Scott, who was seeking his 13th term in Congress despite challenges from within his party, was once a leading voice for Democrats on issues related to farm aid policy and food aid for consumers and a prominent Black member of the party’s moderate Blue Dog caucus. But he faced criticism in recent years because of declining health, enduring a primary challenge in 2024 and facing another one at the time of his death.

Democrats on Capitol Hill praised the longtime lawmaker.

“The news of Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday.

“David Scott was a trailblazer who served the district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House Ag Committee,” Jeffries said. “He cared about the people that he represented. He was fiercely committed to getting things done for the people of the great state of Georgia, and he’ll be deeply missed.”

News of Scott’s death came during the Congressional Black Caucus’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill. The Black Caucus’ chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke, told lawmakers at the outset of the meeting.

Death creates another vacancy

Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year The GOP began the current Congress with a 220-215 advantage, but the margin has fluctuated. Scott is the fourth House Democrat to die in office during this Congress.

Scott had been mostly absent from the campaign trail in 2024 and 2026 and had become a noted example of Democrats' aging leadership targeted by younger generations of the left. He dodged questions from reporters when he qualified for another term in March, but he earlier dismissed pressure to retire.

“Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” the congressman said in 2024.

His wife and campaign adviser Alfredia Scott was even more direct. “When the congressman decides to leave, he won’t be pushed out,” she said in 2024. “He will bow out.”

State officials will have to schedule a special election to fill out the rest of Scott’s term, which could overlap with elections to choose a representative for the next two-year term. Early in-person voting starts Monday for May 19 party primaries for the next full term.

Scott was a pioneering Black lawmaker

David Albert Scott was born in rural Aynor, South Carolina, on June 27, 1945, in the era of Jim Crow segregation. He spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, along with stints New York and Florida. Scott graduated from Florida A&M University, one of the nation's largest historically Black college campuses — and in office he was an outspoken advocate for federal support of HBCUs. Scott also earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1969.

He settled in Atlanta, opened an advertising business and got his start in politics as a staffer on Andrew Young's 1972 congressional campaign. Young went on to be Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador under President Jimmy Carter, another Georgian.

The support of Young and baseball legend Henry “Hank” Aaron, who was the older brother of Scott’s wife, helped launch Scott into Congress in 2002, said Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones. He was opposing Scott in the May 19 primary, although he called Scott “a good friend.”

Scott was one of a pioneering generation of Black state lawmakers in Georgia, winning election to the state House in 1974 and the state Senate in 1982 before being elected to Congress. Once identifying as a moderate Blue Dog — Scott sponsored a law mandating a moment of silent school prayer in Georgia — he evolved into a more mainstream liberal.

State Sen. Ed Harbison, a Columbus Democrat elected to the body in 1992, said he arrived to find Scott well-established in a then majority-Democratic legislature. He said Scott had “a sense of righteousness” and would embrace issues even if they wouldn't help him raise campaign money or win attention, saying Scott judged himself on “how effective he was in helping the people he set out to help.”

An advocate for historically Black schools

Scott served decades in Congress while living outside his district after maps were redrawn. He maintained support, focusing intently on constituent service including hosting job and health fairs.

Among his notable achievements on Capitol Hill, Scott secured $80 million for historically Black land-grant schools as part of the 2018 Farm Bill. The money was steered to agriculture-related scholarships at 19 campuses. He helped author various housing and mortgage aid measures, and he pushed for better health care and other benefits for veterans and their families. On foreign policy, Scott was an outspoken advocate for NATO and post-World War II American alliances.

Scott's fellow Democrats ousted him from his post as ranking minority member on the Agriculture Committee in 2024 amid concerns about his age and health.

Scott is survived by Alfredia Scott, the couple's two adult daughters and grandchildren.

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Brown reported from Washington.

You can explore Maggy’s Hammock Park in Port Salerno, which is home to beautiful hardwood hammock trees.

“This park is also really unique because it transforms into the scrub habitat a little bit further down the trail, which is one of the most endangered habitats in Florida,” explained environmental resource and ecotourism manager Anna-Grace Agnini.

The hidden gem offers a paved path that goes by a playground or a one-mile unpaved loop, with both options letting visitors take in nature’s beauty.

The 22-acre conservation area is just part of the more than 115,000 acres of parks and conservation land, in Martin County, that also houses five state parks, a federally designated wild and scenic river, four aquatic preserves, and the Indian River Lagoon.

When you’re done with your adventure, it’s time for some relaxation. A perfect way to reset after a day of taking in the natural beauty of Martin County is with sound vibrational healing.

Certified sound practitioner Deena Rahill performs this ancient healing practice inside a cozy room, located inside the Elliott Museum in the city of Stuart.

“It’s like a body massage that travels through you and through you, so instead of hands it’s the vibration, and sounds will vibrate and osculate with every cell of your body,” Rahill explained.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catalyst Refiners works to remove silver from what remains of chemical processes and can find thousands of dollars of the precious metal just by vaccuming the floors in a plant's offices, Sigmon said.

Ames Goldsmith Corp., the owner of Catalyst Refiners, said it is saddened by the deaths and its thoughts were with all those impacted and their families.

“This is an unfathomably difficult time,” said the company statement released at the news briefing. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families."

Ames Goldsmith promised to work with local, state and federal officials as they investigate what happened.

The plant is located near Institute, a community about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Charleston, the state capital.

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Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report from Columbia, South Carolina.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and was on track to top its all-time high set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 210 points, or 0.4%, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was also heading for a record with a jump of 1.2%.

GE Vernova flew 12.8% higher after the company, whose products help generate about a quarter of the world’s electricity, reported profit for the first three months of the year that blew past analysts’ expectations.

Like the broader stock market, GE Vernova is benefiting from the rise of artificial-intelligence technology, and its electrification business booked more equipment orders for data centers during the quarter, $2.4 billion, than it did during all of last year. The company also raised its forecasts for revenue and other financial measures over the full year.

The vast majority of companies in the S&P 500 have so far been delivering results for the start of 2026 that have topped analysts’ expectations, even with the war in Iran driving up oil prices and uncertainty for the global economy. Such strong performances have helped the S&P 500 power higher, and the index is on track for a 13th gain in its last 16 days.

Boston Scientific rallied 9%, Boeing climbed 6.7%, and Philip Morris International rose 5.2% after all likewise delivered results for the latest quarter that were stronger than analysts expected.

Still, another rise in oil prices helped keep enthusiasm in check on Wall Street. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed 3.5% to $101.91 on uncertainty about when the war with Iran could let up and allow petroleum to flow freely to customers from the Persian Gulf again.

The war has restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that oil tankers typically use to exit the Persian Gulf. Iran fired on three ships in the strait and seized two of them on Wednesday.

A day earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire but also said he was maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. The blockade keeps Iran from making money by selling its own crude oil.

The standoff over Iran’s closure of the strait and the U.S. blockade raised doubts about when or if talks would resume to end the crisis.

Brent crude has shot up from roughly $70 per barrel since before the war on worries about a long-term disruption to the flow of oil. But moves in both the oil and stock markets have become much more modest in recent weeks, following vicious swings where Brent’s price briefly topped $119 and the S&P 500 dropped nearly 10% below its prior all-time high.

On the losing end of Wall Street Wednesday was Best Buy, which fell 4.1% after the electronics retailer announced the departure of CEO Corie Barry. She will be replaced by longtime insider Jason Bonfig, the company’s chief customer, product and fulfillment officer.

Stocks of cannabis companies rose amid reports that the Trump administration is preparing to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Trump signed an executive order in December meant to speed up the Drug Enforcement Administration’s process for reclassifying the drug, a move that would not make it legal for recreational use by adults nationwide, but could change how the drug is regulated and reduce a hefty tax burden on the cannabis industry.

Tilray Brands jumped 10.5%, and Canopy Growth surged 18.6%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady despite the gain in oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.29% from 4.30% late Thursday.

A day before, it had climbed after Trump’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, said he never promised Trump he would cut interest rates even though Trump has been angrily calling for lower rates.

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

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in November challenging the law, arguing that it would threaten the safety of officers who are facing harassment, doxing, and violence and that it violated the constitution because the state is directly regulating the federal government.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal Wednesday. It had already granted a temporary administrative injunction to block the implementation of the law.

At a hearing March 3, Justice Department lawyers argued that the California law sought to regulate the federal government, violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

The appeals court agreed unanimously, saying the law “attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” in an opinion written by Judge Mark J. Bennett. The panel was composed of two Trump appointees, Bennett and Daniel P. Collins, and Obama appointee Jacqueline H. Nguyen.

California lawyers argued that the law applied equally to all law enforcement officers without discriminating against the U.S. government, and that states could apply “generally applicable” laws federal agents. They also argued that the law was important to address public safety concerns.

People are more likely to attack officers in self-defense if there's no visible identification letting the public know they are law enforcement, California lawyers said in a brief opposing the injunction.

“This confusion has resulted in federal law enforcement officials being mistaken for criminals and vice versa, creating serious risk of harm to peace officers and members of the public,” they wrote.

The appeals court judges said they did not consider the public safety factors because the federal government has demonstrate its constitutional rights would be violated by the legislation, and “all citizens have a stake in upholding the Constitution,” it ruled, quoting previous case law.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called it a “huge legal victory” in a post on X.

The California Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The initial lawsuit also addressed another California measure signed into law last year that would have banned most law enforcement officers from wearing masks, neck gaiters, and other facial coverings. It was blocked by a federal judge in February.

The legislation did not apply to state law enforcement and made exceptions for undercover agents, protective equipment like N95 respirators or tactical gear, and other situations where not wearing a mask would jeopardize the operation.

The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the strait — where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime — with no end in sight. Iranian media said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing the two ships to Iran, marking a further escalation.

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

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

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

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

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

A second cargo ship came under fire hours later, with no report of damage, though the vessel was then stopped in the water. No injuries to the crew of either vessel were reported. The MSC Francesca's owner could not be immediately reached for comment.

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

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

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

The firm identified 19 outbound and 15 inbound movements. Six of the outbound movements were “confirmed laden with Iranian crude, representing about 10.7 million barrels,” it said in an email.

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

It's not clear when talks will restart

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

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

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

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

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

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state TV that Iran has not decided whether to take part in a new round of negotiations with the U.S. scheduled for later this week. He accused the United States of a “disregard and lack of good faith” in the negotiations.

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

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

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

Another French peacekeeper dies after weekend attack in Lebanon

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

It came as Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors prepared for a new meeting in Washington on Thursday toward extending a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah that began on Friday.

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

Lebanon’s health ministry said two Israeli strikes on al-Tiri killed two people and injured one journalist, while Amal Khalil, a prominent journalist for daily Al-Akhbar, was missing as Israeli forces fired at an ambulance, preventing a team from searching for her.

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

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

Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel from Lebanon days after the outbreak of the wider war, sparking heavy retaliatory strikes and an Israeli ground invasion. The 10-day ceasefire that started Friday between Israel and Lebanon has been marred by several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack Tuesday.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French peacekeeper who was wounded in an attack in Lebanon over the weekend had died of his wounds. Another French peacekeeper was killed in the attack on Saturday, in which the force came under small-arms fire in southern Lebanon.

Macron blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which denied involvement.

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

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

___

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

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs one committee that oversees Kennedy's department and sits on another, took a tough but measured posture in two high-stakes hearings Wednesday, where he asked the health secretary about affordability, fraud, abortion drugs and the rise of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.

A liver doctor, Cassidy has clashed with Kennedy’s vaccine agenda even though he provided crucial support for the health secretary’s nomination last year.

At the same time, Cassidy is fighting for his political future in next month’s primary in Louisiana, where President Donald Trump has endorsed one of his opponents in an unusual attempt to oust a sitting senator from his own party.

Ahead of Wednesday's hearings, experts said his handling of them could affect his chances at a pivotal moment of his reelection campaign and set the tone for how Congress oversees the nation's health agenda at a time of rampant distrust and misinformation.

“He’s taken a risk showing any sort of resistance to RFK,” said Claire Leavitt, an assistant professor at Smith College who studies congressional oversight. “He may pay an electoral price for that.”

Cassidy took that chance on Wednesday, noting that trust in vaccines has declined in the U.S. over the past year and asking Kennedy how he would address expected outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases with the upcoming World Cup and America 250 events.

“I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine preventable diseases,” Cassidy said. “And when I see outbreaks numbering in the thousands and people dying once more from vaccine preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic.”

Louisiana political consultant Mary-Patricia Wray said the senator's approach was like a “polite ‘I told you so.’”

“Cassidy reinforced the real-world consequences of declining vaccine confidence while subtly signaling that the administration's posture is moving closer to where he has been as a physician,” Wray said.

Cassidy has long advocated for vaccines

Cassidy has spent years walking a political tightrope. He's one of the few Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during an impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As a liver doctor, he advocated for babies to receive hepatitis B vaccines shortly after birth, a step that could have prevented the disease in his patients. But when Trump nominated Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, Cassidy supported him. He did so after securing various commitments, including that Kennedy would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring system and support the childhood vaccine schedule.

The vote for Kennedy did not appear to mollify Trump. The president endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, one of Cassidy's two primary opponents.

Cassidy also faces opposition from Kennedy's allies in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a group that includes both anti-vaccine activists and a wide variety of other crusaders for health and the environment. The MAHA PAC, aligned with Kennedy, has pledged $1 million to Letlow’s campaign. While the organization hasn't publicly said so, some have questioned whether the support is partly in retaliation against Cassidy for criticizing Kennedy's vaccine policy agenda.

“I’m not really sure what MAHA’s beef is,” Cassidy told reporters earlier this month. “Let me point out that I am the reason that Robert F. Kennedy is now the secretary of HHS. He would not have gotten there otherwise.”

Cassidy argues that he has “strongly supported” the MAHA agenda, especially when it comes to the fight against ultraprocessed foods. However, the physician-turned-senator acknowledged that he and MAHA have “disagreed on vaccines.”

“We’ve seen, frankly, that I am right,” Cassidy added, pointing to recent measles-related deaths of children who were not vaccinated.

At a hearing in September, he slammed Kennedy’s decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccine development. He interrogated Kennedy over his attempt to replace members of a vaccine committee, suggesting the new members could have conflicts of interest. He also raised concerns that Kennedy's vaccine policy decisions could be making it harder for Americans to get COVID-19 shots.

Later that month, Cassidy convened a hearing featuring former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted by Kennedy less than a month into her tenure after they clashed over vaccine policy, and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who resigned in August citing an erosion of science at the agency.

“I want to work with the president to fulfill his campaign promise to reform the CDC and Make America Healthy Again. The president says radical transparency is the way to do that,” Cassidy said at the time.

Experts say Cassidy's vaccine stance might not hurt him

Political consultants said they expect Cassidy’s primary opponents, Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, to seize on any sound bites from Wednesday’s hearings that can make Cassidy seem at odds with the Trump administration.

But Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco, said the political risk of his vaccine advocacy may not be as strong among Republicans as some people assume. That's in part because Kennedy and the Trump administration have recently pivoted away from discussing vaccines, focusing instead on less controversial topics like healthy eating.

“He’s probably not alienating voters by focusing on the issue and calling it out,” she said.

Cassidy also showed during Wednesday's hearings a willingness to be tough on Kennedy from the political right. He asked Kennedy why HHS hasn't reinstated an in-person dispensing requirement for chemical abortion drugs.

Through that line of questioning, Wray said, he's courting non-MAHA Republican voters who want to see the Trump administration do more on their priorities.

He's proving that “working with this administration doesn't mean he works for this administration,” Wray said.

Election outcome will shape future oversight of HHS

Also at stake if Cassidy doesn’t make it to November’s general election is what will happen to his responsibility to oversee the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

Leavitt, the Smith College professor, said seniority typically plays the most important role in who chairs Senate committees. She said another Republican in today’s increasingly hyperpartisan Congress may not be as willing as Cassidy to check Kennedy’s power.

Reiss, the vaccine law expert, said she wishes Cassidy had done more hearings or introduced legislation to rein in Kennedy. And she said the senator bears the blame for allowing Kennedy to bring unfounded vaccine fears into the government in the first place.

