During Trump’s visit, China sought to stabilize ties with the United States, while Putin’s trip served to deepen its strategic partnership with Russia.

Xi emphasized ceremonial hospitality during Trump’s visit, including a rare tour of Zhongnanhai, a former imperial garden that now serves as headquarters of China’s top leadership. Beijing understood Trump valued highly visible displays of respect, said George Chen, partner for Greater China practice for The Asia Group. “Xi knows this is what Trump values: being treated like a VIP, respected in front of the cameras.”

With Putin, Chen said, Xi switched to substance. “Reaffirming the friendship treaty, signing new energy deals, and re-emphasizing their ‘no limits’ partnership,” he added.

The similarities and contrasts began with the schedule

The differences between the two visits began with their length: The U.S. president stayed in China for three days, while Putin’s visit lasted two.

Both leaders were welcomed at Tiananmen Square with ceremonial guards, a military band and children waving flags.

Both also held closed-door meetings with Xi at the Great Hall of the People, next to the square.

Trump also received a private tour of the Temple of Heaven and walked through the imperial gardens of Zhongnanhai.

Putin, instead, spent much of his time with Xi inside the Great Hall of the People, where the two presidents toured a photo exhibition on China-Russia relations and later had tea.

Last week’s trip was Trump’s second visit to China as president. For Putin, it was his 25th visit to the country.

The clearest divide came in the messaging

The main contrast between the two summits was in their messaging.

With Trump, Xi focused on the need to maintain a relatively stable relationship after months of tensions and a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. He urged the U.S. president to see China as a partner rather than a rival, and both leaders agreed to work toward what they described as “a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.”

With Putin, Xi sought to reinforce and deepen a longstanding partnership that is both strategic and economically important for the two countries.

While the U.S. and China are still trying to stabilize their trade ties, Moscow and Beijing reaffirmed their relationship as essential partners. Putin said the “driving force” of the relationship was the energy sector, particularly oil and gas.

Xi signed agreements with only one of the presidents

China and Russia reached more than 40 cooperation agreements covering areas including trade, technology and media exchanges. The two leaders also signed a joint declaration describing Russia and China as “important centers of power in a multipolar world.”

Trump and Xi, by contrast, did not sign a joint declaration or oversee the signing of any agreements during the visit. It was only after the U.S. president left Beijing that the two countries announced the details of several accords, with Washington saying China had agreed to buy U.S. agricultural products at an annualized rate of $17 billion and purchase 200 Boeing jets.

“China and Russia reached more agreements, and with China and the U.S., what are the agreements? Even that is not very clear,” said Claus Soong, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

But Lyle Morris, senior fellow on Chinese national security and foreign policy at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said the biggest surprise from the Xi-Putin meetings was that it appears no formal deal was signed for the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline plan, which could send gas from Russia to China through Mongolia.

“This is a huge setback for Russia and Putin,” he said.

Putin and Trump have different stances on Taiwan

Moscow is closely aligned with Beijing on the issue of Taiwan, the island democracy China claims as its own. Meanwhile, the U.S. maintains an intentionally ambiguous stance on the island and serves as its main informal backer and arms provider.

Xi made it clear to Trump that Taiwan is the most important issue in the bilateral relationship and warned that mishandling U.S. ties with the self-governing island could lead to confrontation between the two countries.

Trump did not publicly address Taiwan during the visit. But on his way back to the United States, he described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China, comments that stirred anxieties on the island.

With Putin, there was no sign of disagreement over the issue.

In the joint declaration signed by Xi and Putin, Russia reiterated its opposition to Taiwanese independence “in any form” and voiced support for what it described as China’s efforts to defend its sovereignty and achieve “national unification.”

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, both sides also raised concerns over what they called “accelerated remilitarization” of Japan, against the backdrop of strained China-Japan ties over Taiwan.

____

Leung reported from Hong Kong, and Mistreanu from Bangkok.

The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, said Thursday that all of the international activists are in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation.

The group said one participant, Zohar Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship, was in a court hearing in the southern city of Ashkelon on charges of illegal entry into Israel and unlawful stay. Regev has taken part in previous flotillas to Gaza.

Netanyahu calls for quick deportation after rebuking security minister

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he instructed that the activists be deported “as soon as possible,” after sharply rebuking Israel’s national security minister for a provocative video showing the minister taunting detained flotilla activists who were handcuffed and kneeling.

Netanyahu said that although Israel has every right to stop “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” the way National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir dealt with the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”

Ben-Gvir released videos Wednesday showing him walking among some of the approximately 430 detainees. In one, activists with their hands tied behind their backs are kneeling, their heads touching the floor inside what appears to be a makeshift detention area on the deck of a ship.

Several countries, including France and Portugal, summoned Israeli envoys on Thursday over concerns about the treatment of flotilla activists and in protest of Ben-Gvir’s actions.

“The actions of Mr. Ben-Gvir toward the passengers of the Global Sumud flotilla, condemned even by his own colleagues in the Israeli government, are unacceptable,” French foreign affairs minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. Britain, Turkey, Greece, and Italy also condemned Israel for Ben-Gvir's comments and the treatment of flotilla activists.

Turkey plans to provide planes to retrieve activists

Turkey is sending planes to retrieve Turkish citizens and others who participated in the flotilla, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Thursday. Around 85 Turkish nationals took part in the latest flotilla, according to Turkish media.

Dozens of the activists' boats began setting sail from Spain to Gaza in April, with organizers saying they want to draw renewed attention to the conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel stopped 20 vessels from the group on April 30 near the southern Greek island of Crete and forced most of its activists to disembark there.

Israel took two high profile activists — Spanish-Swedish citizen Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila — back to Israel where they were interrogated and detained for around a week before being deported.

The activists accused Israel of torture, claims Israel denies. Brazil and Spain condemned Israel for “kidnapping” their citizens.

Participants then regrouped and more than 50 boats departed from the Turkish port of Marmaris on May 14. Israeli forces began stopping the boats around 268 kilometers (167 miles) from the Gaza coastline, off the coast of Cyprus, according to the flotilla’s website.

Israel has repeatedly blocked similar attempts

Israel's Foreign Ministry has called the flotilla “a PR stunt at the service of Hamas” with no real intent to deliver aid to Gaza. The boats carry a tiny, symbolic amount of aid.

This week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against several European activists aboard the flotilla, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called “pro-terror.”

Last year Israeli authorities blocked a similar attempt involving about 50 vessels and some 500 activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela and several European lawmakers.

Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.

Blockade of Gaza in place since 2007

Israel has maintained a sea blockade of Gaza since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. Israeli authorities intensified it after the Hamas-led militant attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.

Critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment. Israel says it’s intended to prevent Hamas from arming itself. Egypt, which has the only border crossing with Gaza not controlled by Israel, has also greatly restricted movement in and out.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive following the Oct. 7 attacks that started the war has killed more than 72,700 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t give a breakdown between civilians and combatants. It is staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community. — Andrew Wilks in Istanbul and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus contributed to this report.

The drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) inside Russia, Zelenskyy said on social media, where he posted a video of the aftermath.

It was not possible to verify the video or independently confirm the attack. The governor of Russia’s Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said that two people were killed by Ukrainian drones in Syzran but he didn’t mention the refinery. Russia’s Astra news outlet said that Ukrainian drones struck the Syzran refinery owned by oil and gas giant Rosneft.

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying eye-catching drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically as it battles to defeat Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Ukrainian weaponry and expertise are now sought by other countries, whereas earlier in the war Kyiv had to plead for massive foreign military aid.

Ukrainian drones hit another refinery the previous day, Zelenskyy said, as attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

“Overall, our long-range plan for May is being carried out largely in full,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Wednesday. “The key targets are Russian oil refineries, storage facilities, and other infrastructure tied to these oil revenues.”

The escalating attacks have hurt Moscow’s revenue at the same time as it feels the economic pinch of international sanctions. With some attacks reaching more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) into Russian soil, the strikes have contributed to some Russians feeling unsafe due to the war and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine reportedly makes battlefield gains

Ukraine’s new reach has also helped it push Russian troops back along parts of the front line, with Ukrainian forces making their most significant battlefield gains since 2024, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

“Ukraine’s intensified midrange strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower since early 2026 has also degraded Russian forces’ ability to conduct offensive operations across the theater and has also likely supported recent Ukrainian advances,” the Washington-based think tank said in an assessment late Wednesday.

Ukraine has slowed Russia’s battlefield advance and is gradually regaining the initiative along the front line, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said, partly due to Russian forces being denied access to Starlink satellite services to steer its drones toward targets.

“Russia has since not been able to find a full replacement (for Starlink), giving Ukraine a critical battlefield advantage,” Fedorov told reporters. He spoke on Saturday but his comments were embargoed till Thursday.

Fedorov said in February he had asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to help deny Russia use of the service in Ukraine. Starlink is a global internet network that relies on around 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth.

Fedorov said that mid-size drones have become a key technological advantage for Ukraine on the front line and claimed that Ukrainian forces have doubled their interception rate of Russian drones over the past four months.

Ukraine is also preparing changes to the military, covering pay and contract terms, he said.

Drone attacks claim victims in Ukraine and Russia

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 121 Ukrainian drones between late Wednesday and early Thursday.

In the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, eight people were injured by Ukrainian drones, according to the regional governor, Alexander Shuvayev.

Russia has also invested heavily in drones, using them to bombard civilian areas of Ukraine throughout the war and killing more than 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

Ukraine’s air force said Thursday it shot down 109 out of 116 drones that Russia launched overnight.

One civilian was killed and at least six others were wounded in the strikes in the north, south and east of the country, emergency services said.

___

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

___

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

“The situation is worrying because this is gaining momentum,” Hama Amado, the Bunia field coordinator for Alima, an aid group, told The Associated Press. “This is spreading in many areas. So everyone must mobilize.”

He added: “We are still far from saying that the situation is under control.”

There is no available vaccine or medicine for the Bundibugyo strain, which spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative.

Healthcare workers and aid groups are now playing a catch up game with an outbreak that experts say is much larger than what has been officially reported. So far, there are 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases.

The World Health Organization, which noted a low risk globally, has said “patient zero” has not been found.

While almost 20 tons of aid has been airlifted to Bunia, the site of the first known death, doctors using out-of-date facemasks were tending to suspected Ebola patients in general wards because of the lack of isolation space.

Early detection of the virus is key in saving lives, but the region's already weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say. There are over 920,000 internally displaced people in Ituri, a province that has become the hot spot of the outbreak, according to the U.N.

“Communities in eastern DRC are already facing immense pressure from conflict, displacement, and a collapsing health system,” said Dr. Lievin Bangali, Senior Health Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in DRC. “Years of underfunding, compounded by recent cuts to front line health and outbreak preparedness programming, have weakened the ability to detect and respond to outbreaks quickly.”

The group said it had to stop its surveillance activities in three out of five areas in Ituri over the last year because of funding cuts.

A mother watches her son ‘bleeding and vomiting’

At a treatment center in Rwampara, healthcare workers in protective gear handled the bodies of suspected Ebola victims.

Families who tend to wash loved ones’ bodies themselves watched on as workers disinfected the corpses and placed them into coffins to be taken to secure burial sites. Some relatives burst into tears.

The disease struck suddenly, they said, describing a rapid deterioration after symptoms were mistaken for illnesses such as malaria.

“He told me his heart was hurting,” said Botwine Swanze, who lost her son. “Then he started crying because of the pain. Then he started bleeding and vomiting a lot.”

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

‘We have no protection’

Schools and churches remain open in Bunia. Some residents have started wearing facemasks, which have become harder to find.

“It’s truly sad and painful because we’ve already been through a security crisis, and now Ebola is here too,” said Justin Ndasi, a resident.

There is growing anxiety at health centers.

A Doctors Without Borders team identified suspected cases over the weekend at the city’s Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area, Trish Newport, an emergency program manager, said on social media.

“Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she said.

In Bambu General Hospital elsewhere in Ituri province, suspected Ebola patients shared a ward with others injured or ill.

In Mongbwalu, where the body of the first known death was taken, the nearby border with Uganda remains open and gold mining continues, said Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa, a civil society leader, highlighting the difficulty of containing the virus.

“There’s no panic. People continue with their normal lives, but they’re also starting to spread the word,” said Ndilawa, and noted a lack of public handwashing stations.

It was very different at Mongbwalu General Hospital, where Dr. Didier Pay said it was treating around 30 Ebola patients, and a student from the local medical technology institute died on Wednesday.

“The patients are scattered here and there in rather unusual conditions,” Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told the AP. “We hope for the proper triage and isolation facilities to be installed today, and if that doesn’t happen, we will be completely overwhelmed.”

They are understaffed and not trained to handle suspected cases, he said. If confirmed cases surge, “we have no protection.”

WHO chief says the ‘scale of the epidemic is much larger’

WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” while WHO’s chief in Congo said the outbreak could last at least two months.

Investigations are continuing into the source of the outbreak, but “given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago,” said Anaïs Legand, a viral hemorrhagic fevers expert at the WHO.

So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, and two cases in Uganda, Dr. Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. But “the scale of the epidemic is much larger,” he said.

The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimates that cases have been substantially undercounted and that the actual number could already exceed 1,000. “The true magnitude remains uncertain,” it said.

Insecurity continues

Long the scene of attacks by an array of armed groups, the region’s volatility now further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday in Alima, a village in Ituri.

Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has ties to IS, killed civilians with machetes and firearms, burned down houses and business and took several people hostage. Civil society groups warned of other villages in the region facing a threat of attack.

The number of ADF fighters in Congo is unclear, but they are a significant presence in the region and regularly attack civilians. Another armed group that is active in the region is CODECO, a loose association of militia groups mainly from the ethnic Lendu farming community.

___

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The 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.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1881, humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross.

Here are a few things to know about for Thursday, May 21, 2026:

⛅ 4Warn Weather: After a fall-like Wednesday, sunshine is making a comeback today across Metro Detroit. Check the 10-day forecast.

✈️ Flight Diverted: A tipster on Local 4’s Help Desk alerted us to an Air France flight bound for Detroit that was diverted to Canada after U.S. authorities barred it from entering American airspace. Read more.

🚨 UPS Carjacking: A UPS driver was carjacked and had their delivery truck stolen in Detroit. Read more.

🔎 Missing for 44 Years: A teen girl missing for decades -- family and friends holding onto hope that answers will still come. A grief that doesn’t go away. Read more.

🌉 Bridge Opening Delay: Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is pushing back as the long-anticipated opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge remains entangled in a broader dispute between the United States and Canada. Read more.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

AAA projects more than 1.3 million Michiganders will travel at least 50 miles from home this holiday weekend.

It’s the second-highest on record for Memorial Day weekend.

If you’re heading out for the holiday weekend, here are some quick notes on what to expect:

Gas Prices

There’s some relief at the pump as you head out. AAA reported a slight decline in gas prices.

The average price of regular unleaded gas is $4.74. It’s still relatively high, at more than a dollar, compared to this time last year.

Best/worst times to leave

Pack your patience -- here’s a look at the best and worst times to travel:

Today

• Worst: 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Best: After 9 p.m.

Tomorrow

• Worst: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Best: Before 11 a.m.

Monday

• Worst: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Best: before 10 a.m.

Weather outlook

Tomorrow brings the next chance of rain. We look to see showers tomorrow evening, continuing into Saturday. The first half of the weekend in particular looks to be rainy, with the chance of storms. You may want to leave earlier on Friday or allow a little extra time on Saturday.

Afternoon temperatures on Saturday will return to around 70° before hitting the mid-70s on Sunday and Monday. Scattered rain chances will remain on Sunday.

By Memorial Day, skies should turn partly sunny with temperatures nearing 80 degrees. It will feel like the “unofficial start to summer” as even warmer weather is expected through the middle of next week, with highs returning to the 80s across southeast Michigan.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum reopening in Oakland County is delayed due to plumbing issues
• Dearborn traffic light knocked down by crash sat on the ground for nearly 2 months — here’s why
• Pontiac launches ‘100 Homes for Pontiac’ program to boost homeownership
• Lawsuit accuses Massachusetts schools of segregating students of color in low-opportunity districts
• Stephen Colbert is saying goodbye to ‘The Late Show.’ How it ends is still a secret
• US raises pressure on Cuba with indictment of former leader as island’s president condemns charges
• ‘She’s lost a lot of blood’: Mom shot in front of her son in Oakland County carjacking survives
• Fan drive: How event is helping Metro Detroiters who need summer relief from heat
• Officers who defended Capitol from rioters sue to block payouts from $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
• Doctors at Henry Ford Health in Detroit perform world-first GammaTile procedure on spinal tumor
• SUV crashes into Arby’s restaurant in Garden City, causing extensive damage
• Harvard faculty votes to make it more difficult for undergrads to earn A’s
• Find more Local News headlines here
• Find more Entertainment headlines here
• Find more Health headlines here
• Check out the latest ClickOnDeals here
• Introducing the ClickOnDetroit Help Desk: How it works and how to use it

🌎 Meanwhile

News from around the world via the Associated Press:

Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

While many people across the U.S. lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case stood out as a rare instance in which such online speech led to criminal prosecution. The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October.

During his time in jail, Bushart lost his postretirement job and missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter, according to a federal lawsuit Bushart filed in December against Perry County, its sheriff and the investigator who obtained the arrest warrant. (Read more)

----

Drenched in rain, hundreds of South Koreans cheered the North Korean visitors during a rare soccer match between the divided countries Wednesday as Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s FC defeated host Suwon 2-1 against the backdrop of political tensions.

The win locked Naegohyang into another match in South Korea, a final Saturday against Tokyo Verdy Beleza, which defeated Melbourne City 3-1 in the other semifinal of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Champions League.

“I trusted our team’s strength. If all of us stay united firmly as one, neither the semifinals nor the final would be a problem for us,” said Naegohyang goal-scorer Choi Kum Ok. (Read more)

----

The Stonewall National Monument, the President’s House Site and the Women’s Rights National Historic Park are among 11 sites on this year’s annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, marks America’s 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

“We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places ... that not all Americans routinely think about,” Quillen told The Associated Press. (Read more)

---> Find more headlines from around the world right here <---

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Oeuvre /ˈo͝ovrə/ (noun) -- defined as “The works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively.”

Example: “Charles Dickens’ oeuvre contains some of literature’s most beloved characters.”

🧹 Housekeeping

Hey, if you like this newsletter, let us know. We’d love your feedback. We also offer several other newsletters, including Live in the D, All 4 Pets and more. Hopefully, we have one that caters to your interests -- unless you’re only interested in tea leaves. We don’t have one for that, sorry.

✍🏽 Written and curated by: Samantha Sayles (Have something to say? Feel free to send an email here.)

Tony Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker. He was forced to represent himself at trial repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.

There was no physical evidence tying Carruthers to the killings, and he was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from people who claimed to have heard him confess to or discuss the crimes.

They include a man who was later revealed to be a police informant and told media he was paid for his testimony. A co-defendant, James Montgomery, was originally sentenced to death along with Carruthers but was later resentenced and released from prison in 2015, according to court filings.

Authorities said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer, and Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal drug trade in their Memphis neighborhood. His attorneys have said that Carruthers' “paranoia and delusions” prevented him from being able to cooperate with court-appointed counsel, but the judge viewed this behavior as willful.

The Tennessee Supreme Court said on appeal that Carruthers’ actions before the trial jury were offensive and self-destructive but the situation in which he found himself was one of his own making. If the execution goes forward as scheduled, Carruthers will be the first person to be executed after being forced to represent himself in more than a century, according to a clemency petition to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

In the petition, Carruthers' attorneys argue that the reason he was sentenced to death was because a medical examiner testified the victims were buried alive, going into excruciating detail for the jury. He later withdrew that claim and subsequent experts have said it was false.

Carruthers' attorneys have tried to show that he is incompetent to be executed. They claim in court filings that Carruthers believes the government is bluffing about executing him in order to coerce him into accepting a plea deal that exists only in his mind. That way, Carruthers believes, the government can avoid paying him what he thinks are millions of dollars it owes him. He is convinced that his own attorneys are part of a conspiracy against him and refuses to even speak with them, according to court filings.

The number of executions in the U.S. surged from 25 in 2024 to 47 last year, driven by a sharp increase in Florida. That state carried out 19 executions in 2025, up from one the previous year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So far this year, four states have executed 13 people, and 11 other executions are scheduled including one Thursday evening in Florida.

It’s not unusual to see several executions over a short period of time. Last year, four people were executed over three days in March in Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana and Arizona. Another five people were executed over a week in October in Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Florida and Indiana, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Tennessee began a new round of executions last year after a three-year pause following the discovery that the state was not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency.

An independent review later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested. The state attorney general’s office also conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs “ incorrectly testified ” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.

The U.K. government on Thursday released the confidential papers related to Andrew’s appointment, just months after lawmakers accused the king’s brother of putting his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ahead of the nation.

“The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests,” the head of Britain’s trade body wrote in a letter.

Another document, a government memo sent to U.K. trade staff around the world, says that “HRH’s high public profile” will require “careful and sometimes strict media management,” in a reference to Andrew.

The involvement of the late queen will confirm previously held beliefs that the monarch held a soft spot for her son — an empathy that might have influenced her lack of decisiveness in dealing with allegations of Andrew’s connection to Epstein.

Trade Minister Chris Bryant said in a written statement to lawmakers that “we have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken” before Andrew was appointed to the role.

“There is also no evidence that this was considered. This is understandable since this new appointment was a continuation of the royal family’s involvement in trade and investment promotion work following the Duke of Kent’s decision to relinquish his duties as Vice-Chairman of the Overseas Trade Board," he said.

He said that the government was cooperating with Thames Valley Police on their investigation into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and possible misconduct in public office.

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal title last year as King Charles III tried to insulate the monarchy from the growing fallout from the Epstein scandal. The former prince served as a special envoy for international trade from 2001 to 2011, when he was forced to give up the role because of concerns about his links to questionable figures in Libya and Azerbaijan.

The move followed the U.S. Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of documents related to Epstein. Those files showed how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women and girls.

Nowhere has the fallout from the document release been felt more strongly than in the U.K., where the scandal has raised questions about the way power is wielded by the aristocracy, senior politicians and influential business owners, known collectively as “the Establishment.”

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Starting pay is based on experience level and role.

Meijer provides health, financial, and career benefits.

Benefits include weekly pay, free education, a team member discount, paid parental leave, career advancement opportunities, access to health insurance options and the option for 401k retirement planning.

Those interested in joining the Meijer team can search available positions here by clicking “Search New Store Open Jobs.”

Candidates can apply online by clicking on the positions listed.

Meijer will screen applicants within the next weeks.

Selected candidates will be invited to interview in June.

The new location will open later this year.

The store will be located on 33500 Seven Mile Rd. Livonia, MI 48152.

The retailer currently has approximately 40,000 team members at more than 125 stores statewide.

Afternoon highs today will climb into the low to mid-60s, though a steady breeze will keep it feeling a bit cooler at times. Tonight will turn chilly once again, with overnight lows dipping into the 40s under mostly clear skies.

Dry weather continues Friday with a mix of sunshine and clouds. Temperatures will remain below average, topping out in the upper 60s before conditions begin to change Friday night.

Rain is expected to return late Friday evening and continue into Saturday morning as the next weather system moves into the Great Lakes. Some scattered thunderstorms are possible over the weekend, especially during the afternoon and evening hours Saturday and Sunday.

The good news is temperatures will begin to rebound. Highs this weekend are expected to reach the 70s, bringing a more seasonable feel heading into the holiday weekend. By Memorial Day, skies should turn partly sunny with temperatures nearing 80 degrees. It will feel like the “unofficial start to summer” as even warmer weather is expected through the middle of next week, with highs returning to the 80s across southeast Michigan.

Overall, the forecast features a gradual warming trend after several cool days, with only periodic rain and thunderstorm chances interrupting the holiday weekend plans.

“As a net energy importer, the EU’s economy is highly susceptible to the energy shock caused by the conflict in the Middle East,” the commission said in a statement Thursday. The rising cost of fuel "means higher household bills and surging business costs that reduce profits for many industries.”

The commission’s spring forecast lowered the outlook for growth in the 21 countries that use the euro to 0.9% for this year, from 1.2% in its autumn forecast, and to 1.2% from 1.4% for 2027. Inflation is now expected to reach 3.0% for 2026, up from the earlier forecast of 1.9%.

The new inflation figure exceeds the inflation goal of 2% set by the European Central Bank, and higher inflation expectations have led to predictions the ECB will raise its interest rate benchmarks this year to combat inflation.

Oil prices rose sharply after risk of Iranian drone and speedboat attacks closed off most ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the sea passage for about a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas. On top of that, news of the war has shaken consumer confidence, which fell to a 40-month low amid mounting fears of job losses and higher inflation.

Still, the commission said the economy will continue to show modest growth and avoid an outright recession.

It warned however that a downside scenario of a prolonged period of higher energy prices would push growth lower and inflation higher.

The new inflation figure exceeds the inflation goal of 2% set by the European Central Bank, and higher inflation expectations have led to predictions the ECB will raise its interest rate benchmarks this year to combat inflation.

Lawmakers approved a motion in February demanding publication of the documents after the one-time prince, now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested on charges related to allegations that he shared government reports with Epstein while he was trade envoy.

The move followed the U.S. Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of documents related to Epstein. Those files showed how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women and girls.

Nowhere has the fallout from the document release been felt more strongly than in the U.K., where the scandal has raised questions about the way power is wielded by the aristocracy, senior politicians and influential businessmen, known collectively as “the Establishment.”

During the parliamentary debate on Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein, government ministers and other lawmakers demanded more accountability from the royal family.

Trade Minister Chris Bryant said Mountbatten-Windsor was engaged in a constant “self-enriching hustle’’ during his time as a working member of the royal family.

Mountbatten-Windsor was a “rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest, which he said he served, and his own private interest,” Bryant said at the time.

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal title last year as King Charles III tried to insulate the monarchy from the growing fallout from the Epstein scandal. The former prince served as a special envoy for international trade from 2001 to 2011, when he was forced to give up the role because of concerns about his links to questionable figures in Libya and Azerbaijan.

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This version corrects that the release is set to happen Thursday, not Wednesday.

Endicott was arrested after investigators said they seized digital evidence from his possession during an investigation initiated through a Michigan Department of Corrections parole compliance visit.

Police said Endicott, who is currently on parole, was charged with two counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime.

The 68-year-old man was arraigned on May 8 in 72nd District Court.

The Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit encouraged parents to discuss internet safety with their children and to monitor their online activity.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provides a comprehensive list of resources on its website by clicking here.

The Michigan ICAC Task Force also provides resources.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who heads Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, has become a major player in formulating Iran’s tough stance in negotiating a possible end to the war with the United States, experts say. He is believed to be part of a small clique in direct contact with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains in hiding after being reportedly wounded in the Feb. 28 Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Like everything in Iran since the war began, who ultimately controls decision-making remains uncertain. As people within the upper ranks of Iran's theocracy vie for power, they can gain or lose favor quickly. Vahidi himself hasn't been seen publicly since Feb. 8, weeks before the war began. On Thursday, Iranian media carried contradictory reports on Vahidi meeting with Pakistan's interior minister in Tehran, who carried a message regarding negotiations with the U.S. and met with other top Iranian officials.

A longtime veteran of the ruling system, Vahidi helped shape Iran’s support of militant groups across the region, is accused of a role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina, and in 2022, led domestic security forces in a bloody crackdown on protesters.

Elevated to Guard commander this year after his predecessor was killed early in the war, he leads the most powerful force in Iran, with its arsenal of ballistic missiles and its fleet of small boats threatening Persian Gulf shipping.

“Vahidi and members of his inner circle have likely consolidated control over not only Iran’s military response in the conflict but also Iran’s negotiations policy,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said.

Iran’s war strategy has been to keep a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, blocking oil and gas exports and causing a global energy crisis. At the same time, it has struck hard against oil facilities, hotels and infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations.

In negotiations, it has held out against U.S. demands that it surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, betting that it can outlast the U.S. in the ongoing standoff and that President Donald Trump will be reluctant to resume outright war that could bring greater damage to America’s Gulf allies.

That likely reflects Vahidi’s confrontational style. “He comes from that mindset of unending revolution, unending resistance,” said Kenneth Katzman, a senior fellow at the The Soufan Group, a New York-based think tank. Vahidi believes “the U.S. needs to be challenged at every turn,” said Katzman, a senior Iran expert who advised the U.S. Congress for over 30 years.

Vahidi boasted in January that Iran’s defense power has developed to make it a “high risk for any military action by an enemy.”

Vahidi now a focal point in talks

Pakistan hosted talks in April between an Iranian delegation, led by parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and an American one, headed by U.S. Vice President JD Vance. But it ended without any deal.

Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi returned home to face criticism from inside the theocracy suggesting they were too willing to make concessions. Qalibaf had to insist publicly that the talks had the support of the supreme leader.

Since then, Vahidi has become the main point of contact for those negotiating with Iran, said a regional official with direct knowledge of the mediation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.

The extreme seclusion and unknown condition of the supreme leader have fueled speculation about jockeying among leaders for access to Khamenei and influence over him. In early May, President Masoud Pezeshkian, who many see as sidelined from influence by the Guard, went out of his way to say he “got to see our dear leader” and spoke to him for around two hours.

But Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said it’s likely the new supreme leader “is in lockstep with a more hard-line (Guard) — similar to his father, but in a more emboldened and uncompromising form.”

Analyst Kamran Bokhari wrote that figures like Vahidi “are not just managing war — they are actively reshaping succession, consolidating authority around a weakened supreme leader, and effectively ‘capturing’ the state through crisis governance.”

Vahidi forged by years leading Quds Force

Born Ahmad Shahcheraghi in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz in 1958, Vahidi like many young men after the 1979 revolution joined the Revolutionary Guard and fought against the invasion by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein that sparked a bloody, eight-year war.

Vahidi entered the Guard’s nascent intelligence arm and soon was overseeing operations outside Iran. He gained the favor of powerful patrons, including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a later president. Rafsanjani said in his autobiography that Vahidi was involved in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, in which the Reagan administration sold weapons to Tehran in an effort to free hostages held by Iranian-backed militants in Lebanon. The U.S. later used the money from those sales to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Rafsanjani later intervened to protect Vahidi when then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sought to prosecute members of the Guard who failed to stop an incursion by armed fighters from an Iranian exile group in the late 1980s during the war.

Around this time, Vahidi took over the newly formed Quds, or Jerusalem, Force. Over decades, the Quds Force helped create a network of proxy militant groups and allied governments around the Middle East. The Quds Force under Vahidi helped mastermind the 1994 bombing targeting Argentina’s largest Jewish community center, killing 85 people and wounding 300 others, prosecutors say. Iran has denied involvement.

American investigators also believe that under Vahidi, Iran organized the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. service members and wounding hundreds. Tehran has denied being involved in that attack as well.

Vahidi left the Quds Force in 1998. In 2010, while he was defense minister, the United States imposed sanctions on him over alleged involvement in Iran’s nuclear program and its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

More recently, as interior minister, Vahidi oversaw police units involved in a bloody, monthslong crackdown on protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested for not properly wearing the mandated headscarf to the liking of authorities.

An Iranian newspaper later published a classified document that showed Vahidi’s Interior Ministry ordered security agencies to monitor and photograph women not wearing the hijab, something he had denied was taking place.

At around that time, Vahidi said in public comments that calls to remove the hijab were a “colonial plan” by Iran’s enemies trying to undermine the Islamic Republic. “The hijab has been a big barrier against the progress of effete Western culture,” he said.

Vahidi’s role makes reaching an accord with Iran that much more difficult for the U.S. — as does the continued obscurity over Iran’s leadership.

Trump wants a single interlocutor in Iran for negotiations, but "the whole system has changed,” said Hamidreza Azizi, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute.

“It is not a one-man show. Vahidi is one alongside others," Azizi said. "Some we know and some we don’t know.”

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Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, and Amir Vahdat and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

A report in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper on Thursday said Tonzang, near the border with India, was captured by the army on Wednesday after 10 days of operations to retake it. The paper published photos of soldiers who recaptured the town in front of the township’s administrative office and other departments.

That report came a day after Myanma Alinn reported that the army on Tuesday retook control of Mawtaung, a strategically important border town for trade with Thailand, after a two-week operation.

The army’s recapture of Tonzang in northwestern Chin state and Mawtaung in the southern Tanintharyi region come as the army has regained the upper hand in the nationwide conflict since mid-2025, after China-brokered ceasefires and a conscription-driven increase in troop numbers.

The moves also come a month after Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military-backed government, invited the country’s armed resistance groups to fresh peace talks.

