skies, Trump quipped that it was a “beautiful British day” before shifting his focus to the shared history of the U.S. and U.K.

Making no mention of his dispute with Starmer, Trump drew a line from King John’s sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215 to the American Revolution.

“American patriots today can sing, ’My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,’ only because our colonial ancestors first sang, ‘God save the King,’” Trump said.

The two leaders huddled in the Oval Office for a meeting that was closed to the public, reducing the potential for the freewheeling, sometimes controversial meetings with foreign officials that have become routine during Trump’s second term. Afterward, Trump said it was a “really good meeting” and Charles is a “fantastic person.”

Trump's relationship with Starmer has soured

Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the Republican president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump criticized Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, by saying “this is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn't scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York blamed Republican policies on Monday for straining the U.S.-U.K. relationship.

“Hopefully, the king’s visit is going to go a long way toward repairing the damage that this administration has done to one of our most important allies in the world,” Jeffries said.

Meanwhile, Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S. He didn't make a direct mention of the convicted sex offender, but did reference the “collective strength” in the U.S. and the U.K. to “support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.”

It was unclear if the carefully-worded remarks were meant to be an oblique acknowledgement of sexual abuse victims in the wake of the Epstein scandal. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna had said ahead of the speech he was told by the British ambassador that that the king would speak to Epstein in his remarks before Congress.

Charles and Camilla arrived at the nation's capital on Monday and held a tea with the president and first lady Melania Trump. The royal couple will continue their U.S. trip later this week with stops in New York City and Virginia.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Aamer Madhani in Washington and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

“I said ‘no’ over and over, and I tried to leave,” Jessica Mann told jurors, sobbing. “He just treated me like he owned me.”

Mann, 40, is a hairstylist and actor. She's testifying six years after she first gave jurors her account of a consensual, if complicated, relationship that veered into rape.

Weinstein — the Oscar-winning movie producer who became a symbol of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct — looked on steadily, sometimes sipping water, as Mann detailed what she says he did to her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Weinstein, now a 73-year-old prison inmate, denies sexually assaulting anyone and is appealing sex crime convictions stemming from other women's accusations on two U.S. coasts. His attorneys haven't yet had their chance to question Mann at this retrial but have argued that everything that happened between the two was consensual.

He was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann, got the conviction overturned, then saw a jury deadlock on it at a retrial last year.

Jurors watched intently, several with pens poised to take notes, as Mann delivered a second day of testimony that sometimes brought her to tears, as it did at the twoprior trials. At points Tuesday, she was asked whether she wanted a break, but she declined.

Mann met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013, when she had done some acting work but was hoping for a big break.

He expressed interest in her career and followed up with get-togethers that bounced between professional advice, invites to glitzy industry events and advances that made Mann uncomfortable but that she didn't refuse, according to her testimony. At one point, according to her testimony, she had an emotional “meltdown” that cut off an episode involving Weinstein and another woman.

Despite that distress, Mann decided to have a consensual sexual liaison with the then-married producer. She explained Tuesday that she had been taught “this is just normal for men to kind of be that way, and I just thought that maybe by being a in relationship with him, it would make me feel better.”

Sometimes, she said, Weinstein was charming and made her feel validated; other times she felt demeaned by his discussions of sexual practices. And “if he was told no or something, it was just like this monster side came out” of a demanding man who flaunted his Hollywood influence.

Soon after their relationship began, Weinstein surprised Mann by showing up ahead of a planned breakfast with her and others in New York, where she'd piggybacked on a pal's work trip, she said. Weinstein took a room at Mann's hotel, though she protested at the front desk that they didn't need one, according to her and to a former hotel employee who testified earlier in the trial.

Mann said that after Weinstein snapped at her not to embarrass him, she accompanied Weinstein up to the room, hoping to sort things out privately. But “he wasn't listening to me; he was just telling me to undress,” she recalled. She said she begged, “Please don't. I don't want to,” and tried twice to open the door, but the taller, heavier Weinstein slammed it shut, grabbed her wrists and held them crossed in front of her face.

“That was really scary, so I remember just like kind of like — just shutting down and giving up, because I had been fighting and arguing. So I obeyed,” by undressing and lying on the bed, she testified.

After a trip to the bathroom, Weinstein returned and raped her, she said.

Afterward, she said, she went downstairs with him to breakfast with her friends, feeling shocked but not outwardly showing it.

Mann told no one, at the time, about the alleged rape. She accepted Weinstein's invitation to extend her trip, attend a movie screening and have tea with him and his daughter.

“I just wanted everyone to act like everything was normal,” she said.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.

“A little bit of rain is going to help us, but it’s not going to get us out of this situation,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told a news conference after touring the fire areas Tuesday. “We’re going to be in this for a while.”

A fire that has burned roughly 35 square miles (90 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 80 homes in rural Brantley County was 32% contained, the command team overseeing the fire response said Tuesday. That's up from just 6% containment reported Monday.

Rains on Sunday slowed the fire enough to give crews an opening to widen containment lines along the perimeter and to snuff out some smoldering pockets, said Johnny Sabo, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“As that number increases, our confidence at holding it in that footprint increases,” Sabo told reporters. He added: “We have a long way to go. I just want to stress that.”

A larger wildfire in sparsely populated Clinch and Echols counties has charred more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) at the Georgia-Florida line. Sabo said crews have held that fire to roughly the same footprint for four days. It was considered 23% contained Tuesday.

One home and several dozen sheds and other smaller structures were destroyed, said Don Thomas, a Georgia Forestry Commission spokesperson.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast. Scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees and other vegetation.

No fire injuries or deaths have been reported in Georgia. A volunteer firefighter in Nassau County, Florida, died last week after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire.

Progress made against the Brantley County blaze prompted local officials to lift evacuation orders Monday for roughly 1,500 people who had fled their homes. About 2,500 remained displaced, said Susan Heisey, a spokesperson for the fire command team.

Local officials have warned people returning home to be prepared to evacuate again if necessary.

Both Georgia fires ignited as the state's worst drought in two decades has rendered vast pine forests and swampy lowlands tinder dry and highly combustible.

Investigators concluded the Brantley County fire began April 20 when a foil balloon touched a power line, creating an electrical arc that set the ground ablaze. The fire in Clinch and Echols counties started April 18 by a falling spark as a man was welding a gate, according to state officials.

Forecasts showed a high chance of more rain over the fires this weekend. There's also a possibility of thunderstorms, which can produce lightning that causes new fires.

Officials haven't said how long the Georgia fires might burn, only that it will take significant rainfall to extinguish them.

Sabo noted that a vast fire sparked by lightning in the nearby Okefenokee Swamp in 2011 burned for just shy of a year.

The visit comes at a challenging moment for U.S.-UK relations. U.S. President Donald Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran.

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump around 10:35 a.m. ET. The King is then scheduled to address the U.S. Congress at 3 p.m. ET, the body’s first address from a British monarch since Queen Elizabeth II ’s in 1991. The day will end with an expectedly buzzy dinner at the White House.

Here's the latest:

King Charles III urges ‘unyielding resolve’ in defense of Ukraine, heralds NATO

The monarch reminded the audience that the only time that the NATO military alliance’s collective defense has been invoked was after the the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

“Today, Mr. Speaker, that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people. It is needed in order to secure a truly just and lasting peace,” King Charles III told the lawmakers and other dignitaries in the chamber.

The reminder seemed a subtle defense of the transatlantic military alliance that Trump has soured on and repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of.

“We do not embark on these remarkable endeavors together out of sentiment,” he said. “We do so because they build greater shared resilience for the future, so making our citizens safer for generations to come.”

King Charles III says US-UK alliance ‘cannot rest on past achievements’

The call on the allies to continue work on their alliance comes as differences over the Iran war tests the relationship, perhaps the lowest point in the so-called “special relationship” since the 1956 Suez Crisis, when the U.S. opposed Britain’s attempt to seize the Suez Canal.

Charles then went on to quote British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who Trump has sharply criticized for Britain’s refusal to provide greater support to the U.S. and Israel in its war against Iran.

“As my Prime Minister said last month: ’ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last 80 years. Instead, we must build on it,” Charles added.

King Charles III decries ‘acts of violence’ after White House Correspondents’ Dinner incident

Charles nodded to what law enforcement authorities say was an attempt to assassinate Trump over the weekend when he attended a dinner with members of the White House press corps.

“We meet, too, in the aftermath of the incident not far from this great building that sought to harm the leadership of your Nation and to foment wider fear and discord,” he said. “Let me say with unshakeable resolve: such acts of violence will never succeed.”

Trump was on stage at the head table at Saturday’s dinner when Secret Service personnel apprehended a man armed with a gun after he broke through a security checkpoint.

Selfies with the King

King Charles III received an extended standing ovation from members of Congress when he walked into the House chamber, with many lawmakers filming his entrance on their phones or taking selfies.

It’s an unusual display of unity in the chamber — very different from the annual State of the Union, when half of the room is usually clapping and the other sitting down.

King Charles speaks of ‘interlinked’ destinies of US and UK

King Charles III acknowledged “times of great uncertainty” as he expressed gratitude to the American people and marked the 250th anniversary of independence from Britain in a speech to the U.S. Congress that highlighted the bonds between the two countries at a time of political turmoil.

“For all that time,” Charles said, “our destinies have been interlinked.”

Charles is only the second British monarch to address a joint session of Congress. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered a similar speech in 1991 highlighting the historic ties between both countries and the importance of their democratic values.

All the King’s escorts...

King Charles III will be accompanied by an “escort committee” of lawmakers when he enters the chamber to address Congress. That includes leadership from both parties and other members chosen for the occasion.

Also in attendance at the speech are members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, military leaders, select ambassadors and former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Members of the House and Senate gathering ahead of King Charles III’s address

As is customary for any joint address, the Senate walked across the Capitol and filed into the House chamber together, taking seats in the front of the room.

Military leaders were also in attendance, sitting near the rostrum where the king will speak. Lawmakers mingled across the aisle as they prepared to greet the king, a rare bipartisan moment amid the usual tensions in the Capitol.

King Charles III has arrived in the US Capitol and is meeting with congressional leaders

House Speaker Mike Johnson walked through the Capitol with the king and escorted him to a reception room just outside the House chamber where he will address a joint session of Congress at 3 p.m.

The two then met with other congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Johnson engaged in friendly conversation with the king at the beginning of the meeting, where he appeared to be explaining something to him.

Trump returns to his hospitality sector roots with King Charles III’s visit

With a background in casinos, hotels and golf clubs, Trump seemed to enjoy hosting King Charles III at the White House.

The president often reverts to his hospitality sector roots when VIPs visit, whether they’re championship sports teams, business titans or foreign leaders that merit some pomp.

Trump guided the British monarch along the White House South Lawn to inspect the honor guard formations. His speech was all charm, as he called the king “very elegant.” And in what was supposed to be a private moment, Trump and his wife, Melania, escorted the king and Queen Camilla to an awaiting BMW just outside the Oval Office.

The queen showed her appreciation by politely waving her hand before the sedan departed, with Trump giving his signature thumbs up as it moved along. Construction of the White House ballroom continued during the visit, a sign of Trump’s ambitions as a host going forward.

In UK, coverage of Charles’ visit overshadowed by headlines on Starmer political storm

While King Charles visits the White House, back in the U.K. the news headlines are dominated by the continuing fallout over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint the scandal-tainted politician Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.

British lawmakers are debating Tuesday whether Starmer should face a parliamentary probe on whether the right procedures were followed in the appointment of Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, but the relentless questions over his judgment has left the prime minister fighting for his job.

Spruced up tennis pavilion takes center court during royal visit

The first lady took on the project of refurbishing the White House tennis courts during Trump’s first term, building a pavilion inspired by the East and West Wings to replace a smaller structure.

Planning for the project -- which was paid for by private donations -- began in early 2018, followed by approval in June 2019 by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Trump hosts King for brief Oval Office meeting

Trump said the meeting with Charles was “really good” and said the king is a “fantastic person.”

The president has made a habit during his second term of turning Oval Office meetings with foreign officials into freewheeling events full of criticism about how leaders are managing their national affairs.

But Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting was held largely out of public view, reducing the potential of such an exchange with the king.

Epstein survivors speak at Capitol ahead of King’s visit

Several survivors of sexual abuse from Jeffrey Epstein spoke at the Capitol ahead of an address from King Charles III on Tuesday afternoon.

They called for further legislation to protect victims of sex trafficking and a deeper acknowledgement from those in power.

Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre who was a prominent abuse survivor, said that survivors are “still fighting to be heard, still pushing for real accountability, while many of the powerful connected to these systems remain just out of reach, unable to acknowledge survivors face to face.”

First lady and Camilla talk to students about history — and AI

The queen and the first lady joined students at the tennis pavilion of the White House. The students looked at a World War II map, a portrait of President John Adams, and a letter from Queen Elizabeth II to President Dwight Eisenhower with AI-enabled glasses and headsets -- an exercise the first lady’s office said explored the history of the bilateral relationship.

Melania Trump has made artificial intelligence part of her portfolio of issues.

Later on, the king was slated to meet a group of chief executives from the technology sector to talk about investments, according to his schedule. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang was spotted among the guests for the official arrival ceremony.

What to expect from the King’s speech to Congress

The king’s speech to Congress will likely mark his most extensive public remarks during his four-day visit to the U.S.

He’s expected to address the Saturday shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in a sign of solidarity and support.

He will also acknowledge tensions that have surfaced between Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, noting that the two countries have not always agreed but “have always found ways to come together.”

King Charles is expected to acknowledge Epstein survivors

King Charles III is expected to acknowledge the survivors of abuse from Jeffrey Epstein when he speaks to Congress on Tuesday afternoon, but declined to meet with survivors of his abuse, according to Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has been a leader of the charge on Capitol Hill for a reckoning over Epstein.

Khanna had pushed for the king to meet with the survivors during his visit, but said that he was told by the British ambassador to the U.S, that instead there would be an acknowledgement of the survivors.

Allegations of sexual abuse had roiled the British royal family, and King Charles eventually stripped his brother, the former Prince Andrew, of his royal titles and privileges over his links to Epstein.

“I thought it would have been a incredible moment and statement to show that it doesn’t matter how much wealth you have, how much power you have, no human being is dispensable and the survivors deserve justice.”

UK envoy’s unguarded comments are leaked

As King Charles III celebrates the transatlantic relationship, Britain’s ambassador in Washington has appeared to downplay the uniqueness of the so-called “special relationship” in leaked comments.

Ambassador Christian Turner told a group of British students that “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States — and that is probably Israel.”

He said, though, that the U.K. and the U.S. share “a deep history and affinity,” and that “particularly on our defense and security, we are intertwined.”

A recording of the comments was published Tuesday by the Financial Times, which said they were made in February.

Turner also called it “extraordinary” that scandals around Jeffrey Epstein had brought down a member of the royal family and senior officials in Britain – and could yet topple Prime Minister Keir Starmer – “and yet here in the U.S., it really hasn’t touched anybody.”

The Foreign Office said “these were private, informal comments” and “certainly not any reflection of the U.K. government’s position.”

Trump says he wanted to go to the Capitol for the King’s speech

Trump said he wanted to be there for the first address to a joint meeting of Congress by a British king, but he’ll stay behind and watch instead.

“I was thinking of going, but they said, I don’t know, that might be a step too far. I would love to go. It’s not supposed to be protocol, but I would love to be with you,” Trump said during his own speech at the welcome ceremony for Charles and Camilla.

Trump says the magic words: ‘our special relationship’

Part of the king’s mission on this state visit is to try to mend a rift over issues including the Iran wa r and bolster what is known as the “special relationship” between the two countries. In his remarks, Trump explicitly linked Charles to that relationship.

“Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt famously met on a ship in the North Atlantic to outline a vision for the free world after World War Two. That understanding of our nation’s unique bond and role in history is the essence of our special relationship, and we hope it will always remain that way,” Trump said.

“The ship where the two great leaders met was called the Prince of Wales, the very title that His Majesty the king held longer than any other individual in British history,” he said.

Trump tells Charles his mother ‘had a crush’ on him

Trump talked about his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and loved watching the royal family on television at ceremonies and events.

“I also remember her saying very clearly, ‘Charles, look young Charles, he’s so cute,’” Trump said, looking back at the king sitting behind him on the dias.

“My mother had a crush on Charles -- can you believe it?”

‘What a beautiful British day this is,’ Trump quips

Trump welcomed the king and queen noting the drizzle weather that had guests wiping off seats and huddling under umbrellas.

Trump paid tribute the Brits who first traveled to America, then a “wild and untamed continent,” and walked through a history of the “special relationship” between the two nations.

Trump says it’s a ‘tremendous privilege’ to host King Charles

The president paid homage to the king’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, as he welcomed the royal couple to the White House.

Trump said Elizabeth was “an incredible woman who I had the privilege of getting to know,” noting that she planted a tree at the White House years ago.

“Look at it now,” he said.

The remarks were part of a broader effort by Trump to note the long history between the U.S. and the U.K.

“Like our nation itself,” Trump said of the tree, “it was laid with British hands but grew in American soil.”

Ballroom construction keeps going during royal visit

Nothing gets in the way of the president’s ballroom construction. Not even a visit from Britain’s king and queen.

Work on the project was continuing ahead of the royal visit to the White House. Ballroom construction cranes were swinging and the sound of clangs could be heard.

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump has said the ballroom is needed to hold secure events. The construction, however, is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.

Grey skies in Washington ahead of White House welcome

Washington’s finicky spring weather is on display ahead of King Charles and Queen Camilla arriving at the White House. They’ll be greeted by President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the South Lawn.

Ahead of their arrival, skies are grey with a light breeze. Drizzle and rain is possible over the next hour.

Members of the audience are shielding themselves with umbrellas to stay dry as the Marine band plays.

Trump delights in allegedly being a 15th cousin of King Charles III

Is the U.S. president actually a distant royal?

The U.K.-based Daily Mail reported this week that Trump and King Charles III have a shared distant ancestor that would make the two 15th cousins.

According to research conducted for the tabloid, Trump and Charles are both related to the 3rd Earl of Lennox, who is a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland.

“Wow, that’s nice. I’ve always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!!” Trump posted on his social media site Tuesday morning shortly before he was to formally greet the king and Queen Camilla at the White House. “I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!!”

Charles has faced some calls to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein

Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S. There’s no indication that he will do so, even as the scandal involving the convicted sex offender has ensnared his brother, the former Prince Andrew, who was arrested in February over misconduct allegations, which he denies.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., urged the king over the weekend to at least address the issue during his congressional speech.

Trump has maintained warm relations with the King

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

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

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

“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press.

The visit comes at a challenging moment for US-UK relations

Trump’s up-and-down relationship with Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a particularly sour turn over the past several months as the president has sought to rally international support for the war in Iran. Trump lamented that Starmer, who has largely resisted his overtures, was “no Churchill.”

Trump has also imposed tariffs on the U.K. and warned of additional levies despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that has made such unilateral moves more challenging. Still, Trump threatened just last week to slap a “big tariff” on the U.K. if it doesn’t scrap a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies.

Trump has more broadly challenged the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance with efforts to annex Greenland and threats to walk away from NATO. He has repeatedly imposed tariffs on and taunted Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.

A rare royal address to Congress

King Charles III will become the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Her speech highlighted the shared history of both countries and the importance of their democratic values, themes Charles will likely reinforce on Tuesday.

Such addresses are an opportunity afforded to only the most prominent world leaders, including Pope Francis, Václav Havel and Winston Churchill. It will likely mark the most extensive public remarks Charles will deliver during a four-day visit to the U.S. that’s intended to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary of independence from Britain.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla head to the White House

The king, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will begin his day with a meeting at the White House with Trump. The Oval Office encounter offers the potential for the freewheeling, sometimes controversial meetings with foreign leaders that have become routine during Trump’s second term.

Given the expressly apolitical nature of the British monarch and Trump’s fondness for the royal family, the likelihood of an awkward meeting may be reduced.

Trump will host Charles on Tuesday evening for a state banquet at the White House.

The bickering billionaires' appearances at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse foreshadow the start of a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and Brockman along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.

“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit...very complicated, but it’s actually very simple,” Musk said. “Which is that it's not OK to steal a charity.”

The jury was elected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.

Opening arguments began with Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, who quoted OpenAI's mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity as a whole and not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.

Altman and his top lieutenant Brockman, aided by Microsoft, “stole a charity,” Molo said, “a charity whose mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence.”

In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. He is seeking damages and to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm and Altman's ouster from OpenAI’s board.

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

In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors “we are here because Mr. Musk didn’t get his way with OpenAI.”

Savitt said Musk used his promises to provide funding to bully OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it. In the middle of discussions about OpenAI’s future, he added, Musk pulled the plug on $5 million quarterly donations he was making.

There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever, or open-source everything. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI’s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.

Molo said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.

By 2017, about two years after OpenAI's founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they “couldn't make infinite profit.”

“There is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,” Molo said.

Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and “this was a horse of a completely different color,” he said. It was a “gamechanger," Molo said, that violated “every commitment” OpenAI made not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.

After opening arguments wrap up, testimony will begin with Musk's side presenting a tale chock full of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

Musk, the world's richest person with an estimated fortune of $778 billion, is among the witnesses who will testify during the trial.

Altman, OpenAI's CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights.

Altman’s court appearance likely made him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday at which both companies announced an expanded partnership.

“I wish I could be there with you in person today,” Altman told attendees of Amazon’s event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. “My schedule got taken away from me today.”

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AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island.

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The row of paintings, like much of Gaza life itself, was displayed outdoors, open to the weather and curious stares. There was a painting of a dove, a bullet hole, a person’s silhouette in a territory where the war between Israel and the militant Hamas group has killed well over 70,000 people.

It was a sunny day in Bureij in central Gaza. Children shouted and played as admirers of the paintings took photos and reflected.