“His original sin, of course, was voting for Kennedy at all,” Reiss said.

___

Associated Press writer Sara Cline contributed to this report.

The Virginia Supreme Court will now decide whether Democratic lawmakers violated procedural rules when they referred a constitutional amendment to the ballot authorizing the new U.S. House districts that could help Democrats win as many as four additional seats in the state. If so, that could invalidate the map voters narrowly approved Tuesday.

What happens next in Florida also will matter.

The state's Republican-controlled Legislature is to meet in a special session next week that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called in part to draw a new map to expand the party's congressional majority there. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to issue an opinion by the end of June in a Louisiana case that could overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and lead to redrawn political maps across the South, though almost all of those could not happen until 2028.

After voters passed the Virginia amendment, Democrats could tentatively claim that they netted 10 seats nationally from the mid-decade redistricting, compared with the nine that Republicans claim. Even if things swing again in the GOP's favor, the net result of Trump's campaign would be at best an incremental increase in the number of GOP-leaning House seats at a time when his approval rating is dropping and Republican anxiety over losing control of Congress in November is rising.

“We have successfully blunted Trump’s attempt to completely hijack the midterms," said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

Many Republicans agreed.

“The GOP will now lose net seats across the country. If you’re going to pick a fight, at least win it,” Ari Fleischer, who was a spokesman for President George W. Bush, posted on the social media site X after the Virginia vote. “All this was foreseeable and avoidable. We should not have started this fight.”

Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, argued that it is too soon to declare one party a victor.

“It's an ongoing process with many legal challenges pending, and it's far too early for sweeping statements on the final outcome,” he said.

Trump on Wednesday tried to undermine the Virginia result by leveling groundless accusations of fraud similar to ones he made after losing the 2020 presidential election. He called the Virginia vote “RIGGED” and “Crooked” in a post on his social media site and added: “Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of 'Justice.'”

Redistricting spread from Texas to other states

Redistricting is typically done every 10 years after each census, unless ordered by a court. But last summer, Trump pushed a redrawing in Texas, prodding the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to add up to five winnable House seats for his party. Trump then began pressuring other Republican-run states to follow. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have since created more GOP-leaning seats in addition to Texas.

Democrats began to fight back, even though they were more constrained because several Democratic-controlled states had maps drawn by independent commissions rather than lawmakers and governors.

To counter Texas, California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, pushed the Democratic-controlled Legislature to place a redistricting initiative on last fall's ballot. After voters overwhelmingly approved it, the measure will replace a commission-approved map with one that could gain Democrats five seats.

Democrats reclaimed the Legislature and governor's office in November in Virginia and swiftly moved to replicate California's move with an even more aggressive redistricting plan. It replaces a congressional map imposed by a court after the last census that had resulted in a 6-5 edge for Democrats with one that could allow Democrats to win as many 10 seats.

“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” state Senate President L. Louise Lucas said at a news conference Wednesday.

Courts could still have a say on redistricting

In Washington, U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York warned Florida Republicans, who have been openly nervous about redrawing their district boundaries and potentially spreading their core voters too thin before an election that appears to be trending against them.

“Our message to Florida Republicans right now is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries said.

House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the super political action committee aligned with House Democrats, has spent nearly $60 million to push back against Republicans' redistricting efforts. Some $40 million of that was on the Virginia campaign.

Another obstacle in Florida is an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that was approved by state voters in 2010. It is likely that any new Florida map would trigger significant litigation, although six of the state Supreme Court's seven justices were appointed by Republicans.

The Virginia move comes with its own legal issues. Republicans have challenged the process that Democrats used to place the measure on the ballot and the state Supreme Court opted to wait for the vote before even scheduling arguments in the case. It is unclear when a ruling could come.

“The ballot box was never the final word here,” Terry Kilgore, the Virginia House Republican leader, said in a statement after Tuesday's vote. “Serious legal questions remain about both the wording of this referendum and the process used to put it before voters.”

The biggest legal wild card is held by the U.S. Supreme Court. Its conservative majority could throw out a requirement under the Voting Rights Act that in areas with a large minority population, mapmakers draw districts that are more favorable to the election of minority candidates.

That provision has led to the creation of several majority-minority congressional seats, especially in the South. Without it, Republicans in conservative states could shrink the number of U.S. House seats winnable by Democrats even further.

But it's unlikely that any state other than Louisiana, which brought the lawsuit the high court will rule on, would be able to adjust its congressional lines in time for November even if the court eliminates that provision, known as Section Two. That's because the November election is already officially underway in most states and candidate filing deadlines — and, in some cases, primary elections — have already passed.

___

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam in Washington contributed to this report.

Sheinbaum's comments came after days of contradictions by authorities following the death of two U.S. officials in a vehicle crash over the weekend as they returned from destroying a clandestine drug lab in northern Mexico. The CIA’s involvement was confirmed Tuesday to The Associated Press by a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

“There cannot be agents from any U.S. government institution operating in the Mexican field,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. She said that such activities aren't part of the current security protocols or the formal understanding between Mexico and the United States.

Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said occurred while the convoy was returning from an operation to destroy drug labs of criminal groups. There have been discrepancies in the public accounts of what happened from U.S. and Mexican officials, which experts say underscores heightened U.S. involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.

Sheinbaum acknowledged Wednesday that the Mexican army participated in the operation — as its mandate includes supporting individual states. However, she emphasized that the federal government was unaware of the U.S. agents’ presence.

Sheinbaum ruled out the possibility that the incident constitutes a new strategy by the Trump administration, which has demanded greater action from Mexico in the fight against drug cartels.

Later in the day, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said at a news conference that while Mexico's federal government constantly exchanges information with the U.S., foreign “agents have never been in the field with us."

Sheinbaum said that she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident. She also said that she plans to speak with Chihuahua Gov. María Eugenia Campos.

“It is very important that something like this not be allowed to go unaddressed,” she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed to take action on Mexican cartels — an intervention that Sheinbaum has said is “unnecessary.”

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David Klepper and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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

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

Here is the latest:

Hezbollah says it launched drones at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lebanese journalist missing after Israeli strike on southern Lebanon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

▶ Read more

Israeli strike kills two people in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire

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

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

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

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

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

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

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

Hezbollah had denied is was behind the attack.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

▶ Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dozens of Israeli civilians attempt to enter Syria

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

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

Hezbollah says it fired a drone at Israeli post in southern Lebanon

The group added in a statement that its attack on the post in the southern village of Bayada on Wednesday came in retaliation for Israeli violations of the 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah is violating the ceasefire adding that the Iran-backed group launched “a hostile aircraft” toward Israeli soldiers operating in the area of southern Lebanon.

The military said the aircraft was intercepted by Israel’s air force and did not cross into Israel.

The Iran war could drive up costs for petroleum-derived products like clothes and crayons

It might be hard to imagine the Iran war weighing on stuffed toys with names like Snuggle Glove, Bizzikins and Wobblies, but even plush playthings aren’t immune when oil shipments from the Middle East are constrained.

Like many soft toys, the creatures developed by a manufacturer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are made with polyester and acrylic, synthetic fibers derived from petroleum. Three weeks after the war started, suppliers in China notified Aleni Brands that getting the materials already was costing them 10% to 15% more, CEO Ricardo Venegas said.

“I think this situation demonstrates how much oil permeates throughout our system, and we can’t get away from it,” said Venegas, who founded Aleni Brands last year and is in the process of adding product lines. “Who would have thought that the price of a toy would have a direct relationship with oil?”

It’s not just toys. Petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas go into making more than 6,000 consumer products, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

▶ Read more

Lebanon’s president says contacts ongoing to extend ceasefire

President Joseph Aoun’s comments on Wednesday came a day before a second meeting is scheduled to take place in Washington between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.

Aoun said in comments released by his office that preparations are ongoing for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

He said the aim of the future talks is to “fully” stop Israeli attacks, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the border and beginning the reconstruction process.

Aoun said the support to Lebanon that was promised by U.S. President Donald Trump and other countries “provided us with an opportunity that we must not miss, as it may not come again.”

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war was halted by a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday.

Iranian news agency suggests undersea cables vulnerable in Strait of Hormuz

A semiofficial news agency close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard again raised the idea Wednesday that Gulf Arab states remained vulnerable to having their undersea data cables being cut in the Strait of Hormuz.

The report by the Tasnim news agency suggested that “simultaneous damage to several major cables — whether through accidents or deliberate action — could trigger severe outages across the Persian Gulf.”

Multiple cables run through the strait. Already, the region has faced outages after undersea cables were cut multiple times in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had threatened cables in the past.

Iranians waited tensely overnight to learn if ceasefire would continue

With uncertainty over whether the ceasefire lasts, residents of Tehran say they are anxious about what comes next.

“Last night my family all stayed awake, waiting for the clock to show 3:30 a.m. and see who really has the upper hand,” said Reza Tehrani, a 34-year-old resident of Tehran.

Tehrani said Trump is making a series of false claims, including that Iran will give up its enriched uranium. “It’s obvious that he will eventually take his warships back and nothing will happen. We will win, rest assured,” he said.

One resident voiced frustration with the uncertainty.

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

EU energy chief warns war could hit prices for years to come

The European Union’s top energy official is warning that the massive energy crisis sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is set to hit prices for months, even years, to come.

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Wednesday that “this is not a short-term, small increase in prices. This is a crisis that is probably as serious as the 1973 and the 2022 crises combined.”

Jørgensen says the war is costing Europe around 500 million euros ($600 million) each day and that “we are looking into some very difficult months, or maybe even years” ahead. “Even in a best-case scenario, it’s still bad,” he told reporters.

Iran acknowledges ceasefire extension

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged the ceasefire extension in comments reported Wednesday by Iranian state television.

Baghaei did not specifically say Tehran was ready to attend a new round of talks with the United States in Islamabad.

“Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and reasonable conditions exist to use this tool to achieve national interests and to consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies’ malicious objectives, we will take action,” he reportedly said.

2 of 8 Iranian women whose release Donald Trump called for are already out on bail, rights center says

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said an emergency doctor, Golnar Naraqi, and an Iranian citizen of the Bahai faith, Venus Hossein Nejad, have been out on bail since late March.

The two women were arrested separately during the January anti-government protests. The protests across Iran were met with a bloody crackdown that left thousands killed and arrested.

In a social media post Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump reposted a photo of six women and two teen girls that a conservative activist said are facing prosecution by the Iranian government.

Iran’s judiciary swiftly responded, saying some of the women have already been released without naming them. It said none of them face the death sentence. Internet restrictions have limited the flow of information out of Iran.

Rights groups say at least two of the other women still in detention are facing charges that carry the death sentence. There have been multiple executions during the war against alleged spies and protesters, mostly accused of links to Israel.

Revolutionary Guard attacks a third ship in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has attacked a third ship Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported.

Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.

The Guard has seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.

Iranian state TV says 2 vessels attacked by Revolutionary Guard are in the force’s custody

Two ships earlier attacked Wednesday by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard now are in the force’s custody and are being taken to Iran, Iranian state television reported.

It identified the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas. The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

The seizures represent an Iranian escalation after the U.S. earlier seized two Iranian vessels as ceasefire talks were due to take place in Islamabad.

The Guard said in a statement the ships “allegedly operated without authorization, repeatedly violated regulations, manipulated navigational aid systems and sought to covertly exit the Strait of Hormuz, endangering maritime security.”

The strait had been considered an international waterway open to all before the war, even though it sits in Iranian and Omani territorial waters.

Israel urges Lebanon to cooperate in order to dismantle Iran-backed Hezbollah

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Lebanon to work with Israel to disarm the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah ahead of negotiations in Washington on Thursday.

The meeting follows a similar gathering last week in Washington, and is the first time in decades the two countries are speaking directly.

“We don’t have any serious disagreements with Lebanon. There are a few minor border disputes that can be solved,” Saar said during Independence Day remarks to Israel’s diplomatic corps.

“The obstacle to peace and normalization between the countries is one: Hezbollah,” he said, adding that Lebanon could have “a future of sovereignty, independence and freedom from the Iranian occupation.”

Israel’s military has currently established a buffer zone stretching around 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon to remove the threat of short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles toward northern Israel.

Some of the biggest blazes were along Georgia’s coast and between and around Jacksonville, Florida, a state that is facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades. It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but a long drought, low humidity and strong winds were fueling them.

Georgia’s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 31 square miles (80 square kilometers), and at least four other smaller fires have been reported in the state. The area of the state where the worst fires were burning is in exceptional or extreme drought, the most dire levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

In southeast Georgia, the fast-moving Brantley County fire was threatening more homes Wednesday after destroying 47 a day earlier, according to Joey Cason, the county manager.

That fire grew in size by roughly six times in just a half day Tuesday, he said. Nearly two dozen fire agencies were helping fight the blaze, Cason said at a news conference Wednesday.

Brantley County Sheriff Len Davis warned residents to be ready to evacuate, noting that the winds could shift rapidly and unexpectedly.

At least 800 evacuations have taken place in the county and five shelters have opened, as the fire threatens 300 more homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

Another large fire that started in Clinch County had also forced evacuations, which were underway in multiple communities, the Georgia Forestry Association said. “This is a serious and evolving situation,” said Tim Lowrimore, president & CEO of the association.

In Florida, firefighters on Wednesday were battling 131 wildfires that had burned 34 square miles (88 square kilometers), mostly in the state’s northern half.

Firefighting equipment was being staged across the state so resources are closer to the fires, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson said.

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

A wildfire disrupted Amtrak train service Monday in the northeast part of the state. Service was back to normal Wednesday, according to Amtrak spokeswoman Beth Toll.

A dangerous combination of low humidity and breezy winds will keep the fire danger elevated Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

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

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

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

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

Royals owner John Sherman was joined by Hallmark chairman Don Hall Jr., Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, along with other local and state dignitaries, in making the announcement Wednesday near Hallmark headquarters.

While the finalized master plan has yet to be complete, Sherman said the $1.9 billion stadium would break ground next year in the middle of Crown Center as part of the first phase of an 85-acre project. Two-thirds of the funding will come from private sources and the remaining one-third from public partners, including money earmarked by the state for stadium projects.

“This is a partnership between two treasured Kansas City institutions,” Sherman said. “We are committed to creating a vision which honors our history, the rich past of both organizations, while reinvigorating and reimagining what our future can be together.”

The announcement came about a week after Kansas City officials passed an ordinance authorizing City Manager Mario Vasquez to negotiate a $600 million deal to help the Royals move downtown. Most believed the stadium would sit on Washington Square Park, which is next to Union Station, but it will instead be located just south of it, with the park featured in the development.

Hallmark intends to build a new headquarters in the area, which is connected by a streetcar to the Power & Light District, where the T-Mobile Center serves as its anchor. That part of downtown Kansas City will provide the backdrop beyond the outfield fence.

Officials touted the availability of public parking already in the area and convenient traffic flow from nearby highways.

Missouri's contribution comes from a law enacted last year that authorized bonds covering up to 50% of the cost of new or renovated stadiums in the state, plus up to $50 million of tax credits for each stadium and unspecified aid from local governments.

“We think it's a great investment for our Missouri taxpayers, because this does not affect existing programs,” Kehoe said. “The ripple effect from this facility will truly be far-reaching into rural Missouri and other parts of the state.”

The Royals have insisted they would leave Kauffman Stadium when their lease expires at the Truman Sports Complex in 2031, and the intention of Sherman ever since purchasing the club in 2019 was to build a downtown ballpark as its replacement.

Yet reaching Wednesday's announcement did not come without plenty of pitfalls.

The biggest stumbling block came in April 2024, when the Chiefs joined the Royals in a plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and replace Kauffman Stadium. The plan hinged on the extension of a sales tax that had been paying for stadium upkeep, and voters in Jackson County, Missouri, overwhelmingly rejected the proposal, forcing the franchises to go their own way.