Chin and Tanintharyi have seen intense conflict since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and many parts of the country are now enmeshed in civil war.

Tonzang, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of the Indian border, had since May 2024 been under the control of the allied Chin ethnic militias and local resistance forces.

Mawtaung, about 630 kilometers (390 miles) southeast of Yangon, the country’s largest city, has been under the control of the Karen National Union and other local resistance groups.

After more than 207 armed engagements, the bodies of 24 members of the KNU and its allies were recovered and their ammunition supplies were captured, the newspaper report said, adding that some members of the security forces were also killed.

The KNU and other local resistance groups did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Restrictions on reporting make independent confirmation of the recaptures of the towns virtually impossible, though the army’s claim has not been challenged.

South Korea’s Kospi soared 8.4% to 7,815.59, helped by strong buying of technology shares such as Samsung Electronics, which gained 8.5% after its labor union and management reached an agreement late Wednesday that averted a potentially costly strike. Shares in SK Hynix, a computer chipmaker partnering with Nvidia, surged 11.2%.

The advance was partly powered by a stronger-than-expected quarterly report from chipmaker Nvidia, whose profit rocketed more than 200% higher in the February-April quarter from a year earlier, while revenue jumped 85%.

Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the boom in artificial intelligence, thanks to powerful demand for its high-end AI chips. Its shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday before its earnings report was released, but they fell 1.3% in afterhours trading after the announcement.

The Kospi has been breaching records, recently exceeding 8,000 for the first time.

U.S. futures slipped, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX gave up 0.3% to 24,669.59, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2% to 8,102.25. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4% to 10,393.56.

In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1% to 61,684.14 after the government reported that Japan’s exports rose nearly 15% in April from a year earlier, despite shocks from the Iran war.

Technology-related shares were among the biggest winners, with Tokyo Electron gaining 5.9% and Advantest up 4.4%.

Taiwan's Taiex, also heavily weighted toward technology shares, gained 3.9% as major chipmaker TSMC's stock gained 3%.

Chinese markets declined, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 1.2% to 25,352.82. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 2% to 4,077.28.

Indonesia's share benchmark dropped 3.3% as the market absorbed the impact of a government decision to put strategic natural resource exports such as coal under state control.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 picked up 1.5% to 8,621.70.

Oil prices pushed higher early Thursday, a day after Brent crude had dropped 5%. Brent, the international standard, gained $1.46 to $106.48 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added $1.53 to $99.79 per barrel.

Brent remains well above its roughly $70 level from before the war with Iran. Prices have been yo-yoing on rising and falling hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to allow oil deliveries to fully resume from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks bounced back, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.1% for its first rise in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3% and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5%.

Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, as the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.67% late Tuesday. That's a significant move for a market that measures things in hundredths of a percentage point.

The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4% before the war with Iran began, along with other government bond yields around the world, because of worries that the fighting will keep oil prices high, among other factors

High yields slow economies and weigh on prices for stocks, cryptocurrencies and all kinds of other investments. Besides driving up rates for mortgages, they could also curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have been supporting the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

With the easing of yields, technology stocks helped lead Wall Street higher. Advanced Micro Devices jumped 8.1%, while Intel gained 7.4%.

Smaller companies can feel even bigger relief from lower yields than their bigger rivals because many need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 2.6%, more than double the gain of the S&P 500, which measures the biggest U.S. stocks.

Most big U.S. companies have reported better profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected, which has helped stocks run to records. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.05 Japanese yen from 158.92 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1601 from $1.1624.

The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures Thursday of around 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope.

The weather department warned conditions will likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses.

India declares a heat wave whenever temperatures are above 40 C (104 F) in the plains and 30 C (86 F) or more in its hilly regions.

Severe heat disrupts daily life

The extreme heat has disrupted daily life across several northern states.

In some parts of Uttar Pradesh state, India’s most populous, roads and markets have closed in the afternoons as people stayed indoors while some traders shifted work to early mornings. Farmers began working at night because daytime conditions became unbearable.

The heat also disrupted schools, with authorities in several areas announcing early summer vacations and suspending classes as the maximum temperature shot up to 48.2 C (118.8 F) on Tuesday in the city of Banda.

Health authorities urged people to avoid going outdoors during peak afternoon hours, stay hydrated and seek medical help if they experience symptoms such as dizziness or high fever.

Cooling shelters offer relief

In New Delhi, residents and tourists sought relief from the heat inside cooling shelters set up across the capital. The shaded space provides air coolers, fans, drinking water and oral rehydration solutions to help people deal with the extreme heat.

Inside one tent on Wednesday, people rested beside air coolers as officials distributed cups of water mixed with rehydration salts.

“We had come here for outing. But it is too hot here. The cooling system here is good for us,” said Basharat Ahmad Malla, a 25-year-old tourist.

Extreme heat tied to global warming

Climate experts say India’s rising temperatures are part of a broader global pattern linked to climate change.

India has faced more frequent and intense heat waves in recent years, with all of its warmest years on record occurring in the last decade.

“India has warmed considerably as a result of anthropogenic (human-made) climate change in the last decade compared to previous years. Northwestern India has warmed much faster than many other parts of the country,” said Anjal Prakash, author of several United Nations climate reports and professor of public policy at Pune-based Flame University.

Prakash said India is accustomed to summer heat but “climate change is loading the dice towards extreme and pervasive episodes like those we see now.”

Studies by public health experts found that up to 1,116 people have died every year between 2008 and 2019 due to heat. Public health experts say the true number of heat-related deaths is likely in the thousands, but because heat is often not listed on death certificates, many deaths are not counted in official figures.

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Associated Press journalists Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, Piyush Nagpal in New Delhi, and Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India, contributed to this report.

While pitching and hitting in the same game for the first time in four weeks, Ohtani homered on the first pitch of the night and then threw five innings of three-hit ball in Los Angeles' 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres.

After launching his eighth homer of the season and then lowering his ERA to a minuscule 0.73, Ohtani took satisfaction in doing it all even on a night when he didn't feel sharp on the mound.

But in a series-clinching victory over the rival Padres, Ohtani still did enough in both areas to carry the back-to-back World Series champions yet again.

Ohtani said through his interpreter that he had “a lot of uncertainty coming into this outing, because the feel wasn’t great. And so the results were good, but as you saw, the process wasn’t that great. ... I have a pretty high standard in terms of performance, so it didn’t really match."

Two-way superstardom is a burden unique to Ohtani, and he hasn’t been shouldering it as effortlessly as usual this season. While his pitching numbers are stellar — his ERA is now the lowest in the majors among pitchers with at least 25 innings of work — he fell into a slump at the plate in April and struggled into May, with his power production particularly languishing.

“Like we all know, he wants to win that Cy Young, and he wants to help us win games, and he wants to be a really productive offensive player,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “At this point in time, he’s doing all of the above.”

While Ohtani has snapped out of his slump at the plate with 13 hits over the past seven games, he hadn't produced offensively this season in games in which he was also pitching, so Roberts kept the bat out of his hands in his past three mound starts.

The four-time MVP wasn’t thought to be particularly happy about the decision, and Roberts only had his pitcher back in the lineup at Petco Park because the Dodgers have a day off Thursday.

Ohtani showed his approval of the return by immediately driving Randy Vásquez’s high fastball 398 feet to center field for his eighth homer of the season and his 27th career leadoff homer.

“I think that he’s very mindful of everything that’s said about him, and at times he uses that as motivation to prove people wrong, that he can do something,” Roberts said. “I think that he likes to contribute, and I know that he’s heard about (his struggles) on days that he pitches or days after he pitches. So for him to homer in that first at-bat, I think he was like, `OK, I’ve contributed on the offensive side.' And then he took some good at-bats tonight.”

Ohtani is the only player in major league history to hit a game-opening homer as a pitcher, and he has now done it twice. The first time was in one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — his three-homers-and-a-pitching-victory classic in the clinching Game 4 of last fall’s National League Championship Series against Milwaukee.

This time, Ohtani the pitcher gave thanks to Ohtani the hitter for the early lead.

“The goal as a pitcher is not to give up the first run, so I was glad I was able to not do that,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “I was glad we were able to score first.”

And that was all the run support he needed: Ohtani has allowed just four earned runs in 49 innings this season, holding his opponents scoreless in five of his eight starts.

His pitching performance in San Diego wasn't smooth, but it was effective.

Although he retired the Padres' first nine batters, Ohtani needed 52 pitches to do it, and he eventually made his shortest mound start of the season — the first with fewer than six innings of work — along with just 88 pitches, one more than his season low. Roberts gave him a short leash because Ohtani was also in the lineup.

“It’s just another case in point that it’s good for us to be mindful of the workload and just not take that for granted,” Roberts said. “But again, he’s pretty special.”

Ohtani had to escape jams in his final two innings, but he pulled it off.

After San Diego loaded the bases with one out in the fifth on two singles and a walk, Ohtani got Fernando Tatis Jr. to ground into a double play on his final pitch.

The superstar loved it, visibly roaring while exuding a joy he rarely expresses as a hitter.

“I loved the results, but I had walked the guy before, and that wasn’t quite exactly what I wanted to do there, so just the results were good,” Ohtani said.

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

But President Donald Trump is facing his own pressure at home for shipping to resume through the vital corridor off Iran's coast. Fellow Republicans in Congress are battling political headwinds ahead of November's midterm elections as gasoline prices skyrocket and global energy markets churn.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday advanced legislation seeking to force Trump to withdraw from the Iran war, with a growing number of Republicans defying the president in the 50-47 vote.

U.S. Central Command said on social media that the M/T Celestial Sea was searched and redirected after being suspected of trying to head to an Iranian port. It’s at least the fifth commercial vessel to be boarded since the Trump administration imposed the blockade on Iranian shipping in mid-April, several days into a ceasefire, to pressure Tehran into opening the strait and accepting a deal to end the war.

The military boarded the tanker after Trump said Monday he had called off renewed military strikes on Iran in an effort to make progress in negotiations to end the war. Trump said he had planned “a very major attack” for Tuesday but put it off, saying America’s allies in the Gulf asked him to wait for two to three days because they feel they are close to a deal.

Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off.

Before the U.S. blockade, Tehran had allowed some ships perceived as friendly to pass while charging considerable fees, leading to accusations it is holding the global economy hostage.

The U.S. military recently said that 1,550 vessels, from 87 countries, are currently stranded in the Persian Gulf.

Nearly three months since the war began with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, Iran maintains a chokehold on the strait, while the U.S. military has enforced its blockade on Iran's ports as well as Iranian-linked ships that are far away from the Middle East.

Last month, U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. A couple days later, the U.S. seized another tanker associated with smuggling Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

In early May, Trump said the U.S. military would begin to “guide” stranded ships from the Iran-gripped strait. The next day, he announced that the effort to protect ships was paused to see if an agreement could be reached.

Days later, U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military said the tankers were trying to breach the blockade. The day before, the military said it thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities in response.

Following a rain delay that lasted more than two hours, the right-handers traded zeros until the seventh inning — when Toronto loaded the bases with nobody out on an infield single, a walk and a bunt single.

Andrés Giménez then fouled off seven pitches, five with two strikes, before drawing an 11-pitch walk that scored Ernie Clement and chased Schlittler. One out later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lofted a sacrifice fly against Jake Bird to make it 2-0.

Yesavage (2-1) allowed just two hits and walked none while striking out eight over six shutout innings. The 22-year-old rookie has a 1.07 ERA in five starts after missing the first month this season due to a right shoulder impingement.

Three of his strikeouts came against three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge, who fanned all four times up.

Mason Fluharty, Jeff Hoffman and Tyler Rogers combined for six outs before the Yankees threatened against Louis Varland in the ninth. He gave up two hits and Paul Goldschmidt’s run-scoring comebacker before striking out Amed Rosario with a 99 mph fastball to earn his sixth save.

The 25-year-old Schlittler (6-2) permitted eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts as his major league-leading ERA rose to 1.50.

It was the first time Yesavage and Schlittler have squared off after both authored dominant performances as rookies in the postseason last year.

Schlittler struck out 12 over eight innings in a 4-0 win against rival Boston in the decisive game of their AL Wild Card Series to advance New York to the Division Series versus Toronto, where Yesavage tossed 5 1/3 hitless innings with 11 strikeouts in a Game 2 victory over the Yankees.

The start Wednesday night was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 11 minutes.

Blue Jays right fielder Jesús Sánchez was shaken up in the seventh after diving for Goldschmidt's bloop single. Sánchez left the game but simply had the wind knocked out of him and is day-to-day, manager John Schneider said.

Up next

LHP Carlos Rodón (0-1, 5.63 ERA) pitches for the Yankees in Thursday’s series finale. The Blue Jays hadn't announced a scheduled starter, though RHP Spencer Miles (1-0, 2.55) is expected to pitch bulk innings in some capacity.

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

With star defenseman Cale Makar sidelined by an upper-body injury, the Avalanche hardly resembled the top-seeded team that rolled through the first two rounds. They experimented with different line combinations in a 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final.

"There’s definitely a trickle-down effect to that,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of not having Makar. “But he’s not playing. We have find a way.”

A few breakdowns led to some big plays. One of the biggest was Dylan Coghlan splitting the defense down the middle and scoring through the pads of goaltender Scott Wedgewood.

Just the way the night went as the Avalanche trailed 3-0 before making it a one-goal game with 2:21 remaining on a power-play tally from captain Gabriel Landeskog.

“They capitalized early, we fought back," said Wedgewood, who stopped 24 shots. “But just unfortunately didn’t have enough.”

Colorado relied heavily on Devon Toews, who logged 27 minutes, 32 seconds. Brett Kulak was just over 23 minutes and Sam Malinski at 20:31. Josh Manson was just over 19 minutes, Brent Burns, at 41 years old, just shy of 17 minutes and Jack Ahcan, the defenseman who filled in for Makar, was limited to 7:34.

“I think the guys that we had playing tonight, not just the D, were capable more and capable of better,” Bednar said. “It just wasn’t there for us tonight.”

The availability of Makar for Game 2 on Friday night remains unknown. Although, Bednar did say that Makar was “doing a lot better," on Wednesday after morning skate.

Makar hasn't been practicing with the team since he left the ice holding his right arm following a collision late in Game 5 against Minnesota last Wednesday. He did return in that game as Colorado won in overtime. Makar also briefly left Game 1 after taking a hit along the boards, with his right leg flying into the air before he fell to the ice.

His absence is a blow for the Avalanche. This was the first time Makar has missed a playoff game for the Avalanche with an injury. He was suspended one game for interference during a series against Seattle in 2023.

The Norris Trophy finalist has four goals and an assist while averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time through the opening two rounds. Makar also is an integral part of Colorado's special teams.

“Best defenseman in the world,” Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor said before Game 1. "He’s not going to be easily replaced. There’s not one guy that’s going to be able to do it. I think the advantage we have with the group we have in the game tonight is a lot of guys can be minute-munchers for us.

“Cale presents a dynamic ability that is super-unique in the league. No one’s going to replicate that tonight, but it’s on the D-core as a whole, and our group as a whole, to try and pick it up when we can.”

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

For the first time in a NATO and European Union capital, Lithuanians were pictured sheltering in underground car parks in Vilnius on Wednesday, as authorities warned of unidentified drone activity in neighboring Belarus.

No one has died or been injured recently, but the increasing airspace incursions have prompted some Baltic ministers to chastise Ukraine for the violations, which also led to the collapse of the Latvian government in May.

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has driven up the price of oil, a key revenue stream for the Kremlin, Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Baltic Sea ports used for Russian energy exports in an attempt to hit Moscow’s war chest.

As Ukraine’s drones have snaked up north, they have skirted the borders of NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland. Some of them were not detected before they crash landed in some of the Baltic states.

Ukrainian officials apologized and said the drones were aimed at military targets inside Russia but were sent off course by Russian electronic interference.

The string of airspace violations has prompted questions about the state of air defenses on NATO’s eastern flank.

Here's a look at the situation:

Ukraine is targeting Russian ports on the Baltic Sea

Ukraine has ramped up its attacks against Russia, focusing on arms factories, ports on the Baltic Sea and energy facilities as the war in Iran has boosted the oil price.

It has particularly targeted the ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk, close to the borders of Estonia and Finland. Russia uses the ports to load up ships taking its oil exports through the Baltic Sea.

During one attack in May, which set part of the port of Primorsk on fire, more than 60 Ukrainian drones were shot down, Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

After stray Ukrainian drones entered Latvian airspace on May 7, the country’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds and Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned.

On May 19, a Romanian fighter jet based in Lithuania shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said it was likely aimed at targets in Russia and that he told Ukraine to send its drones “as far from NATO territory as possible.”

Russian electronic interference sends drones off course

Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Nordic and Baltic nations have increasingly warned about electronic interference from Russia disrupting communications with planes, ships and drones.

In the Baltic region, Russia often uses jamming and spoofing to send drones off course.

Satellite communications systems — known collectively as the Global Navigation Satellite System, or GNSS — receive precise time signals from satellites around 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) away in space. A smartphone, car, marine or aircraft navigation system compares how long it takes to receive signals from several different satellites to calculate an exact location.

Jamming occurs when a receiver is overwhelmed by a strong radio signal transmitted in the same frequency range as GNSS and other satellite navigation signals, leaving the receiver unable to fix its location or time. Spoofing involves transmitting fake signals that imitate a real GNSS satellite signal, commonly known as GPS, to mislead a phone, ship, or aircraft into thinking it is in a different place.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Tuesday that Russia is “deliberately” redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace with electronic interference.

Drones have been entering Baltic airspace for many months

In September 2025, about 20 Russian drones flew into Poland, putting the spotlight on holes in NATO’s air defenses, as multimillion-dollar jets were scrambled. Those drones were not detected in advance, Estonia's defense minister said at the time.

Neither was a Ukrainian military drone which crashed with explosives in Lithuania last week, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, chief of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre said on Sunday.

While Poland and Romania responded to the drone incursions last year by deploying new anti-drone technology — the first used by the NATO alliance aimed specifically at countering drones — that system is not in place across the entire Baltic region.

Defending against drones requires solving a complex set of technological, financial and bureaucratic problems and "there is no one solution against every type of drone,” Colonel Janno Märk of the Estonian Defense Forces said.

There are various types of drones that operate at different speeds and altitudes, requiring a layered air defense response, Märk said during military exercises in southeastern Estonia.

Budrys, the Lithuanian foreign minister, told AP in an interview Saturday that the Baltic countries are likely going to have to continue to counter incursions from Ukrainian drones as Kyiv now has the capability to reach targets “deep in Russia” as well as ports on the Baltic Sea. The way to counter those drones, he said, is actually with Ukraine's help as the most effective anti-drone systems have been developed in the country.

Russia has threatened to retaliate

Writing on X, Budrys accused Moscow of “waging smear campaigns” after Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, claimed on Tuesday without providing evidence, that Ukraine is preparing to begin launching drone attacks against Russia from the territory of the Baltic countries.

The SVR claimed Ukrainian military personnel had already deployed to Latvia and warned that the country’s NATO membership wouldn’t protect it from “just retribution.”

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Tuesday that none of the Baltic states or Finland have ever allowed Ukraine to use their airspace for strikes against Russia.

Budrys called the SVR claim a “transparent act of desperation” and an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a “simple reality” — that Ukraine is hitting Russia's military machine hard.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised on Tuesday the alliance’s reaction to the drone incidents, saying that they had been met with “a calm, decisive and proportionate response.”

“This is exactly what we planned and prepared for,” Rutte said, blaming Russia’s war on Ukraine for the incursions.

Speaking to The Associated Press amid national festivities, President Jakov Milatovic described NATO membership as a key milestone and said he is confident the country of 623,000 people will fulfill its ambitious agenda of becoming the next member of the 27-member EU in 2028.

The motto “28 by 28” has even been inscribed on one of the planes of the national airline.

“We can achieve it,” Milatovic said from the presidential office in Podgorica, the capital. “I am optimistic about it.”

Concerts and various celebrations are being held in the capital Podgorica this week and other towns in Montenegro, which is known for its stunning Adriatic Sea coastline and towering mountains.

The first in line to join

Montenegro is considered a front-runner for EU membership among the six countries in the Western Balkans, which are at different stages of the process. Several other countries, including Ukraine, hope to join one day as well.

The EU has formed a working group to draft an accession treaty for Montenegro — a signal that membership remains within reach.

EU officials are expected to reiterate the message at a meeting in the coastal Montenegrin town of Tivat in early June with the leaders of the Western Balkan candidate nations. The others are Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo.

Milatovic noted that support for the EU in Montenegro is very high, at around 80%. But the country must also finish democratic and economic reforms, and how quickly it does so, is “now is entirely up to Montenegro,” he added.

There was far less unity when the country 20 years ago chose to leave the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro — itself one of several successor states of Yugoslavia.

A new geopolitical direction

Split between the supporters of independence and those backing the union with Serbia, Montenegro held a referendum on May 21, 2006, to choose its future path after a decade of wars and NATO bombing in 1999 aimed at stopping the war in Kosovo. The result: 55.5% chose independence.

Splitting from the joint state was divisive given that Montenegro has historically close ties with Serbia and because about a third of Montenegrins consider themselves Serbs. Montenegro and Serbia share the same Orthodox Christian religion, speak similar languages and hold centuries-old alliances.

The independence drive was led by Montenegro’s longtime leader Milo Djukanovic, who steered the country into NATO and away from another historic Slavic ally — Russia.

“Twenty years ago, the citizens of Montenegro took decision-making into their own hands, and that was the basis of our development,” the president said.

“The major progress probably happened when the country became a part of NATO in 2017,” he added. “Being a part of NATO for a small country like Montenegro is very important because NATO is indeed a security guarantee for our independence and statehood.”

More work to do

A candidate since 2010, Montenegro still faces many challenges on its EU road, former European integration minister Jovana Marovic said. A key priority involves strengthening state institutions.

“What was missing in the last 14 years, we have to provide now just in six months," she said. “So it’s really demanding, but the process is going on.”

For Montenegro’s citizens, the economy and living standards are the key priorities. Along with democratic reforms, Montenegro has adopted the euro as its currency but the economy remains small and heavily dependent on tourism.

Zorana Popivoda, 28, hailed restoring Montenegro’s independence. But, she added, “then you go into a store and you see that you can buy absolutely nothing.”

President Milatovic, 39 and an economist by training, criticized the previous Montenegrin authorities for not doing more in the early years of independence to boost democratic reforms and to fight against organized crime and corruption.

“I think that over the last 20 years, we can objectively say that the country experienced progress," he said, “but also that Montenegro had a number of missed opportunities.”

The 15 judges at the International Court of Justice were asked in 2023 by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, to settle an internal dispute over whether one of the ILO’s conventions gives workers the right to strike.

The convention has been ratified by 158 countries and is incorporated into U.N. labor standards, guidelines from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and international trade agreements. The United States is a member of the ILO, but hasn't ratified the convention.

Advisory opinions aren't legally binding but carry significant weight and the decision could have a worldwide impact on labor regulations.

A number of U.N. agencies can ask the ICJ to weigh in on legal questions and issue advisory opinions. Last year, the court said in a landmark advisory opinion that countries could be in violation of international law, if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change.

During hearings in October, the court in The Hague heard from 18 countries and five international organizations, including the ILO, with a number of other countries submitting written arguments. The majority of participants favored the right to strike.

Castro was charged for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was defense minister at the time.

President Donald Trump has been escalating talk on regime change in Cuba after the military action in Venezuela early this year resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. In addition, a White House-ordered economic blockade has led to blackouts, food shortages and a collapse in economic activity across Cuba.

The indictment comes amid rising tensions between Trump's administration and Cuba’s government. Meanwhile, the U.S. is in the midst of an uneasy ceasefire in the U.S. war against Iran.

Here’s a closer look at developments over the year between Cuba and the U.S.

Jan. 4

A day after the operation in Venezuela that captured Maduro, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Cuba's government was “in a lot of trouble," as the president renewed calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland.

Jan. 11

Trump fired off a warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braced for potential unrest after Maduro was deposed. Trump called for the Cuban government “to make a deal BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE."

Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded, “Those who turn everything into a business, even human lives, have no moral authority to point the finger at Cuba in any way, absolutely in any way.”

Jan. 30

Trump signed an executive order to impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple the island.

Feb. 27

A day before the war in Iran began, Trumpsaid the U.S. was in talks with Havana and raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover of Cuba,” though he didn't offer any details.

Trump said Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders “at a very high level.”

Trump didn’t clarify his comments but seemed to indicate that the situation with Cuba, among Washington’s bitterest adversaries for decades, was coming to a critical point.

Sometime in February

Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Castro known as "Raúlito," secretly met with Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February.

March 13

Díaz-Canelsaid Cuba and the U.S. held talks, marking the first time the Caribbean country confirmed widespread speculation about discussions with the Trump administration amid an energy crisis.

He said the talks “were aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between our two nations. International factors facilitated these exchanges.”

March 31

A sanctioned Russian oil tanker arrived in Cuba, the first time in three months fuel reached the island.

April 9

Diaz-Canel said he would not resign.

April 10

Two senior State Department officials — Jeremy Lewin, who is in charge of all U.S. foreign assistance, and Michael Kozak, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America — led a delegation to Havana and met with Rodríguez Castro, according to one U.S. official familiar with the meetings.

April 12

Díaz-Canel said in an interview he would not step down and that the U.S. has no valid reason to carry out a military attack against the island or to attempt to depose him.

Speaking in the interview on NBC's “Meet the Press,” the president said an invasion of Cuba would be costly and affect regional security.

April 16

Díaz-Canel spoke during a rally that drew hundreds of people to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the declaration of the Cuban Revolution’s socialist essence.

“The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on April 16, 1961, to be ready to confront serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to avoid it and, if it becomes inevitable, to defeat it,” Díaz-Canel said.

April 17

News emerged that an American delegation recently met with Cuban government officials, marking a renewed diplomatic push. This was at least the third meeting with Rodríguez Castro.

A senior State Department official met with Rodríguez Castro earlier in the month, according to a department official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

The official did not say who from the U.S. met with Rodríguez Castro, whose grandfather is believed to play an influential role in the Cuban government despite not holding an official post. A second U.S. official said Rubio was not part of the delegation that visited Havana.

April 23

A Cuban diplomat speaking at the United Nations said Havana will not abide by any American “ultimatums” to release political prisoners as part of new talks.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Cuban Ambassador to the U.N. Ernesto Soberón Guzmán said internal issues regarding detainees “are not on the negotiating table.” The release of political prisoners was a key U.S. demand as the longtime adversaries held discussions in Cuba for the first time in a decade.

April 28

Senate Republicans rejected legislation from Democrats that would have required Trump to end the U.S. energy blockade on Cuba unless he receives approval from Congress.

The vote on the war powers resolution showed how Republicans continue to stand behind Trump as he acts unilaterally to exert American force in a range of global conflicts, including Venezuela, Iran and Cuba — one of the U.S.’s closest neighbors.

May 7

U.S. officials said the United States was not looking at imminent military action against Havana despite Trump’s repeated threats that “Cuba is next” and that American warships deployed in the Middle East for the Iran conflict could return by way of the island.

The officials involved in preliminary discussions with Cuban authorities also told the AP that they are not optimistic the communist government will accept an offer for tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, two years of free Starlink internet access for all Cubans, agricultural assistance and infrastructure support.

But they said Cuba had not yet outright refused the offer, which came with conditions that the government has long resisted, even after the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Havana.

May 14

U.S. and Cuban officials said CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro’s grandson during a high-level visit to the island.

Ratcliffe met with Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.

May 15

The Justice Department was preparing to seek an indictment against Castro, three people familiar with the matter told the AP.

One of the people said the potential indictment was connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro was defense minister at the time.

All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. The Cuban government did not respond to a request for comment on the potential indictment, which was reported earlier by CBS.

May 18

The State Department imposed a new layer of sanctions on several Cuban government agencies, including the Interior Ministry and National Police and Intelligence Directorate, as the Trump administration continued to ratchet up pressure against the island.

May 20

Federal prosecutors announced a grand jury indictment against Castro in connection with the shootdown of the two Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that two planes, not four, were shot down in 1996.

Except, no, he really didn't.

Yes, Wembanyama made contact with Williams. Yes, it looked like a foul. Yes, it was called that way — at first. Upon review, it was determined that Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein actually shoved Wembanyama into his teammate and caused the foul himself.

That's how physical the Thunder were with Wembanyama in Game 2. They grabbed, pushed, nudged, anything and everything they could muster against the 7-foot-4 French star who still finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots.

But the Thunder won 122-113, tying the series at a game apiece.

“It's all in the scouting,” Wembanyama said. "I have to trust the scouting. We have to trust it and do our work early. It's straight effort. ... Doesn't mean it's easy. We have to work through it."

He knew what was coming, and so did the Thunder. Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault told Hartenstein on Tuesday that he would have a bigger role in Game 2.

“I'm just kind of one of those players that brings physicality to the game,” said Hartenstein, who got only 12 minutes in Game 1 and then assumed a key role in Game 2 — with 10 points and 13 rebounds. “I think that's just kind of what we needed.”

Stopping Wembanyama isn't going to happen. He's too good. The Thunder playbook in Game 2 — and going forward — will be about making life as difficult as possible for him, hoping to prevent outbursts like the 41-point, 24-rebound gem that Wembanyama put together in San Antonio's Game 1 win.

“Every good player, they have to feel the defense," Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It's tough. He’s very different to scout. You've got to try to mix things up, you've got try different things. And that’s just what we did. Coach tried something in the first game, didn’t like it, tried something else. That’s what it’s about.”

Wembanyama's debut in the conference finals is off to an elite start. He has got 62 points and 41 rebounds through the first two games; the last player with 60 points and 40 rebounds in the first two games of the conference finals was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1974 — with 69 points and 40 rebounds for Milwaukee against Chicago.

But the MVP finalist and Defensive Player of the Year wasn't in the mood to hear stats. He wanted a 2-0 lead, and settling for a 1-1 tie going home for Game 3 wasn't cause for celebration. The Spurs rallied from 13 down in the fourth to make it interesting, but couldn't finish the comeback.

He was asked what the toughest part of Game 2 was.

“I would say it's spending so much energy on catching back up ... then letting it go away,” Wembanyama said.

That, to him, was the biggest hit of all.

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In 2020, he was a 21-year-old starting goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers, going 9-6 in their run to the second round in the Eastern Conference during the Toronto bubble, posting a .926 save percentage and two shutouts.

After serving time in hockey exile while mired in the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal — for which he was acquitted — Hart joined the Vegas Golden Knights last December. He's sparked them in these playoffs, going 9-4 and helping the Golden Knights steal home ice with a 4-2 win at top-seeded Colorado in the opener of their Western Conference Final on Wednesday night.

“We know they’re a good team," said Hart, who has a .920 save percentage in these playoffs while allowing just 2.35 goals per game. “We know they got a lot of skill on their team and we respect that, but you can’t respect them too much. And I thought we did a good job of defending and limiting their time in space and I thought we blocked a lot of shots tonight and got in a lot of lanes and tied up some sticks.”

Hart was stellar in stopping the pucks that reached him, turning away 36 of 38 shots. The only ones he allowed to get through were a between-the-legs aberration by Valeri Nichushkin and a late goal from Gabe Landeskog when the Avs had pulled goaltender Scott Wedgewood on a power play for a two-man advantage.

“Carter Hart’s a hell of a goalie,” said Golden Knights coach John Tortorella, who took over in Vegas on March 29 and who also coached Hart in Philadelphia. "He was great in Philly for me, and we’ve got two good ones, you know. (Adin Hill)'s kind of been put off to the side a little bit, that’s a guy that just won a Stanley Cup a couple years ago.

"But Carter, I think he’s grown so strong mentally. I don’t think much bothers him. He is just zeroed in. And he’s going to have to be, because we’ve got a lot of work to do here.”

The respect is mutual.

“Yeah, I think he’s done a great job coming in here,” Hart said. “It’s never easy coming in late in the season like he did and I think he’s done a tremendous job of just rallying the group and earning the guys’ trust and I really enjoy playing for him. I enjoyed playing for him in Philly and I’m happy he’s here.”

Beginning in early 2024, Hart was placed on an indefinite leave of absence from hockey after he was charged in connection with an alleged sexual assault involving members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team as part of the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal; he was acquitted of all charges last year and resumed his career with Vegas.

The league reviewed the case and agreed to allow the acquitted defendants to play starting Dec. 1, 2025. Hart was the first of those five Canada junior players to agree to an NHL deal, signing a two-year, $4 million contract before working with Vegas’ American Hockey League affiliate in Henderson, Nevada.