“They painted their feelings, their ambitions, their hopes, their visions, over four months during a continuous workshop in my studio,” said Ghanem Al-Din, who organized the exhibit of dozens of paintings.

One artist was displaced seven times

Obay Al-Qarshali, 21, was one of the artists. He said he fled his home in Gaza City in late 2023 after the war began, sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. He took only what he could in his hurry, leaving over 30 of his paintings behind.

They are now lost in the bombing and destruction, he said.

His painting on display showed broken glass, cars topped with mattresses and other belongings and the debris of buildings. All are too familiar for him and hundreds of thousands of fellow Palestinians who have been displaced, often more than once.

Al-Qarshali said he had changed locations at least seven times in the war.

“Because of how much we were displaced and suffered in moving and carrying our belongings, the tents, the crowds, and so much more, I wanted to express something that deeply troubled me: that we left our homes and our safe places, forced to flee, scatter, and change our location. This piece expresses so much,” he said.

The timing of next steps in Gaza's ceasefire is unclear. The disarming of Hamas is a major challenge before the territory’s shift in governance, stabilization and reconstruction can begin in earnest.

“Critical demilitarization talks with Hamas are continuing," former British prime minister Tony Blair, a key member of the U.S.-created Board of Peace meant to focus on Gaza, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

Reconstruction likely will cost over $70 billion and take a decade, a report by the United Nations and the European Union said last week.

It said Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84%. More than 371,000 housing units have been destroyed. Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are “non-functional.” Nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged in the territory of over 2 million people.

In a report on Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders said Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. And a Mercy Corps study found only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.

A child collecting firewood is among the dead

While large-scale fighting has eased since the ceasefire took effect in October, Israeli forces have continued near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones, killing over 800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza City, killing four men, according to Shifa Hospital.

The strike happened away from the so-called Yellow Line that separates Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. Israel’s military said it struck a “terrorist” in the location, with no details.

The bodies were wrapped in white and placed on the ground, outdoors, so a crowd could mourn.

And a 9-year-old boy was killed by Israeli fire while gathering firewood in the southern city of Khan Younis, about 400 meters (1,312 feet) west of the Yellow Line, Nasser Hospital said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

Associated Press video showed siblings crying over the boy at the morgue.

“What is the guilt of those children,” a woman said during the funeral. “God is plaguing you, Israel.”

But after his playing and coaching days ended, Jones betrayed the game he loved, solemnly admitting in court Tuesday that he exploited his fame and insider access to profit from sports betting and rigged poker games.

Jones, 49, became the first person to plead guilty in a gambling sweep that led to the arrests of more than 30 people, including reputed mobsters and other basketball figures. Sports bettor Marves Fairley is poised to become the second.

During back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn federal court, Jones entered guilty pleas to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in schemes to defraud major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, and filch millions of dollars from unwitting poker players.

Sitting alongside his lawyer and reading from a prepared statement, Jones acknowledged that he aided the betting conspiracy with “insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player.”

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones told Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo.

Jones said the sports betting conspiracy, which ran from December 2022 to March 2024, involved using his knowledge of nonpublic information about injuries to NBA stars, including his one-time teammate, LeBron James, to gain an edge in sports bets.

Jones acknowledged that his actions not only broke the law, but that they also violated the NBA’s code of conduct and the sports betting websites' terms of service.

A ‘face card’ for rigged poker games

At the second of his two hearings, Jones admitted he was paid to act as a “face card” at poker games in Miami and the Hamptons by using his NBA celebrity to “lure high-end bettors” to the table.

“I knew these games were rigged and that players were being cheated," Jones said as he read from another statement. He apologized again, telling Marutollo: “I’m really sorry to everyone involved for my actions.”

Jones and his lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery, declined to comment as they left the courtroom. Swarmed outside by reporters, photographers and TV cameras, Jones said only: “To God be the glory.”

He remains free on bail and won't be sentenced until early next year, Marutollo said.

Jones is scheduled for back-to-back sentencing hearings on Jan. 6 — before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in the sports betting case and before Judge Ramon Reyes in the poker games case.

In the sports betting case, sentencing guidelines call for a punishment of 21 to 27 months in prison. In the poker games case, Jones would face 63 to 78 months in prison, but prosecutors agreed to subtract 15 months from the sentence in exchange for Jones pleading guilty before April 30. That would put his potential sentence at 48 to 63 months in prison if the judge follows the guidelines.

Jones faces a longer prison sentence in the poker games case in part because it involved more than 10 victims and a loss to them of more than $9.5 million.

As part of his plea agreements, Jones agreed to give up a total of $73,000 and, at sentencing, could be ordered to pay additional sums as restitution.

The first defendant to plead guilty

None of Jones' co-defendants have shown a willingness to plead guilty. On Monday, prosecutors said they were seeking more charges against another sports betting defendant, former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

Jones was arrested in October along with Rozier and Chauncey Billups, who was head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and is a Basketball Hall of Famer.

Others charged include reputed members of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families, which benefited from the poker scheme and used violence and threats to ensure the repayment of debts and success of the operation, prosecutors said.

Jones was one of three people charged in both the poker and sports betting schemes.

Originally from Galveston, Texas, Jones earned more than $20 million playing for 10 teams in 11 seasons from 1999 to 2009. He and James played together in Cleveland from 2005 to 2008, and Jones served as an unofficial assistant coach for James’ Los Angeles Lakers during the 2022-2023 season.

According to prosecutors, Jones sold or attempted to sell nonpublic information to bettors that James was injured and wouldn’t be playing in a Feb. 9, 2023, game against the Milwaukee Bucks, texting an unnamed co-conspirator: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out" and “Bet enough so Djones can eat.”

James wasn’t listed on the Lakers’ injury report at the time of the text, but the NBA’s all-time scoring leader was later ruled out of the game because of a lower body injury and the Lakers lost the game 115-106, according to prosecutors.

On Jan. 15, 2024, Fairley, the sports bettor, paid Jones approximately $2,500 for a tip that Anthony Davis, a Lakers’ forward and center at the time, would see limited playing time against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of an injury, prosecutors said.

Fairley then placed a $100,000 bet on the Thunder to win, prosecutors said, but the tip was wrong. Davis played his usual minutes, scored 27 points and collected 15 rebounds in a 112-105 Lakers win, prompting Fairley to demand a refund of his $2,500 fee, prosecutors said.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors said Fairley intends to plead guilty in the sports betting case and a separate case in which he and others are accused of scheming to obtain nonpublic information to bet on college basketball and Chinese Basketball Association games.

A message seeking comment was left for Fairley's lawyer.

In the poker scheme, prosecutors say Jones was among former NBA players used to lure unwitting gamblers to poker games that were rigged using altered shuffling machines, hidden cameras, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table.

According to the indictment, Jones was paid $2,500 for a game in the Hamptons where he was instructed to cheat by paying close attention to others involved in the scheme. When in doubt, Jones was told to fold his hand, prosecutors said.

In response, according to prosecutors, Jones texted: “Y’all know I know what I’m doing!!”

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Associated Press reporters Emily Wang Fujiyama in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

Bench coach Don Mattingly was named interim manager through the end of the season and third base coach Dusty Wathan was promoted to bench coach. Mattingly will now officially work for one of his sons — Preston Mattingly is the Phillies general manager — in what is believed to be the first father-son GM/manager combination in baseball history.

Thomson went 355-270 and led a Philadelphia team loaded with high-priced talent that included Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to consecutive division titles. The 62-year-old Thomson, a baseball lifer finally promoted to his first managerial stint in 2022, signed a contract extension in the offseason running through the 2027 season and was again expected to lead the Phillies into World Series contention.

Instead, the Phillies and their $300-plus million payroll have been one of the biggest flops in the baseball and lost 10 straight games before ace Zack Wheeler led them to a win against Atlanta on Saturday. The Phillies lost to Atlanta on Sunday and fell to 9-19 overall, tied with the division rival New York Mets.

Thomson is the second manager fired in baseball this season after the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and five coaches on Saturday.

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, gave Thomson a vote of confidence last week while they were in the midst of their losing streak. Dombrowski stood behind Thomson’s work and said he’s been a good manager since replacing Joe Girardi in 2022.

Dombrowski said Tuesday that he talked to Cora about becoming the next manager.

“We never got down to the nuts and bolts of things,” Dombrowski said. "He called me Saturday night as a friend. I guess he calls me one of his mentors and we talked because he never had been through that before. We talked Sunday morning.

“I came to conclusion that if he took it, I would make a change. I thought he would take it. Until Monday morning it was apparent from his perspective he wanted to take time with his family. He wanted to be a father first and foremost and so that’s what he had decided.”

Thomson led Philadelphia to the 2022 World Series after taking over for Girardi, losing to the Houston Astros in six games. Since then, the club has regressed in the postseason. It lost in the NL Championship Series in 2023 in seven games, and the NL Division Series in 2024 and ’25 in four games.

Nicknamed Topper, Thomson has been with the club since the 2018 season, when he was first hired as bench coach under former manager Gabe Kapler.

He was with the New York Yankees from 1990-2017, including 10 seasons on the major league coaching staff as bench coach (2008, 2015-17) and third base coach (2009-14). He earned his nickname in the Yankees organization for always being on top of details.

Thomson became only the fourth manager in big league history to reach the postseason in each of the first four full seasons to begin a managing career, joining Dave Roberts, Aaron Boone and Mike Matheny. He became only the third manager in Phillies history to win consecutive division titles, joining Charlie Manuel and Danny Ozark.

The Phillies have been awful in what was supposed to be a celebratory season with the franchise set to host the All-Star Game and its surrounding festivities. Instead, they have collapsed in every aspect of the game, with regulars Alec Bohm and Schwarber both hitting under .200, while starters Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter all have 5.00-plus ERAs.

The Phillies just released high-priced bust Taijuan Walker in the final year of a four-year, $72 million contract and outfielder Nick Castellanos was released in February as he entered the final year of a five-year, $100 million deal.

The Phillies haven’t won the World Series since 2008 and had last made the playoffs in 2011 until Thomson led them a surprise run to the World Series in 2022 dubbed Red October that rejuvenated the fanbase and made 90-plus win seasons the norm.

The Phillies now will turn to Mattingly, the former New York Yankees great, to resuscitate their season and try to at least keep them in the hunt for an NL wild-card spot.

Mattingly, spending his 23rd straight season as a major league manager or coach, had his mind set on retirement after he left his role as Toronto’s bench coach under manager John Schneider following the World Series.

He reversed course after a talk with his family and latched on with the Phillies, enticed by the chance to work with his son and with Thomson, his friend from their Yankees days.

Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22. He was the 2020 NL Manager of the Year after he led the Marlins to their first playoff appearance since 2003.

He said when the Phillies hired him in the winter that he no longer had interest in managing again.

“I don’t think I have the energy for that anymore,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly played 14 seasons as a first baseman in the major leagues, all for the Yankees, from 1982-95. He was a six-time American League All-Star and the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player before retiring. Mattingly captained the Yankees in his final five seasons.

There's a loose father-son baseball hierarchy connection in Philadelphia baseball history.

Hall of Famer Connie Mack managed and owned the Philadelphia Athletics and his son Earle managed 125 combined games in 1937 and 1939 when his father was ill.

Mattingly was thrilled in January at the chance of possibly winning his first World Series ring while working for the same franchise as his son.

“To be able to do it with him,” Mattingly said, “would be incredible.”

So, at this point, would be leading the Phillies to the postseason.

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

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the collaboration with Amazon's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, would involve co-developing a new platform for AI agents that can do computer-based work on people's behalf.

Altman spoke via prerecorded video message to an Amazon event in San Francisco at the same time as he was appearing in federal court across San Francisco Bay in Oakland for a civil trial brought by rival OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk.

Microsoft had said Monday it will no longer pay a share of its revenue to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the latest move to untether a close partnership that helped unleash an artificial intelligence boom.

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

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

OpenAI said Monday it will continue to pay Microsoft a share of its revenue through 2030, though the rate will be capped. OpenAI has been on a race to boost sales of its AI technology by focusing on big business customers. Its chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, also spoke at the Amazon event.

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

Altman suggested in his remarks Tuesday that Amazon had those capabilities.

“These systems need to run reliably and robustly,” Altman said. "They need to be secure, they need to scale, and they need to fit in the environments where companies already run their businesses. And they need infrastructure that customers already trust for their most important workloads. That’s what makes this partnership with AWS so important."

Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a leading figure among Belarus’ Polish minority, was serving eight years in prison in a case condemned as politically motivated.

His 2021 arrest after covering pro-democracy rallies in Belarus drew widespread criticism. He later was awarded the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Poczobut a symbol of the fight for freedom in Belarus but also of the effectiveness of the Polish state in leaving no one behind.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who welcomed Poczobut at the border about midday Tuesday, posted on X that the journalist was “unwavering.” Poczobut’s first words to him were about his chances of returning home to Belarus, Tusk wrote, and said he replied: “Only you decide. You’re a free man now.”

Appearing at the border, Poczobut had noticeably lost weight, his face was gaunt and his head had been shaved. Bartosz Wieliski, the deputy editor in chief of Gazeta Wyborcza who met Poczobut there, said the journalist went straight to a hospital for a checkup. He added that Poczobut had lost over 19 kilograms (nearly 42 pounds) behind bars.

The swap was the latest in a series of U.S.-negotiated prisoner releases that have marked stronger relations with Minsk under U.S. President Donald Trump.

A Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said three of the five prisoners released by Belarus came to Poland in exchange for three sent by Poland to Belarus, with a total of 10 involving other countries.

Included in the swap were Grzegorz Gawel, a Roman Catholic friar from the Carmelite order in Krakow, and a “Belarusian citizen who cooperated with our secret services,” Tusk said at a news conference, without identifying the latter.

Tusk described organizing the swap as a “complicated and sensational story,” saying a previous agreement to free Poczobut was derailed after Minsk backed out with less than 24 hours to go. Tuesday's exchange was ultimately possible due to prisoners viewed as important by Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and held by Poland, he said.

Speaking of Poczobut’s release, Tusk said: “There were a few tough men present there and they all had tears in their eyes.”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said two Moldovan citizens working for its intelligence services who were held in Russia had been released, although she did not identify them. She said they were exchanged for Russian citizen Nina Popova, who allegedly was “acting against” the state of Moldova, and Alexandru Balan, a former Moldovan intelligence official accused of treason in support of the Belarusian security services.

“For our country, it is a gain that cannot be measured by a simple mathematical equation,” Sandu said. “We brought home two citizens who work for the Republic of Moldova, giving up, in return, (two) prisoners who worked against the Republic of Moldova.”

The Russian state news agency Tass identified one of those released by Poland as Alexander Butyagin, a Russian national due to be extradited to Ukraine on allegations he conducted excavations involving artifacts at a site in Crimea that Kyiv considers part of its cultural heritage.

Belarus’ presidential press service said the negotiations had involved intelligence services from seven countries. It described some of the prisoners who returned to Minsk as having "carried out particularly important missions in the interests of ensuring the national security and defense capability of our country.”

Seeking better relations

In March, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners as part of a deal with Washington that lifted some U.S. sanctions.

A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced isolation for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Writing on X, Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, said three Poles and two Moldovans had been released as part of the swap. He thanked Poland, Moldova, and Romania for what he called “their invaluable support,” along with the willingness by Lukashenko "to pursue constructive engagement with the United States.”

Poczobut became a symbol of repression

Large portraits of Poczobut had appeared regularly at the Poland-Belarus border, a reminder of the large-scale political repression in Minsk and of tensions on the EU and NATO frontier.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that Poczobut was a hero who had never betrayed his principles.

"After years of unjust detention and isolation, he can breathe freely," she said, while calling for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus.

Poczobut’s arrest followed his coverage of the pro-democracy rallies that engulfed Belarus in 2020 after the disputed presidential election that kept Lukashenko in office.

He decided to stay in Belarus despite the brutal crackdown that followed, resulting in over 65,000 arrests, thousands of police beatings and tens of thousands fleeing abroad.

Poczobut was sent to one of the country’s harshest maximum-security prisons to serve his sentence, despite ongoing worries for his health.

The Belarusian human rights group Viasna said he repeatedly was denied essential medications and refused contact with his wife and children. It also reported that he had been placed in solitary confinement for several months after refusing work that he was unable to perform due to his health.

“For Poland, Poczobut is a national hero. For Belarus, he’s a reminder that a state cannot be built on fear,” said Andżelika Borys, head of the Union of Poles in Belarus, who spent over a year in prison. “For Europe, he’s a witness to the fact that the struggle for freedom continues not in the pages of textbooks but in the prison cells of the 21st century.”

Viasna believes Belarus still holds 832 political prisoners. Its head, Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski, pledged to keep fighting until all were freed.

“Poczobut is a true hero, but let’s not forget that hundreds more political prisoners are still in prison awaiting release," he told AP.

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Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia, and Davies reported from Manchester, England.

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This version corrects the spelling of Carmelite friar’s name to Grzegorz Gawel, not Grzegorz Gawej.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range attack drones struck a Russian oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks, prompting the evacuation of local people and a Russian warning of possible “environmental consequences.”

Ukraine has developed cutting-edge and battle-tested drone technology that has proved essential in holding back Russia’s bigger army and has drawn military interest from around the world.

Interceptor drones as part of a comprehensive air defense system are now being sought by Middle East and Gulf countries amid the Iran war, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine is scaling up supplies of interceptor drones to thwart Russian aerial attacks, and its military has introduced a new command within the air force to boost the country’s capabilities, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a post on Telegram late Monday.

Ukraine says its deep-strike range is growing

Ukraine’s offensive capabilities have also improved, with the Defense Ministry saying Tuesday that the country’s forces have more than doubled the range of their deep-strike capabilities since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

At that time, Ukrainian forces were able to hit military targets about 630 kilometers (400 miles) away, it said. They are now striking targets as far as roughly 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) behind enemy lines, the ministry said in a statement.

That improvement has allowed Ukraine to hit Russian oil installations that provide crucial revenue for Moscow’s war effort. It has also targeted manufacturing plants that supply Russia’s armed forces.

A Russian refinery is struck

Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery at the Black Sea port of Tuapse for the third time this month in a coordinated operation involving multiple branches of the country’s defense and security services, its Unmanned Systems Forces said Tuesday.

The two strikes earlier this month destroyed 24 oil storage tanks and damaged four others, it said. Independent verification of the claims was not possible.

Video from Tuapse released Tuesday by Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the refinery and black, steaming puddles on an adjacent street. An emergency official reported to the governor that boiling oil products had spilled onto the street from one of the oil tanks, damaging several cars.

People who live near the Tuapse refinery were being evacuated, Kondratyev said. He didn’t provide details about how many were evacuated or for how long.

Speaking about the strikes on Tuapse, Russian President Vladimir Putin said they could “cause serious environmental consequences,” Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Putin also said Kondratyev had reported there were no serious threats in Tuapse and people were "dealing with the challenges they face on the ground.”

Both sides carry out drone attacks

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its air defenses overnight intercepted 186 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas.

In the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, three people were killed and three more were wounded in a drone attack, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, meanwhile, killed three civilians and wounded five others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Two people were killed in the city of Chuhuiv in the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

A 40-year-old man died and five other men sustained injuries in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A rare daytime drone attack on Kyiv on Tuesday wounded two people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Another Russian attack on Konotop, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, knocked out the city’s power and water supply.

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The lawsuits, which were filed last week in Rhode Island Superior Court, allege that the unnamed plaintiffs have suffered because Brown failed to maintain “reasonable and appropriate security measures.”

“As direct and proximate result of Brown’s aforementioned acts of negligence, Plaintiff suffered and became afflicted with grave and severe personal injuries, causing Plaintiff to suffer great pain of body, mind, nerves and nervous system,” one of the lawsuits states.

The plaintiffs behind the lawsuits are unnamed.

A spokesperson for Brown University said they were reviewing the complaints “carefully and promptly.”

“Out of respect for the privacy interests of the plaintiffs, we have no details to share on the merits of the litigation at this time,” spokesperson Brian Clark said in a statement.

According to law enforcement, gunman Claudio Neves Valente, 48, entered a study session in a Brown academic building on Dec. 13 and opened fire on students, killing 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and wounding nine others.

Two days later, authorities say, Neves Valente, who had been a graduate student at Brown studying physics about 20 years ago, also fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at Loureiro’s Boston-area home.

Neves Valente, who had attended school with Loureiro in Portugal in the 1990s, was found dead days later at a New Hampshire storage facility. Authorities say he killed himself. An autopsy determined that Neves Valente died Dec. 16, the same day Loureiro died in a hospital.

The lawsuits claim that Brown's campus security was alerted by a custodian that Neves Valente had been “casing” the building but the school did not investigate the reports.

Shortly after the shooting, Brown's president placed the campus police on leave amid a review of the school's security policies.

Much of the focus has centered on whether the Ivy League school had security cameras installed in the building where the attack took place in and the overall ease of accessing campus buildings.

Still, the club gave itself a little bit of protection in case he does not.

Pittsburgh placed the unrestricted free-agent tender on the four-time MVP on Monday, meaning the Steelers would be entitled to a compensatory draft pick if Rodgers doesn’t sign with them and instead lands elsewhere during the 2026 season.

General manager Omar Khan and first-year head coach Mike McCarthy remain very optimistic that the 42-year-old will be back after leading them to an AFC North title last winter.

The line of communication between both sides has been wide open since the end of the season, and Khan said after the NFL draft that the selection of former Penn State star Drew Allar in the third round does not affect Pittsburgh's interest in having Rodgers back.

The tender does not preclude Rodgers from signing with another team or even give the Steelers the ability to match an offer to him if one is made before July 22.

What it does do is give them some coverage if he signs elsewhere before training camp opens in late July. After camp begins, the Steelers would have exclusive negotiating rights with Rodgers.