The legislature in neighboring Kansas aggressively pursued the Chiefs, committing last December to issuing $2.4 billion in bonds to cover 60% of the cost of a new $3 billion domed stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. The NFL franchise ultimately decided to move across the state line, where it also will build a new training facility in the nearby suburb of Olathe, Kansas.

Officials in Kansas briefly pursued the Royals, too, but their interest in the MLB franchise had always been lukewarm.

The Royals had been weighing several options in recent months. But they ultimately rejected an option in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and allowed a deadline to pass for a site north of downtown and across the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri.

Economists have long concluded that subsidizing stadiums isn’t worth the cost for communities because the venues pull economic activity away from other parts of the area, rather than expanding the overall economy. Yet states and cities continually provide money to renovate stadiums or build new ones — 49 of the 60 used by MLB or NFL teams are publicly owned or sit on public land.

One of the stadiums that Sherman has cited as an example of what's possible in Kansas City is Truist Park in Atlanta.

The stadium was a public-private partnership in which the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority issued up to $397 million in bonds, the county raised millions more from transportation taxes and businesses added millions in cash. The Braves contributed the remaining money for the park and The Battery, a mixed-used development, with a total cost of more than $1.1 billion.

“There are many great ballpark neighborhoods in Major League Baseball,” Sherman said, “but this is a bigger project with more land in downtown and in the heart of the city. We are bringing a modern, state-of-the-art ballpark experience to our fans, closer to our public transportation and where more people work and live.”

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

On April 16, around 7 p.m., police were dispatched to Charlie’s Restaurant on N. Campbell Road after an employee called 911 to report a customer choking and turning purple.

When officers arrived, they found the woman unconscious and no longer breathing effectively. Police lifted the woman into a seated position and began performing the Heimlich maneuver.

Officer Teal and Officer Rivera took turns administering abdominal thrusts, while Officer Al-Hilfi and Officer Berlucchi helped keep the woman upright and stable.

Officers were able to dislodge the obstruction, and the woman began breathing again.

The Madison Heights Fire Department arrived at the restaurant shortly after and continued medical treatment. The woman was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, where she made a full recovery and was discharged that evening.

The woman asked to remain anonymous but expressed appreciation to first responders, crediting them with saving her life.

Suicide deaths among 15- to 23-year-olds were 11% lower than what researchers expected between July 2022 — when the lifeline launched — and December 2024, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday in JAMA.

“The 988 program is one of the largest federal investments in suicide prevention in U.S. history — roughly $1.5 billion cumulative — and our findings suggest that investment has translated into measurable reductions in young adult suicide deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School and the paper's lead author.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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The researchers used nationwide death certificate records from 1999 to 2022 to model what the suicide mortality would have been had the 988 line not launched. They then compared the estimates to the actual number of deaths.

The researchers can't say for certain that 988 was the sole cause of the decline, and the U.S. suicide rate is down overall. But they ran several other comparisons to “gut check” their overall findings, Patel said.

They found the 10 states that had the largest increases in call volumes following the launch of 988 also saw significantly larger gaps in expected vs. actual suicide deaths. The reductions were also greater in younger people than people older than 65, who are less likely to use the lifeline. And they saw no similar changes when looking at suicide deaths in England, where no comparable lifeline existed during the study period.

The results are in line with previous research.

“Studies show that after speaking with a trained crisis counselor, most people who contact the 988 Lifeline are significantly more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed and more hopeful,” a spokesperson for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which funds the hotline, said in response to the study.

Research results 'very heartening,' expert says

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, who leads the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's research program and was not involved in the study, said the results were “very heartening and very positive." She wants to see more research replicating the results, but she said the authors did a “great deal of work” to weed out other possible factors for the decline.

The entire mental health system is key to lowering suicide rates, Harkavy-Friedman said. 988's power to navigate that system, helping callers make safety plans, connecting them to local crisis intervention teams and referring people to longer-term care, has led to “extraordinary” impact, she said. And simply having someone to call in a moment of crisis can also be lifesaving.

“That is the strength of the crisis line," Harkavy-Friedman said. "When you call, it de-escalates the crisis so the person has greater capacity to address whatever it is that's driving their emotions at the moment."

Experts say the overall patchwork of federal and state funding for call centers remains insufficient to meet the true level of need.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s federal budget request maintains stable 988 funding at $534.6 million for fiscal year 2027, in anticipation of 11 million contacts next year.

The hotline “is not a panacea for preventing suicide death,” but the number of lives it has saved "is a really big deal and underscores the need for sustained investment in 988 from federal, and especially state, lawmakers,” said Jonathan Purtle, a New York University mental health policy researcher.

Specialized line for LGBTQ+ youth

In a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed Kennedy to follow through on a “legal requirement” to restore 988's specialized line for LGBTQ+ youth. The administration abruptly cut the program last summer, despite evidence that the population faces disproportionately high suicide rates.

“Yes, we are working on getting it up now,” Kennedy told the Wisconsin Democrat. Spokespeople for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately provide The Associated Press with any timeline or details of that restoration.

Patel said the specialized services for high-risk groups — including the LGBTQ+ line — are part of what makes the program work.

“Our findings should be read as evidence that this is a program worth preserving and expanding, not one to scale back,” he said.

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

Pickens hasn't signed the one-year deal worth $27.3 million, which means the 25-year-old would face no financial penalties if he didn't report to mandatory minicamp in June. The rest of the offseason program, which starts Monday, is voluntary.

“We’ve made a decision that we’re going to have George play under the franchise tag, which won’t be a first for us,” Stephen Jones said. “So there won’t be negotiations on a long-term deal. But that’s certainly not a first for this organization and certainly won’t be a first in the league in terms of this decision as we move forward.”

Stephen Jones said he hasn't talked to Pickens recently, but said owner Jerry Jones and coach Brian Schottenheimer met with him recently.

“It was good,” Schottenheimer said during the Cowboys' news conference leading into the NFL draft, which starts Thursday night. “The thing that George knows about Jerry and myself is we’re very upfront and we’re honest. We had great conversation. We informed him. We think that’s important because that’s the way we handle all of our players and coaches.”

David Mulugheta, Pickens' agent, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pickens, acquired last offseason in a trade with Pittsburgh, had career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns (nine) for one of the best offenses in the NFL last season. Dallas had one of the worst defenses in the league and finished 7-9-1, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia thrived alongside CeeDee Lamb, who is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that currently ranks him third among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.

Lamb missed the entire offseason and training camp in 2024 holding out for the deal he signed about two weeks before the season opener.

The Cowboys couldn’t use the tag on Lamb because he was going into the fifth year of his rookie contract. The fifth year is a team option that goes with all deals for first-round picks. Second-rounders have four-year deals, and Pickens earned $6.8 million on his rookie contract.

Pickens’ talent was on display during three seasons with the Steelers, but so were enough instances of petulant or indifferent behavior for then-coach Mike Tomlin to question his maturity.

Schottenheimer never took issue with Pickens publicly in his first season as a head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant. But Pickens and Lamb were benched for the first series in Las Vegas after missing curfew following a casino visit the night before the game.

“There’s a lot of things that go into that,” Stephen Jones said of the decision not to go forward on a long-term deal this offseason. “Let’s start with the fact that it’s not easy having two receivers being paid top of the market. A quarterback that’s been here, being the highest-paid player in this league for many years now.”

“The other thing is the newness of George being here,” Stephen Jones said. “I think George has just done an amazing job. I mean he’s exceeded all expectations. And a lot of those things, they make their way toward a long-term deal, but that’s the biggest part of it — between the business and newness of it, I think that’s a big part of it.”

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The attacks unfolded just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran. The Islamic Republic said it fired on three outbound ships and seized two, calling it retaliation for the American naval blockade of Iranian ports and for the U.S. firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that did not stop when hailed by a vessel enforcing the blockade.

Attacks on shipping dwindled starting in mid-March as Iran imposed effective control over the strait. The mere risk of attack was enough to deter ships from trying to get through, while a few ships used an Iranian-approved lane near the coast. Iran demanded details on cargo, ownership and crew and, on at least some occasions, imposed a $1 per barrel tax on oil and oil products — or $2 million for a large tanker.

Here is a look at what’s known, and not known, about the situation in the strait:

After a pause, attacks on shipping have resumed

Iran’s semiofficial news agencies reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard attacked a third ship Wednesday in the strait. Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating. The Guard seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.

That incident followed two ship attacks on Saturday that ended a lull that began in mid-March.

The seized ships were the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, both container ships. It was not clear under what terms the ships were trying to pass the strait. The MSC shipping company did not answer an email asking about the vessel.

The attacks follow a sudden reversal in the Iranian stance over the weekend, as the Iranian foreign minister announced Friday that the strait was open, only to be contradicted the next day by the Revolutionary Guard. Six cruise ships stuck in the Persian Gulf since late February took advantage of the narrow window and slipped through the strait. But since then, traffic has dried up.

The resumption of attacks reflects in part “genuine confusion ... about when passage is permitted," said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

Conflicting statements emerged from Trump about a full reopening and from the Iranian foreign minister about a limited reopening. Then things “shifted very quickly” Saturday when the Guard said the strait was closed.

Additionally, Soltvedt said, it's in Iran's interest to keep insurance premiums high with sporadic attacks. “Their main leverage in negotiations with the U.S. is being able to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and insurance is a big part of that.”

Some vessels have passed the Iranian vetting system, and some have relied on diplomatic requests from home governments. But hundreds of ships and thousands of crew members are still stuck.

The US is enforcing a blockade, but some Iranian oil gets through

The U.S. Navy boarded and seized a large tanker carrying Iranian oil south of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean, some 2,000 miles from the strait. That underlined the U.S. power to seize vessels that violate the blockade well after they have left the vicinity of the strait.

The U.S. military, which is enforcing the blockade in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, well way from Iranian drones and speedboats, says it has turned around 20 Iran-linked vessels.

However, shipping intelligence companies say that a number of ships carrying Iranian oil have passed the blockade. Lloyd’s List Intelligence says “a steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has passed in and out of the gulf, including 11 tankers with Iranian cargo that have left the gulf outside the strait since April 13.

“The dilemma for the U.S. is: The tighter the blockade, the greater the pain is in the global oil market, so there are conflicting priorities there, and it seems there is a policy of not intercepting every single shipment of Iranian oil,” Soltvedt said.

Additionally, almost all that oil is going to China, and the U.S. has to manage that relationship as well, with Trump planning to visit from May 14 to 15.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed Wednesday that the military blockade is against all Iranian ships entering or leaving Iranian ports. However, he said humanitarian shipments, including food, medical supplies and other goods essential for civilians, are being permitted subject to inspection.

Hawkins pushed back on outside reports of ships getting past the U.S. dragnet and pointed to remarks by the head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, who claimed Friday that “no ship has evaded U.S. forces.”

Reopening the strait will take time

Ship owners and insurers will need more than a simple announcement of a peace deal to venture through the strait as they did before the war.

Even when the war ends, analytical and data firm Rystad Energy says, it will take six to eight weeks just to reposition the world’s tanker network. Ship owners and insurer would need two to five weeks to get comfortable with a new operating environment and to resume normal activity.

Ship owners will want “something that's a bit more concrete than what we have now,” Soltvedt said. “What is needed is something more comprehensive” than an informal truce with the two sides far apart on key issues such as Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Even then, shipping companies will have the long-term threat hanging over them" given Iran's missile and drone capabilities, he said. “They can play this card again in the future."

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Associated Press Writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

“Are you 21 yet?” George turned and asked Edgecombe on the dais during their postgame news conference.

“No, 20,” Edgecombe responded with a smirk.

Nobody’s laughing about the elite company that the 76ers’ third overall pick in last June’s draft put himself into during just his second career playoff game.

“I just try not to overthink it,” Edgecombe said. “I try not to put pressure on myself. Everybody’s already putting pressure on us to perform. ... Plus, I’m around a great group of guys. That also helps me. Just keep instilling confidence in me. Just to keep going, keep going. Regardless of who’s on the floor, who’s not on the floor.”

Edgecombe finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds to become the first rookie to record at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in a playoff game since Tim Duncan on May 5, 1998.

He also became the first rookie in NBA history to post five 3-pointers and 10 rebounds in a playoff game. It was a bounce-back performance after a Game 1 in which he finished with just 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

George said it’s the culmination of something they first saw glimpses of in the Bahamas native when Edgecombe scored 34 points in his first pro game in Philadelphia’s one-point opening night win in Boston.

“When you think about it how he started his first NBA game in this building, I’m sure he was in a small percentage or small group of players that what he did on that opening night,” George said.

Edgecombe’s opening-night performance was the third-most points for an NBA player in his first game. Wilt Chamberlain scored 43 points in his debut in 1959 for the Philadelphia Warriors and also had 28 rebounds that night against New York. Frank Selvy scored 35 points for the Milwaukee Hawks against Boston in 1954.

Allen Iverson held the Sixers’ record with 30 points in his debut in 1996.

Edgecombe’s 14 first-quarter points on opening night were also the most ever for a player’s first NBA quarter. That record had been set by LeBron James in 2003.

Edgecombe finished the regular season averaging 16.0 points in 75 games.

And he’s done it with a flair that is in some ways reminiscent of the fun-loving style that Iverson exuded during his 76ers’ tenure.

In Tuesday’s win, after knocking down his final basket of the night — a deep 3-pointer over Payton Pritchard to put Philadelphia in front 105-92 after Boston had gotten within 91-89 — Edgecombe winked at the camera as he jogged back down the court.

George said it’s just a taste of what's to come from Edgecombe.

“To put a whole season together and get to a point where he’s showcasing who he is and his abilities. I’ve been saying all year long he’s far past a rookie,” George said. “It’s just impressive, man. (Edgecombe had) 30 and 10, but it’s just what we needed in the moments throughout the game when he took over, and kind of just put us at ease.”

Tuesday wasn’t all fun for Edgecombe, though. He did take a hard fall on his back early in the game that resulted in him limping to the locker room in both the first and third quarters.

But Edgecombe shrugged off any notion that his fall will hinder him going forward in this series.

“I just landed on my back, but I’m good. I was able to finish the game so I’m good,” he said. “That’s all I’ve got for you. I’m good, ain’t nothing wrong with me. I’m good.”

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

Researchers at the University of Alabama used 16 different factors including the geographic hazards, the population and infrastructure exposed and the vulnerability of people living there. They then brought in past damages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's database and applied three different artificial intelligence tools to figure out flood risks from Texas to Maine, calculating that 17.5 million people were at “very high” risk and an additional 17 million were at “high" risk, the next level.

The authors looked at all sizes of flooding and examined separately what FEMA considers the most extreme, which are the top 1% of events. The study found 4.3 million people along the coasts to be at the highest level of risk of extreme flooding, but 20.5 million to be at high risk, the second highest level.

They found a lot of vulnerability, highlighting eight different cities from Houston, which flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, to New York, which was inundated in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.

Wednesday's study in the journal Science Advances found that New York City has 4.75 million people at the two highest risk levels for all flooding, with more than 200,000 buildings likely to be damaged.

And while the number of people at risk in New Orleans is far lower, about 380,000, it involves 99% of the city's population. That doesn't mean 99% of the people will be affected in the next hurricane or nontropical flood, but that they might be depending on the storm's individual path and rain pattern, said study co-author Wanyun Shao, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama.

“Just look at the magnitude,” Shao said. “Those numbers are shocking, are alarming.”

The elderly and poor are most at risk

“When the next big storm hits New York City, when the next Hurricane Katrina -like hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, people will get hurt, especially those socially vulnerable populations,” Shao said referring to the poor, the elderly, children and the uneducated.

Shao and outside experts said the numbers stunned them even though they were familiar with the worsening effects of climate change.

“New York is known to be susceptible to floods and it has the largest population. But the fact that New York has nearly an order of magnitude more flood-exposed population than any other city is surprising,” said Alex de Sherbinin, a geographer who directs Columbia University’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information. He wasn’t part of the study.

Flood problems are becoming more frequent in New York and New Orleans because of human-caused climate change, the study said.

Other cities are also threatened

Jacksonville has 679,000 people at high or very high risk of flooding, while Houston is just behind at just under 600,000. Other cities highlighted include Miami, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama.