After he agreed to sign, Hart read a statement to reporters that, in part, said he wanted “to show the community my true character and who I am and what I’m about.”

He's also showing how much help he can be for Vegas' hopes of winning another Stanley Cup. He made 10 stops in the scoreless first period as the Golden Knights served notice that they weren't going to be like the Los Angeles Kings or Minnesota Wild, who went a combined 1-8 against Colorado in prior rounds.

“It’s huge,” Hart said. “To come out like we did, I thought we came out really good in the first period and I know this is a hard building to play in and it was huge for us just to get rolling and just start off the right way and then build off that.”

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Trailing 3-0 in the third period, Colorado made it 3-2 with 2:21 remaining on a power-play goal from Gabriel Landeskog. Nic Dowd sealed it for Vegas with an empty-net goal.

Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden also scored for the Golden Knights, who took advantage of several defensive miscommunications by the Avalanche as they juggled their blue-line pairings with Cale Makar sidelined by an upper-body injury.

Coghlan scored his first NHL goal since Dec. 17, 2021. The 28-year-old defenseman spent most of the season in the American Hockey League. He's played the last five postseason games with the recent injury to Jeremy Lauzon.

“When you say Dylan Coghlan to me, I think of no fear,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “I think he's one of our best defensemen since he's been with us and in the lineup. ... He's a bit unflappable."

It was a smothering performance most of the game by the Golden Knights as they kept the pressure on goaltender Scott Wedgewood, while controlling the Avalanche's speed through the neutral zone. Vegas also had 23 blocked shots.

“We didn't play a flawless game by any means,” Tortorella said. “We have work to do.”

Valeri Nichushkin had a goal at 5:53 of the third to make it 3-1.

Hart was stellar most of the evening, making one sprawling save after another. He got some help from his post, too, when Logan O’Connor's liner clanged off it in the first period.

“We know they've got a lot of skill on their team, and we respect that,” Hart said. “But you can’t respect them too much, and I thought we did a good job of defending and limiting their time and space.”

Mitch Marner added an assist for Vegas to give him 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in this postseason. It was Dorofeyev’s NHL-leading 10th goal of this postseason. The Golden Knights didn’t have injured captain Mark Stone.

“We’re trying to play our game, not worrying too much about countering off another team," Tortorella explained. "They feel very comfortable in it.”

Game 2 is Friday night in Denver.

The Avalanche dropped their first game at home after winning five straight through the first two rounds. Wedgewood made 24 saves.

“It was kind of a nothing game, and then they got a few goals,” Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. "Really good team, obviously, but I thought we did a lot of damage to ourselves. Just guys kind of everywhere. Execution, like I said, needs to be better. Obviously, we’re capable of being a lot better than that.”

Colorado tried some different combinations without Makar. It led to some confusion, with Coghlan sneaking into the middle of the ice and lining a shot through the pads of Wedgewood to break a scoreless game in the second period.

“There's definitely a trickle-down effect to that," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of not having Makar. “But he's not playing. We have find a way.”

Coghlan has bounced around over his career, spending his first two seasons with Vegas before stints with Carolina and Winnipeg. He returned to the Golden Knights last July in part, he said, because of the bonds he'd formed.

“This is probably the best I've felt in my whole career,” said Coghlan, who played in three regular-season games for Vegas this season. “Whoever it is I'm playing with I'm very comfortable out there with them. They make it pretty easy on me. We have some pretty world-class players.”

The Golden Knights and Avalanche are meeting in a best-of-seven series for the second time. In 2021, Colorado won the opening two games of their second-round series before Vegas captured four straight.

“ Definitely things we can get better at,” Landeskog said. “But we knew it was (going to) be a long series.”

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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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In rambling writings full of vitriol against a wide range of people, the teenagers who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego this week, killing three men and themselves, left little doubt about the models for their violence.

Chief among them: the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.

Researchers who study extremism have long noted the resonance of the Christchurch attack among far-right assailants, attributing it to the extent of the violence, the document the killer posted concerning his views and actions, and — especially — his decision to livestream the massacre. Among those who apparently modeled attacks after Christchurch was a shooter who months later killed 22 people in a Texas Walmart.

“Part of what we’re seeing in violent extremist communities online is wanting to emulate the attacks that have had the most kills — which is a disgusting thing to say, but it's the reality,” said Katherine Keneally, director of threat analysis and prevention at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an anti-extremism organization. “There is this obsession and it’s just sort of gamifying of attacks.”

Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, stormed the Islamic Center on Monday before being driven back outside by a security guard who exchanged gunfire with them as he initiated a lockdown, helping to protect 140 children, authorities have said.

The pair killed the guard, Amin Abdullah, and two other men before taking their own lives in a vehicle nearby.

Writings heavy on hate and grievance

They left behind a 74-page document — the same length as the one written by Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant. Like Tarrant's, it cited a range of far-right ideological inspirations, including the notion that white people are being replaced by other populations, and offered self-interviews detailing their motives and goals.

And they called themselves “Sons of Tarrant.”

The writings include hateful rhetoric toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, as well as the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, women, and the political left and right. They indicated they were trying to accelerate the collapse of society. In his section, Vazquez wrote of having “some mental health issues” and being rejected by women.

Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino, noted that while white supremacist writings dating to the 1970s offered a narrative blueprint for decentralized terror attacks, neo-Nazis decades ago favored an approach sometimes called the “propaganda of the deed” — the attack on its own was supposed to inspire copycats, even without written explanations.

The internet has made it easier to spread writings by attackers, and since a far-right attacker killed 77 people in Norway in 2011 and released a 1,500-page document, it has become more common for writings to accompany such atrocities, Levin said. Frequently the writings quote from past white-supremacist texts.

“This strategy of being another chapter in a continuing chain of extremism not only telegraphs that the movement is bigger than it is, but also its resilience — that it is reoccurring with a different set of violent actors, some of whom die in the process,” Levin said.

A contagion of mass violence

The shooting was the latest in a series of attacks on houses of worship. Threats and hate crimes targeting the Muslim and Jewish communities have risen since war began in the Middle East, forcing increases in security.

Keneally said she had mixed feelings about the media attention on the attacks: The public needs to understand what happened, but it also risks amplifying the killers' message and spreading the contagion of mass violence. She said she has struggled with questions she has gotten about whether such attacks are motivated by nihilistic extremism, or accelerationist, neo-Nazi, or white supremacist ideologies.

“We’re trying to put people in buckets and we’re asking the why, but we’re not going back and looking at the how," Keneally said. "How did these kids end up going down this route? How is social media playing a role in that?”

At 17 and 18, she said, healthy teenagers should be excited about graduating high school or entering young adulthood, not engaging with extremist ideologies.

Another form of inspiration

While hateful extremism inspired the teens to attack the Islamic center, it inspired the security guard, Abdullah, in another way: to defend it.

In an interview, his friend Khalid Alexander said Abdullah was increasingly concerned about negative rhetoric toward Muslims, including from politicians.

“He recognized a direct kind of correlation between the threat of the community he was protecting and the types of, really, hate that was being spewed on television in an anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-immigrant feeling,” Alexander said. “And so he was keenly aware of the dangers of his job. And that’s exactly why he chose to do it.”

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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.

The reason: Another hamstring problem, which the Thunder called tightness.

Williams appeared to be getting treatment on the hamstring during the first half, then left the bench area and did not play in the second quarter. Television footage showed him walking toward the locker room holding a large wrap on the back of his left leg.

Cason Wallace started the second half in Williams' place, and the Thunder announced that Williams wouldn't return not long afterward. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Williams would be evaluated on Thursday.

“He’s going to get checked out," Daigneault said after Oklahoma City's 122-113 win that evened the series at a game apiece. "I don’t deal in like hypotheticals, especially when doctors are involved. ... We'll see where he’s at. We’ll update him accordingly.”

Williams returned for Game 1 of the Spurs' series, scoring 26 points in 37 minutes on Monday night in Oklahoma City's 122-115 double-overtime loss. He had four points in seven first-quarter minutes Wednesday, including an alley-oop dunk with 2:12 left in the period.

Game 3 of the series is Friday in San Antonio.

Williams missed 55 of the Thunder’s first 91 games this season entering Wednesday, including playoffs. Of those absences, 19 were for a right wrist issue and the other 36 were related to his hamstrings — the right one costing him 30 games during the regular season, the left one costing him the most recent six during the playoffs.

“Obviously, if we don’t have him, it hurts," Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. “I still believe in this team though. We've played a bunch of games without him, won big games without him. I still think we’ll get the job done. But losing a guy ... no matter how good your team is otherwise it hurts a little bit. And for him, just like as a human being, he’s had a tough year with injuries.”

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What is planned for the finale has not been revealed but the folks at “The Late Show” have had months to prepare for the end of the network’s 33-year franchise.

Guests in the final week have included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen, while there's been a wacky version of “It’s Raining Men” remade into “It’s Raining Fish.”

CBS announced last summer that Colbert’s show would end, citing economic reasons after 11 seasons. But Colbert is the ratings leader in late-night TV. Many — including Colbert — have expressed skepticism that President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the show wasn't a factor.

The decision to shutter the show came after parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview as Paramount awaited his administration's approval of a pending sale to Skydance Media. Colbert had called it a “big fat bribe.”

Dustin Kidd, a professor of sociology at Temple University, notes that Colbert leaves at the top of his game and as the ratings leader on late night. Canceling him can’t be explained strictly through economics, he said.

“I would argue that it’s answerable, frankly, through politics,” Kidd said. “There’s been a lot of political pressure levied against this show and a lot of political pressure at work within CBS more generally. And I think that has a lot more to offer in terms of explaining why this show, at this time.”

Colbert’s chief rivals, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” will both run reruns on Thursday night at the same time as Colbert's goodbye.

CBS will fill “The Late Show” slot with “Comics Unleashed,” in which comedians share stories. Host Byron Allen has vowed to avoid politics.

Pressured by the White House, Republicans have tried to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. But the security proposal met with backlash from some GOP lawmakers who are questioning the cost and how the taxpayer dollars would be used.

The bill’s text has not yet been released, but the Senate hopes to pass it this week and send it to the House before leaving for a weeklong Memorial Day recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged “ongoing vote issues” on Wednesday as leaders tired to measure Republican support, as well as “ongoing parliamentarian issues” as they try to figure out what will be allowed in the bill under the chamber’s rules.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Wednesday that the bill would be “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the effort to add the security package to the bill was a “bad idea” and he does not think there is enough backing to pass it, even if the cost were reduced.

The wrangling comes as Democrats have criticized Republicans for trying to fund Trump’s ballroom when voters are concerned about basic affordability issues — and as some GOP lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump. Several GOP senators have spoken out against the administration’s $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump’s allies who believe they have been persecuted, and many were upset by the president’s endorsement Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the party primary runoff next week against Sen. John Cornyn.

“There’s always a consequence with taking on United States senators,” Thune said Wednesday. The president “obviously has his favorites and people he wants to endorse and that’s his prerogative. But what we have to deal with up here is moving the agenda, and obviously that can become slightly more complicated.”

Republicans could set parameters on Trump's settlement fund

The “anti-weaponization" fund, part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, has unexpectedly become one of the main complications in the bill. Democrats said they would force votes to block it or place restrictions on it.

Democrats have an opening because Republicans are trying to pass the immigration enforcement bill through a complicated budget process that requires a long series of amendment votes. Democrats are considering multiple amendments, potentially to block that new fund outright or to ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Those amendments, along with others, could pass as a growing number of Republicans have voiced reservations about the fund. So Republicans are now discussing their own last-minute additions to head that off, potentially placing some parameters on the settlement and who could receive compensation, according to two people with knowledge of the private discussions who requested anonymity to discuss them.

Thune — who said Tuesday that he is “not a big fan” of the settlement and doesn't see a purpose for it —- said Wednesday that any new language potentially putting restrictions on the settlement is “a work in progress."

It's unclear how any Senate Republican changes would be received in the House, even as some Republicans there have also criticized the settlement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that the House will pass the bill “whatever form it takes.”

Tensions rise between Senate and White House

As Republicans challenged the settlement and parts of his agenda, Trump unloaded on the Senate in a social media post.

He urged Republicans to fire the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who said over the weekend that parts of the $1 billion security proposal cannot remain in the ICE and Border Patrol bill. Trump also renewed his long-standing calls for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, a Republican bill that would require all voters to prove U.S. citizenship, and to end the Senate filibuster.

Republicans need to “get smart and tough," Trump said, or “you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!”

While they have been loyal to Trump on most issues, Senate Republicans have resisted his repeated calls — even in his first term — to kill the filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

Hanging over the growing GOP rift is Trump’s surprise endorsement of Paxton. That intervention has Republican senators privately fuming that it could cost them their majority in November as they view the incumbent, Cornyn, as the better candidate in the November general election.

Secret Service request falters as Republicans want more detail

Under the Secret Service’s request, about $220 million would fund security improvements related to the ballroom. The rest would go for a new screening center for visitors, training and other security measures.

Tillis said the bill should not have included the other security improvements “because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion-dollar ballroom.'"

Several other Republicans in the House and Senate have questioned the request, and senators left a briefing with the director of the Secret Service last week saying they needed a lot more information.

People “can’t afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?” asked Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost reelection in his GOP primary on Saturday after Trump endorsed one of his opponents.

Left in the bill is the money for ICE and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown.

Democrats demanded reforms for the agencies, but negotiations with the White House yielded little progress. So Republicans are using the complicated budget maneuver called reconciliation — the same process that allowed them to pass Trump's tax and spending cuts bill last year — to fund the agencies through the end of Trump's term with a simple majority and no Democratic votes.

Still, passage requires signoff from the parliamentarian and unity from Republicans.

“We're working on it,” Thune said as he left the Capitol on Wednesday evening.

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Richard Knight, 47, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Knight was sentenced to death after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2006 for the deaths of Odessia Stephens and her four-year-old child, Hanessia Mullings.

This would be Florida’s seventh execution so far this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.

According to court records, Knight had been living in Coral Springs, near Fort Lauderdale, with his cousin, his cousin's girlfriend and their daughter in June 2000. Knight and Stephens frequently argued about Knight living there. One evening while Knight's cousin was at work, Stephens told Knight that he would need to move out the next morning. Knight became angry and stabbed Stephens multiple times and then attacked the young girl, officials said.

While being held at the Broward County Jail following his arrest, Knight confessed the killings to another inmate, who testified against Knight during his trial.

The Florida Supreme Court denied Knight's appeals last Friday. The court rejected his claim of newly discovered evidence, pointing out that an unidentified fingerprint found on a knife at the murder scene was known about and addressed during Knight's original trial. The court also rejected claims based on Florida's execution protocols and warrant process.

A final appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each.

Another execution is planned in Florida on June 2. Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was convicted of fatally beating of his girlfriend's infant daughter in 1996.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Just like that, the Spurs have some big issues to deal with in the Western Conference finals.

Fox — the Spurs' All-Star guard — tried to go through a pregame workout Wednesday but his right ankle wasn't good enough to let him play. So, the Spurs kept Dylan Harper in the starting lineup in his place, only to see him leave in the third quarter with a leg injury.

The Spurs got a split of the first two games in Oklahoma City, but it's anyone's guess who'll start in the backcourt when the series resumes in San Antonio on Friday night.

“It's a tough injury that he wouldn't be playing with in the regular season,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of Fox's ankle injury, the severity of which has not been fully disclosed by the team. “He's trying to tough it out.”

Harper took two awkward falls about a minute apart in the third quarter and was ruled out not long afterward. Johnson didn't have an update on him after Game 2, which Oklahoma City won 122-113 to even the series.

The Spurs held out hope until about an hour before game time that Fox could play, and Johnson — just as he did Monday — indicated that Fox's status will be a series of game-time decisions for the rest of the season.

“It’ll be pretty status quo moving forward, I believe, regardless of if he plays in games or not,” Johnson said. “This’ll be just kind of the world we live in.”

Fox was an All-Star this season for the Spurs, averaging 18.6 points per game in the regular season — second on the team behind only Victor Wembanyama's 25 points per game.

Harper — who was named to the NBA's All-Rookie first team earlier Wednesday — was brilliant in the Spurs' Game 1 win, with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and a team playoff record seven steals.

He had 12 points in 25 minutes on Wednesday before heading to the locker room.

Harper, who turned 20 on March 2, is the second-youngest player to have appeared in this season's playoffs, behind only Minnesota's Joan Beringer and Phoenix's Khaman Maluach — both still just 19. Beringer and Maluach combined to score 24 points in the playoffs, matching the total that Harper had in Game 1 against the Thunder alone.

“He didn't just get this talented or this good,” Johnson said of Harper before the game. “For him to buy in to the role that was in front of him, for him to do what was asked and be held accountable and learn what it took and what we needed to win games and be a part of it — while probably suppressing some of his individual capabilities — is hard to do for a 19- to 20-year-old.

“For him to be able to do that and grow as a winning team player and then have his individual talent pop as well — it's hard to do in this league at any time. Doing it as a rookie in the playoffs is ridiculous.”

___

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

The Republican president’s years of false claims that his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud have shadowed many elections since in the presidential battleground. The issue is almost certain to play a role in a four-week runoff campaign as GOP voters choose nominees for governor, secretary of state and the U.S. Senate.

Among the contenders: one of Trump’s alternate electors in his attempt to overturn Biden’s win in the state, a Trump acolyte who won his first congressional race while saying Trump won in 2020 and a secretary of state hopeful who echoes Trump’s conspiracy theories as he vies to become Georgia’s top elections official.

To be clear, Georgia's presidential votes were counted three times, including once by hand, and each one affirmed Biden's victory.

The primary came amid continued legal and political wrangling over how elections are managed in Fulton County — home to heavily Democratic Atlanta. Trump's questioning of the Georgia results and longtime criticism of Fulton County elections were supercharged earlier this year when the FBI searched the county’s election office, seizing ballots and records from 2020.

The primary election's first-round results showed that siding with Trump, even on his election lies, is good politics within the GOP. Georgia candidates who opposed Trump’s efforts in 2020 got trounced. But some conservatives worry that misplaying the issue — or emphasizing it at all — could backfire with the general electorate in November.

“We’re going to look stupid,” warned Debbie Dooley, an early tea party organizer who supported Trump from the outset of his first presidential campaign. “What are you going to say — Trump won, and he was always the president? It serves no purpose.”

She said Republicans should instead focus on the economy, and that any mention of election procedures should look to “securing future elections, looking forward.”

Whether Trump sees it that way is another question. The president already has endorsed Burt Jones, one of his 2020 alternate electors, in the governor’s race. Dooley, who is backing Jones, said she wouldn't be surprised if Trump comes to Georgia to campaign — and air his 2020 grievances again.

“I don’t know if the president gets it or not,” she said.

A 2020 Trump fake elector in the governor's race

Jones was a state lawmaker in 2020 when he joined Trump’s cause to overturn Biden’s 11,779-vote margin in Georgia. He parlayed that loyalty into winning the lieutenant governor’s office in 2022 and getting Trump’s early endorsement in his bid for a promotion. On Tuesday, he won about four out of 10 Republican votes.

Trump and Jones don’t revisit the details, but Trump has praised Jones multiple times on his Truth Social platform for his loyalty while Jones has promoted “election integrity.”

Jones’ runoff rival, billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson, is among the Republicans who does not talk much about the 2020 election. But he spent a slice of the $83 million he invested in his own campaign on an ad attacking outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another GOP candidate for governor who resisted Trump’s urging to help find “find 11,800 votes” to reverse Biden’s victory in 2020.

In the ad, a child is shown asking his mother why she chose the name Brad. The mother replies that her second choice was “Judas” – in the New Testament account, the name of the disciple who betrays Jesus to Roman authorities. The full name “Brad ‘Judas’ Raffensperger” appeared on the screen at the end of the spot.

Raffensperger finished a distant third in this week's primary, with just 15% of the vote.

Senate primary leader said Democrats stole 2020

Rep. Mike Collins, who led the Senate GOP primary with about 40% of the vote, has never backed off his false claims that Biden’s win was rigged, an argument he featured when he first ran for Congress in 2022.

“You count the legal votes that were cast in the state of Georgia, Donald Trump won this state. Period,” he said in one ad, in which he held a long gun and bemoaned the “federal hijacking” of the 2020 election. He concluded with shooting a mock voting machine.

Collins’ runoff rival, former college football coach and political newcomer Derek Dooley, has been more circumspect. But both men are pledging fealty to Trump, with the president thus far not endorsing in the race to determine who will challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

It’s notable that Dooley’s main political benefactor is outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, who like Raffensperger drew Trump’s ire in 2020 for certifying Biden’s slate of electors.

Kemp ran for and won reelection in 2022, saying Republicans should look forward instead of relitigating the 2020 election. Trump eventually made up with Kemp during the 2024 presidential campaign, and advisers to both men say Kemp has discussed the Senate contest with the president.

A conspiracy theorist in the race to succeed Raffensperger

State Rep. Tim Fleming, a former deputy secretary of state, and former state Rep. Vernon Jones, a Trump loyalist and perennial candidate, were the top vote-getters in the contest for secretary of state and will face off next month.

Jones, a former Democrat, embraced Trump's “stop the steal” movement and said during an Atlanta Press Club debate last month, “I stand with those who believe there was election fraud.”

Fleming, who worked under Kemp when the governor was secretary of state, has said there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election — a buzz word among Republicans who stop short of echoing Trump without refuting him. But Fleming said he believes the state has made great strides since then in improving elections and said he wants to focus on future elections.

Fleming and Jones far outpaced one of Raffensperger's top aides, Gabriel Sterling, who gained attention in December 2020 for urging Trump to help discourage threats of violence against election workers. Sterling got 12% of the primary vote, finishing fourth.

Heavily Democratic Fulton County remains a Trump, GOP target

Trump has long fixated on Fulton County, alleging it was the center of Georgia fraud in 2020. The FBI seized 2020 ballots and documents from the county elections offices in January, and the county remained a punching bag for Republicans through vote tabulations on Tuesday.

During voting hours, two voting precincts were closed for four hours in an Atlanta suburb after police received a call about possible gunfire and a suspicious person wearing military-style clothing. While the incident was unrelated to the primary, a judge ordered the precincts to stay open until 11 p.m. to make up for the lost time, and Fulton officials said the law prevented them from releasing any results until those precincts were closed.

State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican runoff candidate for lieutenant governor, tried to capitalize on the delay, despite the fact that he's seeking an office with no role over tabulating ballots or certifying elections.

“Here we are on Election Night, Georgians are anxiously awaiting the results, and which county hasn’t even started reporting? It’s always Fulton County,” Dolezal posted on social media. “It’s time for Georgia to takeover the process. We will not have another 2020 this November!”

The monumental, rocky illusion is swallowing the 17th-century landmark, which has carried Parisians across the Seine for more than 400 years. By Thursday, it looked as if a prehistoric cliff had risen in the heart of the city.

The inflation process, which was carried out overnight — after being delayed by bad weather — is the most dramatic stage yet of a project more than a year in the making.

One of the most ambitious public artworks Paris has seen in decades, which has been funded by the sale of JR’s work and a handful of corporate partners, does not open to the public until June 6.

“We’re about to leave something pretty incredible in the middle of Paris,” JR told The Associated Press earlier this year at his studio in the city’s east, wearing his trademark hat and shades.

The transformation of the bridge has been documented by the AP since March with time-lapse cameras, including one fixed on a rooftop terrace high above the river, watching the bridge slowly disappear day by day.

From the outside, the installation looks like a rocky mass that “literally” breaks the landscape, said JR, who is famous for pasting enormous photographs on buildings, walls and rooftops around the world. This time he wanted Parisians to do something unusual on their busiest bridge: stop.

Visitors will be able to walk for free through a long, dark tunnel that lets in no daylight and where, according to JR, people “will lose track of time.”

The numbers are startling. The structure is 120 meters (393 feet) long and 18 meters (59 feet) tall — which is as high as a six-story building.

Yet it is built almost entirely from air — 80 fabric arches filled with 20,000 cubic meters of it — and weighs only about five tons. The fabric was hand stitched by 25 artisans in a village in Brittany.

Nothing digs into the historic stone.

Cut the air and the cliff would sink like a held breath — a collapse JR’s engineers spent weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Orly airport to be sure that if the power ever failed, the rock would come down gently.

The artwork, called La Caverne du Pont Neuf, is a tribute to a Parisian artistic legend.

In 1985, artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, wrapped the same bridge in pale golden fabric — 13 kilometers of rope, a decade of arguing with city hall, three million visitors in two weeks. The act helped invent the idea of monumental art in modern cities.

A square beside the bridge now carries their names.

“It’s pretty hard to go after them,” JR said.

His idea, he said, is to bring “mineral and nature” back to the heart of the city. He is not covering the bridge but undressing it — sending the dressed stone back to the limestone quarries from which Paris itself was cut.

The cave is also a warning. JR built it as a nod to Plato’s allegory, in which prisoners mistake shadows on a wall for the real world.

“What are our caves today? Our phones,” he said. “Because we believe that our algorithm on social media is the reality.”

Then he walks straight into the contradiction: to enter his cave about screens, visitors raise their phones.

The tech company Snap has built an augmented-reality layer that shows what the eye cannot.

The sound is a low, mineral hum from Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk — who was 10 the year Christo wrapped the bridge.

The cave will be open around the clock from June 6-28, closing the bridge to traffic and visible from the quays, from passing boats, even from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

It will coincide with Paris Fashion Week, World Music Day and the all-night Nuit Blanche arts festival.

When it comes down, the fabric will be reused or recycled. Air, JR likes to say, leaves no scar.

Then, like the golden wrapping 40 years before, the cave will be gone — and the Pont Neuf, older than the republic and older than the revolution, will reappear exactly as it was.

Ask Brits what they think of their former colonies in 2026, and they note these long-held views of America and Americans. But after 250 years of independence from Britain, the country’s former rulers cannot discuss the United States without mentioning President Donald Trump, almost always before listing the many qualities they admire and appreciate in the upstart nation across the pond.

“It’s Trump’s world now, isn’t it?” says Mark Keightley, a printer technician who serves the Cambridge area, about an hour north of London.

Over the past year, The Associated Press asked Britons — from George Washington’s ancestral home near Scotland to Cambridge, Bristol and London — a neutral question: “What do you think of America now?” Virtually every answer, even from those like Keightley who support some of the president’s policies, begins with a considered pause, followed by a crisp euphemism for Trump and the Trump era.

"Your president ..." "The current state of politics …" and "He …" with no ambiguity about who, are typical. And they suggest as much about the British perception of their former colony as the commentary that tends to come next. Is it possible to talk about America now without referencing Trump, they are asked? The unanimous answer, according to these interviews: No.

“My own opinion of America is now dictated by the president and he’s not covering himself in glory as far as I’m concerned,” said Eddie Boyle of Falkirk, Scotland, as he walked across Westminster Bridge in London last week. “It’s a shame that such a long arrangement between the two countries has been tarnished."

‘The Country disappoints me’

Being British and disappointed by the reality of the United States isn't a new phenomenon.

Charles Dickens wrote to a friend that he felt just that way during his 1842 visit to the new nation, where he was feted from Boston to New York and Washington — and reportedly earned a fortune from public readings of his work. But he was horrified by the ongoing practice of slavery, which Britain abolished in 1833. And the celebrated freedom of expression that Americans had enshrined in the First Amendment, he wrote, had gone awry with “a press more mean, and paltry, and silly, and disgraceful than any country I ever knew.”

Also, he wrote in a travelogue, Americans spit in public — a “filthy custom.”

“This is not the Republic I came to see. This is not the Republic of my imagination,” he wrote to William Charles Macready on March 22, 1842. “In every respect but that of National Education, the Country disappoints me.”

Over time, the history of the U.S.-U.K. relationship unfolded in such a way that no one event or president can define it.

Several inflection points inspired Britain to take America seriously as a permanent power and not a temporary, rebellious whim. Among them, the War of 1812 — a rematch of sorts between the two nations. It ended in a draw, but the conflict boosted the sense of American independence and established the United States as a sturdy trading and military force to be reckoned with.

The new country then survived its own Civil War. Then, before a century elapsed, the United States helped Britain fend off Nazi occupation and, with the rest of the Allied powers, defeated Germany during World War II. Four decades later, the storied friendship between President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher helped drive the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“They did something great there,” Maria Miston of Suffolk, pausing recently near Big Ben, says of Thatcher and Reagan. “They actually managed to bring the Cold War to an end.” She notes that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 damaged the superpower's image around the world. And, she thinks, it hasn't gotten better. “We've just gone backwards since then.”

Trump rebrands the ‘special relationship’

During his second term, the American president first tolerated his fellow head of government, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but then dismissed him as “ not Winston Churchill ” over the premier’s refusal to involve the U.K. in the U.S. war against Iran.

Trump has suggested that he considers the king, not the prime minister, to be his peer. The president was deeply flattered by the king’s invitation for an unprecedented second state visit to England — and a dazzling royal dinner at Windsor Castle — last year as well as Charles’ recent visit to Washington. In the U.S., Charles said the four-century-long U.S.-British relationship is “more important today than it has ever been,” even as he laid in support for checks and balances — seen as an implicit criticism of Trump.

The White House posted on social media that the pair are “TWO KINGS,” — in part, perhaps, a clapback to the “No Kings” rallies that drew crowds across the U.S. during Charles’ visit. But the irony was not missed in the land of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” and more founding-era documents that rejected the rule of Charles’ five-times great-grandfather, King George III, and government by monarchy generally.

Back home, where polls showed significant opposition to the king’s visit beforehand, Charles’ performance won raves as a show of soft power. That seemed all the more noteworthy given the obvious tension between the monarch and the president over climate issues, and Trump’s threat to make Canada the 51st state, where Charles is sovereign.

“May I say, well done in the Americas,” rock star Rod Stewart told Charles at a May 11 gala within earshot of reporters. “You were superb, absolutely superb, put that little rat bag in his place.”

Polls show Britons have soured on America. Only 28% of British adults approved of U.S. leadership in a Gallup poll conducted in the late summer and early fall of 2025, while 68% disapproved. That’s broadly in line with views of U.S. leadership during Trump’s first term, and lower than approval of U.S. leadership under Democratic President Joe Biden, when around 45% of U.K. adults approved of American leadership.

The Pew Research Center’s 2025 Global Attitudes Survey, conducted in the spring of that year, found that roughly half of U.K. adults had a favorable view of the U.S. British adults had a sunnier view of America in the first two years of Biden’s presidency, when about two-thirds had a favorable view of the U.S. That fell to 54% by the spring of 2024.

U.S.-U.K. relations have been strained in recent history, The Suez Canal crisis in 1956, for example, proved a stark reminder of Britain’s waning power and American ascendancy on the world stage. A decade later, Britain resisted pressure from the U.S. to join the Vietnam War.

Watching the American experiment under Trump

Throughout the years, watching America has become something of a spectator sport in Britain, if only to gauge how well — or poorly, or amusingly — the cousins across the Atlantic are doing democracy their way.

Nowadays, Brits readily acknowledge a long list of American qualities they admire alongside those that anger or mystify them. To the good: American ambition. The country's wealth. Its military might. Its vastness. Its television, music and movies. And its resilience despite racial tensions and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In parallel runs the rest: America's gunviolence, which seems hard to fathom when viewed from Great Britain, where handguns were outlawed in 1997 after a school massacre. Immigration crackdowns in the U.S. seem puzzling to many Brits given that America was founded by immigrants. Though, like much of Europe, the U.K. has its own issues with people trying to enter the country illegally.

Topping the list of mysteries is Trump, the 47th president during the snapshot in time when the United States celebrates 250 years of independence. Talking about him is socially sensitive, Brits say, with Brexit still a raw tear through society and populist reform, led by some Trump supporters, on the rise in recent local elections.

“How can someone like that become president?” Mark Gibson asked over an ale recently at The Cross Keys pub in Washington, down the hill from the first president's ancestral home. He understands why Americans elected other men as their leaders, even if he didn't agree with them. But Trump? “I don't understand it. He's had bankruptcies and legal troubles."

"But,” Gibson adds, “I guess that's what people wanted. They elected him twice.”

___

Associated Press News Editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington and video journalist Kwiyeon Ha in London contributed to this report.

As more users of livestreaming social media platforms find being performative with bigoted language can draw big bucks, the line is blurring between freedom of expression and freedom for people to feel safe. Even within livestreaming communities, some assert they have a right to say whatever and earn revenue while others support having boundaries.

