Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points in the series-opening win on Sunday, going 5 for 18 from the field. He bounced back in Game 2 with 13-for-25 shooting after being presented the NBA Clutch Player of the Year trophy before the game.

Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams each added 19 points for Oklahoma City, though Williams left the game in the third quarter with a left hamstring injury and did not return. Williams, an All-Star in 2024-25, missed 30 games this season with a right hamstring injury after missing the first 19 games of the season following surgery on his right wrist.

Five higher-seeded teams had lost home games in the first week of the playoffs before Wednesday, including the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference, Detroit, Boston and New York, and the No. 2 and 3 seeds in the West, San Antonio and Denver. Oklahoma City avoided that fate by shooting 47.3% from the field and forcing 21 turnovers.

Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 30 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Devin Booker scored 22 points and Jalen Green added 21 for Phoenix, which will host Game 3 on Saturday.

The Thunder led 65-57 at halftime. Williams made his first six field goals and had 19 points at the break, while Gilgeous-Alexander had 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting.

The action picked up early in the second half as Brooks and Oklahoma City's Lu Dort — both members of Canada's national team — got double technical fouls after a brief skirmish following a made free throw.

Holmgren started the second half hot. He scored eight points in just over four minutes to help the Thunder go up 77-63 and force a Phoenix timeout. Oklahoma City extended the lead to 100-77 at the end of the third quarter.

Oklahoma City pushed the lead to 26 points early in the fourth quarter before Phoenix made a final push. Booker made a pull-up jumper and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but he rebounded and made a mid-range jumper to cut Oklahoma City's lead to 110-97 with five minutes to play. The Suns got no closer than 10 points.

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

It's something only Ohtani could achieve, but the two-way superstar could be having games like that a little bit less often.

“I’m focused, as a leadoff hitter, to get on base. As long as I feel good overall, the result will follow," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "It hasn’t been the case (lately).”

Before Wednesday's loss to San Francisco, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made it clear he's committed to Ohtani's health and keeping him fresh to perform both on the mound and at the plate for the long haul.

And that may look different by the day or week, depending how Ohtani is feeling.

“I'll always let the manager make that final decision and I'm always going to be prepared when I'm starting that I'm hitting,” Ohtani said. “But if it makes sense as a team to occasionally put a guy in as a DH or hit later that's fine as well. I wouldn't want to same more aside from that.”

For some games, that could mean Ohtani pitches but doesn't bat as the designated hitter — and Roberts plans to keep his options open.

Ohtani was solid on the mound again for the Dodgers in a 3-0 loss to the Giants, allowing no earned runs for the third time in four starts this season. A week earlier, Ohtani was held out of the lineup while pitching for the first time since 2021 because he was still sore from getting hit by a pitch.

Ohtani batted in his customary leadoff spot and went 0 for 4 with a strikeout, hitting a fly ball to left in his last at-bat. That ended an on-base streak that matched Shawn Green for the second-longest in Dodgers history. Duke Snider owns the team record at 58 games from May 13-July 11, 1954. Ohtani’s streak was the longest in the majors since Orlando Cabrera reached base in 63 straight from April 25-July 6, 2006.

“The season’s not over, and I could start another streak and that would be great," Ohtani said. "We’ll see how it goes.”

The 31-year-old Ohtani saw his batting average drop from .271 to .258. He has allowed one earned run over 24 innings for an ERA of 0.38 and a 2-0 record, surrendering 15 hits with 25 strikeouts and six walks.

“I think if you look at the overall numbers it's certainly something. I still feel really good about putting his name in the lineup,” Roberts said. “I know the last start I chose not to have him hit and just pitch. I am open to it. We'll see. It's something that we've certainly flagged, and also you have to look at what's the option. In years past or last year, you've got to kind of weigh, who's a different option?”

Catcher Dalton Rushing has become a capable fill-in at DH. He's hitting .414 with seven homers and 13 RBIs.

The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers have dropped four of five. They lost 3-1 in Tuesday night's series opener at rival San Francisco.

Roberts had yet to decide whether Ohtani would play the series finale Thursday. He said beforehand he had no qualms about giving Ohtani five at-bats on a day he’s pitching but would consider moving him down in the batting order if that makes sense.

“I think everything should be on the table,” Roberts said.

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

Juan Soto went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk in his return from a strained right calf, but shortstop Francisco Lindor was removed with left calf tightness after laboring around the bases while scoring from first on Francisco Alvarez's go-ahead double in the fourth.

Byron Buxton tied it 2-all with a leadoff homer in the sixth against Clay Holmes, his second longball in two nights.

Brett Baty, who came off the bench to replace Lindor in the lineup, drew his second walk of the game with two outs in the eighth against Taylor Rogers (0-1). Alvarez coaxed a nine-pitch walk from Justin Topa before Vientos dumped an RBI single into shallow right field.

In the sixth, Vientos blatantly ran through a stop sign rounding third and was easily thrown out at home plate for the final out of the inning.

Luke Weaver (2-0) retired Luke Keaschall with the bases loaded to end the top of the eighth and struck out three batters in a one-hit ninth to secure New York's first victory since April 7 at home against Arizona.

The 12-game skid was the team's longest since August 2002.

Connor Prielipp, the Twins' top pitching prospect, needed 82 pitches to get through four innings in his major league debut. But the 25-year-old left-hander showcased a good slider and limited a slumping New York lineup to two runs and four hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

Holmes allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.

Batting cleanup, Lindor drove in a run by legging out an infield single with two outs in the first. Victor Caratini's sacrifice fly tied the score in the fourth.

Up next

All-Star right-hander Joe Ryan (2-2, 3.29 ERA) pitches Thursday night for Minnesota in the series finale against RHP Christian Scott, who will be called up from Triple-A Syracuse to make his first major league start since Tommy John surgery in 2024.

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

The election has national implications. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking gains in a state long dominated by a regional opposition party, while a victory for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would bolster her position as a leading opposition figure.

A second phase of polling is scheduled for next week. Voting also was taking place Thursday in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The voting was part of a wider round of state elections testing the BJP's reach in opposition strongholds. The results of the latest elections and the earlier polls in Kerala and Assam states and the federally administered territory of Puducherry were expected May 4.

9 million names removed, but voters aren't sure why

The election is taking place after a sweeping revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India aimed at removing duplicate, deceased and ineligible voters. Officials say about 9 million names — roughly 12% of the electorate — were deleted, including 6.3 million listed as deceased or absent and 2.7 million marked “doubtful” and pending verification.

Some affected voters said they had voted in previous elections and hold valid identification but were removed without clear explanation.

Sheikh Najrul Islam, a 53-year-old paramilitary officer on election duty in West Bengal, said he last voted in 2021 and holds valid identification documents, yet his name no longer appears on the voter list.

“The Election Commission has deputed me to ensure free and fair polls. Yet, it does not consider me a citizen of this country,” he said.

In another case, Taibunessa Begum, a 62-year-old retired school administrator, said she was shocked to find her name deleted despite having a passport, pension records and earlier voter registration.

“It felt like being told I don’t exist,” she said.

Polarizing rhetoric deepens the concerns

Opposition leaders allege the deletions disproportionately affect Muslims and other marginalized communities.

The Election Commission of India has denied the allegations, saying the exercise eliminated dead, duplicate and fake voters on the electoral roll.

Modi’s party said the revision was a routine administrative exercise carried out across multiple states and argued that any disproportionate impact in West Bengal reflects the presence of undocumented migrants. They say many Hindu voters were also removed.

Critics, however, link the deletions to broader political messaging by Modi and some BJP leaders, who have repeatedly suggested the revisions of the voter lists targeted people who immigrated illegally from neighboring Bangladesh. Opposition leaders said such rhetoric has deepened fears among minority communities, particularly Muslims, that the voter roll revision is being used to exclude them.

Derek O’Brien, of the opposition Trinamool Congress, called the exercise “invisible rigging.”

"The motive is to disenfranchise voters,” he said.

Analysts warn the deletions could fuel fears of longer-term consequences.

“Losing one’s place in the electoral roll can be deeply unsettling. It is not only about voting rights; it is about dignity, recognition, and the assurance that one counts as a citizen,” political analyst Iman Kalyan Lahiri said.

For many affected voters, however, the issue is more immediate.

“This is not just about politics,” said Begum. “It is about identity, about whether we belong to this country.”

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Saaliq reported from New Delhi.

He is the 13th rookie in big-league history to go deep in five straight, according to MLB.com. The Japanese first baseman also tied the team's franchise record, a mark shared by A.J. Pierzynski (2012), Paul Konerko (2011), Carlos Lee (2003), Frank Thomas (twice in 1994), Ron Kittle (1983) and Greg Luzinski (1983).

Murakami's two-run homer came off Diamondbacks reliever Ryan Thompson in the seventh, cutting Arizona's lead to 10-7. His 10 homers are second in the big leagues behind Houston's Yordan Alvarez, who has 11.

Murakami’s 10 homers, eight coming on the road, are the most in MLB history by a Japanese-born player in his first 24 career games.

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

But the demolitions are happening on such a wide scale that residents, Lebanese officials and U.N. peacekeepers are increasingly worried that large numbers of people displaced by the latest war will have nowhere to return if the fragile truce holds.

From a hill overlooking Beit Lif — about 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Lebanon's border with Israel — Associated Press journalists could see that the village, once home to a few thousand people, had been almost entirely flattened.

“They were demolishing it gradually until they reached the main square and now, as you can see, there are no more houses,” said Hassan Sweidan, a resident of a neighboring village.

Lebanese officials plan to raise the issue of widespread demolitions on Thursday when they hold ceasefire talks with their Israeli counterparts in Washington — part of the first direct negotiations between the two countries in decades.

Because of security concerns and limited access, neither U.N. peacekeepers nor Lebanese officials have been able to conduct a detailed survey of the villages where demolitions are taking place. But observers have described entire residential neighborhoods in multiple villages being systematically destroyed.

A 10-day ceasefire is shaky

On March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran, Hezbollah entered the fray by firing missiles into northern Israel. The group had been under pressure by the Lebanese government to disarm following its previous war with Israel in 2024, but refused to do so.

Israel responded with an intense bombing campaign and ground invasion of Lebanon that prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee the southern part of the country. The fighting has killed around 2,300 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of women and children.

The fighting was mostly halted by a 10-day ceasefire that began Friday. But both sides have carried out strikes since then. Hezbollah has justified its attacks in part by pointing to the Israeli military’s destruction of houses.

Israeli officials have said they intend to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, and the military has issued maps of a “forward defense line” that extends several miles into Lebanon and encompasses dozens of villages whose residents have not been allowed to return.

Following the announcement of the ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said this area had been "cleared of terrorists and weapons and is empty of citizens, and will continue to be cleared of terrorists' infrastructure, including the destruction of houses in Lebanese villages that border (Israel) and have become terrorists outposts in every sense.”

‘There are no more houses’

After the ceasefire went into effect, Sweidan returned to check on his home in the southern Lebanese village of Yater. It is still intact.

Because Sweidan's village overlooks neighboring Beit Lif, he has been able to observe Israeli army operations there. Despite damage from Israeli airstrikes during the war, most of Beit Lif was still standing on the first day of the ceasefire, he said.

But on the second day, Israeli forces arrived with bulldozers, jackhammers and tanks.

“We would come each day to see how much of the village was demolished," he said.

Tilak Pokharel, a spokesperson for the U.S. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL, said that peacekeepers “have observed demolitions taking place in several areas” since the truce.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the target of the demolition work is Hezbollah, not Lebanon or its civilians, and that it "operates in accordance with international law and does not destroy civilian property unless required by imperative military necessity.”

New demolitions come on top of existing destruction

There was already widespread destruction in border areas after the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024. Some homeowners could afford repairs, but there was no large-scale reconstruction.

Demolition also took place during the most recent war. Photographs taken on April 12 by AP from the towns of Menara and Misgav Am in northern Israel show excavators and bulldozers destroying homes on the Lebanese side of the border.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday that Israeli bulldozers were destroying neighborhoods, roads and infrastructure in the town of Khiam, a battleground in the Israel-Hezbollah fighting, “in a scene that suggests an attempt to completely erase the town’s identity.”

The news agency also reported “systematic bombing operations" Wednesday affecting residential neighborhoods in the city of Bint Jbeil — another flashpoint in the fighting — and in the villages of Beit Lif, Shamaa, Tair Harfa and Hanine.

Hezbollah said Tuesday it had launched drone and rocket attacks, the first since the ceasefire, in response to Israeli “attacks on civilians and the destruction of their homes and villages in southern Lebanon.”

As Lebanese officials scramble to keep the ceasefire in place, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement that “halting Israel’s demolition operations in southern villages and towns” is something Lebanese ambassadors in the United States will raise with their Israeli counterparts during ceasefire talks on Thursday.

The talks were expected to focus on a potential extension of the 10-day truce and establishing a framework for future talks aimed at a lasting a peace between the two countries.

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Associated Press journalists Malak Harb in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.

For people like Zack Loud of Farmington, Minnesota, it was a surprise to learn that under a new law, Canada already considered him and his siblings citizens because their grandmother is Canadian.

“My wife and I were already talking about potentially looking at jobs outside the country, but citizenship pushed Canada way up on our list,” he said.

Since the new law took effect on Dec. 15, 2025, immigration lawyers in the United States and Canada say they have been overwhelmed by clients seeking help submitting proof of citizenship applications. Driven by politics, family heritage, job opportunities and other factors, thousands of Americans are exploring whether the easier process makes now the right time to gain dual citizenship.

Nicholas Berning, an immigration attorney at Boundary Bay Law in Bellingham, Washington, said his practice is “pretty much flooded with this.”

“We’ve kind of shifted a lot of other work away in order to push these cases through,” he said.

And immigration attorney Amandeep Hayer said his Vancouver, B.C., area practice went from about 200 citizenship cases a year to more than 20 consults per day.

How the new law works

Canada has been changing its citizenship laws for decades, whether to update historic interpretations of law or to address discrimination issues.

Previously, Canadian citizenship by descent could only be passed down to one generation, from a parent to a child. That changed when Canadian bill C-3 took effect Dec. 15, 2025, and opened up citizenship to anyone born before that date who could prove they have a direct Canadian ancestor — a grandparent, great-grandparent or even more distant ancestor.

Those born on or after Dec. 15 need to show their parent met a residency requirement of 1,095 days.

Under the new law, descendants of Canadians already are considered citizens, but they must provide proof to obtain a certificate of citizenship. Hayer estimated that there are millions of Americans who are Canadian descendants.

“You are Canadian, and you’re considered to be one your whole life,” said Hayer, who advocated for the new law in the Parliament of Canada. “That’s really what you’re applying for, the recognition of a right you already have vested.”

“The best way I can put it is like, if a baby’s born tomorrow in Canada, the baby’s Canadian even though they don’t have the birth certificate,” he said.

Americans interested in dual citizenship

American applicants have different motivations, but many say President Donald Trump's efforts on immigration and other topics have led them to seek dual citizenship.

Michelle Cunha, of Bedford, Massachusetts, said she decided to move to Canada after reflecting on decades of political activism and deciding she had “nothing left to give.”

“I put in my best effort for 30 years. I have done everything that I possibly can to make the United States what it promises the world to be, a place of freedom, a place of equality,” Cunha said. “But clearly we’re not there and we’re not going to get there anytime soon.”

Troy Hicks, who had a great-grandfather born in Canada, said he was spurred by an international trip.

“I recently went to Australia and you know, first words out of the first person I talked to in Australia was basically an expletive about Trump and the U.S.,” said Hicks, of Pahrump, Nevada. “It was just like, whoa, I walked off a 20-hour flight and literally the first words of somebody’s mouth to me were that. ... So the idea of doing that with a Canadian passport just seemed easier, better, more palatable.”

Maureen Sullivan, of Naples, Florida, said she was motivated by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which hit home when her teenage nephew encountered federal officers near his high school in St. Paul. Sullivan, whose grandmother was Canadian, said she sees citizenship in Canada as an option in case things in the U.S. “really go south.”

“When I first heard about the bill, I couldn’t believe it. It was like this little gift that fell in my lap,” Sullivan said. “There was kind of this collective excitement amongst the (family) who just felt like, we wanted to feel like we were doing something to take care of our security in the future if needed.”

How much will Canadian citizenship cost?

For those with documentation ready at hand, the proof of citizenship application fee is a relatively inexpensive 75 Canadian dollars ($55).

But costs will climb for those seeking help from an attorney or genealogist.

Cunha said she used an attorney and estimates the cost will be about $6,500.

However, Mary Mangan, of Somerville, Massachusetts, filed her application in January using advice from online forums.

“There are some situations where a lawyer might be the right thing, but for many people, I would guess 90% of people can probably do this on their own,” Mangan said.

The website for the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada office, which processes applications, says processing times for a certificate is around 10 months, with more 56,000 people awaiting a decision.

The agency said that from Dec. 15 to Jan. 31, it confirmed citizenship by descent for 1,480 people, though not all were Americans. Last year, 24,500 Americans gained dual US-Canada citizenship.

What do Canadians think?

Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, said Canadians are generally a “welcoming people.”

“I think where people start looking askance is someone who’s never been to Canada, who has very thin ties. They can get a passport, becoming Canadians of convenience. People don’t like that,” he said.

Hampson said some also worry a surge of interest from Americans could delay efforts by refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing vulnerable situations.

“Canadians don’t like queue jumpers,” Hampson said.

The 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke returns to a Los Angeles court for a hearing Thursday, just three days after he was charged and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, and seven months after the girl's dismembered body was found in his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills.

In a rare move, he is exercising his right in California to have a judge decide within 10 court days of his arraignment whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

Nearly all defendants waive this right, slow-pedal this part of the process and wait months to reach this stage.

“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” lead defense attorney Blair Berk told a judge Monday.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said in court that the prosecution would be “very happy” to present their evidence, and that “40 terabytes” of it have been collected and can be shared.

One key set of evidence became public Wednesday with the release of the months-old autopsy report from the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office. It said Rivas Hernandez’s death was caused by two penetrating wounds to the upper body.

Burke, who is being held without bail, also pleaded not guilty to lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. Prosecutors allege he had been sexually abusing Rivas Hernandez for at least a year starting when she was 13, killed her when she threatened to report the relationship and dismembered her body about two weeks later.

Thursday's hearing comes exactly one year after the day authorities say she was last known to be alive and went to Burke's house.

A secret grand jury heard months of testimony in the case. But it had not issued an indictment when the singer was arrested last week. Its existence became public in a February court filing in Texas where Burke’s relatives sought to reject subpoenas that they testify.

His attorney told the judge Monday that it was this secret testimony that was prompting the defense to attempt to have the evidence be seen.

It is not clear whether the presentation of evidence would begin at Thursday's hearing or whether the proceedings will be used to schedule witnesses for the coming days.

The girl's parents, Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez, made their first public statement in the case on Tuesday, calling their daughter “a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance.”

“We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us," they said. "We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among young fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

His debut full-length album, “Withered,” was released one year ago, two days after the date prosecutors estimate that Rivas Hernandez was killed.

The child's parent, Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman, is accused of taking the child to Cuba without the permission of the biological mother. Federal and state authorities sought the return of the child after a family member expressed concern that Inessa-Ethington went to Havana to get the child gender transition surgery.

Inessa-Ethington, who had run a popular Utah political blog in the 2010s, was arrested along with her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and charged in the U.S. with international parental kidnapping.

The couple traveled with the child to Canada ostensibly for a camping trip in late March with Blue’s 3-year-old child. However, the two adults turned off their phones after telling the older child’s mother they had arrived in Canada. They flew from Vancouver to Mexico and then to Cuba on April 1, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court in Utah.

The charges don't say if the couple actually planned on getting the child gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how they would get it because that surgery isn't legal for children in Cuba.

The FBI said that Blue Inessa-Ethington withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving. Agents also found at their home a note with instructions from a mental health therapist in Washington, D.C., “to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.” That note didn't mention Cuba.

The use of the Department of Justice plane in a parental kidnapping investigation comes after the Trump administration sought to block access to gender-affirming care for minors and pressured health care providers over the issue.

The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the court-appointed attorneys who represented Blue and Rose Inessa-Ethington in Virginia. The defendants will be returned to Utah to face one count each of international parental kidnapping, according to court filings.

Search began after child wasn't returned as scheduled

The search for the child began on April 3 when they were not returned to the mother in Utah as scheduled, court documents show.

The 10-year-old’s mother, who was divorced from Rose Inessa-Ethington and had shared custody of the child, filed a missing-person report with police in Logan, Utah, a college and dairy farming town about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.

Logan City Police Chief Jeff Simmons said his department’s initial focus was on the custodial interference allegations in the case, and he said investigators did not learn until later about concerns over gender-affirming surgery.

Logan police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said those concerns were raised by one family member. He declined to say who.

“They just had the concern about it, no actual physical evidence” Bevan said.

A Utah state judge ordered the return of the 10-year-old to the child’s mother on April 13. Three days later, a federal magistrate judge issued an arrest warrant for the Inessa-Ethingtons. On the same day, Cuban law enforcement located the group. They were deported to the U.S. aboard the government plane Monday and arraigned in federal court in Richmond, Virginia.

The 10-year-old was returned to the child’s biological mother, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak in Utah indicated in a statement. Representatives of the FBI and U.S. attorneys office in Utah declined to say what happened to the 3-year-old child who had been with the group.

Parents engaged in custody dispute

The custody dispute between the parents does not appear to be a new development. An online fundraiser created five years go by Blue Inessa-Ethington titled “Help a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child” raised $9,766.

“Last week, Rose’s ex relocated several counties away, negatively impacting Rose’s parent-time with the child,” she wrote on the fundraising page. She said the money would be used to seek a court order that would keep the child “safe and stable throughout this process.”

Anyone who has spent time with Rose knows “how much care and thought she puts into parenting her gender open child,” she wrote.

Family members said the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl because of what they believed to be “manipulation” by Rose Inessa-Ethington, according to an April 16 affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield.

Gender-affirming care for minors has been limited

The Trump administration moved in December to cut off gender-affirming care for minors, prompting a third of states to sue.

It was the latest in a series of clashes between an administration that says transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who say it’s medically necessary.

Gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children, research shows. Guidance from several major medical organizations calls for caution around surgery for minors and says decisions about treatments are case-by-case. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents receive gender-affirming medications, such as hormones or puberty blockers.

In Cuba, gender-affirming surgeries are banned for minors and only performed for adults through the public health system under strict supervision in designated public hospitals for Cuban citizens. They must be authorized by a medical commission after a comprehensive review of the patient’s file. That process often takes years because it requires a wide range of medical and psychological evaluations.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana, and Boone from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press journalists Eric Tucker in Washington, Cristiana Mesquita in Havana and Devi Shastri in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

After a few isolated showers and storms earlier Wednesday evening in Lenawee and Monroe counties, conditions have quieted down. Skies will stay mostly clear overnight with lows dropping into the mid to upper 40s.

That clear sky is setting the stage for a great opportunity to catch the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaks around this time in April. If you are planning to skywatch, the best viewing will be after midnight into the early morning hours.

You will want to look toward the northeastern sky, away from city lights, for the best chance to spot meteors. Under ideal conditions, you might see around 10 to 20 meteors per hour, though the numbers can vary. No special equipment is needed. Just give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness.

Thursday

Thursday looks like one of the nicest days of the stretch. Expect plenty of sunshine with afternoon highs climbing into the mid-70s.

Winds stay light out of the south-southeast, making for comfortable conditions from morning through evening.

That includes a great setup for the Detroit Tigers’ afternoon game at Comerica Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Temperatures will be in the upper 60s to near 70 at game time, warming into the lower to mid-70s through the afternoon. Skies will be partly to mostly sunny with no rain expected, making for ideal baseball weather.

It is also a great day to tackle outdoor tasks.

If you have been waiting to mow the lawn, Thursday offers dry conditions, light winds, and comfortable temperatures before wet weather returns.

Friday

Rain chances begin to increase on Friday.

While a few showers are possible during the afternoon, the better chance for widespread rain and a few thunderstorms arrives Friday evening into Friday night.

Some of that rain could be steady at times, so plan accordingly for evening travel and outdoor plans.

This weekend

By Saturday, a few lingering showers are possible early, especially in the morning, before drier air works in.

Temperatures trend cooler behind the system, with highs settling back into the 60s for the weekend and into early next week.

Overnight lows throughout the period will generally fall into the 40s and low 50s, closer to seasonal norms for late April.

Share your weather photos with Local 4 at MIPics.

Francisco Lindor was removed Wednesday night against the Minnesota Twins with left calf tightness, just hours after teammate Juan Soto came off the injured list. The switch-hitting shortstop will have an MRI on Thursday, putting the top of New York's punchless batting order in flux once more.

“Here we go again," manager Carlos Mendoza said.

New York (8-16) ended its 12-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over Minnesota, but it might have come at a cost.

“We’ve got to wait and see what we’re dealing with,” Mendoza said.

Lindor labored around the bases while scoring from first on Francisco Alvarez's one-out double up the right-center alley in the fourth inning. He grimaced as he rounded third and paused for a bit from the seat of his pants after beating the relay throw with a feetfirst slide.

“I knew right away when he was rounding third base that something wasn’t right there. So, we’ll see what we’ve got,” Mendoza said. "Right away, he scores and you could see his face. Looking from the dugout, I knew something wasn’t right.”

Lindor headed down the dugout tunnel with an athletic trainer and was replaced in the lineup by Brett Baty, who entered at third base in the top of the fifth. Bo Bichette slid over from third base to shortstop.

Batting cleanup, Lindor knocked in a run when he legged out an infield single with two outs in the first. Moments earlier, he made an outstanding leaping grab at shortstop for the second out of the game.

Soto was reinstated from the 10-day IL earlier in the day. The slugging outfielder had been sidelined since straining his right calf while running from first to third on April 3 in San Francisco.

“We got good news, relatively good news with Soto, and it was still three weeks,” Mendoza said. "So, we’ll see what we’re dealing with.”

After a slow start this season, Lindor was starting to come on recently. He launched a three-run homer Tuesday night and is hitting .226 with two home runs and five RBIs.

“Can’t sit here and make excuses. It’s all part of it. We lost Soto, and we had a hard time," Mendoza said. “Another really good player, and we’ve got to figure it out.”

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

“I'm sure they appreciated it,” Pistons power forward Isaiah Stewart said.

Wallace, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and Mahorn, an enforcer for the Bad Boys, helped the Pistons win a lot of games that looked like Wednesday night's slugfest.

Stewart had two blocks, including one that denied Paolo Banchero a dunk.

“I’m willing to lay my body on the line to make those plays for the energy,” Stewart said.

Top-seeded Detroit held eighth-seeded Orlando to 33% shooting and season lows in points and field goals. The Pistons forced 19 turnovers and blocked 11 shots.

“When we play defense at the level we’re capable of, it triggers everything for us,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We can be an elite defensive team, a disruptive defense. It's Pistons basketball. That’s what it looks like.

“We had one off night and it came at a bad time.”

In Game 1, the Pistons had a sluggish start in each half and allowed the Magic to make almost half their shots All five Orlando starters scored at least 16 points in a 112-101 win.

The Pistons were the aggressors in Game 2, blocking seven shots in the opening 12 minutes to tie a franchise playoff record for blocks in a quarter.

In the third, they went on a 30-3 run and outscored the Magic 38-16.

Detroit coasted in the fourth quarter, winning a playoff game for the first time at Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons ended an NBA-record, 11-game home losing streak in the playoffs that dates to 2008, when the franchise played at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

“Obviously, we've heard it,” Tobias Harris said after scoring 16 points, blocking two shots and making two steals.

The Magic, a little reluctantly, gave the Pistons some credit for their defense.

“They did a heck of a job of reaching, grabbing and holding,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said. “They protected that paint and our ability to get downhill.”

Jalen Suggs scored 19 and Banchero had 18 for the Magic. They combined to make just 14 of 35 shots.

“They met us at the rim a few times, and they brought the intensity on defense,” Banchero said. “But we got good looks, and nobody really had a great night shooting the ball.”

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

Click here to read the latest 4Warn Weather forecast.

Here’s a list of the alerts for each county:

Wayne County

• No advisories, warnings in effect at this time.

Oakland County

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Macomb County

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Washtenaw County

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Monroe County

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Nelson Otto Ropke, 41, of Grosse Pointe Park, was arraigned on the following 26 felony counts on Wednesday, April 22, 2026:

• Two counts of aggravated child sexually abusive activity -- a felony with a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
• Four counts of aggravated distribution of child sexually abusive activity -- a felony with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
• Four counts of aggravated possession of child sexually abusive activity -- a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
• Two counts of capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person -- a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
• One count of possession of child sexually abusive matter -- a felony with a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
• 13 counts of using a computer to commit a crime -- all felonies with various maximum penalties (more on that below).

During the arraignment, Ropke waived a formal reading of the charges, stood mute and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

Tina Ripley, assistant prosecuting attorney at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, argued for a high bond, alleging the case involves more than passive possession.

They told the court Ropke is accused of creating child sexually abusive material by pasting faces, including his own and those of family members, onto images of children engaged in sexual acts.

They further alleged he communicated with others online to receive and distribute such material.

They also accused him of secretly capturing videos and pictures of himself and his ex-wife engaged in sexual acts, sharing the materials on a website.

Ripley argued Ropke poses a danger to the community, emphasizing that he is accused of actively creating and distributing illicit material. She also cited his profession as an attorney, saying his access to resources and connections increases his potential flight risk.

Prosecutors requested a $1 million bond and, if released, sought conditions including no access to electronic devices, no contact with minors or his ex-wife, and GPS monitoring. Concerns were also raised about fear among family members due to alleged past threats. He allegedly

Andrew Moxie, Ropke’s court-appointed attorney, told the court Ropke is currently unemployed and that his “housing situation is limited.” He most recently was at a nursing facility in Harper Woods, and “seems to be having some severe heart conditions,” noting he was hospitalized at the time of the hearing.

Ropke is currently on probation out of Grosse Pointe Farms.

Judge John R. Parnell said he was “very concerned” about the nature of the allegations, especially given that they are alleged to have occurred while Ropke was on probation.

According to court records, in September 2024, Ropke was sentenced to 24 months of probation on the charges of disturbing the peace/disorderly person and operating while impaired.

The judge set bond at $1 million cash/surety, with no 10% option.

If Ropke posts bond, he must have no contact with anyone under 18, no contact with his ex-wife or any alleged victims, and a ban on using internet-capable devices. He must also surrender his passport and any devices with cameras, including his cellphone. The court said he may use a phone without internet access solely to communicate with his attorney.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for May 6, and his preliminary examination is scheduled for May 13.

Tomika Alexander is raising money to boost the Crime Stoppers of Michigan reward for the killing of her son from up to $2,500 to $10,000.

She renewed her call for tips as Johnson’s classmates prepare for milestones he will never reach.

“My son would be turning 18 years old. He would be having a graduation this year, he would be going to prom,” Alexander previously told Local 4. “I don’t get none of that.”

Johnson was shot and killed Feb. 11, 2024, at a sleepover with friends at the Westin Hotel in Southfield.

Four other teenagers were in the room when the shooting occurred, but investigators say they have not provided information about what happened.

Alexander said public support has helped her continue pressing for answers.

“I have like strangers just to come up to me and just letting me know they’re praying for me and continue my fight and don’t give up, and I’m not,” she said. “From phone calls, just text messages, a card in the mail, those go a long way.”

Southfield police have said they recovered two guns from one of the teens at the scene and later determined that one was the weapon that killed Johnson.

However, authorities have said they still don’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren has said investigators face challenges determining who was handling the gun when it fired and why it was discharged.

Barren has also said that attorneys representing the teens have advised them not to cooperate.

On April 1, what would have been Johnson’s 18th birthday, Alexander joined Southfield police and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office in renewing calls for information.

In a statement, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald urged anyone with knowledge of the shooting to come forward.

“We know there are people who were with Tyler that night and have important information about what happened,” McDonald said. “We urge anyone with information to contact the Southfield Police Department and tell the truth about what happened to their friend.”

“The Southfield Police Department remains committed to seeking justice for Tyler Johnson,” said Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with his family and share the community’s desire for accountability. We know there are people with important information about what happened that night. We continue to urge anyone with information to come forward and speak with our investigators so we can provide Tyler’s family with answers and help bring them some measure of closure.”

Alexander has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the reward.

“I can’t do it by myself, but as a community, my supporters, all together, we can make this happen,” Alexander said.

Alexander said she is holding onto hope that a tip will eventually bring her family answers.

“We’re going to get charges for Tyler, definitely,” Alexander said. “He didn’t deserve this, and I’m not going to let this go and fall on deaf ears.”

Anyone with information in the case can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.

All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. Click here to submit a tip online.

The Pistons had lost 11 straight home postseason games, a drought that started in 2008.

Game 3 is Saturday in Orlando.