Shao and outside experts said what separates her study from others is the sheer comprehensiveness of all the factors it considers, including sinking land and pavement that doesn't allow water to seep into the ground, as well as incorporating human social vulnerability such as poverty and age.

“This could be applied to other places in the world, such as Manila,” said University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, who heads the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union, referring to the capital of the Philippines. He wasn't part of the study, but said the flooding problems it highlights will get more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change.

Columbia University's Marco Tedesco, who wasn't part of the study, said "it reinforces the crucial concept that future flood disasters are not just about water—they are about where people live, how cities are built, and who is least protected.”

Actions can lessen the risk

De Sherbinin said, "the analysis of the flood risk factors is important for local planners, emergency managers, and even highway crews and utility providers. We all know that low lying areas are more flood prone, but the data they have assembled provide more insights into flood risk, particularly for flash floods.”

Study lead author Hemal Dey, a geospatial scientist, said he hopes local officials look at not just building more dams and levees, but more natural infrastructure such as wetlands, grasslands, rain gardens and estuaries.

“The research is solid confirmation of what emergency managers have been saying for years. Realtors will hate it,'' said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who wasn't part of the study. "The harder question is what we’re actually going to do about it."

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

Grosjieon Moore, 63, bought his winning $500,000 Bonus Scratch Multiplier ticket at New Quick Stop Market at 8059 West Grand River in Detroit, according to Michigan Lottery officials.

“I saw some TikTok videos of people scratching lottery tickets and winning big, and I thought to myself how that would never happen to me,” Moore told lottery officials. “A few days later, my wife and I were scratching Lottery tickets when she yelled: ‘We got a winner!’ She thought we’d won $50,000, but when I looked it over, I saw we’d actually won $500,000. It was amazing!”

Grosjieon said he is planning to save his prize money.

The $500,000 Bonus Scratch Multiplier launched in February, and since then, players have won more than $6 million, according to lottery officials.

Each ticket costs $5 and gives players a chance to win prizes ranging from $5 to $500,000.

There are still $23 million in prizes left, including two $500,000 prizes, eight $10,000 prizes and 18 $2,000 prizes.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates reportedly spoke “candidly” about his relationship to Epstein in a February town hall meeting of the influential foundation he started with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. But the external probe marks the nonprofit's plainest attempt yet to address associations that have cast a pall over its concentrated efforts to end preventable maternal/child deaths and control key infectious diseases.

"In March, with the support of our chair, Bill Gates, and our independent Governing Board members, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman commissioned an external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein, and our current policies for vetting and developing new philanthropic partnerships,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement. The Wall Street journal first reported news of the staff memo detailing the review.

The philanthropic giant has already undergone a period of change. The Gates Foundation shared plans in January to cap operating costs and incrementally cut as many as 500 positions, or about 20% of its staff, by 2030. The move follows last year’s announcement that the foundation would close in 2045, earlier than previously expected.

The Justice Department's files include email correspondence between Gates and Epstein about philanthropic projects, calendar entries documenting dates they held meetings and photos of Gates at events attended by the two men. Gates has not been accused of any wrongdoing regarding their connection, denies knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claims they met only to discuss philanthropy.

The foundation acknowledged that “a small number” of employees met with Epstein based on his “claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development” in a February statement. They never created a fund together and the foundation made no financial payments to Epstein, according to the previous release.

“The foundation regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way,” the statement read.

The files' disclosures are being closely followed by one of the Gates Foundation's earliest and most ardent supporters. Investor Warren Buffett, who donates a portion of his annual Berkshire Hathaway shares to the nonprofit, told CNBC's “Squawk Box” last month that it's clear “there was a lot I didn't know."

Buffett, who resigned as the foundation's trustee in 2021, has completed his donation every year around the end of June. But he said he will “wait and see what unfolds” in the Justice Department's documents and congressional hearings on their contents. He noted the foundation is “sitting” on a large endowment, which totals $86 billion, and said Gates has “plenty of his own money.”

“So, in any event, I’ll just wait and see. And there’s three and a half million, or whatever it is pages – I mean, it is astounding,” Buffett said of the Epstein files.

A Gates Foundation spokesperson described Buffett as “an extraordinarily generous partner” for nearly two decades in a statement Wednesday to the Associated Press.

“We are deeply grateful for his support, which has enabled us to accelerate progress on some of the world’s toughest challenges that would not otherwise have been possible,” the spokesperson said.

The Gates Foundation expects its board and management will receive an update on the Epstein review this summer. The third-party investigators have not been publicly named.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and statehouses from Melinda French Gates’ organization, Pivotal Ventures. ___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'Greater room for freedom'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Troubling disregard for human life’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Monika Pronczuk contributed to this report from Malabo.

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

The Padres announced a one-year deal for Giolito on Wednesday with a mutual option for 2027. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The 31-year-old Giolito is a Southern California native who went 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA over 26 starts last year for the Boston Red Sox, bouncing back solidly after missing the entire 2024 season because his right ulnar collateral ligament was repaired with an internal brace that March.

Giolito has played parts of nine seasons in the majors for Washington, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland, going 71-66, with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP.

He has been durable and dependable for most of his career while earning an All-Star selection in 2019 and throwing a no-hitter in 2020. Despite missing a season because of injury, he ranks in the top five among AL pitchers from 2018-25 in innings pitched (1,092), strikeouts (1,153), wins (68) and complete games (5).

But Giolito remained on the free agent market nearly one month into the regular season before landing with the Padres, who are pitching superbly this season despite major upheaval and injury problems in their rotation.

Opening day starter Nick Pivetta went on the injured list last week with a right elbow flexor strain that could keep him out for months, while Joe Musgrove has yet to make his season debut after a slower-than-expected return from Tommy John surgery. Yu Darvish already is out for the season with an elbow injury, and Dylan Cease left last fall for a $210 million free-agent deal with Toronto.

Yet the Padres' team ERA is the second lowest in the majors at 3.22 after they beat Colorado 1-0 on Tuesday night for their 11th victory in 12 games. San Diego (16-7) is even with the back-to-back champion Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the majors.

General manager A.J. Preller figured out a way to fit Giolito under his budget even while his team is in ownership transition. The family of late Padres owner Peter Seidler is nearing a sale of the team to billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones.

Giolito will slot immediately into a rotation that currently includes Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Germán Márquez and former Dodgers star Walker Buehler. Right-hander Matt Waldron took a start last week after Pivetta's injury but struggled in a loss to the Angels.

Giolito agreed to a $38.5 million, two-year contract with Boston in January 2024. He will attempt to build on his strong work with the Red Sox in 2025, when he went 9-1 with a 2.26 ERA in 15 starts from June 10 to Aug. 31 after a slower start to the season. Opponents hit .194 (25 for 129) against his changeup and .200 (3 for 15) against his curveball.

He was left off Boston’s postseason roster after experiencing some elbow discomfort in mid-September, but there was no structural damage — something he said was “a small relief in a very unfortunate situation.”

“As it was described to me in layman’s terms, my flexor is very irritated and at this point it’s hard for me to describe,” Giolito said after Game 1 of Boston’s AL Wild Card Series against the New York Yankees. “It’s like weird stuff going on with my bone. It’s one of those things I was told you got to stop throwing and let it calm down.”

Giolito hasn't pitched in the postseason since 2021, when he made his second career playoff appearance for the White Sox.

San Diego transferred right-hander Bryan Hoeing to the 60-day disabled list to make room for Giolito on the 40-man roster.

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AP Baseball Writer Jay Cohen contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) reported on April 22 that the center lane, right lane and right shoulder of northbound I-75 at Rochester Road were closed off to traffic.

The lanes reopened just after 1:30 p.m. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Aerial footage shows firefighters putting out the flames. You can watch aerial footage in the video at the beginning of this article.

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

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

Free preschool has expanded in California

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preschool means confident kindergartners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump says states should pay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

U.S. Air Force divers used an underwater drone on Tuesday to search inside the overturned ship, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release. Divers from Japan's coast guard further examined the ship, called the Mariana, but didn't find the other five, it said.

“Coast Guard aircrews continue to search for the five missing crewmen and an orange 12-person life raft in the vicinity of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,” the news release said.

The National Weather Service said Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the strongest tropical cyclone this year, was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (241 kph) when it made landfall last week in the Northern Mariana Islands, which, like Guam to the south, are a U.S. territory.

The Coast Guard and agencies from Guam, Japan and New Zealand have covered more than 99,000 square miles (256,000 square kilometers) in their search for the crew, the guard said this week. That's an area roughly the size of Oregon.

The ship notified the U.S. Coast Guard on April 15 that the U.S.-registered vessel lost its starboard engine during the typhoon and needed assistance. The guard said it lost contact with the ship the next day.

“Our hearts are with the families of the Mariana crew members and the communities impacted by this tragic incident,” Cmdr. Preston Hieb, the search and rescue mission coordinator for the Coast Guard Oceania District, said in the statement.

Heavy wind hindered initial search efforts, but the overturned ship was eventually spotted Saturday about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Pagan, one of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Coast Guard said Monday that debris including a partially submerged inflatable life raft was spotted about 110 miles (177 kilometers) from the ship.

While specific safety requirements for the 145-foot (44-meter) ship were not known, federal and international codes call for cargo ships to have life rafts stocked with food and water. The rafts have to be able to withstand exposure for 30 days, according to a code put out by the International Maritime Organization.

Aaron Davenport, a retired Coast Guard officer with search and rescue experience who isn't involved in the current operation, said it would have been very difficult to deploy a raft during the typhoon.

“If they didn’t hook it somewhere and they just deployed it into the water, it would probably blow away,” he said.

Davenport wondered if searchers spotted any more safety equipment aboard the overturned ship.

“That would determine how long they need to search. Because if they have safety gear, if they’re in another life raft or if they’re in a survival suit or if they even have a life jacket — that tells me that they’re going to survive longer, probably," he said.

Davenport also questioned whether the partially submerged raft that was found came from the Mariana.

“So if there’s another ship that was affected by the weather there, they could have a life raft get washed off the top,” Davenport said.

Sinlaku battered the Northern Mariana Islands, causing wind damage and flooding. Island ports reopened to commercial traffic this week, and the Coast Guard delivered pallets of water and supplies to areas that had been cut off.

“We don’t really get to experience this kind of energy and fandom in person very often,” Tierney told The Associated Press just after their joint appearance, a highlight of the weekend gathering of (mostly) young book fans. “It’s been a bit more of an amorphous online thing.”

Since the first episode of “Heated Rivalry” dropped last November, Tierney's adaptation of Reid's “Game Changer” series featuring star-crossed hockey greats Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov has become a phenomenon that boosted the sport's popularity, made Reid a leader of the thriving genre of sports romance fiction and made Olympic torchbearers out of lead actors Hudson Williams (Shane) and Connor Storrie (Ilya). Tierney expects to begin filming the second season this summer, based in part on the second of Reid's novels about Shane and Ilya, “The Long Game.” The author, meanwhile, is working on a third Shane and Ilya book, “Unrivaled.” Both are scheduled for 2027 releases.

“Heated Rivalry” fans know well the story of how the HBO Max show was born, and of Reid's jarring swing from despair to exhilaration. In August 2023, she learned that she had early onset Parkinson's disease. Days later, she received an Instagram message from a man she had never met, but would soon change her life in a very different way: Tierney.

The 46-year-old Tierney is a Montreal native, former child star and award-winning filmmaker whose credits include the TV series “Letterkenny.” In October, Little, Brown and Company will release a collection of Tierney's annotated scripts, “I'll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1.”

Reid, 44, is a longtime hockey fan. Born Rachel Goguen in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she chose her pen name for the practical reason that it's easier to pronounce and remember. She's been open about the impact of fame and her health, posting an Instagram announcement in February that she was pushing back the release date of “Unrivaled” from this fall to next summer. Onstage, she acknowledged it had been “tricky” to write since the series took off.

“I'm in a place where the whole world seems to care about what happens next to these characters,” she said. “I'm still determined to stick to what I've always done when I was writing, just kind of pretend I'm writing for me and I hope other people like it.”

During their AP interview, Reid and Tierney spoke of the joy of sex on the page and screen and how Shane and Ilya just won't leave them alone. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Writers talk about writing the books they want to read, and filmmakers making the movies they want to see. With these books, it comes out of that?

REID: I really like a forbidden romance. I really like the rivals-to-lovers element. I just also like a queer love story with a happy ending. And I really like hockey, so I think there’s just a lot of elements in it that are just very much what I personally would like. I think if this show had come out and had nothing to do with me, I would be obsessed with it still.

TIERNEY: I did not grow up with stories like this. We don’t as gay men, as queer people. We do not get to have happy endings in media very often. I would definitely have watched it (even if he didn't direct it), that’s for sure. I’m sure I would have had notes. I'm a little picky.

AP: At what point for either of you did you realize that you had something big here?

TIERNEY: It was a kind of a series of increasingly surreal and overwhelming moments. And by the time the sixth episode aired, it really did feel like we were kind of at the center of a strange maelstrom. But I also was like, “Am I making this up? Is this actually happening?”

REID: I did a bookstore event the day after the trailer came out. They showed the trailer at the event, and everybody in the audience knew every word of the trailer and was saying it along with the trailer. So that was when I was like, “OK, this is going to be nuts.”

AP: Writers and filmmakers have talked about the difficulty of writing or filming sex scenes. Was that a challenge for either of you?

REID: Honestly, I love writing them and I’ve never found that to be the difficult part. I think it might be the easiest part for me. I actually really enjoy it. Not to praise myself too much, but I think maybe that’s why people like the scenes. They weren’t hard for me. It’s not a scary thing. It’s not the part that I have to close my eyes and write or anything. It's my favorite part.

TIERNEY: Sex is a language in this show, sex is a way that we watch this couple evolve over the course of a fairly long amount of time in terms of the story, eight years. And so the sex is different every time, a way of watching them evolve both separately and together. I think sex reveals a lot about yourself that you don’t even intend to reveal. And I find that quite fascinating as a storyteller.

AP: How real are Ilya and Shane for you? Do they live on in your heads?

REID: Yeah. That’s why I keep writing books about them, because they just keep talking. With other characters, I’ve written the books and they’ve left. But these guys just stick around.

AP: What is it about them that makes it that way?

REID: They're fun to write. I love it.

AP: You've talked about your struggles with getting the next book done. Any updates on that?

TIERNEY: It's a coloring book now.

REID: It’s 20 pages.

TIERNEY: Don’t tell the truth.

REID: The thing that hasn’t changed is how much fun they are to write. I find their voices very easy to put on the page. More than any other characters I’ve created, they arrived fully formed. They kind of just appeared one day.

AP: Were they based on anybody, at least loosely, who you know?

REID: There’s a lot of myself in Ilya, for sure. There’s a lot of, kind of hockey player archetypes — the flashy, cocky European superstar, that’s definitely a type. The uptight, very serious good boy-captain. And there’s been plenty of NHL players from decades of hockey. And I’ve been a fan for decades. And obviously there have been some really great rivalries. And we’re getting probably to the end of the (Sidney) Crosby-(Alex) Ovechkin rivalry right now. But that rivalry at its peak was so fun.

AP: What do you see of yourself in Ilya?

REID: A sense of humor, mostly. It's a little bit mean. I also kind of like to use humor to cover up emotions, you know, things like that. I think I also notice things about people a bit, but maybe stay quiet about it.

AP: I've heard a lot of writers talk about writing a book that gets made into a film. And the actors are just so good that when the writer comes back to writing about those characters, they’re seeing those actors in their head. Is it going that way for you?

REID: I told Jacob I wish I had never met them. (Laughing) It is challenge writing without thinking about somebody having to actually say or do what I’m writing, for sure. I’m trying to just block that out. I just need to pretend it definitely will never happen, because I think that’s the only way I can do it.

AP: And you still hope to have the next book out at some point next year?

RR: Yeah. That book will come out June 1. Hell or high water, it's coming out.

Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his cell, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials provided medical treatment to the U.S. Navy veteran, but he was later pronounced dead.