The tender also slots in Rodgers' salary. Under the rules, Rodgers would be entitled to a 10% raise over his 2025 salary if he comes back for a 22nd season.

Rodgers said in January that he would make a decision “down the line.” The Steelers had expressed hope that Rodgers would be able to provide clarity before the NFL draft, but that did not happen.

Pittsburgh begins organized team activities — which are voluntary — on May 18. Mandatory minicamp is set for June 2-4.

Rodgers skipped OTAs entirely last year, signing a one-year deal with the Steelers not long after minicamp wrapped up.

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Jurors began deliberating after hearing attorneys' closing arguments in the federal trial of Mohammad Sharifullah, whose capture was heralded by President Donald Trump as he addressed a joint session of Congress last year. Approximately 160 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack on Aug. 26, 2021, when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an airport entry point known as Abbey Gate.

Defense attorney Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence tying Sharifullah to the bombing besides his own words to FBI agents during hours of interrogation. She said her client lied about scouting a route for the suicide bomber to the airport, where U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation after the longest war in American history.

Rosen said Sharifullah told FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear, possibly because he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody before he was brought to the U.S.

“The problem was, he didn't know much about what actually happened that day,” Rosen told jurors. “The government has told you nothing about how this attack actually happened.”

Justice Department prosecutor Ryan White said Sharifullah played a crucial role in planning the Abbey Gate bombing and was involved in several other attacks by an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K, including its March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.

“The defendant thought nothing of killing,” White said. “For him, it was just another day at the office.”

Sharifullah, who didn't testify at his weeklong trial, is charged with one count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

White said Sharifullah told a journalist that he wanted to “catch and kill the crusaders” from the U.S. for invading his country after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“This case is not complicated,” White said. “The defendant told you everything you need to know.”

Rosen said U.S. authorities accepted ISIS propaganda at face value when the group took responsibility for the airport bombing. She suggested that militants from a Taliban offshoot were manning Abbey Gate and could have been involved in the attack.

“You can't base your verdict on mere conjecture and speculation,” Rosen said. “That's what the prosecution is asking you to do.”

A review by U.S. Central Command found that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. Sharifullah recognized the alleged bomber as an operative he had known while incarcerated, according to an FBI affidavit.

A former Marine testified to Congress that he and others had spotted two possible suspects behaving suspiciously on the morning of the bombing but didn’t get permission to act. However, the Central Command review concluded that the snipers hadn’t seen the actual bomber and that the attack was not preventable.

A prosecutor assigned to the Abbey Gate case was fired last year after a right-wing commentator publicly criticized him over his work during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. Michael Ben’Ary’s ouster was part of a broader purge of Justice Department veterans deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, a Republican.

During his most recent presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly condemned Biden for his role in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and blamed him for the Abbey Gate attack.

Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, the governor has called a special legislative session on redistricting and other issues that will put him back in the national spotlight and maybe remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day.

But there are also plenty of risks involved for the 47-year-old governor, and they became immediately apparent after lawmakers convened Tuesday.

DeSantis is pushing state lawmakers to redraw Florida's congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle ahead of November's midterm elections. His proposal, released the day before the session began, would make it easier for Republicans to win up to four more seats, equivalent to Democrats’ potential gains from last week’s referendum in Virginia.

The governor also wanted lawmakers to adopt new regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements. However, his proposals quickly hit a roadblock when House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican but not a DeSantis acolyte, told members that he would not advance any legislation on those issues.

Perez said the governor's maps are on a fast track, with a House vote expected Wednesday, but some Republicans are worried that a gerrymandered map will backfire and make it easier for Democrats to pick up seats, which would be a black eye for DeSantis.

He already faces tough prospects on the national stage, even with Trump constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028. DeSantis has had a relatively low profile during Trump's second presidency and would likely have Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another Floridian, to contend with in a Republican primary.

“The window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,” said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis' pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018.

DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. On X, DeSantis called the House move on AI and vaccines “typical political shenanigans.”

Meanwhile, the governor has embraced the national redistricting fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid.

“I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,” DeSantis said of Jeffries. “I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.”

DeSantis wants four more Republican seats

DeSantis unveiled his proposed congressional map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated among lawmakers. He argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state's population, making it necessary to redraw the lines.

The governor's map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando, Tampa Bay, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats.

The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis' version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.

DeSantis first announced the special session in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms.

The Virginia referendum celebrated by Democrats faces a court challenge, and the Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to immediately lift an order from a lower court that bars the state from certifying the passage of the ballot measure. Another legal battle is playing out in Wisconsin where Democrats also hope to pick up another seat or two.

There's no guarantee that new maps will play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines largely on Trump’s performance in 2024, theoretically redistributing the president's voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump's popularity has waned since his reelection, including among Latino voters who figure prominently in the state.

Florida could face a similar conundrum. Creating more majority-Republican districts but with thinner margins could dilute GOP advantages and give Democrats more opportunities to win seats, especially if there's an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year.

Karl Rove, a former top political adviser to President George W. Bush, warned that if Florida Republicans get too aggressive, “they may lose a seat or two.”

Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis’ top fundraiser, said it’s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the current map that expanded Republicans’ advantage in the state.

“He’s incredibly smart and capable,” Ballard said. “And he doesn’t get enough credit for that map. He’s done this before.”

Florida legislative leaders are not rubber stamps for DeSantis

As it did Tuesday, the Florida House has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.

Albritton sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida’s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act.

Perez sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether the maps violate those requirements, which Florida voters approved by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in 2010. Democrats and political advocates have promised legal challenges.

Beyond redistricting, DeSantis was effectively asking House members to approve AI and vaccine proposals that they refused even to advance out of committee earlier this year.

On AI, DeSantis wanted to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wanted to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. That proposal put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulator of AI technology. Perez said he sides with the president, calling AI a “national security issue” that is “bigger than just one state.”

On vaccines, DeSantis wanted to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. That aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in making Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the U.S. health secretary.

Perez countered that vaccine requirements in the U.S. “have been working for decades” and said he remains uncomfortable with “children being in school without measles and mumps and polio and chickenpox vaccines.”

Political observers are watching — even at the White House

Ballard downplayed any political concerns for DeSantis. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.

“I mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,” Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. “That isn’t failure.”

During the last Republican presidential primary, DeSantis initially gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than Trump, who grew frustrated by the challenge and mocked the governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

But Trump seemingly forgave DeSantis when he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump following his victory in the Iowa caucuses. He even promised to call DeSantis by his actual name.

There's more bad blood within the White House, though. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a Floridian, managed DeSantis’ razor-thin 2018 victory, only for the pair to have a falling out.

Wiles did not respond to a request for comment. But Ayres said he’s certain she’s paying attention.

“Donald Trump has a long memory, and Susie Wiles has a longer one,” he said. “And that doesn’t bode well for Gov. DeSantis to be Donald Trump’s Republican successor.”

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Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed.

Environmentalists fear the move will create a precedent for wiping out other protections for public lands across the country. Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, a subsidiary of Chile-based Antofagasta Minerals, has been looking to dig for copper, nickel and other precious metals in the Superior National Forest since 2019.

The canoe area lies in the national forest just downstream from the mine site, raising concerns that digging could create pollution that would contaminate one of the nation's last remaining wild areas.

Former President Joe Biden's administration in 2023 imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining in the national forest, putting Twin Metals plans on hold. But Trump has called for boosting domestic energy and mineral production, and congressional Republicans sent him a resolution to lift the moratorium earlier this month, promising the move would create jobs and reenergize the mining industry in Minnesota's Iron Range. The president signed the resolution on Monday.

“Today is a dark day for America's most beloved Wilderness area, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and a stark warning call for public lands nationwide,” Ingrid Lyons, executive director the group Save the Boundary Waters, said in a statement. “Minnesotans and the American public writ large have been loud and clear -- this iconic place needs to be protected. Today, by the very people who claim to represent them, they were ignored, and even worse, silenced. But of course, it's not over, and we will always keep fighting.”

Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said in a statement to The Associated Press that lifting the moratorium creates an opportunity to strengthen mineral supply chains but stressed that the company still must go through a rigorous permitting process that could last years.

Indeed, the mine site stands on a patchwork of state, federal and private land, creating a regulatory labyrinth.

The first hurdle for the company is reestablishing a right to mine after officials in Biden's Department of the Interior terminated its federal site leases in early 2022. Twin Metals filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaration that the leases are still valid but a judge threw the case out in 2023. The company is appealing that decision.

Twin Metals also would have to win a mining permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources by showing that the company can prevent water pollution, safely store waste rock and restore the land after the mine is played out. The company also will need state water and air permits. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who voted against lifting the moratorium, could be a serious roadblock for the company if she wins her bid for the governor's office in November.

Environmental groups and tribes could conceivably challenge every permit in court, potentially blocking Twin Metals' plans for years. Friends of the Boundary Waters, for example, has said litigation remains “under active consideration.”

And Canadian officials could raise concerns about whether the mine could create cross-border pollution that violates treaties with the U.S. The Boundary Waters separates northeastern Minnesota from northwestern Ontario, hence the name.

The area remains largely untouched by humans. Logging is prohibited, planes must obey minimum altitude limits when flying over it, and motorized boats are limited to certain areas. The U.S. Forest Service issued about 776,000 visitor permits between 2020 and 2024.

The justices are reviewing an appellate ruling that would allow the lawsuit against Cisco to go forward in U.S. courts.

The company argues that it cannot be held liable under two separate laws for aiding and abetting human rights violations. The laws are the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 1991.

The main questions among the court's conservative majority seemed to be how broadly to rule for Cisco and whether lower courts are allowing too many similar suits to proceed. Justice Neil Gorsuch at one point asked whether the courthouse door is “not closely guarded.”

In recent years, the Supreme Court and presidential administrations of both parties have been skeptical of lawsuits seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice over the acts of foreign governments, especially those that took place abroad. To try to overcome that skepticism, Falun Gong members have argued that a substantial portion of Cisco’s activities involving China took place in the United States.

An Associated Press investigation last year showed that American tech companies, to a large degree, designed and built China’s surveillance state, encouraged by Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.

In 2008, documents leaked to the press showed Cisco saw the “Golden Shield,” China's internet censorship effort, as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official calling the Falun Gong an “evil cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by AP from the same year said its products could identify over 90% of Falun Gong material on the web.

Other presentations reviewed by AP show that Cisco represented Falun Gong material as a “threat” and built out a national information system to track Falun Gong believers. In 2011, Falun Gong members sued Cisco, alleging the company tailored technology for Beijing that it knew would be used to track, detain and torture believers.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed most willing to allow the lawsuit to continue.

Cisco was a willing partner with the Chinese government, Sotomayor said. "It knew that those people will be tortured,” she said.

Not true, said Cisco lawyer Kannon Shanmugam. "Cisco vigorously disputes those allegations,” Shanmugam told the justices.

A decision is expected late June.

In a boost for the prime minister, the House of Commons rejected a move by opposition politicians to trigger a parliamentary standards investigation into Starmer. But a former senior official said he could not confirm that “due process” was followed when Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.

Reverberations from the ill-fated appointment have left Starmer fighting for his job, and at odds with his civil service. The prime minister is angry he wasn’t told that Mandelson had failed security vetting, while senior officials say they felt pressure from Starmer’s office to confirm the appointment quickly at the start of President Donald Trump ’s second term.

“I was presented with a decision and told to get on with it,” said Philip Barton, who was top civil servant in the Foreign Office when the choice of Mandelson was announced in December 2024. “The prime minister had been made aware of the risks and had accepted the risks.”

Starmer’s former top aide says sorry

Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, acknowledged Tuesday he’d made a “serious mistake” by recommending Mandelson, but denied pressuring officials to ignore security concerns.

McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.” He apologized to Epstein’s victims, saying “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”

But he insisted that he didn’t “ask officials to ignore procedures, request that steps should be skipped, or communicate explicitly or implicitly that checks should be cleared at all costs.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after new details emerged about the ambassador’s friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

Police opened an investigation into Mandelson in February over allegations that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a member of the U.K. government in 2009. He denies wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged.

McSweeney, who called Mandelson an adviser and confidant, resigned in February, saying he took responsibility for the ambassadorial appointment.

McSweeney said that he felt Mandelson’s experience as a former European Union trade commissioner would serve the U.K. well in striking a trade deal with the Trump administration.

“I don’t think the prime minister would have chosen Mandelson if Kamala Harris had been elected president,” he said.

Government denies pressuring officials

But McSweeney denied allegations that Starmer’s staff pressured officials to rush through the confirmation.

He said that at the time of the appointment, he had the impression that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “a passing acquaintance.” When emails were published showing the friendship was close, “it was a knife through my soul,” McSweeney said.

Starmer fired top Foreign Office official Olly Robbins earlier this month after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government’s security vetting agency. Starmer has called it “staggering” that Robbins failed to tell him about the security concerns.

Robbins says he was bound by confidentiality rules. He has said the concerns didn’t relate to Epstein, though he hasn’t disclosed what they were about.

It’s rare but not unknown for U.K. ambassadors to be political appointees rather than career diplomats. Barton, who was Robbins’ predecessor at the Foreign Office until January 2025, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that he was concerned Mandelson’s known links to “toxic, hot potato” Epstein “could become a problem.”

“There was pressure to get everything done as quickly as possible,” said Barton – though he denied there was pressure for a specific outcome.

Starmer has denied that anyone in his office put pressure on the civil service.

Opponents tried to force an inquiry

Critics say Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson is evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.

Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to quit over the Mandelson appointment. He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in May 7 local and regional elections, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

He managed to win a vote Tuesday in the House of Commons, where lawmakers rejected by 335 votes to 223 a demand by the opposition Conservative Party for Parliament’s Privileges Committee to investigate Starmer’s claim that “due process” was followed in Mandelson’s appointment.

The committee has the power to suspend lawmakers, including the prime minister, for breaches of the rules, and a finding of deliberately misleading Parliament is usually a resigning offense.

“It’s clear that full due process was not followed,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said, adding that “appointing a known national security risk to be ambassador to the United States is a profound failure of government.”

Badenoch urged Labour lawmakers not to be complicit in a “cover-up.”

Starmer urged Labour legislators to “stick together” and vote against the motion, calling it a “stunt” timed to damage the party before the May elections.

Many heeded the call, but several criticized Starmer during debate in the House of Commons. Labour lawmaker Emma Lewell said that “like the public, I feel let down, disappointed and I am angry.

“Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed,” she said. “This was a fundamental failure of judgment.”

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Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this story.

Dr. David Morens, 78, is accused of using his private email account to intentionally circumvent public records laws while employed at the National Institutes of Health. The Justice Department alleges that he concealed or destroyed records of discussions related to COVID-19 research grants, including an effort to revive a controversial coronavirus grant.

“These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday. "Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.”

Morens faces charges of conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting, according to a Justice Department news release. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. An attorney for Morens declined to comment.

The indictment reflects Republicans’ long-held belief that the federal government covered up key information about COVID-19 as the pandemic unfolded. Despite numerous probes, the origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory.

Blanche said Morens' alleged conduct was part of an effort to "suppress alternative theories" about COVID-19's origins. The Justice Department also accused Morens of having an improper relationship with a collaborator, including allegedly accepting a gift of wine and discussing COVID-19 research and potential publications in a prominent medical journal.

The indictment follows a probe by House Republicans into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrutinized Morens' email communications and accused him of intentionally concealing records. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal email.

The UAE's decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn't able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

No immediate impact likely for world oil markets

The UAE’s withdrawal from OPEC won’t necessarily have any immediate effects in markets. That’s because world oil supplies are sharply constrained by the war in Iran, which has closed off the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil supplies — including much of the UAE's — is transported. On Tuesday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded above $111 a barrel, or more than 50% above its prewar price.

OPEC accounts for roughly 40% of the world's oil output, but its market power had been waning in recent years as the United States ramped up production. While Saudi Arabia had been producing more than 10 million barrels of oil a day before the war, the U.S. pumps more than 13 million barrels a day.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been a steady critic of the cartel during his two terms in the White House.

The UAE, which joined OPEC through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967, had been producing around 3.4 million barrels of crude a day just before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28. Analysts say it has capacity to produce roughly 5 million barrels a day.

In its announcement on Tuesday, made via its state-run WAM news agency, the UAE said it also would leave the wider OPEC+ group, which Russia had led to try to stabilize oil prices.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production,” the UAE said, adding that it would bring "additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions.”

The UAE’s withdrawal removes one of OPEC’s few members with the ability to quickly increase production, said Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.

“A structurally weaker OPEC, with less spare capacity concentrated within the group, will find it increasingly difficult to calibrate supply and stabilize prices," he said.

Saudi Arabia, UAE increasingly at odds

Saudi Arabia and the UAE increasingly have competed over economic issues and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea area. The two countries had jointly fought against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2015. However, that coalition broke down into recriminations in late December, when Saudi Arabia bombed what it described as a weapons shipment bound for Yemeni separatists backed by the UAE.

As tensions rose in recent months, Saudi broadcasters long based in Dubai, the economic hub of the UAE, have pulled back to the kingdom.

“This exit of OPEC fits into the UAE need for flexibility with key energy consumers as well -- including a future relationship with China and a more competitive relationship with Saudi Arabia," said Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

While Saudi Arabia and OPEC had no immediate reaction, Emirati Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei insisted his country's decision did not stem from any dispute with its Gulf neighbor.

“We’ve been working together for years and years. We have the highest respect for the Saudis for leading OPEC,” al-Mazrouei told CNBC.

However, the UAE sent its foreign minister rather than its ruler to a Gulf Arab leaders' meeting held Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The UAE hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023, a conference that ended for the first time with a pledge by nearly 200 countries to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels. But the UAE still plans to increase its production capacity in the coming years, even as it pursues more clean energy at home, a move decried by climate activists.

“The demand for power is going to go up and up and up,” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an Abu Dhabi oil conference in November. “Today’s the day to announce that there is no energy transition. There is only energy addition.”

He drew widespread applause from his Emirati hosts.

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Associated Press writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

Emad Rehman, 26, has been charged with third-degree fleeing and eluding (punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a $1,000 fine) and driving while license suspended (misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and/or a $500 fine), according to a release from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.

The crash happened on Friday, April 24.

Rehman was driving a white Tesla Model 3 when he allegedly ran a red light and was pursued by a Royal Oak officer.

Officials said he started weaving throughout traffic at a high rate of speed.

He then lost control of his car and crashed into a Verizon store at Lewiston and Woodward in Ferndale.

Rehman had a suspended license, outstanding warrants and didn’t have insurance, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“It’s fortunate this incident ended without any injuries,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. “The defendant’s alleged actions recklessly endangered countless motorists and damaged a business.”

“It wasn’t the plan,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But it wasn’t not the plan.”

Stanton has done other things than think about Woody and Buzz for the past 34 years. At Pixar, he made “A Bug’s Life” and two Oscar-winners: “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E.” But “Toy Story” was the movie that started it all. The one he and his peers couldn’t believe they got to make. Everything that’s happened since, he said, has been gravy.

The new film, in theaters June 12, is widely expected to be one of the summer’s biggest hits. The past two movies made more than a billion dollars and this one is likely on the same path. But while there is a business driving many of the decisions regarding the series, Stanton said they’ve also had a lot of time to think about where the story should go. It’s show business, yes, but they always try to put the “show” first.

Remember, there was an 11-year gap between “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3,” and nine more years before the fourth movie. It was around 2008, when they’d finally cracked the story for three, and decided that it would be the end of their time with Andy as he went off to college, that Stanton started to think wider.

“What if it went farther? What if it was a trilogy with one kid, closed that up, handed it off to another kid and started another one?” Stanton said. “That seemed really exciting to me because that’s the way life really goes with toys and mementos. They get passed down as hand-me-downs; they go from one kid to another.”

Midway through the Bonnie era

One thing Stanton doesn’t love about the Toy Story movies are the numbers. Toy Story isn’t Rocky — it’s something else.

“They make it sound like old blockbuster thinking,” Stanton said. “The culture’s changed in the last 15 years. We all understand binging now. We all understand episodic stories. Not everything’s great for it, but some are and the Toy Story world is meant for that kind of lengthy thinking.”

Thus, four was the beginning of the Bonnie years. Though some of the actors were publicly saying it was the last Toy Story, as Woody went off with Bo Peep and the rest of the toys stayed with Bonnie, Stanton was pretty sure it was going to keep going. Bonnie’s arc wasn’t over yet. He just didn’t know they would come knocking on his door to figure out how.

“I was skeptical at first because I didn’t know if where I would want to see it go would match with where the studio would want to see go,” he said. “I cautiously said, let me write the crappy first draft, because I always write a crappy first draft, but at least I’ll figure out myself where I’d like to see it go just as a fan, let alone somebody that’s been behind the camera with it. And if we agree on that fundamentally then can we start working on it and I’ll take the job.”

He also wanted a collaborator by his side, so Kenna Harris (“Ciao Alberto”) joined as cowriter and director. Harris was around the same age Stanton was on “Toy Story,” which, he said, felt like kismet. In Harris, he found someone who he could pass knowledge to and learn from as someone who grew up in a different era. Together, they found more commonalities than differences.

“It’s really trying to find the things that are timeless, you know? Because childhood is gonna keep happening,” Stanton said.

The screentime conundrum

The fifth film sees the arrival of a new thing that is taking Bonnie’s attention away from her toys: The Lilypad. Stanton kept checking with the lawyers to make sure it wasn’t copyrighted or a real thing. It wasn’t, they assured him.

While the screentime conversation might not be new, how it affects playtime with these toys is something they hadn't yet explored.

“I feel like we’re kind of late to the party. I was worried there would be some sort of resolution to it before we finished and there wouldn’t be so much dramatic controversy about it, but it’s a legitimate concern that has no complete, finite answer,” Stanton said. “That’s drama, it’s in the gray. It is like how do you navigate something that you have to deal with? It’s not just ‘get rid of it.’”