Racial justice advocates worry throwing money into the equation will only heighten and normalize racist antics. As for regulation, it can feel lawless out on the social media landscape. It is often left up to platforms to self-regulate and hold users accountable for obscene and abusive words. But, experts say, at some point laws for offline behavior can trump online freedoms.

Dalton Eatherly, who goes by the moniker “Chud the Builder,” is facing charges including attempted murder after allegedly shooting another man last week outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, authorities said. Eatherly, now held on a $1.25 million preliminary bond, has a full bond hearing scheduled Thursday.

Eatherly, 28, and the victim got into a “physical altercation that escalated to gunfire,” the local sheriff's office said. A witness described the man, who was shot multiple times, as Black. Eatherly is white.

In an audio stream from just after the shooting, Eatherly said he shot in self-defense. It's unclear if the men exchanged any words beforehand. His attorney, Jacob Fendley, didn't comment on the charges when contacted by The Associated Press two days after Eatherly's arrest.

Freedom of speech or hate speech?

An online fundraiser for Eatherly raised over $100,000 within a day for his legal assistance. He also has defended his videos on the crowdsourcing site as “mild jokes, unfiltered thoughts.”

While he has sometimes defended using a racial slur as “edgy, harmless humor,” Eatherly wrote, "I know it’s controversial, but it’s my right to speak freely.”

It is reminiscent of an incident from a year ago when a white Minnesota woman was captured on cellphone video admitting to calling a child a racist slur. She amassed over $800,000 on GiveSendGo and also pointed to her First Amendment rights.

The freedom of speech argument does not hold water in such instances, according to the 41-year-old live-streamer and content creator who goes by SendaRoni Sloscru online.

“When you get to terrorizing and doing all this hate speech, that’s when the line gets drawn, especially when nobody is bothering you,” said Los Angeles-based SendaRoni. “Whatever platform is allowing him to get away with that is basically race-baiting, and I just think in this day and time you got people who are going to laugh at it or people who will beat you to death about it.”

“Race-baiting" content creates immediate risk for Black bystanders, said Brandon Tucker, senior director of government affairs for civil rights organization Color of Change. There's a “power imbalance” with a livestreamer who is attracting an audience.

“The same free speech that this individual wants to advocate for doesn't recognize the chilling of my response to know that I cannot react in any reasonable way because my face, my safety, my family's safety is in jeopardy and being broadcast to an audience that most likely aligns with this person's views,” Tucker said.

These streaming platforms cannot claim neutrality if they're essentially financially rewarding users for using racist language to agitate, he said.

Platform regulation can feel like the 'Wild West'

Eatherly was streaming on Pump.fun, a platform where users create and trade cryptocurrency tokens. Token creators have used the livestream feature to gain notice in some outrageous ways such as dangerous stunts and threatening violence. In November 2024, Pump.fun paused the feature because people were violating terms of service by uploading abusive, obscene or dishonest messages.

“It's not clear what was done to improve that situation before it was reinstated,” said Kate Ruane, director of the free expression program at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “If you're relying on users to report and none of the users that are viewing these livestreams disagree or have a problem with what they're seeing, you might not be getting the user reports that you should."

Pump.fun did not responded to an email sent Wednesday requesting comment.

Brandon Golob, a criminology, law and society professor at University of California, Irvine, said the number of livestreaming platforms has grown but self-regulation can still feel like ‘the Wild West.’

The First Amendment, however, is not a blanket shield from real-world laws against harassment, hate crimes and provocation.

“The reality is that when it involves two private individuals, state law is going to govern,” Golob said. “We just want to make sure that we’re not conflating government responsibility or government censorship with private accountability.”

SendaRoni says he's been livestreaming for a few years and has “tens of thousands” of followers across a number of social media platforms.

“I usually talk about social issues. I speak on trending events, news,” he said adding that a number of livestreamers addressed Eatherly's antics following the shooting in Clarksville.

“I think he tried to find people he’d get a reaction out of,” SendaRoni said. “When you do things such as that the end results are not going to be exciting. You’re acting like no one has a reason not to be disgusted and you made a mockery of yourself.”

Leading livestream platforms such as YouTube and Twitch do have an infrastructure for content moderation — and community guidelines barring hate speech and slurs. They utilize automated detection and user reports.

Both Golob and Ruane advise people to know their rights on how to handle livestreamers who are making them uncomfortable. Ruane says it's OK “to film them right back.”

“Make sure that you're sharing a different version of the story because whatever First Amendment rights they might be exercising, you have them too,” Ruane said. “Make sure that is being published at the same time and that can serve as a form of pushback in and of itself.”

Four people initially were found unresponsive inside the Mountainair home east of Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police said. Three died, while the forth was being treated at an Albuquerque hospital, police said. Their names weren't released.

First responders who arrived at the home were exposed to the substance and began experiencing symptoms, including nausea and dizziness, authorities said.

Antonette Alguire, a volunteer firefighter in Mountainair, helped perform CPR on a woman outside the home and watched as EMTs and firefighters started coughing, vomiting and becoming dizzy at the heliport, she said. Alguire said the experience was scary, even though she didn't go inside and didn't experience any symptoms.

She wondered if first responders might have to do more to protect themselves in the future.

“It’s getting to that point where we just have to live in fear, even saving lives," she said.

Investigators are working to identify the substance. Mountainair Mayor Peter Nieto said he saw drugs at the scene and pointed to that as a possible factor in the deaths. He said the health issues people experienced were not related to carbon monoxide or natural gas exposure.

New Mexico State Police said there was no threat to the public.

“At this time, investigators believe the substance may be transmitted through contact and do not believe it to be airborne," said Officer Wilson Silver.

Nearly two dozen patients were assessed and decontaminated after being exposed to the substance, the University of New Mexico Hospital said. Most of those were first responders who were showing no symptoms and later were discharged, hospital officials said. Three symptomatic patients were being monitored Wednesday evening, the hospital said.

As law enforcement officers from multiple agencies remained on the scene late Wednesday afternoon, three bodies were placed onto gurneys and then loaded into a white van and driven away.

Yellow tape surrounded the home along a dirt road. A singlewide trailer could be seen in the home's backyard, with several cars, trucks and vans in the driveway.

The mayor described Mountainair as a tight-knit community of fewer than 1,000 people. Town hall will be closed Thursday because of the emotional toll on employees, he said.

“A tragedy like this is horrific,” he said.

Residents voiced frustration on social media about drug use in the community and elsewhere. New Mexico had the fourth-highest rate of drug overdose deaths of any U.S. state in 2024, with 775 deaths, according to the most recent data available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nieto said on social media that the town's law enforcement officers and first responders work daily to protect the community and respond to difficult situations.

“But the reality is that addiction and substance abuse are issues affecting communities all across our state and nation,” Nieto said. “There is no simple or immediate solution. Lasting change requires family support, accountability, education, and most importantly, individuals who are willing to accept help.”

___

This story has been updated to correct that law enforcement officers remained on the scene late Wednesday afternoon, not Tuesday. It also corrects attribution to Nieto about possible factors in the deaths.

___

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.

Bettison said officers are investigating the double fatal shooting on Courville Street on Wednesday (May 20) and are working to quickly identify and apprehend a suspect.

“We have a suspect or a person of interest, and we expect to have them in custody shortly,” Bettison said. “It’s hard to commit a crime and get away with it now.”

--> Man, woman killed in targeted shooting on Detroit’s east side, 1-month-old found unharmed in vehicle

Investigators are relying on technology and surveillance tools to help solve violent crimes, and detectives were actively working the scene, Bettison said.

Bettison also acknowledged reports of a separate UPS carjacking on Everts Street, but said he was not immediately familiar with that case.

He said carjacking incidents in the city overall have declined significantly.

“Our carjacking numbers, we used to have like 800 a year. Last year we had 77, and this year we’re even trending lower,” Bettison said.

Bettison credited license plate readers, Flock cameras, and the city’s Project Green Light program for helping reduce incidents and improve response times.

--> UPS driver carjacked, delivery truck stolen in Detroit

Oakland County carjacking leaves mother wounded

The UPS carjacking followed a separate incident in Oakland County on Tuesday, when a mother was shot in front of her son before the suspect fled in her vehicle.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said a 25-year-old Ann Arbor man appeared to have been waiting in a parking lot before targeting the woman, who was walking with her young son.

The victim, a woman in her 40s, was shot in the hip and taken into surgery Tuesday night.

Bouchard said the bullet came dangerously close to a major artery.

‘She’s lost a lot of blood’: Mom shot in front of her son in Oakland County carjacking survives

Bettison said authorities expect to make arrests in both the double homicide and the UPS carjacking cases.

“I expect to have the individual in custody soon,” Bettison said.

Bettison urges public awareness

Bettison also urged drivers to stay alert and avoid distractions.

“Always keep your head on a swivel,” Bettison said. “Don’t have your face down in your cell phone. Pay attention to your surroundings. If you see something out of place, keep going and trust your gut.”

Bettison made the remarks while participating in a neighborhood outreach event called Walk a Mile Wednesday, during which he said residents of all ages engaged with police officers.

“Our men and women are doing a great job,” Bettison said.

Watch the full press conference below

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bounced back from a subpar series opener to score 30 points, Alex Caruso added 17 off the bench and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 on Wednesday night in Game 2.

Chet Holmgren scored 13 points and reserves Jared McCain and Cason Wallace each had 12 for Oklahoma City. The Thunder finished with a 57-25 edge in bench scoring, plus a 27-10 advantage in points off turnovers.

“I thought we all played better,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I had a quiet confidence about that. I didn't know if we'd win or lose the game, but I was pretty sure after watching Game 1 and knowing our team that we were going to come out and play better tonight.”

Stephon Castle scored 25 points for the Spurs, who got 22 points from Devin Vassell and a 21-point, 17-rebound, six-assist, four-block night from Victor Wembanyama.

Game 3 is Friday in San Antonio.

“The guys brought it tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Knowing what it would have meant if we lost this one, we brought the energy from the jump.”

Isaiah Hartenstein — who barely played in Game 1 — had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who improved to 14-5 after a loss this season — and beat the Spurs for just the second time in seven meetings.

The win was not without cost for the Thunder, who lost guard Jalen Williams — who had already missed six games in these playoffs with a left hamstring strain — in the first half with a recurrence of the hamstring issue. The Thunder said it was tightness, but even that would figure to put his availability for Friday into doubt.

And the Spurs got banged up as well. Already without All-Star guard De'Aaron Fox because of ankle soreness, San Antonio lost his replacement in the starting lineup — Dylan Harper — to a right leg injury after he took a couple of awkward falls in the third quarter.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson had no update on Harper after the game, though he noted that it puts “a ton” of pressure on others when his team is down two guards.

“Obviously this team is as good as anybody at turning you over, so when you’re down some of your primary creators and initiators it causes a little bit of an extra strain, whether that’s who to play, what to play, what to run, etc., etc.,” Johnson said. “We’ll just have to be sharper in that area because it’s tough fully loaded against these guys.”

San Antonio was down by 11 at the half and trailed by eight going into the fourth quarter, then got within 99-97 off a corner 3-pointer by Harrison Barnes with 9:06 left.

The next 2 1/2 minutes saved the Thunder. An 11-0 run by the defending champions — including a banked-in 3-pointer by McCain midway through the burst — pushed OKC's lead to 13.

But the Spurs — on another night when turnovers plagued them and the stretch run was played without Fox and Harper — were far from done. Wembanyama scored down low to make it 118-113 with 1:25 remaining, but Gilgeous-Alexander got one last basket to settle things down and send the series to San Antonio tied.

“We've got to help our ballhandlers more and take care of the ball,” Wembanyama said.

___

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

A dramatic cooldown settled into Southeast Michigan on Wednesday, dropping temperatures by 15 to 25 degrees compared to Tuesday evening.

Instead of heat and humidity, Metro Detroiters are now dealing with chilly breezes, mostly cloudy skies, and temperatures more typical of early spring than late May.

Most communities spent Wednesday in the 50s and lower 60s, with the coolest air over the Thumb.

Cooler air flowing in off the Great Lakes continues overnight as skies gradually clear in some areas.

Temperatures by early Thursday morning are expected to fall into the mid-30s across parts of the Thumb, including some rural and inland locations where patchy frost may develop.

Communities closer to Detroit, Warren, Downriver, and Monroe should remain milder, generally in the lower to mid-40s.

People heading out early Thursday morning will notice a major difference from earlier this week. Jackets, hoodies, and long sleeves will likely be needed during the morning commute, especially with northeast winds occasionally gusting near 20 mph.

The cooler weather could make conditions more comfortable for outdoor work, such as yard cleanup, gardening, and mowing lawns, later Thursday afternoon, once temperatures recover into the lower and mid-60s.

The air will feel crisp and dry compared to the muggy conditions that fueled severe storms on Monday and Tuesday.

Thursday’s weather also looks favorable for baseball in Detroit.

The Tigers host the Cleveland Guardians at Comerica Park on Thursday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m.

Temperatures during the game should climb into the lower 60s with a mix of clouds and occasional sunshine.

Rain is not expected, but fans sitting in shaded areas may want a light jacket or sweatshirt, especially early in the game.

The quiet stretch continues through most of Friday before rain chances begin increasing Friday night.

Current forecast trends suggest Friday daytime plans should remain largely dry with highs climbing back into the upper 60s.

Rain is expected to arrive late Friday night and continue into Saturday morning and early afternoon.

Some periods of moderate rain are possible, and occasional gusty winds may accompany the system.

Saturday does not appear to be a complete washout, but showers and a couple of thunderstorms could affect parts of the day, especially in the morning and midday.

Additional scattered showers or thunderstorms may redevelop Sunday afternoon and evening as temperatures warm back into the 70s.

For now, Memorial Day itself continues to trend favorably for parades, ceremonies, cookouts, and travel plans across Southeast Michigan.

Monday currently looks partly sunny, warmer, and mainly dry with highs approaching the upper 70s.

Temperatures are then expected to continue warming into next week with highs returning near 80 degrees by Tuesday and Wednesday.

Share your weather photos with Local 4 at MIPics.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Tucker on Wednesday (May 20) granted the city’s motion for a final decree closing the Chapter 9 case that began in July 2013, when Detroit, then under a state-appointed emergency manager, filed for bankruptcy protection.

The closure was made possible after the city completed a final distribution of about $10 million to claimants.

The payment represented accrued interest on Class 14 notes issued to unsecured creditors, who were among the last groups to receive partial repayment.

Overall, the bankruptcy process allowed Detroit to shed roughly $7 billion in debt and restructure another $3 billion, freeing about $150 million annually for city services, officials said.

City leaders said the case closure confirms Detroit’s compliance with its Plan of Adjustment, including ongoing obligations tied to pension payments and long-term fiscal restructuring.

Officials noted that Fiscal Year 2027 will mark the fourth consecutive year of pension contributions supported by the Grand Bargain and the city’s Retiree Protection Fund.

Since exiting active bankruptcy oversight in 2014, Detroit has posted multiple consecutive balanced budgets and surpluses, along with credit rating upgrades, officials said, pointing to sustained fiscal stability and improved city services.

In a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday (May 20), the museum said it had hoped to reopen by the end of the month but will now need to postpone plans while repairs are completed.

The work includes trenching through concrete to address the plumbing problem.

Officials said the issue is not unusual for a long-standing shopping mall that has previously housed restaurants, noting that improper disposal practices may have contributed to the damage.

The museum said its landlord is assisting with efforts to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

“I am glad they discovered this now instead of us opening and having to close for this to be resolved,” the statement said.

Ohtani began another remarkable two-way performance by driving Randy Vásquez’s high fastball 398 feet to center for his eighth homer of the season and his 27th career leadoff homer.

On the mound, Ohtani (4-2) struck out four with two walks while lowering his ERA to 0.73 over eight starts. Four relievers completed LA's five-hitter.

Ohtani immediately connected off Vásquez (5-2) for his 13th hit in 24 at-bats since the game before he was given a two-day break from hitting last week in a successful attempt to end a mini-slump.

Teoscar Hernández homered and drove in two runs for the Dodgers, who have won seven of eight after taking two of three at Petco Park in their first series of the season against their Southern California rivals.

Vásquez yielded six hits and three runs for the Padres, who lost the last two games after a four-game winning streak. San Diego scored just five runs in the series, getting shut out over the final 15 innings.

Ohtani retired the Padres' first nine hitters, although he needed 52 pitches to do it. Fernando Tatis Jr. drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and Gavin Sheets singled, but Ohtani escaped the jam.

The Padres then loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, but the scuffling Tatis grounded into a double play on the next pitch, prompting a vocal celebration from Ohtani on the conclusion of his pitching night.

Max Muncy doubled in the second and scored on Hernández’s long flyout.

Ohtani then drew a leadoff walk from Vásquez in the fifth and eventually scored on Kyle Tucker’s single.

Hernández hit his sixth homer in the ninth inning.

Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill left the game in the fifth. The slumping slugger had crashed into the wall while attempting to steal Ohtani's homer in the first, but kept playing.

Up next

Both teams have Thursday off. The Dodgers return Friday in Milwaukee with Justin Wrobleski (6-1, 2.49 ERA) on the mound, while Walker Buehler (3-2, 5.01 ERA) is expected to start when the Padres face the Athletics at Petco Park.

___

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

Cleveland tied it at 1 in the ninth when Daniel Schneemann scored on Patrick Bailey’s groundout. Schneemann opened the inning with a single off Will Vest before advancing on Travis Bazzana’s single and Steven Kwan’s sacrifice bunt.

Detroit, which has lost five straight games and 13 of 15, had an opportunity to win in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second and no outs. Erik Sabrowski and Colin Holderman (2-0) combined to hold the Tigers scoreless with three consecutive strikeouts.

Martínez led off the 10th with a triple against Tyler Holton (0-4) that scored automatic runner Brayan Rocchio, giving the Guardians a 2-1 lead. Ramírez lined a double to center field to bring home Martínez.

The Tigers pulled to 3-2 in the bottom half when automatic runner Wenceel Pérez scored from second on Zach McKinstry’s single. Cade Smith then retired the final three batters for his 16th save.

Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee allowed four hits and struck out five in eight innings. The Guardians had dropped nine consecutive games he started.

Detroit’s Drew Anderson permitted two hits and struck out a career-high seven over 4 2/3 innings. It was his third big league start and first since Aug. 7, 2021, with the Texas Rangers against the Athletics.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the seventh on Matt Vierling’s sacrifice fly, which scored Kevin McGonigle.

Up next

Guardians LHP Joey Cantillo (3-1, 3.40 ERA) starts the series finale Thursday afternoon against RHP Casey Mize (2-2, 2.43).

___

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

The incident occurred on Wednesday (May 20) near Schoolcraft Road and West Outer Drive.

Police said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials have not released any additional details about the crash or how the man died.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Federal Court Justice Michael Wheelahan also ordered the Texas-based social media giant to pay AU$100,000 ($71,000) of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s court costs within 45 days.

The ruling ends a three-year legal battle in which X had argued it was not obliged to answer eSafety’s questions.

X admitted it contravened Australia’s Online Safety Act by failing to provide a report that fully answered questions posed by eSafety in a transparency notice issued on Feb. 22, 2023, the agency’s lawyer Christopher Tran said. X had to provide the answers by March 29 that year.

X’s lawyer Perry Herzfeld told the judge eSafety did not allege that the contravening conduct continued after May 5, 2023.

“That was a period of change and transition for the company,” Herzfeld said, in a reference to Elon Musk taking over.

eSafety had sent the notice to Twitter Inc., which merged with X in March 2023.

Tran said both X and eSafety agreed the fine was appropriate.

“It’s appropriate because X Corp. is obviously a large company and a large figure is needed to ensure that a contravention is not treated as a cost of doing business,” Tran said.

In July last year, the full Federal Court ruled that X was required to respond to eSafety’s transparency notice. That ruling upheld a judge’s decision in October 2024.

Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, said meaningful transparency was critical to holding technology companies to account.

“In early 2023, we asked some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including Twitter, to report on steps they were taking to comply with the Australian Basic Online Safety Expectations in relation to the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse materials on their platforms,” Inman Grant said in a statement.

“This is not only a key part of our work as Australia’s online safety regulator, it also provides the Australian public with important information about how these companies are tackling the worst-of-the-worst content on their platforms,” she added.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

A filing shows that his SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year, too.

The prospectus did not put a dollar figure on the amount Musk hopes to raise, but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so. An offering of that size would easily surpass the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that went public seven years ago and raised $26 billion.

SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has said the money will help finance projects to put people on the moon and Mars in its quest to make humans an intergalactic species as they face existential threats that could wipe out civilization.

“We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs,” the filing states.

The prospectus reads in part like a Hollywood fantasy version of the future, detailing in one section how part of Musk’s compensation will be granted only if he maintains “a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants.”

Short of that, the stock sale alone could make Musk, a major owner who founded SpaceX in 2002, the world’s first trillionaire. Forbes currently puts his net worth at $839 billion.

In addition to making reusable rockets to hurl astronauts into orbit, SpaceX has other businesses, some successful, some struggling — and with plenty of questions marks.

The document shows that Starlink, the world’s largest satellite communications company, is a big source of cash for the company, generating $4.4 billion in operating income last year. The business uses 10,000 satellites in low orbit to provide internet service to 10 million people in 150 countries and territories.

Among the struggling businesses are two Musk units that were recently acquired by SpaceX — his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and his artificial intelligence business, xAI. Those purchases were blasted by some SpaceX investors as bailouts because they are big money losers.

The prospectus said its AI business lost $6.4 billion in operations last year.

The original SpaceX business, making rockets and staging launches, has been helped by massive government contracts, which raises questions that could come back to haunt the company. Given Musk’s close relation to the Trump administration, government ethics lawyers and watchdogs have asked if he has gotten special treatment to win taxpayer money and whether that good luck will run out once President Donald Trump is out office.

SpaceX has won contracts worth $6 billion from NASA and the Defense Department and other government agencies in the past five years, according to USAspending.gov. The company noted in its filing that a fifth of its revenue last year was from the federal government.

Musk was the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign and is still a big backer despite their sometimes rocky relationship after his stewardship of the government cost-cutting effort called DOGE early last year.

Like many corporate CEOs, Musk’s compensation will go far beyond his annual salary, which was $54,080 in 2025 and has remained unchanged since 2019, according to the filing.

The prospectus says stock grants for him would be sliced into 15 nearly equal amounts — 67 million shares each — and would vest only as the company achieves preset market cap goals. In addition to the Martian colony, SpaceX’s stock market value would have to reach $7.5 trillion for him to receive the full award.

He would get even more stock awards if SpaceX manages to get giant data centers the size of football fields in space.

The document shows Musk will be able to exert big control over the business.

It says he and certain other shareholders will receive shares in a special class of stock that gives them 10 votes for each share they hold. Those shareholders will be able, among other things, to elect a majority of the company’s board of directors.

“This will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters and the election of our directors,” SpaceX said in a warning to prospective investors.

SpaceX will be able to pitch the offering to investors — in what’s known in Wall Street parlance as a “road show” — 15 days after making its prospectus public. In this case, that works out to June 4.

___

Associated Press writer Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed.

That mental load is the invisible work of remembering, planning, anticipating, and emotionally managing an entire household.

For Mental Health Awareness Month, Kimberly Gill spoke with one local mom who says the work never really stops.

The mental load is about how the system of modern-day parenting often leaves one person carrying most of the invisible responsibilities and what we can do to fix it.

For Novi mom Ebony Bagley, managing her household requires constant organization.

“I write everything here so we can see it,” Bagley says while flipping through family calendars and schedules spread across her home.

Bagley is a former teacher and news producer who chose a flexible work-from-home career so she could be more present for her two young children. But she says the real challenge is not just completing the tasks of parenting, it’s the constant mental planning behind them.

“I’m the one who’s taking the kids to activities, scheduling, remembering everything, I’m writing it all down.” Bagley said. “Even when I have a moment, it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s a moment to think about what do I need to do next, organize next.’ So I feel like, a lot of it has to do with what we put on ourselves in this new generation of things but a lot of it is just making sure everyone has everything they need and I feel like I’m the one to manage all that ”

She says the mental load follows her long after the day is over.

“Some days I think I should just stop and see what happens because you know, because I think like a lot of moms with think ‘Do they even see? They don’t see the mental load, I think that’s why it’s such an invisible … no one sees me up at night after everyone’s in bed writing everything down, so yeah if I stopped being organized, I think it would be chaotic,” Bagley said.

Researchers call it “mental load” or “invisible labor,” the unpaid and often unseen work of managing a family’s entire life.

That can include:

• Keeping track of school events
• Scheduling doctor appointments
• Managing grocery lists
• Monitoring homework
• Handling emotions
• Anticipating everyone else’s needs

And for many families, one parent becomes the “default parent,” carrying most — if not all — of it.

“Some days I think maybe I should just stop and see what happens,” Bagley admitted. “I think a lot of moms feel like people don’t even see what we’re doing because the mental load is invisible.”

Dr. Rose Moten, a clinical psychologist, author, and life coach, says recognizing the problem is the first step toward addressing it. Make the invisible, visible.

“Because it makes it real, and it honors yourself, making it visible makes it real,” Moten said. “Far too often, we have not honored the exhaustion that we feel, that leads to burnout.”

Moten, who runs Bloom Transformation Center, says carrying the mental load for too long can lead to stress, anxiety, exhaustion, resentment, and even physical illness.

“Rest is not something that should be considered a luxury,” she said. “It’s a biological necessity. I think far too often, people don’t’ recognize that, like your nervous system cannot stay on forever because it will inevitably lead to burnout. I tell people it will lead to emotional disease, you know, depression, anxiety, physical disease.”

When the pressure builds, Bagley says she tries to remind herself this phase of life is temporary.

“When it gets overwhelming and hard, I really just try to focus on how quick this all goes by,” she said. “This is just a stage and a period of time where there will be kids. So I try to just be there .”

Moten says parents also need to give themselves more grace and stop chasing perfection.

“Most of the memories that really stand out are when things went wrong and we figured it out and laughed about it,” Moten said. “Life didn’t end because the house wasn’t clean or a child missed a few days of school.”

Instead, she encourages families to focus on being present.

“Being present, the here and now, is where all the beauty lies,” Moten said.

Dr. Moten’s extended conversation with Gill gives additional advice about balancing responsibilities in a marriage, recognizing resentment before it builds, and protecting mental health while parenting.

You can watch the extended interview with Dr. Moten here:

On Wednesday (May 20), a passenger who had recently traveled from the Democratic Republic of Congo was reportedly on board.

Air France Flight AF378 departed Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport around 4 p.m. local time en route to Detroit Metropolitan Airport before being redirected to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, where it was expected to land Wednesday night, according to EuropeSays.com.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the diversion in a statement, saying the airline mistakenly boarded a passenger subject to U.S. entry restrictions related to concerns about Ebola exposure.

Air France boarded apassenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo in error on a flightto the United States.

Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus, the passenger should not have boarded the plane.

CBP took decisive action and prohibited the flight carrying that traveler from landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and instead, diverted to Montreal, Canada.

CBP, in coordination with CDC, is taking the necessary measures to protect public health and reduce the risk of Ebola disease introduction into the United States."

CBP spokesperson

A passenger on board the Boeing 777-200 said pilots informed travelers that U.S. authorities would not allow the aircraft to land in Detroit.

The passenger also said flight attendants were wearing masks and referenced concerns about a virus.

The flight carried up to 312 passengers, including travelers booked through a Delta Air Lines codeshare agreement with Air France.

CDC order, Ebola outbreak prompt travel restrictions

The diversion comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an emergency order restricting entry for most non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, or Uganda amid concerns over an Ebola outbreak.

Under the order, enacted Monday, U.S. citizens, nationals, and lawful permanent residents are still permitted to enter the country after travel to those nations.

Most foreign nationals, however, are barred if they have been in those countries within the previous 21 days.

Health officials raised concerns following confirmation that a U.S. doctor treating Ebola patients in Congo tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus earlier this month.

The doctor was evacuated to Germany for treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, there are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

Previous outbreaks involving the strain have had fatality rates ranging from 30% to 50%.

Air France routes, codeshare connections

Air France does not operate direct flights to the countries named in the CDC order, but it does serve Kinshasa, in the neighboring Republic of Congo, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Representatives for Air France, Delta Air Lines, the CDC, and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport were contacted for comment.

Weapons are now regularly brandished in Tehran, an increasing show of defiance as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens he could restart the war with Iran should negotiations break down and the Islamic Republic refuses to release its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

The weapons displays reflect the genuine threat Iran faces: Trump has suggested American forces could seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium by force and previously said that he sent arms to Kurdish fighters to pass onto anti-government protesters.

But they also offer reassurance and motivation to hard-liners and provide rare entertainment at a time of great uncertainty, when Iranians are facing mass layoffs, business closures and spiraling prices for food, medicine and other goods. Suggesting more hard-liners will be armed could also help suppress any new demonstrations against Iran's theocracy, which violently put down nationwide protests in January in a crackdown that activists say killed over 7,000 people and saw tens of thousands detained.

“This is necessary for all our people to get trained because we are in a war situation these days," said Ali Mofidi, a 47-year-old Tehran resident at a weapons training Tuesday night. "If necessary, everyone should be available and know how to use a gun.”

Iran has repeatedly sought to project strength during the war

For months, state television and government-sponsored text messages have bombarded the public with calls to join the “Janfada,” or the “ones who sacrifice their lives.” At one point, hard-liners encouraged families with boys as young as 12 to send them to the Revolutionary Guard to work checkpoints — which Amnesty International denounced as a war crime.

Government officials say more than 30 million people in Iran — home to a population of some 90 million — have volunteered via an online form or at public gatherings to lay down their lives for Iran's theocracy. There is no way to confirm that figure and there's been no sign of a mass mobilization yet, like the one that Ukraine underwent in the days before Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, in which officials handed out rifles and people banded together to make gasoline bombs.

But there have been several public announcements and presenters have appeared armed during live programs on state TV, as part of efforts to feed the fervor.

“Looking back at the moment I registered my name, I realize I wasn’t truly contemplating the dangers of fighting on the front lines. In that moment, like everyone else, my thoughts were solely on Iran,” wrote journalist Soheila Zarfam in a column for the state-owned Tehran Times newspaper. “My life might end, but Iran would endure, and that was all that truly mattered.”

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has criticized the public weapons demonstrations, particularly footage of young boys handling assault rifles, saying: “Scenes like these are reminiscent of child hostage-taking and arming by groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, and militias in Sudan and Congo.”

Weapons training, once unusual, becomes a norm

A recent government-organized demonstration by nomads in Iran saw them carrying everything from bolt-action Lee–Enfield rifles of the British Empire to a blunderbuss, a predecessor of the shotgun more familiar to the age of pirates on the high seas.

But during weeks of an unsteady ceasefire, most of the weapon demonstrations appear focused on Tehran, not the rural areas where there is a tradition of keeping rifles and shotguns at home.

At a demonstration Tuesday night in Tehran, male and female participants divided into separate classes. Hadi Khoosheh, a member of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force and trainer, demonstrated how to handle a folding-stock Kalashnikov-style assault rifle.

“At the end of the training those who completed the course will receive a card titled 'Janfada,' proving they have received basic and preliminary training for this type of gun and they are able to use it if, God forbid, something happens to our country," Khoosheh said.

However, the weapons training was rudimentary at best for the young boys and older men gathered. One struggled to insert the rifle's magazine and inadvertently pointed the barrel of the unloaded weapon at others — a major safety breach that people are taught to avoid in basic firearms training.

“Definitely we will stand against (the Americans) and won’t give up even an inch of our soil," said Mofidi, the man at the training. "No matter if they come from the sea or land, we will stand by our flag.”

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Long the scene of attacks by an array of armed groups, the region's volatility now further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday night in Alima village in Ituri, a province that has become the hot spot of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization, which noted a low risk globally, has said “patient zero” has not been found.

“It’s truly sad and painful because we’ve already been through a security crisis, and now Ebola is here too,” said Justin Ndasi, a Bunia resident,

Tons of health supplies have been airlifted to Bunia, where the first known death was announced last week, but residents said masks are harder to find and some disinfectants that previously sold for 2,500 Congolese francs (about $1) now cost four times more.

A mother watches her son 'bleeding and vomiting’

At a treatment center in Rwampara, families cried and watched as healthcare workers in protective gear silently disinfected the bodies of their loved ones — suspected Ebola victims — and placed them into coffins for secure burial sites.

The disease struck suddenly, they said, describing a rapid deterioration after symptoms were mistaken for illnesses such as malaria.

“He told me his heart was hurting,” said Botwine Swanze, who lost her son. “Then he started crying because of the pain. ... Then he started bleeding and vomiting a lot.”