The official cause of death has not been determined, but officials don't suspect foul play, according to the office. Officials are conducting an internal review.

Adon Abel was accused of killing Prianna Weathers, 31, and DHS auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in last week's attack. Authorities also had been seeking an additional murder charge for Tony Mathews, 49, who was injured in the attack and died Sunday.

Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the shootings. It’s unclear if Adon Abel knew any of the victims. Police have said they believe at least one was targeted at random.

Adon Abel was represented by a public defender, and the state council overseeing defenders' work said Wednesday in a statement that his death denies him “the opportunity to contest the charges in court.”

“We also regret that the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims may now be left without the fuller answers a public legal process might have provided about how these deaths occurred,” the statement said. “That is a painful and sobering reality for everyone affected.”

Adon Abel faced state malice murder, aggravated assault and gun charges over last week's attacks, court records show. He also faced a federal charge of illegally possessing the gun as a person previously convicted of a felony, which was filed Friday.

His roommates told The Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, he got in an intense argument over the air conditioning in their home and stormed out. He lived with six others in separate units of the home.

The United Kingdom native was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.

The attacks in Georgia quickly drew the Trump administration’s attention, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concern that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin cataloged a litany of Adon Abel's previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.

Military records show the Adon Abel enlisted in the Navy in 2020, last serving in the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron in Coronado, California, and as a petty officer received a Navy “E” Ribbon for superior performance for battle readiness.

Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 to assaulting two police officers with a deadly weapon and attacking another person when he was stationed in Coronado, near San Diego, according to California court records.

The attorney who represented him in that case, Brandon Naidu, has described him as polite, calm and soft-spoken in their interactions. He said Wednesday that his obligation to protect the confidentiality of their conversations limits what he can say publicly but, “Mental health was absolutely at the center of his San Diego case.” "“t was fueled by suicidal ideation as a result of mental health that he was self-treating with substances,” he said.

He added: “Nobody wins in this. We’ll never know the motives, what could have been done beforehand or even afterward. Nobody gets proper closure on this.”

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Golden, from Seattle.

Jurassic Park: The Musical will be playing April 24th through May 9th. Watch the video above to learn more about the musical.

Watch the video above to hear about Refill Emporium, which offers refillable household cleaners, personal care products, and more.

Watch the video above to see fitness and nutrition expert Jody Trierweiler shares some ideas, such as the workout trend called “plogging.”

Chelsea confirmed his departure on Wednesday, less than four months into the job and just four days before it plays in an FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.

Assistant Calum McFarlane will take charge on an interim basis until the end of the season.

“This has not been a decision the club has taken lightly, however recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards with still so much more to play for this season,” Chelsea said in a statement.

The team that won the Club World Cup last year now looks likely to miss out on next season’s Champions League. That would mean a huge financial hit for a club that has spent billions of dollars under U.S. owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.

The five-game losing streak is its worst since 1912 — the same year the Titanic sank.

Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton proved the last straw for Rosenior, an inexperienced coach at the highest level who was hired from Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg in January. It was a seventh loss in eight games in all competitions.

Chelsea has won one of its last nine in the league, is seventh in the standings and seven points adrift of the top five, who all qualify for the Champions League.

Rosenior, 41, turned on his players following the Brighton match, saying the performance was “indefensible” and that “something needs to change drastically.”

The club’s hierarchy clearly agreed, despite saying Rosenior had “always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism”.

Rosenior replaced Club World Cup-winning coach Enzo Maresca in January and only took charge of 23 games.

He started impressively with a run of six wins in seven games, but things unravelled quickly in recent weeks, including elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.

His tenure was brought to an end despite Chelsea preparing for its FA Cup semifinal against Leeds on Sunday.

Rosenior becomes the fifth permanent manager to lose his job since Clearlake and Boehly bought one of English soccer’s most storied clubs in 2022. Now the search is on for a sixth to try to bring sustained success.

“As the club works to bring stability to the head coach position, we will undertake a process of self-reflection to make the right long-term appointment,” Chelsea said.

Rosenior’s departure comes after fans of the two-time Champions League winner and six-time English champion began to protest against the U.S. owners.

While there have been trophies, the Club World Cup and Europa Conference League last season, this could be the third campaign out of four in which it has failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Under former owner Roman Abramovich, Chelsea was one of the most dominant teams in Europe, winning a full set of trophies, including two Champions Leagues and five Premier League titles.

It last won the Champions League in 2021, the year before Abramovich was forced to sell the club after being sanctioned by the British government in the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

The phenomenon has a name - “Ozempic face” - and it is drawing growing concern from facial plastic surgeons who say the rapid weight loss these drugs produce can strip the face of the very fat that keeps skin looking youthful and vibrant.

Dr. Charles M. Boyd, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., a Harvard-trained facial plastic surgeon and founder of Boyd Beauty in Metro Detroit, says the core problem is speed.

“You want a thin body, but not a thin face,” Boyd said in an appearance on Live in the D. When weight drops rapidly, he explained, the face loses volume in the temples, under the eyes, and along the sides - leaving skin with nowhere to go.

“If you took a balloon and you let half of the air out, you’d have laxity in that tissue,” he said.

The structural consequences go beyond loose skin. Boyd said patients present with “dark circles, hollowness, neck laxity, and all of those things can make you look older rather than younger.”

The underlying biology compounds the problem. Fat tissue beneath the skin contains hormones and compounds that help maintain skin hydration and elasticity. Lose that fat quickly and the skin can become drier, more lined, and more wrinkled - an accelerated version of normal aging.

“You’re seeing it just sped up,” Boyd said.

The good news, he says, is that Ozempic face is treatable - and even preventable. Boyd pointed to a recent study out of his practice showing that injectables and biostimulators can rebuild collagen and elastin before significant facial volume is lost. His advice: don’t wait until the weight is gone.

“If you can go to a place that’s familiar with it, I like to talk to my patients about their weight loss journey, and if you’re considering it, we can start a program so that you never lose the weight in your face, so you always look younger and healthy and more vibrant.”

Treatment, he stressed, must be tailored to the individual. “It’s all individualized. There’s no one size fits all or cookie cutter approach,” Boyd said, adding that patients should seek out a qualified professional who understands both their cosmetic goals and their weight loss journey.

Boyd Beauty operates three locations in Metro Detroit - Birmingham, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. More information is available at BoydBeauty.com.

Mario Bustamante Leiva did not recognize Noem when he grabbed her Gucci handbag from the floor of a restaurant where she was eating with her family in April 2025, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Noem’s purse had credit cards and about $3,000 in cash. Police recovered it from Leiva's motel room.

Bustamante Leiva, a 50-year-old native of Chile, is facing deportation after his sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.

“Bustamante Leiva came to Washington illegally to prey on citizens of the district,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in a statement. “His pattern of theft ends here.”

Noem, who is identified only by her initials in court filings, acknowledged the incident in a statement last year that referred to Bustamante Leiva as a “a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years.”

He pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud and one count of first-degree theft. He was charged and convicted of robbing two other people and charging fraudulent purchases to their credit cards.

Bustamante Leiva was charged along with a second suspect, Cristian Montecino-Sananza, who was sentenced in March to 13 months of incarceration for his role in one of the other thefts.

Investigators said they identified Bustamante Leiva as a suspect in the thefts after he used a stolen gift card to make a purchase.

Photos and video posted to social media Wednesday showed ice sitting inside living rooms after it busted through windows and doors. Homes, garages and sheds could also be seen surrounded by several feet of muddy, brown river and lake water.

Spring rains and winter snowmelt have swelled rivers and lakes, forcing torrents of water through Cheboygan County communities on its way to Lake Huron.

“Black Lake, Black River, Cheboygan River, Burt Lake, Mullett Lake, the Sturgeon River — and nearly every waterway in the county — have overflowed beyond their banks, swallowing docks, roads, yards, and in far too many cases, homes,” the Cheboygan County sheriff’s office told residents last week on its Facebook page. “What should be familiar shorelines are now unrecognizable expanses of water.”

Homes along Black Lake's west side were evacuated over the weekend, according to the sheriff's office.

“These are ice sheets. They’re massive,” said Christopher Narsesian, who took photos and video of the damage. “They’re mini glaciers, if you will. They just run down everything in their path. Nothing can stop that kind of weight.”

State and county officials are working to keep debris and ice from clogging the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex to allow water to flow on to Lake Huron.

If water levels were normal, lake ice would just break up in place as it melts, according to Patrick Bak, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord, Michigan.

The ice on Black Lake, more than likely, was pushed ashore by the wind, he added.

“The fact that the water was so high, the ice ... had more room to travel,” Bak said.

Ice chunks were also moving through nearby Mullett Lake. Both lakes feed into the Cheboygan River, with water flowing through the Cheboygan Dam.

“We've managed a little bit of ice issues on Mullett Lake,” said Patrick Ertel, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Incident Management Team.

Last week, crews added pumps, and power was restored to an old hydroelectric station to increase water flow through the dam. Cranes also were used to remove gates that hold back water.

A large chunk of ice snapped the safety cable at the Cheboygan Lock and Dam Complex on April 9, forcing the natural resources department to close access points upstream and downstream of the dam.

“We can't have large chunks of ice flowing down blocking up the gates,” Ertel said. “Two marine vessels are kind of breaking up the chunks … on the Cheboygan River. The more water we can safely pass at the Cheboygan Dam, the faster we can bring relief to Mullet Lake. It's going as fast as it can. It is purely driven by gravity.”

The smaller Alverno Dam is between Black Lake and the Cheboygan River.

“Ice from Black Lake is not going to make it down to the Cheboygan River. It will be held up,” Ertel said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency in Cheboygan and more than 30 other Michigan counties due to flooding and other severe weather this month.

Narsesian lives near Cheboygan and grew up along Black Lake.

Slabs of ice, which he described as a “several-mile-wide sheet,” continue to float in the lake. He said the ice is “smashing into homes and taking them out, just leveling them.” He said some ice was pushed as high as rooftops.

“We’ve never seen it that high,” Narsesian said. “Typically, the ice would just come over the break walls in front of houses, like a couple of feet. People’s homes don’t typically flood. The ice just melts.”

Water is receding, but Narsesian said levels are still high and the ice still is out there.

“As long as the wind doesn’t pick up and move that around again, we should be OK,” he said. “If that ice does come back, it’s going to do more damage.”

It’s the aftermath that concerns him most for the community where it’s “all friends and family” and “everybody knows everyone,” Narsesian said.

“Most people don’t have any help — coverage,” he added. “ Flood insurance was never necessary. No one’s ever seen this here. It’s a lot.”

Lawrence Technological University’s College of Business and Information Technology is retooling its curriculum to ensure graduates aren’t just AI-literate, but AI-fluent - and the school’s leadership says the distinction matters.

“Our mission is to create innovative business professionals equipped with technological skills,” said Dr. Matthew Cole, Dean of LTU’s College of Business and Information Technology. For Cole, that means teaching students not only how to build and deploy AI models, but how to question and critically evaluate their output using real business judgment.

The goal, he said, goes beyond efficiency. “Leveraging the human intelligence along with the artificial intelligence - that connection with our human skills and our AI fluency is what’s needed in the marketplace today,” Cole said during an appearance on Live in the D.

Cole argues that AI will never master the political dynamics of an organization, and that’s precisely where human professionals hold an irreplaceable advantage. LTU’s curriculum includes “appreciative inquiry,” a framework focused on collaboration, team dynamics, and organizational engagement, designed to complement technical AI training.

On the persistent anxiety about job displacement, Cole was direct: “We need to reframe ‘will AI replace me’ into ‘how will I use AI effectively’ - so that I will be a successful business professional.”

Massood Omrani, an MBA graduate, PhD engineer, and faculty member at LTU’s College of Business and Information Technology, says most organizations are still missing the bigger picture when it comes to AI strategy.

“AI is a strategic variable, a strategic asset that you should consider when you’re formulating your strategy,” Omrani said. Too often, he noted, business leaders treat AI as a tool for the IT department to manage - plugging it into existing processes without rethinking how the organization operates.

Omrani drew a historical parallel to sharpen his point. “AI is like electricity in the early 1900s,” he said. “The companies who used electricity successfully were not the ones who just brought it in for the heck of it.” The winners, he argued, were the companies that examined their operations, identified where the technology created the most value, and restructured their processes accordingly.

His message to students anxious about their futures was equally blunt: “Do not compete with AI - try to learn AI and use it effectively. In the short term, AI will not replace your job, but the person who knows how to use AI effectively will.”

For more information on Lawrence Technological University’s business and IT programs, visit ltu.edu/business-and-it.

Nelson Otto Ropke, 41, of Grosse Pointe Park, is accused of having sexually explicit pictures and videos of prepubescent children at his home in the 800 block of Harcourt Road.

“There are many times in this job where we encounter alleged facts where you wonder how some people can sink to certain levels of depravity,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. “This is one of those cases. There is really nothing left to say here.”

Ropke was arrested on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on accusations that he possessed and distributed child pornography.

He faces the following charges:

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

Of those 13 counts of using a computer to commit a crime, two come with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, eight come with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and three come with a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

Ropke is set to be arraigned at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at Grosse Pointe Park Municipal Court.

On April 4, 2026, the Northern Division of the Eastern District of Michigan, within Indian country on the Isabella reservation, indicted Hendrickson, a Native American, on two counts: Assault Causing Serious Bodily Injury and Child Abuse in the second degree.

Hendrickson is accused of “intentionally committing an act that was likely to cause serious physical and mental harm” to the child, “regardless of whether harm resulted,” by strangling the child.

On April 15, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest in Flint. He was arraigned on April 20 and pleaded not guilty.

“Those charges carry with them the same maximum possible penalties, and that is imprisonment for up to 10 years to be followed by supervised release and or a fine of not more than $250,000 on each of those two counts,” the federal magistrate said this week. “Do you understand what the government is charging you with and the maximum penalties for those two offenses?”

“Yeah,” Hendrickson said, before his court-appointed attorney waived a formal, more detailed reading of the charges. Hendrickson consented to jail pending trial.

Hendrickson’s history of violence

Hendrickson, according to court records, has a history of violence dating back decades. In April 2017, Hendrickson was indicted within Indian country, on the Isabella Reservation, for assaulting his girlfriend, “and someone whom he shares a child in common with.” He was also indicted with three counts of witness tampering.

Records show Hendrickson took a plea to Count One of the indictment: Domestic Assault by a Habitual Offender.

Here is part of the plea transcript:

Q. “During -- or as a result of the argument, [victim] left the residence with two of her children, got into a minivan and locked the door?”

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Q: “And you agree that you followed her out to the vehicle while yelling and swearing at her?

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Q: “That you attempted to open the vehicle’s front driver’s side door. When you were unsuccessful in doing that, you spit on the windshield and kicked the front driver’s side door a number of times –"

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Q: “-- and caused damage to that door?”

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Q: “That you also attempted to open the passenger side door which was locked?

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Q: “Finally you were able -- you opened the passenger side rear sliding door, correct?”

Hendrickson: “Yes.”

Hendrickson asks ex-girlfriend to assault wife

Hendrickson was also indicted in September 2011 within Indian country on the Isabella reservation for the Saginaw Chippewa Native American tribe. He was convicted of Family Violence in Saginaw Chippewa tribal court in February of 2010.

Court records said that in November 2011, after being arrested, Hendrickson wrote a letter to his former girlfriend asking her to assault his current wife for him. Prosecutors said Hendrickson did this intending “to prevent, influence, or delay the testimony of” his wife during the upcoming jury trial.

Q. “It says here you -- you wrote [ex-girlfriend] a letter telling her to go after [wife]. Is that right?”

A. “Yes.”

Q. “And you did that in order to influence or change or delay [her] testimony. Is that right?”

A. “Yes”

Q. “Were you in -- in jail when you wrote that letter? Which jail were you in?”

A. “Clare.”

Q. “Clare County.”

A. “Clare County.”

Court records show the ex-girlfriend “did get in trouble for an assault.” Hendrickson’s wife was allegedly not hurt, but “it was shortly after this.” Hendrickson then pleaded guilty to witness tampering.