There were similar conversations about television for kids of his era, and he knew that like TV, technology is not going away.

“Toy Story 5” also places more direct emphasis on the power of play and imagination, something they dabbled with in the opening of “Toy Story 3,” but that they really get to lean into here.

Making ‘Toy Story’ for the grandkids

Stanton doesn’t think too much about box office anymore; At Pixar, always been aiming higher than that. On the first film, he liked to say that they were making films for the grandkids. It might have been a bit of magical thinking for a fledgling studio and a man with a very young family, but in three decades, it’s come true. Stanton’s grandchild is now watching the Pixar movies he helped create.

Just recently, Stanton was at Skywalker Ranch finishing the mix for “Toy Story 5.” It’s the first time he’s gotten to step back and take it in as a movie and not the jigsaw puzzle he’s been building for so long.

“That’s when it kind of breaks my brain. I’m going, ‘Oh my God, there’s all the characters just living their lives’,” Stanton said. “And that’s the magic of movies. You forget that anybody behind the scenes made it and you just believe, and that’s the real drug.”

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

To watch the segment, click on the video above.

Read: ‘Explosion-proof bag’ fails to contain e-bike battery explosion on Mackinac Island

E-bikes are only allowed on the island for people with mobility issues, and even then, strict limits apply to how powerful and fast they can be.

According to authorities, smoke was spotted at about 7:30 a.m., Saturday, April 25, from a building on Cadotte Avenue. A Good Samaritan called 911 and attempted to contain the blaze before emergency crews arrived.

Firefighters entered the building, extinguished the fire and threw the burning e-bike battery out a window. Authorities said the battery had been stored in an “explosion-proof bag” -- but the bag failed to contain the explosion.

The fire comes less than a week after an exploding e-bike killed an Upper Peninsula resident.

Officials are urging people to be cautious with e-bikes due to the fire risks.

E-bike safety: What riders need to know

• E-bikes and e-scooters typically run on lithium-ion batteries, which can overheat, catch fire or even explode if damaged, defective or misused. Fires fueled by these batteries burn extremely hot and release toxic gases.
• Experts recommend only purchasing and using devices, batteries and chargers listed by a nationally recognized testing laboratory. Riders should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use only the original or compatible charger and battery.
• When it comes to charging and storage, riders should avoid charging past full and charge devices one at a time to prevent circuit overload. Batteries should be kept at room temperature.
• Batteries should also be kept away from direct sunlight, hot vehicles, liquids and children, and should be stored away from exit doors and flammable materials.
• Repairs should only be performed by a qualified professional. Lithium-ion batteries should never be thrown in the trash -- they should be recycled or disposed of according to local waste guidelines.
• Riders should stop using a battery immediately if it shows any warning signs, including unusual odor, color change, excessive heat, physical deformation, leaking, smoking or an inability to hold a charge.
• If a fire breaks out, leave the area immediately, do not attempt to fight the fire and call 911.

More e-bike safety tips can be found on the official National Fire Protection Association website.

Breadless stopped by Live in the D to show off some of their menu items - including one that’s gone viral.

Click on the video above to watch the segment.

Dquavion Lamariee Broome was sentenced Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court to 365 days in the Oakland County Jail for assault with intent to do great bodily harm. He received credit for 200 days already served.

The stabbing happened in August 2025 in the parking lot of the Sedona Taphouse Restaurant in Troy. Broome got into an altercation with a man he knew and stabbed him. The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Broome left Michigan following the stabbing. He was arrested and charged after he returned to the state in October 2025.

Judge Jacob J. Cunningham presided over the sentencing. Broome, who entered a no-contest plea, was sentenced under Michigan’s fourth-offense habitual offender statute.

A felony assault charge was dismissed as part of the plea. Cunningham objected to a tether as an alternative to jail time, according to court records.

Lady was featured as the Pet of the Week on Live in the D, where Michigan Humane representative Brittany Brodacki introduced the compact, bright-eyed pup to viewers across metro Detroit.

“She is a 3-year-old beagle bulldog mix,” Brodacki said. “As you can see with her little underbite, she has a little bit of the beagle coloring. She’s amazing.”

Lady’s appearance comes just ahead of National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day on April 30, an annual observance spotlighting the millions of animals in shelters across the country waiting for permanent homes.

Brodacki said the day carries real significance for shelter animals. “That’s why we think National Adopt-a-Shelter Dog Day is very important to shed a little extra light on these beautiful animals,” she said.

For those not quite ready to commit to adoption, Michigan Humane offers fostering as an alternative path. Brodacki described the process as a temporary but meaningful commitment.

“Fostering will look like an animal like this - you can take them into your home, and that’s just the committed time frame of where you’re taking care of them so that maybe they do have an extra little leeway time before they get adopted,” she said.

Brodacki noted that there are multiple ways the public can get involved beyond adoption. “We believe that she is a beagle bulldog mix, just from the facial features and her coloring. And she’s a sniffer - she loves to sniff around,” she said of Lady, adding that volunteering and donating through Michigan Humane’s website are also impactful options.

Those interested in adopting Lady can visit MichiganHumane.org for more information. The Mike Morse Law Firm will cover standard adoption fees.

If you have a legal case you need help with, call 855-MIKE-WINS or visit 855MikeWins.com.

Durant didn’t participate in practice with the Rockets on Tuesday before they left for California, trailing 3-1 in the first-round series. But he was seen running on an anti-gravity treadmill as the team wrapped up its work before heading to the airport.

Coach Ime Udoka was asked if there was a possibility that Durant would play in Game 5 after missing the last two games with a sprained left ankle and bone bruise.

“We’ll see,” Udoka said. “It is day to day, game to game. But we’ll have to get on the court and do some things, and he didn’t participate in practice today. But he’s doing the conditioning and other aspects to try to get back.”

Durant has missed three games in this series after he sat out the opener with a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.

The Rockets won Game 4 115-96 despite missing their superstar to avoid elimination.

Durant's injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.

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

The clinic brings speech, occupational, physical, and behavioral therapy under one roof, built around a collaborative, play-based model designed to help children with autism and developmental differences build communication, behavioral, and daily living skills.

Vanessa Labadie, Regional Operations Manager for MetroEHS, says the approach keeps children engaged in a way that traditional methods cannot. “Typical day is just like hanging out with a kid and, you know, having a lot of fun,” Labadie said. “We’re on the ground, we’re hanging out with kids, we’re blowing bubbles, we’re having dance parties, and the kids are learning through those opportunities.” The philosophy, she explained, is rooted in child-led learning. “They’re going to gain more skills through something that they want to do and maintain more independence through something that they want to, versus trying to force compliance.”

For Lead ABA Coordinator and Registered Behavior Technician Kaylin Bolton, the work is deeply personal. She entered the field at 18 and never looked back. “I love working with kids with autism because they allow me to realize that I need to slow down and enjoy the little things in life. And it’s really awesome to see their growth and celebrate every milestone,” she said. Bolton described the breakthroughs that make the job rewarding. “It’s so fulfilling and such a rewarding job because you get to see children who come in with little to no communication learn how to point, how to sign in American Sign Language, how to navigate AAC devices and picture exchange books, and then you hit that milestone of where they’re saying their first words or they’re telling their mom, ‘I love you,’ and it’s just, you know, you made a difference in that child, and that’s something that, like, you should be proud of.”

Staff retention and internal advancement are also hallmarks of the clinic’s culture. Reganae Jackson, also a Lead ABA Coordinator and Registered Behavior Technician, is a product of that model. “One of my favorite things about Metro is the fact that they hire within the company before going outside,” Jackson said. “I started off as a behavior technician, then moved up to a BSS - which stands for behavior support specialist - became an ABA coordinator, and now I’m a lead ABA coordinator.”

Metro EHS Pediatric Therapy is currently hiring and will host a career fair on April 30th. More information, including the date, time, and registration details, is available at metroehs.com/wdiv.

Here’s a quick spud history:

The potato is one of the oldest foods on the planet, originating about 10,000 years ago in South America. Today, it is the third most important food crop in the world, behind only rice and wheat. More than a billion people eat them, and there are more than 4,000 varieties worldwide.

But here is where it gets good: it can take up to 15 years to create just one new potato variety, because potatoes, and we mean this literally, are genetically weird and more complicated than most crops.

In Michigan, potatoes mean one thing: chips. This state is serious about the potato chip. About 70% of the state’s potato crop goes straight to chip makers, with about 50 varieties grown specifically for chips.

But one Michigan State researcher thinks we can do even better for your afternoon snack. And Better Made is all in -- the company processes more than 50 million pounds of potatoes every single year, so they know a thing or two about what makes a great chip.

Phil Gusmano with Better Made Snack Foods, and David Douches, potato breeder at Michigan State, joined Local 4 Live to talk about the collaboration.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

That's boosted the Detroit auto maker's outlook for 2026. On Tuesday, GM said it's now looking to rake in $13.5 billion to $15.5 billion in earnings before interest and taxes this year — up from previous forecasts of $13 billion to $15 billion.

The refund is set to ease the company's total tariff expenses some. GM anticipates paying $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion in tariff costs for 2026, the company said Tuesday, down from an original estimate of $3 billion to $4 billion.

“We are clearly operating in a very dynamic environment, which isn’t unusual for this industry,” CEO Mary Barra wrote in a letter to shareholders. Still, she maintained the company was seeing solid growth and a strong balance sheet "to achieve our long-term goals.”

For the first quarter of 2026, GM reported earnings of $2.63 billion and a revenue of $43.62 billion.

GM confirmed to The Associated Press that it hasn't received the refund yet, and doesn't have a specific estimate for when it will, but $500 million is what it expects following the decision from the Supreme Court. The court in February ruled that the levies Trump imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, were illegal.

Companies both big and small are seeking refunds for IEEPA tariffs they've already paid. The Customs and Border Protection agency launched an online system for claims last week.

If CBP approves a claim, it will take between 60 and 90 days for a refund to be issued, the agency said. But the system is being rolled out in phases, and only some tariff refunds will be returned in the first phase.

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

The now-overturned IEEPA tariffs included so-called “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump slapped on nearly every country in the world a year ago and “trafficking tariffs” on imports from Mexico, Canada and China — as well as separate duties on countries like Brazil and India, all of which the president imposed by declaring a national emergency.

February's Supreme Court decision marked a significant blow to Trump's economic agenda. But many other tariffs remain in effect — including punishing sectoral levies that Trump imposed using another law (Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act) on foreign steel, aluminum, cars and other products. And companies like GM are continuing to pay those costs.

The administration has also signaled that more new duties are on the way.

Trump has publicly attacked companies who have warned of price hikes spanning from tariffs — and at times used the threat of new import taxes to strike deals. Last week, the president also said he'll “remember” those that do not seek refunds from his IEEPA tariffs.

“I think it’s brilliant if they don’t do that,” Trump told CNBC of companies that hadn't yet sought reimbursements. “If they don’t do that, they got to know me very well.”

____

AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

Closing arguments began on April 28.

The trial finished on Tuesday. Jury deliberations are underway.

Michael Lopez, 44, of Southfield, first encountered Melvindale police Officer Mohamed Said at 12:34 p.m. July 21, 2024, at a car wash near the intersection of Oakwood Boulevard and Clarann Street in Melvindale, officials said.

Said, 26, was called to the car wash and Lopez fled on foot, according to authorities.

While Said chased Lopez, Lopez pulled out a handgun and shot Said, police said.

Said died from his injuries.

Lopez is facing the following charges:

• Murder of a police officer -- a felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
• Felon in possession of a firearm -- a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
• Felon in possession of ammunition -- a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
• Carrying a concealed weapon -- a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
• Possession of methamphetamine/ecstasy -- a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
• Possession of under 25 grams of a controlled substance -- a felony with a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
• Carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent -- a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
• Five felony firearm violations -- each two-year felonies, to be served consecutively.

On May 1, 2025, a judge ruled Lopez was competent to stand trial. Jury selection was held on Monday and Tuesday, April 20-21, 2026.

Michael Lopez, from Southfield, is accused of shooting and killing Melvindale Police Officer Mohamed Said on July 21, 2024.

The prosecution and the defense delivered closing arguments on Tuesday, April 28. The trial lasted for about a week, with numerous witness testimonies, including Lopez’s.

Throughout the trial, Lopez made outbursts in court and was removed from the courtroom at one point. During his testimony after the prosecution rested, he was kicked off the stand on Monday after giving irrelevant information that the judge had ordered him not to mention.

Lopez claimed self-defense in the shooting death of Said, saying he had to in order “to survive, to not get killed."

Prosecutors said Lopez admitted to everything, including an armed robbery that happened the night before and being on different types of drugs. Prosecutors argue Lopez ran away from Said because he was afraid to get caught for possessing the firearm used in the robbery, and killed Said when he was resisting arrest.

Previous coverage:

• Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer kicked off witness stand in trial
• Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer removed from courtroom after another outburst
• ‘Give me a chance’: What man accused of killing Melvindale police officer said in courtroom outburst
• Jury seated in trial against man accused of killing Melvindale police officer
• Law enforcement holds memorial ride for fallen Melvindale police officer
• Oakland County man charged with killing on-duty Melvindale police officer
• Listen to the ‘End of Watch’ call for fallen Melvindale officer Mohamed Said

The animals are part of an interactive installation by American artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) currently showing at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie.

Each printed image shows a snippet of reality transformed by AI to resemble the personality of the dog or, in other words, the worldview of the human figure on its shoulders (i.e., the Picasso dog will produce images in Cubist style and Warhol's in pop art).

It's a commentary on how our perceptions are shaped by algorithms and technology platforms, the organizers of the exhibition write in the description of the event.

“In the past, our view of the world was shaped in part by how artists saw the world,” Beeple told the AP. “How Picasso painted changed how we saw the word, how Warhol talked about consumerism, pop culture, that changed how he saw those things.”

Now our view of the world is shaped by tech billionaires who own powerful algorithms that decide what we see and what we don’t see, the artist added.

“That's an immense amount of power that I don’t think we’ve fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don’t need to lobby the U.N. They don’t need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms.”

The dogs also wear heads in Beeple’s own image.

Lisa Botti, the curator of the exhibition in Berlin, said that artificial intelligence was one of the phenomena most impacting our lives today and that “museums are the places where society can reflect” on such transformations, which is why she wanted to have Beeple’s work shown.

The work, entitled “Regular Animals,” was first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.

Beeple is a graphic designer from South Carolina who does a variety of digital artwork. He is one of the founders of the “everyday” movement in 3D graphics: For years, he has been creating a picture every day and posting it online without missing a single day.

According to Christie's, he is the third most expensive living artist to sell at auction, after David Hockney and Jeff Koons.

In the spring of 2021, Christie’s opened bidding for Beeple's digital collage entitled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” with the sale ultimately closing at over $69 million. The auction house described the artwork as “critiques of modern society, the government and social media” in the form of “grotesque, dystopian futures, often featuring celebrities like Donald Trump and Kanye West.”

Christie’s said the sale marked the first time a major auction house offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. The tokens have swept the online collecting world recently, an offshoot of the boom in cryptocurrencies.

At the Art Basel 2025 event, Beeple gave away the photos pooed by his dogs to audience members, accompanied by a certificate that read “100% organic GMO-free dog shit.” Some prints had QR codes that gave access to free NFTs, which in practice meant Beeple was giving away his digital art for free for people (sometimes the subjects of the photos themselves) to potentially monetize.

——

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

___

Dazio reported from Berlin. Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

Two of the applications filed Friday are sound trademarks covering her voice, one of her saying “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift,” and the other is “Hey, it’s Taylor.”

The third application is for a visual trademark, described in the filing as “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multicolored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multicolored microphone with purple lights in the background.”

The filings were made on behalf on Swift’s TAS Rights Management. All three have been approved and are currently awaiting assignment to an examining attorney.

The Associated Press has reached out to a representative for Swift as well as Rebecca Liebowitz, partner at law firm Venable, who is listed as the attorney on the filings. Requests for comment were not immediately returned.

News of Swift's new trademark filings made the rounds on Monday after first being noticed by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben. In a blog post shared Monday, Gerben theorized that the trademarks are “specifically designed to protect Taylor from threats posed by artificial intelligence,” in response to growing concerns that AI could challenge celebrities' abilities to control their voices and likenesses without their consent.

In his post, Gerben explained that “Right of Publicity” laws — which protect celebrities from having their images or likenesses used to sell products without their permission — offer some protection against unauthorized use of a celebrity's likeness, but trademark filings like Swift's can offer additional protection.

Swift has been a target of AI misuse in the past. Pornographic deepfake images of her have circulated online, making the singer the most famous victim of a scourge that tech platforms and antiabuse groups have struggled to fix. In another instance, the superstar was shown in a fake endorsement of President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, which the then-candidate reposted and shared as genuine.

“The Life of a Showgirl” singer is not the only celebrity to pursue these kinds of trademarks. In January, attorneys for actor Matthew McConaughey secured eight trademarks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office including a sound trademark of his catchphrase “Alright, alright, alright.”

Attorneys for the entertainment law firm Yorn Levine, which represented McConaughey, told Variety the trademarks were filed in an attempt to protect his voice and likeness from unauthorized use by AI, and to protect him in developing new opportunities using AI.

Last year, McConaughey made a deal with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs that will allow its artificial intelligence technology to replicate his voice.

On the same day that the British energy giant reported a banner financial performance, gasoline prices in the U.S. hit new multiyear highs, a point of increasing agitation for travelers, households and also businesses that are particularly sensitive to higher energy prices, such as airlines.

The near closure of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Iran is a flashpoint in the war and the source of much of the economic pain being felt globally. The Trump administration appeared unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to end the war and reopen the strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country.

About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait on a typical day, but the passage has been choked off since the war began in late February. The price for a barrel of Brent crude that cost about $73 on the day before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, was trading for more than $104 Tuesday.

Given soaring energy costs the stellar performance from BP was anticipated, yet it still exceeded the heightened expectations of industry analysts for both profit and revenue.

It was BP’s first earnings report since the war began and the company is the first of the oil majors to post its financial performance, providing a preview of what to expect when other big drillers like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips report earnings later this week.

BP earned $3.84 billion, or $1.47 per share, for the first three months of the year, far exceeding last year’s $687 million, or 26 cents per share, the company said Tuesday. BP's underlying replacement cost profit, which more closely mimics net income reported by U.S. companies, was $3.2 billion. BP has an expansive oil trading operation, so it may outpace other oil giants due to the current volatility in energy markets.

“The Middle East conflict created significant crude and refined products dislocations that BP’s integrated supply chain was positioned to monetize,” wrote James West, managing director and head of Energy and Power Research at Melius.

The London exploration and production company called the performance of its trading desk “exceptional.”

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.18 on Tuesday, according to motor club AAA. That is the highest level since 2022, when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and well over dollar more than a gallon cost one month ago. The war in Iran had been going on for a month at that time, but a gallon still cost less than $4.

Inflation in the U.S. rose sharply last month during largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The surge in gas prices has squeezed the budgets of lower- and middle-income families, making it more difficult to pay for necessities.

But it’s disrupting businesses as well, particularly those sensitive to higher fuel costs. Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up ticket prices.

The huge profits from BP generated online vitriol almost immediately.

In addition to posts from individual social media accounts, organizations weighed in as well.

“Families are being pushed to the brink by spiraling energy bills, while fossil fuel companies turn a war into a windfall,” wrote Clémence Dubois, global campaigns director at 350.org. “This is not just unjust, it’s unacceptable.”

Simon Francis, coordinator with End Fuel Poverty Coalition, wrote on Tuesday that, “These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay.”

BP shares rose more than 1% Tuesday, close to a 52-week high, as did the shares of other major oil producers.

Michigan Lottery officials said a ticket matched the numbers drawn on Saturday (05-16-17-34-36-44) to win the big jackpot.

That winning ticket was sold at New Boston Fuel Stop Inc, at 37330 Huron River Road in New Boston, which is about 30 miles southeast of Ann Arbor.

This is the fourth time the Lotto 47 jackpot has been won in 2026.

The last win was in March, when a player won $1.1 million after purchasing a ticket at Besons Supermarket at 1480 S. Huron Road in Kawkawlin.

The winner of Saturday’s jackpot should contact the Michigan Lottery at 844-917-6325 to schedule an appointment to claim the prize. Tickets are valid for one year from the drawing date.

Tickets are valid for one year from the drawing date.

Lotto 47 tickets cost $1 per play, with players choosing six numbers between one and 47 for a shot at a jackpot that starts at $1 million and climbs until someone wins.

Drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 7:29 p.m.

For an extra $1, players can add Double Play for a second chance to win up to $1.5 million, or EZMatch for a chance to win up to $500 instantly.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted of torture, religious persecution and other inhumane acts in 2024 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Judges found he was a key figure in a reign of terror after Islamic extremist rebels overran Timbuktu in 2012.

“Mr. Al Hassan, as the person found responsible for the crimes, which caused the harm to the victims, is the person financially liable for the cost of repairing the harm,” Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost said, addressing the courtroom in the Dutch city of The Hague.

While the court has declared Al Hassan liable, it won't be able to collect the money from the 49-year-old, who was declared indigent and represented by a court-funded lawyer during his trial.

Instead, reparations for the more than 65,000 victims will be paid by the Trust Fund for Victims, set up by the court’s member states to distribute the funds.

We are “one of the many innovations of the Rome Statute,” the fund’s executive director, Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, told The Associated Press. Under the statute, the court’s founding treaty, the fund “responds to the harm resulting from the crimes under the jurisdiction.”

The 24 staff members in Ruiz Verduzco’s office are tasked with assisting victims and their families, establishing programs in communities destroyed by violence and drumming up financial support.

In its two decades of operation, the trust fund has received money from perpetrators in only one case.

“Substantial fundraising will need to take place,” Prost said.