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

WHO chief says the 'scale of the epidemic is much larger’

WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, worried over its “scale and speed.” The WHO chief in Congo says it could last at least two months.

The rare type of Ebola, known as the Bundibugyo virus, spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common Ebola virus and came up negative.

Investigations continued into where and when the outbreak started, but “given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago,” said Anaïs Legand, with WHO's emergencies program.

So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, and two cases in Uganda, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. There are 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases.

But “the scale of the epidemic is much larger,” he said.

The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimated that cases have been substantially undercounted and that the actual number could already exceed 1,000. “The true magnitude remains uncertain,” it said.

This is Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak, and the WHO has said the country's health ministry has experienced staff and capacity to respond. Most outbreaks, however, were of the more common Ebola type.

Any potential vaccine is months away

Dr. Vasee Moorthy, a special adviser at WHO, said a vaccine to address Bundibugyo would not be available for at least six to nine months.

Eastern Congo already faced “immense pressure from conflict, displacement and a collapsing health system,” said Dr. Lievin Bangali, senior health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Congo, adding that years of underfunding have weakened the response.

The outbreak highlights the effects of the Trump administration’s deep cuts in foreign aid. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the administration set a priority on funding 50 emergency clinics in affected areas. The U.S. pledged to contribute $23 million.

Anxiety grows with little protection in affected places

In Bunia, schools and churches remain open while some residents wear masks. Elsewhere in Ituri province, suspected Ebola patients share a ward with others injured or ill at Bambu General Hospital.

A Doctors Without Borders team identified suspected cases over the weekend at Bunia's Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area, said Trish Newport, an emergency program manager.

“Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she said on social media.

In Mongbwalu, where the body of the first known death was taken, the nearby border with Uganda remains open and gold mining continues, said Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa, a civil society leader.

“There’s no panic. People continue with their normal lives, but they’re also starting to spread the word,” said Ndilawa, and noted a lack of public handwashing stations.

There were around 30 Ebola patients at Mongbwalu General Hospital, where a student from the local medical technology institute died on Wednesday, Dr. Didier Pay said.

“The patients are scattered here and there,” said Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director. “We hope for the proper triage and isolation facilities to be installed today, and if that doesn’t happen, we will be completely overwhelmed.”

They are understaffed and not trained to handle suspected cases, Lokudu said, and added that if confirmed cases surge, “we have no protection.”

In the Ebola-affected city of Goma, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control, the “situation is complicated,” said Dr. Anne Ancia, WHO's representative in Congo.

An American with Ebola is in isolation in Germany

A U.S. national who tested positive in Congo arrived in Berlin on Wednesday and was in a special isolation ward where a “comprehensive examination” was underway, German Health Ministry spokesperson Martin Elsässer said.

Elsässer declined to comment on the condition of the patient, who has not been identified by German or U.S. authorities. The ministry later said, without elaborating, that it would take in the patient's wife and three children at the request of U.S. authorities.

A top health official in the Czech Republic said they are receiving an American doctor who was treating Ebola patients in Uganda and who is without symptoms. It was not clear whether any were infected.

Dr. Satish Pillai, incident manager for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, told reporters Wednesday that the Americans were being transported in coordination with the U.S. State Department and other agencies. One patient, who is in stable condition, is now being treated in Germany, Pillai said.

Asked whether the White House played a role in the decision to move the Americans to Europe, Pillai said the decision was based on conditions on the ground and the need to mobilize rapidly.

___

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal; Devi Shastri in Milwaukee; Karel Janicek in Prague and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The 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.

Although the Israeli company had been producing large set pieces and other designs for the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Netflix, the opportunity to instead quickly churn out large drone parts for the military was too good to ignore.

“I stopped thinking about Hollywood sets,” Azarzar said. “The entertainment industry is a nice customer — defense is a necessity."

Business has been booming for the Israeli arms sector, despite widespread criticism of the country’s conduct in its wars in Gaza, with Hezbollah and with Iran. Countries that have vowed to shun Israeli weapons makers are nonetheless quietly placing orders, according to industry officials. And manufacturers, including some like Massivit with no previous military know-how, can show that their innovations are being continually combat-tested and improved.

According to Israel’s Defense Ministry, Israeli weapons sales have more than doubled over the past five years, with a record high of nearly $15 billion in 2024. While the ministry hasn’t released overall 2025 figures, leading Israeli weapons makers, including Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries, both reported double-digit sales growth last year.

More than half of the Israeli arms industry's sales are for missiles, rockets and air-defense systems. For the first time, Israel has surpassed the United Kingdom in its share of global arms exports, making it the world’s seventh-biggest supplier, according to a March report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the (army) and defense industries. ... The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it,” said Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz.

Solid sales, despite public criticism

This year's Defense Tech Expo in Tel Aviv reflected the growing international interest in Israeli weapons, with manufacturers promoting arms and other equipment shaped by the country’s recent conflicts. But it also highlighted the tension between showcasing the military technology and the political debate surrounding its use, with event protesters decrying the widespread destruction of Gaza as a testing lab for Israeli weapons.

Last year, Spain canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems sold by an Israeli company’s subsidiary. Slovenia, meanwhile, announced it would ban the import, export and transit of all weapons to and from Israel in response to the country’s actions in Gaza. After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 others hostage, Israel retaliated, killing more than 72,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. Some countries and human rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes.

Israel’s Defense Ministry says it uses its equipment to defend the country and its people, and denies that it uses battlefields as testing grounds.

Human rights advocates, though, say Israel has deployed new weapons and technology during the war in Gaza, including in AI, big data and targeting.

“The regional war has drawn heavily on Israel’s deadly playbook and provided a boon to Israeli and other defense and technology companies able to parlay the use of their products in Gaza to attract more business,” said Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, a U.S.-based group founded by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi that pushes for human rights in the Middle East.

Despite criticism that Israel's weapons sector is profiting off technologies being used and improved on the battlefield, it's hardly alone, according to experts.

“Countries have had to dramatically increase defenses because of the proliferation of global conflicts and they need systems that will work. And most countries don’t have the time right now to build their own defense systems locally and quickly,” said Seth J. Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who has covered Israel’s arms industry for a decade and wrote the book “Drone Wars.”

A lot of countries are looking to Israel because they’re seeing in real time that these are munitions and systems that work, he said.

High interest in Israeli technology

For Massivit, sales have soared since it pivoted to making drone parts for the military, including a 200% rise in inquiries from interested buyers since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran at the end of February, according to Azarzar.

The company’s unique 3D printing technology allows it to make large parts for military drones within days instead of weeks. In addition to selling to the Israeli military, the company's technology has drawn interest from the defense and aeronautical sectors in Europe, the U.S., Southeast Asia and India, he said.

Business has also been good for other defense contractors.

Tomer Malchi, co-founder and CEO of ASIO, said Israeli army orders for the company's rugged smartphone unit, the Orion, have surged by 400% since the war in Gaza started.

The phones use maps, augmentation and artificial intelligence to help soldiers plan missions, navigate and respond to real-time battlefield threats. ASIO recently signed a deal with a major U.S. defense company and is in talks with about 20 other countries, Malchi said.

One area Israel’s Defense Ministry says will be a future priority for innovation is taking down drones, which has proven challenging during the war with Iran. Drones are hard to pinpoint on radar systems calibrated for spotting high-speed missiles and can be mistaken for birds or planes.

Israel Weapon Industries, a local weapons maker, has developed a system to help soldiers more accurately shoot down tactical drones. At a shooting range in central Israel, an IWI instructor fired rounds at a makeshift drone to show how the system works. A computer chip embeds into a soldier’s rifle, providing more accuracy and efficiency and significantly reducing the influence of fatigue and other factors by allowing the trigger to remain pressed.

The system, known as Arbel, came to market in 2024 and now has more than two dozen countries using it, said Semion Dukhan, head of Europe for IWI.

Among IWI’s buyers are countries that have said publicly that they won’t do deals with Israel, Dukhan said, though he wouldn’t name them.

“People and politicians say things they need to say ... what they say is not necessarily what is going on underneath the surface,” he said, noting that at the end of the day, countries want to equip their people with the best gear.

Giovanni Galizia has been the cover shot for the so-called sexy priest calendar for many of the last 23 editions. In the same photo used year after year, Galizia wears a clerical collar and flashes an enigmatic smile worthy of the Mona Lisa against the granite wall of a church in his native Palermo.

“It was the smile of an embarrassed kid, because I saw all my friends in front of me laughing out loud because I was dressed like I was a priest,” Galizia told The Associated Press during an interview Wednesday in his Verona living room.

For Galizia, the shoot was a lark that left no mark on his life, until a story in the Rome daily La Repubblica this week revealed that the “sexy priest calendar” could be more accurately called “the fake priest calendar,” drawing nationwide attention.

The calendar is not affiliated with the Vatican, which declined to comment.

A popular souvenir with 12 black-and-white portraits

Now a 39-year-old flight attendant for a Spanish airline, Galizia was just 17 years old when mutual friends put him in touch with photographer Piero Pazzi, who has also created a calendar featuring Venetian gondoliers and has founded museums in Budapest and Montenegro on the history of cats.

Officially named Calendario Romano, each edition features 12 black-and-white portraits of men mostly in clerical attire — many of which are recycled year after year. Galizia only knew one of the other subjects, a French man who also was not a priest.

Pazzi told the AP that at least one-third of those pictured in the already released 2027 calendar are actually priests but provided no details.

Galizia said he has never been stopped on the street, though his cousins once gave the calendar to their grandmother as a gift, “and they all died laughing.”

The calendar was intended as art, not deception

Galizia sees the photographs depicting priests as part of an artistic tradition, noting that no one watching a TV drama involving priests believes they are actually played by clergy.

“Of course, it winks a bit at the dynamic between the sacred and the profane, because it is clear that seeing a world that is distant and in some ways so lofty as the ecclesiastical world, with such a fresh-faced young man, creates a kind of dissonance,” he said.

But he also said he doesn't understand why the black-and-white close-ups have been interpreted as sexy. Pazzi also said that was not the point.

“There’s a tendency to confuse what is beautiful with what is sensual, because nowadays, especially in today’s world, which is quite sexualized, beauty is expressed only through sensuality,” Galizia said.

“That said, I appreciate the observation and take it as a compliment — because managing to be sexy in a priest’s collar is no small feat.”

It has the blessing of at least one real priest

Pazzi won’t say how many of the Roman calendars have been sold — but estimates several thousand a year. While Pazzi says he receives royalties, Galizia, who signed a release form when the photo was taken, said he has never sought payment.

The calendar sells for around 8 euros (around $9.30) in shops that surround the Vatican and crowd Rome’s historic center. One shop clerk, Hassam Mohammad, said he sells a handful of them every day.

Pazzi includes a page of information about the Vatican in the calendar, but its production is independent and unrelated to the Holy See.

A priest from South Korea walking near the Vatican this week said that the calendar is well known in his home country, especially among young people who view the calendar with humor.

“They often think priests are stiff and distant,” said the priest, who identified himself informally as Father Domenico. “But looking at this calendar, they think priests are more familiar, and priests can be funny. I think in Korea this calendar is very famous, and it is OK.”

____

Barry reported from Verona, Italy. Giada Zampano in Rome and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed.

The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who turns 95 next month, was Cuba's defense minister at the time. The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were also charged.

“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban independence day to honor those killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”

Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

Asked what will happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said, “We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

The charges pose a real threat, observers said, following the capture by U.S. forces in January of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to face drug charges in New York.

“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Cuban president condemns indictment

While it remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom, the murder and conspiracy charges carry the potential for life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” In a message on social media, he accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown, including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that they would defend against “dangerous violations” of their airspace “by notorious terrorists.”

Among those attending Wednesday's ceremony in downtown Miami was Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was killed while she was away for her first year of college.

Over the years, she spoke to multiple federal investigators about charging Castro, referring to him as “one of the main architects of the crime.” But none until now had the courage to seek justice for her family and the other victims.

“It has been long overdue,” she said standing before a giant photo of her father.

Trump has threatened military action for months

Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron. After ousting the Venezuelan leader, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Since Maduro's capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power and whisking him to New York to face trial.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.

“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes

Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior State Department officials met with the grandson in April.

The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s

In 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.

After Cuban protests, the Federal Aviation Administration also opened an investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by the National Security Archive.

But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All four men aboard were killed. A third plane, carrying the group's leader, narrowly escaped.

Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment

Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor in Miami in the 1990s, first uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces.

In the end, only the head of the Cuban air force and two of the MiG pilots involved in the downing of the planes were indicted but have never been apprehended.

A fourth individual was convicted of leading a Miami-based spy ring called Operation Scorpion that collected intelligence about the flights. He was later swapped for a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba as part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba.

The shootdown led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.

But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration raised concerns about such a high-profile indictment.

___

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters David Fischer in Miami; Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Meg Kinnard in Houston; Will Weissert in Washington; Michael Weissenstein in New York; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Background: Mother shot during carjacking outside Oakland County strip mall, man arrested after police chase

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said a 25-year-old Ann Arbor man appeared to have been waiting in the parking lot before targeting the woman, who was walking with her young son.

The victim, a woman in her 40s, was shot in the hip and taken into surgery Tuesday night. Bouchard said the bullet came dangerously close to a major artery.

“The first words out of one of the nurses was, ‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’” Bouchard said.

The sheriff called the woman’s survival a miracle.

“She’s stable, but there’s still a very long road medically,” Bouchard said.

Her young son witnessed the shooting and ran to a nearby store for help.

--> Detroit police chief expects arrest soon in double homicide, talks UPS carjacking at Walk a Mile Wednesday

Suspect waited, watched for target, officials say

Investigators say the suspect deliberately staked out the plaza before making his move.

“This individual sat outside of this shopping mall watching and waiting and as soon as she got to the parking lot he ran, literally ran around a car and then confronted her and her young son and shot her to take her car,” Bouchard said.

Flock cameras -- a network of license plate readers used by law enforcement -- tracked the stolen vehicle into Groveland Township, where it crashed and the suspect fled on foot. An undercover detective later located and arrested him.

Suspect has violent criminal past, officials say

Bouchard said the suspect has a violent criminal history and has been uncooperative with investigators since his arrest.

“He’s currently on probation for hog-tying a woman, duct taping her and suffocating her with a plastic bag over her head, and he’s back out on the street saying no harm, no foul. Is that how the justice system works for our victims?” Bouchard said.

Authorities are working with the Oakland County prosecutor’s office and pursuing federal charges against the suspect.

“He should not be on the street again to find another innocent victim,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard is urging the public to remain alert and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.

Update: Detroit police chief expects arrest soon in double homicide, talks UPS carjacking at Walk a Mile Wednesday

Commander John Svec of the 9th Precinct said officers responded around 1:48 p.m. on Wednesday (May 20) in the 9600 block of McKinney Street, near I-94 between Whittier Avenue and Berkshire Street, after a ShotSpotter alert detected multiple rounds of gunfire.

“Nine shots quickly followed by three shots,” Svec said.

Police said they arrived within five minutes and found two victims, suffering from gunshot wounds.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators believe the shooting was targeted.

“It appears targeted based off where the casings are located and where the shots were fired at,” Svec said.

Police said the victims were found near two vehicles parked in a residential area.

Preliminary information indicated the suspect approached and opened fire.

Authorities are still working to identify the victims and determine whether they lived nearby.

The 1-month-old child was found unharmed in the back seat of one of the vehicles, according to Svec.

The infant was taken to the 9th Precinct and is expected to be turned over to family members.

At this time, investigators have not released information about a suspect and are reviewing surveillance cameras in the area for leads.

Police have not said what may have led to the shooting.

The incident occurred in the 9500 block of Everts Street on Wednesday (May 20) around 4:30 p.m.

Update: Detroit police chief expects arrest soon in double homicide, talks UPS carjacking at Walk a Mile Wednesday

Police said the suspect approached the UPS driver and announced the carjacking.

The driver was not injured during the incident, police said.

Police did not release a description of the suspect or say whether the stolen UPS truck has been recovered.

The investigation remains ongoing.

“We are aware of the incident involving one of our drivers today. The safety and well-being of our employees is our number one concern, and we are pleased that our driver was unharmed. As this is an ongoing investigation, we defer inquiries to investigating authorities.”

UPS

Lincoln Erickson, a former medical resident at a Detroit hospital, pleaded guilty May 20 to receipt of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15, 2026, and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Arrest tied to broader investigation

Erickson, of Farmington Hills, was one of four men arrested in connection with a large child pornography and sexual abuse case that began with the arrest of Brett Tooman in Toledo, Ohio.

On March 29, 2025, Toledo police took Tooman into custody after he allegedly traveled to the area to sexually abuse a 7-year-old girl and a 6-month-old infant he believed existed.

Tooman’s arrest led investigators to Jeremy Brian Tacon, Joshua Ronnebaum and Erickson, who allegedly shared explicit and sexually abusive materials with one another.

---> Doctor, lawyer, therapist, and man in Toledo -- how they’re linked to pedophilia, child porn case

FBI arrests Erickson at Detroit hospital

The FBI arrested Erickson on Dec. 10, 2025, at a Detroit hospital where he was working as a medical resident, after authorities reportedly discovered a conversation on Ronnebaum’s phone linking him to the case.

After his arrest, Erickson allegedly admitted receiving what he believed was AI‑generated child pornography from a man in Chicago.

He was denied bond.

Erickson and Ronnebaum allegedly spoke about wanting to travel to Thailand and sexually abusing children together.

“Love being a pedo,” read one text message.

Erickson reportedly shared a fantasy about having a relationship with a man where they would raise a child together that they would abuse and groom “from baby to adulthood.”

“Start them young,” read one message.

The FBI said Erickson shared in messages that he knows a father who allegedly allows him to sexually abuse the man’s 3-year-old son.

A Telegram chat on his phone also showed him requesting more videos and writing, “Bro, I love other pedophiles. So hot.”

Court hearings

During a Dec. 16, 2025, court hearing, prosecutors presented evidence of Erickson’s interactions with the father of three minors, including phone sex and in-person meetings, as well as disturbing messages regarding the children.

Erickson, who reportedly has a history of domestic violence and threatening behavior, allegedly attempted to impregnate an adult woman, described by the defense as his best friend.

The officers' attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund's creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn't rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.

The lawsuit claims the government's “Anti-Weaponization Fund" is an illegal slush fund that Trump will use to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” It describes the fund's creation as "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century" and calls for dissolving it.

“No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law,” the suit says.

The fund stems from a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations’ Justice Department. Decisions on payouts will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.

The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who is running in Maryland for a seat in Congress. Hodges and Dunn both testified before Congress about their harrowing experiences on Jan. 6. Videos captured a rioter ripping a mask off Hodges as he was pinned against a door during a fight for control of a tunnel entrance.

The officers claim the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”

“Dunn and Hodges already face credible threats of death and violence on regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger,” the suit alleges.

A commission, whose members will be chosen by Blanche but have not yet been announced, will be charged with deciding who gets paid and how much.

Blanche said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that the board will have to consider the person's actions, among other factors, when deciding whether to give them money. But the attorney general added: “Whether the commissioners will give that person money — that claimant — it’s up to them.”

Blanche said “it’s abhorrent” to harm law enforcement, but added that “people that hurt police get money all the time” from suing the government. He dismissed backlash to the fund as “fake outrage.”

Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also are named as defendants in the officers’ lawsuit. Spokespeople for the Justice and Treasury departments didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.

One of the attorneys for the officers is Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases.

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Associated Press reporter Jonathan Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that nearly 1,600 people, not over 1,600, were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.

Pressured by the White House, Republicans have tried to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. But the security proposal has met with backlash from some GOP lawmakers who are questioning the cost and the lack of detail from the White House and U.S. Secret Service about how the taxpayer dollars would be used.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Wednesday that the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the effort to add the security package to the bill was a “bad idea” and he does not think there is enough backing to pass it, even if it were reduced.

The text of the bill has not yet been released. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged “ongoing vote issues” as leaders try to measure Republican support, as well as “ongoing parliamentarian issues” as they try to figure out what will be allowed in the bill under the chamber's rules.

The wrangling comes as Democrats have criticized Republicans for trying to fund Trump’s ballroom when voters are concerned about basic affordability issues — and as some GOP lawmakers have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump. Several GOP senators have spoken out against the administration’s $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump’s allies who believe they have been persecuted, and many were upset by the president’s endorsement Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the party primary runoff next week against Sen. John Cornyn.

“There’s always a consequence with taking on United States senators,” Thune said Wednesday. The president “obviously has his favorites and people he wants to endorse and that’s his prerogative. But what we have to deal with up here is moving the agenda, and obviously that can become slightly more complicated.”

Republicans could set parameters on Trump's settlement fund

The “anti-weaponization" fund, part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, has unexpectedly become one of the main complications in the bill. Democrats said they would force votes to block it or place restrictions on it.

Democrats have an opening because Republicans are trying to pass the immigration enforcement bill through a complicated budget process that requires a long series of amendment votes. Democrats are considering multiple amendments potentially to block that new fund outright or to ban any payments to Trump supporters who harmed law enforcement officers in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Those amendments, along with others, could pass as a growing number of Republicans have voiced reservations about the fund. So Republicans are now discussing their own last-minute add to head that off, potentially placing some parameters on the settlement and who could receive compensation, according to two people with knowledge of the private discussions who requested anonymity to discuss them.

Thune — who said Tuesday that he is “not a big fan” of the settlement and doesn't see a purpose for it —- said Wednesday that any new language potentially putting restrictions on the settlement is “a work in progress."

It's unclear how any Senate Republican changes would be received in the House, even as some Republicans there have also criticized the settlement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that the House will pass the bill “whatever form it takes.”

Tensions rise between Senate and White House

As Republicans challenged the settlement and parts of his agenda, Trump unloaded on the Senate in a social media post.

He urged Republicans to fire the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who said over the weekend that parts of the $1 billion security proposal cannot remain in the ICE and Border Patrol bill. Trump also renewed his long-standing calls for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, a Republican bill that would require all voters to prove U.S. citizenship, and to end the Senate filibuster.

Republicans need to “get smart and tough," Trump said, or “you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!”

While they have been loyal to Trump on most issues, Senate Republicans have resisted his repeated calls — even in his first term — to kill the filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

Hanging over the growing GOP rift is Trump’s surprise endorsement of Paxton. That intervention has Republican senators privately fuming that it could cost them their majority in November as they view the incumbent, Cornyn, as the better candidate in the November general election.

Secret Service request falters as Republicans want more detail

Under the Secret Service request, about $220 million would pay for security improvements related to the ballroom. The rest would go for a new screening center for visitors, training and other security measures.

Tillis said the bill should not have included the other security improvements “because it’s just giving everybody the ‘billion-dollar ballroom.'"

Several other Republicans in the House and Senate have questioned the request, and senators left a briefing with the director of the Secret Service last week saying they needed a lot more information.

People “can’t afford groceries and gasoline and healthcare, and we’re going to do a billion dollars for a ballroom?” asked Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost reelection in his GOP primary on Saturday after Trump endorsed one of his opponents.

Left in the bill is the money for ICE and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown.

Democrats demanded reforms for the agencies, but negotiations with the White House yielded little progress. So Republicans are using the complicated budget maneuver called reconciliation — the same process that allowed them to pass Trump's tax and spending cuts bill last year — to fund the agencies through the end of Trump's term with a simple majority and no Democratic votes.

Still, passage requires signoff from the parliamentarian, and unity from Republicans.

“We're working on it,” Thune said as he left the Capitol on Wednesday evening.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

“They'll be able to make adjustments way before they get anywhere close,” said Thomas Hall, director of operations for San Francisco Bay Ferry. “It will also allow us to track data over time and see where the whales are camping out so we can adjust our routes during whale season to avoid those areas completely.”

The effort comes amid an alarming rise in gray whale deaths in the bay. Last year, 21 dead gray whales were found in the wider Bay Area — the highest number in 25 years, according to The Marine Mammal Center — with at least 40% killed by ship strikes. At least 10 more have died in the Bay Area so far this year.

Scientists say those figures likely underestimate the true toll as many whale carcasses sink or are swept back out to sea before they are ever found or reported.

Gray whales have long migrated along the California coast on their roughly 12,000-mile (19,300-kilometer) journey between breeding lagoons in Mexico and feeding grounds in the Arctic.

But instead of simply passing offshore, increasing numbers are now diverting into San Francisco Bay and lingering for days or even weeks inside the crowded estuary — a shift scientists increasingly link to climate change. Warming temperatures and shifts in sea ice in the Arctic are disrupting the food web gray whales rely on during summer feeding months, according to a 2023 study in Science, leaving many malnourished during migration.

Many whales now concentrate in a high traffic corridor between Angel Island, Alcatraz and Treasure Island, directly overlapping with ferry routes and shipping lanes.

“It’s the worst place possible in terms of all the ship traffic,” said Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory who led the initiative. There have been so many collisions that “the teams responding to strandings said they ran out of places to even land dead whales.”

The eastern North Pacific gray whale population was once hailed as a conservation success story after rebounding from commercial whaling and being removed from the Endangered Species Act in 1994. But numbers have since plummeted, decreasing by half over the last 10 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Just 13,000 remain.

“They may not be getting the quality or quantity of food they’re used to in the Arctic,” Rhodes said. “That means they’re starting this incredibly long migration at a disadvantage.”

The thermal camera system provides real time alerts to mariners

Artificial intelligence automatically flags potential whale sightings, which are then verified by trained marine mammal observers before alerts are sent via radio to ferry operators, vessel traffic controllers and posted publicly on the Whale Safe website.

WhaleSpotter systems are already used on vessels and fixed installations such as lighthouses and coastal towers in the United States, Canada and Australia. But researchers say the San Francisco Bay network is the first to directly integrate land-based and vessel-mounted detections with official mariner alerts, allowing whale sightings to be relayed in near-real time to ships navigating the bay.

The first hours of testing produced an immediate flood of detections.

“Suddenly to have a full sense of how much whale activity is in this space honestly put me a little bit on edge,” said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff lab. “But we're going to use that data and we're going to be smart about how we use that space and share it with the whales.”

Researchers say the system’s biggest advantage is constant monitoring. Unlike human observers, thermal cameras can operate through the night and in many foggy conditions common in the bay.

One camera was installed on Angel Island and a second will soon be fixed aboard a ferry traveling between downtown San Francisco and Vallejo to create what Rhodes described as a “moving data collection platform.” Scientists hope additional cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz could eventually expand coverage across the bay.

Warming oceans are also threatening humpbacks

A severe marine heat wave lingering off the California coast is shrinking the band of cold, nutrient-rich water where krill, anchovies and sardines thrive. As offshore waters warm, humpback whales are increasingly following that prey closer to shore, where California’s Dungeness crab fishery operates.

The fishery uses tens of thousands of vertical lines that connect traps on the seafloor to surface buoys, creating entanglement hazards for whales migrating and feeding along the coast.

This spring, regulators again closed parts of the fishery off central California to conventional gear, a measure that has become increasingly common in recent years as warming waters increase whale overlap with crab fishing seasons.

While grey whales are also at risk, humpbacks are most vulnerable.

“Humpbacks are curious and they’ll scratch their backs on the gear,” said Kathi George, director of cetacean conservation biology at The Marine Mammal Center. “If they get a line caught on their body, they’ll breach and they’ll roll and end up entangling themselves.”

Whales can drag heavy gear for months, unable to dive or feed properly, leading to starvation, infection and drowning.

Thirty-six whales were confirmed entangled off the West Coast in 2024 — the highest number since 2018, according to NOAA — though scientists caution most cases go undocumented.

California approved commercial use of ropeless pop-up crab fishing gear for the first time this spring, which will allow fishermen to continue harvesting through the end of the season.

Instead of floating surface buoys tethered to traps, the system stores ropes and buoys on the seafloor until fishermen return and trigger an acoustic release that brings the gear to the surface.

Supporters say the technology allows fishermen to continue harvesting crab while dramatically reducing the risk to whales.

As climate change reshapes ocean conditions and whale migration patterns, scientists expect the overlap between whales, ships and fishing gear to persist.

“We will have to continue to be adaptive and science driven in terms of our management to reduce wildlife risk and keep fishermen on the water,” said Caitlynn Birch, Oceana’s Pacific campaign manager and a marine scientist. “California has been a national leader in developing whale-safe fishing technologies and we hope that model can help guide other fisheries on the West Coast and nationally.”

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Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram: @ahammergram.

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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

The deal with Vox, widely seen as liberal-leaning, represents a major move toward his own media empire for the 53-year-old younger son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself owned New York Magazine from 1976 until 1991. And it comes less than a year after the Murdoch family reached a deal on control of the 95-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for conservatives, under Rupert's chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch.

Under the new deal, expected to close within weeks, Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s media company, acquires the three divisions — about half of Vox Media. Neither Vox Media nor Lupa was disclosing the sum. The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter saying it was more than $300 million. The acquired divisions will operate, according to a statement, as a subsidiary of Lupa — called Vox Media.

Lots included and some excluded

Not included in the deal are the Vox brands Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge. But the deal does include, along with New York magazine, its verticals The Cut, Vulture, Intelligencer, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street.

It also includes the Vox Media Podcast Network. which features wildly popular shows like “Criminal” and “Pivot” with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The network “has been the fastest growing business within Vox Media and will immediately put Lupa at the top of the podcast field,” said the Vox statement.

James Murdoch, a former CEO of 21st Century Fox who resigned from the board of News Corporation in 2020 over differences about content and direction, is known to hold less conservative views than his father. In the deal reached last year, James and his two older sisters. Prudence MacLeod and Elisabeth Murdoch, gave up any claims to control of Fox in exchange for stock valued at the time at $3.3 billion.

That deal created a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.

In his own remarks about the Vox deal, James Murdoch said the acquisition “aligns well with our existing holdings and investments and reflects both our interest in the forward edge of culture and our deep commitment to ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations.

It will allow us to apply new tools across the businesses we are building, adding substantial production, distribution, and editorial capability to our group," Murdoch said.

Continuity in leadership expected

Current Vox chairman and CEO Jim Bankoff will lead the new Vox Media, becoming CEO of the new company upon closing.

“We are incredibly proud to have built and scaled several of the leading media properties of this generation,” Bankoff said. “Together under Lupa’s stewardship we are primed to be the best home for talent and the most dynamic media company of this new era.”

David Haskell, New York magazine's editor-in-chief, noted in an email to subscribers that Lupa now becomes the magazine's sixth owner since 1968.

Haskell promised that the magazine would continue with “the fearless, independent journalism that you expect from us."

“We will continue to create news cycles, start conversations, contribute to the most important debates in politics and society, identify and explore what’s most interesting in contemporary culture, and always do our best to challenge our readers, surprise them, and help them make sense of the modern world,” Haskell said.

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Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.

Also making first-team All-Rookie: San Antonio's Dylan Harper and Memphis' Cedric Coward. Harper also appeared on all 100 ballots, with 93 first-team nods and seven second-team votes.

Those five players were also the only ones to get votes in the Rookie of the Year balloting, where Flagg edged Knueppel for top honors.

The All-Rookie second team included New Orleans' Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, Utah's Ace Bailey, Sacramento's Maxime Reynaud and Toronto's Collin Murray-Boyles.

The NBA will announce the All-Defensive team on Friday and the All-NBA team on Sunday, with Coach of the Year set to be announced Tuesday.

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

One of the most serious is when cancer returns or spreads to the spine, where treatment options are limited, and the stakes are high.

Now, a team at Henry Ford Health in Detroit has performed what is believed to be a world-first procedure, adapting a brain cancer technology to treat a spinal tumor.

When cancer comes back

Michael Baumstark thought he had beaten colon cancer.

Then, six months after being declared cancer-free, a routine follow-up scan changed everything.

“It was a routine test they do every six months, I guess, after you get diagnosed,” Baumstark said. “It showed that it started creeping back in. So they did some more testing and found out that the tumor was growing back in my back.”

The returning tumor was treated with chemotherapy and radiation, but Baumstark’s pain only worsened. Daily life became nearly impossible.

“I couldn’t focus on things. I mean, it was even hard to drive. It was hard to focus on anything. And just daily life was very hard. It was nonfunctional, basically. I mean, I really need help with almost everything,” he said.

A problem without a clear solution

When Baumstark was referred to Henry Ford Health neurosurgeon Dr. Adam Robin, the case was already complex.

“He had already had sort of the kitchen sink thrown at this tumor,” Robin said.

Additional external radiation was not a safe option given the tumor’s location near vital organs.

“There’s only so much external beam radiation you could give to the lower back and sort of pelvic area, because of all the other organs there, right? So, you know, the rectum and the colon and the bladder and everything else are all at risk when you’re sort of shooting radiation into that part of the body,” Robin said.