Court records show Hendrickson was also charged with Family Violence under tribal code in August of 2006 and Domestic Violence under Michigan law in Isabella County in January of 2008. According to court records, the victim involved was his spouse in those cases.

Krueger, 86, and her daughter were on a specialized zoo tour last month for people who live with dementia that was organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta.

On the tour with Krueger, Ingrid Barkow watched from her wheelchair as the elephants roamed their habitat, while Monika Jansen balanced on her tiptoes to get a better view of a rhinoceros.

“When I get home, I’ll still be thinking about it,” said Jansen, 85. “Maybe even at night, while I’m sleeping and dreaming about it.”

The three women are among roughly 1.6 million people living with dementia in Germany, according to the Office of the National Dementia Strategy. The figure is expected to rise to 2.8 million by 2050.

Specialized tours grow worldwide

Museums and other cultural institutions across the globe have added specialized, barrier-free tours and guides to their repertoire in recent years, some made possible by advances in technology.

These include sign-language tours for people who are deaf and hard of hearing, touch-based events for those with blindness or low vision and programs for people on the autism spectrum.

The Berlin chapter of Malteser Deutschland last year designed a cultural program in the capital catering to people with dementia.

“People with dementia aren’t very visible in our society. It’s still a major taboo subject, yet it actually affects a great many people and it’s important that they continue to be at the heart of society," project coordinator Christine Gruschka said. "They have a right to participate, just like everyone else.”

Millions of people around the globe have some form of dementia, a progressive loss of memory, reasoning, language skills and other cognitive functions. People can experience changes in personality, emotional control and even visual perception. Alzheimer’s is the most widely recognized type, but there are many others, with their own symptoms and underlying biology.

Malteser Berlin's tours for people with dementia occur at the zoo, the Museum of Natural History, Britzer Garden and Charlottenburg Palace, with hopes of expanding to other locations.

“‘Normal’ tours — so-called normal tours — are often too fast, too loud, with too many people and too many distractions," Gruschka said. "That’s why we’ve made it our goal to create programs specifically for people with dementia: Where they still feel seen, where they feel comfortable, and where they can still show that they’re still here and can still be part of it.”

Dementia-specific tours are key for caregivers and families

Krueger, Jansen and Barkow followed Malteser Berlin tour coordinator Carola Tembrink around the Berlin Zoo, accompanied by their daughters and a caregiver.

Tembrink skipped the majority of the zoo's vast offerings to focus on the hippo, rhino and elephant habitats so the participants would not get too tired or overwhelmed.

“The zoo is a wonderful place for tours like this because almost everyone who grew up in Berlin has been here as a child," Tembrink said. "And especially for people with dementia, childhood memories are often still present — they just need to be jogged a bit — and that happens naturally when they see the animals, smell the air as they enter the zoo, or when they go into the rhino house and catch a different scent.”

For the caregivers and families, the tours are a lifeline. During long and sometimes frustrating days of caring for someone with dementia, a specialized tour lets them connect with others who understand the journey.

Krueger was formally diagnosed last year with dementia, but her daughter, Kerstin Hoehne, said the symptoms appeared more than two years ago.

“What’s nice is that it’s also with, let’s say, like-minded people, that you’re not alone, but that you have a sense of belonging because everyone else might have the same problem,” Hoehne said.

Barkow's daughter, Manuela Grudda, said the tour brought them closer together. Grudda pushed Barkow's wheelchair through the zoo, her hands caressing her mother's shoulders or pointing out the animals.

“I can’t really communicate with her in a normal way, of course, but I see that when I show her something, she looks at it, she’s paying attention, and that’s important,” Grudda said. “And it just makes me happy that she’s not just in her own world, but also in this one.”

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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.

Devin Nunes, a former California congressmen in Donald Trump's first term, is being replaced temporarily by digital media executive Kevin McGurn as chief executive officer. The company, Trump Media & Technology, didn't give a reason for Nunes leaving or provide a timeline for his permanent replacement.

After soaring shortly before Trump's re-election in November 2024, stock in the company plunged 67%, wiping out more than $6 billion in investor wealth.

Trump Media was formed by the Trump family as an alternative to social media giants that had barred him from posting on their platforms after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots. It said it would not only take on Facebook and Twitter as a “free speech” alternative, but eventually could become a media giant competing with streaming services such as Netflix.

The stock soared, but it never gained traction with a wide audience despite the president's frequent use of it for major political announcements, slammed by government ethics experts as a conflict of interest with the presidency.

Since it went public two years ago, Trump Media has lost more than $1.1 billion. Nunes got total compensation of $47 million in 2024, the last year for which figures are available.

The new CEO McGurn said in statement that the company was “poised to take off."

“In carrying President Trump’s unique, singular vision and message, Truth Social stands for the most powerful brand and voice in history of social media and beyond,” he said.

The Trump Organization didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment.

The company has recently branched into cryptocurrency and another hot business, prediction markets. The latter are online betting venues where people can wager on sports, entertainment and political events.

Both cryptocurrencies and prediction markets have gotten boosts from the Trump administration, in terms of lighter regulation and outright promotion. Last year, for instance, the Trump established a national bitcoin reserve, pushing up the value of that currency.

McGurn, has worked at NBC Universal, Hulu and DoubleClick, among other companies, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is also the CEO of a new shell company that Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, joined last year to buy U.S. manufacturers. That company originally stated in regulatory filings that it would be targeting businesses hoping to tap federal contracts, which would be awarded by the same government run by their father.

The Trump Organization and the White House have repeatedly denied that there are conflicts of interest between Trump's role as president and the family business.

The UT Dell Medical Center, announced Tuesday, is projected to open in 2030 as the crown jewel of a new 300-plus-acre advanced research campus. The university expects to break ground this fall on what school leaders are calling the country's first “AI-native” hospital.

The donation makes the couple the first University of Texas donors to give more than $1 billion, according to system officials, building on two decades of support for computer science education, the medical school and scholarships for students with the most significant financial need.

For Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at about $170 billion, the next step was to further expand his and his wife's investments in Central Texas. The computer magnate founded the company in 1984 as a UT-Austin pre-med student selling customized personal computers from his freshman dorm room. Health infrastructure needs became clear, he said, as the area's population about doubled in size.

“I was born in Texas. My wife was born in Texas. This is our home,” Dell told The Associated Press, adding that “building a stronger health system here, more innovation and helping to support the growth and stability of the region” is important.

The donation is among the largest ever in higher education philanthropy, following recent contributions such as Phil Knight's $2 billion pledge to Oregon Health & Science University's cancer center and Michael Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift for financial aid to low- and middle-income Johns Hopkins University students.

A ‘rare' opportunity to integrate technology into a new medical center

From monitoring vital signs to triggering step-by-step care plans, AI is making inroads into health care at hundreds of hospitals.

With the launch of UT Dell Medical Center, however, Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti sees a rare opportunity: instead of retroactively applying new technologies to old hospital infrastructure, she said they can integrate them from the start. They will also collaborate with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to offer top specialists for those with complex conditions.

Lucchinetti, the dean of Dell Medical School and senior vice president for medical affairs, said their model will use technology to support the patient-doctor relationship and make care “feel simpler and more human.” “Ambient" AI will make the hospital itself an “intelligent member of the care team,” she said, taking notes so that clinicians can treat patients more directly. She touted AI's ability to identify biometric patterns and early signs of cancer before they're obvious to the naked eye.

The goal, she said, is to move from a reactive and fragmented health system to one that is predictive and more seamless.

“We have the technology, the science and the understanding to do better. And what we’ve been missing is the ability to design a system around those capabilities from the start,” she said. "That’s the opportunity that Susan and Michael Dell have catalyzed.”

The gift will also support undergraduate scholarships, student housing and UT's Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are building the nation's largest academic supercomputer with Dell's AI infrastructure.

In a convocation address two years ago, Michael Dell encouraged medical school graduates to ensure AI models understand human ethics and make health care more equitable. He believes the technology will augment caregiving, create more precise treatments, accelerate scientific discoveries and apply those findings to real-world practices sooner.

“We have to figure out how to do this in a way that is responsible, reflects our values and beliefs, and ultimately enables humans to reach their full potential,” he told AP. “That's what we're all working on.”

Landscape for higher education giving

The major contribution comes at a time when private support for higher education is falling to a dwindling pool of supporters.

Colleges raised a record $78 billion last year, according to the 2025 Voluntary Support of Education, but nearly 90% of that money came from just 2% of donors.

Rutgers University Associate Dean for Research Marybeth Gasman said she's excited to see such strong support for a public institution at a time when public funding is declining amid politicized attacks on higher education. She hopes the megagift inspires other donations, as she said decades-long patterns suggest that more giving occurs after high-profile individual contributions.

“Higher education, quite frankly, could really use it right now," she said.

UT-Austin officials are certainly hoping so. The Dells' gift kicks off a broader 10-year campaign to raise $10 billion for the university.

The donation comes on the heels of the Dells' $6.25 billion pledge to provide an incentive to claim new investment accounts under President Donald Trump's tax law for 25 million American children ages 10 and under. The “Trump Accounts” give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open one, and invests those funds in the stock market. The couple believes it is the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children.

Michael Dell said even a small sum makes a child more likely to enter college — “perhaps at the University of Texas or some other great school” — and eventually start a family or business. He welcomed the creativity he's seeing from other “Trump Accounts" funders. He's seen cities offer additional investments for community service and good grades. He noted that hedge fund managers Brad Gerstner and Ray Dalio have seeded accounts in Indiana and Connecticut, respectively.

“I think you'll see many more gifts at the local community level and some other big ones at the national level,” he said.

But he dismissed the suggestion that, between the “Trump Accounts” and this University of Texas gift, there's been a shift in his and his wife's philanthropy toward more selective, bigger bets.

“Certainly, we’ve been very blessed and we have a lot of resources,” he said. "So, we're looking for things that have significant impact.”

—-

This story has been updated to correct the impact of Mike Bloomberg's $1.8 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University.

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

Bearman was traveling at around 190 mph (306 kph) when he veered off track and slammed into the barrier while trying to avoid Franco Colapinto's slower-moving car at last month's Japanese Grand Prix.

The difference in speed between the two was around 30 mph (50 kph) because of key features of the 2026 cars. Bearman was using his “boost” mode for extra electrical power while Colapinto was low on electrical charge.

“We’ve got sometimes cases when one car is deploying too little power because it’s charging up its batteries and another one is trying to overtake and approaching at quite a fast speed. That has been obviously a safety topic and we’ve been discussing how to resolve it,” Nikolas Tombazis, who's overseen the development and changes to the 2026 rules as single-seater director at the FIA, said in a video statement Wednesday.

Restricting the impact of the boost mode and cutting the maximum allowed electrical power on “specific parts of the circuits maybe where we have corners or where they’re a bit more twisty” could prevent a repeat, Tombazis argued. Bearman had been using the boost on a curved section as he approached Colapinto.

“So, in that respect, it means that the sort of problem we saw with Ollie Bearman’s crash in Suzuka should basically be avoided from the next race onwards.”

Bearman said on the “Up To Speed” podcast last week that the big difference in speed between him and Colapinto was an “unfortunate result of these regulations”, and that the Argentine driver should have left him more space because of that.

“I was lucky not to hit him. It would have been much, much worse if I did,” said the British driver.

Tombazis said the FIA would see how upcoming races go and push for more changes if needed. That usually needs the agreement of teams and engine manufacturers, but the FIA can intervene on its own on urgent safety grounds.

“It’s not now job done, we can all go on holiday," Tombazis said. "We will keep monitoring. We’ll keep reviewing and analyzing and so on. And, if there’s any further interventions needed, of course we won’t hesitate to take them.”

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

Newsweek recently released the list, recognizing 460 hospitals across the country for delivering high-quality maternity care.

“As maternity care access narrows across the United States, hospitals play an increasingly critical role in ensuring safe, equitable birth outcomes,” according to Newsweek. “America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2026, presented by Newsweek and Statista, recognizes 460 institutions delivering high-quality care amid growing challenges. These hospitals stand out for strong clinical outcomes, supportive patient experiences, and innovative approaches to advancing maternal and newborn health in both urban and rural communities.”

The 12 Michigan hospitals that made the list include the following:

Methodology

The list was based on three metrics, including quality, patient experience and reputation score.

Hospitals received five ribbons if they ranked at or above the 80th percentile across all three data categories. To earn four ribbons, they needed to rank at or above the 70th percentile in each of the three categories.

For more information on methodology, visit here.

To see Newsweek’s full list, visit here.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous court that the Enbridge energy company waited too long to try to move the case to federal court.

The case is part of a messy legal dispute about a pipeline that has moved crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued in state court in June 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Enbridge to operate a 4.5-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel, a Democrat, won a restraining order shutting down the pipeline from Ingham County Judge James Jamo in June 2020, although Enbridge was allowed to continue operations after meeting safety requirements.

Enbridge moved the lawsuit into federal court in 2021, arguing it affects U.S. and Canadian trade. But a three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Jamo in June 2024, finding that the company missed a 30-day deadline to change jurisdictions.

The pipeline at issue is called Line 5. Concerns over the section beneath the straits rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge engineers revealed they had known about gaps in the section’s protective coating since 2014. A boat anchor damaged the section in 2018, intensifying fears of a spill.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked the straits easement for Line 5 in 2020. Enbridge filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging the revocation.

Enbridge won a ruling from a federal judge blocking the move, but Whitmer, a Democrat, has appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In March, the Supreme Court rejected Whitmer’s appeal claiming that she couldn't be sued in federal court.

It was unclear how the federal ruling blocking Whitmer’s revocation attempt would affect Nessel’s case in state court. The company said in a statement that the judge in the Whitmer case has already decided federal regulators, not the state, are responsible for Line 5 safety and they have found no issues that would warrant shutting it down.

Enbridge also is seeking permits to encase the section of pipeline beneath the straits in a protective tunnel. The Michigan Public Service Commission granted the relevant permits in 2023, but a coalition of environmental groups and Michigan tribes has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state permits for the tunnel. The state Supreme Court is weighing that case.

Enbridge also needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

The pipeline is at the center of a separate legal dispute in Wisconsin as well. A federal judge in Madison last summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation. The company has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it started work in February to reroute the line around the reservation.

The Bad River and environmental groups have filed a state lawsuit seeking to halt the work, arguing regulators have underestimated the damage the reroute construction will cause. That case also is pending.

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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report from Madison, Wisconsin.

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Obviously, women earning the right to vote in America is a hugely important moment in the history of America, but it kind of feels that it’s a little bit overlooked, or talked about much in the culture. That’s why Broadway producer and Metro Detroit native Rachel Sussman wanted to bring the stories of Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, Lucy Burns and Carrie Chapman Catt to the Broadway stage.

“This whole idea started when I was in middle school,” said Sussman during a phone interview. After years of workshops, collaborations and rewrites, “Suffs” debuted on Broadway April 18, 2024, and was nominated for six Tony Awards. The show ended up winning Best Book and Best Score.

It’s hard to compress decades of fighting for the vote into a two and a half hour musical, but “Suffs” does a fantastic job of compressing so much history into a single Broadway musical.

For Sussman, having the show she conceived play at the Fisher Theater is a full circle moment.

“The Fisher Theater is where I saw so many musicals growing up, so it’s really a dream for it to be on tour in Detroit,” said Sussman.

The all female cast of “Suffs” is truly incredible. The acting is obviously amazing, but the singing is what really blew me away. “Suffs” is all about owning your power, and the blend of voices in the ensemble was the definition of power.

“Suffs” is playing at the Fisher Theater until April 26. You can get tickets here.

In an exclusive interview on Tuesday, President Nikos Christodoulides said EU leaders will discuss “giving substance” to Article 42.7 of the bloc’s treaties, which oblige all 27 member states to assist each other in times of crisis.

The article states that if a nation is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, its partners should provide “aid and assistance by all the means in their power.” It has never been used before so there’s no hard and fast rules on how EU members should respond to any call for assistance.