Detroit dominated the third quarter, turning a tie game into a rout by outscoring the Magic 38-16 in the period with six players scoring at least five points.

After Cunningham scored a career playoff-high 39 points in Game 1 and didn’t get much help, the All-Star guard had plenty of support, with five teammates scoring in double figures.

Jalen Suggs scored 19 points and Paolo Banchero had 18 for the Magic. They combined to miss 21 of 35 shots as the team shot 33% and was held to a season low in points.

Detroit’s Tobias Harris scored 16 points, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson had 11 each, and Duncan Robertson and Isaiah Stewart each scored 10. Robinson made three much-needed 3-pointers for a team that struggles with outside shooting.

Orlando’s Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane had 12 points apiece and Wendell Carter Jr. was limited to three points on 1-of-6 shooting after he scored 17 in the opener.

The Magic did not trail in the opener as their starters scored at least 16 points apiece and the Pistons had just two players in double figures.

Detroit took its first lead of the series on the opening possession of Game 2 and jumped to a 14-7 lead with a desperately needed strong start after coming out sluggish in Game 1.

The Pistons led by four points after the opening quarter and the game was tied at 46 entering the third period, when Detroit looked like the defensive-minded team that had the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Both teams will have two days to make adjustments for Game 3.

Detroit hasn't advanced beyond the first playoff round in 18 years and Orlando hasn’t reached the second round in 16 years.

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

“The end of smoking, and the devastating harm it causes, is no longer uncertain — it’s inevitable,” Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said after a decades-long campaign in favor of legislation approved Tuesday.

Children born after Dec. 31, 2008, will be banned from ever buying cigarettes under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

The legislation that needs approval by King Charles III — a formality — before taking effect will also allow the government to regulate tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, including flavors and packaging.

It is currently illegal to sell cigarettes, tobacco products or vapes to people younger than 18. But most youths today will continue to face a ban their entire life as the minimum age to buy cigarettes rises each year.

The passage gives the U.K. one of the toughest antismoking measures in the world. The law is similar to one New Zealand lawmakers passed in 2022, but that was repealed by a subsequent government.

The number of people who smoke in Britain has declined by two-thirds since the 1970s, but some 6.4 million people — or about 13% of the population — still smoke, according to official figures.

Authorities say smoking causes some 80,000 deaths a year in the U.K, and remains the number one preventable cause of death, disability and poor health.

“Children in the U.K. will be part of the first smoke-free generation, protected from a lifetime of addiction and harm,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting said.

Pakistan had planned to host a second round of talks, but the White House suspended Vice President JD Vance’s planned trip to Islamabad as Iran rebuffed efforts to restart negotiations. Iran acknowledged the ceasefire extension but didn't say Tehran was ready to attend a new round of talks to end the war, state television reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Iran’s semiofficial news agencies are reporting that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has attacked a third ship on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, throwing into question efforts to end the war. Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating. The Guard has seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.

Here is the latest:

CENTCOM says more than 30 ships affected by US blockade

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday its forces in the Mideast had “directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the U.S. blockade against Iran.”

Panama condemns ‘illegal seizure’ of a vessel traveling under its flag through Strait of Hormuz

The Central American nation’s foreign ministry wrote in a statement that the boat, owned by the Italian company MSC Francesca, was “forcibly taken” into Iranian waters on Wednesday, and it accused Iran of violating international law. It wasn’t immediately clear if the boat remained in Iranian custody.

The seizure “represents a serious attack on maritime security and constitutes an unnecessary escalation,” it wrote.

Panama has one of the largest ship registries, with around 16% of the world’s ships flying under the country’s flag, according to 2024 data from Panamanian authorities.

Pentagon says it will take months to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz, AP source says

The Pentagon told lawmakers this week it will likely take six months to clear the mines set in the strait, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.

Officials from the Department of Defense delivered the information during a classified briefing at the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The session left more questions than answers as lawmakers probed for information about the cost of the war against Iran, the strategy and objectives, the person said. The lawmakers also raised questions that have still gone unanswered about the strike on a school compound during the early days of the war.

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— By Lisa Mascaro

Senators have again rejected a Democratic attempt to halt Trump’s war in Iran

The U.S. Senate rejected the resolution 46-51 on Wednesday as Republicans in Congress have largely backed Trump’s military efforts.

It was the fifth time this year that the Senate voted to cede its war powers to the president in a conflict that Democrats say is illegal and unjustified. The resolution would require the U.S. to withdraw forces from the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.

“The longer Trump waits to extricate the U.S. from this war, the deeper the hole gets and the harder it will be for him to get out,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

Republicans have been reluctant to criticize Trump or the war, even as they say they want it to end quickly.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that most Republicans believe “that the president is correct in making sure Iran can’t threaten the world with a nuclear weapon.”

Israeli strike kills at least 5 people in Gaza, hospital says

At least five people, including three children, were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Wednesday night, according to Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Local health authorities said the group of people was targeted by a drone while they were in a street in Beit Lahiya, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 780 people since the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was put in place six months ago, 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 distinguish between civilian and militant deaths.

Overall, the health ministry says 72,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

US stocks rally to records, but Brent oil also tops $100 on worries about the Iran war

The U.S. stock market rallied to more records Wednesday after GE Vernova, Boston Scientific and other big companies joined the parade, reporting fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected. But caution still hung over Wall Street, and oil prices rose on uncertainty about what would happen in the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 jumped 1% and topped its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 340 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite set its own record after jumping 1.6%.

Strong performances have helped the S&P 500 power higher, and the index recorded its 13th gain in its last 16 days.

Still, another rise in oil prices helped keep enthusiasm in check on Wall Street. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 3.5% to $101.91.

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Paramedics recover body of Lebanese journalist hours after Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon

The body of a Lebanese journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Wednesday has been pulled from under the rubble hours after the attack.

The daily Al-Akhbar newspaper confirmed that its reporter, Amal Khalil, was killed in the strike on the southern village of al-Tiri.

Information Minister Paul Morcos also confirmed Khalil’s death.

Khalil had been covering the Israel-Hezbollah war since it started in October 2023 and had been reporting from different parts of southern Lebanon on the hostilities.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, called on the international community to immediately pressure the Israeli army to allow the rescue of Khalil.

Iran says it is prepared for 2026 World Cup participation in the US

However, it was unclear whether it would ultimately take part.

“The Ministry of Youth and Sports made an announcement about the full preparedness of our national soccer team for presence in the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., by the order of the minister,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohejerani told Iran’s state TV on Wednesday.

“They informed that the necessary arrangements that these dear ones need for the team’s proud and successful participation, (have been made),” Mohejerani added.

The tournament is scheduled to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer.

White House says only Trump knows how long extension of Iran ceasefire will last

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump hasn’t set a deadline for receiving a proposal from the Iranians.

“Ultimately, the timeline would be dictated by the commander in chief,” she said.

Trump announced a ceasefire extension on Tuesday.

White House says Iran seizing 2 ships doesn’t violate ceasefire terms

Iran taking control of two ships is not a violation of the truce terms because “these were not U.S. or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel.

She said Iran’s navy has been decimated and that the ships in question “were taken by speedy gun boats,” meaning that Iran is acting “like a bunch of pirates.”

Leavitt said Trump’s blockade remains in place “on ships coming to and from Iranian ports” and that the seizure by Iranian forces “is piracy that we are seeing on display.”

Hezbollah says it launched drones at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon

The group added in a statement that the two attacks targeting soldiers and vehicles in the village of Qantara on Wednesday evening were in retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of the 10-day ceasefire that took effect Friday.

The strikes marked the group’s third attack on Wednesday. Israel did not immediately comment on the latest attacks but has previously accused Hezbollah of breaching the ceasefire.

Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli troops fired at rescuers searching for missing journalist

The ministry said two Israeli strikes on al-Tiri in southern Lebanon killed two people. The journalist Amal Khalil and her colleague took cover in a house, which the ministry said was targeted in the second strike. When rescuers arrived, they were able to recover the two bodies and one injured journalist. But the Israeli military fired live ammunition at the ambulance, preventing the team from completing the search for Khalil, the ministry said. Lebanon’s National News Agency showed pictures of the damage to the ambulance.

Khalil’s condition is not clear. She is a prominent journalist with the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.

Israel’s military alleged the individuals in the village violated the ceasefire, posing a risk to the troops’ safety. It denied that it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area or that it targets journalists.

Reopening Strait of Hormuz ‘impossible’ amid breaches, Iranian official says

“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime/naval blockade and taking the world’s economy hostage, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted,” Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Wednesday.

“Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Qalibaf added. “The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”

Israeli military says it struck targets in south Lebanon, denies blocking rescue

Lebanese officials and Reporters Without Borders said a journalist was missing following an Israeli strike near the southern village of al-Tiri on Wednesday, while another journalist was wounded.

The Israeli military said it struck a vehicle and a structure in the area after identifying what it described as militants posing an immediate threat near the border.

The military said it was aware of reports that journalists were injured but did not confirm them and denied preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.

The details of the incident are under review, it added.

Trump says Iran respected his request, will free women whose release he demanded

The president said he has been informed that four of the women will be “released immediately,” while four others will be sentenced to one month each in prison.

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request ... and terminated the planned execution,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.

He said the women protesters were expected to be executed Wednesday.

Rights groups that monitor Iran had said two of the women were already released on bail in March, and two others were known to face charges that carry the death sentences. They had been arrested during the January anti-government protests.

Trump re-posted a photo of the women, including two teen girls, on Tuesday on social media, which a conservative activist noted are facing prosecution in Iran.

The Iranian judiciary responded promptly, denying that any of them were on the verge of execution, saying some were already released.

Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli strike on southern Lebanon kills 2

The ministry added that the Wednesday afternoon strike on the village of Yohmor also wounded two people.

UN’s global shipping regulation body condemns Persian Gulf shipping attacks

Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, on Wednesday condemned attacks on shipping after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing two and taking them to Iran. Earlier, Trump said the United States would continue to blockade Iranian ports.

“The attacks on and seizures of commercial ships are unacceptable,” Dominguez said, urging an immediate halt and the release of vessels and crews. He warned that the situation remains “extremely volatile” and questioned why companies risk seafarers’ lives.

Nearly 20,000 seafarers remain at sea after seven weeks, uncertain when they can return home, he added.

Firm says over 10M barrels of Iranian oil left Persian Gulf since US blockade of Iran’s ports

An analytics firm focusing on global energy and freight markets says it recorded 34 movements of sanctioned and Iranian-linked tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf in the week after the U.S. imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The firm, Vortexa, says it identified 19 outbound and 15 inbound movements of such vessels between April 13 and Monday.

Six of those outbound movements were “confirmed laden with Iranian crude, representing about 10.7 million barrels,” it said in an email to The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear whether all those barrels reached markets overseas.

Lebanese journalist missing after Israeli strike on southern Lebanon

Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, called on the international community on Wednesday to immediately pressure the Israeli army into allowing the rescue of journalist Amal Khalil, who works for the daily Al-Akhbar.

RSF added that Khalil is currently trapped near the southern Lebanese village of al-Tiri following an Israeli airstrike close to her vehicle.

“Her life is in danger right now! Continued Israeli airstrikes are preventing rescuers from reaching her,” RSF said.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun called on the Lebanese Red Cross to work on the rescue of Khalil, along with another journalist, Zeinab Faraj, who was with her.

Aoun requested the Lebanese Red Cross to coordinate with the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers “to carry out the rescue operation in the shortest possible time.”

Crew of a ship attacked in the Strait of Hormuz is safe, management company says

The management company of a container ship that was fired upon in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday says the Liberian-registered Epaminondas was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” while transiting the strait about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Oman.

The Technomar company said all crew were “safe and accounted for” and no injuries were reported, but that preliminary inspections indicated the ship’s bridge had been damaged.

“Technomar remains in close contact with the crew and relevant authorities. Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our crew as we work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure their continued safety and investigate the incident,” the company said. It did not provide further details, but said more information would be released “when there are material developments.”

Iranians have long sought work and relative stability in Turkey. The war could force some to return

Sadri Haghshenas spends her days selling borek — a layered, savory pastry — at a shop in Istanbul, but her mind is on her daughter in Tehran.

The family had to send her home to Iran after they ran into difficulties renewing her visa, despite fears that a shaky ceasefire could soon collapse.

For years, short-term residency permits have allowed tens of thousands of Iranians to pursue economic opportunities and enjoy relative stability in neighboring Turkey. But it’s a precarious situation, and the war has raised the stakes.

“I swear, I cry every day,” Haghshenas said, raising her hands from behind the counter of the pastry shop. “There is no life in my country, there is no life here, what shall I do?”

Turkey hasn't seen an influx of refugees, as most Iranians have sought safety within their country. Many who've crossed the land border were transiting to other countries where they have citizenship or residency.

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Israeli strike kills two people in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire

The strike targeted a vehicle in the town of Tayri on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

No further details on the identities of the victims were immediately available.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

The strike comes despite a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday. Since then, several Israeli strikes have been reported, while Hezbollah has claimed a couple of attacks since Tuesday.

A second French soldier has died after an attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon

On Saturday, a U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small arms fire leaving one French peacekeeper dead and three others wounded, two of them seriously.

French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that a wounded soldier, who was repatriated Tuesday from Lebanon “where he had been seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning from his injuries.”

Hezbollah had denied is was behind the attack.

Iran says it has yet to decide whether to join a new round of talks with the US

“We entered the negotiations in good faith and with seriousness, but the negotiating party (the United States) has shown disregard and lack of good faith,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, said Wednesday, according to Iran’s State TV.

A second round of negotiations, expected in Pakistan’s capital later this week, has not yet been confirmed. On Tuesday, President Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, leaving the next steps for resuming talks unclear.

“Iran has not yet decided whether it will participate in the new round of peace negotiations with the United States scheduled for later this week,” Baqaei said.

US stocks climb, but so do oil prices with uncertainty rising about the war with Iran

GE Vernova, Boston Scientific and Boeing are leading the U.S. stock market toward another record after joining the list of companies reporting fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected.

But caution is still hanging over Wall Street on Wednesday, and oil prices are also rising on uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% and was on track to top its all-time high set Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 360 points and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly topped $100.

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Energy agency head says energy crisis will trigger major response by governments and industry

Talking about the repercussions of the Iran war, the head of the International Energy Agency said Wednesday that “we are facing the biggest energy crisis in the history.”

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin that what ”we lost in the this war is much bigger than all the crises put together in terms of oil and gas. Plus, plus, there are vital commodities that we are losing — petrochemicals, fertilizers, helium, sulfur.”

However, Birol also pointed out that “there will be a major response to this crisis as well” and that “it is now the job of the governments to design their energy policies in terms of industrial sector, while keeping the competitiveness of the existing industries, preparing the next steps for the tomorrow’s industries.”

He said he also expects that “there will be a similar response in all parts of the economy, car manufacturing industry, electric industry and in the industry sector.”

“And this is a wonderful opportunity,” he added.

Dozens of Israeli civilians attempt to enter Syria

The Israeli military said it intercepted around 40 Israeli civilians that attempted to enter Syria on Wednesday afternoon. The military said the civilians gathered at the border and then were able to infiltrate several hundred meters into the Israeli-military controlled buffer zone in Syria before being returned to Israel and taken into police custody.

The Israeli media identified the infiltrators as part of the right-wing group “Pioneers of Bashan,” which calls for establishing Jewish settlements in Lebanon and Syria.

The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the strait — where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime — with no end in sight. Iranian media said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing the two ships to Iran, marking a further escalation, though the White House said the seizures didn't violate ceasefire terms.

The conflict has already sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, nosed over $100 per barrel, marking a 35% increase from prewar levels, but stock markets still appear to be shrugging it off.

The European Union energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, warned of lasting impact for consumers and businesses, likening it to other major energy crises over the last half-century. He said the disruption is costing Europe around 500 million euros ($600 million) each day.

Iran holds firm in apparent tit-for-tat with US

Iranian media said the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas were being escorted to Iran. The U.S. had earlier seized two Iranian vessels as the ceasefire talks were due to take place in Pakistan.

Technomar, the management company behind the Liberian-registered Epaminondas, said it was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” off the coast of Oman. It said the ship's bridge was damaged.

A second cargo ship came under fire hours later, with no report of damage, though it was then stopped in the water. No injuries to the crews of either vessel were reported. Panama condemned what it called the “illegal seizure” of the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, and said it represented a serious attack on maritime security.

The Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported, without elaborating.

Still, Iran's seizure of the ships didn't violate truce terms because “these were not U.S. or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel.

There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Mideast since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28 with a surprise attack on Iran. Before then, the strait was open for all traffic.

Vortexa, an analytics firm focusing on global energy and freight markets, said it has recorded 34 movements of sanctioned and Iranian-linked tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf in the week after the U.S. imposed its blockade on April 13.

The firm identified 19 outbound and 15 inbound movements. Six of the outbound movements were “confirmed laden with Iranian crude, representing about 10.7 million barrels,” it said in an email. It was not immediately clear whether all those barrels reached markets overseas.

It's not clear when talks will restart

Iran’s ability to restrict traffic through the strait — which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean — has proved a major strategic advantage

While the ceasefire means American and Israeli airstrikes have stopped in Iran — and Tehran’s missiles no longer target Israel and the wider Middle East — the maritime standoff continues and could escalate.

Without any diplomatic agreement, the attacks will likely deter ships from even attempting to pass through the waterway, further squeezing global energy supplies.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker who met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Pakistan earlier this month, said a complete ceasefire “only makes sense” if it is not violated by the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

“Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” he wrote on X.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state TV that Iran has not decided whether to take part in a new round of negotiations, and accused the U.S. of a “disregard and lack of good faith” in the negotiations.

Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, earlier told The Associated Press no delegation would go to Pakistan until the U.S. lifts its blockade.

The U.S. has turned back 31 vessels since its blockade began, U.S. Central Command said Thursday.

In the Iranian capital, Tehran, many grappled with the uncertainty.

“We should know where we stand. Is it going to be a ceasefire, peace, or the war is going to continue?” said Mashallah Mohammad Sadegh, 59. “The way things currently are, one doesn’t know what to do.”

Casualties mount in Lebanon amid plans for new talks

In southern Lebanon, three separate Israeli strikes killed at least six people and wounded others, according to local authorities. Israel denied carrying out one of the strikes and did not immediately comment on the others.

The attacks came as Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors prepared for a new meeting in Washington on Thursday toward extending a fragile 10-day ceasefire that began last week and provided an opening for Iran and the United States to move toward ending the wider war.

An Israeli drone struck the village of Jabbour, killing one person and wounding two others, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. Israel’s military denied it attacked the area.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two Israeli strikes on al-Tiri village killed three people, including a newspaper correspondent, and injured one other journalist.

Authorities said the body of Lebanese reporter Amal Khalil, who worked for the daily Al-Akhbar, was pulled from the rubble hours later. Lebanon’s health ministry said a team searching for her was unable to reach her while Israeli forces fired at an ambulance. Khalil had been covering Israel-Hezbollah hostilities since October 2023 and was reporting during the latest war, the newspaper said.

Israel’s military alleged people in al-Tiri violated the ceasefire and posed a risk to its troops safety. It denied it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area or that it targets journalists.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said a separate Israeli strike on the village of Yohmor killed two people and injured two others.

Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel from Lebanon days after the war's outbreak, sparking retaliatory strikes and an Israeli ground invasion. The ceasefire that started Friday has been marred by several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron said a French peacekeeper wounded in a weekend attack in Lebanon died of his wounds. Another French peacekeeper was killed in the attack Saturday when the force came under small-arms fire in southern Lebanon.

Macron blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which denied involvement.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. More than 2,290 people have been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.

___

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Epaminondas container ship.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

The leak occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Institute as workers were preparing to shut down at least part of the facility, Kanawha County Commission Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said.

A chemical gas reaction occurred at the plant involving nitric acid and another substance, Sigman said at a news briefing. He added that there was "a violent reaction of the chemicals and it instantaneously overreacted.”

“Starting or ending a chemical reaction are the most dangerous times,” Sigman said.

The chemical reaction that was believed to have occurred during a cleaning process produced toxic hydrogen sulfide, Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango said.

Among the injured were seven ambulance workers responding to the leak, officials said.

“We know that the first responders, they always run to the fire. They put themselves in harm’s way,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said at an evening news conference. “We’re very grateful to these brave men and women and what they do. And they’re in our prayers, and we’re monitoring the recovery of those transported to our local hospitals.”

Other people were taken to the hospitals in private cars or even in one case a garbage truck, Sigman said.

Morrisey said one person was in serious condition.

Vandalia Health Charleston Area Medical Center, one of several hospitals in the area, was treating multiple patients, some brought by ambulance, while members of the community were arriving Wednesday afternoon asking to be checked, hospital spokesman Dale Witte said.

Witte said patients were experiencing respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and itchy eyes. They were being evaluated in the emergency room.

WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston said in a statement it has cared for a dozen patients, including eight who arrived by personal vehicle and were not at the scene but were in the area at the time. It said those injuries were not considered life-threatening.

A shelter-in-place order was issued for the surrounding area and lifted more than five hours later. Officials said all the deaths occurred on the plant site.

“You had to get really close to the facility to smell it,” Sigman said.

The leak required a large-scale decontamination operation in which people had to remove their clothes and be sprayed down, authorities said.

Morrisey said it's believed the local air quality and water supply were unaffected.

Catalyst Refiners works to remove silver from what remains of chemical processes. Ames Goldsmith Corp., the owner of Catalyst Refiners, said it is saddened by the deaths and its thoughts were with all those impacted and their families.

“This is an unfathomably difficult time,” company President Frank Barber said in a statement released at the briefing. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families.”

Ames Goldsmith promised to work with local, state and federal officials as they investigate the leak. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into what happened, a spokesperson said, adding that the agency has six months to complete its examination.

Silver is in a number of items ranging from circuit boards and other electronics, photographic and X-Ray films and jewelry. Nitric acid is used to dissolve materials, leaving behind silver nitrate that can be processed to recover pure silver. Recovery businesses can also crush or sandblast items with silver and use magnets or differences in density to sort out the precious metal.

Sigman said Ames Goldsmith recovers silver from the various plants at the Institute complex "and they'll use it again. When they vacuum their carpets in their office, they recover so many thousands of dollars’ worth of silver out of it just vacuuming their carpets.”

The plant is located near Institute, a community about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Charleston, the state capital. The plant is in a region known as West Virginia’s “chemical valley,” although many plants that lined the area along the Kanawha River and produced hazardous materials have closed or changed ownership in the past several decades.

___

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee,.contributed to this report.

The lengthy session is the first step in a complicated process as Republicans seek to work around Democrats’ blockade of the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The entire Homeland Security Department has been shut down for more than two months as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents.

Republicans are now trying to fund the two agencies through the time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes. The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well.

The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and an open-ended series of amendment votes that could take all night to work through.

Democrats have said they will offer amendments to lower expenses for health care and other costs of living in an effort to contrast with Republicans’ focus on Trump’s campaign of immigration enforcement.

Republicans are “bending the knee to Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the votes.

The Senate is expected to pass the budget framework after the lengthy vote series, likely early Thursday morning, and send it to the House. Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.

The $70 billion resolution would fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to Trump’s desk by the end of the month, along with the rest of Homeland Security Department funding that has already passed the Senate.

But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday, frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other issues.

“This is the last train leaving the station,” Kennedy said, predicting they would not be able to pass any other legislation ahead of November's midterm elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.

It is the latest high-profile case of alleged insider trading on prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket, which have brought bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and calls for stricter regulations of the websites where people can put money on just about anything.

Kalshi's disciplinary documents named Mark Moran, who is running as an independent in Virginia's U.S. Senate race; Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in a Texas Republican primary for a U.S. House seat; and Matt Klein, a Democratic state senator running for a U.S. House seat in Minnesota.

Klein and Enriquez both placed bets less than $100 related to their “own candidacy,” Kalshi said. Moran said on social media that he “traded $100 on myself.”

These relatively small bets follow mammoth wagers on prediction markets earlier this year that raised eyebrows. In one case, an anonymous Polymarket user made a $400,000 profit in January on a wager that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would soon be out of office.

In March, after two U.S. senators announced legislation that threatened prediction markets, Kalshi and Polymarket highlighted new rules, including against political candidates trading on their own campaigns.

Moran refused to reach an agreement with Kalshi and was fined the most at more than $6,200, while Klein and Enriquez did reach agreements and face penalties of over $530 and $780, respectively, the company said. All were suspended from Kalshi for five years.

Some politicians said the punishments didn't go far enough. U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat, slammed the repercussions on social media, saying, “That’s not a punishment. That’s a parking ticket.”

The agreements are with the company, and not with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates predication markets. The agency is chaired by Michael Selig, who is considered friendly to the burgeoning industry.

Far from denying the allegations, Moran told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he placed the bets intending to draw attention to what he said was unjust sway that platforms like Kalshi have on elections. Moran added that he'd met with the company and had asked for his name to appear on its website.

Moran said he was fined more than the other candidates because he refused to sign a settlement that would've required him to post a statement on X. He said he felt that the stunt was successful.

“When I piss people off, when I upset people, and when I captivate their attention, that’s when they have to start listening,” he said.

Klein also confirmed Kalshi's findings in a post on social media on Wednesday. The $50 wager he placed in October was the first time he had used a predictions market, he said in a statement on X, and he was “curious about how it worked.”

“This was a mistake and I apologize,” he wrote, saying that the experience made it clear that the markets need more regulation.

Klein is a cosponsor of a bill working its way through the Minnesota Legislature to ban most wagering on predictive markets, including the outcome of elections. In an interview, he said he didn’t think there was an inconsistency between his betting $50 on himself to win his primary and his sponsorship of legislation.

Klein said he spent the winter learning about predictive markets and signed onto the bill well before he learned that his bet violated Kalshi’s rules.

Enriquez, known as Zeke, lost his House race in the beginning of March with less than two percent of the vote. Contact information for Enriquez was not immediately found to request comment. ___

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Logan, Utah, contributed.

In his testimony to various committees in both the Senate and the House over multiple days this week and last, Kennedy was tasked with defending President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 budget, which would boost defense spending while cutting more than 12% of funding from Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services.

With lawmakers of both parties raising concerns about programs and research funding being reduced or eliminated, Kennedy acknowledged the cuts were “painful” but said they were necessary to address the federal government’s record $39 trillion deficit.

When Democrats came out swinging, Kennedy became more defiant, even at times screaming his rebuttals — though some of them didn’t align with the facts. He accused multiple Democratic lawmakers of grandstanding, making things up and seeking sound bites over meaningful responses.

Here are takeaways from Kennedy’s gauntlet of budget hearings:

Kennedy deflects blame for Americans not vaccinating

One of the central fights shaping Kennedy’s interactions with Democratic lawmakers was over who bears responsibility for the decline in childhood vaccination rates and measles outbreaks that have ripped across the country over the past year, threatening the country’s measles elimination status. Kennedy’s refrain was consistent: It’s not my fault.

“It has nothing to do with me,” Kennedy said Tuesday of the uptick in measles across the country over the past year. He noted there is a global rise in measles cases, including in other countries like Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Kennedy, who spent years as an anti-vaccine crusader before entering politics and in 2021 said he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines, disputed accusations that he is anti-vaccine, saying he is “pro-science.”

Throughout the hearings, he sought to focus on HHS’s initiatives unrelated to vaccines — part of a broader administration pivot toward less controversial health topics like nutritious eating.

Kennedy argued that fewer Americans are vaccinating because they lost trust in government recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he was working to restore that trust. In fact, surveys show trust in federal health agencies has continued to decline during Kennedy’s tenure.

Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat from Washington, argued Kennedy’s vaccine views have caused a “spillover effect” that has led to mothers not giving their babies vitamin K injections common at birth to prevent brain bleeding.

“I’ve never said anything about vitamin K,” Kennedy said.

“That’s exactly the point,” Schrier replied.

Kennedy did get credit, however, from Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who said his work was crucial in helping the state manage a troubling measles outbreak over the past year.

“We would not be on the right side of this outbreak without your leadership,” Scott told Kennedy.

Kennedy forcefully denies there are Medicaid cuts – a claim experts call political spin

Nearly every time Democrats brought up the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade largely being created through new work requirements for enrollees, Kennedy lashed back to argue there are no cuts to Medicaid.

“Only in Washington is it considered a cut,” Kennedy told New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, on Wednesday.

Kennedy cited a Congressional Budget Office report showing that Medicaid outlays are estimated to increase by about 47% over the next decade. But experts say his analysis of that report is disingenuous, politicized framing and that the increased spending reflects factors like inflation and a growing population.

“This is an old, sort of tired argument that’s been used by conservatives to justify spending cuts by saying, well, if spending is still growing in nominal terms, somehow there wasn’t a cut,” said Edwin Park, a research professor at Georgetown University. “The federal government is spending nearly a trillion dollars less than it otherwise would have in the absence of the legislation.”

Lawmakers of both parties are concerned about affordability

A major concern for voters in the 2026 midterm elections is affordability — including skyrocketing costs for health care and health insurance. That wasn’t lost on those questioning Kennedy, as lawmakers from both parties raised the issue.

On Tuesday, Rep. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Oregon, shared the story of his brother who pays $26,000 per year for his health coverage.

“What in the world can I go back to him and say? ‘Hey, the administration is working on trying to drive these prices down?’” he asked Kennedy.

Kennedy, for his part, cited several Trump administration initiatives to lower prices, including the White House's TrumpRx website for discounted drugs and Trump’s so-called most favored nations deals with pharmaceutical companies.

Pressed by senators, Kennedy pledged to provide details of those deals that didn’t include proprietary information or trade secrets. Some Democrats wanted him to do more.

“Why don’t you do an agreement yourself? he said in a jab to Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. “You’ve had power to do that for 20 years and haven’t done it.”

Kennedy acknowledges some HHS cuts are ‘painful’

To achieve a more than 12% cut of the more than $100 billion HHS budget, the Trump administration is proposing slashing some $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health and cutting a bevy of other programs and initiatives, including a low-income home energy assistance program.

Several senators asked Kennedy why different areas were being cut. NIH cuts, in particular, raised bipartisan outcry.

“There’s an argument to be made that we’re handing China our lunch,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Kennedy was candid that neither he nor others at his agency wanted to see the cuts, which he called “painful.”

“There’s a lot of cuts to the agency that nobody wants,” he said.

Detroit opened the second half on an 11-0 run, sparked by a midrange jumper from Tobias Harris to open the half, sparking the massive run to eventually tie the series at 1-1 inside Little Caesars Arena.

On Wednesday (April 22), the Pistons ended an 11-game home playoff losing streak, having lost all three games in 2025, both home games after getting swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

Detroit also got swept by the Cavaliers in 2009, extending their streak to 11 games.

Meaning, prior to Wednesday’s victory, the Pistons had never won inside LCA since the building’s inception in 2017.

The victory also ended an 18-year home-game drought, as they achieved their last home playoff victory, which dates back to their 94-75 victory over the Boston Celtics on May 26, 2008, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, which has since been demolished.

Cade Cunningham finished with 27 points, 11 assists, and six rebounds in the victory.

Game 3 will take place inside the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, April 25, at 1 p.m. on Peacock.

The champs are in Motown! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/6FAritijJB

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) April 23, 2026

Spartan Dawg in the building 🔥#DetroitBasketball x @MSU_Basketball pic.twitter.com/AifJUvzgew

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 23, 2026

1st quarter

The Magic won the tip, and Jalen Duren picked up a foul in the game’s first 20 seconds.

Duncan Robinson shot a quick three-pointer following a defensive rebound, which was an airball, but Tobias Harris rebounded it for a putback to give them their first lead of the series.

Cade Cunningham came down and drained a three-pointer to take a 5-0 lead before Wendell Carter Jr. picked up a foul on Cunningham, sending him to the line, where he split the pair as Detroit took a 5-1 lead.

Former Michigan Wolverines forward Franz Wagner made a driving layup for the Magic’s first basket of the game to cut the deficit to two.

Paulo Banchero drew a foul on Harris, sending him to the line for two free throws, but he missed the pair.

Cunningham found Ausar Thompson under the basket for a lay-up.

Motor Cade got a block after a turnover, but Carter Jr. returned the favor with a block on Harris, leading to a Jalen Suggs bucket, assisted by Desmond Bane.

Duren found Thompson for an alley-oop slam before Duren got a block, leading to a defensive rebound by Cunningham, who found fellow Wolverines’ alum Robinson for a contested corner three-pointer as Detroit took a 14-7 lead as Orlando called a timeout with 6:42 to play.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff got a technical foul, sending Banes to the line to cash in on the free point.

Suggs hit a corner three-pointer before Cunningham knocked down a jumper, before leading a fastbreak for a slam dunk as Detroit took an 18-11 lead.

Thompson fouled Suggs on a fast break, sending him to the line for two, bringing in Isaiah Stewart and Javonte Green for him and Duren.

Suggs made both free throws before Kevin Huerter entered the game and turned the ball over, leading to a Banchero rim run to bring the deficit to three.