The surgical team needed a solution that was both precise and durable.

“We had a problem. The problem was that we needed to take out the tumor, but we needed to make it durable. It needs to be a durable solution. We wanted to use radiation again, but we couldn’t use a radiation that was going to irradiate all of the area around it. So we needed a focal radiation,” Robin said.

Adapting brain cancer technology

Robin drew on his experience treating brain tumors using a treatment called a GammaTile, a small implant containing radioactive cesium-131 seeds housed in a titanium capsule.

The tiles are designed to deliver targeted radiation directly to a surgical site after a tumor is removed.

The challenge: gamma tiles had never been used in the spine.

“We approached the company and said, ‘Have you ever done this before?’ The answer is no,” Robin said.

A team-based approach

Rather than abandon the idea, Robin turned to Henry Ford Health’s innovation institute to build a collaborative solution.

“Thankfully, we have an innovation institute here at Henry Ford, and we could go to them, and we could talk, because we use a team-based approach for some of these problems at Henry Ford. We could talk with our radiation oncologists, we could talk with our medical physicists, and we could talk with the company, and everybody sort of worked together, on Mike’s behalf,” Robin said.

The team created a 3D-printed model of Baumstark’s spine and tumor, then performed a full simulated surgery in a lab before ever operating on the patient. Baumstark, who works with 3D printing himself, immediately understood the approach.

“He talked about 3D printing the spine, and I thought, well, gosh, that’s what I, you know, I 3D print all the time. That’s great,” Baumstark said.

The simulation proved critical in fine-tuning the procedure.

“We took that model to the surgical lab, and we did the surgery that we were planning on doing on Mike; we did it in the simulation center, the surgical lab first,” Robin said.

‘Let’s do it’

With the simulation complete and the team confident, Baumstark was ready.

“I was like, Let’s do it. I wanted to try to get rid of this pain,” he said.

The actual surgery closely matched the team’s projections.

“We went, and as a team, thought through every step, and that’s why we created the phantom (3D model), and that’s why we did the surgery, and that’s why we tested the radiation in advance. We were within 10% of our predicted radiation dose,” Robin said.

“Our goals for Mike were achieved,” he added.

Robin acknowledged the weight of performing a procedure with no prior precedent.

“It is a little bit of a leap of faith, when no one’s ever done this before. But we felt like we did all of the testing that you could do beforehand to try to ensure it was going to be effective and safe,” he said.

18 months later

The outcome exceeded expectations.

“It turned out great,” Baumstark said. “Everything worked out wonderful. And since then, I haven’t had any pain. So it’s 18 months later, and I’m doing great.”

Based on Baumstark’s results, Robin and his team, along with the other specialists involved, are now designing a clinical trial to evaluate gamma tile therapy in other patients with similarly difficult-to-treat cases of cancer that have spread to the spine.

The bipartisan measure supports modernization projects at the base, including runway and infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate F-15EX fighter jets and KC-46A tanker aircraft, officials said.

Combined with nearly $1 billion in federal investments and additional grants, the upgrades are expected to significantly modernize the base, create jobs, and reinforce a long-term military presence in Macomb County.

Officials said the next step will be selecting a construction manager to oversee the work.

The new aircraft are expected to begin arriving in 2028.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. John James, R-Mich., said the funding represents a major milestone in securing the installation’s future.

“From the day I was sworn in, I understood what Selfridge means to Macomb County, Michigan, and our national security,” James said. “While others questioned its future, I never gave up on Selfridge. Losing Selfridge was never an option.”

James said the combined state and federal funding reflects one of the largest investments in Air National Guard infrastructure nationwide.

“Today’s state funding passage, in conjunction with the federal funding I secured in the U.S. House, is another major step toward securing this crown jewel for the next generation,” James said.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer also praised the funding approval, calling it a key step in preparing the base for incoming aircraft.

“Today’s funding is a huge, bipartisan win for Michigan that will grow our economy and make our country safer,” Whitmer said. “We landed the plane. Delivering this funding by June 1 was critical to securing the fighter mission and protecting Selfridge for the future.”

U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin also applauded the investment, pointing to years of coordinated federal, state, and local efforts to secure new missions for the base.

“These investments will make Selfridge the most advanced National Guard base in the country,” Peters said in a statement.

Slotkin said the funding will help attract additional defense-related economic activity to the region and strengthen national security capabilities.

“This proves that years of federal, state, and local bipartisan work does pay off,” Slotkin said.

Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters sued Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new nearly $1.8 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions. The lawsuit’s filing comes a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, during his congressional testimony, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of fund payouts for rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6.

Also, Trumpscored another win Tuesday against a Republican rival, dislodging Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s primary and knocking out one of his most outspoken critics on Capitol Hill. Massie has been a particularly difficult thorn in Trump’s side, pushing for the release of the Epstein files, opposing the war with Iran and voting against Trump’s signature tax legislation last year.

The U.S. government will permanently drop tax claims against Trump, according to a settlement document made public Tuesday, in an extraordinary use of executive power that could effectively help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct. As part of the settlement deal, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations.

Here's the latest:

Cubans wonder what comes next after Castro’s indictment

Many spoke strongly against any U.S. intervention in Cuba.

“I don’t think we need to find someone to prosecute for Cuba to change,” said Debrezei Barreras, a 43-year-old housewife.

“A military intervention could harm Cubans,” she said. “What I do think is advisable is for both countries to reach an agreement so that Cuba can emerge from this crisis.”

Rodny Amaguer, a 38-year-old architect, agreed.

“There’s no need for anyone from outside to come and fix problems that Cubans themselves, along with their government, should be able to solve,” he said.

Amaguer recalled he was a child when the planes the indictment accuses Castro of targeting were shot down. He said the pilots violated Cuban airspace.

Rolando Mesa, a 61-year-old state employee, concurred.

“If it were the other way around, if Cuba had sent those planes to the United States, and we arrived in Miami, what would they do? They’d shoot us down like doves,” he said.

Republicans mull dropping $1 billion security money request for the White House and Trump’s ballroom

Republican senators are considering dropping a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump’s ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support on Capitol Hill.

The White House has pressured Republicans to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill intended to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.

But some Republicans are questioning the security price tag and asking for more details about how the money would be used.

Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”

Sen. Thom Tillis said the effort to add the security package to the bill was a “bad idea” and he does not think there is enough backing to pass it, even if it were reduced.

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Trump says he will speak with Taiwan’s leader over arms sales

President Trump today suggested he may speak with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te about an arms sales package opposed by Beijing, the second time in a week he raised the possibility of speaking with the island’s leader.

“Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump said when asked if he had plans to call Lai.

On Friday, when returning from his summit in Beijing, Trump said: “I have to speak to the person that right now, as you know, you know who he is, that’s running Taiwan.”

Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, opposes any official interaction between U.S. and Taiwanese officials, and no sitting U.S. president has spoken with a Taiwanese leader since the two governments severed diplomatic ties in 1979.

Trump, as president-elect in 2016, took a congratulatory phone call from the Taiwanese president.

Trump calls the indictment of Raúl Castro ‘a very big moment’

“I think this is a very big day, very important day,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac, after flying back from Connecticut.

Asked what will happen next for Cuba, he said “We’re gonna see” and that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

Trump also said the CIA has a presence in Cuba, and Rubio has been involved in discussions with the island’s leadership.

But Trump added of applying more economic pressure to Cuba, “There won’t be escalation. I don’t think there needs to be.

Trump says he may release his tax returns

Trump has long cited ongoing IRS audits as his reason for not releasing his past tax returns. But that could change now that his legal team has forged a deal with the Justice Department this week that includes permanently dropping tax claims against the president, his family and associates.

“I may even release my current returns,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after a trip to Connecticut.

As part of the settlement deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion l awsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations, according to a one-page document posted to the Justice Department’s website on Tuesday.

The settlement also includes the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted.

Blanche says he expects Castro to appear in US on charges

Asked to what lengths the U.S. would go to bring Castro to face charges in this country, Blanche said the federal government indicts people outside the United States “all the time” and uses a variety of methods to bring them to justice.

“There was a warrant issued for his arrest,” Blanche said of Raúl Castro. “So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

Blanche went on to say investigations like this one are “never over” when asked whether additional charges would be brought.

Castro should take the indictment as a real threat, observers said

That’s because former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted on drug-related charges before he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized by U.S. special forces in the Venezuelan capital in January

“He’s gonna have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst and specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive.

“They’re going to have no choice but to take this threat extremely seriously.”

Top Communist Party leader praises Raúl Castro, says Cubans will defend his legacy ‘at any cost’

Roberto Morales Ojeda, a senior Communist Party leader, praised Army Gen. Raúl Castro on Wednesday, saying he “embodies the most genuine essence of the Cuban Revolution thanks to his ability to lead with modesty and personal example. His career has been an uninterrupted lesson in loyalty to Cuba and Fidel.”

He also said Raúl Castro has cultivated “an exceptional human sensitivity” and the ability to examine the “revolutionary endeavor,” rectify errors and open spaces for dialogue.

“For all these reasons, the Cuban people are absolutely certain that they will defend Raúl’s physical and ethical integrity and his legacy at any cost,” Morales Ojeda wrote on X. “Defending his legacy means embracing the continuity of the Revolution, updating the economic model without losing its socialist essence, training new generations, and the fundamental lesson: that one can be a revolutionary with firmness, constructive criticism, and unwavering loyalty to the people.”

In Miami, one Cuban American expresses approval of Castro’s indictment

Peter Hernandez, whose family owns Los Pinareños Fruteria in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, said it’s about time for the U.S. to do something about Castro.

“The piracy in that country, Cuba, it has been going on for a very long time,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez, whose parents moved from Cuba to South Florida before he was born, said he doesn’t have a problem with the U.S. sending its military to arrest Castro.

“He’s a criminal,” Hernandez said. ”I think we should do that with all criminals, especially if they’re hiding behind a country that consistently has been proven that they are on the wrong side of our national security efforts and ideology.”

Cuban president condemns Castro indictment

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment of Raúl Castro and accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating the events of 1996. He called it “a political action without any legal basis” that only seeks to “bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

Díaz-Canel wrote on X that Cuba acted in “legitimate self-defense within its territorial waters after repeated and dangerous violations of its airspace by notorious terrorists.”

He said U.S. officials at the time had been warned about the violations but allowed them to continue.

Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured the Cuban government’s longtime patron, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After ousting Maduro, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

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The US has also accused Cuban military pilots of downing the planes

Lt. Col. Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez of Las Tunas is among the Cuban military pilots accused of downing the civilian planes in 1996.

The others include José Fidel Gual Barzaga and Lt. Col. Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, whom the U.S. indicted in November 2025 on charges including fraud and misuse of visa and permits.

At the time, former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said: “This man’s past as a longtime military pilot for the evil Castro regime — which has wrought untold suffering on the Cuban people — should have been front and center in his immigration file.”

González-Pardo Rodríguez was accused in part of falsely claiming he had never received any weapons or military training on an application to register for permanent residence or adjust status.

The others accused are Emilio José Palacio Blanco and Raul Simance Cárdenas.

The penalties in the indictment against Castro

The murder and conspiracy charges Castro is facing carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison upon conviction. However, it is unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom.

Castro is charged alongside five other defendants. One of them, Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez, is in U.S. custody awaiting sentencing later this month in a case alleging he made false statements in an immigration document, according to the Justice Department.

Sen. Moody applauds Trump administration’s ‘accountability’ in Castro charges

Speaking at Wednesday’s event, Sen. Ashley Moody decried what she described as previous administrations’ relaxed attitudes toward Cuba, including moves to “relax our banking restrictions” or “coddle them into freedom.”

But with actions like the Castro indictment, the Florida Republican said the Trump administration is taking “the bold step of actually bringing accountability.”

Trump tells Coast Guard graduates they will ‘be tested’ in their military careers

President Donald Trump has returned to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to give the commencement address at the Connecticut school.

He told cadets on Wednesday that they show “unbelievable heroism and exceptional selflessness” but will “be tested further” as they embark on their military careers.

Trump’s remarks to the class of 2026 were the first time he has given a commencement speech at one of the nation’s military academies after sending U.S. troops to fight the war with Iran. Trump also spoke at the academy’s graduation in 2017 during his first term.

During his address, Trump quickly touched on the war with Iran, now in its 12th week, as a sign of U.S. success from “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

“The only question is, do we go ahead and finish it up or are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens,” Trump said.

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Trump referenced ‘shores of Havana’ in remarks earlier Wednesday

He did not directly address Raúl Castro or any potential indictment, but Trump mentioned Cuba earlier Wednesday in a commencement address.

“From the Gulf of America to the frozen waters of the Arctic, from the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment, just like we’ve been doing,” Trump said to graduates at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

Charges against Castro include murder

The indictment charges Castro with murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and destruction of aircraft.

A grand jury in Miami returned the indictment late last month, and it was unsealed on Wednesday, acting Attorney General Blanche said.

Blanche explains why Raúl Castro charges announced in Florida and not Washington

Many major Department of Justice cases are announced in Washington, but Blanche said Wednesday that it was important to discuss the Castro case in Florida instead.

“The community here, you all, understands the history of the Cuban regime better than anyone in America,” Blanche said. “Many families here know the cost of oppression.”

Crowd applauds as Raúl Castro indictment announced

Attendees rose to their feet, pulled out cell phones and broke into loud shouts as acting Blanche announced the charges against Castro.

The acting U.S. attorney general and other top Justice Department officials were in Miami on Wednesday for a ceremony to honor those killed in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes.

US indicts former Cuban President Raúl Castro over downing of planes in 1996

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro with ordering the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle seven decades of single-party rule in the Caribbean island.

Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister when the planes operated by a Miami-based exile group were shot down, killing four people.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been ratcheting up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open up its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Cuban president dismisses Rubio remarks, blames hardships on US sanctions, energy blockade

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel pushed back on Wednesday following claims by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the suffering of the Cuban people is the fault of the socialist government.

“They lie again and again without any shame, with alarming audacity, without presenting a single shred of evidence to support their claims,” he wrote on the social platform X. “The blame lies with those who order the closure of all access to material and financial resources.”

He noted that the U.S. executive order penalizing any country that supplies Cuba with fuel remains in effect.

“Only the most twisted minds could deny before the world this collective punishment being inflicted upon an entire people, which is already becoming an act of genocide,” Díaz-Canel wrote.

Progressive youth group launches digital campaign highlighting absent congressman

Voters of Tomorrow, a group focused on mobilizing young voters, launched a website highlighting Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s absence from Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday said he expects the New Jersey Republican to return “soon” after dealing with a “personal medical issue.” Kean has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March. His family and staff say that he is battling an undisclosed illness.

Santiago Mayer, Voters of Tomorrow’s executive director, said that Kean had “ghosted” Congress, adding that the issue of congressional absences was especially salient to young voters.

The digital ads depict doctored “Missing” posters with an image of Kean and the text “Have U Seen This Man?” The campaign’s accompanying website includes a voter registration pledge.

Kean’s absence from House votes comes as Republicans face a razor-thin majority, complicating the party’s legislative agenda. Democrats have faced their own challenges in maintaining stable margins, as some members have died while in office.

Trump gives the Coast Guard commencement address in relentless heat

The president called graduates of the Coast Guard Academy “the living standard bearers of America’s first fleet” and suggested danger is “a statement you live by.”

Trump said graduating together would build lifelong camaraderie , saying “You’re always going to be friends with each other. Hopefully with me.”

As he spoke, many in the crowd faced scorching heat with little shade available against the 85-deegre heat and a UV index of 9.

At least one person required medical attention after passing out. Others pleaded with organizers that elderly attendants be allowed to sit under tents.

Chilled water bottles were distributed, but quickly became warm.

Officers’ lawsuit claims government’s ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is an illegal slush fund

And the lawsuit says President Trump will use it to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.”

It describes the fund’s creation as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.”

One of the attorneys for the officers is Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases.

Officers who defended Capitol from rioters sue to block payouts from $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of Trump supporters sued Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions.

The officers’ attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Over 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.

The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who’s running in Maryland for a seat in Congress.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson says Trump’s endorsement is ‘most powerful’

The Republican leader said he spoke with the president late after Tuesday’s primary elections and the defeat of Rep. Thomas Massie, a once popular GOP lawmaker.

“We talked about how his endorsement is the most powerful in the history of politics,” Johnson of Louisiana said at the Capitol.

The speaker insisted there’s room in the Republican Party for those who cross Trump.

“We don’t demand loyalty to the president,” he said.

“I never ask anybody to violate a core principle,” he said, but “you have to give up on some of your personal preferences sometimes.”

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez blasts US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

He called Rubio “the mouthpiece of corrupt and vindictive interests, concentrated in South Florida.”

Rodríguez wrote on X that Cuba hasn’t rejected $100 million in humanitarian aid the U.S. has offered, adding that the “cynicism is evident to anyone given the devastating effects of the economic blockade and the energy embargo.”

In late January, President Trump threatened tariffs on countries that supply or sell oil to Cuba, which recently announced that its oil reserves have run dry.

Rodríguez also criticized Rubio for releasing a video message Wednesday in which he calls on Cubans to reject their government and demand new leadership and a free-market economy.

“He takes advantage of the infamous date of May 20th,” Rodríguez wrote. The date marks Cuba’s independence, but the socialist government rejects that date, saying true freedom began with the 1959 Revolution.

Days after Trump visit, Putin and Xi hail their friendship and growing energy trade at meeting

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their strategic ties and growing energy trade as they met in Beijing on Wednesday only days after a visit by President Trump to China.

Putin and Xi oversaw the signing of more than 40 cooperation agreements in areas such as trade, technology and media exchanges. They stressed their growing trade, particularly in oil and natural gas, and declared themselves aligned on international relations.

The countries’ ties have reached “the highest level in history,” Xi said after the signing ceremony, speaking to members of the delegations and journalists. The two sides also agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001.

Putin told those in the room that “the driving force behind economic cooperation is Russian-Chinese collaboration in the energy sector.”

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US sanctions hit alleged Sinaloa cartel fentanyl network, including a Chihuahua restaurant

The U.S. imposed sanctions Wednesday on more than a dozen people, a Mexican restaurant and a security firm linked to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel and its fentanyl trafficking activities.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas, a fugitive known as Chuy Gonzalez, who’s alleged to be involved in trafficking narcotics into the U.S. and laundering funds for the cartel. The State Department has been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest since 2024.

Additionally, Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, who allegedly helps launder the proceeds of fentanyl and other drugs on behalf of the cartel, has also been hit with sanctions.

A restaurant in Chihuahua, called Gorditas Chiwas — controlled by sanctioned businessman Alfredo Orozco Romero — was hit with sanctions.

The sanctions cut them off from the U.S. banking system, cut off their ability to work with Americans and block their U.S. assets.

Trump has repeatedly offered to send the U.S. military after the cartels and his administration designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group in 2025.

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The Pontiac Housing Commission, along with the Ohio-based F&M Bank, has partnered to create the 100 Homes for Pontiac Program.

“The concept would just be, how do we have a healthy neighborhood?” Ahmad Taylor, Executive Director of the Pontiac Housing Commission, said. “The product is something that a family can own and be proud of.”

The commission, which operates independently from Pontiac’s city government, started the program in April 2025.

The first 12 homes are expected to be completed by the end of this calendar year.

“We decided to go to the new construction concept so we can come up with a whole new design for the neighborhood,” Taylor said. “The idea was to uplift the property value, the dirt in the neighborhood, so the neighbors can also be impacted by this benefit.”

“It was important for the private sector with that partnership to be shown that investments are coming to Pontiac,” he said. “Not only they’re coming to the Pontiac, they’re more importantly, they’re coming into the neighborhoods.”

The initiative will combine market-rate units and affordable housing units.

The commission is also working with potential homeowners to put them in a position to buy their homes.

Homebuyer Education courses are also being offered to PHC clients, who, upon completion, are eligible to receive down payment assistance to purchase one of the 100 Homes.

The commission also offers Homeownership Vouchers through HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, giving renters a structured track to closing on the home.

“This is something that we’ve imagined for years,” said Yvette Transou, the commission’s deputy executive director. “Being here at the Housing Commission for 22 years now, I never would have thought that this could be something that we not only could come up with in the ideal phase but actually have it to come to fruition.”

“We’ve had community support; We have had support from our clients that we service every day,” she said. “The staff has been amazing doing everything that we need to do to make sure that this happens.”

The goal of this program is to show that Pontiac is a place where people can put down roots, and nothing does that more than owning a home.

If you’re interested in getting one of these homes here in Pontiac, all you have to do is visit their website at PontiacHousingMI.com.

“My parents became homeowners when I was in college, and I saw the difference and what that did to our family makeup and how it uplifted some of the financial challenges we had,” Taylor said. “I want to do that here and within the Pontiac community.”

The tool library is a free community resource that lets residents borrow a wide range of equipment for home projects and neighborhood cleanups.

Organizers say the donation drive brought in everything from handheld tools to heavy-duty yard equipment, and the response kept coming as cars pulled up throughout the event.

“When people see beautification taking place in the city, they want to be a part,” Coach Kellog said.

For Novi resident Maria Reisner, donating tools was also a way to clear out a collection that belonged to her late husband.

“My husband was a mechanic and a bit of a collector of tools. And just so much, so much, extra stuff,” Reisner said.

Others said their donations were personal, too.

Ypsilanti resident Carrie Evans brought tools in memory of her father.

“My father passed away almost two years ago, and yardwork was his favorite thing to do,” Evans said.

Detroit resident John Williamson said he wanted to help neighbors after losing his sister.

“My sister passed away recently,” Williamson said. “So, I wanted to come down here and donate these items because I know that the neighborhood needs them.”

Katrina Wilson with the Bailey Park Tool Library said the event helped fill critical gaps in their inventory.

“It has been a phenomenal response,” Wilson said. “Cars are pulling up. And we are really getting some of the tools that we need.”

The donated tools will be distributed across five tool libraries partnering with the City of Detroit, helping residents take on everything from yardwork to larger household projects, while also keeping Bailey Park’s supply strong.

The giving also came full circle: Sgt. Bryant George with the Detroit Police Athletic League, who recently received hundreds of donated youth basketball shoes and supplies during a previous Go 4 It event, stopped by to donate tools and keep the momentum going.

“It’s the gift that continues to give,” George said. “You all helped us, and so the kids and the adults who take advantage of this park, and these tools, we want them to feel special as well.”

If you couldn’t attend the Go 4 It event but have tools you’d like to donate, drop-offs are accepted on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation and Bailey Park Tool Library, 2617 Joseph Campau Avenue, Detroit.

More information is available at https://www.baileyparkndc.org.

Fox has indicated it likes the 24-team idea, but embedded within that equation is the critical calculation of how much that network, or any broadcast partner, would pay for a new set of games involving second-tier teams that might not garner the same TV ratings as some of the biggest programs in the sport.

“The answer is ‘less,’ but not nothing,'" said Ed Desser, a former NBA executive and media rights expert who co-authored a paper about the value of college football on TV with former ESPN executive John Kosner. “There will be perceived value. It becomes a question of, on the margin, can you create good, meaningful games that enhance the value of the playoff? Or are you just kind of making people wait longer for the entree, for the game they really want?”

The CFP deal that starts this season with ESPN is worth $7.8 billion over six seasons. That network would have first dibs on the first two games added to any package. The rest are up for grabs.

“I want to see whoever is committed to making it work,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said this week when asked which TV partner he'd like to see jump in. “I think it's about whoever has the commitment to scheduling it right and who's going to bring the right resources.”

Figuring the size of the playoff is a puzzle that continues to confound the sport. On one side is the Southeastern Conference, which has held steady to the idea of not expanding past 16 teams though commissioner Greg Sankey teased that some might come around to 24 at meetings next week.

On the other is the Big Ten, which now also has backing from the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences for a move to 24.

The SEC’s idea would more or less keep the overall schedule where it is, including preserving the conference championship games that Petitti estimated to be worth a combined $200 million to the four power conferences.

Sankey has said the league has contracts for its title game and it has to honor those contracts; Petitti didn't seem as tied to the title games, saying he thought the Big Ten could “undo our championship games” as soon as the 2027 season if needed. The conferences are already working on a plan in which the Power 4 would pool their non-playoff teams to feed a new system for a further diluted bowl system, The Athletic reported last week.

A 24-team playoff would eliminate automatic qualifiers and render conference title games virtually meaningless. According to many in the Big Ten, they would give all programs what they crave — more access to the playoff, and a reason for fans and boosters to keep bankrolling all those player salaries.

“I think if we went to 24 teams, there might be 24 teams that could win the national championship,” said Illinois coach Bret Bielema, who is on the board of the American Football Coaches Association that also recently voiced support for the expanded field. “I don’t know if that was true 10 years ago.”

There is still the issue of paying for it.

While popular, college football only captures a fraction of the viewers as the NFL.

The 30.1 million who tuned into last season’s college final between Indiana and Miami would have ranked fifth on the NFL’s list of most-watched regular-season offerings. The Super Bowl drew more than 125 million viewers.

For the weeks when the CFP goes against NFL regular-season games – first-round contests the past two years have taken place opposite NFL games on Saturdays – the NFL games have drawn between 2.5 times and 5 times the viewers. Part of this is because the NFL games are over-the-air on Fox and the college games were on cable, TNT/TBS/TruTv.

There is also the issue of how much networks or streamers will have to spend.

The NFL's recent move into streaming and adding new broadcast windows — for example, Christmas Day and the days before and after Thanksgiving — has led to thoughts that the league will press for sooner renegotiations of its own deals that currently have an opt-out clause in 2029.

While the league controls all its games, college football's rights are spread out among the individual conferences and the CFP.

“We don’t feel that the current Balkanized state of college football lends itself to maximizing (revenue) across the board,” Kosner said. “Nor do I think that just doubling the CFP at this stage is going to be such a revenue motherlode that it's going to make a difference."

Pettiti views filling the gaps from the lost title-game revenue differently. He sees an influx of on-campus games, which generate $6 million or more in ticket sales and other receipts, as part of the equation.

The SEC, once seemingly in the majority in seeking a move to 16 teams, is now in the minority. Sankey said the league will have to do its own research to see how a bigger expansion would impact the college football calendar, the title games and, of course, the financial bottom line.

“I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the commissioners to help make it happen," Kosner said. "I would kind of be surprised if, within two years, it hasn’t happened. But I’d also be surprised if it winds up being the sort of business boom that they might hope that it would be.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

“Oftentimes, one of the biggest deterrents from students wanting to go in college is being out of their comfort zone,” Kerrie Mitchell, President of the DPSCD Alumni Foundation, said. “Our strategic plan goals are reducing chronic absenteeism wanting our students to really come to school so they can learn and get the best education that we can provide”

“Many of the students didn’t have a meaningful connection to high school because we were still delivering it the same way you and I got it 20-plus years ago,” Mitchell said. “Our students are vocal and they want to know how is high school going to prepare them for the future and what it looks like.”

The initiative was officially announced on Saturday night at the Foundation’s Annual Gala. The district says that it’s the most significant structural change to the curriculum in decades.

As part of the plan, every student will be able to choose from one of 5 new diplomas:

• Honors: AP classes to provide students with a competitive application to a four university
• Dual Degree: An associates degree and high school diploma at the same time
• Career Ready: Students graduate with the necessary credentials for a role right after high school
• Arts: A competitive portfolio for college advancement
• Michigan Merit: Signals successful completion of all high school requirements

Additionally, an 8th period will be added to the school day for either a seminar class or an elective that satisfies a graduation requirement.

As part of the plan, by junior and senior year, the students will spend more time outside the school building with the introduction of dual enrollment programs for college credit at schools such as Wayne State, U of M-Dearborn, Ferris State, and Wayne County Community College.

“I’ve always felt, and this goes back to even when I was leading schools in Miami, is that if you can give students a dual enrollment opportunities in high school, they automatically know that they’re college ready,” Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the Detroit Schools Superintendent said. “The real the challenge in getting kids to graduate in four years is really coupled to attendance and I think that’s part of the solution here with the high school redesign.”

The total annual cost for the redesign is $13.5 million. The alumni foundation is also leading a massive fundraising effort to bridge the remaining gap.

It comes at a time when things have gradually improved in the district. DPS’ on-time 4-year graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent, surpassing the previous record of 78.3 percent and placing it near the state average of 84 percent.

Those numbers include the “Big 3” schools of Renaissance, Cass Technical, and Martin Luther King High Schools. In the neighborhood schools, however, the numbers have lagged as 52 percent of 10th graders are currently behind on graduation credits and only 24 percent attend college.

This redesign also addresses the longstanding perception that DPS only cares about three high schools.

“We gotta get beyond this idea that, well, if I don’t get in Cass, I don’t get in King, or I don’t get into Renaissance, then I can’t go to DPSCD,” Vitti said. “I’ve always said in Detroit, we don’t have a talent gap, we have an opportunity gap.”

Changing the Approach

Angel Garcia has been the Principal at Western International High School since 2015. This school is part of his DNA.

“My father taught here and my aunt was the principal here years ago,” Garcia, who graduated from Western in 2000, said. “We have over 20 alumni working at Western and I think it’s a testament to the community that we build in the school, but also the programs that we offer.

“We have a lot of students wanting to follow in their family members’ footsteps,” he said. Western is one of two schools where the “redesign” was rolled out this school year as a pilot program, along with East English Village.

Western was chosen because it has one of the city’s largest and most diverse student bodies. The school, which opened in 1898 is one of the city’s oldest schools.

It used to be one of three high schools in Southwest Detroit, along with Chadsey and Southwestern.

The district shut down both schools in 2009 and 2012 respectively, consolidating all the students to Western. It is also the only Detroit Public High School where the majority of the students are either Latino or Hispanic.

“We’re the home of all young people in Southwest Detroit,” Garcia said. “Where Southwestern used to be, in Chadsey as well, those students now come to Western. We’ve become a lot larger”

The other nine schools in the program will be Central, Cody, Denby, Henry Ford, Mumford, Northwestern, Osborn, Pershing, and Southeastern. After initially having questions about how the redesign would it would work, Garcia was all in.

“We’ve been doing the best we can with students with the resources and supports that we could,” he said. “Once we got into the nuts and bolts of what the high school design really meant, redesign really meant I was excited.”

One of the focal points is on advanced placement classes happening earlier. Normally, students don’t start taking AP classes until their junior year. The redesign allows students sophomores to start taking them.

“It’s like my first time taking honors in AP,” Edgardo Camacho, a 10^th grader at Western, said. He wants to eventually become a Marine Biologist and is currently taking three AP Math classes.

“This is my first time taking AP exams,” he said. “All these exams are kind of coming in and coming in but, yeah, 10th grade’s been going really smooth.”

The redesign is seen as a shot in the arm to the near dozen schools that have felt overlooked for decades, and for Garcia, it makes the sales pitch of getting a family to choose Western a whole lot easier.

“We know that families face all kinds of challenges, things that come up out of nowhere, things that have to do with socioeconomic status,” Garcia said. “If I were to talk to a prospective parent right now, I would just say that our programming here at Western is built to not allow your student to fail and to fall through the cracks”

“I know that the U.S. government has put a proposition forward to the Canadian government on how they might find a pathway to open the bridge. And what I’ve said is, if it’s a bad deal, don’t take it, Canadian government. We’re willing to let that bridge stay closed for a little while longer instead of taking a bad deal put forward by the United States,” Dilkens said.

The project has been tied up in negotiations for months.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump threatened to keep the bridge closed unless the United States is “fully compensated” by Canada.

“The fact that the United States and President Donald Trump is now saying keep the bridge closed for some false grievance that he has against Canada is just asinine,” Dilkens said.

About one-third of all trade between the United States and Canada moves through Detroit, primarily across the privately owned Ambassador Bridge.

The nearly 100-year-old, four-lane toll bridge is the busiest international border crossing in North America.

“Because of Donald Trump’s tariff policy against Canada, there’s been a decrease in trade, and so the Ambassador Bridge can handle the trade for the moment, but I do want to see the Gordie Howe Bridge open because we’ve worked on it,” Dilkens said.

The White House pushed back on the characterization of the dispute.

“The issues that the president has raised with the Gordie Howe Bridge are separate from trade. The Trump administration remains committed to rectifying Canada’s unfair trade practices,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge broke ground in 2018, and residents on both sides of the Detroit River have watched it take shape piece by piece, with Canada funding construction.

In a statement, Sandy K. Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, said, “The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a symbol of the strong relationship between the Detroit region and Canada and a much-needed piece of infrastructure that will enhance the lucrative U.S.-Canada trade partnership. The Detroit Regional Chamber looks forward to seeing the bridge open.”