“We have Article 42.7 and we don’t know what is going to happen if a member state triggers this article,” Christodoulides told The Associated Press ahead of an EU-Mideast summit he is hosting later this week, expected to focus on the Iran war and its fallout. “So we’re going to have a discussion and prepare, let’s say, an operational plan of what is going to happen in case a member state triggers this article, and there are a number of issues.”

The issue resonates particularly with Christodoulides, who appealed for help from fellow EU countries last month when a Shahed drone struck a British air base on the island’s southern coastline. Cypriot officials said the drone was launched from Lebanon whose capital is just 207 kilometers (129 miles) away from Cyprus’ southern coast. Greece, France, Spain, The Netherlands and Portugal dispatched ships with anti-drone capabilities to help defend the island.

Clarification needed on countries that are also NATO members

Christodoulides said since many EU countries are also members of NATO, the playbook should clarify how those countries would respond to a call for help from an EU partner without conflicting with their obligations under the military alliance.

NATO’s own security guarantee, Article 5, states an attack on one ally is deemed an attack on them all, requiring a collective response.

“So what is going to happen in this situation if a member state is both NATO member state and an EU member state? What is going happen?” Christodoulides said.

Another issue that needs to be addressed under the Article 47.2 is whether a response would be a collective one in the NATO mold or just one for states neighboring the country in distress. There’s also the issue of what means would need to be used to deal with varying types of crises.

Christodoulides said he’s pleased to see that fellow EU leaders now “understand the importance” of bringing the bloc closer to the Middle East with such initiatives as the Mediterranean Pact that implements specific projects on a range of issues including health, education and energy in Middle Eastern countries.

Closer EU ties to the Middle East has been a key priority for Cyprus’ EU presidency, which Christodoulides said offers a “very good opportunity...to give substance” to that objective. Attending the informal EU leaders’ summit later this week will be the leaders of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, affording the opportunity “not just to exchange ideas but to see in action how we elevate our cooperation in a strategic level.”

“We can represent the interest of the countries of the Greater Middle East to Brussels, but at the same time, and this is very, very important, the countries in the region, they trust Cyprus to represent them in the European Union,” he said.

'A win-win situation'

Christodoulides is a strong proponent of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a trade, energy and digital connectivity corridor that would link the continent with the world's largest democracy and is hoped to usher peace and stability in the Middle East.

Christodoulides said under the Cypriot EU presidency, a “Friends of IMEC” group has been set up to promote the initiative, which still lacks what he said are more specific projects. One such project is the Great Seas Interconnector, an electricity cable connecting the power grids of Greece and Cyprus and eventually Israel that has been plagued by delays.

“We can work together with the Americans, with the U.S. Government, with President Trump in order to give substance because it will be a win-win situation for both the European Union and the United States” with additional concrete projects, Christodoulides said.

New energy sources

The Iran war again brought the need for the EU to diversify its energy source into sharp relief. Christodoulides said he’s in talks with the EU’s executive arm on how Cyprus’ own offshore natural gas deposits can help the bloc find alternative energy sources and routes.

He said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will unveil on Friday “very specific proposals” regarding energy costs and how the bloc can become more energy independent.

Christodoulides said the EU has made significant strides in hastening its decision on making mechanisms but has failed to deliver on its pledge to add new members in the last two years, diminishing the trust that prospective member nations have in the union.

“So we have a strong geopolitical tool that we are losing mainly because of our mistakes. The situation today is much better. We are deciding in a much faster, let’s say, pace,” said Christodoulides. “And enlargement is one of the geopolitical tools that, as a European Union, we need pretty soon to have specific decisions.”

Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat, signed off on the change earlier this week. The primary election had been scheduled for Sept. 8, which is the day after the holiday weekend.

State and local officials had requested the change after raising concerns about having enough time to set up polls for voters. However, under the legislation enacted, the filing deadlines will remain the same.

“We have to set up over 400 polling places around the state on the day before the election,” Nick Lima, the registrar and director of elections for the city of Cranston, told lawmakers at a hearing in January. "That's very difficult to do on a holiday because many of our polls are schools, social halls and churches."

It's not unusual for states to change their election day. Lawmakers in neighboring Massachusetts changed the state's 2026 primary election day from Sept. 15 to Sept. 1, arguing that doing so will help improve voter turnout.

Only four states hold their primary elections in September: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Delaware, which has the latest primary date in the U.S., taking place this year on Sept. 15.

Legislation seeking to move up Delaware's primary election by several months has been introduced in the statehouse, but previous attempts to do so have stalled.

The court ruled 6-3 in favor of former Army Spc. Winston Hencely, who was wounded when he stopped a man on his way to detonate an explosive vest at a Veterans Day weekend 5K race at Bagram Airfield in 2016.

Ahmad Nayeb instead blew himself up when he was confronted, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, according to court documents.

The projectiles fractured Hencely's skull and tore through his brain, leaving him without the full use of much of the left side of his body. He also has abnormal brainwaves, seizures and traumatic brain injury, his lawyers wrote.

Hencely acted to sue the company, Fluor Corporation, under state law after an Army investigation faulted the company’s failure to supervise Nayeb, an Afghan employee who built the vest on the job site inside the base, court documents say.

The Irving, Texas-based engineering construction company argued that it could not be sued because it was working during wartime for the government, which is generally immune to lawsuits.

The high court disagreed. The majority said companies are protected when they are fulfilling government contracts, but that Fluor allegedly failed to carry out its duties in supervising Nayeb.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Alito wrote that Hencely's lawsuit may intrude on the government's wartime powers and decisions, including a policy requiring contractors to maximize employment of Afghans.

It happened Tuesday, April 21, in Kingsford, roughly 50 miles west of Escanaba.

Police said the e-bike was inside the home when it exploded. First responders arrived just before 11:30 p.m. to find the home actively engulfed in flames.

One person died after becoming trapped inside. Two others were able to escape. Several pets were also killed in the fire. Police have not released further details.

The Michigan State Police Fire Marshal is assisting with the investigation.

Related: Dearborn Heights weighs new e-bike, e-scooter rules after child injuries

The girl left her residence on S. Deacon Street on Monday (April 20) without permission and failed to return home.

On April 22, Detroit police said she was located.

Her information has been removed from this article.

It has long been quoted and promoted by those who believe America was founded as a Christian nation and should be one. It's from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, a book in the Hebrew (Old Testament) portion of the Bible.

The 14th verse — the one most often quoted — says:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Trump is among hundreds who are taking turns reading the entire Bible aloud over the course of a week. Most of the readings are taking place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, though Trump's on Tuesday came by video from the Oval Office.

A passage often quoted at National Day of Prayer events

The Chronicles passage has for decades been a major theme at annual National Day of Prayer events. Organizers of the America Reads the Bible marathon invited Trump to read from it. “It’s a powerful statement that he decided to read that passage,” said Bunni Pounds, founder of Christians Engaged, which organized the project.

The passage has been recited over the decades at countless rallies, services and events, often organized around the disputed belief that America was created as a Christian nation and needs to repent of its sins and return to God. The passage has particularly been associated with annual events commemorating the National Day of Prayer, which has taken various forms since the mid-20th century and became fixed by law on the first Thursday in May since the 1980s.

During the Capitol riot by a mob of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, Couy Griffin — the founder of Cowboys for Trump, a fan club that rode on horseback to Trump’s political events — evoked the 2 Chronicles passage while praying to the crowd through a megaphone.

The verse is set in a context far from modern America — during the reign of King Solomon in ancient Israel some 3,000 years ago. Solomon is presiding over the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem, and in a lengthy prayer he asks for divine mercy if a future generation sins, is punished with military or natural disaster and then repents. In the key passage, God replies with a promise of restoration.

Critics say the passage is used out of context

But the use of the passage in modern settings has its critics.

The Chronicles passage is “a popular verse among Christian nationalists and has been for quite some time,” said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics.

He said its use has taken on a partisan and polarizing tone, often used in tandem with a promotion of a belief in a Christian America in an increasingly diverse country.

“This verse is not about the United States,” said Kaylor, author of “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power.” It is “a promise made to one particular person in one particular moment. It doesn’t really work to pull it out of context and apply it to whatever you want to.”

But many have done so recently and in decades past, either saying America has a divinely ordained destiny similar to ancient Israel's or simply that they believe every nation has a duty to follow God and repent when needed.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office in 1953 with his hand on a Bible opened to the 2 Chronicles passage. President Ronald Reagan quoted the passage in a proclamation declaring 1984's National Day of Prayer. A speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention also quoted it.

The National Day of Prayer, while officially nonsectarian, has long been drawn particular promotion and participation from evangelical Christians. Readings of the “If my people” passage has been a staple of such events.

Politicians, others joining in the Bible-reading marathon

Evangelicals — a loyal Republican voting bloc for decades — have formed a crucial part of Trump's electoral base. His rallies have featured a fusion of Christian and national symbols and rhetoric, featuring songs like “God Bless the USA” and T-shirts with slogans like “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.”

Many other Republican politicians are taking part in the Bible reading, along with celebrities, pastors and others. And Trump isn't the only one reading a passage significant to his office or mission.

Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor and U.S. ambassador to Israel, was reading from a Genesis passage in which God says he will bless those who bless Abraham — a passage popular with many evangelicals who believe they have a biblical mandate to support Israel.

David Barton, whose Wallbuilders promotes belief in America as a Christian nation, will read from a passage that gave his organization its name, in which Nehemiah rebuilds the broken walls of Jerusalem.

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

Inspired by the anti-war protests happening on college campuses, Nelson wanted to bring that same energy to the environment. He called it a national teach-in. They picked April 22, a weekday between spring break and final exams, to get as many students involved as possible.

And on April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, 20 million Americans took to the streets. That was 10% of the entire U.S. population at the time. It worked. By the end of that year, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air Act.

Fast forward to today -- more than one billion people in 192 countries now participate in Earth Day every year, making it the largest secular day of protest on the planet. And Michigan was right in the middle of it as well and has been.

There is something else to celebrate on this Earth Day. Michigan set a new recycling milestone for the fifth straight year. According to EGLE, the state’s recycling rate is up to 26%. It’s close to the goal of 30% by the year 2029. Michiganders recycled more than 800,000 tons last year. To put it into perspective, it’s enough to fill Ford Field, the Big House, and the Detroit Zoo.

Madison Gladney, the community engagement coordinator with Green Living Science, which is a program dedicated to helping teach kids about recycling and conservation, and Natalie Jakub, the executive director for Green Living Science, joined Local 4 Live to talk about recycling and the work being done to educate Michiganders and Detroiters about recycling and waste.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

Athletic Director Chet Hesson was placed on administrative leave in December 2025 following a Title IX investigation.

Superintendent Andrew Shaw said on April 9 that the independent investigator’s review found the claims against the district to be unsubstantiated.

It was first reported in December that Hesson was placed on paid administrative leave amid a Title IX Investigation after he made comments on a podcast about transgender athletes.

The controversy began when an alleged transgender girl from Ann Arbor played against Monroe’s girls’ volleyball team, prompting frustration among some parents. One parent filed a Title IX complaint citing concerns over fairness and safety.

The parent who submitted the complaint said, “It’s not fair. It’s not equal, and it’s not right.”

The parent claimed his daughter had to share a court and locker room with the alleged transgender student.

“Any parent that allows that to happen or faculty, whether it be an AD from any school, they should be 100% held accountable like everyone else,” the parent said.

Amid the controversy, Hesson spoke on the Uncloseted podcast, expressing sympathy for the alleged transgender athlete, who remains unnamed.

“Not having parents and adults realize the impact that it’s having on somebody is very frustrating, disheartening, and it makes me feel really sick,” said Hesson.

Following his comments, Hesson was placed on administrative leave.

--> Monroe Public Schools puts athletic director on paid leave after podcast comments on transgender athletes

Hesson returned to his role as athletic director on April 21.

“While we are pleased to have our leadership team back at full strength, please understand that we cannot discuss the specifics of this reinstatement in great detail, as it remains a personnel matter,” said Shaw in a statement sent out to families on April 20.

Here is Shaw’s full statement below:

Dear Monroe Public Schools Families,

Following my correspondence from earlier this month regarding the conclusion of the independent Title IX investigation, I am pleased to officially welcome our Director of Athletics, Dr. Chet Hesson, back to the District. Dr. Hesson will be fully reinstated to his role effective tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21st.

We understand that the past several months have been a period of uncertainty for our Athletic Department and the broader school community. As we shared in our April 9th update, the independent investigator’s thorough review determined that all claims against the District were unsubstantiated.

For those who may have specific questions regarding the findings or the scope of the investigation, I encourage you to review the previously shared update and the accompanying Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document, which detail the District’s compliance with its Title IX obligations.

While we are pleased to have our leadership team back at full strength, please understand that we cannot discuss the specifics of this reinstatement in great detail, as it remains a personnel matter.

While this investigation has concluded, as we stated previously, the feedback we received during this process remains invaluable. As we move forward, the District remains dedicated to reviewing our internal administrative and operational procedures. We are committed to continuous improvement to ensure our practices not only meet legal requirements but also strengthen the trust and safety of the families we serve.

I want to reiterate my deepest appreciation for your patience throughout this process, which allowed us to handle this sensitive matter with the integrity it required.

With the conclusion of the investigation, we are eager to focus on the many positive events and milestones that define the remainder of the school year. From spring post-season opportunities to year-end performances and graduation ceremonies, we look forward to celebrating the achievements of our students alongside all of you.

Take care,

Andrew Shaw, Superintendent

Japanese electronics giant Sony built the robotic arm it calls Ace and pitted it against professional athletes. Ace proved a worthy adversary, though one with some non-human attributes: nine camera eyes positioned around the court and an uncanny ability to follow the ball's logo to measure its spin.

The robot learned how to play the sport using the AI method known as reinforcement learning.

“There’s no way to program a robot by hand to play table tennis. You have to learn how to play from experience,” said Sony AI researcher Peter Dürr, co-author of the study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature.

To conduct the experiments, Sony built an Olympic-sized table tennis court at its headquarters in Tokyo to give professional and other highly skilled athletes a “level playing field” with the robot, Dürr said in an interview with The Associated Press. Some of the athletes said they were surprised by Ace's prowess.

Sony calls it a first for a common competitive sport

Sony says it is the “first time a robot has achieved human, expert-level play in a commonly played competitive sport in the physical world — a longstanding milestone for AI and robotics research.”

The custom-built robot has eight joints that direct its movements, or degrees of freedom, enabling it to position the racket, execute shots and swiftly respond to its opponent's rallies.

“Speed is really one of the fundamental issues in robotics today, especially in scenarios or environments that are not fixed," said Michael Spranger, president of Sony AI, in an interview.

“We see a lot of robots that are in factories that are very, very fast,” Spranger said. “But they’re doing the same trajectory over and over again. With this technology, we show that it’s actually possible to train robots to be very adaptive and competitive and fast in uncertain environments that constantly change.”

Spranger said such technology could play a role in manufacturing and other industries. It's also not hard to imagine how such high-speed and highly perceptive hardware could be used in war.

Building parity with humans is a challenge

A humanoid robot ran faster than the human world record in a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday, but getting a machine to interact and compete at split-second speeds with skilled human athletes is in some ways a more difficult challenge.

Spranger said it was important for researchers to not give the robot too unfair of an advantage and make its speed, arm’s reach and performance comparable to a skilled athlete who trains at least 20 hours a week. It plays by official table tennis rules on a typically sized court.

“It’s very easy to build a superhuman table tennis robot,” Spranger said. “You build a machine that sucks in the ball and shoots it out much faster than a human can return it. But that’s not the goal here. The goal is to have some level of comparability, some level of fairness to the human, and win really at the level of AI and the level of decision-making and tactics and, to some extent, skill.”

That means, he said, that “the robot cannot just win by hitting the ball faster than any human ever could, but it has to win by actually playing the game.″

AI researchers have long used board games like chess as benchmarks for a computer’s capabilities. They later moved into more open-ended video game worlds. But moving AI from simulated environments to the physical world has long been the gold standard for robot makers.