The bulk of the money will come from the court’s member states, though the fund also accepts private donations. In March, Germany gave 40,000 euros ($46,000). Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands are the three biggest supporters.

Judges guide how the reparations money will be allocated, though they solicit input from the victims through their lawyers and the trust fund.

In the Al Hassan case, the reparations will be used for “socioeconomic support, educational programs or trainings and psychological support,” according to the decision. Projects should target women and girls, who suffered disproportionately under the extremist groups.

Communities in Mali already have seen some restitution. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2016 for destroying historic mausoleums in Timbuktu. In 2021, the trust fund began a project to repair ruined buildings.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, for over a decade has battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Tuesday's decisions comes days after an alliance of al-Qaida-linked militants and separatists carried out the largest coordinated attack in Mali in over a decade.

The withdrawal of nominee Scott Socha comes as the park service has been shaken by widespread firings as part of the Trump administration's pledge to sharply reduce its size.

Socha said in a statement that he was dropping out of consideration for the post for personal reasons.

The park service is currently overseen by an acting director, agency comptroller Jessica Bowron. It did not have a Senate-confirmed director during Trump's first term, when it was led by a series of acting directors.

Socha is president for parks and resorts at Buffalo, New York-based Delaware North, which has service contracts with numerous parks and describes itself as one of the world's largest privately owned entertainment and hospitality companies. A White House spokesperson had said when he was nominated in February that Socha was “totally qualified” to execute Trump’s plans for the park system.

But some conservation groups had questioned whether Socha's private sector work provided the experience he would need to oversee hundreds of national parks and monuments that range from the Statue of Liberty and other cultural sites to remote sites in the Utah desert.

The Associated Press sent email messages to the White House and the Interior Department seeking comment on Socha's withdrawal.

Thousands of employees have been fired or otherwise left the park service since Trump took office.

Emily Douce with the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, said Monday that the next director for the service needs to “undo the damage.”

“It’s very unfortunate that our parks have gone more than a year without a permanent director at a time when they need strong, steady leadership the most,” Douce said.

The Republican administration's proposed budget for next year would reduce staffing to 9,200 employees. That's down almost 30% compared to 2025 levels.

The park service's operating budget would be cut by more than $1 billion, to $2.2 billion, for the 2027 fiscal year that starts in October.

Similar cuts proposed for 2026 were blocked by lawmakers in Congress after park supporters and former employees warned the administration's proposal would have effectively gutted the agency.

The administration also has faced blowback for the removal or planned removal of national park exhibits about slavery, climate change and the destruction of Native American culture. In February, a federal judge said an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at Washington's former home in Philadelphia after the Trump administration had taken it down.

Administration officials have said they are removing “disparaging” messages under an order last year from Trump. Critics accuse it of trying to whitewash the nation’s history.

Under Trump's interior secretary, Doug Burgum, the park service has started charging millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year $100 each to visit sites including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. The service also has put Trump's image onto its annual passes for U.S. citizens, drawing a lawsuit from environmentalists who said the move was illegal.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index inched up to 92.8 in April from 92.2 in March.

Though the gauge measuring American consumers' confidence has ticked up the past two months, the reading remains mired near its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respondents’ comments about prices, oil, gas and the war increased in April as the national average for a gallon of gas in the U.S. rose to $4.18 this week, up more than a dollar since before the war began. The last time U.S. drivers were collectively paying this much at the pump was nearly four years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported earlier this month, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower- and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder to afford other necessities such as food and rent.

“Consumers are singing the blues,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “They aren’t happy with high prices for gas, housing, electricity and many other items. It’s clear consumers aren’t going to feel much better until there’s an end to the Middle East conflict.”

Government data from earlier this month showed that the inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved 2.8% higher in February from a year ago, a sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.

Those higher prices and the prospect of even higher inflation due to the Iran war makes it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate when it wraps up its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate three times to close 2025 in an attempt to support a flagging labor market. However, because lower rates can exacerbate inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target, the Fed has left its overnight lending rate alone at its past two meetings.

In the Conference Board's report Tuesday, a measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market rose 1.2 points to 72.2, but remained well below 80, a marker that can signal a recession ahead. It’s the 15th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.

The index for consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation fell by 0.3 points to 123.8.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer movie season's fashionable kickoff

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

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

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

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

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

The $4 billion question

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

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

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

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

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

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

A summer for heavyweights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The scary movies

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

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

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

The festival darlings and other gems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The attack took place late on Sunday in Guyaku, a village in the Gombi local government area in the country’s Adamawa state, according to the state governor.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on the Telegram messaging app.

Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri denounced the attack as tragic and unacceptable during a visit to the village on Monday.

Nigeria is facing myriad security challenges, especially in the north, where an insurgency has simmered for more than two decades. In February, the United States sent troops to the West African nation to help advise its military on the fight against insecurity.

There are two major IS-backed militant groups in Nigeria but it wasn't immediately clear which one was behind the attack in Guyaki.

The Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, is known to be operating in the northeast, including in Adamawa state, while another IS-linked group known locally as Lakurawa often attacks villages further away in the northcentral states of Sokoto and Kebbi.

The Guyaki attack occurred on the same day that gunmen raided an orphanage in north-central Nigeria and abducted 23 pupils. Fifteen were later rescued and the government said “intensive operations” were underway to "secure the safe return of the remaining eight victims and apprehend the perpetrators.”

Students’ kidnappings have come to define the insecurity in Nigeria, where analysts say armed gangs see schools and students as “strategic” targets to draw attention.

The attack took place in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, according to a statement by the state’s commissioner, Kingsley Femi Fanwo. The facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operating illegally, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a region has seen an increase in kidnappings for ransom. The statement did not say how old the abducted children are, but the term “pupil” in Nigeria usually refers to someone in kindergarten or primary school, covering ages up to 12.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.

The Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) Board approved plans for the Adrian Steel Company to expand its operations in Adrian, according to a release from Whitmer’s office.

“Michigan is on the move and open for business, competing for and winning big projects in industries like steel manufacturing,” said Whitmer. “Today’s announcement will create 40 good-paying jobs and cement Michigan as the best place to build the future. Let’s keep working together to create good-paying jobs, bring supply chains home from overseas, and tell Michigan’s story.”

As part of the project, the MSF Board approved a $320,000 performance-based grant through the Michigan Business Development Program.

The expansion includes a 112,000-square-foot addition to the steel company’s existing facility, creating more space for raw material storage, cutting, forming, welding, painting, assembly, office functions, and shipping operations.

The project is expected to create at least 40 new jobs over the next five years, according to the release. The company’s total investment will be $43,453,278.

To support the investment, the MSF Board also approved a five-year State Essential Services Assessment (SESA) that will fully cover certain taxes. The incentive is valued at up to $228,751 for $25,791,240 in eligible equipment and other personal property.

Additional tax relief is expected, including a property tax abatement from the City of Adrian and a State Education Tax reduction approved by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Officials said that this is the company’s largest investment since 1953.

The planned expansion represents the biggest investment Adrian Steel has made in Michigan since 1953, highlighting the company’s long-standing ties to the state and its continued belief in Michigan’s workforce, infrastructure, and future in manufacturing.

Headquartered in Adrian, the company has evolved into a nationwide leader in automotive aftermarket equipment and cargo management solutions for skilled trades, all while keeping its operations rooted in Michigan.

Beyond the economic benefits, Adrian Steel has built a strong reputation for giving back to the local community, according to the release.

The company regularly supports organizations and initiatives throughout Adrian by donating time, funding, and resources to programs that make a positive impact where its employees live and work.

Officials said this ongoing involvement reflects Adrian Steel’s commitment not just as a major employer, but as an active and responsible member of the community.

“The City of Adrian recognizes Adrian Steel Company as a valued and longstanding community partner,” said Lisa Hewitt-Cruz, community development director for the City of Adrian. “For generations, Adrian has invested in our community, provided quality employment opportunities for our residents, and contributed to the economic strength and stability of our city. We appreciate their continued commitment to our community and proudly support their ongoing success.”

Operation Ghost Rider is underway across Michigan. Here is how it works: Unmarked vehicles with officers riding as passengers spot distracted drivers and immediately radio marked units to pull them over.

This crackdown is happening across Metro Detroit, with more than a dozen agencies taking part.

Distracted driving crashes in Michigan actually went down last year, from nearly 15,000 to about 14,000, but here is the problem: Fatalities went up 10%. 65 people died in 2024 from distracted driving crashes. Nearly 300 have died over the last five years.

Mobile device use behind the wheel is going in the wrong direction, up from 5.2% in 2024 to 5.7% in 2025. In Michigan, it is illegal to hold or manually use your phone while driving, even at a red light. First-time offenders face a $100 fine, and if you cause a crash while on your phone, that fine doubles.

Lieutenant Mike Shaw with the Michigan State Police and Lieutenant Ty Howard joined Local 4 Live to talk about the operation.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan noted in a written ruling that the sole reason provided for her firing last year was Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which vests “executive power” in the president.

He said the reason given for her firing takes her case outside the process that channels many, if not most, categories of disputes between federal employers and employees to avenues of administrative and judicial review outside of district courts.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately comment.

Comey sued after her firing, contending that she was improperly removed solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation or beliefs, the judge noted.

During oral arguments in December, Furman refused to let Comey immediately gather evidence to learn who ordered her firing and how it transpired, saying the government had made serious arguments that her firing must first be considered by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.

Comey claimed in her September lawsuit that her dismissal — soon after she led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and won a conviction on prostitution-related charges — was retribution because her father is a Trump foe. Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017.

Furman set a May 28 hearing for an initial pretrial conference in the civil case.

Law enforcement authorities said the suspect was arrested near the city of Patra, some 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of the Greek capital.

The gunman initially opened fire at the social security office, wounding an employee, police said. Police officers who arrived at the scene treated the man, but the gunman fled the scene.

Local media aired security camera footage that it said was from a local store near the social security office, which showed a man walking calmly across the street carrying what appears to be a short-barreled shotgun in his right hand.

The same man was suspected of later opening fire on the ground floor of a court building in another part of central Athens, with several people wounded there, police said, adding that authorities had found the shotgun.

Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

The head of the Athens Judicial Employees Union, Stratis Dounias, said that initial information indicated that the man had shot at the floor inside one of the offices in the court building. At least three female court employees were slightly wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets, while media reports said that a fourth female employee was transported to a hospital without physical injuries.

The motive for the shooting was unclear. State broadcaster ERT said that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents after the shooting at the courthouse, saying those were the reasons for his actions.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund's offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee to duck. His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trench coat under which he had hidden the shotgun.

“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn't appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

The wounded employee was transported to a hospital, after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.

A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta gave birth to a healthy 5-1/2 pound (2.5-kilogram) girl just before the Boeing 737 landed at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday night. Two paramedics who happened to be on the flight assisted, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord.

Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.

Her mom, Ashley Blair, who is from Tennessee, was flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but didn't quite make it. She went into labor about half an hour from Portland.

One of the paramedics, Tina Fritz, told The Associated Press on Monday that she and the other paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. They had been helping a nurse attend to the medical needs of another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.

They found Blair was indeed in labor and contractions were getting close. It was a full flight with 153 passengers on board — soon to be 154 — so they began moving the passengers next to Blair back to their seats to make room for the delivery.

They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, a sterile set of medical tools used in emergency childbirth. Fritz said they had to improvise when neither was available.

They got blankets from other passengers and a shoestring from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.

Then, Fritz recalled, the mother yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”

As she was doing so, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down.

“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” she said.

Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly,” Fritz said. “It was nice.”

Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.

“Baby pinked up right away,” Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mom was a rock star.”

After the plane began taxiing to the jetway, they handed the baby to Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos.

A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation,” Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said in an email to The Associated Press.

In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses assisted flight attendants, but Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger. Delta didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.

“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland. The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best,” Delta said in the statement.

Blair didn’t return messages from the AP. Fritz, who has been keeping in touch with Blair since the birth, said she's been a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

“I feel like we’re friends now forever,” Fritz said.

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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

He was 10 and half when the first film was released in theaters in 1977, which he went to see with his dad. From the opening shot of that Imperial Star Destroyer filling the screen, he was forever changed. It made him fall in love with the movies: The wonder, the world, the spectacle and the shared experience.

By the time “Return of the Jedi” came out he’d even found a job that was a little closer to the action: Movie theater usher.

For a screenwriter, director, actor and producer who has a billion-dollar film to his name, in addition to all that comes with being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s always been ready to raise his hand when it comes to Star Wars. He voiced a Mandalorian in “The Clone Wars,” played an alien in “Solo” and helped create “The Mandalorian” series and his immensely popular counterpart, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). But believe it or not, he only ever got to direct one episode of the show (the first of the second season). So, yes, Favreau has paid his dues and now, at 59, he finally has a Star Wars movie of his own coming to theaters on May 22.

Inviting a new generation to Star Wars

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” is not simply Season 4 of the show on the big screen. Favreau should know, since he wrote both. And, perhaps more importantly, he knew there couldn’t be any presumption of Mandalorian knowledge. Writing a show, he said, you can assume that the audience will have seen the prior season. A movie is different; it has to be if it’s going to be a blockbuster.

“Even though in our hearts we are Star Wars fans, we make it for Star Wars fans, and we know that there’s a certain set of expectations around what Star Wars should be that we collectively hold, there is the responsibility to invite a whole new generation of people into Star Wars,” Favreau said. “That means that if a Star Wars fan brings somebody who’s not, they’ve got to have as good of a time as the fans do.”

It’s been nearly seven years since there was a new Star Wars movie released in theaters. That means there’s a whole group of a six-and-a-half-year-olds who’ve yet to have a first time experience of their own.

“I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time,” Favreau said.

It can be intimidating going into a movie knowing that there were three seasons of television leading up to it. But the nice thing about Star Wars is, even people who don’t know it at least kind of know it. Remember, Favreau said, George Lucas plopped audiences in the middle of an adventure in 1977 without a lot of explanation.

“George has always understood that you have to fit into the mythic structure,” Favreau said. “There are certain story types that we connect with and understand and even if we might not know the particulars of the story he’s telling, we could drop right in and understand and know who to cheer for.”

For this film, Favreau is pretty sure that most people have heard of Baby Yoda and can pick up on the dynamic between the little green guy and his enigmatic bounty hunter counterpart, played once again by Pedro Pascal. If you are a newcomer, that’s pretty much all that you need to know. Also, the Mandalorian has a name: Din Djarin.

Din Djarin is a bit different

Season three left Din Djarin and Grogu at peace, at least for a moment. He's adopted Grogu as his son and apprentice, and they plan to live in a small cabin and take some jobs here and there to help protect the Outer Rim.

“He made it clear that he was only going to work for the good guys now,” Favreau said. “We switched the Western archetype from the bounty hunter to the guy who’s hunting down the bad guys in the wanted posters on the post office wall for the sheriff.”

When we meet him again in the film, “he’s a bit different from when we first met him, but he’s still, at his heart, a gunfighter and a warrior,” Favreau said. They're hunting down ex-Imperial warlords who seem to be organizing. (Remember, these events happen after “Return of the Jedi” and before “The Force Awakens.” )

And he’s not exactly thrilled about his new assignment which will put him back in the orbit of the Hutt family. Yes, Jabba the Hutt had a son, his name is Rotta, he is played by internet boyfriend Jeremy Allen White — and he's a gladiator.

“That’s one of those fun things for people who may have been following along since the first ‘Clone Wars’ film,” Favreau said. “If you don’t know who he is, you’re going to figure it out pretty quick. And he’s a lot different than people remember, and I think we have a bit of fun with that.”

Also, for superfans, Favreau is pretty sure they don’t ever refer to him by his nickname, “Stinky.”

White isn’t the only Star Wars newcomer. Sigourney Weaver plays a New Republic leader; Martin Scorsese is an alien shopkeeper.

Upping the spectacle for IMAX

“The Mandalorian” always felt more cinematic than your average television show thanks to its innovative virtual sets known as the Volume, but the big screen demands something spectacular. And it turns out, more time, space and money help out quite a bit in making something worthy of the theater.

“With the bigger screen and the larger production value, we were able to dip into another one of George Lucas’ influences, which is the Flash Gordon-style space opera where you get big monsters and creatures and worlds,” he said. “We get to do a lot more than we had the ability to do when we had to turn the show around in a year and fit it onto a television screen. Now we’re in IMAX, we had several years to do it. We got to build sets, we got to build miniatures, we got to have stop motion set pieces … it opened up a lot of opportunities to do things that we never got to do before.”

Favreau said they had a whole backlot to work with and a set of stages to build on. They could play with water and snow and environments that just weren’t possible with the show.

The future of Star Wars

The Star Wars galaxy is in a time of transition as everyone figures out what the next era of films might look like under its new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Earlier this year it was announced that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who produced “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” was stepping down after 13 years.

“She’s definitely a Mount Rushmore producer,” Favreau said. “I also think she did a wonderful job preparing the next generation.”

He’s still working closely with Kennedy, and Filoni, to bring the Mandalorian movie to theaters. He's not too worried about the box office side of things.

“All of it comes down to seeing it with an audience,” Favreau said. “That’s the part I’m looking forward to.”

___

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

McDonald’s said Tuesday it will launch six crafted beverages in U.S. restaurants on May 6. It’s joining other chains, like KFC, Wendy’s and Taco Bell, that have elevated their drinks in order to lure customers away from rivals like Starbucks and Dutch Bros.

McDonald’s will offer three refreshers, including a mango pineapple flavor with strawberry boba and a blackberry passion fruit flavor with freeze-dried dragon fruit. It will also offer three crafted sodas, including a dirty Dr Pepper with vanilla flavoring and a topping of cold foam.

McDonald's said visual appeal — think bright colors and foams — and drinks as a form of self-expression are increasingly important to customers.

“Our fans have an obsession with beverages – to them, drinks are more than just drinks. And soon, our beverages won’t just be a reason you come to McDonald’s, they’ll be THE reason,” Alyssa Buetikofer, the chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA, said in a statement.

The drinks are also more profitable for fast food chains than the standard soda fountain drinks or plain coffees. A small Pineapple Citrus Sparkling Energy drink cost $3.29 on Tuesday at a Michigan Wendy's, while a small drink from the restaurant's Coca-Cola Freestyle machine cost $1 less.

McDonald's said it's also adding a “beverage specialist” role at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Those employees will have dedicated spaces behind the counter where they can focus on drinks. Initially, high-performing employees will be selected for those roles, but eventually all employees will be encouraged to rotate through the beverage positions.

McDonald’s has been working on a beverage upgrade for years. In late 2023, the company announced it would open small stores called CosMc’s which would sell customizable drinks and treats to appeal to afternoon snackers. McDonald’s said its sales often slump in the afternoon between mealtimes, and it wants to change that.

“This is a $100 billion category that’s growing faster than the rest of (casual dining) and with superior margins. And it’s a space that we believe we have the right to win,” McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said at the time.

McDonald’s got creative with the CosMc’s menu, which included a turmeric spiced latte and a prickly pear slushie with popping candy on top. But it wound up closing its eight CosMc’s locations last spring. Kempczinski said many of the drinks were too complex for regular McDonald’s store operations, but he said the company would test some drinks at U.S. stores in the future.

Other chains are also jumping on the beverage bandwagon. KFC’s Kwench drink menu did so well in tests in Manchester, England, last year that it’s rolling out to 3,000 stores this year in the U.K., Australia and Canada. The menu includes shakes, like a Strawberry Shortcake Krunch, as well as boba refreshers and iced coffees.

Taco Bell, which is also owned by KFC parent Yum Brands, has a separate beverage brand called Live Mas Café. At kiosks within U.S. Taco Bell stores, employees dubbed Bellristas blend drinks like Churro Chillers milkshakes, iced coffees and fizzy energy drinks. Taco Bell opened its first Live Mas Café at the end of 2024 and added 30 more locations last year.

In a November conference call with investors, Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said that if sales perform well at those 30 locations, the Live Mas Café concept will likely be part of Taco Bell’s long-term growth plan.

“Through Live Mas Café, (we) add a new consumer use case, which is the destination beverage visit,” he said.

Wendy’s added customizable cold foam iced coffees and two sparkling energy drinks to its U.S. menu last fall. Burger King has also upgraded its beverage options, starting with a Frozen Cotton Candy drink with an optional foam topping that debuted in 2024 and returned last summer.

Michael Bacigalupo, 64, of Essexville, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

He was also ordered to pay $196,641.17 in restitution to the Bay County Historical Society and $151,000 to the Bay City State Theatre or its successor. After his release, he must also serve two years of supervised release.

From June 2020 to November 2023, Bacigalupo simultaneously served in the following positions:

• Director of the Bay City Downtown Development Authority
• Chief Operating Officer of the Bay City State Theatre
• Executive Director of the Bay City Historical Society

Without board approval from either organization, Bacigalupo used the funds to renovate the Wenona Park Bandshell.

“In the first phase of the scheme, Bacigalupo approached the Bay County Growth Alliance (BCGA), a local non-profit lender, and obtained an $800,000 loan using the BCST building as collateral. He falsely represented to BCGA that the BCST Board had approved the transaction and provided fabricated board minutes to substantiate that lie,” according to the release.

Once he retrieved the loan money, he put it toward the bandshell project.

Bacigalupo made partial repayments of $277,000, but then stopped making payments, leaving a balance of at least $523,000.

Due to being unable to service a debt it never gave approval for, the theatre ultimately declared bankruptcy, according to the release.

Then, from November 2020 to January 2022, Bacigalupo used $231,541 of the Bay County Historical Society’s funding for the same project, altering accounting records and creating fake contractor invoices to do so.

Due to this, the society couldn’t complete renovations to its museum and had to lay off staff members.

In addition, Bacigalupo also received approval for a $900,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Officials said he misrepresented the purpose of the funds and the identity of the applicant to get the approval.