The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said the project team is continuing testing and commissioning work to prepare for operations upon opening. One of the most visible recent activities has been ongoing testing of the lighting system.

The agency said it is “progressing toward a spring opening,” adding that the exact opening date depends on completion of quality reviews and testing. It said updates will be provided as additional information becomes available.

Local 4 also contacted the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office, and the office of House Speaker Matt Hall, but has not yet received responses.

Aston Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul on Wednesday to secure Emery a record-extending fifth title in this competition.

Celebrating wildly inside the Tupras Stadium was lifelong Villa fan Prince William, who traveled to watch his beloved team end a 30-year wait for a major trophy.

“Amazing night!! Huge congratulations to all the players, team, staff and everyone connected to the club!” the Prince posted on X.

He had his phone out taking photos as captain John McGinn lifted the cup in the center of the field and in front of an explosion of confetti.

“He's a classy guy. He was in the dressing room before the game and he’s a massive Villa fan so he was never going to miss it,” McGinn told TNT Sports.

It was Villa’s first major piece of silverware since winning the English League Cup in 1996 and its first continental title since lifting the European Cup and then the Super Cup in 1982.

Was the outcome ever in doubt with the ultimate Europa League specialist Emery on the sideline?

The Spanish coach has enjoyed remarkable success in Europe's second-tier competition, winning it three years running with Sevilla from 2014-16 and again with Villarreal in 2021.

Now he has led a third team with ‘Villa’ in its name to the title.

“I am always very grateful for Europe, for every competition, Conference League, Champions League, Europa League, but especially Europa League,” Emery said. “We fought strongly in this competition and tried to give it our best. We played in a very serious way this year.”

Two brilliant first-half strikes from Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia put Villa into a 2-0 lead at the break. Morgan Rogers added a third in the second half.

German team Freiburg, which was playing in the second division 10 years ago, was outclassed in its first European final.

Villa was in England's second tier even more recently, in 2019. And while it was the overwhelming favorite going into Wednesday's match, occasions like this looked a long way off when Emery was hired in 2022.

Back then, Villa was one place above the relegation zone and in danger of going down again.

The transformation he has overseen has been remarkable — leading the team into the Champions League last season and qualifying for European club soccer's top competition again next term.

“With this manager in charge, anything’s possible,” said McGinn, a Scotland international. “Tonight was just everything we have built, coming together, and the pride I felt at 3-0 with 10 minutes to go, thinking we’re European champions was something I can’t even describe.

“It’s the proudest moment and night of my career so far.”

Tielemans put Villa ahead with a controlled volley from Rogers’ cross in the 41st minute — driving his shot past Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu.

Three minutes into first-half stoppage time, Buendia doubled the lead with a curling left-footed shot from outside the box that arched into the top corner.

Rogers’ goal in the 58th came when he slid in at the near post to divert Buendia’s cross over the line.

“We had a great season and to top it off with this is amazing,” Tielemans said.

Victory was further personal redemption for Emery, who was fired by Arsenal in November 2019 despite having led the team to the Europa League final earlier that year, which it lost to Chelsea.

A serial winner, he has now won trophies with clubs from three different countries, having also lifted the French title with Paris Saint-Germain.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

The deadline to apply is May 31.

Each year, the Rosedale Garden Neighborhood Association holds a Fourth of July parade, and some of the funding comes from the city’s Neighborhood Grant Program.

“I think it’s just a small way that the city can give back to residents to have a small, meaningful impact within the community,” City Councilwoman Carrie Budzinski said.

This year, the city will award 25 grants of up to $500.

“There’s a lot of flexibility in how people see community,” Budzinski said.

In the nine years since the program began, more than 200 projects have received funding, according to the city.

One of the first projects was a 2017 Eagle Scout project by Hans Anderson, who used the grant money to help fund an outdoor classroom at Hoover Elementary School, which is still in use.

“There are lots of opportunities for people to get creative, whether it’s gardening or celebrating or supporting sports,” Budzinski said.

City officials say applications can include neighborhood events such as block parties, as well as community art programs, landscaping, or beautification of public spaces.

Preference goes to first-time applicants.

After the May 31 deadline, applications will be evaluated.

If selected, recipients must spend and document the funds by Nov. 30.

Click here for more information on how to apply.

The 193-member world body approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing the landmark advisory opinion by the U.N.’s top court last July that called failure by countries to protect the planet from climate change a violation of international law.

“The world’s highest court has spoken. Today, the General Assembly has answered,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “This is a powerful affirmation of international law, climate justice, science, and the responsibility of states to protect people from the escalating climate crisis.”

The vote was 141-8 with 28 abstentions. The U.S., Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia — some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters — opposed the measure. Climate change is caused mainly by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

The text includes adopting a national climate action plan to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit); phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel exploration, production and exploitation; and urging those in violation to provide “full reparation” for damage.

The Paris climate agreement in 2015 set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, or the mid-1800s, giving rise to the mantra “1.5 to stay alive,” but now scientists say even their best-case scenario still shoots past that signature temperature mark.

The U.N. resolution had initially included stronger language from the International Court of Justice opinion that called for establishing an “International Register of Damage” to record evidence and claims, but it was removed after nearly a dozen consultations in order to receive more support.

The adoption came despite reporting by The Associated Press in February that the Trump administration had been urging other nations to press the small island country of Vanuatu — the draft's original sponsor — to withdraw it from consideration.

In guidance issued to all U.S. embassies and consulates, the State Department had said it “strongly objects” to the proposal and that its adoption “could pose a major threat to U.S. industry.”

On Wednesday, Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., blasted the measure once again, calling it “highly problematic” and maintaining that Washington has serious legal and policy concerns despite changes to the draft.

“The resolution includes inappropriate political demands relating to fossil fuels and on other climate topics,” Bruce told the assembly before the vote.

But representatives from Vanuatu and other island nations, who fear for their survival because of the impact of climate change, said it was important for the General Assembly to back the court opinion, which was hailed as a turning point in international climate law.

“We should be honest with one another about why this matters,” Odo Tevi, the Vanuatu ambassador to the U.N., said before the vote. “It matters because the harm is real and it is already here, along our islands and coastlines, for communities facing drought and failed harvests.”

He added, “The states and peoples bearing the heaviest burden are very often those who contributed least to the problem.”

The action by the world body follows decades of frustration for Pacific nations that are watching their homelands disappear.

In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just 2 meters (6.6 feet) above sea level, more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia, although only a limited number are accepted each year. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be underwater at high tide.

In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners — offering visa-free access to dozens of countries — in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts.

Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Wednesday that by endorsing the court ruling, the U.N. “reaffirmed the global commitment to protect human rights.” He noted that it came “despite efforts by the U.S. and other oil-producing states to stifle attempts to combat climate change.”

The allegations come as part of escalating pressure by the Trump administration on Cuba's socialist government to open its economy to American investment and remove U.S. adversaries. In addition, a U.S. blockade of fuel and other goods has caused widespread blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse on the island.

Castro, now 94, was Cuba's defense minister at the time the two small planes were shot down. They were operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue, which had been dropping leaflets over Havana urging Cubans to rise up against their government. Russian-made fighter jets downed the two unarmed civilian aircraft, killing all four men aboard the planes.

Here's what to know about Castro, the indictment and the 1996 incident.

What does the indictment allege?

Castro is accused in the indictment of authorizing the use of deadly force against Brothers to the Rescue, after the group had flown planes that dropped pro-Democracy leaflets over Cuba in January 1996. U.S. prosecutors said Castro and his older brother, Fidel Castro, who was president at the time, were the final decision makers on orders to kill.

In February 1996, Raúl Castro ordered Cuban military officials to begin training, using MiG fighter jets from Russia, on finding, tracking and intercepting the group's small planes off the island's coast, the indictment says. The two planes were shot down on Feb. 24, killing four U.S. nationals, including three U.S. citizens. A third plane managed to escape.

Castro and five other people, including MiG pilots, were charged in the indictment. Castro is accused of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and multiple counts of murder and destruction of aircraft. The murder and conspiracy charges carry a maximum punishment of the death penalty or life in prison upon conviction, but it's unclear whether Castro will ever set foot in a U.S. courtroom.

Will Castro ever face the charges in U.S.?

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who announced the indictment Wednesday in Miami, said he expected Castro to appear in the U.S. for prosecution, either by “his own will or by another way.”

Blanche said the federal government often indicts people who are outside the United States and uses a variety of methods to bring them to justice.

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted on drug-related charges before he and his wife were seized by U.S. Special Forces in the Venezuelan capital in January.

What happened in 1996?

At about 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, 1996, the three Brothers to the Rescue planes took off from an airport in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Over international waters, outside of Cuban airspace, two of the three unarmed Cessna planes were shot down by the Cuban MiG pilots without any warning, U.S. prosecutors said. The MiG pilots then began following the third plane, which escaped being destroyed, authorities said.

A Cuban official, however, insisted at a United Nations Security Council meeting in late February 1996 that the two planes were violating Cuban airspace when they were shot down and one of the civilian pilots had ignored warnings to not enter that airspace, according to Security Council records. The official also alleged the U.S. took no effective measures to prevent such airspace violations by U.S. pilots, despite warnings from Cuba.

Brothers to the Rescue dates back to 1980, during the unexpected emigration of 125,000 Cubans to the United States. It aimed to help the Cuban refugees in the Florida straits by dropping supplies from small planes and alerting the U.S. Coast Guard during the monthslong crisis.

What has been the reaction to the indictment?

Cuba's current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, condemned the indictment against Castro and accused U.S. officials of lying about the 1996 shootdown of the planes. He called it “a political action without any legal basis, that only seeks to bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

He wrote on X that the shootdown of the planes was “legitimate self-defense” after repeated and dangerous violations of Cuba's airspace by “notorious terrorists.”

The Cuban government said in a statement that the Cuban people fully support Castro. “Homeland or Death, We Will Prevail,” the statement said.

Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was among those killed in the 1996 shootdown, called the charges “long overdue.” She said her father only wanted to bring freedom to his Cuban homeland.

The charges against Castro were also welcomed by members of the Cuban community in Miami.

“He's a criminal,” said Peter Hernandez, whose family owns a fruit and vegetable market in the Little Havana neighborhood and whose parents moved from Cuba to South Florida before he was born. He added he would support the U.S. sending its military to arrest Castro.

Who is Raúl Castro?

Castro served as minister of the Cuban military during his brother Fidel Castro's decades-long reign as president. He took over as president in 2006 while his brother was ailing and served until 2018, when he handed over power to Díaz-Canel, a trusted loyalist.

In 2008, Castro launched a series of reforms that expanded Cuba's private sector and allowed citizens greater freedom to travel and access information. In 2014, he led historic talks with former U.S. President Barack Obama that resulted in the reopening of embassies and the re-establishment of diplomatic relations.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes.

Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on ways to modernize the TSA nearly 25 years after it was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. But the morale of TSA officers who went without pay during three funding lapses since Oct. 1, and whom the administration wants to replace at small U.S. airports, overshadowed the talk about better machines and reliable funding.

“Between the 2025 and 2026 shutdowns, transportation security officers endured a total of 119 days impacted by shutdown conditions," Republican Andrew Garbarino of New York, the committee’s chairman, said in his opening remarks. "That means TSA officers spent roughly 40% of this fiscal year reporting to work without a paycheck while continuing to carry out one of the most important security missions in the federal government.”

Several other committee members noted that Congress has failed to pass any of the pending bills seeking to guarantee continued pay for TSA workers. Rep. Lou Correa, a California Democrat, said if TSA workers don't get paid during shutdowns, neither should lawmakers.

Correa also took aim at President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which in addition to spending $477.3 million to have private companies take over airport screening at about 250 smaller airports would cut more than 4,500 TSA positions to save $529.3 million in compensation and benefits. The TSA this week also authorized contractors in its airport staffing program to acquire and maintain screening equipment, which previously was strictly a government function.

“Technology alone can’t replace the experienced people who make the security checkpoints work as they have for the past 25 years,” Correa said. “It's about pushing an antigovernment privatization ideology.”

About 20 U.S. airports already staff their checkpoints through the Screening Partnership Program. Currently airports choose whether or not to opt in. Under Trump's proposed budget, smaller airports would be required to participate.

The TSA has proposed letting private screeners handle security at airports with scheduled flights of passenger planes with 10-30 seats and ones that accomodate charter flights and private planes without fixed schedules. Examples include Oxnard Airport in California, Ocala International Airport in Florida, Alabama's Tuscaloosa International Airport and Gary-Chicago International Airport in Indiana, according to a spreadsheet maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The witnesses at the hearing included Christopher Sununu, president and CEO of the airline trade group Airlines for America; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport CEO Chris McLaughlin; American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley, whose union represents TSA workers. All three said they thoughts airports should get to decide whether to employ private screeners.

“Ensuring SPP remains an option for airports and does not become a mandatory program is paramount to the U.S. aviation industry,” Sununu said.

Kelley took a strong stand against the plans in Trump's budget.

“I'm totally against the privatization of any airport,” he said. “You don't contract out the CIA, do you?”

After several more Democrats on the committee said they thought that handing off airport security to businesses would leave U.S. airspace more vulnerable, Garbarino interjected to point out that “the very conservative cities of San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta” all use private screeners at their airports, “so yeah, maybe it's not a Republican thing.”

Garbarino and Rep. Tim Kennedy, a New York Democrat, championed legislation he and three other committee members introduced earlier this month that would double, from $250 million to $500 million, the amount of money the TSA administrator is required to set aside to reimburse airports for capital costs associated with security. The bill also would establish an annual TSA fund of $250 million for airport screening technology.

Revenue for both would come from a $5.60 fee that airline customers pay for each one-way trip they take on U.S. flights. The 9/11 Passenger Security Fee has existed since 2002, but Congress decided in 2013 that a certain amount had to be used each year to reduce the federal deficit. Since then, an estimated $15 billion went to the U.S. Treasury for that purpose, according to the bill's co-sponsors,.

“Americans and Congress expected this fee to directly fund our aviation security system, but that is not the case. Nearly half the fee's revenue goes to something else,” Garbarino said. “Congress must restore the passenger security fee to its original intent, to fund the next generation of screening technology that protects our people in the skies.”

Trump's fiscal 2027 budget proposal would end the practice of diverting passenger fees and fund the TSA partly with the $1.68 billion that was expected to go to deficit-reduction.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, adopting one of the most ambitious efforts by a major university to curb grade inflation. The decision was made by faculty vote earlier this month.

The move comes after top grades became so common that some Harvard faculty argued they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. More than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to university data cited by faculty members who supported the measure.

Harvard Psychology Professor Joshua Greene, who served on the faculty subcommittee that developed the proposal, said the reform is intended to reduce what he called “the tyranny of the perfect transcript.” If straight A's become less common, students may feel freer to take risks and focus on learning rather than preserving a perfect record.

“The Harvard faculty voted to make their grades mean what they say they mean,” members of the faculty subcommittee that proposed the changes said in a statement.

They said the reform would ensure that “a Harvard A grade will now tell students, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”

‘The tyranny of the perfect transcript’

Harvard is not the first elite university to confront grade inflation. Princeton University adopted a policy in 2004 to limit A-range grades to 35% of those awarded, though it abandoned the system a decade later after criticism that it disadvantaged students in competition for jobs and graduate school admission.

Harvard government professor Alisha Holland, co-chair of the faculty subcommittee that developed the proposal and a former Princeton student, said Harvard designed a narrower policy that limits only A's — not A-minuses — in hopes of avoiding a significant impact on students’ GPAs. Holland said faculty viewed the change as a “pro-student reform” intended to restore meaning to Harvard transcripts.

She said the decision carries significance beyond Harvard’s grading policies at a time when universities face growing scrutiny.

“This sends a powerful signal that, when people are questioning what universities do, universities are capable of governing and reforming themselves and evolving to match the challenges of our times,” Holland said.

The university plans to implement the policy in the academic year beginning in 2027.

GPAs at four-year public and nonprofit colleges rose more than 16% between 1990 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, called grade inflation a “complex and thorny issue” and a “problem that many people have recognized, but no one has solved” in a statement Wednesday.

Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist and Harvard psychology professor who has long criticized grade inflation, said in an email to The Associated Press that he was “delighted” by the result.

For too long, Pinker said, professors “who held the line with challenging material and high standards would see their enrollments plummet.” Failure to address the issue turned “universities into national laughingstocks.”

“Grade inflation forced a race to the bottom,” he said, adding that the problem could only be solved through a university-wide policy.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, Zach Berg and Daniel Zhao, the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, said they recognized concerns with the current grading system but were disappointed that student voices “have not been centered throughout the decision-making process.” In a February survey of students conducted by the association, nearly 85% of roughly 800 responding undergraduates opposed the proposal to limit the share of A-range grades awarded in Harvard courses.

A cultural shift

Beginning in fall 2027, instructors in letter-graded courses at Harvard College will be allowed to award A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional students.

Faculty also approved a proposal to use average percentile rank rather than GPA when comparing students for honors, prizes and awards.

A separate proposal which failed would have allowed courses to opt out of the A-grade cap by switching to a satisfactory/unsatisfactory system with a new SAT+ designation for exceptional performance.

The new policies will be reviewed after three years. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is Harvard’s largest school, comprising 40 academic departments. It is the home of Harvard College, Harvard’s undergraduate program, and all of Harvard’s Ph.D. programs.

Max Abrahms, a political science professor at nearby Northeastern University who studies terrorism and international security, was among those outside Harvard who applauded the decision.

“When everyone gets an A there is no signal,” he wrote on X, calling Harvard’s vote “a huge win for higher education.”

Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor who has spent years tracking grade inflation at colleges in the U.S., said if the system spreads to other universities, he would welcome the change.

“For many years, Harvard faculty maintained that their students deserved all those A's. This is a real cultural shift,” Rojstaczer said. “Will this policy be adopted elsewhere? Will it stick long term? That’s hard to predict.”

Leroy Dean McGill, 63, was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT following a lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. McGill was convicted of murder in the death of Charles Perez, who was attacked with his girlfriend in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13, 2002.

It was the first lethal injection carried out this year in Arizona, and McGill didn’t appear to be resisting at any point during the procedure. After a lethal dose of pentobarbital began flowing, he began breathing heavily and made a snoring sound. And, about 21 minutes after the IV insertion process began, he was pronounced dead.

While the state was criticized for having difficulty in inserting IV lines during executions in 2022, it took just one attempt on each of McGill’s arms to successfully insert IVs.

“Today’s process went according to plan,” said John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Barcello quoted McGill’s last words as: “I just want to thank everyone for being so accommodating and nice.”

Before the injection began, McGill looked at the witnesses, smiled and nodded. Media witness Josh Kelety from The Associated Press said he heard McGill at one point say: “I’m going home soon.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office pressed for the execution to be carried out, said her thoughts were with the victims.

Media witness Sean Rice from Phoenix television station KPN said the execution was carried out smoothly.

"I didn’t see any issue at all finding a vein on either arm,” he said. Rice said he also observed a slight twitching on the right side of McGill’s head about four minutes before the inmate was pronounced dead.

Authorities said that in 2002 McGill threw gasoline at Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, as they sat on a sofa in the apartment, setting them on fire. Perez and Banta had accused McGill of stealing a gun from the apartment before the attack. At the time, McGill was using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in several days.

Banta survived, but Perez died.

Twelve people have been executed so far this year in the United States. Tennessee and Florida each are scheduled to carry out an execution Thursday.

At the Arizona trial, Banta testified that McGill had told her and Perez not to talk behind people's backs. Before they could respond, McGill lit them on fire, authorities said.

Perez and Banta ran out of the apartment. Another man who lived in the apartment used a blanket to put out the flames on Banta, who suffered third-degree burns over three-quarters of her body. Perez died later at a hospital in extreme pain, prosecutors said.

Banta identified McGill as the attacker at trial.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting McGill of murder in Perez’s death in October 2004. He also was convicted of attempted murder for attacking Banta, arson and endangerment of people who escaped without injuries when the fire forced them to flee the apartment and a nearby unit where flames spread.

McGill’s lawyers had argued for leniency by presenting evidence about abuse he suffered as a child as well as mental impairment and psychological immaturity. The jury ultimately returned the death sentence.

This spring, McGill’s lawyers made a last-ditch bid to get him resentenced, but a lower-court judge rejected it. The Arizona Supreme Court also declined a request from McGill’s lawyers to postpone the execution.

McGill, who declined an interview request from The Associated Press, waived his right to seek clemency.

Arizona last applied the death penalty in 2025, executing Richard Kenneth Djerf for the 1993 killings of four members of a Phoenix family and Aaron Gunches for the 2002 fatal shooting of his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

The state carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties obtaining execution drugs and by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched. In that 2014 execution, Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.

The state’s current execution protocol calls for administering two syringes of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative.

With McGill’s death, Arizona now has 108 prisoners on death row. ___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix.

In letters dated May 11, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notified the two doctors who chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms.

The Department of Health and Human Services already had largely sidelined the task force, indefinitely postponing scheduled public meetings over the past year and thus leaving some long-expected updates on cervical cancer screenings and other topics in limbo.

The panel, first created in the 1980s, is composed of experts who scrutinize the latest evidence behind a wide array of disease prevention tools, such as depression screenings ad the use of statins to prevent heart attacks. The panel updates guidelines with letter grades showing the strength of the science. Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must cover preventive services given an “A” or “B” grade without requiring a co-pay.

Kennedy’s letters don’t make clear why he ousted Drs. John Wong and Esa Davis from the panel. He wrote that their “leadership, contributions and expertise” have advanced the task force’s work “to improve the health of Americans” and encouraged them to reapply. He said he was reviewing task force appointments “to ensure clarity, continuity and confidence” in HHS oversight.

The letters were first reported by The New York Times. An HHS spokesman didn’t respond to questions about why the two were fired.

Kennedy told lawmakers last month that he was reforming the task force, calling it “lackadaisical,” so that it would meet more frequently and “have, for the first time, transparency.” The panel holds public meetings, opens its draft guidelines to public comment before finalizing them, and publishes the scientific evidence behind them.

Some health advocates had worried that Kennedy was preparing to replace the expert panel with less experienced political appointees, like he had done with a critical vaccine advisory committee. Over the past year, the task force wasn’t allowed to publish its final update to the cervical cancer screening guideline or take steps to update recommendations about maternal depression, said former task force chairman Dr. Michael Silverstein, a pediatrician.

“This is a level of government intrusion into scientific processes that I’ve not experienced in my 10 years on the task force,” he said.

The panel has staggered terms so that normally health secretaries can regularly appoint new members, making their mark on the task force without upending it, said Aaron Carroll of the nonpartisan healthy policy group AcademyHealth.

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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.

Unfortunately for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it turned into Brunson versus James Harden in the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Brunson continuously attacked the matchup to spark one of the largest postseason comebacks on record, as the New York Knicks rallied from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 115-104 victory. A day later, the Cavaliers shrugged off concerns that one of the most accomplished offensive players in league history might be too poor of a defender to give them NBA Finals hopes.

“I know everybody’s putting it on James, but I’d say a lot of, it’s on the team, our team defense,” coach Kenny Atkinson said Wednesday after the Cavaliers practiced at Madison Square Garden. “And we were great for three quarters. Like, really, really great. So we can do it.”

The Cavs will try again Thursday, hoping to even the series before it shifts to their home court over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Atkinson took as much, if not more, heat than Harden for waiting too long to use a timeout to stop New York's momentum after Brunson kept driving right at Harden as the catalyst for an 18-1 run.

“Kenny’s a great coach and we know that they’re going to come out ready to play,” said the Knicks' Mike Brown, who worked with Atkinson when both were assistants to Steve Kerr in Golden State. “They came to New York to get one game and it’s still within reach.”

The Cavs know they should have it already. They controlled the middle two quarters against a Knicks team that showed plenty of rust in its first game since May 10. Looking nothing like the team that won by 19.4 points per game in the previous two rounds, the Knicks finally went to an offensive scheme that forced Harden to switch onto Brunson, and the All-Star guard had four straight New York baskets during the run.

Cleveland reserve guard Dennis Schroder credited Brunson more than blaming Harden.

“Jalen Brunson is one of the most clutch players in the NBA. Social media for that is just in a bad place,” Schroder said. “I think that we lost the game. Basketball is a team game. It’s everybody on the bench, coaches, the guys who were on the court. At the end of the day, he made some tough shots and good credit.”

The Cavaliers surged late in the season after acquiring Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden is ninth in NBA history with nearly 30,000 points and also 12th in assists. The 2018 NBA MVP was playing on an MSG court Tuesday where he shares the record with Kobe Bryant for points by an opponent with 61.

But he's had some sloppy performances in the postseason and Game 1 was another. Harden shot 5 for 16 overall and 1 for 8 from 3-point range, and had twice as many turnovers (6) as assists. He's bounced back before and Atkinson believes he will again.

“I said, ‘Without you, we’re knocked out in the first round.’ That’s my first (opinion). My personal opinion," Atkinson said. "So, let’s just stop that. We’re in a great position. ‘You’ve played great.’ You know, sometimes micro experiences get exaggerated. ‘So, you know, keep being yourself.’”

The Knicks, who have won eight straight games, understand how the Cavs must be feeling, after a loss that was every bit as gut-wrenching in Game 1 of the 2025 East finals.

New York led Indiana by 14 points with under three minutes remaining in regulation. The Pacers rallied to tie when Tyrese Haliburton's long jumper bounced high off the rim and fell through as time expired, then won 138-135 in overtime.

“Obviously they’re looking at it like that was our game that we gave away,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said of the Cavaliers. “And they’re looking at film of, ‘If we fix this here or fix this here, we would have won the game.’ And that’s what they’re going to try to do tomorrow.”

___

AP freelance writer Adry Torres in New York contributed to this report.

___

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

Philadelphia shifted to remote learning for students at 57 schools, saying that while the district has made progress, a number of them continue to have inadequate air conditioning.

The heat sneaked up on some Philadelphia residents and had them concerned about electricity bills before summer has even set in, said Lauren Authur, who lives in the city.

“Today has been like a heatwave,” Authur said, “and when you have little children, you use more of your air conditioning than anything to try to prevent them from being sick.”

“It honestly got hot sooner than we expected it to be,” she said.

The National Weather Service said another day of record heat was expected from the mid-Atlantic to New England before a cold front brings rain later in the week. Daily high temperature records were broken Tuesday in Portland, Maine, at 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), and in Boston at 96 (35.5 Celsius).

Temperatures were expected to plunge as low as 45 Fahrenheit (7 Celsius) in Portland and 50 (10 Celsius) in Boston as soon as Thursday.

In Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, officials at one high school set up fans, passed around bottled water and allowed students to wear shorts and T-shirts instead of their usual uniforms.

“The heat outside feels like it’s manageable because of the wind but inside it feels just tight and burdening because we also have to go through quizzes, exams, there is no excuse,” student Ariolainy Baez told CBS News.

A heat advisory was in effect for portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island through Wednesday evening.

In Maine, temperatures soared again Wednesday for Portland, and the small town of Fryeburg also sizzled a day after setting its own local heat record. Authorities advised people to use caution when outside.

“Our bodies are not adapted to the heat yet. On the first hot days of the year, it’s especially important to take breaks in the shade or A/C and drink plenty of water,” the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Some people coped by flocking to beaches that were not yet besieged by summer tourists. Others turned front lawn sprinklers into makeshift water parks for their children and neighbors.

In New York City, officials opened cooling centers.

“Just as New Yorkers look out for one another through the coldest days of winter, we must do the same through the hottest days of the year,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

____

Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026, marks 44 years since Kellie Marie Brownlee was last seen. The 17-year-old girl disappeared on May 20, 1982.

Kellie had skipped school to go to the mall to submit job applications. A friend’s mother saw her at the Twelve Oaks Mall at around 11 a.m. that day.

She was last seen wearing white pants, a halter top with another shirt over it, and high-heeled shoes.

Kellie’s friend, Carrie Oswald, opened up to Local 4 about their friendship and her grief.

“Kellie was a bouncing person with joy. When she walked in a room, you knew. She was laughing, bubbly, big smile. Back then, it was big hair 80s. She just glowed, and her philosophy, which I’ve said many times, was live, love, and laugh. She just cared tremendously about everybody in her circle,” Carrie said.

The two met in high school when Carrie was a freshman and Kellie was a sophomore. Her favorite memories of her friend were going to the arcade, listening to Ozzy Osbourne, and grabbing coffee at the Big Boy.

Even though it’s been over four decades, Carrie still hopes they’ll find answers in this case.

“It would bring peace. It would bring a lot of closure to a lot of us who continue to look for her and hope and pray that someday she will be found. Is that ever gonna happen? I don’t know, but it’s a grief that doesn’t go away. It subsides once in a while, but it comes right back at you,” Carrie said.

---> These are the names and faces of people missing in Metro Detroit the longest

Possible ties to suspected serial killer?

In May 2018, officials searched a wooded area in Macomb Township for the bodies of missing persons they believe could be connected to suspected serial killer Arthur Ream. It was the same area where police previously found the body of Cindy Zarzycki, a 13-year-old girl who disappeared from Eastpointe in 1986.

During the May 2018 search, Local 4 learned that authorities were investigating whether Ream was a serial killer linked to the disappearances of Kimberly King, Kim Larrow, and Brownlee.

Carrie does not believe Arthur Ream was involved.

“At one point, I did think Arthur Ream was involved. I actually went up to Michigan, to the Macomb County dig site. I don’t really think it was him,” Carrie said.

---> Previous coverage: Novi teen linked to suspected serial killer last seen 40 years ago at Twelve Oaks Mall

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the West Bloomfield Police Department at 248-975-9200.

If you have a missing persons case you’d like Local 4 to cover, reach out to Kayla Clarke at kclarke@wdiv.com, or the Investigators at Local 4 at Local4Investigators@wdiv.com.

The intersection sits right on the border of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, and that created a problem: nobody could figure out who was responsible for fixing it.

So, neighbors reached out to Local 4’s Lauren Kostiuk for help.

A car crash started it all

A car hit a utility pole, knocking out the traffic light at Pelham and Dartmouth. Crews put up temporary stop signs, but neighbors say those signs blow over or get hit.

“This is my home, and this to me is completely unacceptable,” said Tracy Baker, a Dearborn Heights resident. “These stop signs are knocked down and it’s not safe.”

Chuck Swanberry, another Dearborn Heights resident, said the light has been out for close to two months. He says he has picked up the fallen stop signs himself more than once.

“I’ve picked them up already a couple of times,” Swanberry said.

Sam Ramouni, who works at Dearborn Heights Automotive near the intersection, says drivers are visibly confused and it has even led to crashes.

“You can see it’s confusing. They don’t know what to do,” Ramouni said. “Nothing is getting done. It’s very frustrating.”

The tricky part: whose light is it?

The intersection straddles the city line between Dearborn and Dearborn Heights—and that made getting answers complicated.

Dearborn Heights told Local 4 the light is not their responsibility. Dearborn confirmed it is the city’s light, but said DTE took it down and never informed them. The city then had to order equipment before repairs could be scheduled.

DTE, however, tells Local 4 that Dearborn was notified on May 13 that the light was ready to go.

Repairs now scheduled for Friday

Dearborn says the traffic signals at Pelham and Dartmouth will be reinstalled this Friday at 8:30 a.m.

Neighbors say they are relieved but frustrated it took this long.

“Friday’s great,” Baker said. “But I think it is a month overdue, well overdue, and I think that somebody dropped the ball.”

Local 4 will continue to follow this story.

The crash occurred on Wednesday (May 20) around 2:30 p.m. at 30049 Ford Road.

Police said a dark-colored SUV slammed into the building, causing extensive damage to part of the restaurant.

The vehicle appeared to have crashed through a section of the wall and windows, leaving debris scattered around the scene.

Police said no injuries were reported.

Investigators have not said what led up to the crash, and the extent of the structural damage has not been released.

The incident remains under investigation.

The company said Wednesday it earned $58.32 billion, or $2.39 per share, in the February-April period, up from $18.78 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Nvidia earned $1.76 per share.

Revenue jumped 85% to $81.62 billion from $44.01 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.75 per share and revenue of $78.91 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Nvidia's results have exceeded the analyst projections that shape investors’ perceptions since Nvidia’s high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks three years ago.

“The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” said CEO Jensen Huang in a statement.

Along with higher profit and revenue, however, Nvidia's operating expenses increased by 49% to $7.75 billion.

For the current quarter, Nvidia forecast revenue of about $91 billion. Analysts are forecasting $87.29 billion.