Goga Bitadze got fouled and sent to the line, making both to cut the deficit to 18-17 before Cunningham made a driving dunk to go back up three.

Banchero drained a jumper before Cunningham turned the ball over under the basket, while trying to find Green under the rim.

The turnover was their fifth of the quarter, while Detroit had six blocks with 2:54 to play.

After some sloppy play, Anthony Black made a contested layup to take the Magic’s first lead of the game.

Stewart got an offensive rebound following a Bitadze block on Daniss Jenkins for the putback to retake the lead.

Huerter drilled a contested three-pointer to take a 25-21 lead, before Jenkins drew a foul on Bane with one second to play, sending him to the line for two free throws, missing both to end the quarter.

Detroit went 0-2 from the line while Orlando went 6-9, although they trailed by four.

Cunningham led all scorers with nine points while Suggs and Thompson tied with four rebounds in the quarter.

But Detroit was sending everything away as they combined for seven blocks, putting defense as the focal point.

2nd quarter

Caris LeVert turned a Green deflection into a contested rim rim before Jenkins made a contested floater.

Duren turned the ball over, leading to a Carter Jr. fastbreak dunk.

LeVert, another Michigan alum, made a contested jumper to take a 31-23 lead.

Jenkins fouled Black, sending him to the line for two, making both to cut the deficit to six.

Duren missed a driving layup as Suggs grabbed the rebound and lobbed assists to Jamal Cain for the slam and the foul, by way of Green.

Cain missed the free throw, which was rebounded by Duren, but the Pistons couldn’t convert on the other end.

Detroit forced a 24-second shot-clock violation before Duren made a running jump hook, then Suggs drilled a three-pointer.

Jenkins turned the ball over, leading to a three-on-one fastbreak, but Banchero turned the ball over under the basket, leading to a Pistons timeout with 6:46 to play.

Detroit came out of the timeout with consecutive three-point misses from Robinson and Cunningham before Harris got a steal on the play.

Orlando turned the ball over before Thompson got called for a moving screen, picking up his third foul with 5:22 to play.

Ronald Holland II re-entered the game and drew a foul on Banchero, sending him to the line for two, which he made.

Cunningham missed a driving layup as Cain got an offensive rebound, but couldn’t convert.

Stewart made a putback before Suggs hit another three-pointer to tie the game at 35-35.

Bitadze fouled Cunningham, sending him to the line for two, splitting the pair.

Wagmer got the defensive rebound, finding Banchero for the and-one attempt, but he missed the free-throw, his third of the game.

Cunningham grabbed the defensive rebound and drew a foul on Suggs with 3:36 to play, but split the pair to tie the game at 37-37.

Banchero got the rebound and found Suggs for a three-point attempt, but he missed.

Robinson got the defensive rebound, leading to a foul by Suggs, his second of the game and the fourth for the Magic with 3:05 to play.

Wagner poked the ball away from Cunningham, leading to a full timeout by the Magic with 2:53 to play.

Cunningham found Duren for the lob attempt when he brought him back to the ground, and a quick putback to take a 39-37 lead.

Banchero drew a foul on Robinson, splitting the pair as Detroit led by one.

Harris made a floater before Bane tied the game with a three-pointer.

Cunningham went at Bane for the contested jumper before Bane picked up a third foul on Robinson, sending him to the line, where he split the pair.

Cunningham made a contested floater before Suggs hit an offhand floater.

Huerter missed a wide-open jumper before Duren got an offensive rebound while drawing a foul on Banchero, his third of the half.

Duren split the pair to take a two-point lead.

Wagner drew a foul on Green, sending him to the line for two to toe the game.

Cunningham turned the ball over, leading to a Wagner three-point contest at the buzzer, which bounced off the rim to end the half tied at 46-46.

3rd quarter

The Pistons opened the second half on an 11-0 run before Bane made a three-pointer to stop the bleeding.

Thompson made a dunk to push the lead to 10 points with 8:18 to play.

Carter Jr. fouled Cunningham before Harris stretched the lead with a baseline jumper.

Banchero missed a three-pointer before Robinson drained a three to take a 64-49 lead as Orlando took a timeout with 7:21 to play.

Harris started the run by opening the second half with a 12-foot step-back jumpshot.

Cunningham made a 12-foot jumper off a Wagner turnover.

He then found Duren for a slam dunk before Cunningham made a running layup and got fouled to take a nine-point lead before Harris made the jumper to push the run to 11-0.

Out of the timeout, Detroit forced another shot-clock violation before Robinson drilled another three-pointer, pushing the lead to 18-points.

Thompson got a steal and made a jam to go on another 12-0 run in 2:48.

Duren got fouled by Carter Jr. at the rim as Detroit went on a combined 22-3 run in the third quarter with 5:51 to play.

Carter Jr. got called for a flagrant foul, sending Duren to the line for two, splitting the pair before making an and-one, taking a 73-49 lead.

Detroit was on a 27-3 run, 16-0 in 3:46.

Banchero fouled Thompson during a defensive rebound, sending him to the line where he split the pair, moving the run to 28-3 and 17-0 in 4:05.

Stewart blocked Suggs at the rim, leading to a Green defensive rebound and foul on Bitadze, making both to push the run to 30-3 and 19-0 in 4:20.

Bitadze grabbed an offensive rebound and drew a foul on Stewart, sending him to the line for two, splitting the pair to stop the run at 30-4 and 19-1 with 4:08 to play in the quarter as the Pistons led 76-50.

Cunningham turned the ball over, leading to a Suggs bankshot.

Stewart drained a three-pointer to take a 79-52, pushing the run to 33-6 before Tristan da Silva made a three pointer.

Stewart made a bunny before getting fouled by Bane, converting the and-one to take an 82-55 lead.

Detroit pushed the run to 36-9 in the quarter as the assist by Cunningham as he had 20 points and 10 assists.

Black got fouled at the rim by Stewart, splitting the pair.

Green grabbed the defensive rebound, but Harris missed a nine-foot jumper as Wagner got the defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for the contested layup.

Jenkins got called for a foul on Banes while going after a contested rebound on the offensive glass, as he went to the line to make both.

Jenkins made an off-balance jumper to take an 84-60 lead before Wagner made an eight-foot floater to cut the deficit to 22 to end the quarter.

Detroit outscored the Magic 25-21 to end the first quarter, but Orlando flipped the script to outscore the Pistons 25-21 to end the first half, tying the game at 4-46.

But Detroit opened the third quarter on a mega run, turning defense into offense to outscore the Magic 38-16 to blow the game open.

4th quarter

Bane got fouled by Cunningham, sending him to the line for two, making both.

Cunningham turned the ball over as Black had a steal, but Bitadze made a bad pass to Robinson for a steal of his own.

Cunningham missed a 15-foot jumper before Wagner grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast to coast for a six-foot driving jumper to cut the deficit to 18 as Bickerstaff called a timeout with 10:35 to play.

Cunningham made a nine-foot jumper to push the lead back to 20.

Bitadze fouled Duren, but Harris got blocked by Bane.

Harris got a defensive rebound, but Cunningham turned the ball over.

Thompson made a dunk before Banchero made a jumper.

Robinson got called for a foul, sending Wagner to the line, making both to cut the deficit to 18.

Cunningham drew a foul on Banchero, sending him to the line for two, splitting the pair as Banchero grabbed the defensive rebound.

Banchero drove to the basket and tried to dunk on Stewart, who got all ball on the play, but was called for a foul, leading to a challenge by Bickerstaff with 7:32 to play.

The call was overturned, as Detroit had 11 blocks in the game.

Since no one had possession, both teams jumped at center court, as Stewart got the tip but got called for an offensive foul on the possession.

Suggs couldn’t convert on the following possession, leading to a nasty crossover and finish at the rim to take a 91-70 lead.

Cunningham had 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists.

Stewart turned the ball over, leading to a Banchero monster jam over him, drawing the foul to complete the three-point play.

Harris made a floater for his 14th point of the game. He also had 10 rebounds in the matchup.

Banchero blocked Harris before Robinson and Bane got called for double technical fouls with 4:46 to play.

Orlando challenged the play and won the appeal on the Banchero-Harris block.

Suggs made a jumper to cut the deficit to 93-75.

Suggs got called for a foul before getting called for a delay of game technical, but Cunningham missed the free-throw.

Banchero got an easy bunny following another turnover by Detroit as Detroit led 93-77.

Harris got fouled hard with 2:57 to play, sending him to the line where he converted both.

Former Michigan State Spartans star Jase Richardson entered the game and drilled a three-pointer.

Cunningham knocked down a jumper before Richardson nailed another three-pointer, before fellow Wolverines alum Moritz Wagner drew a foul on Robinson.

A double-technical was called on Harris and Jevon Carter.

Robinson split the pair as former Wolverines star Jett Howard shot a three-pointer to end the game.

The FBI said Wednesday that its agents interviewed Patel's girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, when she expressed concern about a death threat received after Williamson's article was published, but took no further action.

The Times, in an article posted online Wednesday, said that the FBI looked on federal databases for information about Williamson and recommended pursuing it further, but was blocked by the Justice Department.

The newspaper said it learned about all of this only through a tip given to reporter Michael S. Schmidt. The paper called the action alarming.

“The FBI's attempt to criminalize routine reporting is a blatant violation of Elizabeth's First Amendment rights and another attempt by this administration to prevent journalists from scrutinizing its actions,” said Joseph Kahn, the newspaper's executive editor. “It's alarming. It's unconstitutional. And it's wrong.”

It's not clear whether The Times has any recourse other than asking a federal inspector general to review whether the actions were improper.

Williamson briefly interviewed Wilkins when reporting, but the singer insisted the conversation be off the record. The reporter also spoke to people who knew Wilkins or had worked with her, the newspaper said.

The original piece, published on Feb. 28, looked at the use of federal officials called upon to perform personal duties for an administration figure. She wrote that Patel had assigned four agents to protect Wilkins full time, and that they had ferried her to appearances in Britain, Illinois and Nashville.

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson, in a statement posted on social media, said that while investigators “were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking, no further action regarding Williamson or the reporting was ever pursued by the FBI.”

Patel hasn't been reluctant to fight back against reporting that displeases him. On Monday, he filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic for its article that discussed allegations about his excessive drinking and mismanagement at the law enforcement agency.

Multiple videos from bystanders show a masked agent grabbing and pulling Franci Stagi across the street during a protest in October against the detention of three Colombian asylum-seekers in Durango, Colorado. She said he grabbed her by the hair and put her in a chokehold. The state is among several that prohibited or severely limited police officers from using chokeholds and neck restraints since George Floyd’s death in 2020.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigations launched an investigation into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer's actions against Stagi at the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, who raised concerns about possible violations of state law — an unusual if not unprecedented request.

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, called the prosecution “unlawful” and a “political stunt.” It said states have no authority to investigate such cases.

“Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies,” DHS said in a statement.

The department said it was still investigating what happened in the incident.

Court documents didn’t list any attorney as representing the officer, Nicholas Rice.

Stagi said she was standing close to the officer and filming him outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango, a college town popular for outdoor recreation, when he hit her hand hard, causing her to lose her cellphone. Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said she then reached for the officer's shoulder to get his attention. After she said he put her in a chokehold, she said he threw her down an embankment next to the street. She said she still experiences pain in her arm doing normal everyday activities, like putting on her jacket.

Court documents allege that Rice committed third-degree assault by causing bodily injury to Stagi, but the documents don’t describe how she was injured or make mention of a chokehold. Rice also is charged with criminal mischief for allegedly damaging Stagi’s cellphone.

Stagi said Wednesday she was disappointed Rice was charged with less serious crimes. The assault charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum sentence of just under a year in jail. But she hopes the prosecution sends a message that immigration officers can't tackle people indiscriminately and use excessive force.

“It did open my eyes to how quickly I can be under someone else's control, and it's frightening,” said Stagi, whose legal name is Anne Francesca Stagi.

Federal law enforcement officers have broad legal protections when acting in the course of their official duties, and the Justice Department has in recent months taken a hard line against state efforts to arrest or prosecute federal agents. Late last year, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said arrests of federal officers performing their duties would be “illegal and futile,” citing the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and federal law. Legal experts say those protections are significant but not absolute and the Supremacy Clause does not provide blanket immunity.

Chokeholds have been at the center of public discourse and state legislative initiatives about what constitutes an unreasonable use of force since Eric Garner died in New York in 2014 after he was put in a chokehold by a white police officer.

Garner’s dying words, “ I can’t breathe ” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

While some states have banned chokeholds and other tactics, sweeping changes were met with resistance.

A federal package of reforms that would have banned chokeholds nationwide passed the U.S. House in 2021 but failed to reach then-President Joe Biden’s desk. The bill was named in honor of Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee to his neck.

Within a month of Floyd’s death, Colorado lawmakers approved a ban on chokeholds as part of broader police reform legislation. The law overrode more limited chokehold restrictions that were put in place four years earlier.

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Slevin reported from Denver, and Lee from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Her death was ruled a homicide in the report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office that had been blocked from release for months.

The autopsy was limited by “extensive postmortem changes” to the body that was dismembered and decomposing when it was found in two bags in the trunk of a Tesla parked in the Hollywood Hills in September.

The examination revealed “two penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp force injuries.” One wound on the upper abdomen penetrated the liver. Another, on the left chest, damaged her ribs. A tube top she was wearing appeared to be cut in three places.

A judge had ordered the report sealed late last year at the request of law enforcement, but prosecutors agreed this week to allow its release.

The 21-year-old alt-pop singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged in the killing Monday. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. Burke’s attorneys said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death and they will vigorously defend his innocence.

The girl's parents made their first public comments on Tuesday night, thanking investigators for their work and the people of their hometown of Lake Elsinore, California, for their support. Lake Elsinore is about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

“Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night and we spent wonderful times together,” Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez said. "We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”

Prosecutors allege Burke killed Rivas Hernandez because she threatened to report they had a sexual relationship that began when she was 13 years old and he feared it would ruin his rising career.

A criminal complaint alleges he killed her with a sharp object and dismembered the body about two weeks later.

Medical Examiner's investigators called to the scene where the body was found discovered her torso and head in a black, zippered body bag in the Tesla's trunk, with arms and legs in a separate trash bag.

Her body had so degraded that examiners couldn't even determine her eye color. She had braces at the time of her death, and a tattoo that read “Shhh....” on the inside of a finger, according to the report. Two other fingers were missing — as were parts of her arms and legs.

Toxicology tests on the liver showed a low level of alcohol, but it may have been due to postmortem chemical changes and didn't appear to be a factor, the report said.

LA County's Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey C. Ukpo has sought to emphasize his agency's independence from law enforcement and to make its work as public as possible since he took over the job three years ago. He has said he does not believe sealing reports of his office's work helps investigations and has said he would only put holds on releasing the reports if compelled by a court order.

“After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss,” Ukpo said in a statement Wednesday. “It is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.”

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among young fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

His debut full-length album, “Withered,” was released one year ago, two days after the date prosecutors estimate that Rivas Hernandez was killed.

The lawsuit, filed by Lorrayne Mavromatis in federal court in North Carolina on Wednesday, accuses MrBeastYouTube, LLC and GameChanger 24/7, LLC of violating federal law that entitles eligible employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying family and medical reasons, including childbirth. Mavromatis also filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of sex, pregnancy, and retaliation.

Mavromatis claims that she worked “nonstop” following her baby's birth as well as while in the delivery room. “I was still bleeding, and I just had to show up,” Mavromatis told The Associated Press in an interview.

Less than three weeks after she returned to work full time, she said she was fired.

A Beast Industries spokesperson called the lawsuit a “clout-chasing complaint” built on “deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements” in an emailed statement. Mavromatis's position was eliminated, according to the spokesperson, when the new head of ecommerce reorganized her team.

The company shared a March 31, 2025 exchange on the workplace messaging app Slack, in which a coworker told Mavromatis that she “shouldn't even be checking” her messages after Mavromatis canceled a meeting because she wrote she was “actually in labor at the hospital as we speak.” In response to allegations that MrBeast failed to inform her of her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the company shared a screenshot of her signature confirming receipt of the employee handbook including FMLA policies.

“We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us,” the statement said.

Company culture once again under scrutiny

Mavromatis's lawsuit raises disturbing allegations about the culture behind YouTube’s most popular creator as new company leaders seek to rapidly expand the media empire founded by Jimmy Donaldson under his MrBeast alias.

It portrays a toxic, misogynistic workplace that Beast Industries has recently tried to clean up as Donaldson’s media empire launches ambitious ventures into television and financial services. His “Beast Games” Amazon Prime reality competition show is two seasons deep and the company recently acquired the teenager-focused banking app Step.

Questions about Beast Industries’ internal culture surfaced two years ago after a social media firestorm over Donaldson’s past racist and homophobic language coincided with accusations that a longtime collaborator shared inappropriate sexual messages with minors. In an August 2024 email to employees, Donaldson said he recognized that he must “create a culture that makes all our employees feel safe and allows them to do their best work.”

Beast Industries fired several employees following a third-party investigation that identified “isolated instances” of workplace harassment and misconduct.

Donaldson has since become a growing presence in American entertainment outside of YouTube. He appeared at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, advertised for business software maker Salesforce in a Super Bowl commercial and joined the cast of the upcoming “Angry Birds Movie 3.”

Beast Industries — which employs about 700 people, according to chief communication officer Gaude Paez — continues to expand. The company has been on a hiring spree of late, landing executives from the likes of NBCUniversal and TikTok as the brand tries to find success beyond Donaldson’s name and image.

Mavromatis’s lawsuit was filed ahead of Thursday’s TIME100 celebration in New York City, where Donaldson is scheduled to be honored as one of the magazine’s most influential people, along with Pope Leo XIV, President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

A high intensity workplace

Beast Industries encouraged employees to “go to great lengths” to get the job done, according to Mavromatis’s lawsuit, which refers to a 36-page “HOW TO SUCCEED IN MRBEAST PRODUCTION” guide circulated among employees at the time of her employment. The guide included sections saying, “It’s okay for the boys to be childish" and “The Amount of hours you work is irrelevant.”

It was against that backdrop that Mavromatis said she joined a team meeting from her hospital bed in the throes of labor, afraid she would be fired if she refused.

“I actually had to hold my breath in between talks because of how hard the contractions were,” she said.

Mavromatis, now 34, was hired in August 2022 as MrBeast’s head of Instagram, and was promoted twice within a year. Between June 2023 and January 2024, she oversaw operations for the company's verticals division, which she described as an executive position, but Beast Industries' Paez called mid-level.

A few months after she started at the company, she asked James Warren — Donaldson's cousin and CEO at that time— for advice when she noticed Donaldson would not make eye-contact with her.

According to the complaint, Warren responded: "Jimmy gets really awkward around beautiful women. Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom.”

The company attributed Donaldson's bathroom trips to his Crohn's disease.

The lawsuit said that after Mavromatis reported sexual harassment issues as well as a hostile work environment to human resources, which was headed by Donaldson's mother, she was transferred and demoted to “an obscure role." The company refuted that claim, calling it “false and inaccurate.”

TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund at the National Women’s Law Center, which was founded during the early days of the #MeToo reckoning against sexual misconduct, says it is supporting Mavromatis's case.

“Abusive workplaces rely on a persistent lack of accountability. We see this pattern frequently, where those with influence and power are allowed to harm others and retaliate against those who decide to speak up,” said senior director Jennifer Mondino. “We are in a collective fight to address a longstanding culture of harassment that relies on entrenched silence and shame.”

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Some of the biggest blazes were near Georgia’s coast, while others were popping up in northern Florida, a state facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades.

It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but the bottom half of Georgia is perilously dry and the conditions prompted the state's forestry commission to issue a burn ban for the first time in its history. Southeastern Georgia has seen just 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain since the beginning of September — almost 15 inches (38 centimeters) below normal, the National Weather Service said.

The fires spread so quickly in that area that residents received no warnings or alerts.

“I wish that I had knew something more,” said Brianna Elliott, who left home Tuesday only to find her route back blocked by the fires 90 minutes later. “I would have turned around in that moment and gone home and got my animals before anything.”

She now fears that her home and her dogs are gone.

Georgia’s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 33 square miles (85 square kilometers), and at least four other smaller fires have been reported in the state.

Dry timber feeds Georgia fires

The fast-moving Brantley County fire threatened roughly 1,000 homes Wednesday after destroying dozens a day earlier.

That fire grew by roughly six times in just a half day Tuesday, said Joey Cason, the county manager. There were fires erupting “in the backyard and people taking off in the front yard,” he said Wednesday.

So far no major injuries have been reported, Cason said.

The rural county is roughly midway between Georgia's coastal beaches and the Okefenokee Swamp, dotted with livestock and fruit farms as well as thick stands of planted pines grown for timber.

Crews worked to create fire breaks and stop the flames from reaching populated areas. The biggest concern was gusting winds that could easily spread embers.

Authorities said rain is desperately needed. The area with the worst fires was in exceptional or extreme drought, the most dire levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“If you could start praying for that right now, we’d be grateful,” Cason said.

Pine and hardwood forests in the region are helping charge the fires, said Seth Hawkins, a spokesperson for the Georgia Forestry Commission, and swampy lowlands with thick layers of leaves and woody debris are “super flammable” when they dry out.

The commission's 30-day burn ban is for the southern part of the state.

FEMA announced the approval of grants for Georgia and Florida to battle the blazes.

More residents told to evacuate

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for more than half of the state's counties.

More people were told to evacuate from Brantley County on Wednesday afternoon, on top of the 800 evacuations previously. Another large fire that started in nearby Clinch County also prompted evacuations.

Mike Reardon and his wife packed family photos and their dog, Molly Rose, along with new e-bikes before leaving their Brantley County home.

The fire was about a mile away, and a shift in the wind would put flames “in our backyard in a matter of minutes,” he said.

The couple just built the home two years ago.

“It’s more than our house. It’s land that my dad bought years ago,” Liz Reardon said, fighting back tears. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world to me.”

Florida sees its worst wildfire season in decades

In Florida, firefighters battled more than 130 wildfires that burned 39 square miles (101 square kilometers), mostly in the state’s northern half.

“Florida has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe the last 30 or 40 years, or it’s turning out to be that way,” state Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson said. “We’ve been in drought for 18 months now all across the state.”

Smoke blows into Atlanta and Jacksonville

The National Weather Service said a dangerous combination of low humidity and breezy winds would keep the fire danger elevated Wednesday.

Smoke drifted to Atlanta, Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. The air quality in parts of south Georgia declined to the unhealthy category, meaning all people there might feel health effects.

Smoky conditions were expected to linger throughout the Atlanta area, according to the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. The worst fires were more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of the city.

Smoke from Georgia fires also spread into South Carolina, according to its forestry commission.

The high fire risk was expected to continue each afternoon through Friday due to the very dry conditions, the weather service said.

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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Edwards contributed 30 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and a loud voice of encouragement for his teammates. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch had already been reassured by Edwards' influence as the four-time All-Star left the court following a lackluster performance in Game 1.

“He was calm and gave confidence to the guys,” Finch said, reflecting on the series opener after practice on Wednesday. “When we were down early and big, he was really into them with the right messages, to stay calm but to do the things that were asked to be done — put a little bit more work in, be a little smarter with the fouling, all that kind of stuff. So I thought that was really key.”

Edwards was instrumental in urging Rudy Gobert on to a dominant defensive effort against Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic. He has also demonstrated his leadership by playing through the right knee pain that sidelined him for 11 of the last 13 regular-season games.

“It definitely uplifts me. I feel like I can’t let him down. If he’s out there battling, then there’s no excuse why I can’t give my best and make the extra effort plays and just go out there and compete at the highest level,” teammate Julius Randle said.

For the Timberwolves to beat the team that has recently become their biggest rival three more times and reach the second round, they will need a steady supply of Edwards' energy on both ends of the court, on the bench and in the locker room.

The Nuggets are sure to bring their own moxie on the road to Minnesota for Game 3 between these well-matched opponents on Thursday. The other Game 3s on Thursday are New York at Atlanta and Cleveland at Toronto.

Over the last four years, including the regular season and playoffs, the Timberwolves and Nuggets have each won 15 of their last 30 meetings.

“Who doesn’t love a big game? Who doesn’t want to wake up for a game with a lot of excitement, a lot of back and forth in it?” Timberwolves sixth man Naz Reid said.

New York Knicks at Atlanta Hawks

When/Where to watch: Game 3, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Series: Tied 1-1.

Betting line: Knicks by 1 1/2.

What to know: The Knicks were outscored 28-15 by the upstart Hawks in the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden in Game 2, a one-point loss to stew on as they seek to regain home-court advantage in the series. Even in the Game 1 win, the Knicks saw a 19-point lead with a little more than three minutes left shrink to eight in the closing seconds. “We've got to play better with the lead,” point guard Jalen Brunson said. The Hawks have plenty of reason for optimism as they come home, considering they split the first two games with little beyond the clutch play of veteran C.J. McCollum to relish from their performance.

Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors

When/Where to watch: Game 3, 8 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Series: Cavaliers lead 2-0.

Betting line: Cavaliers by 3 1/2.

What to Know: The Cavs are seeking a 3-0 lead in a first-round series for the second straight year. If they get there, they would set an NBA postseason opponent record with a 13th straight playoff win over the Raptors. Donovan Mitchell has scored at least 30 points in six of his last seven playoff games, averaging 33.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists during that span. Cleveland is 21-7 when its lineup includes James Harden, who became the second player in franchise history with at least 28 points and five steals in the 115-105 win in Game 2 on Monday. Toronto point guard Immanuel Quickley has missed the first two games with a left hamstring strain and remains questionable. Raptors All-Star Brandon Ingram is aiming to bounce back after going 3 of 15 from the field and only scoring seven points in Game 2. “He’s our go-guy guy. We trust him and believe in him. We know he’s going to get shots to drop,” Scottie Barnes said.

Denver Nuggets at Minnesota Timberwolves

When/Where to watch: Game 3, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Series: Tied 1-1.

Betting line: Nuggets by 2 1/2.

What to know: With so much recent drama between these division rivals — who are facing off in the postseason for the third time in four years — and plenty of chippy play on the court over the first two games, this series is just getting started. After erasing a 19-point deficit early in the second quarter to win 119-114 in Game 2, Minnesota took some momentum home from the Mile High City. Edwards recorded his sixth 30-point game against Denver in 14 playoff meetings, and guard Donte DiVincenzo was all over the court with a game-high plus-20 rating and 16 points. He's 10 for 16 from 3-point range in the series. The Nuggets claimed to be unbothered by the postgame barb from Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels, who said Minnesota's best offensive strategy was to continue to directly attack the Nuggets because they're “all bad defenders.”

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AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York and AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed to this report.

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

The dramatic events unfolded at Monday’s running of the iconic race. As scores of runners passed Haridasse, his fellow competitors Robson De Oliveira of Brazil and Aaron Beggs of Britain stopped, helped him up and carried him on their shoulders to end of the race.

Pete Grasso, who was watching the race, caught the moment on video when the pair picked up Haridasse.

“The coolest part about this moment was that these two guys were less than a tenth of a mile away, in the middle of a really, really fast race, and still stopped to help a fellow runner who needed some help. That’s not easy to do,” Grasso said in an email. “Seeing them put everything aside in that moment just to get another runner across the line was incredible. And hearing the crowd respond, cheering for them, supporting them, truly gave me chills.”

The North Down Athletic Club in Northern Ireland, where Beggs is a member, hailed his effort.

“We are immensely proud of Aaron’s sporting achievements, along with his incredible actions shown at the Boston Marathon, having already endured 26 miles at that point,” the club said in an email. “Aaron is an honest gentleman, and we are delighted to have him as a member of North Down Athletic Club.”

A similar scene played out when runner Lan Nguyen of Washington, D.C., struggled toward the finish. Fellow racers Jessica Kier of Snohomish, Washington, Meredith Rosenberg of Boston and William Bara-Jimenez of Bethesda, Maryland, helped her to the finish — at one point carrying her part of the way. Nguyen then scooted across the finish line.

Rosenberg, who was on pace for a personal best, said she spotted Nguyen about mile 25 of the race, adding that she “clearly could not walk. There were medics that were trying to get her into a wheelchair.” But she and the other runners decided to carry Nguyen the rest of the way, passing cheering volunteers as they reached the end of the race. As Nguyen was placed in a wheelchair after finishing, all four of the helpers hugged.

“I have run 12 marathons. Every finish line is special, but this was just even better to be able to help her get across the finish line and just to know that I was part of that,” Rosenberg said. “That’s really what running in the community is about. And it was just incredible. When we put her down, we were hyping up the crowd. People were cheering.”

Jack Fleming, the president and CEO of the Boston Athletic Association, which organized the race, said the actions of these runners is typical of the kindness marathon runners exhibit around the world. Sometimes, it's just checking on a struggling runner, bonding with strangers for part of the race or, in this case, getting fellow competitors to the finish.

“No marathon is easy. There’s no fooling this distance,” Fleming said. “We do see marathoners, athletes taking care of each other around the world, not just at the Boston Marathon. It’s awesome when we do see it at Boston firsthand and up close. But we know that’s a common denominator in our sport.”

Leo’s visit to the prison in the Central African port city of Bata followed in the tradition of Pope Francis, who frequently met with inmates on his foreign visits to give them a message of hope.

But Leo’s stop, at the end of his four-nation African tour, took on added significance after it emerged that Equatorial Guinea was one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

While none of those migrants are being held at Bata, the visit put the spotlight on Equatorial Guinea’s overall human rights record and its judiciary, which rights campaigners have criticized for its lack of independence, arbitrary detentions and other abuses.

“You are not alone. Your families love you and are waiting for you. Many people outside these walls are praying for you,” Leo told the inmates in Spanish. “If any of you fear being abandoned by everyone, know that God will never abandon you, and that the Church will stand by your side.”

The inmates, all dressed in new neon orange and beige uniforms, had gathered in a central courtyard of the prison, which appeared to have been recently painted salmon pink. As soon as he started speaking, a huge rainstorm opened, drenching the inmates.

In his remarks, Leo also reminded authorities that justice is meant to protect society, but that incarceration is not meant to be punishment alone.

“To be effective, it must always promote the dignity and potential of every person,” he said. “True justice seeks not so much to punish as to help rebuild the lives of victims, offenders and communities wounded by evil.”

After Leo left, the drenched inmates broke into a raucous dance party in the courtyard as the rain continued to pour, shouting “Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!” (Freedom, freedom, freedom).

'Greater room for freedom'

Leo began the day with Mass in Mongomo, an eastern city on the border with Gabon that has experienced major development since Equatorial Guinea’s oil boom in the 1990s.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism in his four-decade rule, comes from Mongomo and the city has benefited from government investment and infrastructure, even though no official institutions are located here.

While more than half of Equatorial Guinea’s population lives in poverty, Mongomo boasts opulent buildings, curated gardens behind gilt-tipped gates, an 18-hole golf course and is the starting point of the lone highway in the country, linking the city to Bata on the west coast.

Obiang and his wife were on hand for Leo’s Mass, as was their son, Teodoro “Teddy” Nguema Obiang, the country’s vice president who was convicted of embezzling millions of euros by a French court, which handed him a three-year suspended sentence, a 30 million euro ($35.2 million) fine and ordered the seizure of his luxury homes and cars in France worth tens of millions of euros. The country has protested the seizures at the International Court of Justice.

Last year, the United States gave the younger Obiang a temporary waiver on U.S. corruption sanctions so he could travel to a U.N. gathering and visit other American cities. Obiang also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

The Vatican said an estimated 100,000 people attended the Mass, most standing in the grand entryway to Mongomo’s Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The monumental church was consecrated in 2011 and is modeled on St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

In his homily, Leo urged all citizens to work together to build a society “capable of engendering a new sense of justice,” where there is “greater room for freedom” and where “the dignity of the human person always may be safeguarded.”

He urged everyone, according to their roles, to work to “serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.”

“My thoughts go to the poorest, to families experiencing difficulty and to prisoners who are often forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions,” he said.

‘Troubling disregard for human life’

Equatorial Guinea’s prisons and justice system have been repeatedly faulted by the United Nations and condemned by human rights groups and the U.S. State Department.

In its 2023 report on the country, the U.S. listed a host of abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful killings and arrests, political detentions, torture, life-threatening prison conditions and “serious problems” with the judiciary’s independence.

Speaking to journalists at the Bata prison, Equatorial Guinea Justice Minister Reginaldo Biyogo Ndong denied the rights abuses and said the country’s prison and justice systems respect international human rights laws. He said the country's justice system features an “enviable” infrastructure and that it's “ready to guarantee human rights, fundamental rights.”

On the eve of his prison visit, 70 human rights organizations published an open letter to Leo, urging him to speak out especially about the U.S. deportation of migrants here and encourage African nations to not be complicit.