When the agency requested documentation to release an initial $450,000, he submitted falsified invoices and accounting records. The documentation was deemed insufficient, and the grant was withheld.

The organization found that the documentation was insufficient and withheld the grant.

“Fraud in the garb of civic leadership is still fraud. And this man’s fraud hurt cherished Bay City organizations,” United States Attorney Gorgon said.

And the Thunder did it with a sweep — again.

For the third consecutive season, the Thunder needed only four games to advance through the Western Conference quarterfinals. It was against New Orleans in 2024, Memphis in 2025 and this year, it was Phoenix that went out by the dreaded 4-0 count.

The Thunder became the second franchise — since the NBA went to a best-of-seven first round in 2003 — to go 12-0 in conference quarterfinal games over a three-season span. Cleveland did it in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Oklahoma City’s win Monday capped off the lone Round 1 sweep this season. There has been at least one sweep in the first round annually since 2003.

San Antonio and Boston could join the Thunder in Round 2 with wins on Tuesday. Both the Spurs (vs. Portland) and the Celtics (vs. Philadelphia) play at home with 3-1 series leads. Also on the schedule for Tuesday night: Game 5 of a knotted-up Atlanta-New York series, which returns to Madison Square Garden.

Monday recaps

— Magic 94, Pistons 88 for a 3-1 series lead. Detroit is in some trouble.

— Thunder 131, Suns 122 to win series 4-0.

— Nuggets 125, Timberwolves 113 to get within 3-2 in series.

Stories of note

— Damon Jones set to enter guilty plea

— Edwards (knee) officially week to week

— NBA going through bids from Europe

— Pat Riley says Heat will be ‘aggressive’

— An interesting year for Tiago Splitter

— There's a standard in Oklahoma City

— Taylor Jenkins set to return to Milwaukee

— AJ Dybantsa formally enters NBA draft

— Donovan steps down as Chicago's coach

— Warriors brace for possible Kerr departure

— Some news, notes going into the postseason

— Heat equipment manager needs transplants

Awards watch

The latest NBA award to be handed out: Rookie of the Year, where Dallas' Cooper Flagg edged fellow former Duke player Kon Knueppel of Charlotte for the trophy. That was revealed Monday.

Other awards being announced this week are Basketball Executive of the Year on Tuesday, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year on Wednesday and the Hustle Award on Thursday. They'll all be announced at 1 p.m. EDT on one of the NBA's social media channels.

A breakdown on other awards handed out to this point:

— San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama became the youngest Defensive Player of the Year, and the first to win the award in a unanimous vote.

— Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nearly became the first unanimous winner of the Clutch Player of the Year award. He got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes.

— San Antonio's Keldon Johnson topped Miami's Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Sixth Man of the Year, getting 63 first-place votes.

— Boston's Derrick White was revealed as the Sportsmanship Award winner, as selected by the league's players. Indiana's TJ McConnell — who got more first-place votes than anyone else — was second.

— Atlanta now has back-to-back Most Improved Player winners, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker taking that trophy this year. Dyson Daniels won for the Hawks last year.

Among the announcements still to be scheduled:

— Most Valuable Player, which will be either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year, which will be either Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Tuesday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Philadelphia at Boston (ESPN)

8 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Atlanta at New York (NBC/Peacock)

9:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Portland at San Antonio (ESPN)

Wednesday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Orlando at Detroit (Prime)

7:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Toronto at Cleveland (ESPN)

10 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Houston at LA Lakers (ESPN)

Betting odds

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (-105) are favorites to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+400), Boston (+425), Cleveland (+1500), Denver (+2500) and the Los Angeles Lakers (+2500).

New York is +3000, followed by Detroit (+5000). Minnesota, even with a 3-2 series lead, is at +30000 after injuries to Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards.

Key dates

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“Job's not finished." — Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley, channeling Kobe Bryant's famous quote, after the Magic took a 3-1 series lead on Detroit.

Stats of the day

— Orlando took a 3-1 series lead on Detroit on April 27, 2026. The last time an eighth-seeded Magic team took a 3-1 series lead on top-seeded Detroit was April 27, 2003.

— Entering the weekend, teams were 3-84 (since 1970) when shooting 32.6% or less in a playoff game. Teams are 2-0 so far this week doing that, with wins by Toronto on Sunday and now Orlando on Monday.

— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made his only fourth-quarter shot on Monday. The Thunder star has made 19 of his last 20 field-goal attempts in fourth quarters or overtimes, going back to mid-March.

___

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

The Alabama-based nonprofit was indicted last week on charges of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said the group misled donors by using their money to pay informants who served as leaders in the very hate groups the organization was founded to fight.

In its first legal defense against the charges, the group filed motions in federal court in Alabama asking the court to order acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to retract statements saying the government had “no information” about the informant program, and to block him from making further similar statements. Blanche made the comment in a press conference last week and later on Fox News as he announced charges against the nonprofit.

The filings detail three instances in which the SPLC says information from its informant program was shared with law enforcement to help stop the activities of racist groups. Attorneys for the SPLC presented information from at least one of those cases during an April meeting with prosecutors, attorneys said. The group asked Blanche for a retraction after he said authorities had been kept in the dark, but the government declined, according to the group.

“The Department of Justice is well aware that the SPLC provided helpful information, through the use of its confidential informants, to law enforcement,” the group said in its filing. “The Department of Justice also knows that these confidential informants helped law enforcement put violent extremists in jail.”

Lawyers for the group said Blanche's comments could taint the jury pool and compromise the group's right to a fair trial.

President Donald Trump has seized on the case, calling SPLC one of the “greatest political scams in American History” and connecting it to his false claims that he won the 2020 election. Critics have called it a politically motivated prosecution that weaponizes the Justice Department to punish opponents of conservatives.

The SPLC lays out examples of how it shared informant information

The indictment accuses the group of secretly promoting racist groups while publicly saying it was fighting them. For example, prosecutors said an SPLC-paid informant helped plan the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attended the rally at the direction of the SPLC.

But in its filings, the SPLC said it sent a 45-page “event alert” to the FBI in advance of the rally with information gathered from the informant program, including information about some attendees’ weapons.

In one 2019 case, the SPLC said a tip from its informant program helped thwart a planned attack in Las Vegas. The group said it shared information with law enforcement that led to the FBI's arrest of a man associated with Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group. A Justice Department news release from 2020 said the man discussed attacking a synagogue and a bar catering to LGBTQ customers. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

In another case, the SPLC said intel from the informant program was passed to law enforcement and led to the conviction of a man who lied about his ties to a white supremacist group while requesting national security clearance. The man, who was not identified in court documents, had been working at Philadelphia's Navy Yard in 2018 and was convicted and sentenced to prison following the tip, the group said.

Attorneys for the SPLC said they presented evidence to prosecutors at an April 6 meeting showing how information from the informant program was shared with law enforcement in that case.

Alongside its request for a retraction, the SPLC filed a motion asking for grand jury transcripts to make sure false statements weren't used to secure the indictment. It said mischaracterizations by the Justice Department “suggest that the grand jury was not merely misled by the government’s presentation of the law, but likely that it was actively weaponized to facilitate such charges.”

The government says the group was ‘manufacturing’ extremism

Prosecutors say the SPLC funneled more than $3 million in donated money to informants who were leaders in the KKK, the neo-Nazi National Alliance and other hate groups. The center is charged with defrauding donors and making false statements to create bank accounts that were used to relay money to informants.

Blanche said at a press conference that the group was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” Justice Department officials have said these are the first charges in an ongoing investigation.

The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who founded and led Turning Point USA. The SPLC had characterized Kirk's group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024” in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO of SPLC, said information shared with the FBI has saved lives.

“When threats and other unlawful activity were revealed, the SPLC immediately passed that information to law enforcement officials, local, state and federal and assisted in efforts to prevent violence and stop criminal activity,” Fair said.

The crash occurred Monday when a long-distance train crashed into the rear car of the stopped commuter train at Bekasi Timur Station outside Jakarta. The car was one designated for women only, a common accommodation to stop harassment.

A total of 88 injured people were taken to hospitals for treatment, said Bobby Rasyidin, CEO of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia. The bodies of the dead were taken to a hospital for further identification.

“We are currently ensuring that all victims receive the best possible care,” said Rasyidin.

Rescue teams completed the evacuation of all victims from inside the wreckage about midmorning. “There are no further casualties,” said Mohammad Syafii, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

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

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

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation said in a written statement that authorities believe the incident began when another commuter train hit a stalled taxi near Bekasi Timur Station.

That led staff to stop a second commuter train at the station, where it was struck by a long-distance commuter train.

“As for the chronology of events, we are leaving it to the National Transportation Safety Committee to investigate the cause of tonight’s train accident in greater detail,” Rasyidin said.

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

___

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

A Detroit homeowner let his rental property rot for 15 years. His neighbor has had enough

Lou Hatty is sick of looking at it. He’s lived on the 4000 block of Courville Street in East English Village since 1956.

He owns three houses on the block, his own home, plus two others that he rents out.

But it’s the two-story brick-and-wood house next door, one of the rental properties, that has become the bane of his existence.

Read more here.

Grosse Pointe North High School grad Jamie Ding falls on ‘Jeopardy!’ after 31 Wins

Grosse Pointe North High School graduate Jamie Ding saw his 31-game winning run on “Jeopardy!” come to an end Monday night, falling to fellow contestant Greg Shahade.

Jamie Ding, a Metro Detroit native, entered the game on the verge of moving into fourth place on the show’s all-time consecutive wins list.

Read more here.

Detroit couple battles basement flooding for decades; city says they have no record of sewer line

A lifelong Detroit couple has been dealing with a flooded basement for the five decades they’ve lived there, but it’s gotten much worse in the past weeks.

They’ve been calling the city daily asking for help. They weren’t getting anywhere, so they called Local 4 and the city was out within half an hour.

“I had to call Channel 4 news in order to get some response,” Melvin Beasley said. “I just thank God that y’all were able to take care of this matter for me.”

Read more here.

Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer kicked off witness stand in trial

The man accused of killing a Melvindale police officer in 2024 was removed from the witness stand on Monday after mentioning information unrelated to the case.

Michael Lopez, 44, of Southfield, is on trial for allegedly shooting and killing Melvindale Police Officer Mohamed Said on July 21, 2024.

Previously, he was removed from court on Friday after an outburst in court, making allegations against Said, which prosecutors said were false. He was also heard shouting from his holding cell as the trial continued without him on April 24.

Read more here.

Weather: Windy conditions in Metro Detroit Tuesday, cold air and rain chances return this week

After overnight showers, rain ends this morning with mostly dry conditions through remainder of the day. Still mild in the wake of a warm front with highs in the mid to upper 60s, but windy. Gusts will be between 20-30 mph today. Clouds will give way to sunshine as the day rolls on, so after school practice and games will be a go!

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The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) reported the crash on westbound I-94 near Little Mack just after 6:30 a.m. on April 28.

It’s unclear if anyone was injured. The freeway reopened just after 7:30 a.m.

Previous coverage

Michael Lopez, 44, of Southfield, is on trial for allegedly shooting and killing Melvindale Police Officer Mohamed Said on July 21, 2024.

Previously, he was removed from court on Friday after an outburst in court, making allegations against Said, which prosecutors said were false. He was also heard shouting from his holding cell as the trial continued without him on April 24.

--> Man accused of killing Melvindale police officer removed from courtroom after another outburst

He also made an outburst that caused the trial to pause briefly before Friday’s incident, telling the jury his attorney was no longer working for him. However, the same attorney returned to trial.

--> ‘Give me a chance’: What man accused of killing Melvindale police officer said in courtroom outburst

After prosecutors rested on Monday, April 27, the defense called its first witness to the stand: Lopez.

Before he gave testimony, the judge ordered him not to mention information unrelated to the case before the jury. At first, Lopez was hesitant and refused to agree to the orders. The information the judge told him not to mention was related to Friday’s outburst. Lopez eventually agreed before taking the stand.

In his testimony, he mentioned he took various drugs -- including cocaine, fentanyl and meth -- the day before Said was shot and killed.

He said he always felt uncomfortable around police and noticed that a cop car was following him while he was hanging out near a car wash with his friend on July 21, 2024.

Lopez said the encounter with Said began when he flicked a cigarette on the ground, and the officer told him to pick it up. After Lopez claimed Said was aggressively questioning him, he said he ran off.

Lopez claimed at one point that he was shot in the back, leading him to believe his life was in danger.

He said that after he fell to the ground, Said was on top of him with a gun to his face. Lopez then shot and killed Said.

Lopez became emotional when he started detailing when he shot and killed Said. He said he shot the officer “to survive, to not get killed,” claiming he had to in self-defense.

He then continued to run off and went into hiding before he was found by police a day later.

During cross-examination, prosecutors mentioned that Lopez was involved in three separate occasions where he ran from police. Lopez did not deny those claims.

Prosecutors also questioned Lopez about the gun he used to shoot and kill Said, saying it was used in an armed robbery the day before Said was killed. This led to prosecutors asking Lopez if the reason he was afraid of police was that he knew he was going to be investigated for the gun.

Lopez then mentioned information that the judge had told him was not allowed to be said in court in front of the jury. The prosecution said the allegations against Said were unfounded and false.

Due to not following the judge’s orders to not mention irrelevant information, Lopez was kicked off the stand. He also tried to talk directly to the jury again.

The trial is expected to resume on April 28 at 9 a.m.

Random House Books for Young Readers announced Tuesday that “EXTRAordinary! A Little EXTRA to Reach BIG Dreams” will be published Nov. 3. In rhyming verse, the WNBA star shares a message about the importance of effort and support.

Clark, whose book features illustrations by Adriana Predoi, was inspired by an inscription above the mirror that hung in her childhood bedroom: “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little EXTRA.”

“Basketball has given me so many incredible opportunities, but what has always meant the most to me are the people who’ve supported me along the way,” Clark said in a statement. “I hope this book reminds kids that they’re never alone in chasing their dreams and that giving a little extra to the people and moments is what makes them EXTRAordinary.”

The 24-year-old Indiana Fever guard, widely credited with raising the profile of women's basketball, returned to action recently after injuries limited her to 13 games in 2025. She scored seven points Saturday in a preseason victory over the New York Liberty.

Shower chances return tomorrow morning into the early afternoon. Much colder air moves in Wednesday through Friday with highs in the 50s and cooler than average temps holds through the weekend bringing frost/freezing potential for a several nights. This weekend is shaping up to the dry with afternoon highs on either side of 60.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1916, Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of the company that bears his name and is known for stylish, high-performance cars, was born in Italy.

Here are a few things to know about for Tuesday, April 28, 2026:

⛅ 4Warn Weather: After overnight showers, rain ends this morning with mostly dry conditions through the remainder of the day. Check the 10-day forecast.

🏫 Under Investigation: Discussions and demands for accountability continued in the Oak Park School District on Monday night, as the school board addressed several controversies. Read more.

💧 Discolored Water: People living in manufactured housing communities across southeast Michigan say their water is brown and yellow. They’re asking Local 4 to find out why. Read more.

📺 Winning Streak Ends: Grosse Pointe North High School graduate Jamie Ding saw his 31-game winning run on “Jeopardy!” come to an end last night, falling to fellow contestant Greg Shahade. Read more.

🔥 Car Into House: A speeding driver slammed into a home on Detroit’s west side Sunday, igniting a fire that left a family with nothing. Read more.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

A fire on Mackinac Island over the weekend is believed to have been sparked by an exploding e-bike battery -- the island’s 10th e-bike-related fire. Dane Kelly reporting:

According to authorities, smoke was spotted at about 7:30 a.m., Saturday, April 25, from a building on Cadotte Avenue. A Good Samaritan called 911 and attempted to contain the blaze before emergency crews arrived.

Firefighters entered the building, extinguished the fire and threw the burning e-bike battery out a window. Authorities said the battery had been stored in an “explosion-proof bag” -- but the bag failed to contain the explosion.

The fire comes less than a week after an exploding e-bike killed an Upper Peninsula resident.

Officials are urging people to be cautious with e-bikes due to the fire risks.

E-bike safety: What riders need to know

• E-bikes and e-scooters typically run on lithium-ion batteries, which can overheat, catch fire or even explode if damaged, defective or misused. Fires fueled by these batteries burn extremely hot and release toxic gases.
• Experts recommend only purchasing and using devices, batteries and chargers listed by a nationally recognized testing laboratory. Riders should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use only the original or compatible charger and battery.
• When it comes to charging and storage, riders should avoid charging past full and charge devices one at a time to prevent circuit overload. Batteries should be kept at room temperature.
• Batteries should also be kept away from direct sunlight, hot vehicles, liquids and children, and should be stored away from exit doors and flammable materials.
• Repairs should only be performed by a qualified professional. Lithium-ion batteries should never be thrown in the trash -- they should be recycled or disposed of according to local waste guidelines.
• Riders should stop using a battery immediately if it shows any warning signs, including unusual odor, color change, excessive heat, physical deformation, leaking, smoking or an inability to hold a charge.
• If a fire breaks out, leave the area immediately, do not attempt to fight the fire and call 911.

More e-bike safety tips can be found on the official National Fire Protection Association website.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• Detroit Pistons near infamous NBA history as Cunningham, Duren’s poor play fuels potential early exit
• ‘He was my heart and soul’: Fundraiser launched for family of man killed in Westland house fire
• King Charles III to meet Trump and address Congress in bid to spotlight UK-US ties
• ‘Detroit basketball’: How John Mason turned a simple phrase into a Pistons playoff tradition
• 5 bald eagles found dead in 2 weeks. Michigan officials are trying to find out why
• Baby on board: Paramedics help passenger give birth just before Delta flight lands
• Lynch & Sons Funeral Directors purchases former Perry Funeral Home in Detroit
• Man pleads guilty to plotting attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austrian media report
• Man charged with attempted assassination of Trump in White House correspondents’ dinner shooting
• Find more Local News headlines here
• Find more Entertainment headlines here
• Find more Health headlines here
• Check out the latest ClickOnDeals here
• Introducing the ClickOnDetroit Help Desk: How it works and how to use it

🌎 Meanwhile

News from around the world via the Associated Press:

Archaeologists at the ancient Roman site of Pompeii have used artificial intelligence for the first time to digitally reconstruct the face of a victim of the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that smothered the city, offering a new way to understand one of history’s most famous natural disasters.

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

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

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A Sumatran orangutan has been filmed for the first time using a human-made canopy bridge to cross a public road on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, conservationists said Monday.

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

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

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Donald W. Riegle, who represented Michigan in Congress for nearly three decades under seven presidents, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 88.

Riegle, who began his career as a Republican and later became a Democrat, died Friday of cardiac arrest at his home in San Diego, according to a family statement.

“The cornerstone of our family, Don was a kind, loving, courageous leader who taught us to stand up for justice, economic opportunity, and fairness for everyone,” the statement said. (Read more)

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📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Auspices /AW-spuh-siz/ (noun) -- defined as “patronage, support, or guidance from an organization or individual.”

Example: “The event was held under the auspices of the university.”

🧹 Housekeeping

Hey, if you like this newsletter, let us know. We’d love your feedback. We also offer several other newsletters, including Live in the D, All 4 Pets and more. Hopefully, we have one that caters to your interests -- unless you’re only interested in large Lego sets. We don’t have one for that, sorry.

✍🏽 Written and curated by: Samantha Sayles (Have something to say? Feel free to send an email here.)

Detroit, which finished the regular season with a 60-22 record, now trails the best-of-seven series 3-1 and faces elimination in Game 5 on Wednesday (April 27) inside Little Caesars Arena.

A loss would place the Pistons in rare and unwelcome company.

Only two teams in NBA history, the 2011 San Antonio Spurs and the 2007 Dallas Mavericks, have won at least 60 games and failed to advance past the first round, both losing in six games.

Detroit has struggled to find consistency throughout the series and has been largely outplayed by Orlando, aside from a strong third quarter in Game 2, its only win.

All-Star guard Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points in Game 4 but continued to battle turnover issues.

Cunningham shot seven for 23 from the field and committed eight turnovers.

The trend has been costly.

Cunningham had nine turnovers in Game 3 and seven in Game 2, totaling 24 over the last three games.

According to ESPN, that marks the most turnovers in a three-game postseason span since the league began tracking the statistic in the 1977-78 season.

Center Jalen Duren finished with 12 points but had four turnovers and has struggled to make a consistent impact.

Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. has outplayed him through four games.

Veteran Tobias Harris added 20 points and six rebounds but missed all five of his 3-point attempts, including several open looks late as Detroit attempted to rally.

Michigan Wolverines alum Duncan Robinson scored seven points but shot just one for six from beyond the arc and was targeted defensively by Orlando.

As a team, Detroit struggled from long range in the second half, going one for 16 from three-point distance.

Despite the deficit, the Pistons can draw from franchise history.

In 2003, an Orlando team led by Tracy McGrady and coached by Doc Rivers took a 3-1 series lead over Detroit before the Pistons, led by Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince, rallied to win the series in seven games.

To avoid a similar fate in reverse, Detroit will need a sharper performance, and quickly.

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. inside Little Caesars Arena.

Maybe this strong start from all five teams isn't that big a surprise after all.

“I think it’s a really good division,” Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman said. “Obviously, good pitching, good offenses, and all the teams have gotten off to a good start. So we know that we've got our work cut out for us in this division.”

Heading into Tuesday, the NL Central is the only division in baseball in which every team has a winning record. It's the second-latest date in a season that every NL Central club has been over .500, according to Sportradar, trailing May 29, 2004, when the division had six teams and each one was 23-22 or better.

The NL Central and NL West each had a composite record of 80-61, followed by the AL East at 73-69. The NL East (64-79), AL Central (66-79) and AL West (66-80) all had losing records as a division.

It's impressive territory for an NL Central that had four teams among MLB's 12 smallest payrolls on opening day.

“There are good athletes in the NL Central. The style of play is interesting," St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "You see how collectively they play the game and where their record’s at right now.”