Despite the solid results and outlook, many investors still evidently are worried about a comedown after a three-year boom that has seen Nvidia’s market value soar from $400 billion at the end of 2022 to $5.4 trillion as of Wednesday.

Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company dipped slightly after-hours to $222.12 after closing at $223.47 in the regular trading session.

“Time and time again, (Nvidia) obliterates expectations and consensus; it delivered exactly on what people wanted, especially regarding data centers,” said David Wagner, head of equity and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. “But the market doesn’t always act as you would expect after a strong report like this one.”

The company also announced plans to return some money to shareholders. It authorized a plan to buy back $80 billion worth of stock and increased its quarterly cash dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent.

Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, faces charges including theft of government property and concealment of government records. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach. Her attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Prosecutors allege that while serving as a Justice Department prosecutor last December, Lineberger sent a copy of the report that special counsel Jack Smith and his team had prepared, recapping their investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, to her personal email account. At the time she did so, the indictment says, a judicial order barred Justice Department employees from sharing, transmitting or distributing copies of the report.

The indictment alleges that Lineberger sought to conceal her actions by altering the original file name of the report to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving the re-titled file on her government computer and emailing it to her personal email account with the subject line of “Bundt_Cake_Recipe,pdf.”

Several months earlier, according to the indictment, Lineberger created on her government computer a document consisting of portions of internal Justice Department messages, along with portions of an internal memorandum with header and footer markings that indicated it was for official use only.

She sent the material to her personal email address via an attached file titled “Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf,” prosecutors say.

The indictment does not explain why Lineberger may have wanted to send the report, which prosecutors say she had access to in her professional capacity as a prosecutor, to her own email account.

The volume detailing Smith's findings in a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump has never been seen by the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers, who argued that releasing the report would be unfairly prejudicial after Smith abandoned the case following Trump's 2024 election victory.

Lineberger worked in the same judicial district where Smith's case against Trump was filed. That case accused Trump of illegally retaining at the Mar-a-Lago property dozens of classified records from his first term and obstructing government efforts to get them back.

“This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should’ve never been brought to begin with,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement posted on X.

An arbitration panel upheld the English Football League's decision to remove Southampton from Saturday's final, meaning Middlesbrough will take its place and play Hull at Wembley Stadium for the chance to win promotion to the Premier League.

The decision is final.

Southampton was expelled on Tuesday after admitting to repeatedly spying on opponents.

It was charged earlier this month for the unauthorized filming of Middlesbrough’s practice sessions ahead of their semifinal. It went on to win the two-legged tie to go within one game of promotion to the top flight.

The southcoast club subsequently admitted further breaches this season concerning games against Oxford United and Ipswich. It was also deducted four points for next season.

In its appeal, it described its punishment as “manifestly disproportionate” to any previous sanction in English soccer history.

In a long club statement, Southampton chief executive Phil Parsons had accepted “what happened was wrong” and that the club deserved to be sanctioned.

“What we cannot accept,” he said, “is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offense.”

The playoff final is labeled the world’s richest one-off soccer match because a windfall of at least $270 million in future earnings is on offer for the winning team.

Promotion to the top flight of English soccer — the world’s wealthiest and most-watched league — brings with it access to its multibillion dollar global broadcast deals as well as sold out stadiums for games against the biggest teams in the world like Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Southampton was relegated from the Premier League after finishing bottom of the standings last season and was aiming to make an immediate return.

The league said the final would go ahead on Saturday, kicking off at 3.30 p.m. local time.

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

The 42-year-old four-time NFL MVP says the 2026 season will be his last. Rodgers will spend it in Pittsburgh reuniting with first-year Steelers coach Mike McCarthy. The two won a Super Bowl together during a highly successful run in Green Bay earlier in their careers.

While McCarthy's time in Pittsburgh is just starting, Rodgers is entering the twilight of a career that will end in the Hall of Fame.

Here's a look at how Rodgers evolved from a junior college unknown into a future Hall of Famer.

Long wait

After developing into an NFL prospect during one year at Butte College and two at Cal, Rodgers was a possibility to go No. 1 overall in the 2005 draft. But he had a longer-than-expected wait before Green Bay selected him 24th overall.

Patience pays off

After sitting behind Brett Favre for three seasons, Rodgers got his opportunity to be the Packers’ starter in 2008 after Favre – who retired briefly and then returned — was traded to the Jets. Rodgers quickly established himself as one of the NFL’s top passers, throwing for 4,038 yards. It was the first of 10 seasons during which he’d pass for at least 4,000 yards.

Super season

Rodgers led the Packers to the Super Bowl to cap the 2010 season and was selected the game’s MVP after throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns in Green Bay's 31–25 win over Pittsburgh.

First MVP

Rodgers won the first of his four AP NFL MVP awards in 2011 after passing for a career-high and franchise-best 4,643 yards with 45 TDs and just six interceptions while setting an NFL record with a 122.5 passer rating.

Second MVP

In 2014, Rodgers and the Packers bounced back from a sluggish 1-2 start to reach the NFC championship game, where Green Bay lost to Seattle. He capped the season by winning his second MVP award.

“Miracle in Motown”

Arguably Rodgers’ most memorable pass came in Detroit in Week 13 of the 2015 season against the Lions, who led the Packers 23-20 and appeared to win until a defensive facemask penalty was called with no time left on the clock. It gave Green Bay one more chance and Rodgers chucked a 61-yard toss that was caught by Richard Rodgers in the end zone for an unlikely victory. It was the first of Rodgers’ four career completed Hail Mary throws, the most in NFL history.

Third MVP

Rodgers threw a career-high and Packers-record 48 TD passes and set a personal best with a 70.7 completion percentage on his way to his third AP NFL MVP award. The Packers made it to the NFC title game again, but lost to Tom Brady and eventual Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay. Rodgers fell to 1-4 in conference championship games and became the first QB to lose four straight appearances.

Vaccination controversy

Rodgers missed a game in 2021 after testing positive for COVID-19 and later acknowledged he hadn’t gotten the vaccine. He said he was “immunized” when asked about his vaccination status before the season. Although he took responsibility for being misleading about his status initially, Rodgers also criticized the way NFL protocols impacted unvaccinated players and frequently spoke out regarding his skepticism over the vaccine.

Fourth MVP

Rodgers capped the 2021 season by winning his fourth AP NFL MVP award, becoming the fifth player to win consecutive MVPs and first since Peyton Manning (2008 and 2009). He and Manning are also the only players to win at least four MVP awards.

Swan song in Green Bay

Rodgers signed a three-year contract before the 2022 season with the Packers worth $150.8 million, with $101.5 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid player in North American sports history on an annual basis at that time. He broke his right thumb early in the season, but continued playing and the Packers finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs.

Big deal, big disappointment

Rodgers was traded to New York on April 26, 2023, immediately raising expectations for the Jets, whose only Super Bowl appearance was in the 1968 season. But just four snaps into his debut in the season opener against Buffalo, Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon.

Broadway bust

Rodgers started off slowly in his return from his torn Achilles tendon and then dealt with other knee, ankle and hamstring injuries as the Jets got off to a 2-3 start and fired coach Robert Saleh. Rodgers played better down the stretch, but New York finished 5-12 and missed the playoffs for the 14th straight year. After becoming the fifth player in NFL history to throw 500 regular-season TD passes in the season finale, Rodgers said he needed to take some time off to ponder his playing future.

Jetting away

On Feb. 13, 2025, the Jets said they had informed Rodgers that new coach Aaron Glenn and new general manager Darren Mougey would be moving in another direction at quarterback. He was released a month later, officially ending Rodgers’ tenure with the franchise.

A happy pit stop in Pittsburgh

Rodgers signed with the Steelers in June 2025 and quickly began leaning into everything that comes with playing for one of the league's iconic franchises. He took rookie quarterback Will Howard under his wing and quickly won over the locker room with his humor and his cool California swagger.

Oh, and the football at times was great, too. Rodgers passed for 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions in 2025, leading the Steelers to their first AFC North title since 2020. He also leapfrogged Favre into fourth place on the NFL's all-time touchdown pass list.

He spent four months pondering whether to return before re-signing with Pittsburgh just before the start of organized team activities and left no room for speculation about whether 2026 would be his last season.

“This is it,” he said.

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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

A trade license that came into effect Wednesday permits the import of Russian oil that has been refined into jet fuel and diesel in third countries such as India and Turkey. The U.K. announced in October that it would ban imports of those products.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, has sent fuel prices soaring around the world and sparked concerns about a shortage of jet fuel.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the British government of “choosing to buy dirty Russian oil.”

But Starmer said the government is phasing in the sanctions package announced in October and has issued a “targeted short-term” license for the refined products to protect British consumers in a volatile situation.

“So, these are new sanctions being phased in. This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever,” he said in the House of Commons.

The licenses have no end date, but the government said they would be reviewed regularly.

Britain has been one of Ukraine's strongest allies since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and the government insists its sanctions against Russia remain among the toughest in the world.

Starmer spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and “outlined how the U.K. was ramping up measures to crack down on Russia’s economy,” Starmer's office said.

It said Starmer “reaffirmed the U.K.’s steadfast support for Ukraine.”

After the call, Zelenskyy posted on X: “I am grateful for all the support the United Kingdom provides to Ukraine — our efforts to protect life."

But lawmaker Emily Thornberry, who chairs Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Ukrainians would “feel very let down” by the easing of sanctions.

A senior Ukrainian official said the Kyiv government was “clarifying the details” with U.K. officials.

“There is currently very active communication between our diplomats, the office (of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy) and the British side,” the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The U.S. has also eased Russian sanctions. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended a 30-day sanctions waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil shipments already at sea.

On Tuesday, finance ministers from the U.S., Britain and the other Group of Seven wealthy nations issued a joint statement reaffirming “our unwavering commitment to continue to impose severe costs on Russia in response to its continued aggression against Ukraine.”

John Lough, an associate fellow in the Russia program at the Chatham House think tank in London, said that while the sanctions carve-outs were likely to be temporary, “it has a symbolic effect because it does look as though the sanctions regime is weakening.

“If you’re looking at this from Moscow, you would say, well, this is welcome news, because it shows that when push comes to shove, Western countries are really not that committed to a sanctions regime,” Lough said.

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Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Susie Blann in Kyiv contributed to this story.

Tony Carruthers' attorneys twice asked the Tennessee Department of Correction last month whether it had secured the appropriate drugs for his execution date and for assurance the drugs had not expired.

Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers' response did not directly answer but said the department will comply with its lethal injection protocol — which includes regular inventory of the drugs to monitor expiration dates.

Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to answer on Wednesday when asked by The Associated Press whether the drugs they plan to use to kill Carruthers are expired. Gov. Bill Lee’s office did not immediately respond to a similar inquiry.

Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell said in an email that expiration dates reflect when a drug can no longer be safely relied upon to obtain the desired result.

“In the execution context, this may mean a slow, lingering death without a reliable loss of consciousness, as the body painfully and fitfully shuts down,” Harwell wrote.

Public opposition to executions has made it difficult for prisons to obtain execution drugs, among the lingering issues for those who use lethal injection. Some states have been forced to speed up executions or stop them entirely due to expiration dates on drugs.

In South Carolina, executions were on hold for 12 years while the state struggled to obtain drugs. They were eventually able to get them only after the state passed a shield law that would keep the identity of the supplier secret.

Tennessee has argued in court that its shield extends to revealing expiration dates. Just before the December execution of Harold Nichols, Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon offered instead to provide a declaration “attesting that the chemicals to be used in Mr. Nichols’ execution will not expire before his execution and have not expired,” according to a transcript of the proceedings.

“The fact that TDOC was willing to provide such assurances to Mr. Nichols, but not Mr. Carruthers, raises serious concerns that TDOC is, in fact, intending to use expired drugs,” Harwell wrote in a May 18 follow-up to Ayers’ letter.

Arkansas, Idaho have faced challenges

In 2017, Arkansas’ then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners on the state’s death row in an effort to beat the clock on a batch of lethal injection drugs that were set to expire. The state executed four of the men, but four others were granted stays.

Arkansas has not had any executions since then, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining drugs.

A group of Texas inmates in 2023 unsuccessfully tried to stop the state from using drugs they alleged were expired and unsafe. Prison officials denied their claims and said the state's drug supply was safe.

Attorneys for Idaho’s death row inmates raised similar concerns in 2024, when the state planned to take a second try at executing Thomas Creech after the first attempt was botched.

The Federal Defender Services of Idaho told a federal judge that prison officials apparently failed to even check the expiration date of the execution drugs before obtaining a death warrant for Creech in October 2024. Nine days later, the drugs were returned to the supplier because they were expired, according to court documents. A new Idaho law has changed the state’s primary execution to firing squad in part because of the difficulty of getting lethal injection drugs.

Tennessee has had problems with execution drugs

Tennessee has a history of problems with its execution drugs. In 2022, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed the state's lethal injection drugs were not being properly tested for purity and potency. Executions were on hold for two years to allow for an independent investigation into the problems.

The state attorney general’s office was also forced to concede in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs at the time “ incorrectly testified ” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.

Tennessee released a new lethal injection process in December 2024, and restarted executions in 2025. Several death row inmates have sued over the new protocols, arguing that the Correction Department did not follow the recommendations from the investigation.

Meanwhile, the new process has not been completely smooth. When Byron Black was executed by lethal injection in August, he said he was “ hurting so bad.” Prison officials have offered no explanation for what might have caused the pain.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1% for its first rise in four days and pulled closer to its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 645 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5%.

Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, which offered relief following rapid climbs that had rattled stock markets worldwide recently. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.67% late Tuesday, which is a significant move for a market that measures things in hundredths of a percentage point.

The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4% before the war with Iran began, along with other yields around the world, because of worries that the fighting will keep oil prices high, among other factors. The inflation concerns not only seemed to eliminate the chances for a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year, they also heightened the risk that central banks may have to raise rates in 2026.

High yields slow economies and weigh on prices for stocks, cryptocurrencies and all kinds of other investments. Besides driving up rates for mortgages, they could also curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have been supporting the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

Yields eased Wednesday as oil prices pulled back some more. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.6% to settle at $105.02, though it remains well above its roughly $70 level from before the war. Prices have been yo-yoing on rising and falling hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to allow oil deliveries to fully resume from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

A report showing less bad inflation in the United Kingdom than economists expected also helped calm yields worldwide.

With the easing of yields, technology stocks helped lead Wall Street higher.

Nvidia rose 1.3% ahead of its latest profit report, which arrived after trading ended for the day, and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500. The chip company reported another quarter of bigger growth in profit and revenue than analysts expected, while it also gave a better-than-expected forecast for revenue in the current quarter.

Other tech stocks leading the market included Advanced Micro Devices, up 8.1%, and Intel, up 7.4%.

Smaller companies can feel even bigger relief from lower yields than their bigger rivals because many need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 2.6%, more than double the gain of the S&P 500, which measures the biggest U.S. stocks.

Also helping to drive the market was the company behind TJ Maxx, Marshalls and other stores, which climbed 5.7% after delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TJX’s CEO, Ernie Herrman, said the current quarter is off to a good start, and the off-price retailer raised its forecasts for revenue and profit this year.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers jumped 18.2%, and Cava Group rose 3.1% following their own better-than-expected profit reports. Such results raise hopes that households can keep spending and supporting the economy, even though they’re contending with high gasoline prices and widespread discouragement about economic conditions.

Most big U.S. companies have likewise reported better profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected, which has helped stocks run to records. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Target, which fell 3.9% even though the retailer reported better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. A new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, is trying to turn around the company and boost its revenue.

Expectations were high for the company’s performance after Target’s stock came into the day with a gain of more than 30% for the year so far, quadruple the S&P 500’s gain.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 79.36 points to 7,432.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Averae jumped 645.47 to 50,009.35, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 399.65 to 26,270.36.

In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed in Europe following weaker finishes across Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% as the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond slipped but remained near its highest level since 1997.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

“This is it,” Rodgers said Wednesday when the four-time NFL MVP was asked if this would be his final year.

The 42-year-old did not expand on why he came to that conclusion. Maybe because there was no need.

Rodgers acknowledged that he thought his time in Pittsburgh — and perhaps the league — was over when Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stepped down the day after a blowout first-round playoff loss to Houston in January.

Things changed when Pittsburgh hired Mike McCarthy a few weeks later, a decision that Rodgers said he may have played a small role in when he encouraged Steelers general manager Omar Khan to talk to McCarthy. Rodgers and McCarthy spent 13 years together in Green Bay, winning a Super Bowl while becoming a playoff fixture.

McCarthy and Rodgers stayed in constant communication in recent months as Rodgers weighed whether to run it back one last time. While there was no one tipping point, the relative health of his 42-year-old body and the chance to have his career come “full circle" with a team that spent the offseason upgrading the offense in hopes of ending a lengthy playoff victory drought led to a reunion he called “surreal.”

“It is like a (bunch of) ‘pinch me’ moments that have happened in the last few days,” Rodgers said following the second day of Pittsburgh's voluntary organized team activities.

Perhaps because McCarthy hardly came back to his hometown alone.

The familiar faces from Rodgers' time in Green Bay are everywhere inside the Steelers' facility, from defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to offensive line coach James Campen. There are “getting the band back together” vibes everywhere Rodgers looks.

When Rodgers plopped into a chair for a meeting on Monday, in many ways it felt like it was 2006, when he was entering his second year in Green Bay as Brett Favre's backup and McCarthy was a first-year head coach still finding his way.

“Took me back to being a 22-year-old kid,” Rodgers said with a smile.

Only he's hardly that anymore. While the oldest player in the NFL turned back the clock enough last season to throw for 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions and guide the Steelers to the AFC North title, he also missed a game after breaking several bones in his left wrist and looked very much his age during the second half of what became a blowout loss to the Texans that ended both Pittsburgh's season and Tomlin's largely successful 19-year run as head coach.

Still, Rodgers believes he has enough left to attempt the rarest of exits for players of his stature: the ability to go out on his own terms.

McCarthy said Rodgers “can still throw it with anybody," though the time of year when Rodgers will be asked to really cut it loose is still months away. Perhaps Rodgers' most important job through OTAs, minicamp and training camp is helping the Steelers prepare for life without him.

While McCarthy and Rodgers stayed in constant communication as Rodgers hung out in Malibu, California, with his wife and weighed his options for 2026, the Steelers selected Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the third round of the draft, and McCarthy has talked up 2025 sixth-round choice Will Howard at every turn since taking over.

Allar and Howard figure to be in the mix this time next year when the Steelers restart their quest to find a long-term solution at the game's most important position, a search that's been ongoing since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in January 2022.

Rodgers' presence offers a cheat code of sorts. He knows all the answers to the test, particularly when the test is offered by McCarthy. Allar and Howard will get to spend the next seven or so months soaking up what they can from Rodgers about what McCarthy wants and perhaps more importantly, how he wants it.

McCarthy called Rodgers “a tremendous resource” who also happens to be a future Hall of Famer, giving him a certain cachet that might make him a better conduit for what McCarthy is trying to teach than the coach himself.

“It's like parenting,” McCarthy said. “I could sit there and tell my kids something, and then, like if he’d walk in and tell my son George something, he’d jump out the window and do it.”

While Rodgers took a friendly jab at Favre — whom he sat behind during the first three years of his career — by borrowing a phrase from Favre that mentoring is “not in my job description,” the reality is it's a role he relishes.

Just not as much as the chance to win. When Rodgers signed with the Steelers a year ago, he called the decision “best for my soul.” It's much the same this time around.

He likes what the team has done by trading for wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., signing running back Rico Dowdle and drafting wideout Germie Bernard. The offensive line could be better with Troy Fautanu moving over to left tackle. The defense still has a pair of franchise icons in defensive lineman Cam Heyward and outside linebacker TJ Watt.

And now it has a quarterback eager to soak up every last bit of the final chapter of a career that will end with a gold jacket and a bust in the Hall of Fame. Just not quite yet.

“I am excited about these guys," he said. “I’m excited about the team.”

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

But he says that could change now after his legal team forged a deal with the Justice Department this week that includes permanently dropping tax claims against the president, his family and associates.

“I may even release my current returns,” the president told reporters Wednesday.

If Trump makes good on that suggestion, it would end years-long speculation over how much the Republican president owes the federal government. But Trump has made dozens of promises in years past to release his returns, as other presidents routinely have done, only to renege on that commitment.

This week, the Justice Department said the government is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing or prosecuting current tax examinations of Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — part of the settlement deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over a leak of his tax returns.

The Justice Department has said the settlement refers only to existing audits, not future examinations.

The move came after the Justice Department announced, as part of the lawsuit settlement, the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Democrats and government watchdogs have called the arrangement “corrupt” and unconstitutional.

With the settlement putting an end to any ongoing examinations of the president's finances, the question arises about whether Trump will in fact release his returns. The White House referred The Associated Press to Trump’s comments when asked when his returns may become available.

Trump has said on numerous occasions over the years that he would release his tax returns. In May 2017, Trump said in an interview that he “might” release his tax returns after he stepped down as president.

During his first presidential campaign, he made a commitment to release his tax returns once they were not under audit.

In 2022, after Trump had left office, Democrats in Congress released thousands of pages of his tax returns for the years covering 2015-2020, showing how Trump used the tax code to lower his tax obligation and revealing details about foreign accounts, charitable contributions and the performance of some of his highest-profile business ventures.

“It would be unprecedented,” said Jodi Balsam, a former arbitrator of NCAA infractions cases who is director of the Sports Law Clinic at Brooklyn Law School. “They have never excused betting on one’s own sport or team and it routinely has been met with the harshest of penalties.”

Texas Tech said Monday it had declared Sorsby ineligible after it finalized an agreed-upon stipulation of facts between the school, the NCAA and Sorsby. A school is required to declare an athlete ineligible before it can initiate the reinstatement process.

On the same day, Sorsby filed a lawsuit in Lubbock County, Texas, alleging the NCAA was slow-walking his case and asking for an injunction allowing him to play for the Red Raiders this season after he was one of the biggest transfers of the offseason. Balsam said the claim of stalling is likely baseless since the NCAA had not received a reinstatement request as of Monday.

Sorsby has acknowledged wagering on sports, including on his own team his freshman season at Indiana in 2022. His school said he entered residential treatment for a gambling addiction three weeks ago.

History on NCAA's side

Balsam said courts historically have sided with sports governing bodies when it comes to administering rules concerning gambling and integrity of the game.

“I see the NCAA fighting this one. I don’t see them settling,” she said. “I do believe this is within their core legal authority.”

Sorsby is the highest-profile college football player to face permanent suspension for gambling since Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers three years ago. Dekkers was found to have wagered on a 2021 Cyclones game in which he didn't play.

Iowa State filed two appeals with the NCAA to have Dekkers' eligibility reinstated and was denied each time, a school spokesman said. Dekkers sat out 2023, played at a junior college in 2024 and signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2025. He was released in January and is the starter for the Houston Gamblers of the UFL this spring.

Sorsby's options

At stake for Sorsby is the multimillion-dollar deal he signed with Texas Tech for what was supposed to be his final season of college football. Sorsby alleges the NCAA abandoned “its obligations and duties to promote" his well-being and that the lawsuit was filed to expedite the reinstatement process.

Sorsby is seeking a hearing for a temporary injunction by June 15, one week before the deadline to file paperwork for the NFL's supplemental draft.

Balsam served from 2019-24 on the NCAA’s since-dissolved Independent Resolution Panel, which adjudicated and administered penalties in select Division I infractions cases. She said the NCAA would create a “real slippery slope” if it didn't make Sorsby permanently ineligible.

“To exonerate entirely somebody who has admitted violating this core policy is to open the floodgates for anybody who is ever engaged in gambling that violates the policy and tries to defend, justify or rationalize their behavior," she said.

In the lawsuit, Sorsby acknowledged that in his first year at Indiana, he wagered between $5 and $50 on the Hoosiers football team to win and made prop bets on teammates to exceed statistical predictions. He said he did not bet on the one game in which he played.

Sorsby said he never bet on a game involving Cincinnati after he transferred there in 2024, but he continued to be out of control, even placing wagers on Turkish basketball and Romanian soccer games.

Sorsby contends there is hypocrisy in the NCAA's harsh discipline for gambling violations at a time it has a partnership with Genius Sports, the exclusive distributor of official NCAA data feeds to authorized sportsbooks.

“Maybe that will invite some skepticism by courts,” Balsam said, “but ultimately ... sports gambling bans have always been considered essential to the public trust in the game.”

Judge recuses himself

Balsam said there was “perhaps a little bit of forum shopping” with Sorsby's lawsuit filed in Lubbock, home to Texas Tech, reflecting a trend of eligibility cases being heard in state courts.

The judge initially assigned to the case, Phillip Hays, grew up in Lubbock and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas Tech. Hays recused himself with no explanation in a court filing Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, and the administrative judge who will pick Hays' replacement has no ties to the school.

Balsam said it's conceivable a judge would grant Sorsby a temporary injunction but only to make the NCAA set a clear timetable for processing Sorsby's request so he isn't in jeopardy of missing the supplemental draft.

“I’d be floored if a court said at the end of the day, after a hearing on the merits, that the NCAA could not enforce its gambling policy,” Balsam said.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The company's announcement Wednesday comes a day after the Toronto-based Sherritt said it is no longer pursuing a plan to dissolve its Cuban joint venture, reversing a decision it announced last week amid expanded U.S. sanctions on the country.

The preliminary private placement deal would see Gillon hold a warrant that would allow it to buy enough shares to give it a 55% stake in the company. If the deal goes ahead, Sherritt says it expects the price paid by Gillon will be at a discount to its closing share price on May 15.

Sherritt, which has a 32-year presence on the island, suspended direct participation in its Moa joint venture in Cuba earlier this month after the U.S. ramped up pressure on the Caribbean country.

Gillon is the family office for the Washburne family. Ray Washburne was appointed by Trump as head of the U.S. development bank known as Overseas Private Investment Corporation from 2017 to 2019. He later served as a member of the president’s intelligence advisory board. He was vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee in 2016 and has been a major Republican fundraiser.

Gillon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In connection with the agreement, Sherritt says it has confirmed that the U.S. State and Treasury Departments do not object to Gillon’s talks with the company, but that any deal would require their approval.

“Sherritt has engaged constructively with the United States Department of State, which has confirmed that the Department of State and Department of Treasury do not object to Gillon Capital’s engagement in negotiations with the Corporation and, based on the information provided to date, do not consider such negotiations to be contrary to U.S. law,” Sherritt said in a statement.

Update: Man, woman killed in targeted shooting on Detroit’s east side, 1-month-old found unharmed in vehicle

The shooting happened after 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in the 9600 block of McKinney Street on Detroit’s east side. That’s near I-94 between Whittier Avenue and Berkshire Street.

Local 4 has a crew at the scene and is working to gather more information.

Our cameras captured footage of bullet holes in the driver’s door of a black car, and crime scene tape is set up throughout the area.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was both. The Knicks wouldn't have been able to charge all the way back without Cleveland collapsing.

The Cavaliers led 93-71 with under eight minutes to play before the Knicks outscored them 44-11 the rest of the way to win 115-104 in overtime. The only bigger fourth-quarter playoff comeback in the last 30 years was when the Clippers rallied from 24 down to beat Memphis in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series in 2012, and it matched the biggest in any NBA game this season.

“We should’ve won the game," Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell said. “We didn’t.”

A look at some of the reasons they didn't.

The turning point?

Impossible as it became to imagine a few minutes later, James Harden made a good defensive play on a then still-struggling Jalen Brunson with the Cavs leading by 20 with 7:04 to play. Harden blocked Brunson's shot on a drive, but Karl-Anthony Towns came up with the ball to extend the possession and kicked it out to Landry Shamet, who made a 3-pointer. After a Cavaliers turnover, New York took a timeout with 6:41 to play. The lead was still 93-76, but as players walked off the court with Shamet pumping his fist to urge on his teammates, the Knicks suddenly looked like they had life for the first time in a while.

“If you’re going to make a run, that’s when you’ve got to do it. So might as well throw your best punch at that point and try to do what you can,” Shamet said.

“You've got to leave it all out there especially at this time of the year and that’s what we did. We had a group that didn’t flinch at that deficit and made some effort.”

Hunting Harden

The Knicks' game plan over the next few minutes was basic basketball. Whoever Harden was guarding when Brunson brought the ball up the court — usually either Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby — would come set a pick on Brunson's defender, so Harden would then have to switch onto Brunson. Brunson then attacked Harden off the dribble, creating angles for a series of floaters and bank shots that he has mastered to become an All-Star.

Brunson made four straight Knicks baskets that way, before eventually making a 3-pointer that cut it to 94-89 with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

Take a timeout?

Moments before Brunson lined up that 3-pointer, ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson noted that the Cavaliers might want a timeout if the Knicks scored.

But was it perhaps too late by then? Cleveland had multiple possessions to see the Knicks were running one thing at them and could have halted play before then to set up a defensive scheme that might've changed things.

The Cavaliers still had four timeouts they could have used at that point. Yet they never called one until after Brunson's shot.

“I like to hold my timeouts,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson explained afterward, when his answer became an internet meme. "I didn’t want to get one timeout at the end of the game, a one- or two-point game. I try to hold them.”

Bad bounces

The game perhaps never would've gotten to overtime if the Cavaliers had gotten a little luckier on a pair of 3-point attempts.

Mitchell had one with 3:47 to play that was inside the rim and then spun out. That would have extended Cleveland's lead to 11. Instead, Brunson hit his 3-pointer 17 seconds later that cut it to 94-89.

Then, not long after Shamet hit a tying 3-pointer that bounced off the rim first before falling in, the Cavaliers had the ball on the final possession of regulation and got it to Sam Merrill from straightaway. His shot looked so perfect that play-by-play man Mike Breen appeared to be beginning his signature “BANG!” exclamation with the ball inside the rim. But he got out only the “BA!” before having to switch to “In and out! That one halfway down!"

“We got a little unlucky," Atkinson said.

The numbers

Counting the last 12:49 of the game — the end of regulation and then all of overtime — Brunson outscored the Cavaliers himself, 17-11. Anunoby nearly did; he had 10 points in that span.

A look at some of the numbers:

— Field goals: New York .750 (15-20), Cleveland .222 (4-18).

— 3-pointers: New York .750 (6-8), Cleveland .182 (2-11).

— Free throws: New York .800 (8-10, all of that from Anunoby), Cleveland .250 (1-4).

— Rebounds: New York 13, Cleveland 2.

— Brunson shot 8 for 10 in those minutes, while Shamet and Bridges were a combined 5 for 5 (all on 3-pointers).

— Harden (1-5) and Mitchell (0-5) were a combined 1 for 10 in the collapse.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later. The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, and burned through the hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, eventually killing 12 people.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His lead attorney, Steve Haney, has said that Rinderknecht is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

During Wednesday's hearing, Judge Anne Hwang ruled that depositions by members of the fire department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial because she thinks the information is irrelevant to the charges against Rinderknecht and could confuse the jury.

The evidence that defense attorneys intended to use included testimony from a firefighter, fire captain and a state park ranger that the New Year’s Day 2025 blaze was visibly smoldering when first responders left the scene. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.

Hwang also barred prosecutors from introducing AI-generated images of a city burning that prosecutors said Rinderknecht created a few months before the fire.

Haney said the exclusion of the ChatGPT images was important to his client because they are “very, very prejudicial” and taken out of context.

Other fire department actions can be discussed, including its initial response to and investigation of the Jan. 1 fire that burned some brush. Haney said he plans to argue that the government does not have solid evidence linking Rinderknecht to that fire, and that first responders had heard fireworks in the vicinity of where the blaze started.

An outline of prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began — appeared in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors will claim he was upset that he didn't have plans for New Year's Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked.

Detroit’s station received initial notification from Erie County dispatchers at around 6 p.m.

The notification reported a possible person in the water.

From the Ohio station a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boat crew arrived on scene and rescued two people in the water.

After rescue the station transferred them to EMS awaiting ashore Kelleys Island.

It was then confirmed that there was a third person in the water who was still unaccounted for.

A Coast Guard Air Station Detroit MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew located the third person still treading water.

Both air and boat crews worked together to rescue the third person and transferred him to EMS at Station Marblehead.

“We’re just glad to help and save some lives,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Ashlyn Schmidt, coxswain, Station Marblehead. “Make sure when you go on the water to wear a life jacket, it could save your life.”

For additional information, please contact Lt. j.g. Samuel Rodriguez Garcia, Sector Detroit Public Affairs Officer, at 313-910-1234 or via email at Samuel.D.RodriguezGarcia@uscg.mil .