“These practices circumvent humanitarian protections, expose refugees to detention and coercion, and subject individuals to refoulement, in direct contravention of international law,” they wrote.

In the run-up to Leo’s arrival, the government released nearly 100 people who had been arrested in a 2022 crackdown on street violence, according to a local lawyer, who requested anonymity given the country’s human rights record.

The lawyer termed the releases one “positive outcome” of the visit but also noted that the government still hasn’t taken action on releasing jailed activists and politicians.

EG Justice, a rights group which has repeatedly denounced the detention of political prisoners in Equatorial Guinea, urged Leo to use his moral authority to speak out about abuses and the detention of activists and politicians especially.

“There are individuals — prisoners of conscience, and human rights activists — in detention whose cases raise serious humanitarian and due process concerns,” said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice group.

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Monika Pronczuk contributed to this report from Malabo.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

State-funded preschool enrollment in the U.S. rose to 1.8 million kids, reaching 37% of 4-year-olds and about 10% of 3-year-olds, according to an annual report published Wednesday by the National Institute of Early Education Research. In total, states added 44,000 students to their preschool enrollment. But the report's authors noted that the gains were smaller than the year prior and said preschool access remains wildly uneven from state to state. Some states even lost ground.

“If providing high-quality preschool education to all 3- and 4-year-olds were a race,” the authors wrote, “some states are nearing the finish line, others have stumbled and fallen behind, and a few have yet to leave the starting line.”

Free preschool has expanded in California

More than half the nation's public preschool enrollment gain — some 25,000 students — came in California, which this year made every 4-year-old eligible for its “ transitional kindergarten ” program, or “TK.” The rapid rollout has had its tradeoffs. The national institute outlines 10 quality benchmarks for preschools, related to teacher training, class size and curriculum. California met just two of them last school year. And private preschool owners say the rush of 4-year-olds joining public schools threatens to cripple their businesses.

“Universal TK ... is a real win, but it’s also just the start of the work and not the end of it,” said Jessica Sawko of Children Now, which advocates on early childhood issues in California. She noted that the state will hit two more quality benchmarks in next year's report, by lowering its student-teacher ratio to 10-to-1 and by requiring lead teachers to have early education training.

The report illustrates some of the difficult tradeoffs states face when they scale up programs quickly or have limited funding. Hawaii is one of six states that meet all the institute's benchmarks. Its state preschool program also only serves 10% of 4-year-olds.

Evidence is mounting that the impact of high-quality preschool can follow children into adulthood, making them better prepared for kindergarten, more likely to graduate high school and more likely to find work. And it is increasingly seen as essential for success in kindergarten and beyond. Educators now also expect youngsters to start their first year of school already equipped to navigate kindergarten.

“We have a lot of kids who still do not fulfill their potential,” said Steven Barnett, founder and director of the early education institute. “We have evidence — very strong evidence — that preschool programs substantially improved the foundation for later success.”

Some states also recognize that free prekindergarten can make a difference for the wider economy, allowing parents to return to work at a time when private child care is becoming less affordable.

Preschool means confident kindergartners

Heather Sufuentes witnessed the impact of preschool when she was principal of Parkview Elementary in Chico, California, as it began its transitional kindergarten program. She said students who attended the program, which has a play-based curriculum and runs the length of a workday, arrived with more confidence and often volunteered to be class leaders.

“They're well prepared to transition into that big elementary school setting,” said Sufuentes, now director of elementary education for Chico Unified School District. Chico has more than doubled the number of TK seats it offers since 2022.

Marisol Márquez, a secretary who works for the state, sends her daughter to transitional kindergarten at 1st Street Elementary in Los Angeles. She had been sending her for free to a learning center underwritten by COVID-19 relief funding. But she would have had to start paying tuition this year, and she's not sure how she and her husband, a UPS driver, would have made it work. She was elated to hear 1st Street Elementary was offering free transitional kindergarten.

Educators there quickly discovered her daughter was bright and began sending her to kindergarten for math and reading lessons.

“If it hadn’t been for this program, we would have never found that out," Márquez said.

In some states, preschool is expensive. In others, it's free

Despite the raised expectations for 5-year-olds, no state mandates that children attend preschool, and only some cities and states make it accessible to every 4-year-old. Preschool offerings differ vastly. A family living in Wyoming, which has no state-funded preschool, could move to Colorado, where every parent can send their 4-year-old to part-time preschool without paying a dime in tuition. In the District of Columbia, even affluent families have access to two full years of prekindergarten, while neighboring Virginia has a far less robust program.

The uneven access across states can exacerbate disparities. Wealthier families can often afford private preschool tuition, regardless of what their state offers. In 2024, private child care centers, which often use preschool curriculum, averaged annual tuition of more than $12,000 for 4-year-olds, according to Child Care Aware of America.

For families that can't afford preschool tuition, the options can be limited. State-funded preschool programs often have waitlists.

If a family's earnings are low enough, they can qualify for programs like Head Start, which provides early education for the neediest Americans. But the number of children in Head Start is falling, in part due to staff shortages. Lower-income families may also qualify for state or federal child care subsidies that can help with private preschool, but those have growing waitlists, too.

Trump says states should pay

Federal support for expanding early education funding is sparse and shrinking. Recently, President Donald Trump said the federal government couldn’t afford to support child care while it was waging a war with Iran.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care,” Trump said. States, he added, “should pay for it. ... They’ll have to raise their taxes.”

The map of states that offer the highest-quality public preschool programs would surprise some partisans. Republican-led states have pioneered universal prekindergarten, with Oklahoma introducing it in the late 1990s. Alabama and West Virginia also have preschool-for-all programs that receive top marks. Wealthier, Democratic-led states have lagged behind, even as many blue-leaning cities have moved ahead with their own initiatives. New York state lost enrollment last school year, even as New York City, which already has universal prekindergarten, is charging ahead with a plan to make all child care free for younger children.

And Georgia, another state with Republican leadership, is the first to have a universal preschool program that meets all quality benchmarks set by the National Institute of Early Education Research.

Rebecca Ellis's son John Patrick, 5, attends the private Capitol Hill Child Enrichment Center in Atlanta free of charge, thanks to the state's preschool-for-all program. She said it saved her family a huge amount of money, and she is impressed by how much her son has grown socially and emotionally.

“They focus so much on just helping kids learn how to calm down, to make friends, to regulate their feelings, to solve problems,” Ellis said.

John Patrick and her older son, who attended the same preschool, have even given their parents advice. When they become agitated, the children urge them to take deep breaths.

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

Mother elephant Nhi Linh gave birth to Linh Mai on Feb. 2 after nearly two years of pregnancy.

Robbie Clark, the zoo's elephant manager, said, “Linh Mai is a hoot, she's a fantastic little elephant to get to know.”

“She's very curious,” Clark added. “She's learning how to be quite playful with the enrichment and the environment that she's living in, and she's confident.”

The Asian elephants at the National Zoo live in an expansive area called Elephant Trails, which contains outdoor walkways and pools. Fans who can't visit Washington can check out Linh Mai on the zoo's elephant cam.

Tarrance Williams-Armstrong, 27, worked as a bus monitor for First Student Management LLC, a company that transports students with special needs.

He says that on Jan. 16 in Dearborn, he witnessed a 22-year-old passenger engaging in explicit behavior within view of about 10 nonverbal children, some as young as four.

Williams-Armstrong says he intervened, secured the passenger back into a harness, and reported what happened.

He and his attorney, Dionne Webster-Cox, say the behavior was not a one-time incident and that prior complaints had been made.

Williams-Armstrong says the company’s response did not match the seriousness of the situation, and that he did not see any corrective steps to prevent it from happening again.

Williams Armstrong was fired Feb. 9, he and his attorney say.

They say he was told his services were no longer needed and that he should not have physically touched the passenger.

Williams Armstrong and Webster-Cox have filed a lawsuit against First Student seeking his job back and changes to policies and oversight.

The company said it cannot comment, citing pending litigation.

Here in Metro Detroit, our normal high is 61°, and we’ll see 70s in most neighborhoods through Friday before turning cooler.

Earth Day afternoon temperatures will reach the low to mid 70s for most locations. A northerly breeze will keep those in the thumb region and closer to Lake Huron cooler, in the 50s and 60s.

The morning and lunchtime hours will be filled with sunshine, and many will remain under blue skies throughout the afternoon.

Closer to the I-94 corridor and southward will see a chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms this afternoon and evening.

The main time frame for these storms is between 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

We dry out with clearing skies tonight. Make sure to check out the Lyrid meteor shower while viewing is still possible. Overnight temperatures will fall to near 40° in our northern communities to near 50° toward the Ohio border.

Thursday features a few clouds with highs in the mid 70s. We’ll keep afternoon temperatures in the 70s Friday, also.

Friday brings our next best chance of rain. Scattered showers and storms look to begin midday and linger into the start of Saturday.

The weekend marks our temperatures falling back closer to where they should be for this time of year. Both Saturday and Sunday we’ll see highs in the low to mid 60s.

Highs stay in the mid 60s to start the upcoming workweek with rain chances Monday and Tuesday.

League officials requested the meeting, which took place last Friday in Washington. The FCC recently sought public comments on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services. As of Wednesday, nearly 8,700 comments have been logged.

The NFL's letter about the meeting and its PowerPoint presentation to the FCC were posted to the FCC's public comment section on sports broadcasting on Wednesday.

The NFL is not alone in creating packages for streamers. Its standing as the most popular league and the revenue it receives from media rights, however, put it front and center in a changing landscape.

The NFL reiterated the benefits of its distribution strategy, including the fact that more than 87% of all games last season were on broadcast television. All games in a team’s home market air on a broadcast network.

“This distribution model is good for our fans, for local television broadcasters, for our 32 clubs in small and large markets alike, and for the competitiveness of the game itself. The success of our fan- and broadcast-friendly strategy is evident as the 2025 season was the most viewed since 1989 and one of the most competitive in League history,” Brendon Plack, the NFL's senior vice president of public policy and government affairs, wrote in a filing recapping the meeting.

Plack was among the officials who represented the NFL at the meeting, a group that also included Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of media distribution.

The FCC officials included Greg Watson, chief of staff for Chairman Brendan Carr. Carr had used an illustration of a fan watching a Green Bay Packers game when he announced the public comment period on Feb. 25.

Games aired last season on CBS, NBC/Peacock, ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, Fox, NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube TV.

The league is expected to move at least three more games to streaming as part of a five-game package next season. That would include games on Thanksgiving Eve, a second on Black Friday and Christmas Eve. The Week 1 game between San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams in Australia on Sept. 10 would also be offered via streaming. The Week 1 games from Brazil the past two seasons were also streamed.

A five-game package could bring the league at least $250 million.

The league averages nearly $11 billion in revenue per season from its media deals. That could increase since the sale of Paramount to Skydance Media allows the league to renegotiate its deal with CBS.

Besides the FCC scrutiny, the Justice Department is investigating the NFL for potential anticompetitive practices.

Congress and other federal agencies have also discussed changes to the Sports Broadcasting Act. Passed by Congress in 1961, it grants professional sports leagues limited antitrust immunity, allowing them to pool their media rights and negotiate as a single entity while protecting them from antitrust lawsuits.

The act applies only to broadcast networks. Courts have ruled in the past that it does not apply to other media, including cable, satellite and streaming. There has been bipartisan sentiment in favor of updating the law.

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

With a runner on third in the first inning of the Mariners' 5-4 victory over the Athletics, Carlos Cortes belted a line drive at the Seattle right-hander and the ball somehow lodged in Gilbert's jersey.

Gilbert grabbed at his stomach and turned to locate the ball as Cortes made his way down the first-base line, only to find he in fact caught it — well, kind of — in his shirt.

“It happened so quick, I wasn’t quite sure what happened,' Gilbert said. "And then, I mean, I hurt a little bit after that. So, had to take a second.”

Cortes was credited with a single as the play was considered dead, but Nick Kurtz remained at third base. Shea Langeliers advanced to second base.

Gilbert was aware of the rule that awarded Cortes first base, yet still considered himself lucky.

“At first, I thought I was pretty fortunate that it was a catch,” Gilbert said. "But, I guess it wasn’t a catch. But at the same time, if they hit it like 110 off the bat, I don’t really feel like I deserve an out there.”

Gilbert was briefly checked out by Mariners head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson, but he remained in the game and made it through the inning. After the game, in which Gilbert gave up three runs in four innings, he revealed he had a bruise on his stomach, as well as a cut on his left hand.

Otherwise, Gilbert said he was fine, much to the relief of teammates like first baseman Josh Naylor, who hit a walk-off single on Wednesday.

“Anything hit back to the pitcher with that exit velocity’s kind of scary,” Naylor said. "You never know what’s going to happen. So, I’m glad he’s okay.”

Manager Dan Wilson commended Gilbert for bouncing back, though he did allow two earned runs on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Soderstrom and an RBI single by Jeff McNeil in the first inning. Gilbert joked postgame he no interest in exiting the game since the incident happened so early in it.

“That was crazy," Gilbert said. "That was a freak thing, to end up through the jersey, too.”

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

The statement made as part of 96-page filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. provided a glimpse at the arguments that Anthropic's lawyers intend to make as part of a lawsuit filed last month in the fallout of a contract dispute over how AI technology can be used in fully autonomous weapons and potential surveillance of Americans.

San Francisco-based Anthropic contends the Pentagon is illegally retaliating against it by stigmatizing it with a designation meant to protect against sabotage of national security systems by foreign adversaries.

Earlier this month, the appeals court rejected Anthropic’s request for an order that would have blocked the Pentagon's actions while the panel is still collecting evidence about the case.

Anthropic's new filing is meant to directly address some of the court's questions ahead of oral arguments scheduled for May 19. The Trump administration will have an opportunity to file its response before that hearing.

Anthropic's temporary setback in the Washington case came after it already had prevailed in a separate case focused on the same issues in San Francisco federal court. That decision prompted the Trump administration to remove the stigmatizing labels from Anthropic, according court filings.

But the lack of a similar order in the parallel case in Washington continues to cast a cloud over Anthropic, whose AI tools have turned it into a rising tech star along with rival OpenAI. After the Pentagon canceled a $200 million contract with Anthropic in the wake of their disagreement, OpenAI struck a deal to provide its technology to the U.S. military.

No reason was given for the unexpected departure of the Navy’s top civilian official, coming as the sea service has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and is targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world during a tenuous ceasefire in the war. Another Trump loyalist is taking over as acting head of the Navy: Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and House in Virginia.

Phelan’s departure is the latest in a series of shakeups of top leadership at the Pentagon, coming just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George. Hegseth also has fired several other top generals, admirals and defense leaders since taking office last year.

The firings began in February 2025, when Hegseth removed military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Showing how sudden the latest move was, Phelan had addressed a large crowd of sailors and industry professionals on Tuesday at the Navy’s annual conference in Washington and spoke with reporters about his agenda. He also hosted the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee to discuss the Navy’s budget request and efforts to build more ships, according to a social media post from his office.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately."

Phelan had been a major Trump donor

Phelan had not served in the military or had a civilian leadership role in the service before Trump nominated him for secretary in late 2024. He was seen as an outsider being brought in to shake up the Navy.

Phelan was a major donor to Trump’s campaign and had founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC. According to his biography, Phelan’s primary exposure to the military came from an advisory position he held on the Spirit of America, a nonprofit that supported the defense of Ukraine and the defense of Taiwan.

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Phelan’s office for comment. The White House did not answer questions and instead responded by sending a link to Parnell’s statement.

Phelan is leaving during a busy time for the Navy. It has three aircraft carriers deployed in or heading to the Middle East, while the Trump administration says all the armed forces are poised to resume combat operations against Iran should the ceasefire expire.

The Navy also has maintained a heavy presence in the Caribbean, where it has been part of a campaign of strikes against alleged drug boats. It also played a major role in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

New acting Navy secretary ran unsuccessful bids for Congress

Taking over as acting secretary is Cao, who ran a failed U.S. Senate bid in Virginia to try to unseat Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024. He had Trump’s endorsement in the crowded Republican primary and gave a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Cao's biography includes fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child in the 1970s. In a campaign video for his Senate bid, he compared Vietnam’s communist regime during the Cold War to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

During his one debate with Kaine, Cao criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates for service members as well as the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said from the debate stage. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are the young men and women that are going to win wars.”

Trump and Hegseth have railed against DEI in the military, banning the efforts and firing people accused of supporting such programs.

When he ran for Congress in Virginia in 2022, Cao expressed opposition to aid for Ukraine during a debate against his Democratic opponent.

“My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. ... But right now we’re borrowing $55 billion from China to pay for the war in Ukraine. Not only that, we’re depleting our national strategic reserves,” Cao said.

Cao graduated from the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy.

He was commissioned as a special operations officer and went on to serve with SEAL teams and special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before retiring at the rank of captain, according to his Senate campaign biography.

Cao also earned a master's degree in physics and had fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Since becoming Navy undersecretary, Cao has championed returning to duty service members that refused a Biden-era mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

The electric vehicle maker run by billionaire Elon Musk said it earned $477 million in the quarter, up 17% from a year ago. Earnings per share totaled 13 cents. Adjusted for certain items, per share earnings were 41 cents, topping Wall Street estimates of 36 cents.

Revenue rose to $22.39 billion, led by a 16% increase in automotive revenues.

Still, profits and revenue are far below their peak when its cars were grabbing market share. Now that is in reverse as European and Chinese rivals steal its customers. The company last year lost its crown as the world's largest EV maker to China's BYD.

Musk has repeatedly shrugged off its car troubles, emphasizing that Tesla’s future lies less in car sales than getting people to t ake rides in them a s self-driving taxis. The company said robotaxi miles doubled in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year. They are currently running in San Francisco and three Texas cities, including Austin where Tesla is headquartered.

Musk has also been highlighted Tesla's production of robots for homes and businesses In a conference call with investors Wednesday, he talked about breaking ground for a new factory in Texas for the robots, called Optimus, with a potential capacity of making 10 million a year.

“I think Optimus will be our biggest product," said Musk, adding, “not just Tesla’s biggest product ever, but probably the biggest product ever.”

The company noted that it has begun making its so-called Cybercabs without pedals or wheels. And Musk added a teaser in the call, saying that Tesla could debut a new manually driven Roadster sports car in a month or so.

The company is spending big on its transition, including $2.5 billion last quarter in capital expenditures, up 67% from the year earlier period.

Musk warned of “a very significant increase” in the future, too.

Shares fell 1% in after-hours trading.

“It has to be raw, and we just put it in the bin,” said Melanie Pauli, a Ypsilanti resident.

“We have a large family, and we cook dinner every night, and we make smoothies for dessert for our kids. We fill the bin about every three days,” Melanie said.

Melanie and Greg are participating in the Washtenaw County Food Scrap Drop-Off pilot program that began in Ypsilanti last fall.

“I learned that we actually have a lot more cuttings than I thought we did. I realized we are saving an entire bag full of trash every week that shouldn’t go to the landfill,” Melanie said.

Composting is a form of organic recycling in which facilities collect and process organic materials into new products, like soil amendments.

Food is the single most common material sent to landfills, where it generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

“I feel like I’m doing my part for the environment now,” Melanie said.

Greg takes the compost bags to a drop-off location in Ypsilanti.

The program now has two more locations in Dexter and Salem Township.

The county says 180 households are participating, and the program is funded with a grant and a county match.

The Pauli family encourages everyone who can to participate in protecting the environment.

“I have been trying, neighbors and friends, and family, in fact, my mom just got her compost bin last week,” Melanie said.

The heightened surveillance was part of a promise by Mexican authorities following the tragedy to beef up security at touristic and archaeological sites across Mexico, less than two months before the country hosts the FIFA World Cup jointly with United States and Canada.

The Monday shooting, carried out by a lone gunman on top of one of the Teotihuacan pyramids — a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of Mexico's most frequented tourist attractions — killed one Canadian tourist and injured a dozen more.

It also set off a flurry of questions the next morning by reporters to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about what security protocols her government was taking ahead of the sports competition.

About an hour from Mexico City, Teotihuacan was slated to be a key site for visitors during the festivities. Just days before the shooting, local lawmakers even pushed forward an initiative to revive a nighttime interactive light show projected on the pyramids for World Cup visitors, which was previous suspended at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unexpected act of violence came as Sheinbaum's government has gone to great lengths to project an image of safety ahead of the soccer competition, following a surge of cartel violence February in the World Cup host city of Guadalajara.

"Events like this only further magnify the negative images that Mexico has on security issues, undermining the narrative that President Sheinbaum is trying to build that Mexico is a safe country," said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo.

‘An isolated incident’

Mexico’s government has sought to turn the page on the attack and reopened the pyramids on Wednesday after closing them temporarily.

That morning, tourists were already climbing up the pyramid still stained by blood to take selfies.

Among those filing into the archaeological site was 76-year-old physician Mark Diamond, who said he was saddened to see the bloodshed but that he wasn't dissuaded in seeing a site he had long hoped to visit. He noted bluntly: “I'm from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm not concerned.”

“It's presumably a deranged individual and it can happen anywhere,” he said. “In the United States, we have plenty of shootings, unfortunately.”

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum acknowledged that the archaeological site lacked security filters to prevent the attack in part, she said, because the shooting “was an isolated incident" that hasn't occurred before in such a public space.

While Mexico suffers from cartel violence, especially in strategic and rural areas, mass shootings in public spaces are rare in Mexico compared with the U.S., where it is much easier to legally obtain a gun.

She noted that the shooter appeared to be motivated by “outside influences," particularly the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado.

“Our obligation as a government is to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again. But clearly, we all know — Mexicans know — that this is something that had not previously taken place,” Sheinbaum said Tuesday morning.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch, the face of the government's crackdown on cartels, said on Tuesday that security forces had been ordered to “immediately strengthen security" at archaeological sites and major tourist destinations across the country.

He said the government will increase the presence of Mexican National Guard, boost security checks at key sites and fortify surveillance systems to “identify and prevent any threats” against citizens and visitors.

Security concerns ahead of World Cup

The announcement was an effort by Mexican authorities to assuage ongoing concerns about violence in Mexico ahead of the tournament.

Sheinbaum's government has touted security successes under her leadership. Homicides have dipped sharply since she taken office to the lowest levels in a decade, government figures show. The government has also taken out a number of top capos and highlighted a dip in fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But they have hit hurdles in recent months, namely a burst a violence in Guadalajara in February, triggered by the killing of Mexico’s most powerful cartel boss. The bloodshed was met with a wave of concern by people in and outside of Mexico. Sheinbaum vowed there would be “no risk” for fans coming to the tournament and FIFA president Gianni Infantino said he had “full confidence” in Mexico as a host country. Sheinbaum later met with FIFA representatives to assess security for the World Cup matches to be played in Mexico.

Mexico’s government doubled down on security measures, which include deploying 100,000 security forces across the country, particularly concentrated in the country’s three host cities, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Officials said it would deploy more than 2,000 military vehicles, as well as dozens of air crafts and drones, and establish security perimeters around areas like stadiums and airports in key cities.

"As you can see, we are very prepared for the World Cup," Sheinbaum said in early March.

Despite the rare nature of the Monday shooting at the pyramids, the extreme act of violence reignited scrutiny by some about the government's capacity to prevent violence during the soccer tournament, and once again boosted pressures on the government.

FIFA was approached for comment about the pyramid shooting, but the soccer body typically does not address security issues and incidents that happen away from tournament venues.

Saucedo, the security analyst, said that pressures to concentrate security in host cities and tourist areas like Teotihuacan may come at the expense of other more crime-torn areas in greater need of police and military. He said the shooting was sign that “public safety agencies are overwhelmed.”

Others like Maria de Jesús Román, who traveled to see the pyramids from Guadalajara, said while the shooting “might change the perception of tourists that come to the World Cup" she said she feels safe.

“There's a lot of security, this is the safest place you could go in Mexico right now,” she said.

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press photojournalist Eduardo Verdugo contributed to this report from San Juan Teotihuacán.

They also learned that the city is considering rezoning and selling the property to developers.

The South Warren Community Garden, run by non-profit Urban Seed, sits on a vacant city-owned lot on Toepfer Road near Schoenherr Road. Its current lease is set to run out in early June.

How it started

Urban Seed launched the garden last year after the city offered the group the vacant Toepfer Road lot under a one-year lease.

Volunteers moved in, cleaned up the lot, planted crops, and began donating fresh produce to families in the neighborhood every week.

Urban Seed already operates a flagship garden in Eastpointe that has been running for more than a decade.

South Warren was meant to be an expansion.

Annie Saintclair lives directly across the street from the garden.

She said watching the lot come to life was really special.

“Last year, when I saw Urban Seed coming in, I was so excited because these lots have been vacant for so very long,” Saintclair said. “I’ve seen this neighborhood transition so much, and this garden is exactly what a community needs.”

The lease negotiations stalled — then took a sharp turn

Since October 2025, organizers have been trying to lock in a long-term lease with the city to give the garden some stability.

John Hofmann with Urban Seed said the group spent months waiting, only to be blindsided.

“We didn’t end up receiving the first draft of it until March,” Hofmann said. “And then April 1 is when they disclosed that they intend on rezoning and selling the property for development.”

The proposed lease also came with new restrictions.

Under the new terms, the garden would no longer be allowed to operate its produce stand, a cart that lets residents take weighed and logged vegetables, and exterior lighting would be restricted, which organizers say is needed for safety.

Jeffrey Matheus, head of the South Warren Community Garden, said the new terms were a step backward.

“When this new lease came, it was even more restrictive,” Matheus said.

He said the group’s relationship with city hall has been difficult from day one, but they kept pushing forward anyway.

“Even our original lease was very restrictive. It was hard to get, and it kind of had to be forced through on bad terms,” Matheus said. “We thought, we’ll prove ourselves.”

That goodwill, he said, has not been returned.

“We had one meeting with the Mayor, and everything seemed great last year, and then it’s just been a downward trajectory ever since,” Matheus said.

City says it’s working toward a long-term plan

Warren issued a statement to Local 4 saying the city has been working on a long-term plan for community gardens, but said zoning and enforcement remain the biggest hurdles.

“The city has provided multiple proposals and remains engaged in discussions to continue the garden in a way that is sustainable, consistent, and fair to the entire community,” the statement reads.

“The City of Warren recognizes the positive impact community gardens play in neighborhoods. I am encouraged by the strong support this project has received from residents.

My administration has been actively working with local organizers to establish a longer-term agreement. At the same time, the City has been working toward a broader solution by developing a Community Garden Ordinance.

The goal is to create a framework that allows community gardens to operate independently and consistently across the city, rather than relying on one-off agreements.

The biggest challenge in drafting a community garden ordinance is that our zoning ordinances are written relative to a dwelling.

Since vacant lots no longer have dwellings, Warren has no means of enforcing blight or addressing mismanagement.

In drafting either a Community Garden Ordinance or a contract, the language needs to be consistent with the application of the zoning ordinance to other parcels.

The original agreement with the South Warren Community Garden drafted in 2025 was a pilot project for the City of Warren for the purpose of establishing the necessary ordinance language.

The City provided a one-year lease for $1 and covered water and sanitation costs to help get the project established.

This allowed us to learn from the experience while working toward a broader policy framework.

As discussions moved forward, the City worked to develop a longer-term agreement and offered an extension consistent with City practices. The City does not typically enter into agreements exceeding 10 years.

Throughout this process, multiple drafts were exchanged, and the City made efforts to accommodate reasonable requests.

However, additional requests were introduced that expanded the scope of the agreement beyond what can be supported under existing standards.

These included requests related to number of structures, lighting, site activity, and food handling and storage.

Some of these requests could be accommodated, while others were not consistent with City policies or with how ordinances are applied and enforced across residential properties.

For example, food must be properly managed and removed to prevent attracting wildlife or rodents that could impact surrounding properties.

South Warren Community Garden’s accusations that the City of Warren has refused to provide an agreement are not accurate.

The City has provided multiple proposals and remains engaged in discussions to continue the garden in a way that is sustainable, consistent, and fair to the entire community.

Warren Mayor Lori Stone

What the garden is asking for

Urban Seed is offering to purchase the property outright, and the city could retain the right of first refusal, meaning if the garden ever closes or the organization dissolves, the city can reclaim the land.

Hofmann said the ask is straightforward.

“We don’t want the property. We just want to be safe. We just want some sort of autonomy and stability,” Hofmann said.

For Hofmann, this fight is also personal.

“This is quite literally the neighborhood I grew up in,” Hofmann said.

Matheus said he is struggling to understand the resistance from city leaders.

“It’s heartbreaking. I feel very torn about all this,” Matheus said. “I don’t understand the hate on something that is so universally beloved.”

Saintclair, who has watched the garden grow from her front door, had a direct message for city leadership.

“Mayor, come on, talk to us, please. Look us in the eye. We are not just here to aggravate you. We are here to feed people and provide a community need,” she said.

What happens next

The garden direct-seeded its first crops this past Sunday. If no agreement is reached by late May, they say they will begin breaking down the garden.

Urban Seed also received a $10,000 grant from Whole Foods to help expand the South Warren garden. That money is now on hold pending the outcome of negotiations.

The non-profit is on the agenda for the Warren City Council meeting on April 28.

Supporters plan to attend and are inviting community members to show up.

If a deal cannot be reached, Matheus said the group will look elsewhere, but the door remains open.

“We will try to do it somewhere else and just redouble our efforts in a place that cares more about its people,” he said. “I think at this point it’s really just going to be on the community to say whether they need and want us here, and whether the mayor and the city departments will listen to that.”

The Trump administration argued that it would threaten the safety of officers who are facing harassment, doxing, and violence and that it violated the constitution because the state was directly seeking to regulate the federal government.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal. It had earlier blocked the law from taking effect.

The decision could have implications nationwide for other states that have pursued their own measures to place restrictions on immigration agents.

The measure was one of two major pieces of legislation enacted last fall aimed at reining in federal immigration agents after a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration in Southern California in June. The other law would have banned most law enforcement officers from wearing masks, neck gaiters, and other facial coverings. Advocates have raised concerns about masked agents conducting workplace raids or arresting people on the street, often without showing identification.

The Trump administration sued over both in November.

A federal judge blocked the mask ban in February, ruling that it discriminated against the federal government because it did not apply to state troopers. The law made exceptions for undercover agents, protective equipment like N95 respirators or tactical gear, and other situations where not wearing a mask would jeopardize the operation. That judge let the ID law stand.

At an appeal hearing March 3, Justice Department lawyers argued that the California identification requirement law sought to regulate the federal government, violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

The appeals court agreed unanimously, saying the law “attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” in an opinion written by Judge Mark J. Bennett. The panel was composed of two Trump appointees, Bennett and Daniel P. Collins, and Obama appointee Jacqueline H. Nguyen.

California lawyers argued that the law applied equally to all law enforcement officers without discriminating against the U.S. government, and that states could apply “generally applicable” laws federal agents. They also argued that the law was important to address public safety concerns.

People are more likely to attack officers in self-defense if there's no visible identification letting the public know they are law enforcement, California lawyers said in a brief.

“This confusion has resulted in federal law enforcement officials being mistaken for criminals and vice versa, creating serious risk of harm to peace officers and members of the public,” they wrote.

In October 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a report warning that the increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity had spurred “criminal actors impersonating ICE agents to commit violent crime,” California attorneys noted.

The appeals court judges said they did not consider the public safety factors because the federal government has demonstrated its constitutional rights would be violated by the legislation, and “all citizens have a stake in upholding the Constitution."

When a lower court struck down California’s mask ban, it left open another way of achieving the same goal. The judges in that case had indicated they would be more open to a law that banned masks for all law enforcement officers, not just federal ones. A new California bill attempts to revive the mask restrictions by also applying them to state troopers.

But the appeals court’s opinion signals a stricter view on the state government’s ability to regulate federal officers.

“The Supremacy Clause prohibits States from enacting a law that directly regulates federal operations even if the law regulates state operations in the same manner,” the judges wrote.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called it a “huge legal victory” in a post on X.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said they are reviewing the order.

“The Trump Administration has stepped well outside the boundaries of normal practice, deploying masked and unidentified agents to carry out immigration enforcement, despite the risks these tactics pose to public safety and basic civil liberties," Bonta's office said in a statement.

Students from American Montessori Academy in Westland are doing their part.

They recycle about 73% of their school’s waste.

“Every day they’re like, ‘Can I go. Can I go recycle?’ So their enthusiasm makes me excited,” said Albert Mack, a fifth-grade teacher at American Montessori Academy.

Mack says that excitement is helping reinforce recycling habits that can last well beyond the classroom.

“It’s very important because we can save our world and save our animals if we recycle,” said fourth-grader Vivian Lents.

Michigan’s recycling rate is now at 26%, up one point from the previous year and nearly double what it was in 2019.

EGLE forecasts Michigan is on track to hit the state goal of 30% by 2029.

“We’re doing great. Every year, that number has been going up since we started measuring it. We’re putting a lot of investment in getting recycling carts and sorting equipment out in Michigan’s communities,” said Tracy Kecskemeti, EGLE director of the Materials Management Division.