Powered by Cruz and Stewart, the Cincinnati Reds lead the way with an 18-10 record. The Cubs are 1 1/2 games back, followed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in third at 16-13. The Cardinals are 15-13, and the Milwaukee Brewers are last with a 14-13 mark.

Milwaukee won the division in 2025 for the third consecutive year. Chicago and Cincinnati also made the playoffs as wild cards.

“We had three teams in the playoffs last year. We were the only division in the National League to have three,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "In previous years, we’ve never had respect. ... The (division) has been very good and last year was evidence. This year is not surprising.”

The Cubs signed Bregman to a $175 million, five-year contract in free agency, and the Reds and Pirates also made significant offseason additions. But the Central also has benefited from the arrival of a group of promising young hitters.

Stewart, 22, leads the majors with 29 RBIs in 28 games for the Reds. Moisés Ballesteros, 22, is batting .387 in 25 games for the Cubs. Wetherholt, 23, has connected for a solo homer in each of his last three games.

Griffin, who signed a $140 million, nine-year contract with Pittsburgh on April 8, is showing signs of shaking off his slow start. He hit his first career homer on his 20th birthday Friday.

“A ton of young talent in the division, and I feel like that’s really exciting,” Bregman said.

The Central also has been helped by a patient approach at the plate.

The Cubs lead the National League with 130 walks, followed by the Brewers at 126 and the Reds at 119. The Pirates are fifth with 110, and the Cardinals have 103 walks so far.

“It’s about trying to put together quality at-bats and those are leading to walks,” Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell said. "It’s part of our identity, putting together quality at-bats.”

It remains to be seen how the standings shake out once the NL Central starts seeing more of each other. St. Louis played its first division game Monday night when it rallied for a 4-2 victory at Pittsburgh. Cincinnati, Chicago and Milwaukee have played just three division games apiece.

“It’s a lot of really good teams," Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “When you look at the way we got three teams into the playoffs last year and the way we’ve started out this year with all five teams playing good baseball, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s cool to see the division be so strong. There’s going to be a lot of really good games.”

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AP freelance reporters Rich Rovito and Santos Perez contributed to this report.

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

Literally.

Scenes of Japanese soccer fans sweeping stadiums and picking up trash after a match first drew public attention in France in 1998 — Japan's first appearance in the World Cup.

The tradition has continued every four years. It happened at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, and it's certain to continue when Japan opens play in June with group games in Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico.

The cleanup astonishes non-Japanese who might be accustomed to leaving stadiums and stepping over half-eaten food, shredded paper wrappers, and cups — empty or with liquid dribbling out.

At the World Cup in Russia in 2018, Japanese players famously cleaned the dressing room after a loss and left a thank-you note in Russian. In 2022, fans left thank-you notes on rubbish bags written in Arabic, English and Japanese.

A Japanese phrase explains why

It's not that complicated. Beginning in elementary school, students are socialized to behave this way — in the classroom, in the school yard or on a playing field.

“Japanese sports fans at world events who clean up the stadium are behaving much the same way they did when they learned how to enjoy sports as school boys and girls,” Koichi Nakano, who teaches politics and history at Sophia University, told The Associated Press.

There is a phrase in Japanese that explains it.

“Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu.”

The literal translation is: “A bird leaves nothing behind.”

Rendered in English the message is: “Return it the way you found it.”

Many Japanese elementary schools don’t have janitors, so the clean-up work is left to students. Office workers often dedicate time to sprucing up their areas.

Also, there are relatively few trash containers in public spaces in Japan, so people take their waste home with them. This keeps the sidewalks cleaner, saves the cost of emptying trash cans, and keeps away vermin.

“The way most ordinary soccer fans experience soccer at school is no different from other sports, and the emphasis is not just on physical education but also on moral education as well,” Nakano added.

Collective vs. the individual

Raised in Germany, Barbara Holthus is the deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. A sociologist, she agrees it's prudent not to put Japanese on a pedestal. Japan, like any country, has its own challenges and shortcomings.

“An academically sound explanation is that people in Japan just happen to be socialized different,” she told The AP. “If you grew up with a certain way of how things are being done, you apply that to even cleaning up a stadium afterwards.”

At work here is also the Japanese concept of “meiwaku,” which implies not causing trouble or annoying others. From the Japanese point of view, leaving rubbish piled up in a stadium would be a bother to others.

Japan is a relatively crowded place, and greater Tokyo alone has about 35 million people, almost the population of the entire state of California. People need to get along.

“Japanese learn early on that you don't want to inconvenience other people,” Holthus said.

She said the focus is often on the collective, compared with the West where the emphasis is on the individual and individual rights.

“You don’t want to bother people. It goes to all areas of life in Japan,” Holthus added. “We are raised (in the West) that we don’t have to clean up after ourselves in public spaces because there is going to be some kind of public service doing that.”

And because Japanese people have received widespread praise for the clean-up, the behavior has been reinforced.

“Now that the media has latched onto the story and lavished praise on Japanese fans, they have made it a point of pride to display those values and norms,” Jeff Kingston, who teaches history at Temple University in Japan, wrote in an email.

A Japanese tradition

The clean-up tradition is not limited to soccer's marquee tournament. The same thing happened last year at the Under-20 World Cup in Chile as Japanese fans cleaned up after a match. And even more recently last month at Wembley Stadium in London where Japan defeated England 1-0 in an international friendly.

“It’s one of our traditions,” said Toshi Yoshizawa, who was leading the cleanup in Chile. “We grew up with the teaching that we should leave a place cleaner than when we arrived.”

William Kelly, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University and a specialist on Japan, said the tradition is linked to soccer more than other sports. He speculated it's tied to the establishment of Japan's professional football league more than 30 years ago.

“It (the J-League) was trying to distinguish itself from baseball by emphasizing teams’ community embeddedness and commitment,” Kelly wrote in an email. “Soccer fans felt, and feel, more a part of the club and its stadium.”

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.

The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work.

“It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content,” Albanese told reporters.

“We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” he added.

It’s Australia's second legislative attempt to make the platforms pay for the Australian news text and images that their users view.

Digital platforms had been pressured to strike deals with Australian news publishers to pay for journalism by legislation passed in 2021 that created the country's News Media Bargaining Code.

The platforms chose to reach commercial deals with news creators rather than be forced into arbitration and have a judge set the price.

But they have since avoided renewing those deals by removing news from their services.

The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue.

The platforms would be given offsets and their overall costs would be lowered if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said.

The government expects the incentive would raise between 200 to 250 million Australian dollars ($144 million-$179 million) a year. That was about as much as the platforms paid news outlets when the News Media Bargaining Code was working at its peak.

The government would distribute that income among news organizations based on how many journalists each organization employed, Communication Minister Anika Wells said.

The tax would apply to Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., and TikTok, which is majority-owned by U.S.-backed investors.

Opposing the proposed legislation, Meta said news organizations “voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.”

“The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” Meta said in a statement.

“A government-mandated transfer of wealth from one industry to another, with no connection to the value exchanged, will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector. Instead, it will create a news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme,” Meta added.

Google said “we reject the need for this tax.”

“It ignores the fact that Google already has commercial agreements with the news industry, misunderstands how the ad market changed and mandates payments from some companies while arbitrarily excluding platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI -- despite the major shift in how people consume news,” a Google statement said.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All the targeted platforms are American. U.S. critics have argued that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code had disproportionately cost American corporations.

Albanese was not concerned by potential pushback from the United States.

“We’re a sovereign nation and my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” Albanese said.

The road should get at least a little tougher in the coming weeks — but there's little doubt the defending champions are well-equipped to defend their title.

The Thunder finished off a four-game sweep of the Phoenix Suns on Monday night, winning 131-122 after pulling away in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City is 12-0 in the first round over the past three years.

“It's a really good feeling," guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of the sweep. “Just for our confidence as a group, it's good to get the playoff run started the right way. You never know what can happen — and usually the later you go, the better the teams, and the series won't go like that. You want to give yourself as many days as possible to rest.”

The 27-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander looked every bit like the reigning Most Valuable Player against the Suns, averaging 33.8 points and shooting 55.1% from the field. He was at his best in Game 3, scoring 42 points on 15-of-18 shooting.

He was very good again in Game 4, scoring 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The Thunder's offense was at its best in the series finale, with Chet Holmgren scoring 24 and Ajay Mitchell adding 22.

Oklahoma City shot nearly 54% from the field and made 17 of 34 (50%) 3-pointers.

“We played the right way, nothing out of the usual,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Guys were out there making aggressive plays and playing for each other. We have a formula we try to play with and we try to impose it every night.”

The Thunder will face the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers have a 3-1 lead after the Rockets won Game 4.

Even though they swept the series, the Thunder were hit with some adversity when starter Jalen Williams went down with a hamstring injury in Game 2. Oklahoma City still had plenty of depth to get past the gritty but overmatched Suns, who barely qualified for the playoffs after beating the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tournament.

Mitchell stepped into the starting lineup for Williams and looked confident, particularly in Game 4. He finished with 22 points and six assists, showing he could handle the larger workload in the postseason.

A second-round draft pick out of Santa Barbara, the 6-foot-4 guard has quickly become a vital part of the rotation.

“Ajay is one of the toughest dudes in the league,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Mentally, he's never shaken. He's never afraid of the moment. Ajay can be having the worst day ever and you would never know because he's so solid.”

The Thunder's superior size was also on display against the Suns, who were without starting center Mark Williams because of a foot injury. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren and 7-foot Isaiah Hartenstein combined for 24 rebounds on Monday night, including nine on the offensive glass.

Holmgren said the Suns were a guard-heavy team that tried to go small. He figures others will take a different approach but believes the Thunder are ready for anything.

“We're going to see different teams match up in different ways,” Holmgren said. "Some are going to go big and some are going to go small and play with more pace and open the floor. But I think we've seen a lot of what we could see at this point. Now it's just about going out and executing.”

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

“We just didn’t quit,” Theodore said.

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights appeared to have won the game earlier in OT when Pavel Dorofeyev tapped in a loose puck with 9:41 left, but the apparent score was waved off when it was determined Vegas was offside.

“It was good we never stopped,” Theodore said. “It sucks that one got called back, but it was good to get it done.”

Vegas’ Brett Howden scored his second goal of the game on a tip-in with 9:35 remaining in the third period, and that forced overtime after Utah had stormed back with four straight goals.

“I liked the way we responded in the third after they scored,” Howden said. “We stuck with it.”

The Golden Knights raced out to a 3-0 lead with two goals in the first and one early in the second by Dorofeyev, Howden and Cole Smith.

Utah countered with four straight scores, capped by Clayton Keller’s wrist shot off a deflection for a 4-3 lead at the 5:10 mark of the third period.

“I’m proud of the way our guys responded to adversity,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was a hard-fought game. We know how good they can be and I think we responded well in the second half of the game.”

Utah’s Karel Vejmelka stopped 31 shots. Carter Hart made 29 saves for Vegas.

Facing a three-goal deficit, Utah’s Nick Schmaltz and Ian Cole scored 29 seconds apart in the second period to set the Mammoth’s comeback in motion. Schmaltz got Utah on the board at the 8:04 mark, and Cole followed with a 50-foot slap shot at 8:33 of the second.

Michael Carcone tied it on another slap shot at 1:44 of the third.

Dorofeyev flicked home a wrist shot to put the Golden Knights in front just 72 seconds into the first. Howden then threaded another wrist shot past Vejmelka’s skate for a short-handed goal with 1:22 left in the period.

Smith’s tip-in at 3:27 of the second gave the Golden Knights their third goal.

“We started really well, lost ourselves for a bit,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “Momentum swung to their side, but we hung in there.”

Utah fell behind early after struggling to create scoring chances during the first period. The Mammoth tallied three shots on goal over the first 20 minutes. Only one came outside of a power play.

Vegas allowed 30 shots on goal over the final two regulation periods and overtime.

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

Nikola Jokic snapped out of his prolonged funk with a triple-double, Spencer Jones provided a spark while subbing for injured Aaron Gordon, and the Nuggets staved off elimination with a chippy 125-113 win over the injury-riddled Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their playoff series Monday night.

“I think we're a multidimensional team that can win a variety of ways,” said Jones, who scored 20 points and keyed a third-quarter spurt that gave Denver its big cushion.

Jokic had 27 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds for Denver, which trimmed its deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Jamal Murray scored 24 points as the Nuggets, who led the NBA in scoring, enjoyed a breakout after being held under 100 points twice in Minneapolis.

Jokic posted his 23rd playoff triple-double, third on the career list, as the Nuggets stopped a three-game skid and played the way they did most of the regular season in securing the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.

Game 6 is Thursday night in Minneapolis.

“They’re a championship team. They have championship DNA," said Julius Randle, who led Minnesota with 27 points. "They’re going to come out and have a sense of pride on their home court. They did that tonight. So, credit to them. We get to go back to Minnesota and have a chance to close it out.”

The Timberwolves, who trailed by 27, were without their starting backcourt of Anthony Edwards (hyperextended knee) and Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured Achilles), both of whom got hurt in Game 4, and they briefly lost center Naz Reid to a rolled right ankle late in the third quarter Monday night.

DiVincenzo underwent surgery Sunday, and Edwards is out indefinitely — but an MRI confirmed the absence of structural damage, meaning he could return to action if the Timberwolves advance.

Game 4 star Ayo Dosunmu added 18 points for Minnesota, but Rudy Gobert was finally neutralized. He scored his only bucket with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter with the Wolves trailing by 25.

The Nuggets need to win the next two games to become just the 14th of 299 teams facing a 3-1 deficit to come back to win an NBA playoff series. Denver was the last team to accomplish the feat, doing it twice in the bubble in 2020, against the Jazz and Lakers.

The Wolves started out sloppy with nine first-quarter turnovers and finished with 25. Jokic swished a 29-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Denver a 60-51 halftime lead.

“It’s just a good win and then you move on,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Tomorrow we’ll sit down and talk with the guys, get them right, give us a chance to go through things on Wednesday and try to win on Thursday.”

Jones, who scored 11 points in the first four games of the series, had 11 in a six-minute stretch in the fourth quarter when the Nuggets pulled away. He sank a trio of 3-pointers and added a breakaway dunk after learning just before tipoff that he'd start in place of Gordon (calf).

Jaden McDaniels, whose meaningless layup in the final seconds of Game 4 drew the wrath of Jokic and led to a dustup that resulted in ejections and fines and only added more fuel to an already-heated playoff rivalry, got into early foul trouble and scored 13 points. He was razzed by the Ball Arena crowd every time he touched the ball.

“We just ended up losing the day,” McDaniels said, “but we’re going to win the next one.”

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

It'll be the second time this season Ohtani pitches but does not hit. He'll be throwing on five days' rest.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced the plan for Ohtani after a 5-4 win in the series opener Monday night.

The first time Ohtani pitched for the Dodgers but didn't hit occurred April 15, when he struck out 10 in an 8-2 victory over the New York Mets. He was held out of the batting order after being struck in the back of his right shoulder by a pitch earlier that week.

The previous time Ohtani was not in the lineup as the designated hitter during a start on the mound was May 28, 2021, with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Dodgers will miss his bat Tuesday. He has a 10-game hitting streak against the Marlins dating to September 2024.

On Monday, Ohtani had his second consecutive three-hit game, finishing 3 for 5 with a ground-rule double, two singles, two runs and an RBI.

___

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

A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women.

Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.

“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”

The Associated Press typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Leone-LaCroix has.

Chasing Horse, wearing his navy blue Clark County Detention Center uniform, stared straight ahead as victims read their statements and remained quiet as he was escorted out of the courtroom. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving for 37 years, and has continued to deny the charges against him.

“This is a miscarriage of justice,” he told the judge on Monday.

Peterson said she was struck by his continued denial of the charges despite the evidence shown in trial.

“You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification," she said before she announced his sentence. When the hearing adjourned, more than a dozen people in the courtroom clapped.

Other charges in Canada are still pending

The sentencing wraps a yearslong effort to prosecute the former actor after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023. That initial arrest reverberated around Indian Country, with law enforcement in other states and Canada following up with more criminal charges. Those charges are still pending.

The British Columbia Prosecution Service said Chasing Horse was charged with sexual assault in February 2023, though the date of the alleged offense took place in September 2018 near Keremeos, a village about four hours east of Vancouver. In November 2023, the case paused due to Chasing Horse’s charges in the United States, but resumed the following year.

After all of Chasing Horse’s appeals have been exhausted, British Columbia prosecutors will assess next steps, Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the British Columbia Prosecution Service, said in an email.

A warrant against Chasing Horse remains outstanding in Alberta, the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service in Alberta said in a statement following Chasing Horse’s conviction in January. The Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service said that it is in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecutors Office regarding the warrant.

January trial focused on his role as spiritual leader

Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation. Following his appearance as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film “Dances With Wolves,” Chasing Horse traveled across Indian Country to attend powwows and perform healing ceremonies.

During his trial, Nevada prosecutors said Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on Indigenous women and girls.

Deputy District Attorney Bianca Pucci told the jury that for almost 20 years, Chasing Horse “spun a web of abuse” that ensnared many women.

Jurors heard from three women who said Chasing Horse sexually assaulted them. The jury returned guilty verdicts on some charges. He was acquitted on others.

Needing medical help

Multiple victims described how they participated in his ceremonies or went to Chasing Horse for medical help.

Chasing Horse allegedly told Leone-LaCroix when she was 14 that the spirits wanted her to give up her virginity to save her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. He then sexually assaulted her and told her that if she told anyone, her mother would die, according to Pucci. The sexual assaults continued for years, Pucci said.

Chasing Horse denied the allegations and his attorney questioned the main accuser’s credibility, calling her a “scorned woman.” His attorney had filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that a witness was not qualified to talk about grooming and that the statute of limitations had expired. That motion was denied.

Victims and their family members testified that they struggle with their faith as a result of Chasing Horse’s actions. The mothers of the victims said Chasing Horse betrayed their trust and abused sacred traditions.

“Even to this day I struggle to regain my faith and spirituality,” said Lynnette Adams, the mother of Siera Begaye, one of the other victims.

The AP typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly or approved the use of their names, as Begaye has.

Begaye said she still faces complications after suffering an ectopic pregnancy as a result of the assault and being forced to undergo surgery.

“I am choosing to see this moment as a fresh start," Begaye said. "I will rebuild my life, reclaim my voice and continue fighting for the future I deserve."

The Associated Press spoke with people who fled to the swamp-encircled community of Nyatim in recent weeks. They described having little food and no clean water in a place so desolate that a Starlink connection was used to call for help.

When aid workers reached out to South Sudanese authorities with a request to deliver emergency relief, however, it was denied. Reports that dozens of people had died, including some of apparent starvation, made no difference.

"It was a ‘no’ from local and national authorities and from the military,” said Yashovardhan, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan, who goes by one name. “Meanwhile, people are eating leaves and roots to survive.”

The U.N. World Food Program, usually reticent about an issue that has simmered for years in South Sudan, also told the AP it had been blocked despite “numerous engagements with both national and local authorities,” according to the agency’s country director, Adham Effendi.

People say aid has been weaponized for years

It has happened over and over in South Sudan, whose people fought for years for independence from Sudan and then turned on each other. Whatever side that controls aid is accused of withholding it from the other, and civilians suffer.

This time, fighting has surged since Riek Machar, a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir, was suspended as first vice president and put under house arrest for alleged subversion last year. The two led opposing forces in a civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people before a 2018 peace agreement brought them into a fragile unity government.

In December, opposition forces backing Machar seized military outposts in Jonglei state. Government forces struck back the following month.

On Feb. 7, soldiers reached the outskirts of Lankien town, where an aerial attack days earlier struck a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders. Residents described artillery fire before soldiers stormed the town in armored vehicles.

Thomas Nim was among those who fled. With his pregnant wife, three children and mother, they made their way through swampland, hoping soldiers wouldn't chase them.

They and many others soon filled Nyatim, about a day’s walk away.

“Some of the most vulnerable, like the elderly and children, ended up in Nyatim because they couldn’t make it any farther," said Nim, a 43-year-old pharmacist.

As days passed and people began to die without food or good water, he called for help. But none came.

Opposition and authorities blame each other

Gatkhor Dual, an opposition official coordinating aid in Jonglei state, blamed county commissioner James Bol Makuei for blocking humanitarian access. Makuei does not want aid to reach people who “support the opposition,” Dual said, especially when they are near government-held areas.

Makuei acknowledged that access to Nyatim had been restricted but added that estimates of its evacuee-swollen population — 30,000, according to Doctors Without Borders — were exaggerated. He accused South Sudan’s main opposition group, known by its initials SPLM-IO, of holding civilians in Nyatim to attract aid and secure a foothold near the county seat of government.

Nim, the pharmacist, said there were no opposition forces in the area.

Concerns about aid diversion are not without precedent. Armed groups in South Sudan, including the military, have a long history of diverting humanitarian supplies for military purposes. During recent fighting in Jonglei, fighters looted more than two dozen humanitarian-run health facilities, according to the U.N.

Doctors Without Borders said it first reached out for help to Nyatim on Feb. 22. It asked again on March 3 after hearing reports of deaths. At the end of March, the medical charity issued a statement drawing attention to its efforts.

Delivering aid in South Sudan is never easy. Infrastructure is poor. River traffic, where available, has been attacked. Clearance from authorities is required.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis has deepened. In March, over half of the more than 1,000 children screened by Doctors Without Borders in Chuil, a community where South Sudan's government has allowed humanitarian access to enter, were acutely malnourished.

Aid workers have been overwhelmed. In February, Doctors Without Borders began expanding a four-bed facility, first to 60 beds, then 80. It is now growing to 100.

Other people are giving up on remote Nyatim and going home to ruins.

“People are returning to their homes,” said one of them, Koang Pajok. “There was no food and shelter.”