Michigan still falls below the national recycling rate of 32%, and the U.S. EPA has set a goal of 50% by 2030. State officials shared the challenges of increasing recycling among Michiganders.

“Just knowing what the rules are of recycling, knowing what can go in the cart and what shouldn’t go in the cart,” Kecskemeti said.

The free-flowing sections of the David Geffen Galleries housing the museum's permanent collection are named for the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and they're meant to run together physically and culturally in the way bodies of water do.

Technically, the Geffen Galleries represent the third phase of a two-decade series of renovations. But the opening of this space to the public on May 4 is the truly huge moment of reinvention for the institution known to locals and the broader art world by the acronym LACMA.

It's a $724 million, 347,600 square-foot (32,293 square-meter) monument designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor that gives the museum an entirely new orientation, footprint, feeling and, ideally, an identity that it has largely lacked to the outside world.

The space — all on a single second-story floor — offers broad-windowed views of the surrounding city. There is no main entrance or central atrium. It's made to wander into, and through, and to encourage accidental interactions with paintings, sculptures and the kinds of work, like ancient pottery or textiles, that visitors often ignore.

LACMA's CEO and director Michael Govan, who oversaw the project from its origins, calls it “a machine of discovery.”

“I am a student for decades of museumgoer psychology,” Govan told The Associated Press in an interview inside the new building. “And one of the things you know in these museums is if you don’t like something or know something, you’re not going up an elevator and across to go see it. But a lot of times, that thing is what you will love if you see it.”

He added, “this chance of experiencing something accidentally and falling in love is part of the idea.”

The art is grouped as much for vibes as for any formal categories. Sculptures and photographs from modern artists are mixed in and matched with works that are centuries old.

The excess of natural light and views of the city that run throughout almost threaten to overshadow the art. But curtains — a staple of Zumthor’s architecture — are strategically used to alter light both for viewing and for preservation of work that can be drained by the sunlight.

Zumthor relishes the way the time of day, the placement of the curtains and the arrangement of the artwork work together in the space.

“Nothing is more beautiful to me than this play of shadow,” he told the AP.

Zumthor's previous work includes the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany, run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne.

Since 1961, LACMA has sat on, and now across, Wilshire in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles, roughly halfway between downtown LA and the Pacific, next to the La Brea Tar Pits. (As with other projects on the site, the constant discovery of valuable fossils slowed work on the new building.)

For visitors who faithfully kept coming for its open-during-remodeling years, and for drivers navigating the construction, it felt like the opening would never come. Construction began in 2019, with the county footing $125 million of the bill. The rest was raised from private donors, including the 83-year-old entertainment mogul Geffen, who is one of LA’s biggest art benefactors.

Its 1988 Pavilion for Japanese Art is now LACMA's oldest section. The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (not to be confused with the stand-alone Broad downtown) was added in 2008, and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion joined LACMA in 2010.

Other relatively recent additions have helped with LACMA's relevance. Two permanent sculpture-installations — Urban Light (artist Chris Burden's forest of street lamps) and Levitated Mass (artist Michael Heizer's giant suspended boulder) are among the city's most Instagrammed images.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures next door is a separate entity but feels contiguous. Together, the two institutions represent the popular art that defines the region and its fine art that has often been ignored.

The incident has increasingly fueled speculation in the Latin American nation as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for more than a year has repeatedly underscored her country's sovereignty and publicly turned down offers by U.S. President Donald Trump of intervention on cartels.

The Mexican government acknowledges the presence of U.S. agencies on Mexican territory but says that they cannot participate in on-the-ground operations.

Mexican and U.S. officials have been offering contradictory accounts for days. After the Mexican government originally said it had no knowledge of any sort operation or U.S. involvement, the president admitted Wednesday that federal forces were involved and another high-level official acknowledged that the government at least discussed the matter with the U.S.

The collaboration came to light this week after two local investigators in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua and two CIA agents — originally identified as U.S. Embassy officials — reportedly died in a car crash in the early morning on Sunday while driving back from an operation to destroy cartel laboratories in a rugged area of Mexico. The local government said the convoy drove off the side of a ravine and the car exploded.

The Americans killed were from the CIA, The Associated Press confirmed on Tuesday with a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

Sheinbaum on Wednesday maintained that she had no knowledge of the operation between the U.S. and local Chihuahua authorities, and that it could constitute a violation of Mexico's law, because any such action should be approved by the federal government.

In her press briefing she said she was considering possible sanctions on Chihuahua’s government, and emphasized that the operation didn’t constitute a new security strategy by Trump in her country. She added that she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident and that she planned to speak to Chihuahua's governor.

“There cannot be agents from any U.S. government institution operating in the Mexican field,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday. “It is very important that something like this not be allowed to go unaddressed."

The CIA particularly has a tainted legacy in Latin America, associated in decades past with orchestrating coups and backing military dictatorships in a number of countries. Despite that, the agency has maintained a presence in Mexico for many years, which has also been the subject of contention in Mexican politics.

On Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on Sheinbaum's comments, saying that U.S. efforts to counter cartels in Mexico “is not only a benefit to the American people, but to her people as well.”

“I think the president would agree that some sympathy from Claudia Sheinbaum would be well worth it for the two American lives that were lost, considering all that the United States of America is doing currently under this president to stop the scourge of drug trafficking through Mexico to the United States,” Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News.

The Trump administration has provided very few comments on the incident since the Sunday crash. The CIA declined to comment on Wednesday.

The back-and-forth comes after days of contradictions in accounts, which have raised eyebrows and have prompted experts to say it underscores heightened U.S. involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.

Those only continued on Wednesday when Sheinbaum acknowledged that Mexico's army participated in the operation, but didn't know that the U.S. agents were present. Days before, Chihuahua's Attorney General César Jáuregui said the investigation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico's military.

Later on Wednesday, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said at a news conference that the Defense Ministry had previously “received a petition for security support” by the U.S. But, he added, that “going to support an operation is different from actually being part of the planning of a operation.”

“Agents have never been in the field with us," he added.

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David Klepper and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Green and Colorado river flows might seem like a bounty of moisture in a parched desert of sandstone arches and prickly cacti, but in fact it's just the opposite.

After the driest winter on record, officials this spring want to raise the level of badly depleted Lake Powell on the Colorado River to keep its hydropower humming. To do so, they plan to eventually let out as much as a third of the water in Flaming Gorge Reservoir upstream on the Green River in Wyoming and Utah, which would exceed a record 2022 surge that kept electricity flowing.

Lake Powell, held back by Glen Canyon Dam, supplies inexpensive and carbon-free electricity to more than 350,000 homes. But it comes at a growing cost elsewhere in a contested river basin relied upon heavily by ranchers, industries and some 40 million residential water customers.

At Flaming Gorge in southwestern Wyoming, Buckboard Marina owners Tony and Jen Valdez are eyeing water levels expected to decline by 10 feet (3 meters) by late summer because of the releases. It will mean an ever-longer drive to the water's edge to launch boats.

“Of course we’re concerned,” Jen Valdez said. “And it will probably get to a point where we’ll need to be more concerned.”

A balancing act to keep up power production

If everything goes to plan — and with no relief from the weather — Flaming Gorge will fall by as much as 27 feet (8 meters) a year from now, leaving Buckboard Marina even more high and dry.

Though it's likely only a temporary solution amid long-term drought, there will be effects downstream, too, as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water managers plan to keep more water than usual from flowing out of Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah line.

Downstream, Lake Mead near Las Vegas is on track to resemble lows four years ago that revealed formerly submerged boats and human remains.

The drastic measures are necessary to keep the Powell waterline high enough to run the power-generation turbines without air getting into the system and causing damage, federal officials say.

Hydropower is a renewable resource — when there's water

From cities and tribes to rural electric cooperatives and public utility districts, some 155 customers receive hydropower electricity from Glen Canyon Dam and other federal generators. None relies 100% on hydropower.

Many are in disadvantaged communities and all are not-for-profit entities that pay for, among other things, the costs to operate and maintain the dam and the federal government's investments in it.

The federal Western Area Power Administration has contractual obligations to provide a certain amount of electricity to its customers. A loss of hydropower would require WAPA to seek power elsewhere that likely would be more expensive and not renewable, said Leslie James, executive director of the nonprofit Colorado River Energy Distributors Association.

“If Glen Canyon hydropower is reduced to zero or a low amount, it will have different impacts on what they charge communities,” James said.

It's a situation James said she hasn't seen in her 48 years helping electricity customers in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Replacing federal hydropower with market purchases has forced rate increases for the past five years at Heber Light & Power southeast of Salt Lake City, with the latest increase hitting 13%, said Emily Brandt, the utility’s energy resource manager.

Keeping Lake Powell up could bring environmental costs

Increasingly frequent drought, evaporation and water demand — especially to irrigate alfalfa for the cattle industry — have shrunk the level of Lake Powell to 3,526 feet (1,075 meters) above sea level — just 23% of full capacity.

To keep generating power, the reservoir can't fall below 3,490 feet (1,200 meters), which is the level of the water intakes for Glen Canyon Dam's electricity generators.

That has never happened since the 710-foot (220-meter) dam was completed in 1963 and Lake Powell was gradually filled to full capacity in 1980.

In 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation released an unprecedented 500,000 acre-feet (617 million cubic meters) of water from Flaming Gorge to raise Lake Powell. The latest Flaming Gorge releases to maintain Lake Powell's power generation could eventually total double that amount.

Meanwhile, the plan to hold back 1.5 million acre-feet (1.85 billion cubic meters) in Lake Powell will result in the Hoover Dam producing 40% less electricity at an even lower Lake Mead downstream.

Another downside: Warm water from Lake Powell's surface could encourage the spread of smallmouth bass, an invasive fish that competes with a threatened native species, the humpback chub, in the Colorado River downstream from Glen Canyon Dam. Groups including the Grand Canyon Trust urge water managers to mix in deeper, cooler water to keep the Grand Canyon inhospitable to smallmouth bass.

A decades-long trend of worsening drought

The strongest releases from Flaming Gorge in the days and weeks ahead will be calibrated to help native fish in the Green River, a Colorado River tributary.

Eventually Flaming Gorge will dip from 83% full to an estimated 59% full. The 2022 releases from Flaming Gorge were followed by a wet winter, which alleviated water worries across the region for a time.

“We kind of got saved by Mother Nature,” said Valdez, the Buckboard Marina owner.

A wet year or two won't be enough to reverse a quarter-century-long “ megadrought ” resulting at least in part from human-caused climate change. But Valdez is optimistic that wet weather will return like before.

“Hopefully we can expand into doing some other things,” Valdez said. “Because it’s going to come back eventually.”

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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

He played in all 82 games, all off the bench, becoming only the second NBA player in the last decade to do that. He became the first Spurs player to score 1,000 points as a reserve in a season. And all year long, San Antonio touted him as the best backup in the league.

Voters agreed — and the Spurs have another award winner.

Johnson was announced Wednesday as the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year, joining Manu Ginobili in 2008 as the only Spurs to win the award. It's the first individual NBA award for Johnson, who was part of the U.S. Olympic team that won gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

“I started for a long time,” Johnson said on ESPN after he was revealed as the winner. “Now, it's my time to come off the bench. I just continue to analyze the game, come off the bench, go in there and just do my thing.”

Jaime Jaquez Jr. of the Miami Heat finished second in the voting and Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Denver Nuggets was third. Jaquez led all NBA reserves in scoring and double-digit games, while Hardaway led reserves with 205 3-pointers and was fourth in the league in scoring off the bench.

Hardaway and Jaquez tied for ninth in 2024. Hardaway was also fifth in 2021, 10th in 2017 and tied for 13th as a rookie in 2014.

It was the culmination of a two-year run like few others for Johnson, who has appeared in 159 games over the past two seasons — always coming off the bench. No other player in the NBA has played anywhere near that many games without a start in that span.

“I wanted to be part of something special here in San Antonio,” Johnson said. “I knew that in order for me to really be the best for our team that coming off the bench was probably my best possibility. At first, it was tough. I had to (control) my ego and put the team first. After that, the sky was the limit.”

It was the third award the NBA has handed out this postseason, the second won by the Spurs and the first with any real intrigue about who was going to win.

On Monday, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama became the first unanimous selection as Defensive Player of the Year. And on Tuesday, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City was named the Clutch Player of the Year — getting 96 of the 100 possible first-place votes.

In the Sixth Man balloting, Johnson got 63 first-place votes, while Jaquez got 34. Hardaway was followed by Minnesota’s Naz Reid (the 2024 winner who got one first-place vote this year) in fourth, Oklahoma City’s Ajay Mitchell in fifth, Houston’s Reed Sheppard in sixth, Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart (one first-place vote) in seventh, New York’s Mitchell Robinson (one first-place vote) in eighth, Minnesota’s Ayo Dosunmu in ninth, Toronto’s Sandro Mamukelashvili in 10th, San Antonio’s Dylan Harper in 11th and Toronto’s Jamal Shead in 12th.

“It’s a little emotional,” Johnson said. “It’s a big accomplishment. A lot of hard work goes into an award like this.”

The league’s Sportsmanship Award winner will be announced Thursday, with one player from each division — Miami's Bam Adebayo (Southeast), San Antonio's Harrison Barnes (Southwest), Gilgeous-Alexander (Northwest), Golden State's Al Horford (Pacific), Indiana's T.J. McConnell (Central) and Boston's Derrick White (Atlantic) — selected as the finalists. That award is voted on by players, not the media panel that decides most winners.

The Most Improved Player award — either Nickeil Alexander-Walker of Atlanta, Deni Avdija of Portland or Jalen Duren of Detroit — will be revealed Friday.

Other awards that are coming but have not had their announcement dates revealed are Coach of the Year (Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla), Rookie of the Year (Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe, Dallas' Cooper Flagg or Charlotte's Kon Knueppel) and MVP (Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic).

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

The most recent flooding happened during last week’s heavy rain, soaking basements along Miami Road and nearby streets.

Steve Layne and other homeowners Local 4 spoke with said this has been happening for years, and they’re frustrated.

“First of all, we want a resolution to our problem,” Layne said.

Layne, who has lived in his Miami Road home for six years, said his basement has flooded multiple times during that span. He shared photos of belongings he was forced to remove after last week’s storm flooded his basement again.

Layne said he regularly has his drains snaked to prevent backups and believes the cause lies beyond his property. A neighbor across the street recently brought in a restoration company to address water damage, and another homeowner down the block said he has experienced the same issue.

In response, Layne is now working with an attorney and going door to door, handing out letters to neighbors.

The letters invite residents to join a potential legal case against the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office at no cost.

“It’s a little bit of a ping pong in terms of blame,” Layne said. “Over the weekend, we called after hours, and they were insistent on it being the DPW’s problem, the city, and the following week it was the county’s.”

Local 4 contacted both the city of Pontiac and the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office seeking clarity on the source of the problem.

Pontiac’s mayor sent a statement that said:

“We want all Pontiac neighborhoods and all of our residents to have a good quality of life in their homes, and that’s certainly also true for the historic Seminole Hills neighborhood. Our city team checked the storm sewers in that area to ensure there were no obstructions and they were able to confirm that the storm sewers were flowing and no obstructions found. We will continue to closely monitor this situation and be as supportive and responsive as possible.”

Mike McGuinness, Mayor of Pontiac

In a statement, the Water Resources Commissioner’s Office said:

• “The Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office operates and maintains the City of Pontiac’s drinking water and sewer systems.
• The City of Pontiac Department of Public Works Department oversees the stormwater drainage system.
• If residents are experiencing issues with drinking water or sewer, they should reach out to us.
• If residents are experiencing issues with stormwater, they should reach out to Pontiac DPW.
• As of late April 2026, Pontiac has experienced significant rainfall, with year-to-date totals far exceeding the average.
• Local data indicates substantial, frequent rainfall events during the month, including a notable accumulation around mid-April, contributing to a high year-to-date total of 14 inches against an 8-inch average.
• Flooding from intense rain can involve multiple factors beyond the system, including private plumbing connections, surface drainage, or localized conditions which homeowners are responsible for on their property. 
• Our office and the City’s DPW department are committed to improving the water and sewer infrastructure in the City – we actively seek grants and principal loan forgiveness to offset project costs.
• In recent years, our office has secured more than $30 million in American Rescue Plan, State Revolving Fund grants and principal forgiveness to perform drinking water and sewer system improvement projects.
• A variety of these projects have directly benefited the Seminole Hills neighborhood residents.
• To the best of our knowledge, there has not been a sewer basement backup from normal system operation in the historic Seminole Hills neighborhood in more than eight years.
• We also have a comprehensive asset management system and track all system assets we operate and maintain in the City.
• This allows us to measure overall system health and prioritize capital and major maintenance projects to effectively maintain service.
• The WRC, the City of Pontiac and the Pontiac Department of Public Works collaborate on all projects and work closely together on a monthly basis to ensure smooth project management."

Trisha Bruzek, Communications Officer, Oakland County Water Resources

Layne said that the answer is not enough for residents who see water in their basements year after year.

“As far as what I want to know, what can be done?” Layne said.

Local 4 reached out to David Dubin, the attorney Layne is working with, and we are awaiting a response.

The Lufthansa Group said the cancellation of less profitable routes, focused largely on its hub airports in the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich, would save the equivalent of approximately 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel.

The company last week shut down one of its regional subsidiaries, CityLine, to cut costs. It said a “planned consolidation” within its European network also would involve Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS and ITA Airways, and hubs in Brussels, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.

The price of jet fuel has more than doubled in some markets since late February, when the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. Airlines are particularly vulnerable to fuel price shocks because jet fuel typically accounts for one of their largest operating expenses.

For travelers, that is already translating into fewer flight options on some routes and higher fees and fares heading into the peak summer season, with many airlines raising checked bag fees or adding fuel surcharges.

Fighting around the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway off Iran's coast where a fifth of the world's oil typically passes, has disrupted fuel prices and supplies around the world.

The head of the International Energy Agency estimated on April 16 that Europe had about 6 weeks' worth of jet fuel remaining and said airlines would start to cut routes from their schedules without more. The European Union’s top energy official is also warning that the energy crisis sparked by the war could impact prices for months “or maybe even years” to come.

“This is not a short-term, small increase in prices," EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Wednesday.

Jørgensen said the war is costing Europe around 500 million euros ($600 million) each day.

“Even in a best-case scenario," he said, "it’s still bad."

Jørgensen also told reporters that EU governments “are very worried” about possible jet fuel shortages. He says the European Commission is doing what it can to help but that Europe is mostly in defensive mode.

Lufthansa, meanwhile, said it has secured enough jet fuel “for the coming weeks” and was “pursuing a range of measures” to keep its fuel supply stable for the summer, “including the physical procurement of jet fuel.”

All but one of the world’s 20 largest airlines have canceled scheduled May flights spanning every major region, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Besides Lufthansa, the carriers include Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Air Canada, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Air China, British Airways and Air France-KLM, Cirium said.

Last week, Switzerland-based carrier Edelweiss Air announced it is dropping service to Denver and Seattle this summer and reducing flights to Las Vegas through the early autumn.

Air New Zealand is consolidating about 4% of its schedule in May and June.

“Like airlines globally, we're experiencing jet fuel prices that are more than double what they would usually be,” the carrier said.

The global price of jet fuel increased from about $99 per barrel at the end of February to as high as $209 a barrel at the beginning of April.

In addition to cutting flights, some airlines are also slowing their plans to add more seats and routes as a way to keep costs under control. Delta, which kicked off the earnings season for U.S. airlines in early April, said it was scrapping plans to add more flights and seats in June, leaving about 3.5% fewer seats than originally planned.

As U.S. carriers continue to report their first-quarter earnings, the uncertainty around fuel costs is also showing up in their financial outlooks. Several carriers are either slashing their full-year forecasts or holding back on updating them.

Southwest Airlines said Wednesday it expects second-quarter earnings to come in below Wall Street estimates, citing the higher fuel prices, and it left its 2026 outlook unchanged. A day earlier, United Airlines reported it now expects full-year adjusted earnings of $7 to $11 per share, down from a previous forecast of $12 to $14.

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Associated Press journalist Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels, Belgium.

Giolito is guaranteed $2,775,401 in the deal, which includes a 2027 mutual option, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because terms were not announced.

A Southern California native, the 31-year-old Giolito went 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA over 26 starts last year for the Boston Red Sox, earning $19 million under a player option. He bounced back solidly after missing the 2024 season because his right ulnar collateral ligament was repaired with an internal brace that March.

He gets a $1.5 million salary from San Diego — which comes to $1,275,401 for the final 159 days of the 187-day season. Giolito's contract includes an $8 million mutual option for 2027 with a $1.5 million buyout.

Giolito's buyout can escalate by up to $3 million for starts this year: $250,000 for eight, $500,000 each for 12 and 16, $750,000 for 20 and $1 million for 2024.

He also can earn bonuses for his finish in Cy Young Award voting: $2 million for finishing among the top five and $1 million for sixth through 10th.

San Diego optioned him to Class A Lake Elsinore.

Giolito has played parts of nine seasons in the major leagues for Washington, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland, going 71-66, with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP.

He has been durable and dependable for most of his career while earning an All-Star selection in 2019 and throwing a no-hitter in 2020. Despite missing a season because of injury, he ranks in the top five among AL pitchers from 2018-25 in innings pitched (1,092), strikeouts (1,153), wins (68) and complete games (5).

But Giolito remained on the free agent market nearly one month into the regular season before landing with the Padres, who are pitching superbly despite major upheaval and injury problems in their rotation.

Opening day starter Nick Pivetta went on the injured list last week with a right elbow flexor strain that could keep him out for months, while Joe Musgrove has yet to make his season debut after a slower-than-expected return from Tommy John surgery. Yu Darvish already is out for the season with an elbow injury, and Dylan Cease left last fall for a $210 million free-agent deal with Toronto.

Yet the Padres' team ERA is the second lowest in the majors at 3.22 after they beat Colorado 1-0 on Tuesday night for their 11th victory in 12 games. San Diego (16-7) is even with the back-to-back champion Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the majors.

General manager A.J. Preller figured out a way to fit Giolito under his budget even while his team is in ownership transition. The family of late Padres owner Peter Seidler is nearing a sale of the team to billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones.

Giolito will slot immediately into a rotation that currently includes Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Germán Márquez and former Dodgers star Walker Buehler. Right-hander Matt Waldron took a start last week after Pivetta's injury but struggled in a loss to the Angels.

Giolito agreed to a $38.5 million, two-year contract with Boston in January 2024. He will attempt to build on his strong work with the Red Sox in 2025, when he went 9-1 with a 2.26 ERA in 15 starts from June 10 to Aug. 31 after a slower start. Opponents hit .194 (25 for 129) against his changeup and .200 (3 for 15) against his curveball.

He was left off Boston’s postseason roster after experiencing some elbow discomfort in mid-September, but there was no structural damage — something he said was “a small relief in a very unfortunate situation.”

“As it was described to me in layman’s terms, my flexor is very irritated and at this point it’s hard for me to describe,” Giolito said after Game 1 of Boston’s AL Wild Card Series against the New York Yankees. “It’s like weird stuff going on with my bone. It’s one of those things I was told you got to stop throwing and let it calm down.”

Giolito hasn't pitched in the postseason since 2021, when he made his second career playoff appearance for the White Sox.

San Diego transferred right-hander Bryan Hoeing to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Giolito on the 40-man roster.

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AP Baseball Writer Jay Cohen contributed to this report.

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

Carter Page asserted in a 2020 lawsuit that he was the victim of “unlawful spying” by an FBI agency that was investigating whether Trump's 2016 campaign had conspired with Russia to affect the outcome of the election. The lawsuit alleged a series of omissions and errors made by FBI and Justice Department officials in applications they submitted in 2016 and 2017 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to eavesdrop on Page on suspicion that he was an agent of Russia.

Page vigorously denied any claim of improper ties to Russia and was never charged with any wrongdoing.

Page appealed to the Supreme Court after lower courts tossed out his suit, with appellate judges saying last year that he had waited too long to file his complaint. But as the appeal was pending, the Trump administration informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it had reached a settlement with Page on his claims against the federal government. The settlement does not cover claims Page had made against former FBI officials he had also sued.

The court filing to the Supreme Court did not reveal a dollar figure, but a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss non-public information said the amount of the deal was $1.25 million.

Page's lawsuit followed a harshly critical Justice Department inspector general report that found significant problems with the four surveillance applications. Former FBI and Justice Department leaders who were involved in signing off on the surveillance have since said they wouldn’t have done so had they known of the extent of the issues, and the FBI has said it had initiated more than 40 corrective steps aimed at improving the accuracy and thoroughness of applications.

Despite the problems with the warrant applications, the scrutiny of Page accounted for only a narrow portion of the overall investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia had interfered on Trump's behalf during the 2016 campaign and that the campaign welcomed the assistance. Mueller's team said it did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Russia.

The Justice Department in March settled a separate lawsuit with another figure from the Trump-Russia probe, reaching a roughly $1.2 million settlement with Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.

At the moment, no one in baseball is shining brighter.

“To be honest with you,” said Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, “2026 Yordan is the closest thing I’ve seen to Barry Bonds.”

Whoa.

Alvarez hit his major league-leading 11th homer, a two-run shot in the first inning, as the Astros, who have been ravaged by injuries during the season's first month, defeated the Guardians 2-0 to take two of three from the defending AL Central champions.

While the Astros have stumbled out of the gate, Alvarez has been at full stride.

The beefy 6-foot-4 designated hitter leads the majors in homers, RBIs (26), hits (33), extra-base hits (19), total bases (74), on-base percentage (.466), slugging percentage (.779) and OPS (1.245).

No wonder Correa is reminded of the peerless Bonds.

“Aaron Judge has a 1.200 OPS, but Yordan has done it a different way,” Correa said. “He’s not swinging and missing much. He’s not striking out a lot. He's walking a lot, that’s what Barry did.

“Yordan is getting the intentional-walk treatment every time first base is open. I don’t see any other player in the league they do that for.”

Alvarez went 3 for 4 in the series finale, extending his hitting streak to nine games and his on-base streak to 18. He's homered in four of the past six games, and he's become one of the few things manager Joe Espada can count upon.

“He stays within himself and he knows how important it is for him to do damage,” Espada said. “He's a presence and he's carrying us right now.”

After Correa doubled leading off the first against Tanner Bibee, Alvarez followed by yanking a curveball from the right-hander 422 feet over the wall in right field to give the Astros a 2-0 lead that held up for nine innings.

Bibee missed catcher Bo Naylor's target and Alvarez made him pay.

“It was the right pitch in that spot if I threw it where Bo wanted me to throw it,” Bibee said. “It was supposed to be in the dirt, threw it up and that guy, as good as he is and how hot he is right now, it’s going to happen. Just can’t make the mistake.”

Alvarez pulled singles to the right side in his next two at-bats and was retired on a hard groundout to first in the eighth that he thought was foul. Alvarez stood in the batter's box almost stunned that he had made an out.

It's been like that all season.

“At some point you're expecting him to get out because the game is supposed to be so hard,” Correa said. “When he's going that good, you're like, OK he's due to get out here. And he just keeps raking. It's incredible. It's so much fun.

“I haven't missed one swing of his all year because he's must-watch TV.”

Alvarez isn't making too much of his blistering start. After playing in just 48 games last season due to injuries, he's not taking anything for granted while also appreciating how well it's going.

“I just want to find a good pitch and connect on the pitch and things are turning out for me right now,” said Alvarez, who joined Lance Berkman (2002) as the only Astros to hit 11 homers in the first 26 games. “I’m not surprised with my results. That’s why I work so hard. Every at-bat that I have, I go aggressive.”

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

For the Kennedy Center’s new leadership, it’s a gargantuan structure corroded by water damage so severe that steel in some places is tissue-thin.

Away from the political controversy that has consumed the iconic performing arts venue for the better part of Trump’s second term, Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s new executive director and chief operating officer, guided a group of journalists through the building on Wednesday. They viewed the outdoor terrace overlooking the Potomac River, along with parking decks, loading docks, an electrical vault and the Opera House stage.

A theme emerged at virtually every stop: The water damage was real, apparent in some places through discoloration and pooling. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and in need of replacement.

And the building is so massive — sprawling across more than 1.5 million square feet — that repairs will require time to finish.

Two years of time, in fact.

Trump plans to shutter the building for a massive renovation slated to begin in July, supported by nearly $257 million provided by Congress to fund repairs. The institution is expected to turn to private donors to help support refurbishing some of the building's more exclusive areas, such as lounges.

The Kennedy Center is hardly the first fixture of the Washington skyline to undergo lengthy renovations. The Smithsonian Castle, one of the most recognizable buildings along the National Mall, has been closed for renovations since 2023. The Washington Monument was shrouded in scaffolding from 1998 to 2001 and covered again at points in 2013 and 2014 to repair earthquake damage.

None of those changes, however, were guided so closely by a sitting president.

The president is hands-on with this renovation

Trump, who is also trying to build a ballroom on the grounds of the former East Wing of the White House and is pushing for the construction of a triumphal arch near Arlington Cemetery, is deeply involved in the Kennedy Center plans. That's in line with the far more hands-on approach he's taken to the institution during his second term, ousting its previous leadership and replacing it with a handpicked board that named him chairman.

His name is now bolted to the building's facade along with that of John F. Kennedy, the slain president that the venue memorializes.

“It’s a public building, and I completely acknowledge that, but the president is really great at this, and I think his input is invaluable,” Floca said. “He’s in the details, and it’s amazing. I really respect the input he’s given.”

As Trump tightened his grip on the building, artists abandoned the institution in droves, prompting concern that the closure is more of an effort to cover for plunging sales. The Kennedy Center hasn't released sales figures.

Floca considered doing the repairs individually but insisted it was his recommendation to Trump to close the building and move forward with the renovation all at once.

“When the President asked: ‘How do you make these projects the best? How do you make them really excellent and deliver them efficiently?’ my recommendation was you close the building and you do everything over a definite period of time, two years,” he said.

He acknowledged that once the building is closed, staffing will be “pretty bare bones.”

“We’re working on all of those plans now and exactly what those numbers will be after July,” he said. "And we will staff up before reopening.”

Still, the tour offered the institution something of a reset opportunity after more than a year of tumult, demonstrating the need for repairs while easing some fears. A bipartisan group of lawmakers and their staff, along with representatives for Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and some corporate and individual donors, have received a similar walk-through.

There will be scaffolding around the building but the construction won't be so dramatic that someone could see through the building. That's notable considering Trump has suggested the steel supporting the structure could be “ fully exposed.”

It's not entirely clear how much change will be apparent to the general public once the Kennedy Center reopens. Much of the structural repair, which will unfold during the renovation's first year, will happen in the building's private core.

The venue's more public elements, including the red-on-red decor of the Opera House, are expected to be maintained, though with some updating. There aren't plans at the moment to change the presidential boxes.

Quotes attributed to Kennedy will stay on the building's walls and the famous bust of the former president that sits outside the Opera House will be there again when the building reopens.

“I can’t think of any JFK changes,” Floca said.

It’s unclear, however, whether there will be additional tributes to Trump, who will be in the final months of his presidency when the public can return to the building.

The stock soared. The business never took off.

On Tuesday, the parent company of the once hoped-for social media giant announced it was shaking up its leadership. Out is its long time CEO, former farmer turned Republican congressman Devin Nunes, replaced by seasoned digital executive, Kevin McGurn.

He has his work cut out for him.

Trump Media & Technology, which owns Truth Social, has diversified far away from its original social media mandate into cryptocurrency, finance, even nuclear power. Investors are still fleeing. The stock is down more than 60% since Donald Trump was reelected president in November 2024, wiping out $6 billion in shareholder wealth.

Born in anger — and controversy

Trump launched the social media platform in early 2022 after being banned by Twitter and Facebook from posting on their sites after the January 6, 2021, riots that aimed to overturn the election.

It was angry beginning for a business, and a messy one.

A publicly traded shell company that Truth Social merged with so it could tap stock traders for money was investigated by federal regulators for misleading investors, culminating in a multimillion-dollar penalty. A board member was even sentenced to prison for insider trading.

Then Trump got allowed back on Facebook and Twitter, a seeming victory for the then ex-president. But it also undercut his new business, as platforms — particularly X, the new name for Twitter — scaled back moderation, weakening the case for Truth Social as a refuge from censorship.

Heavy losses

Years later, Truth Social is still struggling to attract users beyond the president's core supporters despite his using it for major political announcements — a practice criticized by government ethics experts as a conflict of interest with the presidency. Truth Social’s monthly audience declined both on the web and on its mobile app year-over-year in March, according to digital market analysis firm Similarweb.

Trump Media has lost more than $1 billion in the past two years and the stock has reflected those financial struggles. After closing at about $62 shortly after it went public in 2024, the stock has plunged into the single digits.

Enter crypto

As the platform has languished, the company has branched into other businesses.

In August, Trump Media said it was starting a new cryptocurrency business by teaming up with partners, including a company called Crypto.com. The idea was to hold massive amounts of a Crypto.com token called Cronos to create a Trump Media “digital ecosystem" in which users could use them instead of dollars to make payments, earn rewards and pay for services.

Trump Media is also betting on another alternative currency, raising $2.5 billion last year to load up on bitcoin. In this way it was echoing moves by MicroStrategy, a software developer that transformed itself into a bitcoin holding company by buying up the currency.

Whether the Trump company's new ventures will work out is unclear, but MicroStrategy's story could be a cautionary tale. The value of its bitcoin has cratered in the past several months, sinking MicroStrategy's holdings, along with Trump Media's. Since July, stock in the once soaring MicroStrategy has dropped nearly 60%.

Going Nuclear

In December, Trump Media announced it was moving in another direction by merging with a nuclear fusion company, a promising but far-off energy technology.

The appeal is that fusion someday could offer a way of powering the data centers needed to build and run AI research and services that are suddenly all the rage — and also threatening higher electricity bills.

The move has drawn criticism because nuclear energy is heavily regulated and Trump is not only a major Truth Social shareholder. As U.S. president, he has power to help his companies and hurt their rivals through rules, laws and government funding.

And the Trump administration isn't taking a hands-off approach. In October, the U.S. Department of Energy released a “road map” showing how it could help the “burgeoning fusion private sector industry” to scale up on a ”rapid timeline.”

“There’s a huge conflict of interest,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “The United States government is going to get all involved in it.”

Brave face

The new CEO, Kevin McGurn, has worked at NBC Universal, Hulu and DoubleClick, among other companies and so has plenty of business experience that Nunes lacked.

McGurn said Tuesday in a statement that the company was “poised to take off."

“In carrying President Trump’s unique, singular vision and message, Truth Social stands for the most powerful brand and voice in history of social media and beyond,” he said.

But investors are still not convinced. On Wednesday afternoon, even with the news that McGurn was coming aboard, the stock fell sharply, down 3.5% to $9.48.

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Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed.

Rivas Hernandez did not live long enough to study there. She was killed before her 15th birthday. An autopsy report released Wednesday said she still had braces when she died.

Her brief life unfolded in this unassuming community with a population of more than 70,000 and a sprawling lake at the center of town that is home to a lively water sports scene.

Almost eight months have passed since her decomposed and dismembered body was discovered in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer D4vd. The 21-year-old musician, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the death and his relationship with Rivas Hernandez. He pleaded not guilty this week.

Little is known about teen's relationship with singer

Little is known about how the young girl entered Burke's orbit or what their relationship looked like. She grew up roughly 80 miles (129 kilometers) from the Hollywood Hills rental home where Burke lived and near where his car was abandoned with her body inside.

Their lives unfolded in contrasting environments. The street where Rivas Hernandez grew up has chain-link fences and small front yards. The street where Burke lived had security gates at nearly every driveway and privacy hedges interspersed between palm trees.

Rivas Hernandez's home has a white picket fence around the front yard and plants and flowers lining a walkway. Two rosary beads hang on the front door, and a painted rock nearby says “You Matter.”

More than half of the town's residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the latest census data. The streets are dotted with fast food chains and local businesses.

Several neighbors on the family's street and other Lake Elsinore residents said they did not personally know the family or Rivas Hernandez and that the family tended to keep to themselves. Even the neighbor who set up a sprawling memorial in her honor, Kayleigh Cortez, said she did not know her.

Seventh grader was reported missing in 2024

Rivas Hernandez was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her family reported her missing in 2024. Authorities said she had run away, and several residents remembered seeing flyers with her photo around town when she was missing.

“I didn’t know her personally, but she was a girl with a normal life. She had friends at school,” Elizabeth Davalos, a Lake Elsinore resident, said in Spanish.

Her parents, Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez, issued a statement Tuesday through their attorney that marked the first time they publicly commented on the case or their daughter. They described her as “a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance.”

“Every Friday night was movie night, and we spent wonderful times together,” the statement said. “We love her very much, and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”

Some neighbors declined to be interviewed, citing fatigue from the media attention that has followed the case.

Town is a tight-knit community

Katie Favreau, a local business owner and longtime Lake Elsinore resident, said the town is a tight-knit, supportive community. Her appliance repair shop is a few doors down from where Hernandez grew up, but Faverau did not know her or her family.

“It’s just a really good, old-fashioned place to live. It’s like small towns in the Midwest. It’s just stuck in the middle of Southern California instead,” Favreau said. “If somebody is in need in this town, the whole town will rally.”

Favreau said the community has been supportive of Rivas Hernandez's family, and the majority of residents respect their privacy and grief. Conversations about the young girl's life and death are now “sporadic,” she said.

The memorial honoring Hernandez's memory showed signs of recent visitors this week, with fresh flowers mixed in with ones that had wilted long ago. There was an Easter bunny mixed in with a plush Hello Kitty toy that appeared to have been there for months.

Artificial tea candles spell out Celeste at the base of a sign that says “Justice for Celeste Rivas” and has handwritten notes from friends and mourners. Many included Bible verses or wishes that she is now at peace.

“God looked around his garden. He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest," one note read. "God's garden is beautiful, he always takes the best.”

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Associated Press journalists Leslie Ambriz and Damian Dovarganes in Lake Elsinore, California, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Dr. Natalie Stentz, director of the University of Michigan Health Center for Reproductive Medicine, said the isolation many couples feel is one of the biggest barriers to getting help.

“It’s exceptionally common for people to feel like they are all alone in their struggles when they really are not,” Stentz said. “So I really encourage anyone struggling with infertility to reach out, to look for support, to schedule an appointment.”

Half of couples may not need complex treatment

A common misconception is that infertility always requires intensive intervention.

About half of couples experiencing infertility will either conceive naturally or with relatively simple advice or treatment, Stentz said.

The other half do need more complex treatment, and seeking help sooner can be key.

Both partners need to be evaluated

Stentz said it is essential for both partners to be evaluated early in the process.

“We know that in about a third of cases infertility may be caused by female factor alone, a third related to male factor alone, and another third due to a combination of both of those,” she said.

Lifestyle factors that affect fertility

While age is a major contributing factor, lifestyle choices can also play a significant role. Stentz points to tobacco use and obesity as two of the most impactful.

“The biggest one is tobacco smoke,” she said. “We know that this impacts egg quality. We know that it impacts sperm quality, ovarian reserve. So there’s so many reasons not to smoke tobacco, one of which is, of course, your fertility. Obesity can impact infertility, both from a female standpoint as well as from a male standpoint as it can impact ovulation, regular menstrual cycles, sperm parameters.”

Treatment options range from simple to advanced

Struggling at home does not mean nothing can be done.

“Just because you may be struggling at home doesn’t mean that we can’t do something to help you, whether that be simple things like oral medications all the way up to IVF,” Stentz said.

Stentz said secondary infertility, struggling to conceive after already having a child, is also common and should not be overlooked.

What about stress?

Stress is not helpful, but telling couples struggling with infertility to simply “relax” is not helpful either, Stentz said.

She encourages couples to take steps to reduce stress for their overall health, while acknowledging that infertility is a stressful situation in and of itself.

When should you seek help?

Stentz recommends scheduling an appointment after one year of trying if you are under age 35, or after six months if you are 35 or older.

“I have a niece who says she wants to be like me,” she said on Wednesday. “She wants to be retired longer than she worked.”

Last week, a letter arrived, seemingly from the IRS, saying that it needed her bank account information to further process a tax refund.

The letter sported the IRS logo, a notice number, a seemingly legit website address, and – strangely – a QR Code.

Confused by the letter, she called her oldest daughter, Rita Leapheart-Coleman, who immediately knew that this letter was a scam attempt.

“It said that she was going to receive a refund,” Rita said. “I knew after doing her taxes two or three weeks ago that she wasn’t receiving a refund, so I’m like, this is bogus.”

One unique aspect of this scam is that unlike the text, phone, and email scams that have become more prevalent, the IRS still uses letters to contact taxpayers.

A real IRS letter features an IRS logo and treasury address, a notice number, and either a tax id number or social security number. The letter that Katherine received had the IRS logo, the address to the treasury building in Kansas City, and appeared to have a notice number.

However, it was the QR code that tipped Rita off to it being a fake.

“I know the scams are out there, so I just knew that I needed to do something about it,” she said. “The police really don’t have that kind of force to look out for other people. So, you got to make sure you do it for yourself and the people you love.”

Rita says that her mother’s social security number was once compromised, and it was an entire ordeal to protect her accounts.

Katherine Leapheart will celebrate her 100th birthday in October, and Rita wants to make sure that every day she’s here, she doesn’t have to stress about stuff like this.

“You’re going to make me emotional talking about her because I love her dearly. And I don’t want to see nothing happening to her. She’s a good woman, and I’m gonna make sure that she, all the time she has here left, it’s gonna be good.”

There are a few ways you can check to see if a letter is really from the IRS:

• Log in to their secure IRS online account to see if the letter or notice is in their file
• Contact IRS customer service directly online.
• Call 800-829-1040. Follow the IRS representative’s instructions.

Other things you want to look out for are urgent demands for online payment, threats to send you to jail, and one of the biggest clues: look for poor grammar and misspellings in the letters, which are often a giveaway that the form is a scam.

DeBoer is getting a $2 million raise — up to $12.5 million — and a two-year contract extension after leading the Crimson Tide to the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, where Alabama lost to eventual national champion Indiana.

Oats is getting a $1.2 million raise — up to $7.2 million — and a two-year contract extension after leading Alabama to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16, where the Crimson Tide lost to eventual national champion Michigan. Oats' new deal had been agreed to earlier this month.

Alabama announced both deals Wednesday during a board of trustees meeting.

DeBoer had been scheduled to make $10.5 million during 2026. His salary was set to increase $250,000 annually. He is now under contract through the 2033 season.

Oats had been scheduled to make $6.02 million in 2026-27. He made $5.5 million this past season. He is now under contract through the 2032 season.

DeBoer, courted by Michigan to replace fired coach Sherrone Moore, now has a $10 million buyout through January 2027. It drops to $8 million the following year and $6 million through January 2029.

“We are excited about the opportunity to continue our time in Tuscaloosa with this contract extension,” DeBoer said in a statement. "This university has become a special place to us, and I look forward to working to ensure that Alabama football remains at the forefront of college football.

"This program has a long history of success and an unmatched tradition that I was eager to be a part of two years ago, and I cannot wait to keep coaching our guys and bring more championships to Alabama.”

DeBoer is entering his third season in Tuscaloosa since replacing legendary coach Nick Saban. The Tide are 20-8 in his tenure, with a Southeastern Conference title game appearance and a first-round CFP victory over Oklahoma.

But he also has blowout losses to Indiana in the Rose Bowl and Georgia in the SEC title game on his Alabama resume as well as regular-season upsets to Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Florida State.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

The result condemned American-owned Burnley to relegation after one season back in the top flight.

Haaland ran onto Jeremy Doku's pass to convert a deft finish in the fifth minute for his league-high 24th goal of the campaign, which allowed City to back up its 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Sunday that, for many, turned Pep Guardiola’s team into the title favorite.

However, with goal difference potentially coming into play, City might regret not putting more past Burnley at Turf Moor.

Winning by a one-goal margin left City and Arsenal tied on both points (70) and goal difference (+37). City only leads courtesy of more goals scored (66 to Arsenal's 63).

“I was not frustrated, why would I be?" Guardiola said. “We won three points, we are top of the league.”

Haaland and Rayan Cherki struck the goal frame and Nico O'Reilly had a weak shot saved with the net at his mercy as City's players threw everything at Burnley — they finished the game having had 28 shots — in an effort to rack up the goals.

“In these types of games, if you score the second or third that you deserve, everything’s more fluid and natural,” Guardiola said.

“But,” he added, “the main target was winning the game.”

City was nine points adrift of Arsenal after drawing with West Ham on March 14. Three straight wins, combined with back-to-back losses for Arsenal, has seen the title race turn on its head.

Relegation was inevitable for Burnley

For next-to-last Burnley, a third relegation from the Premier League in the last five seasons has been an inevitability for weeks.

Scott Parker's team slipped to its 22nd loss of the campaign and is 13 points from safety with four games left.

Burnley will be going down with last-place Wolverhampton, whose fate was sealed at the weekend, and one other team.

Leeds edges further clear of relegation

In the other match Wednesday, Leeds scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time to draw 2-2 at Bournemouth and edge nine points clear of third-to-last Tottenham, which occupies the other place in the relegation zone.

Sean Longstaff's late equalizer denied Bournemouth a win that would have lifted the team to sixth place, four points off the Champions League qualification positions.

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

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

“We don’t really get to experience this kind of energy and fandom in person very often,” Tierney told The Associated Press just after their joint appearance, a highlight of the weekend gathering of (mostly) young book fans. “It’s been a bit more of an amorphous online thing.”

Since the first episode of “Heated Rivalry” dropped last November, Tierney's adaptation of Reid's “Game Changer” series featuring star-crossed hockey greats Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov has become a phenomenon that boosted the sport's popularity, made Reid a leader of the thriving genre of sports romance fiction and made Olympic torchbearers out of lead actors Hudson Williams (Shane) and Connor Storrie (Ilya). Tierney expects to begin filming the second season this summer, based in part on the second of Reid's novels about Shane and Ilya, “The Long Game.” The author, meanwhile, is working on a third Shane and Ilya book, “Unrivaled.” Both are scheduled for 2027 releases.

“Heated Rivalry” fans know well the story of how the HBO Max show was born, and of Reid's jarring swing from despair to exhilaration. In August 2023, she learned that she had early onset Parkinson's disease. Days later, she received an Instagram message from a man she had never met, but would soon change her life in a very different way: Tierney.

The 46-year-old Tierney is a Montreal native, former child star and award-winning filmmaker whose credits include the TV series “Letterkenny.” In October, Little, Brown and Company will release a collection of Tierney's annotated scripts, “I'll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1.”

Reid, 44, is a longtime hockey fan. Born Rachelle Goguen in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she chose her pen name for the practical reason that it's easier to pronounce and remember. She's been open about the impact of fame and her health, posting an Instagram announcement in February that she was pushing back the release date of “Unrivaled” from this fall to next summer. Onstage, she acknowledged it had been “tricky” to write since the series took off.

“I'm in a place where the whole world seems to care about what happens next to these characters,” she said. “I'm still determined to stick to what I've always done when I was writing, just kind of pretend I'm writing for me and I hope other people like it.”

During their AP interview, Reid and Tierney spoke of the joy of sex on the page and screen and how Shane and Ilya just won't leave them alone. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Writers talk about writing the books they want to read, and filmmakers making the movies they want to see. With these books, it comes out of that?

REID: I really like a forbidden romance. I really like the rivals-to-lovers element. I just also like a queer love story with a happy ending. And I really like hockey, so I think there’s just a lot of elements in it that are just very much what I personally would like. I think if this show had come out and had nothing to do with me, I would be obsessed with it still.

TIERNEY: I did not grow up with stories like this. We don’t as gay men, as queer people. We do not get to have happy endings in media very often. I would definitely have watched it (even if he didn't direct it), that’s for sure. I’m sure I would have had notes. I'm a little picky.

AP: At what point for either of you did you realize that you had something big here?

TIERNEY: It was a kind of a series of increasingly surreal and overwhelming moments. And by the time the sixth episode aired, it really did feel like we were kind of at the center of a strange maelstrom. But I also was like, “Am I making this up? Is this actually happening?”

REID: I did a bookstore event the day after the trailer came out. They showed the trailer at the event, and everybody in the audience knew every word of the trailer and was saying it along with the trailer. So that was when I was like, “OK, this is going to be nuts.”

AP: Writers and filmmakers have talked about the difficulty of writing or filming sex scenes. Was that a challenge for either of you?

REID: Honestly, I love writing them and I’ve never found that to be the difficult part. I think it might be the easiest part for me. I actually really enjoy it. Not to praise myself too much, but I think maybe that’s why people like the scenes. They weren’t hard for me. It’s not a scary thing. It’s not the part that I have to close my eyes and write or anything. It's my favorite part.

TIERNEY: Sex is a language in this show, sex is a way that we watch this couple evolve over the course of a fairly long amount of time in terms of the story, eight years. And so the sex is different every time, a way of watching them evolve both separately and together. I think sex reveals a lot about yourself that you don’t even intend to reveal. And I find that quite fascinating as a storyteller.

AP: How real are Ilya and Shane for you? Do they live on in your heads?

REID: Yeah. That’s why I keep writing books about them, because they just keep talking. With other characters, I’ve written the books and they’ve left. But these guys just stick around.

AP: What is it about them that makes it that way?

REID: They're fun to write. I love it.

AP: You've talked about your struggles with getting the next book done. Any updates on that?

TIERNEY: It's a coloring book now.

REID: It’s 20 pages.

TIERNEY: Don’t tell the truth.

REID: The thing that hasn’t changed is how much fun they are to write. I find their voices very easy to put on the page. More than any other characters I’ve created, they arrived fully formed. They kind of just appeared one day.

AP: Were they based on anybody, at least loosely, who you know?

REID: There’s a lot of myself in Ilya, for sure. There’s a lot of, kind of hockey player archetypes — the flashy, cocky European superstar, that’s definitely a type. The uptight, very serious good boy-captain. And there’s been plenty of NHL players from decades of hockey. And I’ve been a fan for decades. And obviously there have been some really great rivalries. And we’re getting probably to the end of the (Sidney) Crosby-(Alex) Ovechkin rivalry right now. But that rivalry at its peak was so fun.

AP: What do you see of yourself in Ilya?

REID: A sense of humor, mostly. It's a little bit mean. I also kind of like to use humor to cover up emotions, you know, things like that. I think I also notice things about people a bit, but maybe stay quiet about it.

AP: I've heard a lot of writers talk about writing a book that gets made into a film. And the actors are just so good that when the writer comes back to writing about those characters, they’re seeing those actors in their head. Is it going that way for you?

REID: I told Jacob I wish I had never met them. (Laughing) It is challenge writing without thinking about somebody having to actually say or do what I’m writing, for sure. I’m trying to just block that out. I just need to pretend it definitely will never happen, because I think that’s the only way I can do it.

AP: And you still hope to have the next book out at some point next year?

RR: Yeah. That book will come out June 1. Hell or high water, it's coming out.

___

This story has been updated to corrected Reid's first name at birth was spelled ‘Rachelle,’ not

‘Rachel.’

Pickens hasn't signed the one-year deal worth $27.3 million, which means the 25-year-old would face no financial penalties if he didn't report to mandatory minicamp in June. The rest of the offseason program, which starts Monday, is voluntary.

“We’ve made a decision that we’re going to have George play under the franchise tag, which won’t be a first for us,” Stephen Jones said. “So there won’t be negotiations on a long-term deal. But that’s certainly not a first for this organization and certainly won’t be a first in the league in terms of this decision as we move forward.”

Stephen Jones said he hasn't talked to Pickens recently, but said owner Jerry Jones and coach Brian Schottenheimer met with him recently.

“It was good,” Schottenheimer said during the Cowboys' news conference leading into the NFL draft, which starts Thursday night. “The thing that George knows about Jerry and myself is we’re very upfront and we’re honest. We had great conversation. We informed him. We think that’s important because that’s the way we handle all of our players and coaches.”

David Mulugheta, Pickens' agent, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pickens, acquired last offseason in a trade with Pittsburgh, had career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns (nine) for one of the best offenses in the NFL last season. Dallas had one of the worst defenses in the league and finished 7-9-1, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia thrived alongside CeeDee Lamb, who is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that currently ranks him third among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.

Lamb missed the entire offseason and training camp in 2024 holding out for the deal he signed about two weeks before the season opener.

The Cowboys couldn’t use the tag on Lamb because he was going into the fifth year of his rookie contract. The fifth year is a team option that goes with all deals for first-round picks. Second-rounders have four-year deals, and Pickens earned $6.8 million on his rookie contract.

Pickens’ talent was on display during three seasons with the Steelers, but so were enough instances of petulant or indifferent behavior for then-coach Mike Tomlin to question his maturity.

Schottenheimer never took issue with Pickens publicly in his first season as a head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant. But Pickens and Lamb were benched for the first series in Las Vegas after missing curfew following a casino visit the night before the game.

“There’s a lot of things that go into that,” Stephen Jones said of the decision not to go forward on a long-term deal this offseason. “Let’s start with the fact that it’s not easy having two receivers being paid top of the market. A quarterback that’s been here, being the highest-paid player in this league for many years now.”

“The other thing is the newness of George being here,” Stephen Jones said. “I think George has just done an amazing job. I mean he’s exceeded all expectations. And a lot of those things, they make their way toward a long-term deal, but that’s the biggest part of it — between the business and newness of it, I think that’s a big part of it."

The Cowboys have until July 15 to reach a long-term deal with Pickens, who could stay away from the team well into the season without signing the offer under the franchise tag.

Quarterback Dak Prescott and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence played a season under the franchise tag within the past eight years for Dallas before reaching long-term deals. Tight end Dalton Schultz and running back Tony Pollard also played under the tag before leaving in free agency the next year.

The Cowboys are a year removed from contentious negotiations with Micah Parsons that ended with the star pass rusher getting traded to Green Bay. Mulugheta was also Parsons' agent.

“I expect that he’ll be around. I really do,” Schottenheimer said of Pickens. “The one thing that I love about George is George likes honesty and that’s who we are. That’s not just because his name is George Pickens and he’s a great player. We do that to undrafted free agents, and that gives you the best chance to make sure you’re all on the same page.”

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

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs one committee that oversees Kennedy's department and sits on another, took a tough but measured posture in two high-stakes hearings Wednesday, where he asked the health secretary about affordability, fraud, abortion drugs and the rise of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.

A liver doctor, Cassidy has clashed with Kennedy’s vaccine agenda even though he provided crucial support for the health secretary’s nomination last year.

At the same time, Cassidy is fighting for his political future in next month’s primary in Louisiana, where President Donald Trump has endorsed one of his opponents in an unusual attempt to oust a sitting senator from his own party.

Ahead of Wednesday's hearings, experts said his handling of them could affect his chances at a pivotal moment of his reelection campaign and set the tone for how Congress oversees the nation's health agenda at a time of rampant distrust and misinformation.

“He’s taken a risk showing any sort of resistance to RFK,” said Claire Leavitt, an assistant professor at Smith College who studies congressional oversight. “He may pay an electoral price for that.”

Cassidy took that chance on Wednesday, noting that trust in vaccines has declined in the U.S. over the past year and asking Kennedy how he would address expected outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases with the upcoming World Cup and America 250 events.

“I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine preventable diseases,” Cassidy said. “And when I see outbreaks numbering in the thousands and people dying once more from vaccine preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic.”

Louisiana political consultant Mary-Patricia Wray said the senator's approach was like a “polite ‘I told you so.’”

“Cassidy reinforced the real-world consequences of declining vaccine confidence while subtly signaling that the administration's posture is moving closer to where he has been as a physician,” Wray said.

Cassidy has long advocated for vaccines

Cassidy has spent years walking a political tightrope. He's one of the few Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during an impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As a liver doctor, he advocated for babies to receive hepatitis B vaccines shortly after birth, a step that could have prevented the disease in his patients. But when Trump nominated Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, Cassidy supported him. He did so after securing various commitments, including that Kennedy would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring system and support the childhood vaccine schedule.

The vote for Kennedy did not appear to mollify Trump. The president endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, one of Cassidy's two primary opponents.

Cassidy also faces opposition from Kennedy's allies in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a group that includes both anti-vaccine activists and a wide variety of other crusaders for health and the environment. The MAHA PAC, aligned with Kennedy, has pledged $1 million to Letlow’s campaign. While the organization hasn't publicly said so, some have questioned whether the support is partly in retaliation against Cassidy for criticizing Kennedy's vaccine policy agenda.

“I’m not really sure what MAHA’s beef is,” Cassidy told reporters earlier this month. “Let me point out that I am the reason that Robert F. Kennedy is now the secretary of HHS. He would not have gotten there otherwise.”

Cassidy argues that he has “strongly supported” the MAHA agenda, especially when it comes to the fight against ultraprocessed foods. However, the physician-turned-senator acknowledged that he and MAHA have “disagreed on vaccines.”

“We’ve seen, frankly, that I am right,” Cassidy added, pointing to recent measles-related deaths of children who were not vaccinated.

At a hearing in September, he slammed Kennedy’s decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccine development. He interrogated Kennedy over his attempt to replace members of a vaccine committee, suggesting the new members could have conflicts of interest. He also raised concerns that Kennedy's vaccine policy decisions could be making it harder for Americans to get COVID-19 shots.

Later that month, Cassidy convened a hearing featuring former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted by Kennedy less than a month into her tenure after they clashed over vaccine policy, and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who resigned in August citing an erosion of science at the agency.

“I want to work with the president to fulfill his campaign promise to reform the CDC and Make America Healthy Again. The president says radical transparency is the way to do that,” Cassidy said at the time.

Experts say Cassidy's vaccine stance might not hurt him

Political consultants said they expect Cassidy’s primary opponents, Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, to seize on any sound bites from Wednesday’s hearings that can make Cassidy seem at odds with the Trump administration.

But Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco, said the political risk of his vaccine advocacy may not be as strong among Republicans as some people assume. That's in part because Kennedy and the Trump administration have recently pivoted away from discussing vaccines, focusing instead on less controversial topics like healthy eating.

“He’s probably not alienating voters by focusing on the issue and calling it out,” she said.

Cassidy also showed during Wednesday's hearings a willingness to be tough on Kennedy from the political right. He asked Kennedy why HHS hasn't reinstated an in-person dispensing requirement for chemical abortion drugs.

Through that line of questioning, Wray said, he's courting non-MAHA Republican voters who want to see the Trump administration do more on their priorities.

He's proving that “working with this administration doesn't mean he works for this administration,” Wray said.

Election outcome will shape future oversight of HHS

Also at stake if Cassidy doesn’t make it to November’s general election is what will happen to his responsibility to oversee the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

Leavitt, the Smith College professor, said seniority typically plays the most important role in who chairs Senate committees. She said another Republican in today’s increasingly hyperpartisan Congress may not be as willing as Cassidy to check Kennedy’s power.

Reiss, the vaccine law expert, said she wishes Cassidy had done more hearings or introduced legislation to rein in Kennedy. And she said the senator bears the blame for allowing Kennedy to bring unfounded vaccine fears into the government in the first place.

“His original sin, of course, was voting for Kennedy at all,” Reiss said.

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Associated Press writer Sara Cline contributed to this report.

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said Wednesday that U.S. officials informed him and other groups of discussions between the United States and Congo about taking the Afghan refugees who have been in limbo at a U.S. base in Doha for the past year.

The 1,100 refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah include Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active duty U.S. military members.

The State Department said Wednesday that it is working to identify options to “voluntarily” resettle the refugees in a third country, but it did not confirm which nations were being discussed.

An alternative provided to the refugees, VanDiver said, is to return to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal or even death at the hands of the Taliban for working alongside the U.S. during the two-decade war.

“You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you,” VanDiver said at a virtual press conference. “That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress.”

The discussions — which were reported earlier by The New York Times — come more than a year after President Donald Trump paused his predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration.

That policy left thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution, and had gone through a sometimes yearslong vetting process to start new lives in America, stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.

From one war-torn country to another

Negotiations between the U.S. and several other countries, including Botswana and Malaysia, started months ago, according to an executive at a refugee resettlement agency who was briefed by U.S. officials. The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private negotiations, said Botswana was seen by many refugee advocates as the most promising option but that talks between senior U.S. officials and the country’s leadership fell through. In early April, the executive was briefed that Congo was now the main option being discussed.

A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said they had heard from State Department personnel that the U.S. was looking at sending the Afghans at the base in Qatar to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The person said the Afghans were told Wednesday that there was no final deal on where to send them.

The base in Doha “was always intended as a transit platform. It was never designed to hold families for months or years, which is the situation that people are currently in,” said Jon Finer, who was deputy national security adviser to then-President Joe Biden. “What I want to emphasize is that this was intended to honor a wartime commitment.”

Finer and other former U.S. officials and refugee advocates warned of the risk of resettling Afghans in Congo, a country that U.N. officials say is facing “one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the world."

The African country has been battered by decades-long fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in its eastern region.

Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on the discussions, which did not come as a surprise to some there. Congo is one of at least eight African nations that were paid millions in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

Like most other African nations involved in the deportation program, Congo is also among the worst hit by the Trump administration’s policies on aid and trade. At least 70% of the country’s humanitarian aid came from the U.S. before Trump's second term, and aid workers say American aid cuts have led to avoidable deaths in the conflict-hit region.

Sean Jamshidi — an Afghan American who served in the U.S. military, including a stint in Congo — said he was deeply concerned about his brother possibly being sent from the Doha base to the war-torn country.

“I saw the security situation and what it looked like there. I saw the displacement camps. ... I stood in places where the United Nations has counted the dead,” Jamshidi said. “I’m telling you, as someone who has been in uniform, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not a place you send vetted Afghan allies and their children to live.”

Refugees are in the dark as they await their fate

Negina Khalili, a former prosecutor in Afghanistan who fled during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, has been waiting to hear about the resettlement status of her father, brother and stepmother since they arrived at the Doha base in January 2025. That was just days before Trump suspended the refugee program soon after he returned to the White House.

Khalili told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she spoke to her family about reports that they could be sent to Congo.

“They are not giving them any information or updates regarding which countries they will go to,” she said. “They were so stressed and worried about it and said that Congo is not a safe place either. They don’t know if it’s a temporary location for them there or a permanent location. They are worried.”

She said U.S. officials at the camp have been suggesting to refugees that they go back to Afghanistan and offering them money to do so.

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Amiri reported from New York and Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

The pair with deep Arkansas roots shared a few thoughts and laughs with reporters at the Cowboys' annual pre-draft news conference Wednesday.

A reporter was in the middle of a question when Jones looked through the glass wall of the media interview room at club headquarters and saw Clinton coming into the building.

After a first interruption, the reporter tried to finish the question as Clinton came through a side door into the interview room. Jones gave everyone in the room a brief scare as he stumbled trying to get off the stage and shake hands with Clinton.

Once Jones steadied himself and joined Clinton, the focus was squarely on the 42nd U.S. president and the man who also carries the titles of president and general manager of the Cowboys.

“He’s been a wonderful, not only president, but a friend over the years,” said Jones, who was born in Los Angeles but was an oil and natural gas wildcatter in Arkansas when he bought the Cowboys in 1989. “And I’m really happy to have you here today.”

A smiling Clinton responded with, “Have a good draft day,” before each had a story to tell.

One of the pictures on the wall of the media interview room is of Clinton greeting the Cowboys at the White House following one of their three Super Bowl victories in the 1990s. At that point, Jones was only a few years removed from leaving Arkansas.

“And when I said hello to him on a personal basis, he listed, three-deep, every player ... on the Arkansas Razorback national championship team,” said Jones, who played for that 1964 team. “He was a young guy that was following the Hogs feverishly, mainly over the radio. So he’s a good man to have as a fan.”

Clinton, who was born in Hope, Arkansas, and at 79 is four years younger than Jones, then shared some of that old knowledge.

“Tell ’em again the position you played,” Clinton said.

“Well, I was a guard. I was a pulling guard,” Jones answered.

“And how much did you weigh?” Clinton asked.

“About 185 pounds,” Jones responded.

“And a couple of years before him we had a guard named Wayne Harris who weighed the same thing Jerry did, and he made first-team All-America,” Clinton said. “They were great guards, and it’s a different world now.”

When Jones said he would hate to be a pulling guard in today's NFL, with offensive linemen averaging more than 300 pounds, Clinton retorted, “Yeah, you’d be the late Jerry Jones.”

Clinton and Jones left the room, and the news conference continued for another 25 minutes without the omnipresent Cowboys owner. The stage belonged to executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones, coach Brian Schottenheimer and scouting director Will McClay.

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

The S&P 500 jumped 1% and t opped its prior all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 340 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite set its own record after jumping 1.6%.

GE Vernova flew 13.7% higher after the company, whose products help generate about a quarter of the world’s electricity, reported profit for the first three months of the year that blew past analysts’ expectations.

Like the broader stock market, GE Vernova is benefiting from the rise of artificial-intelligence technology, and its electrification business booked more equipment orders for data centers during the quarter, $2.4 billion, than it did during all of last year. The company also raised its forecasts for revenue and other financial measures over the full year.

The vast majority of companies in the S&P 500 have so far been delivering results for the start of 2026 that have topped analysts’ expectations, even with the war in Iran driving up oil prices and uncertainty for the global economy. Such strong performances have helped the S&P 500 power higher, and the index recorded its 13th gain in its last 16 days.

Boston Scientific rallied 9%, Boeing climbed 5.5%, and Philip Morris International rose 7% after all likewise delivered results for the latest quarter that were stronger than analysts expected.