The World Food Program turns to airdrops

Unable to reach the area by road or river, the World Food Program has airdropped 415 metric tons of food to Chuil since March, country director Effendi said.

But as civilians come seeking assistance, so do young men wielding Kalashnikovs. Some people worry that could make Chuil a target.

On a morning in April, a plane circling overhead drew anxious onlookers.

“It’s a surveillance plane,” said Gal Wai Tut, who had arrived days earlier with his wife and newborn child. He recalled seeing a similar plane over Lankien on the day he said a December airstrike killed at least 11 civilians.

Don't gather in one place, an older man advised, saying a crowd is more likely to be targeted.

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Together, the sluggers have now accomplished something for the New York Yankees with their powerful starts that only Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra had done before them.

Rice went 404 feet the opposite way for a two-run shot to left field in the Yankees' 4-2 win at Texas on Monday night, his 10th homer of the season. Judge immediately followed by driving a full-count curveball 414 feet to tie for the MLB lead with his 11th.

“After he hit his, he said, `I'm not going to let Benny catch me,'” Rice said with a smile. “Just trying to keep him honest, keep him motivated.”

They became the second pair of Yankees teammates to each have 10 or more homers in the first 29 games of a season, joining Mantle and Berra in 1956.

“I’m glad that I don’t have to face them, let’s just put it that way,” said Yankees starter Max Fried (4-1), who threw six scoreless innings for New York (19-10).

“Benny’s off to an amazing start. Judgie, ho-hum, 11 homers already,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It's a pretty good combo there.”

Rice, a 27-year-old first baseman, is hitting .322 with 23 RBIs. Judge is at .252 with 19 RBIs.

“Just consistent at-bat after consistent at-bat. Like it’s must-watch TV at this point,” Judge said of Rice. “He's going to put something in play hard or he’s going to take his walk and pass the baton. It's just impressive to watch, and I get a front-row seat. ... And, makes my job easier when he does that.”

Rice deposited a 95 mph first-pitch fastball from Jack Leiter into the Yankees bullpen in left-center field to make it 2-0 with two outs in the third inning. It was Rice's sixth homer in 11 games.

Judge then homered into the left-field seats, the ball landing not far from the spot he hit his AL season record 62nd homer on Oct. 4, 2022. He also had two doubles and was hit by a pitch in his other plate appearances.

“Maybe his best game of at-bats. ... On all four times, stings two doubles, smokes the homer where he just rides out the curveball,” Boone said.

And it came a day after Judge also went deep on his 34th birthday.

Judge has hit 260 of his 379 career homers since the start of the 2021 season and already has four 50-homer seasons.

Rice has 43 homers in 216 career games since his debut in June 2024.

After their fast starts in 1956, Mantle went on to hit a majors-best 52 homers and Berra finished with 30.

When Rice was asked if he could keep pace with Judge all season, he said he's relishing the moment now.

“Yeah, I don’t know how long this is going to last, but I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it right now being this close,” Rice said before reflecting on the history he now shares with a trio of three-time MVPs: Judge and two Hall of Fame players.

“It’s pretty cool. I definitely would not have anticipated something like that,” he said. “But obviously the three names I’m surrounded with there are pretty big ones, so definitely very humbling.”

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

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran's nuclear program.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview Monday. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

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

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

Renewed demands to end blockade

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, closed above $108 per barrel, about 50% higher than when the war began.

Dozens of nations push for reopening of strait

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

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

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

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

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

But he said Iran is responsible for closing the passageway. “Straits are the arteries of the world. They are not the property of any individual," he said.

Top Iranian diplomat meets Putin in Russia

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

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

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

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

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

Oman’s response was not immediately clear.

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

Trump says Iran offered a ‘much better’ proposal

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

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

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

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

Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri in New York, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Jonathan Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.

They’re one loss away from a rare elimination.

Only six No. 8 seeds have defeated a No. 1 in a playoff series in NBA history. It’s happened only four times since the postseason was expanded to a best-of-seven series for all rounds in 2003.

But the Pistons were sloppy with the ball and careless overall in a 94-88 loss to the Orlando Magic on Monday night, falling behind 3-1 in their first-round Eastern Conference series.

“We have to take care of the basketball. We have to win the rebound battle. We just have to be in the moment of what this is. This is playoff basketball,” said Tobias Harris, who scored 20 points. “We have to be more ready to just go out and there and scrap up. We are a little too casual. Everyone knows that in our locker room. We have to be better every single guy. All of us have to be better. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and be better.”

Harsh words from a veteran leader.

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points but had eight of the team’s 20 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Magic turned it over just 12 times.

“We did so many positive things but 20 turnovers and give up 16 offensive rebounds. That’s hard to overcome and that’s what it comes down to,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “They’re sending a lot of bodies to (Cunningham). We have to help him by giving him more space so he has room to operate, set screens, be more physical, get the guys off of him but, again, we have to do a better job taking care of it.”

The Pistons haven’t advanced to the second round since losing in the East finals in 2008. They had five straight losing seasons before Bickerstaff came in last season and led them to 44 wins before losing to the Knicks in six games.

This is no ordinary 1-vs.-8 series. The Magic played well before faltering down the stretch and had to win an elimination game in the play-in tournament.

The Pistons, meanwhile, rose to the top of the conference while the second-seeded Boston Celtics didn’t have Jayson Tatum for the first several months.

Detroit has struggled in this series not only with turnovers but with finding scoring options beyond Cunningham and Harris. The Pistons shot 6 of 30 (20%) from 3-point range in Game 4 and 31 of 82 (37.8%) overall.

“Back’s against the wall. Whatcha gonna do? You’re gonna fight,” Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart said. “You have to fight until the end so let’s get back to the crib, protect the crib and take it one game at a time. The series is not over. We’re gonna keep fighting.”

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

Not this year, folks!

Later in the week, some very cold air will move in, and overnight lows could drop low enough to get a little frosty.

Until then, showers and a few thunderstorms will move through this evening and overnight.

Lows drop to the upper 50s with winds that could gust close to 40mph at times.

Tuesday brings a chance of lingering showers or two in the morning, but clearing skies by afternoon.

It should return to around 67 degrees.

Then, colder air settles in for the rest of the week, with highs in the mid to upper 50s and lows in the 30s.

Find the latest forecast from the 4Warn Weather team here

Remember to download the free 4Warn weather app -- it’s easily one of the best in the nation. Just search your app store under WDIV, and it’s right there, available for both iPhones and Androids! Or click the appropriate link below.

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The Thunder — who have a 12-0 record in the first round over the last three seasons — will face the winner of the Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers have a 3-1 lead, though the Rockets won Game 4.

Phoenix has a 10-game losing streak in the playoffs, dating to 2023.

The Thunder closed the series with an overwhelming offensive performance — making 17 of 34 (50%) 3-pointers — and their big men played particularly well. The 7-foot-1 Holmgren shot 9 of 16 from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds, while the 7-foot Isaiah Hartenstein added 18 points and 12 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.

Ajay Mitchell added 22 points and made four 3-pointers. Alex Caruso finished with 14 points and hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander was reliable as usual. Two days after scoring 42 points in Game 3, he had another efficient performance, shooting 10 of 17 from the field.

The Suns showed some fight in the second half, cutting a 15-point deficit to 106-98 entering the fourth. Devin Booker scored 12 points in the third quarter on 5-of-8 shooting.

But every time the Suns got within a few possessions, the Thunder responded. Cason Wallace hit a corner 3 with 5:54 left to extend the Oklahoma City lead to 120-106. Gilgeous-Alexander followed with a spectacular layup, somehow getting the shot to fall over three defenders.

Booker led the Suns with 24 points while Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green added 23. Collin Gillespie added 20 points while making six 3-pointers.

The Thunder pushed to a 75-67 lead by halftime after shooting 61.4% from the floor and 60% from 3-point range, hitting 12 of 20 behind the arc. Gilgeous-Alexander had 17 before the break, making a wide-open 3-pointer just before halftime.

That offset a hot shooting start for the Suns, who made 11 of 20 3-pointers. Gillespie scored 17 before the break, making all six of his shots, including five 3s.

The Thunder were without starter Jalen Williams, who missed his second straight game because of a left hamstring strain. Suns center Mark Williams (foot) and guard Jordan Goodwin (calf) were also out.

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

The remark about the president's wife was part of a routine on Thursday's “Jimmy Kimmel Live” where the host pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. That event two nights later was cut short when a man armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps and much of the nation's political leadership had gathered.

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump said in a social media post later echoed by her husband.

Kimmel described the joke during his Monday night monologue as a light roast about the first couple's age difference and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination."

He said he was sorry that the president and everyone at the event went through that traumatic and scary experience.

“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject," Kimmel said. "I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”

There was no comment Monday from ABC.

Trump has long been on receiving end of Kimmel's routines

Kimmel has long targeted the president in his comedy, and he doubled down after a run-in with the administration last fall. Kimmel was suspended by ABC and some of the network's affiliates said they would take him off the air following a comment made about assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, moves encouraged by Trump's FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. ABC and the stations later brought Kimmel back.

Upon his return, Kimmel said that by saying that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk,” he was not trying to make light of Kirk's killing and didn't want to leave that impression. He did not apologize, however, and he criticized station owners who took him off the air before later relenting.

Shortly after the incident, ABC signed Kimmel to a one-year contract extension that is due to keep him on the air until May 2027. His show has aired on the network since January 2003.

His late-night competitor Stephen Colbert — another frequent Trump critic — is seeing his CBS show end next month.

Dressed in a tux and standing behind a podium Thursday, Kimmel pretended to deliver a comic routine for the WHCA dinner. His speech had false “cutaways” to the Trumps and others, taken from video clips.

He noted Melania in the “audience,” saying, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired” by ABC and its parent Walt Disney Co., he said.

His wife said Kimmel's “hateful and violent rhetoric” is intended to divide the country. “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," Melania Trump wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”

White House press secretary also weighs in

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was part of a campaign of rhetoric from Democrats and some in the media that “has helped to legitimize this violence.”

“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said. There was no indication that Kimmel was referring to violence.

The National Religious Broadcasters association filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, asking the agency to investigate ABC.

“We're seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn't appear overnight,” said Troy Miller, NRB's president and CEO. “When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable.”

During his routine, Kimmel noted Melania Trump's birthday Sunday, saying, “She's planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does — looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’”

He also said: “Before we go any further, Melania, this is Donald. Donald, this is Melania. That was my impression of Jeffrey Epstein.”

Cole Tomas Allen, the California man arrested after attempting to rush into the correspondents' dinner on Saturday, was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of the president.

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Associated Press correspondent Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

They're not celebrating yet.

Desmond Bane scored 22 points, Franz Wagner had 19 in three quarters and the Magic beat the Detroit Pistons 94-88 Monday night to take a 3-1 series lead, putting the East’s No. 1 seed on the brink of elimination.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Detroit.

“We put our ourselves in position to try to get four, but right now it means nothing,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We have the advantage and now we have to try and make sure we keep that advantage.”

Orlando, which had to win an elimination game at home in the play-in tournament, is on the verge of becoming just the seventh No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 in a series in league history. It's happened only four times since the playoffs were expanded to a best-of-seven series for all rounds in 2003.

“This is a team that won 60 games. I’m sure they’re not blinking an eye about not being able to win three games in a row,” Bane said. “They did it multiple times throughout the regular season.”

Paolo Banchero scored 18 points for the Magic on 4-of-18 shooting. Orlando shot just 32.6%, with Jalen Suggs going 1 for 13, including 1 for 11 from 3-point range.

The Magic overcame their shooting woes by protecting the ball. They had only 12 turnovers to 20 for Detroit.

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points and Tobias Harris had 20. Cunningham had eight turnovers.

“We went into the series saying we needed to win a possession game,” Harris said. “That came down to the rebounding battle and also taking care of the basketball and in all of our losses that’s what we haven’t been at our best at. Obviously, we need to limit them from going to the free-throw line. They’ve been able to get us in close-out situations and break us down, get to the lane.”

Wagner left with 1:34 left in the third quarter due to right calf soreness.

Jamal Cain replaced Wagner and electrified the crowd with a driving dunk over Jalen Duren early in the fourth quarter. He also had a one-handed tip-in dunk that made it 87-85 with 4:55 to go.

Suggs missed his first eight shots before nailing a 3-pointer from the corner for an 85-80 lead. But Ausar Thompson’s layup tied it before Cain’s putback.

With former Grizzlies teammates Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. cheering him on courtside, Bane banked in a 3-pointer to extend Orlando’s lead to 92-86 with 1:16 remaining.

“It’s special. Those are guys I spent five years with, started my career with, made a lot of memories with,” Bane said. “I’m super thankful that they came out to support. It’s a friendship that will last forever. Those are guys that mean a lot to me.”

The 45-win Magic haven’t won a playoff series since 2010, when they lost in the Eastern Conference finals. The 37-year-old franchise has never won an NBA title.

The Pistons, who won 60 games in the regular season, have an even longer series drought. They haven’t advanced to the second round since losing in the East finals in 2008

The teams traded double-digit leads in the first half and the Magic led 54-52 going into the third quarter.

Riding a wave of energy from a frenzied, blue-clad crowd, the Magic scored the first eight points and led 19-7 before missing 13 straight shots during a 20-5 run by Detroit.

The Pistons had a 40-30 lead midway through the second.

The Magic improved to 8-1 at home in the playoffs over the past three seasons.

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

Also Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will vote on whether to confirm President Trump's nominee, Kevin Warsh, to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The committee is expected to approve Warsh, sending his nomination to the full Senate.

At a news conference later that afternoon, Powell may indicate whether he will remain on the Fed's board of governors after his term as chair ends May 15. Powell serves a separate term as a governor that lasts until January 2028. Chairs typically leave the board when their leadership terms end, but Powell has signaled he could stay on. It would be the first time a former chair remained on the board since 1948.

If Powell, who has made protecting Fed independence a key part of his legacy, chooses to stay, he would deprive Trump of the opportunity to pick his replacement and fill another seat on the Fed's seven-member board. Three of the seven current governors are Trump appointees. At the same time, it could worsen tensions with the Trump administration and would create what some analysts refer to as a “two Popes” scenario, with a chair and former chair both on the Fed's board, which could increase divisions among policymakers.

At the same time, it might not affect the trajectory of interest rates much. Powell has generally supported reducing interest rates and would likely do so again once a spike in inflation, stemming from the Iran war's increase in gas prices, fades.

Warsh argued for rate cuts last year, but is unlikely to be able to reduce rates anytime soon, given that most policymakers have signaled they would prefer to wait and evaluate the war's impact on the economy.

Warsh's path to the chair was cleared Sunday when Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he would support him. Tillis had said he would block Warsh's nomination until a Justice Department investigation into Powell was dropped. On Friday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said she was closing the investigation.

Powell said at a news conference in March that he wouldn’t leave the Fed’s board until the Trump administration’s investigation was dropped, “with transparency and finality.” Pirro said her office could reopen the investigation if “the facts warrant doing so.” In addition, the Justice Department has said it would appeal a court ruling that threw out subpoenas it issued in its Fed investigation.

But on Sunday, Tillis said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had been assured the appeal was just to challenge the principle behind the ruling, rather than to continue the investigation. Justice Department officials also said the investigation would only reopen if an ongoing probe by the Fed’s inspector general found evidence of criminal conduct.

“We worked a lot over the weekend to make sure that we were very clear that we had the assurances from the DOJ that I needed to feel like they were not using the DOJ as a weapon to threaten the independence of the Fed,” Tillis said.

Tillis even suggested, however, that Powell could remain on the board for some time after May 15: “I suspect Mr. Powell wants to see what happens with the appeal and to make sure that it is fully settled,” Tillis said on Sunday.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if Trump would oppose Powell remaining on the Fed board. She responded, “I think the president will be satisfied once Kevin Warsh is confirmed as the Fed chair," suggesting he wouldn't seek to fire Powell, as he has previously threatened.

Powell, meanwhile, said last month that even if the investigation was dropped he wouldn’t necessarily leave the board.

“I will make that decision based on what I think is best for the institution and for the people we serve,” Powell said.

The leadership turmoil comes while the economy remains unusually murky, putting the Fed in an difficult spot. Inflation has jumped to 3.3%, a two-year high, as the Iran war has sharply raised gas prices. That makes it harder for the central bank to reduce rates. The Fed typically leaves rates unchanged, or even raises them, if inflation is worsening. Fed policymakers are nearly certain to leave their key rate unchanged at about 3.6% on Wednesday.

At the same time, the unemployment rate declined in March and the number of people seeking unemployment benefits remains low, evidence that the job market may be stabilizing after signs of weakness earlier this year. Stable hiring would lessen the urgency for any rate cuts, which the Fed usually implements to boost borrowing, spending and job gains.

In a notable shift earlier this month, Christopher Waller, a key member of the Fed's board, voiced concerns that rising inflation could mean the Fed would have to stand pat this week. He also suggested that with the unemployment rate a still-low 4.3%, rate cuts might not be necessary anytime soon. Waller had dissented in favor of a rate cut in January.

A key change economists will look for is whether the Fed alters the statement it issues after each meeting to signal that it is possible that their next move could be either a rate cut or a hike. Right now, the statement indicates that any change to its key rate would be a cut. According to minutes of its last meeting in March, many of the 19 participants on the Fed's rate-setting committee support considering a hike, but it's unlikely to be a majority.

Advocates worry that the state is launching so rapidly that key details remain unresolved and some people who are eligible for coverage will lose it.

State officials say they're prepared, training staff and sending letters, emails and texts to people who could be impacted.

Health policy experts, advocates and other states will be watching closely.

“It can be used as a lesson for other states, both where things go well and where things don’t go well,” said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The law is expected to leave some without insurance

The work requirement is part of a broad tax and policy law that President Donald Trump signed last year. Nebraska Republican Gov. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced in December that the state would implement it eight months before it was required, saying the aim was “making sure we get every able-bodied Nebraskan to be a part of our community.”

The state had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S. in February: 3.1%

The federal policy won't apply to all Medicaid beneficiaries, just those who are enrolled under an expansion that most states chose to make to allow more low-income people to get healthcare coverage.

Under the change, many Medicaid participants ages 19 through 64 will have to show that they work or do community service at least 80 hours a month, or are enrolled in school at least half-time. They'll also have their eligibility reviewed every six months rather than annually, so they could lose coverage faster if their circumstances change.

Exceptions will be made for people who are too medically frail to work or in addiction treatment programs, among others.

An Urban Institute report from March estimated that the changes would mean about 5 million to 10 million people fewer people nationally would be enrolled in Medicaid than would have been otherwise.

Choices states make about how to run their programs are expected to be a major factor in exactly how many people lose coverage.

“The higher the administrative burden, the more likely people are found noncompliant and disenrolled,” said Michael Karpman, who researches health policy at Urban.

Nebraska plans to use data to help determine who qualifies

Not everyone who has coverage will need to submit proof that they're working.

The state says it will first match enrollees with other data it has to see if participants are working or exempt. The state says it has that information for most of the roughly 70,000 people enrolled in Medicaid through the expansion.

That leaves between 20,000 and 28,000 who would have to provide more information, plus an average of 3,000 to 4,000 new enrollees each month.

At first, they will just need to show that they met the requirements in just one month of the previous 12. The time frame will shift to six months in 2027.

There's some flexibility. For instance, instead of showing they work 80 hours in a month, someone could instead provide records that demonstrate they earned at least $580, the amount someone earning minimum wage would make in 80 hours.

People who don't submit requested information within 30 days of being asked could have their applications denied or lose coverage they already have.

The change is causing worry and confusion

Bridgette Annable, who lives in southwest Nebraska, received a letter saying she must meet the work requirements or lose the benefits that pay for her insulin and diabetic supplies.

The 21-year-old mother now has a part-time job, despite being advised against it to protect her mental health. She’s worried about her ability to keep working.

“I am working 30 to 25 hours a week — as much as my employer can provide,” Annable said. “Although I call out of work often due to fibromyalgia pain and bipolar episodes that leave me too tired to leave the house. I have enough energy to take care of my daughter and do some cleaning, but that’s about it.”

Amy Behnke, the CEO of the Health Center Association of Nebraska, said that staff members who help people enroll with Medicaid and their clients have a lot of questions, including some that the state hasn’t yet answered.

Some examples: Apprenticeship programs are supposed to count for work requirements, but does that apply only to those certified by the state’s labor department? There’s an exemption for people who travel to a hospital for care, but there's not clarity on how far the journey must be.

KFF’s Tolbert noted that the state issued its 295-page list last week of conditions that could qualify someone as medically frail. “We don’t know if it’s a comprehensive list,” she said.

“The speed at which we are choosing to implement work requirements hasn’t left a lot of space for really meaningful communication,” Behnke said.

And Nebraska could have to make changes after the federal government provides guidance that is expected in June.

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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Stanton exited Friday's series opener at Houston after experiencing calf stiffness while running the bases and missed the following three games, including Monday's series-opening 4-2 win over Texas.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed the results of an MRI after the game.

“It doesn’t look too serious, but enough to not want to wait a couple of more days,” Boone said.

Asked if Stanton could return as soon as he's eligible to come off the 10-day IL, Boone said that's possible, but he didn't want to put a timetable on it.

The Yankees recalled outfielder Jasson Domínguez from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before Monday's game, and the switch-hitter went 1 for 4 with a strikeout as the designated hitter in his big league debut this season.

They had an open spot on their 26-man roster after right-hander Luis Gil dropped to 1-2 with a 6.05 ERA in four starts and was optioned to Triple-A after Sunday's loss to the Astros.

Stanton, a five-time All-Star, is hitting .256 this season with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games.

He has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t played a full season since 2018, his first with the Yankees. He has been out of the lineup due to injuries to his elbows (2025), left hamstring (2020, 2023 and 2024), left quadriceps (2021), and right ankle and left Achilles (2022).

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