Still, another rise in oil prices helped keep enthusiasm in check on Wall Street. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 3.5% to $101.91 on uncertainty about when the war with Iran could let up and allow petroleum to flow freely to customers from the Persian Gulf again.

The war has restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that oil tankers typically use to exit the Persian Gulf. Iran fired on three ships in the strait and seized two of them on Wednesday.

A day earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire but also said he was maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. The blockade keeps Iran from making money by selling its own crude oil.

The standoff over Iran’s closure of the strait and the U.S. blockade raised doubts about when or if talks would resume to end the crisis.

Brent crude has shot up from roughly $70 per barrel since before the war on worries about a long-term disruption to the flow of oil. But moves in both the oil and stock markets have become more modest in recent weeks, following vicious swings where Brent’s price briefly topped $119 and the S&P 500 dropped nearly 10% below its prior all-time high.

On the losing end of Wall Street Wednesday was Best Buy, which fell 4.6% after the electronics retailer announced the departure of CEO Corie Barry. She will be replaced by longtime insider Jason Bonfig, the company’s chief customer, product and fulfillment officer.

Stocks of cannabis companies rose amid reports that the Trump administration is preparing to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Trump signed an executive order in December meant to speed up the Drug Enforcement Administration’s process for reclassifying the drug, a move that would not make it legal for recreational use by adults nationwide, but could change how the drug is regulated and reduce a hefty tax burden on the cannabis industry.

Tilray Brands jumped 14.2%, and Canopy Growth soared 20.2%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 73.89 points to 7,137.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 340.65 to 49,490.03, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 397.60 to 24,657.57.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 1.2%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady despite the gain in oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.30%, where it was late Thursday.

A day before, it had climbed after Trump’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, said he never promised Trump he would cut interest rates even though Trump has been angrily calling for lower rates.

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

Downtown West Dearborn is an area police have identified as a hotspot for the problem.

“I hear it from my bed when I’m sleeping, or trying to sleep,” said Chris McCardell, a Dearborn resident.

Police Chief Issa Shahin says the department is deploying specially trained officers to monitor noise levels.

“What we’re really doing is being responsive to our community,” Shahin said.

Officers are using sound measurement devices to document violations on the spot.

“I’m holding a sound measurement device, so we have officers that are especially trained to keep the sound measurement readings,” Shahin said.

Drivers caught with illegal exhaust modifications could face fines starting between $100 and $200 — with penalties that increase for repeat offenders.

“It’s not your stock vehicle. We’re talking about those who have their exhaust modified, they’ve had their catalytic converters removed,” Shahin said.

The enforcement effort goes beyond noisy exhaust. Officers will also be watching for window tint violations, loud music and drivers who run red lights.

For residents like McCardell, the crackdown is long overdue.

“Oh, I’m 100 percent for it. Dearborn is a family-friendly neighborhood, and it needs to stay safe and family-friendly,” he said.

Police say the increased patrols are in addition to their regular daily patrol routes, and downtown West Dearborn is just one of several areas officers plan to monitor.

Now that it's been approved by voters, the new Virginia map will have to clear additional legal hurdles. On Wednesday, the state attorney general’s office said it would immediately appeal a ruling earlier in the day from a judge in rural southern Virginia who ordered that the results of Tuesday’s vote not be certified.

Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court will decide whether Democratic lawmakers violated procedural rules when they referred a constitutional amendment to the ballot authorizing the new U.S. House districts that could help Democrats win as many as four additional seats in the state. If so, that could invalidate the map voters narrowly approved Tuesday.

What happens next in Florida also will matter.

The state's Republican-controlled Legislature is to meet in a special session next week that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called in part to draw a new map to expand the party's congressional majority there. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to issue an opinion by the end of June in a Louisiana case that could overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and lead to redrawn political maps across the South, though almost all of those could not happen until 2028.

After voters passed the Virginia amendment, Democrats could tentatively claim that they netted 10 seats nationally from the mid-decade redistricting, compared with the nine that Republicans claim. Even if things swing again in the GOP's favor, the net result of Trump's campaign would be at best an incremental increase in the number of GOP-leaning House seats at a time when his approval rating is dropping and Republican anxiety over losing control of Congress in November is rising.

“We have successfully blunted Trump’s attempt to completely hijack the midterms," said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

Many Republicans agreed.

“The GOP will now lose net seats across the country. If you’re going to pick a fight, at least win it,” Ari Fleischer, who was a spokesman for President George W. Bush, posted on the social media site X after the Virginia vote. “All this was foreseeable and avoidable. We should not have started this fight.”

Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, argued that it is too soon to declare one party a victor.

“It's an ongoing process with many legal challenges pending, and it's far too early for sweeping statements on the final outcome,” he said.

Trump on Wednesday tried to undermine the Virginia result by leveling groundless accusations of fraud similar to ones he made after losing the 2020 presidential election. He called the Virginia vote “RIGGED” and “Crooked” in a post on his social media site and added, “Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of 'Justice.'”

Redistricting spread from Texas to other states

Redistricting is typically done every 10 years after each census, unless ordered by a court. But last summer, Trump pushed a redrawing in Texas, prodding the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to add up to five winnable House seats for his party. Trump then began pressuring other Republican-run states to follow. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have since created more GOP-leaning seats in addition to Texas.

Democrats began to fight back, even though they were more constrained because several Democratic-controlled states had maps drawn by independent commissions rather than lawmakers and governors.

To counter Texas, California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, pushed the Democratic-controlled Legislature to place a redistricting initiative on last fall's ballot. After voters overwhelmingly approved it, the measure will replace a commission-approved map with one that could gain Democrats five seats.

Democrats reclaimed the Legislature and governor's office in November in Virginia and swiftly moved to replicate California's move with an even more aggressive redistricting plan. It replaces a congressional map imposed by a court after the last census that had resulted in a 6-5 edge for Democrats with one that could allow Democrats to win as many as 10 seats.

“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” state Senate President L. Louise Lucas said at a news conference Wednesday.

Courts could still have a say on redistricting

In Washington, U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York warned Florida Republicans, who have been openly nervous about redrawing their district boundaries and potentially spreading their core voters too thin before an election that appears to be trending against them.

“Our message to Florida Republicans right now is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries said.

House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the super political action committee aligned with House Democrats, has spent nearly $60 million to push back against Republicans' redistricting efforts. Some $40 million of that was on the Virginia campaign.

Another obstacle in Florida is an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that was approved by state voters in 2010. It is likely that any new Florida map would trigger significant litigation, although six of the state Supreme Court's seven justices were appointed by Republicans.

Nicholas Stephanopolous, a Harvard law professor, said a challenge for DeSantis is that the Florida amendment forbids drawing lines for purely partisan purposes, so he has to find some other excuse for revising the map. “Even with that sort of acquiescent state supreme court, I don't think it's a done deal,” Stephanopolous said.

The Virginia move comes with its own legal issues. Republicans have challenged the process that Democrats used to place the measure on the ballot and the state Supreme Court opted to wait for the vote before even scheduling arguments in the case. It is unclear when a ruling could come.

Wednesday's ruling stopping certification came from a separate case that Republicans filed with the same lower court judge, whose initial ruling against the initiative was put on hold by the state supreme court.

“The ballot box was never the final word here,” Terry Kilgore, the Virginia House Republican leader, said in a statement after Tuesday's vote. “Serious legal questions remain about both the wording of this referendum and the process used to put it before voters.”

The biggest legal wild card is held by the U.S. Supreme Court. Its conservative majority could throw out a requirement under the Voting Rights Act that in areas with a large minority population, mapmakers draw districts that are more favorable to the election of minority candidates.

That provision has led to the creation of several majority-minority congressional seats, especially in the South. Without it, Republicans in conservative states could shrink the number of U.S. House seats winnable by Democrats even further.

But it's unlikely that any state other than Louisiana, which brought the lawsuit the high court will rule on, would be able to adjust its congressional lines in time for November even if the court eliminates that provision, known as Section Two. That's because the November election is already officially underway in most states and candidate filing deadlines — and, in some cases, primary elections — have already passed.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam in Washington contributed to this report.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad said Thursday that it earned $807 million, or $0.43 per share, as it continued to improve efficiency. That's up from $646 million, or $0.34 per share, a year ago.

CSX easily topped the expectations of the analysts surveyed by FactSet Research who predicted earnings per share of 39 cents.

The railroad said it cut expenses by 6% to $2.2 billion in the quarter as CEO Steve Angel, who took over last fall, continued to improve operations. At the same time, the railroad's revenue grew 2% to $3.48 billion.

“CSX performed well this quarter by providing reliable and efficient service to our customers through changing market conditions, while improving our expense profile,” Angel said.

The railroad’s executives said many of its efforts to cut costs across the board started to pay off even quicker than expected, and the bottom line was helped by a $44 million gain on real estate sales in the quarter.

The railroad, which is one of the nation's biggest, said it now expects revenue growth in the mid single digits this year. Previously, CSX predicted growth in the low single digits.

CSX will soon be able to haul metal shipping containers stacked two high across its network after completing a major tunnel renovation project in Baltimore. But it will take time for traffic to grow as the railroad signs up new customers once the line is fully open.

“Good Neighbors” will be published next year, W.W. Norton & Company told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“Last winter, Minnesotans from all walks of life showed up for one another with compassion, courage and resilience,” Walz, a Democrat, said in a statement.

“Here in Minnesota, it’s simple — we call it being a good neighbor. I’ve always been fascinated by the ways in which we keep community in America, and how we interweave our lives.”

Walz, 62, became a national figure in 2024 after Vice President Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate in what was eventually a losing effort against President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance. A Norton spokesperson declined to comment on whether Walz will write about the campaign, saying no additional information beyond the press release was currently available.

Walz was a prominent critic of ICE’s actions, including the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. The state of Minnesota is suing the federal government, alleging that ICE cost the local economy more than $600 million in damages.

As Michigan’s largest city -- and one that has repeatedly caught the attention of the nation at large -- there’s a lot of gossip and half-truths spoken about Detroit. From conspiracies about Jimmy Hoffa, to the Nain Rouge Demon of the Strait, to Belle Isle’s lady in white, the city has a lot of folklore.

One of the most common and repeated claims was that the Detroit River was once so polluted that it caught on fire. It’s so common that it even got mentioned in the 1994 film “The Crow.” But did that happen?

River fires: Not as rare as you might think

While it wasn’t common for rivers to become so polluted that they lit on fire, it’s still a thing that happened.

And you don’t need to travel too far from the Motor City to find one of the most notorious river fires. The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie outside Cleveland, Ohio, was so polluted that it famously caught fire more than a dozen times between 1868 and 1970.

The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie outside Cleveland, Ohio, was so polluted it famously caught fire more than a dozen times between 1868 and 1970.

As Cleveland grew into a large industrial and manufacturing city, the river became increasingly contaminated -- at one point considered the most polluted river in the United States. The roughly 25-mile stretch between Akron and Cleveland was incapable of sustaining any natural life.

Time magazine in 1969 described the Cuyahoga River as having “chocolate-brown” water that “oozes rather than flows.” It looked less like a waterway and more like something Augustus Gloop would fall into.

When the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, the outcry led to the creation of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. That river fire is also responsible for the urban legend that Lake Erie was so polluted that it caught fire.

Both the Buffalo River and the Chicago River have repeatedly caught fire. There is a long history of industrial pollution and indiscriminate dumping that has caused several rivers and waterways to catch fire, so it’s not impossible that the Detroit River wouldn’t also be on that list, right?

I mean, Zug Island’s actual history sounds like someone just made up a bunch of environmental and industrial tragedies and assigned them to a single place. We put an IndyCar/Formula 1 race track on Belle Isle in 1992 (!!!), well after we as a society were concerned about our environmental impact. If anything, it seems downright likely that the Detroit River has lit on fire.

But, did the Detroit River ever catch on fire?

In a word, no. In a much more meaningful and literal way, also no.

The Detroit River did not catch on fire. You could argue that we Michiganders respect our state’s most valuable resource and took care of our waterways to help keep our ecosystems healthy, and that our state didn’t need rules and regulations in place for us to sustain the largest fresh watershed on the planet.

The Detroit River did not catch on fire. We’re better than that, unlike Ohioans. It was the River Rouge that became so polluted that the river itself caught fire where it flows into the Detroit River. Completely different thing.

Why the River Rouge caught fire

Dr. John Hartig wrote in his 2010 book “Burning Rivers” that as cities grew in the first half of the 1900s, pollution was seen as a “sign of prosperity.” It wasn’t a nuisance; it was seen as a good thing. It was proof that the city was doing something, and anyone who pushed for less damaging manufacturing practices was quickly labeled as hating progress.

At Detroit’s peak in the 1940s, it’s estimated that industrial companies were dumping six million gallons of waste into the Detroit and Rouge rivers every year.

In October 1969, just a few months after that summer’s Cuyahoga River fire, the River Rouge caught fire after a worker dropped a torch into the river. The flames were reportedly 50 feet tall and visible from I-75.

Similar to a grease fire, fire crews couldn’t spray water on the fire to put it out. The Detroit Fire Department crews that reported to the scene could only extinguish fires outside of the blazing river, which they had to just let burn out.

The Rouge and Cuyahoga fires weren’t the only river fires that year. The Buffalo and Chicago rivers also caught fire in 1969.

Things are better now, right?

President Richard Nixon proposed a federal agency that would include pollution control and pesticide programs, and would consolidate other environmental responsibilities from other agencies. Within six months, the EPA was up and running.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act was signed into law by Nixon. It significantly limited how companies could dump industrial waste. To this day, it’s one of the most influential environmental laws ever established. It was expanded in 1977 and 1987.

In addition to federal protections, most states and municipalities have established their own regulatory bodies to help ensure water quality. Michigan created the Department of Environmental Quality in 1995 under then-Gov. John Engler. Each subsequent governor has made changes to the department, which eventually evolved into the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The Detroit, Cuyahoga, Rouge, Chicago and Buffalo rivers have all been revived over the years. They no longer resemble Yoo-Hoo and nature has since returned. Heck, the Detroit Riverfront is consistently listed as one of the best riverwalks in the country.

So yeah, things are better.

But for Wall Street, everything eventually comes back to a different, basic question: How much money are companies making? And at the moment, they're earning so much that investors are willing to pay higher prices than ever for a piece of ownership of U.S. companies.

It's been a jarring ride for investors, many of whom may have felt the urge to dump their stock investments last month when the S&P 500 fell nearly 10% below its prior record. But as it has every time so far in its history, the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts rewarded investors who remained patient by not only recovering all its losses but also forging to new heights. On Wednesday, the index closed at a record 7,137.90.

Here's a look at what's been behind the market's surprising strength:

What sets a stock's price

Stock prices flitter up and down every second for myriad reasons, many of which no one can explain. But at its heart, and over the long term, a stock's price depends on two things: how much money a company is making and how much an investor is willing to pay for each $1 of that.

More fear

The latter part of that formula tends to swing up and down with interest rates and how much greed investors are feeling versus fear.

When fear prevailed in the early days of the war, stock prices dove. The worry was that a long-term surge for oil prices because of the war could send a debilitating wave of inflation crashing into the global economy.

Interest rates also rose, further undercutting stock prices, as investors worried the threat of high inflation would prevent the Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide from cutting the short-term interest rates they control. While lower interest rates can give the economy a boost, they can also worsen inflation.

Less fear

Since late March, expectations have built that the United States and Iran will avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy. It would be in both countries' economic interests to do so, and for Iran's leadership, an end to the war would also likely mean survival.

The ceasefire that the two sides agreed to earlier this month is still holding, though it's tenuous.

The market's shift away from abject fear has also shown itself in oil prices. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, went from roughly $70 before the war to $119 when worries reached their heights. It has since pulled back and was bouncing around $100 on Wednesday.

Much of the focus has been on the Strait of Hormuz, which oil tankers use to exit the Persian Gulf. If Iran keeps the strait closed, and if the U.S. Navy continues to blockade Iranian ships, everyone will get hurt. Customers worldwide will not get oil, and Iran will not get revenue from selling its own crude.

“By denying Iran its oil-related revenue, traders may be thinking that the economic war may be more effective in getting concessions from Iran’s regime than was the kinetic war only, and that this will end the war sooner, rather than later,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Group.

Traders on Wall Street are also betting again on a chance that the Fed could resume its cuts to interest rates later this year. They see a much lower probability than they did before the war, according to data from CME Group. But they're no longer worried about the possibility of hikes to rates.

Profit strength

As fear has eased, investors have been able to turn their focus more to the first part of the equation making up stock prices: profits. And those have been coming in strong.

A little more than 15% of S&P 500 companies have already reported how much profit they made during the first three months of 2026, and the vast majority have topped analysts' expectations. That includes everyone from Citigroup to J.B. Hunt Transport Services to UnitedHealth Group.

If the rest of the companies in the index just match analysts' estimates, earnings for S&P 500 companies will end up being roughly 14% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.

Those results include a month of wartime, and while companies say they're still wary about potential risks because of the fighting, they're not showing many signs of it hurting their earnings.

Bank of America's chief executive officer, Brian Moynihan, said last week that “we saw healthy client activity, including solid consumer spending and stable asset quality, indicating a resilient American economy.”

That's even though many U.S. households are feeling nervous about more expensive gasoline and higher prices broadly due to tariffs, as shown in recent surveys.

Expectations for more

Analysts have actually raised their expectations for upcoming profits for S&P 500 companies since the war began. They're forecasting growth for S&P 500 profits to accelerate to 20% in the second quarter, and companies aren't giving them many reasons to reconsider.

Delta Air Lines said earlier this month that it's seeing strong demand from people flying both for business and for vacations. PepsiCo last week stuck by its forecast for profit over 2026, which it initially gave before the Iran war began, and CEO Ramon Laguarta said he's encouraged by how resilient its international business has been. GE Vernova on Wednesday said demand is soaring for power from AI data centers, and it raised its revenue forecast for the year.

All is still not clear

Of course, the U.S. stock market can easily return to falling. Wall Street's mood could swing quickly back to fear if U.S.-Iran talks break down and the oil market looks to be facing shortages.

And if oil prices stay high for long enough, it would erode some of those profits for companies. Not only would it raise costs for businesses, it would also weaken the spending power for U.S. households and other customers.

What's worse, Buffalo hasn't been able to take advantage of their power plays when Boston pushes back.

The Sabres are 0-for-9 with a man advantage in the first two games of the playoff series against the Bruins, which is tied 1-1 as it shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Thursday night. That's after finishing the season without scoring on their last 22 power plays over the final seven games.

“It’s always a concern, for sure,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who last celebrated a power-play goal in March. “I think we’ll have to tweak some things."

The Sabres came into the series offended by a comment that Bruins coach Marco Sturm made about being the bigger and stronger team. Neither team backed down on Tuesday night, when they had several fights and a combined 94 penalty minutes.

"It’s a seven-game series so you see those guys all the time and there’s game inside the game, obviously,” Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “Emotions are really high, everybody wants to win, everybody is competitive on the ice, so sometimes you just ended up in the scrums and the fights like that.”

Buffalo Sabres at Boston Bruins

When/Where to Watch: Game 3, Thursday, 7 p.m. ET (TNT)

Series: Tied 1-1.

Ruff wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a goalie change after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled 16 seconds into the third period in Game 2 after his fourth goal of the game — one of them on a lofted dump-in from center ice. Alex Lyon stopped all seven shots he faced the rest of the way.

The two goalies shared the starting role this season, but Luukkonen won the No. 1 job by closing the season 12-2-1; Lyon was out the final week with an unspecified lower-body injury. Lyon went 20-10-4 for the season.

Ruff refused to blame Luukkonen’s spotty play for the Game 2 loss by saying “we win together, we lose together.”

But he also said: ”(Lyon) may play next game.”

Slow starts have also been an issue. The Sabres have fallen behind in both games — 2-0 in the first one, and 4-0 in the second, failing to score in each until the final eight minutes of the third period. They came back to win 4-3 in Game 1 but rallied too late while losing 4-2 in Game 2.

“It’s been two games. It’s nothing to freak out about, and we know that,” Sabres forward Zach Benson said. “And we know we've got to be better, and we will be.”

Carolina Hurricanes at Ottawa Senators

When/Where to Watch: Game 3, Thursday, 7:30 p.m. ET (TBS)

Series: Hurricanes lead 2-0.

The Hurricanes have pushed through two tough home wins as the Eastern Conference’s top seed, the second being a double-overtime win that saw Carolina have an apparent winning score waved off in the first overtime because of an offsides review.

But two areas stood out for the Senators: the goaltending by Linus Ullmark, and their clear advantage in faceoffs.

Ottawa was No. 2 in the regular season in faceoff percentage (54.5%) while Carolina was 16th (50.1%). But the Senators have won 60.7% of faceoffs (82 of 135) through two games, including 9 of 14 in Game 1 when on the penalty kill -- a hit for a Hurricanes team that likes to get possession, maintain the puck in the offensive zone and pressure opponents.

“Obviously our percentage isn’t great,” said Carolina’s Logan Stankoven, who has scored in each game so far but went just 6 of 17 on faceoffs in Game 2. “I’ve got to try and keep winning as many draws and stay in the battle as much as possible. They have a lot of different guys that can take faceoffs ... righty, lefty, so they usually try and put out guys that can win it on their strong side.”

The Senators appear close to getting back defenseman Tyler Kleven, who hasn’t played since taking a puck to the face against Buffalo in early April. He’s been skating and coach Travis Green didn’t rule out the possibility he might play Thursday.

That would be a boost for the Senators, who saw top-pairing defenseman Artem Zub leave Game 1 with an unspecified injury and miss Game 2. Green told reporters Wednesday that Zub still has yet to skate since the injury to leave the Senators thinner on the blue line, which led to big ice-time totals for Jake Sanderson (43:06) and Thomas Chabot (40:50) in Game 2.

“I feel like our group, we were a bounce away from it being tied coming back here,” forward Drake Batherson said.

Colorado Avalanche at Los Angeles Kings

When/Where to Watch: Game 3, Thursday, 10 p.m. ET (TNT)

Series: Avalanche lead 2-0.

The Los Angeles Kings wouldn’t change much about the way they’re playing against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche.

Except, of course, a few more goals.

Sure, they’re down 2-0 in the series, but their physical, clog-up-the-neutral-zone style has slowed down the highest scoring team in the league. Colorado won both games 2-1, including Game 2 in overtime on Tuesday.

“Play the same way we’re playing, just a little harder,” Kings forward Trevor Moore said. “Just try to take the positives and get to LA and play a good game.”

Los Angeles went 5-1-1 at home down the stretch of the regular season.

“We’re right there playing well, fighting, fighting hard,” goaltender Anton Forsberg said. “Just (have) to stick with it and turn this around.”

Colorado was a league-best 29-7-5 on the road in the regular season.

“I feel like we’re doing a lot of good things,” Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. “Everyone’s been really good so far.”

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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow and AP Sports Writers Pat Graham and Aaron Beard contributed to this report.

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

Last week, interim President José María Balcázar said he lacks the legitimacy as a temporary leader to make the commitment to buy 24 fighter jets manufactured by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin and that his successor should make the decision.

“For us to commit such a large sum of money to the incoming government would be a poor practice for a transitional government,” Balcázar said at the time.

U.S. Ambassador Bernie Navarro reacted to the announcement, saying on X that if Peru “negotiates in bad faith” or undermines U.S. interests, he would take measures at his disposal. He did not elaborate.

On Wednesday, both Defense Minister Carlos Díaz and Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela stepped down.

Díaz's resignation letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said that postponing the purchase “could compromise" Peru's interests. Both ministers said at a news conference that they had unsuccessfully tried to persuade Balcázar to follow through on the deal.

Díaz said that even without Balcázar's approval, officials from the Ministry of Defense signed the contract on Monday for the purchase of the aircraft, as stipulated under the deal.

Speaking to a local radio station, de Zela accused Balcázar of misleading the public about the contract. Díaz noted that specific details of the deal remain undisclosed because of their classified nature.

In 2024, the government of then-President Dina Boluarte announced that Peru would allocate $3.5 billion to the purchase of 24 fighter jets through domestic borrowing of $2 billion in 2025 and $1.5 billion in 2026. Among the companies that submitted bids were, in addition to Lockheed Martin, the Swedish Saab and the French Dassault Aviation.

Peru’s Congress in February elected Balcázar as the country’s eighth president in a decade, replacing another interim leader who was ousted the previous day over corruption allegations just four months into his term.

Peru is holding a presidential runoff on June 7 even as votes are still being counted and officials are sifting through tally sheets arriving from remote areas and Peruvian consulates abroad following the first round on April 12.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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The Buenos Aires Sports Security Committee issued a “preventive” ban on the use of confetti in stadiums in the district on Wednesday, following the fire that broke out during last Sunday's match between River Plate and Boca Juniors at the Monumental Stadium.

Firefighters had to intervene to extinguish the flames that damaged several stadium seats and caused spectators to flee.

City authorities said that “even though the home club had previously approved contingency protocols and the necessary resources for their implementation, an incident occurred that clearly demonstrates the potential ignition risk that these materials pose in contexts with high concentrations of people.”

The day before the game, River Plate’s supporters’ subcommittee called on the fans to cut thousands of confetti pieces to give the “Millionaires” a colorful welcome. Boca won 1-0 with a penalty by Leandro Paredes.

The tradition of throwing confetti from the stands became popular during the 1978 World Cup hosted by Argentina and was later imitated by fans around the globe.

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

Scott, who was seeking his 13th term in Congress despite challenges from within his party, was once a leading voice for Democrats on issues related to farm aid policy and food aid for consumers and a prominent Black member of the party’s moderate Blue Dog caucus. But he faced criticism and concerns in recent years because of declining health, enduring a primary challenge in 2024 and facing another one at the time of his death.

Democrats on Capitol Hill praised the longtime lawmaker.

“The news of Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday.

“David Scott was a trailblazer who served the district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House Ag Committee,” Jeffries said. “He cared about the people that he represented. He was fiercely committed to getting things done for the people of the great state of Georgia, and he’ll be deeply missed.”

News of Scott’s death came during the Congressional Black Caucus’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill. The Black Caucus’ chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, told lawmakers at the outset of the meeting.

The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Scott’s death.

Death creates another vacancy

Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year The GOP began the current Congress with a 220-215 advantage, but the margin has fluctuated. Scott is the fourth House Democrat to die in office during this Congress.

Scott had been mostly absent from the campaign trail in 2024 and 2026 and had become a noted example of Democrats' aging leadership targeted by younger generations of the left. He dodged questions from reporters when he qualified for another term in March, but he earlier dismissed pressure to retire.

“Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” the congressman said in 2024.

His wife and campaign adviser Alfredia Scott was even more direct. “When the congressman decides to leave, he won’t be pushed out,” she said in 2024. “He will bow out.”

State officials will have to schedule a special election to fill out the rest of Scott’s term, which could overlap with elections to choose a representative for the next two-year term. Early in-person voting starts Monday for May 19 party primaries for the next full term.

Scott was a pioneering Black lawmaker

David Albert Scott was born in rural Aynor, South Carolina, on June 27, 1945, in the era of Jim Crow segregation. He spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, along with stints New York and Florida. Scott graduated from Florida A&M University, one of the nation's largest historically Black college campuses — and in office he was an outspoken advocate for federal support of HBCUs. Scott also earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1969.

He settled in Atlanta, opened his own advertising business and got his start in politics as a staffer on Andrew Young's 1972 congressional campaign. Young would go on to be Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador under President Jimmy Carter, another Georgian.

The support of Young and baseball legend Henry “Hank” Aaron, who was the older brother of Scott's wife, helped launch Scott into Congress in 2002, said Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones. He was opposing Scott in the May 19 primary, although he called Scott "a good friend."

Scott was one of a pioneering generation of Black state lawmakers in Georgia, winning election to the state House in 1974 and the state Senate in 1982 before being elected to Congress. Once identifying as a moderate "Blue Dog" — Scott had sponsored a law mandating a moment of silent school prayer in the state Senate — he evolved into a more mainstream liberal.

An advocate for historically Black schools

Scott served decades in Congress while living outside his district after maps were redrawn. He maintained support, focusing intently on constituent service including hosting job and health fairs.

Among his notable achievements on Capitol Hill, Scott secured $80 million for historically Black land-grant schools as part of the 2018 Farm Bill. The money was steered to agriculture-related scholarships at 19 campuses. He helped author various housing and mortgage aid measures, and he pushed for better health care and other benefits for veterans and their families. On foreign policy, Scott was an outspoken advocate for NATO and post-World War II American alliances.

Scott's fellow Democrats ousted him from his post as ranking minority member on the Agriculture Committee in 2024 amid concerns about his age and health.

Scott is survived by Alfredia Scott, the couple's two adult daughters and grandchildren.

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Brown reported from Washington.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous court that the Enbridge energy company waited too long to try to move the case to federal court.

The case is part of a messy legal dispute about a pipeline that has moved crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued in state court in June 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Enbridge to operate a 4.5-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel, a Democrat, won a restraining order shutting down the pipeline from Ingham County Judge James Jamo in June 2020, although Enbridge was allowed to continue operations after meeting safety requirements.

Enbridge moved the lawsuit into federal court in 2021, arguing it affects U.S. and Canadian trade. But a three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Jamo in June 2024, finding that the company missed a 30-day deadline to change jurisdictions.

The pipeline at issue is called Line 5. Concerns over the section beneath the straits rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge engineers revealed they had known about gaps in the section’s protective coating since 2014. A boat anchor damaged the section in 2018, intensifying fears of a spill.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked the straits easement for Line 5 in 2020. Enbridge filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging the revocation.

Enbridge won a ruling from a federal judge blocking the move, but Whitmer, a Democrat, has appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In March, the Supreme Court rejected Whitmer’s appeal claiming that she couldn't be sued in federal court.

It was unclear how the federal ruling blocking Whitmer’s revocation attempt would affect Nessel’s case in state court. The company said in a statement that the judge in the Whitmer case has already decided federal regulators, not the state, are responsible for Line 5 safety and they have found no issues that would warrant shutting it down.

But Nessel said the case is far from over. “This unanimous ruling from the United States Supreme Court makes emphatically clear that our lawsuit against Enbridge belongs before the state court, where we’ve argued since 2019 that Line 5 does not have a legal right to the Straits bottomlands,” she said in a statement.

Enbridge also is seeking permits to encase the section of pipeline beneath the straits in a protective tunnel. The Michigan Public Service Commission granted the relevant permits in 2023, but a coalition of environmental groups and Michigan tribes has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state permits for the tunnel. The state Supreme Court is weighing that case.

Enbridge also needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

The pipeline is at the center of a separate legal dispute in Wisconsin as well. A federal judge in Madison last summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation. The company has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it started work in February to reroute the line around the reservation.

The Bad River and environmental groups have filed a state lawsuit seeking to halt the work, arguing regulators have underestimated the damage the reroute construction will cause. That case also is pending.

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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report from Madison, Wisconsin.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The pups are currently being monitored behind the scenes with their mother, where animal care staff closely monitor their development. Officials say the pups are already hitting key milestones and even doubled their weight within their first week.

For now, the father Gus is being housed at the front of the zoo at the Edward Mardigian Sr. River Otter Habitat.

The pups will make their first public appearance this summer, but in the meantime, the zoo plans to share updates online as the pups continue to grow.

Royals owner John Sherman was joined by Hallmark chairman Don Hall Jr., Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, along with other local and state dignitaries, in making the announcement Wednesday near Hallmark headquarters.

While the finalized master plan has yet to be complete, Sherman said the $1.9 billion stadium would break ground next year in the middle of Crown Center as part of the first phase of an 85-acre project. Two-thirds of the funding will come from private sources and the remaining one-third from public partners, including money earmarked by the state for stadium projects.

“This is a partnership between two treasured Kansas City institutions,” Sherman said. “We are committed to creating a vision which honors our history, the rich past of both organizations, while reinvigorating and reimagining what our future can be together.”

The announcement came about a week after Kansas City officials passed an ordinance authorizing City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a $600 million deal to help the Royals move downtown. Most believed the stadium would sit on Washington Square Park, which is next to Union Station, but it will instead be located just south of it, with the park featured in the development.

Hallmark intends to build a new headquarters in the area, which is connected by a streetcar to the Power & Light District, where the T-Mobile Center serves as its anchor. That part of downtown Kansas City will provide the backdrop beyond the outfield fence.

Officials touted the availability of public parking already in the area and convenient traffic flow from nearby highways.

Missouri's contribution comes from a law enacted last year that authorized bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums in the state, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments.

“We think it's a great investment for our Missouri taxpayers, because this does not affect existing programs,” Kehoe said. “The ripple effect from this facility will truly be far-reaching into rural Missouri and other parts of the state.”

The Royals have insisted they would leave Kauffman Stadium when their lease expires at the Truman Sports Complex in 2031, and the intention of Sherman ever since purchasing the club in 2019 was to build a downtown ballpark as its replacement.

Yet reaching Wednesday's announcement did not come without plenty of pitfalls.

The biggest stumbling block came in April 2024, when the Chiefs joined the Royals in a plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and replace Kauffman Stadium. The plan hinged on the extension of a sales tax that had been paying for stadium upkeep, and voters in Jackson County, Missouri, overwhelmingly rejected the proposal, forcing the franchises to go their own way.

The legislature in neighboring Kansas aggressively pursued the Chiefs, committing last December to issuing $2.4 billion in bonds to cover 60% of the cost of a new $3 billion domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. The NFL franchise ultimately decided to move across the state line, where it also will build a new training facility in the nearby suburb of Olathe, Kansas.

Officials in Kansas briefly pursued the Royals, too, but their interest in the MLB franchise had always been lukewarm.

The Royals had been weighing several options in recent months. But they ultimately rejected an option in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and allowed a deadline to pass for a site north of downtown and across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri.

Economists have long concluded that subsidizing stadiums isn’t worth the cost for communities because the venues pull economic activity away from other parts of the area, rather than expanding the overall economy. Yet states and cities continually provide money to renovate stadiums or build new ones — 49 of the 60 used by MLB or NFL teams are publicly owned or sit on public land.

One of the stadiums that Sherman has cited as an example of what's possible in Kansas City is Truist Park in Atlanta.

The stadium was a public-private partnership in which the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority issued up to $397 million in bonds, the county raised millions more from transportation taxes and businesses added millions in cash. The Braves contributed the remaining money for the park and The Battery, a mixed-used development, with a total cost of more than $1.1 billion.

“There are many great ballpark neighborhoods in Major League Baseball,” Sherman said, “but this is a bigger project with more land in downtown and in the heart of the city. We are bringing a modern, state-of-the-art ballpark experience to our fans, closer to our public transportation and where more people work and live.”

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

Robinson, whose birthday is on Wednesday (April 22), said the Pistons are not shifting their mindset into a “hunter” role despite dropping the opener, emphasizing consistency in their approach.

“No, not necessarily,” Robinson said. “It’s nothing new to us and what we’ve been doing all season. We’re in a good spot right now. We’ve got a great opportunity to win one here at home and just take one game at a time.”

Wishing Duncan a happy birthday!#DetroitBasketball birthday shoutouts presented by @Cheurlin1788 pic.twitter.com/hqulVloITl

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 22, 2026

The Pistons struggled early in Game 1 and never fully recovered, but Robinson pushed back on the idea that a lack of urgency after time off was an excuse.

“I wouldn’t say that that’s an excuse for us,” Robinson said. “We didn’t come out the way we wanted to. At this point, there’s no sense in getting caught up in the reasoning as to why. We’re not interested in making excuses, but instead just making adjustments.”

The former Michigan Wolverines star said the focus in practice has been a mix of tactical corrections and reinforcing the team’s identity.

“It’s a combination of both,” Robinson said. “We’re going to make adjustments, but we’re also going to focus on doing what we do better.”

Orlando’s physical defense and interior pressure limited Detroit’s rhythm in Game 1, something Robinson said must be addressed through better spacing and execution.

“You’ve got to be aware of spacing and positioning on the court,” Robinson said. “They’re a physical team. We’ve got to be detailed as to where we are on the floor and how we can help each other.”

Robinson also pointed to the importance of transition opportunities and defensive disruption, noting that the Pistons are at their best when they force turnovers and push the pace.

“That’s when we’re at our best,” Robinson said. “Just being disruptive, getting into passing lanes, and getting out in transition.”

Despite the loss, Robinson said Detroit has repeatedly shown the ability to respond to adversity throughout the season.

“We’ve had stretches where we haven’t looked like ourselves,” Robinson said. “The most important thing is finding a way to come together and bounce back. We’ve got a lot of reps doing that.”

Robinson added that Game 2 will come down to effort and execution rather than emotional response.

“Just come out with a disposition that we know we’re capable of,” Robinson said. “It’s going to be difficult to guard us on one side and score on us on the other if we do that.”

The Pistons will host the Magic in Game 2 on Wednesday night inside Little Caesars Arena, aiming to even the series.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

The court ruled 6-3 in favor of former Army Spc. Winston Hencely, who was wounded when he stopped a man on his way to detonate an explosive vest at a Veterans Day weekend 5K race at Bagram Airfield in 2016.

Ahmad Nayeb instead blew himself up when he was confronted, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, according to court documents.

The projectiles fractured Hencely's skull and tore through his brain, leaving him without the full use of much of the left side of his body. He also has abnormal brainwaves, seizures and traumatic brain injury, his lawyers wrote.

An Army investigation faulted the company’s failure to supervise Nayeb, an Afghan employee who built the vest on the job site inside the base, court documents say.

Hencely sued Fluor Corporation in South Carolina, where two of its subsidiaries are based, and made claims under the state's law for negligent supervision, negligent entrustment of tools and negligent retention of an employee.

The Irving, Texas-based engineering construction company argued that it could not be sued because it was working during wartime for the federal government, which is generally immune to lawsuits.

The high court disagreed. The majority said companies are protected when they are fulfilling government contracts, but that Fluor allegedly failed to carry out its duties in supervising Nayeb.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Alito wrote that Hencely's lawsuit may intrude on the government's wartime powers and decisions, including a policy requiring contractors to maximize employment of Afghans.

You can explore Maggy’s Hammock Park in Port Salerno, which is home to beautiful hardwood hammock trees.

“This park is also really unique because it transforms into the scrub habitat a little bit further down the trail, which is one of the most endangered habitats in Florida,” explained environmental resource and ecotourism manager Anna-Grace Agnini.

The hidden gem offers a paved path that goes by a playground or a one-mile unpaved loop, with both options letting visitors take in nature’s beauty.

The 22-acre conservation area is just part of the more than 115,000 acres of parks and conservation land, in Martin County, that also houses five state parks, a federally designated wild and scenic river, four aquatic preserves, and the Indian River Lagoon.

When you’re done with your adventure, it’s time for some relaxation. A perfect way to reset after a day of taking in the natural beauty of Martin County is with sound vibrational healing.

Certified sound practitioner Deena Rahill performs this ancient healing practice inside a cozy room, located inside the Elliott Museum in the city of Stuart.

“It’s like a body massage that travels through you and through you, so instead of hands it’s the vibration, and sounds will vibrate and osculate with every cell of your body,” Rahill explained.

Watch the video above to learn more about all that Martin County has to offer.

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On April 16, around 7 p.m., police were dispatched to Charlie’s Restaurant on N. Campbell Road after an employee called 911 to report a customer choking and turning purple.

When officers arrived, they found the woman unconscious and no longer breathing effectively. Police lifted the woman into a seated position and began performing the Heimlich maneuver.

Officer Teal and Officer Rivera took turns administering abdominal thrusts, while Officer Al-Hilfi and Officer Berlucchi helped keep the woman upright and stable.

Officers were able to dislodge the obstruction, and the woman began breathing again.

The Madison Heights Fire Department arrived at the restaurant shortly after and continued medical treatment. The woman was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, where she made a full recovery and was discharged that evening.

The woman asked to remain anonymous but expressed appreciation to first responders, crediting them with saving her life.

Suicide deaths among 15- to 23-year-olds were 11% lower than what researchers expected between July 2022 — when the lifeline launched — and December 2024, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday in JAMA.

“The 988 program is one of the largest federal investments in suicide prevention in U.S. history — roughly $1.5 billion cumulative — and our findings suggest that investment has translated into measurable reductions in young adult suicide deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School and the paper's lead author.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The researchers used nationwide death certificate records from 1999 to 2022 to model what the suicide mortality would have been had the 988 line not launched. They then compared the estimates to the actual number of deaths.

The researchers can't say for certain that 988 was the sole cause of the decline, and the U.S. suicide rate is down overall. But they ran several other comparisons to “gut check” their overall findings, Patel said.

They found the 10 states that had the largest increases in call volumes following the launch of 988 also saw significantly larger gaps in expected vs. actual suicide deaths. The reductions were also greater in younger people than people older than 65, who are less likely to use the lifeline. And they saw no similar changes when looking at suicide deaths in England, where no comparable lifeline existed during the study period.

The results are in line with previous research.

“Studies show that after speaking with a trained crisis counselor, most people who contact the 988 Lifeline are significantly more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed and more hopeful,” a spokesperson for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which funds the hotline, said in response to the study.

Research results 'very heartening,' expert says

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, who leads the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's research program and was not involved in the study, said the results were “very heartening and very positive." She wants to see more research replicating the results, but she said the authors did a “great deal of work” to weed out other possible factors for the decline.

The entire mental health system is key to lowering suicide rates, Harkavy-Friedman said. 988's power to navigate that system, helping callers make safety plans, connecting them to local crisis intervention teams and referring people to longer-term care, has led to “extraordinary” impact, she said. And simply having someone to call in a moment of crisis can also be lifesaving.

“That is the strength of the crisis line," Harkavy-Friedman said. "When you call, it de-escalates the crisis so the person has greater capacity to address whatever it is that's driving their emotions at the moment."

Experts say the overall patchwork of federal and state funding for call centers remains insufficient to meet the true level of need.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s federal budget request maintains stable 988 funding at $534.6 million for fiscal year 2027, in anticipation of 11 million contacts next year.

The hotline “is not a panacea for preventing suicide death,” but the number of lives it has saved "is a really big deal and underscores the need for sustained investment in 988 from federal, and especially state, lawmakers,” said Jonathan Purtle, a New York University mental health policy researcher.

Specialized line for LGBTQ+ youth

In a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed Kennedy to follow through on a “legal requirement” to restore 988's specialized line for LGBTQ+ youth. The administration abruptly cut the program last summer, despite evidence that the population faces disproportionately high suicide rates.

“Yes, we are working on getting it up now,” Kennedy told the Wisconsin Democrat. Spokespeople for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately provide The Associated Press with any timeline or details of that restoration.

Patel said the specialized services for high-risk groups — including the LGBTQ+ line — are part of what makes the program work.

“Our findings should be read as evidence that this is a program worth preserving and expanding, not one to scale back,” he said.

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

The attacks unfolded just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran. The Islamic Republic said it fired on three outbound ships and seized two, calling it retaliation for the American naval blockade of Iranian ports and for the U.S. firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that did not stop when hailed by a vessel enforcing the blockade.

Attacks on shipping dwindled starting in mid-March as Iran imposed effective control over the strait. The mere risk of attack was enough to deter ships from trying to get through, while a few ships used an Iranian-approved lane near the coast. Iran demanded details on cargo, ownership and crew and, on at least some occasions, imposed a $1 per barrel tax on oil and oil products — or $2 million for a large tanker.

Here is a look at what’s known, and not known, about the situation in the strait:

After a pause, attacks on shipping have resumed

Iran’s semiofficial news agencies reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard attacked a third ship Wednesday in the strait. Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating. The Guard seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.

That incident followed two ship attacks on Saturday that ended a lull that began in mid-March.

The seized ships were the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, both container ships. It was not clear under what terms the ships were trying to pass the strait. The MSC shipping company did not answer an email asking about the vessel.

The attacks follow a sudden reversal in the Iranian stance over the weekend, as the Iranian foreign minister announced Friday that the strait was open, only to be contradicted the next day by the Revolutionary Guard. Six cruise ships stuck in the Persian Gulf since late February took advantage of the narrow window and slipped through the strait. But since then, traffic has dried up.

The resumption of attacks reflects in part “genuine confusion ... about when passage is permitted," said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Conflicting statements emerged from Trump about a full reopening and from the Iranian foreign minister about a limited reopening. Then things “shifted very quickly” Saturday when the Guard said the strait was closed.

Additionally, Soltvedt said, it's in Iran's interest to keep insurance premiums high with sporadic attacks. “Their main leverage in negotiations with the U.S. is being able to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and insurance is a big part of that.”

Some vessels have passed the Iranian vetting system, and some have relied on diplomatic requests from home governments. But hundreds of ships and thousands of crew members are still stuck.

The US is enforcing a blockade, but some Iranian oil gets through

The U.S. Navy boarded and seized a large tanker carrying Iranian oil south of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean, some 2,000 miles from the strait. That underlined the U.S. power to seize vessels that violate the blockade well after they have left the vicinity of the strait.

The U.S. military, which is enforcing the blockade in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, well way from Iranian drones and speedboats, says it has turned around 20 Iran-linked vessels.

However, shipping intelligence companies say that a number of ships carrying Iranian oil have passed the blockade. Lloyd’s List Intelligence says “a steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has passed in and out of the gulf, including 11 tankers with Iranian cargo that have left the gulf outside the strait since April 13.

“The dilemma for the U.S. is: The tighter the blockade, the greater the pain is in the global oil market, so there are conflicting priorities there, and it seems there is a policy of not intercepting every single shipment of Iranian oil,” Soltvedt said.

Additionally, almost all that oil is going to China, and the U.S. has to manage that relationship as well, with Trump planning to visit from May 14 to 15.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed Wednesday that the military blockade is against all Iranian ships entering or leaving Iranian ports. However, he said humanitarian shipments, including food, medical supplies and other goods essential for civilians, are being permitted subject to inspection.

Hawkins pushed back on outside reports of ships getting past the U.S. dragnet and pointed to remarks by the head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, who claimed Friday that “no ship has evaded U.S. forces.”

Reopening the strait will take time

Ship owners and insurers will need more than a simple announcement of a peace deal to venture through the strait as they did before the war.

Even when the war ends, analytical and data firm Rystad Energy says, it will take six to eight weeks just to reposition the world’s tanker network. Ship owners and insurer would need two to five weeks to get comfortable with a new operating environment and to resume normal activity.

Ship owners will want “something that's a bit more concrete than what we have now,” Soltvedt said. “What is needed is something more comprehensive” than an informal truce with the two sides far apart on key issues such as Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Even then, shipping companies will have the long-term threat hanging over them" given Iran's missile and drone capabilities, he said. “They can play this card again in the future."

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Associated Press Writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

“Are you 21 yet?” George turned and asked Edgecombe on the dais during their postgame news conference.

“No, 20,” Edgecombe responded with a smirk.

Nobody’s laughing about the elite company that the 76ers’ third overall pick in last June’s draft put himself into during just his second career playoff game.

“I just try not to overthink it,” Edgecombe said. “I try not to put pressure on myself. Everybody’s already putting pressure on us to perform. ... Plus, I’m around a great group of guys. That also helps me. Just keep instilling confidence in me. Just to keep going, keep going. Regardless of who’s on the floor, who’s not on the floor.”

Edgecombe finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds to become the first rookie to record at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in a playoff game since Tim Duncan on May 5, 1998.

He also became the first rookie in NBA history to post five 3-pointers and 10 rebounds in a playoff game. It was a bounce-back performance after a Game 1 in which he finished with just 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

George said it’s the culmination of something they first saw glimpses of in the Bahamas native when Edgecombe scored 34 points in his first pro game in Philadelphia’s one-point opening night win in Boston.

“When you think about it how he started his first NBA game in this building, I’m sure he was in a small percentage or small group of players that what he did on that opening night,” George said.

Edgecombe’s opening-night performance was the third-most points for an NBA player in his first game. Wilt Chamberlain scored 43 points in his debut in 1959 for the Philadelphia Warriors and also had 28 rebounds that night against New York. Frank Selvy scored 35 points for the Milwaukee Hawks against Boston in 1954.

Allen Iverson held the Sixers’ record with 30 points in his debut in 1996.

Edgecombe’s 14 first-quarter points on opening night were also the most ever for a player’s first NBA quarter. That record had been set by LeBron James in 2003.

Edgecombe finished the regular season averaging 16.0 points in 75 games.

And he’s done it with a flair that is in some ways reminiscent of the fun-loving style that Iverson exuded during his 76ers’ tenure.

In Tuesday’s win, after knocking down his final basket of the night — a deep 3-pointer over Payton Pritchard to put Philadelphia in front 105-92 after Boston had gotten within 91-89 — Edgecombe winked at the camera as he jogged back down the court.

George said it’s just a taste of what's to come from Edgecombe.

“To put a whole season together and get to a point where he’s showcasing who he is and his abilities. I’ve been saying all year long he’s far past a rookie,” George said. “It’s just impressive, man. (Edgecombe had) 30 and 10, but it’s just what we needed in the moments throughout the game when he took over, and kind of just put us at ease.”

Tuesday wasn’t all fun for Edgecombe, though. He did take a hard fall on his back early in the game that resulted in him limping to the locker room in both the first and third quarters.

But Edgecombe shrugged off any notion that his fall will hinder him going forward in this series.

“I just landed on my back, but I’m good. I was able to finish the game so I’m good,” he said. “That’s all I’ve got for you. I’m good, ain’t nothing wrong with me. I’m good.”

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

Researchers at the University of Alabama used 16 different factors including the geographic hazards, the population and infrastructure exposed and the vulnerability of people living there. They then brought in past damages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's database and applied three different artificial intelligence tools to figure out flood risks from Texas to Maine, calculating that 17.5 million people were at “very high” risk and an additional 17 million were at “high" risk, the next level.

The authors looked at all sizes of flooding and examined separately what FEMA considers the most extreme, which are the top 1% of events. The study found 4.3 million people along the coasts to be at the highest level of risk of extreme flooding, but 20.5 million to be at high risk, the second highest level.

They found a lot of vulnerability, highlighting eight different cities from Houston, which flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, to New York, which was inundated in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.

Wednesday's study in the journal Science Advances found that New York City has 4.75 million people at the two highest risk levels for all flooding, with more than 200,000 buildings likely to be damaged.

And while the number of people at risk in New Orleans is far lower, about 380,000, it involves 99% of the city's population. That doesn't mean 99% of the people will be affected in the next hurricane or nontropical flood, but that they might be depending on the storm's individual path and rain pattern, said study co-author Wanyun Shao, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama.

“Just look at the magnitude,” Shao said. “Those numbers are shocking, are alarming.”

The elderly and poor are most at risk

“When the next big storm hits New York City, when the next Hurricane Katrina -like hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, people will get hurt, especially those socially vulnerable populations,” Shao said referring to the poor, the elderly, children and the uneducated.

Shao and outside experts said the numbers stunned them even though they were familiar with the worsening effects of climate change.

“New York is known to be susceptible to floods and it has the largest population. But the fact that New York has nearly an order of magnitude more flood-exposed population than any other city is surprising,” said Alex de Sherbinin, a geographer who directs Columbia University’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information. He wasn’t part of the study.

Flood problems are becoming more frequent in New York and New Orleans because of human-caused climate change, the study said.

Other cities are also threatened

Jacksonville has 679,000 people at high or very high risk of flooding, while Houston is just behind at just under 600,000. Other cities highlighted include Miami, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama.

Shao and outside experts said what separates her study from others is the sheer comprehensiveness of all the factors it considers, including sinking land and pavement that doesn't allow water to seep into the ground, as well as incorporating human social vulnerability such as poverty and age.

“This could be applied to other places in the world, such as Manila,” said University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, who heads the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union, referring to the capital of the Philippines. He wasn't part of the study, but said the flooding problems it highlights will get more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change.

Columbia University's Marco Tedesco, who wasn't part of the study, said "it reinforces the crucial concept that future flood disasters are not just about water—they are about where people live, how cities are built, and who is least protected.”

Actions can lessen the risk

De Sherbinin said, "the analysis of the flood risk factors is important for local planners, emergency managers, and even highway crews and utility providers. We all know that low lying areas are more flood prone, but the data they have assembled provide more insights into flood risk, particularly for flash floods.”

Study lead author Hemal Dey, a geospatial scientist, said he hopes local officials look at not just building more dams and levees, but more natural infrastructure such as wetlands, grasslands, rain gardens and estuaries.

“The research is solid confirmation of what emergency managers have been saying for years. Realtors will hate it,'' said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who wasn't part of the study. "The harder question is what we’re actually going to do about it."

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

Grosjieon Moore, 63, bought his winning $500,000 Bonus Scratch Multiplier ticket at New Quick Stop Market at 8059 West Grand River in Detroit, according to Michigan Lottery officials.

“I saw some TikTok videos of people scratching lottery tickets and winning big, and I thought to myself how that would never happen to me,” Moore told lottery officials. “A few days later, my wife and I were scratching Lottery tickets when she yelled: ‘We got a winner!’ She thought we’d won $50,000, but when I looked it over, I saw we’d actually won $500,000. It was amazing!”

Grosjieon said he is planning to save his prize money.

The $500,000 Bonus Scratch Multiplier launched in February, and since then, players have won more than $6 million, according to lottery officials.

Each ticket costs $5 and gives players a chance to win prizes ranging from $5 to $500,000.

There are still $23 million in prizes left, including two $500,000 prizes, eight $10,000 prizes and 18 $2,000 prizes.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates reportedly spoke “candidly” about his relationship to Epstein in a February town hall meeting of the influential foundation he started with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. But the external probe marks the nonprofit's plainest attempt yet to address associations that have cast a pall over its concentrated efforts to end preventable maternal/child deaths and control key infectious diseases.

"In March, with the support of our chair, Bill Gates, and our independent Governing Board members, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman commissioned an external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein, and our current policies for vetting and developing new philanthropic partnerships,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement. The Wall Street journal first reported news of the staff memo detailing the review.

The philanthropic giant has already undergone a period of change. The Gates Foundation shared plans in January to cap operating costs and incrementally cut as many as 500 positions, or about 20% of its staff, by 2030. The move follows last year’s announcement that the foundation would close in 2045, earlier than previously expected.

The Justice Department's files include email correspondence between Gates and Epstein about philanthropic projects, calendar entries documenting dates they held meetings and photos of Gates at events attended by the two men. Gates has not been accused of any wrongdoing regarding their connection, denies knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claims they met only to discuss philanthropy.

The foundation acknowledged that “a small number” of employees met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development” in a February statement. They never created a fund together and the foundation made no financial payments to Epstein, according to the previous release.

“The foundation regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way,” the statement read.

The files' disclosures are being closely followed by one of the Gates Foundation's earliest and most ardent supporters. Investor Warren Buffett, who donates a portion of his annual Berkshire Hathaway shares to the nonprofit, told CNBC's “Squawk Box” last month that it's clear “there was a lot I didn't know."

Buffett, who resigned as the foundation's trustee in 2021, has completed his donation every year around the end of June. But he said he will “wait and see what unfolds” in the Justice Department's documents and congressional hearings on their contents. He noted the foundation is “sitting” on a large endowment, which totals $86 billion, and said Gates has “plenty of his own money.”

“So, in any event, I’ll just wait and see. And there’s three and a half million, or whatever it is pages – I mean, it is astounding,” Buffett said of the Epstein files.

A Gates Foundation spokesperson described Buffett as “an extraordinarily generous partner” for nearly two decades in a statement Wednesday to the Associated Press.

“We are deeply grateful for his support, which has enabled us to accelerate progress on some of the world’s toughest challenges that would not otherwise have been possible,” the spokesperson said.

The Gates Foundation expects its board and management will receive an update on the Epstein review this summer. The third-party investigators have not been publicly named.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and statehouses from Melinda French Gates’ organization, Pivotal Ventures. ___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) reported on April 22 that the center lane, right lane and right shoulder of northbound I-75 at Rochester Road were closed off to traffic.

The lanes reopened just after 1:30 p.m. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Aerial footage shows firefighters putting out the flames. You can watch aerial footage in the video at the beginning of this article.

U.S. Air Force divers used an underwater drone on Tuesday to search inside the overturned ship, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. Divers from Japan's coast guard further examined the ship, called the Mariana, but didn't find the other five, it said.

“Coast Guard aircrews continue to search for the five missing crewmen and an orange 12-person life raft in the vicinity of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,” the news release said.

The National Weather Service said Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the strongest tropical cyclone this year, was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (241 kph) when it made landfall last week in the Northern Mariana Islands, which, like Guam to the south, are a U.S. territory.

The Coast Guard and agencies from Guam, Japan and New Zealand have covered more than 99,000 square miles (256,000 square kilometers) in their search for the crew, the guard said this week. That's an area roughly the size of Oregon.

The ship notified the U.S. Coast Guard on April 15 that the U.S.-registered vessel lost its starboard engine during the typhoon and needed assistance. The guard said it lost contact with the ship the next day.

“Our hearts are with the families of the Mariana crew members and the communities impacted by this tragic incident,” Cmdr. Preston Hieb, the search and rescue mission coordinator for the Coast Guard Oceania District, said in the statement.

Heavy wind hindered initial search efforts, but the overturned ship was eventually spotted Saturday about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Pagan, one of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Coast Guard said Monday that debris including a partially submerged inflatable life raft was spotted about 110 miles (177 kilometers) from the ship.

While specific safety requirements for the 145-foot (44-meter) ship were not known, federal and international codes call for cargo ships to have life rafts stocked with food and water. The rafts have to be able to withstand exposure for 30 days, according to a code put out by the International Maritime Organization.

Aaron Davenport, a retired Coast Guard officer with search and rescue experience who isn't involved in the current operation, said it would have been very difficult to deploy a raft during the typhoon.

“If they didn’t hook it somewhere and they just deployed it into the water, it would probably blow away,” he said.

Davenport wondered if searchers spotted any more safety equipment aboard the overturned ship.

“That would determine how long they need to search. Because if they have safety gear, if they’re in another life raft or if they’re in a survival suit or if they even have a life jacket — that tells me that they’re going to survive longer, probably," he said.

Davenport also questioned whether the partially submerged raft that was found came from the Mariana.

“So if there’s another ship that was affected by the weather there, they could have a life raft get washed off the top,” Davenport said.

Sinlaku battered the Northern Mariana Islands, causing wind damage and flooding. Island ports reopened to commercial traffic this week, and the Coast Guard delivered pallets of water and supplies to areas that had been cut off.

Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his cell, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials provided medical treatment to the U.S. Navy veteran, but he was later pronounced dead.

The official cause of death has not been determined, but officials don't suspect foul play, according to the office. Officials are conducting an internal review.

Adon Abel was accused of killing Prianna Weathers, 31, and DHS auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in last week's attack. Authorities also had been seeking an additional murder charge for Tony Mathews, 49, who was injured in the attack and died Sunday.

Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the shootings. It’s unclear if Adon Abel knew any of the victims. Police have said they believe at least one was targeted at random.

Adon Abel was represented by a public defender, and the state council overseeing defenders' work said Wednesday in a statement that his death denies him “the opportunity to contest the charges in court.”

“We also regret that the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims may now be left without the fuller answers a public legal process might have provided about how these deaths occurred,” the statement said. “That is a painful and sobering reality for everyone affected.”

Adon Abel faced state malice murder, aggravated assault and gun charges over last week's attacks, court records show. He also faced a federal charge of illegally possessing the gun as a person previously convicted of a felony, which was filed Friday.

His roommates told The Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, he got in an intense argument over the air conditioning in their home and stormed out. He lived with six others in separate units of the home.

The United Kingdom native was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.

The attacks in Georgia quickly drew the Trump administration’s attention, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concern that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin cataloged a litany of Adon Abel's previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.

Military records show the Adon Abel enlisted in the Navy in 2020, last serving in the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron in Coronado, California, and as a petty officer received a Navy “E” Ribbon for superior performance for battle readiness.

Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 to assaulting two police officers with a deadly weapon and attacking another person when he was stationed in Coronado, near San Diego, according to California court records.

The attorney who represented him in that case, Brandon Naidu, has described him as polite, calm and soft-spoken in their interactions. He said Wednesday that his obligation to protect the confidentiality of their conversations limits what he can say publicly but, “Mental health was absolutely at the center of his San Diego case.” "“t was fueled by suicidal ideation as a result of mental health that he was self-treating with substances,” he said.

He added: “Nobody wins in this. We’ll never know the motives, what could have been done beforehand or even afterward. Nobody gets proper closure on this.”

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Golden, from Seattle.

Jurassic Park: The Musical will be playing April 24th through May 9th. Watch the video above to learn more about the musical.

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Watch the video above to see fitness and nutrition expert Jody Trierweiler shares some ideas, such as the workout trend called “plogging.”

Chelsea confirmed his departure on Wednesday, less than four months into the job and just four days before it plays in an FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.

Assistant Calum McFarlane will take charge on an interim basis until the end of the season.

“This has not been a decision the club has taken lightly, however recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards with still so much more to play for this season,” Chelsea said in a statement.

The team that won the Club World Cup last year now looks likely to miss out on next season’s Champions League. That would mean a huge financial hit for a club that has spent billions of dollars under U.S. owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.

The five-game losing streak is its worst since 1912 — the same year the Titanic sank.

Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton proved the last straw for Rosenior, an inexperienced coach at the highest level who was hired from Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg in January. It was a seventh loss in eight games in all competitions.

Chelsea has won one of its last nine in the league, is seventh in the standings and seven points adrift of the top five, who all qualify for the Champions League.

Rosenior, 41, turned on his players following the Brighton match, saying the performance was “indefensible” and that “something needs to change drastically.”

The club’s hierarchy clearly agreed, despite saying Rosenior had “always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism”.

Rosenior replaced Club World Cup-winning coach Enzo Maresca in January and only took charge of 23 games.

He started impressively with a run of six wins in seven games, but things unravelled quickly in recent weeks, including elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.

His tenure was brought to an end despite Chelsea preparing for its FA Cup semifinal against Leeds on Sunday.

Rosenior becomes the fifth permanent manager to lose his job since Clearlake and Boehly bought one of English soccer’s most storied clubs in 2022. Now the search is on for a sixth to try to bring sustained success.

“As the club works to bring stability to the head coach position, we will undertake a process of self-reflection to make the right long-term appointment,” Chelsea said.

Rosenior’s departure comes after fans of the two-time Champions League winner and six-time English champion began to protest against the U.S. owners.

While there have been trophies, the Club World Cup and Europa Conference League last season, this could be the third campaign out of four in which it has failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Under former owner Roman Abramovich, Chelsea was one of the most dominant teams in Europe, winning a full set of trophies, including two Champions Leagues and five Premier League titles.

It last won the Champions League in 2021, the year before Abramovich was forced to sell the club after being sanctioned by the British government in the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

The phenomenon has a name - “Ozempic face” - and it is drawing growing concern from facial plastic surgeons who say the rapid weight loss these drugs produce can strip the face of the very fat that keeps skin looking youthful and vibrant.

Dr. Charles M. Boyd, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., a Harvard-trained facial plastic surgeon and founder of Boyd Beauty in Metro Detroit, says the core problem is speed.

“You want a thin body, but not a thin face,” Boyd said in an appearance on Live in the D. When weight drops rapidly, he explained, the face loses volume in the temples, under the eyes, and along the sides - leaving skin with nowhere to go.

“If you took a balloon and you let half of the air out, you’d have laxity in that tissue,” he said.

The structural consequences go beyond loose skin. Boyd said patients present with “dark circles, hollowness, neck laxity, and all of those things can make you look older rather than younger.”

The underlying biology compounds the problem. Fat tissue beneath the skin contains hormones and compounds that help maintain skin hydration and elasticity. Lose that fat quickly and the skin can become drier, more lined, and more wrinkled - an accelerated version of normal aging.

“You’re seeing it just sped up,” Boyd said.

The good news, he says, is that Ozempic face is treatable - and even preventable. Boyd pointed to a recent study out of his practice showing that injectables and biostimulators can rebuild collagen and elastin before significant facial volume is lost. His advice: don’t wait until the weight is gone.

“If you can go to a place that’s familiar with it, I like to talk to my patients about their weight loss journey, and if you’re considering it, we can start a program so that you never lose the weight in your face, so you always look younger and healthy and more vibrant.”

Treatment, he stressed, must be tailored to the individual. “It’s all individualized. There’s no one size fits all or cookie cutter approach,” Boyd said, adding that patients should seek out a qualified professional who understands both their cosmetic goals and their weight loss journey.

Boyd Beauty operates three locations in Metro Detroit - Birmingham, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. More information is available at BoydBeauty.com.

Mario Bustamante Leiva did not recognize Noem when he grabbed her Gucci handbag from the floor of a restaurant where she was eating with her family in April 2025, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Noem’s purse had credit cards and about $3,000 in cash. Police recovered it from Leiva's motel room.

Bustamante Leiva, a 50-year-old native of Chile, is facing deportation after his sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.

“Bustamante Leiva came to Washington illegally to prey on citizens of the district,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in a statement. “His pattern of theft ends here.”

Noem, who is identified only by her initials in court filings, acknowledged the incident in a statement last year that referred to Bustamante Leiva as a “a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years.”

He pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud and one count of first-degree theft. He was charged and convicted of robbing two other people and charging fraudulent purchases to their credit cards.

Bustamante Leiva was charged along with a second suspect, Cristian Montecino-Sananza, who was sentenced in March to 13 months of incarceration for his role in one of the other thefts.

Investigators said they identified Bustamante Leiva as a suspect in the thefts after he used a stolen gift card to make a purchase.