The past year has marked a ″kind of ChatGPT moment for robotics,” Spranger said, with new, AI-driven approaches to teach robots about their real-world environments and task them with physically demanding activities, like backflips.

‘Ace’ pulled off shots pros thought were impossible

Sony is hardly the first to tackle robots in table tennis. John Billingsley helped pioneer such contests in 1983 in a paper titled “Robot Ping-Pong.” More recently, Google's AI research division DeepMind has also tackled the sport.

And while impressive, Billingsley said Sony’s all-seeing computer vision and motion detection capabilities make it hard for a two-eyed human to stand a chance.

“I would not want to belittle the achievement, but they have gone at the task mob-handed, and used sledgehammer techniques,” Billingsley, a retired mechatronics professor at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, said in an email to the AP.

He added, however, that it adds to the lesson that “true progress comes out of contests, whether they involve hitting a ball or setting foot on Mars.”

Japanese professional players Minami Ando and Kakeru Sone were among those who competed against Sony's robot. Two umpires from the Japanese Table Tennis Association judged the games.

After submitting the paper to peer review ahead of its publication in Nature, Sony researchers kept experimenting and said Ace accelerated its shot speeds and rallies and played even more aggressively and closer to the table edge. Competing against four high-skill players, Sony said Ace defeated all but one of them in December.

Another expert player, Kinjiro Nakamura, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, told researchers after observing Ace play a shot that “no one else would have been able to do that. I didn’t think it was possible.”

But the robot now having done it “means that there is a possibility that a human could do it too,” he said, in remarks published in the Nature paper.

___

AP journalists Yuri Kageyama and Javier Arciga contributed to this report.

As Michigan’s largest city -- and one that has repeatedly caught the attention of the nation at large -- there’s a lot of gossip and half-truths spoken about Detroit. From conspiracies about Jimmy Hoffa, to the Nain Rouge Demon of the Strait, to Belle Isle’s lady in white, the city has a lot of folklore.

One of the most common and repeated claims was that the Detroit River was once so polluted that it caught on fire. It’s so common that it even got mentioned in the 1994 film “The Crow.” But did that happen?

River fires: Not as rare as you might think

While it wasn’t common for rivers to become so polluted that they lit on fire, it’s still a thing that happened.

And you don’t need to travel too far from the Motor City to find one of the most notorious river fires. The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie outside Cleveland, Ohio, was so polluted that it famously caught fire more than a dozen times between 1868 and 1970.

The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie outside Cleveland, Ohio, was so polluted it famously caught fire more than a dozen times between 1868 and 1970.

As Cleveland grew into a large industrial and manufacturing city, the river became increasingly contaminated -- at one point considered the most polluted river in the United States. The roughly 25-mile stretch between Akron and Cleveland was incapable of sustaining any natural life.

Time magazine in 1969 described the Cuyahoga River as having “chocolate-brown” water that “oozes rather than flows.” It looked less like a waterway and more like something Augustus Gloop would fall into.

When the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, the outcry led to the creation of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. That river fire is also responsible for the urban legend that Lake Erie was so polluted that it caught fire.

Both the Buffalo River and the Chicago River have repeatedly caught fire. There is a long history of industrial pollution and indiscriminate dumping that has caused several rivers and waterways to catch fire, so it’s not impossible that the Detroit River wouldn’t also be on that list, right?

I mean, Zug Island’s actual history sounds like someone just made up a bunch of environmental and industrial tragedies and assigned them to a single place. We put an IndyCar/Formula 1 race track on Belle Isle in 1992 (!!!), well after we as a society were concerned about our environmental impact. If anything, it seems downright likely that the Detroit River has lit on fire.

But, did the Detroit River ever catch on fire?

In a word, no. In a much more meaningful and literal way, also no.

The Detroit River did not catch on fire. You could argue that we Michiganders respect our state’s most valuable resource and took care of our waterways to help keep our ecosystems healthy, and that our state didn’t need rules and regulations in place for us to sustain the largest fresh watershed on the planet.

The Detroit River did not catch on fire. We’re better than that, unlike Ohioans. It was the River Rouge that became so polluted that the river itself caught fire where it flows into the Detroit River. Completely different thing.

Why the River Rouge caught fire

Dr. John Hartig wrote in his 2010 book “Burning Rivers” that as cities grew in the first half of the 1900s, pollution was seen as a “sign of prosperity.” It wasn’t a nuisance; it was seen as a good thing. It was proof that the city was doing something, and anyone who pushed for less damaging manufacturing practices was quickly labeled as hating progress.

At Detroit’s peak in the 1940s, it’s estimated that industrial companies were dumping six million gallons of waste into the Detroit and Rouge rivers every year.

In October 1969, just a few months after that summer’s Cuyahoga River fire, the River Rouge caught fire after a worker dropped a torch into the river. The flames were reportedly 50 feet tall and visible from I-75.

Similar to a grease fire, fire crews couldn’t spray water on the fire to put it out. The Detroit Fire Department crews that reported to the scene could only extinguish fires outside of the blazing river, which they had to just let burn out.

The Rouge and Cuyahoga fires weren’t the only river fires that year. The Buffalo and Chicago rivers also caught fire in 1969.

Things are better now, right?

President Richard Nixon proposed a federal agency that would include pollution control and pesticide programs, and would consolidate other environmental responsibilities from other agencies. Within six months, the EPA was up and running.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act was signed into law by Nixon. It significantly limited how companies could dump industrial waste. To this day, it’s one of the most influential environmental laws ever established. It was expanded in 1977 and 1987.

In addition to federal protections, most states and municipalities have established their own regulatory bodies to help ensure water quality. Michigan created the Department of Environmental Quality in 1995 under then-Gov. John Engler. Each subsequent governor has made changes to the department, which eventually evolved into the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The Detroit, Cuyahoga, Rouge, Chicago and Buffalo rivers have all been revived over the years. They no longer resemble Yoo-Hoo and nature has since returned. Heck, the Detroit Riverfront is consistently listed as one of the best riverwalks in the country.

So yeah, things are better.

His death was confirmed by Mason's publicist Melissa Dragich. A cause was not immediately revealed. He had canceled his remaining tour dates last summer and announced his retirement months later, citing health issues stemming from an infection for “closing the curtain on 60 remarkable years of rock n’ roll.”

Mason was born May 10, 1946, in Worcester, England, and founded Traffic in 1967 with singer/multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, drummer Jim Capaldi and keyboardist/saxophonist Chris Wood. The psychedelic band became celebrated for its pioneering and inventive spirit, along with Mason's songwriting and intricate guitar solos.

Mason wrote and performed many of Traffic's biggest singles. And even though “Feelin' Alright?” was not an immediate hit, it became one thereafter, covered by the likes of Joe Cocker, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight, Paul Weller and Grand Funk Railroad.

Mason's relationship with the band was tenuous; he left and returned multiple times. In 1969, he launched a solo career that resulted in three albums certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (1970’s “Alone Together,” which produced his hit "Only You Know and I Know," 1974’s “Dave Mason” and 1978’s “Mariposa de Oro”) as well as one platinum title: 1977’s “Let It Flow.”

In addition, Mason played on a number of all-star sessions, The Rolling Stones’ “Beggars Banquet,” George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Venus and Mars" and Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” among them.

Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 for his work with Traffic. His old bandmate shared a tribute to him Wednesday.

“Dave was part of Traffic during its earliest chapter, and played an important role in shaping the band’s sound and identity during that time," Winwood wrote on Instagram. "His songwriting, musicianship and distinctive spirit helped create music that has lasted far beyond its era, and continues to mean so much to listeners around the world.”

"Those years remain a special part of the band’s story, and Dave’s contribution to them is not forgotten. His place in that history will always be remembered, and through the music, his presence endures. At this sad time, our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and all those who loved him and his music,” Winwood wrote.

Survivors include his wife Winifred Wilson, daughter Danielle, nephew John Leonard, niece Michelle Leonard and his brothers in law, Sloan Wilson and Walton Wilson.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ropke is currently on probation out of Grosse Pointe Farms.

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

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

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

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

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

SpaceX said that, alternatively, it could pay $10 billion to “work together” with Cursor.

SpaceX announced the deal Tuesday on the social platform X, which along with the AI chatbot Grok is part of a constellation of properties that Musk has merged into his rocket company.

Cursor, made by San Francisco startup Anysphere, is a popular AI coding assistant. What SpaceX describes as Cursor's wide “distribution to expert software engineers” is likely part of what makes it attractive to Musk's company, giving it access to a new customer base.

Cursor said its new partnership with SpaceX subsidiary xAI will enable it to build future AI products using xAI's massive AI data center complex Colossus, based in Memphis, Tennessee.

“We’ve wanted to push our training efforts much further, but we’ve been bottlenecked by compute,” Cursor said in a statement on X, which didn't mention the possibility of being acquired. “With this partnership, our team will leverage xAI’s Colossus infrastructure to dramatically scale up the intelligence of our models.”

Cursor, which started in 2022, helped sparked a trend called “vibe coding” as AI coding assistants have become increasingly capable of doing the work of computer programming.

Cursor competes with other coding tools like Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex but also has relied heavily on partnerships with those larger AI research companies for the foundations of its technology.

It was Cursor’s Composer, combined with Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet, that a prominent AI researcher was playing with for weekend projects when he coined the phrase “vibe coding" in early 2025.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The operator of the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine, Ukrtransnaft, told the two countries that Russian oil was on its way and should arrive early on Thursday. Unlike most of the rest of the EU, Hungary and Slovakia still depend on Russia for their energy needs.

EU envoys, meanwhile, launched a political procedure to endorse the loan. National governments have 24 hours to raise objections in writing, and if none of the 27 member nations do, the loan could be approved by Thursday afternoon, just as EU leaders are gathering for a summit in Cyprus.

A new raft of sanctions against Russia could also be approved on Thursday.

Money runs short in Ukraine

Ukraine desperately needs the 90 billion euro ($106 billion) loan package, originally agreed in December, to prop up its war-ravaged economy and help keep Russian forces at bay for the next two years.

Hungary has insisted that it must start receiving the oil again before it will unblock the funds, while Slovakia refused to endorse new sanctions.

For months, the two countries have accused Ukraine of failing to repair the pipeline. Ukraine and most of its European backers oppose imports of Russian oil which have helped to fund President Vladimir Putin’s war, now in its fifth year.

In a post on social media on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “Ukraine is fulfilling its obligations” and that “we expect that the European side will also deliver.”

He welcomed movement on the loan, saying that “the unblocking is the right signal under the current circumstances. Russia must end its war. And the incentives for that can arise only when both support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia are sufficient.”

Cautious optimism after months of delay

The 27-nation EU had originally intended to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for the loan. But that option was blocked by Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen assets are held.

In December, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia agreed not to stop their EU partners from borrowing the money on international markets as long as the three countries did not have to take part in the scheme.

But Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has repeatedly blocked EU aid to Ukraine, angered the other 24 countries by later reneging on that deal over the pipeline dispute and as campaigning heated up ahead of an April 12 election that he lost in a landslide.

New sanctions on Russia

The EU has also been trying since February to push through a new raft of sanctions against Russia, which Hungary and Slovakia have blocked. The EU envoys also set in train a procedure to have them approved on Thursday.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico repeated on Wednesday that his government would not approve the new EU measures “unless the Druzhba oil pipeline is really reopened.” Fico said that “trust between Slovakia and Ukraine has been badly damaged” by the dispute.

But Economy Minister Denisa Saková confirmed that Slovakia expects oil supplies to resume early on Thursday. Saková said Ukrtransnaft had informed the government that oil began entering the Druzhba pipeline again on Wednesday.

___

Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

The writer, who lives in France, announced on X that the verdict was delivered on Tuesday. He said that he was also fined 5 million Algerian dinars ($38,000).

“Houris” (Virgins, in English) focuses of the victims of what Algerians call the “black decade,” when tens of thousands of people were killed as the army fought an Islamist insurgency. The conflict erupted in 1991 after Islamists won a first round of legislative elections, prompting the military-backed government to cancel the second round of voting.

It was awarded the Goncourt Prize, France's top literary award, in 2024.

Daoud said that he was convicted under what is known as the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a text adopted by referendum in 2005 that offered widespread pardons to both armed Islamists and security forces.

“The text punishes any public mention of the civil war,” Daoud said. “Ten years of war, nearly 200,000 dead according to estimates, thousands of terrorists granted amnesty … and only one guilty party: a writer.”

In addition to the legal action brought by the court in the Algerian city of Oran, Daoud is the target of two international arrest warrants issued by Algeria in May 2025 and is also under threat of being stripped of his Algerian nationality.

Another French-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal, has faced similar problems.

The author — whose works have been critical of Islam, colonialism and contemporary Algerian leaders — was convicted of undermining national unity and insulting public institutions and was sentenced to five years in prison under Algeria’s anti-terrorism laws.

He was granted a humanitarian pardon in Algeria after an appeal by Germany's president, and returned to France last year after serving a year in prison.

Daoud's book “Houris” tells the story of Aube, a young girl who miraculously survives a nighttime terrorist attack in her village of Had Chekala in western Algeria, despite having her throat slit. Following the novel’s publication, an Algerian woman, Saâda Arbane, accused Daoud of “stealing” her story and using it as the basis for his book.

Arbane previously had been treated by Aicha Dahdouh, Daoud’s wife, a psychiatrist at Oran University Hospital and a specialist in trauma linked to violence during the civil war.

“Kamel Daoud and his wife asked for my permission to use my story, and I refused every time,” she said during several appearances on Algerian television, adding that it constituted “an invasion of her privacy.”

A collective of lawyers was subsequently formed in solidarity to defend Arbane, invoking provisions of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which prohibits even the mere mention of this painful period in Algeria’s history.

The shooting happened at 8:10 p.m. on Thursday, May 18, 2023, in the 18600 block of W. Chicago.

Police said the suspect walked up to the 31-year-old victim as he was getting out of his car and shot him, killing him. Video footage shows the suspect walking down the street.

Anyone who recognizes the suspect or has any information about the deadly shooting is asked to contact the Detroit Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 313-596-2260, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak-Up, or DetroitRewards.tv.

For DetroitRewards.tv, the case number 2305180389 must be included in your tip.

Why people think the Detroit River caught on fire -- and why the truth is somehow more alarming

Over the course of its more than 320 years, there have been many urban legends and myths regarding Detroit.

As Michigan’s largest city -- and one that has repeatedly caught the attention of the nation at large -- there’s a lot of gossip and half-truths spoken about Detroit. From conspiracies about Jimmy Hoffa, to the Nain Rouge Demon of the Strait, to Belle Isle’s lady in white, the city has a lot of folklore.

One of the most common and repeated claims was that the Detroit River was once so polluted that it caught on fire. It’s so common that it even got mentioned in the 1994 film “The Crow.” But did that happen?

Read more here.

How triple homicide at Detroit gas station unfolded, according to police

Three people were killed in a shooting at a gas station on Detroit’s west side. Police said this stemmed from illegal drag racing.

Detroit police Assistant Chief F.D. Hayes gave an update Tuesday on the triple homicide on the city’s west side that left three young people dead and multiple families grappling with unanswered questions.

Hayes told Local 4 that the triple homicide that happened on April 19 at a Detroit gas station stemmed from an illegal street racing incident that escalated into a confrontation involving guns.

Read more here.

University of Michigan to investigate regent’s ‘disturbing messages’

The University of Michigan is opening an investigation into regent Jordan Acker’s alleged “disturbing” Slack messages about a student.

“We are aware of disturbing messages allegedly attributed to Regent Acker in an article recently published in The Guardian, including messages potentially referencing a University of Michigan student. We immediately reported this matter and expect it to be investigated thoroughly, fairly, and expeditiously,” according to a statement from regents Mark J. Bernstein and Michael J. Behm on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.

Read more here.

Grosse Pointe Park attorney faces 26 felonies after child porn found in home, officials say

An attorney in Grosse Pointe Park is facing 26 felony charges after child pornography was found in his home, prosecutors said.

Nelson Otto Ropke, 41, of Grosse Pointe Park, is accused of having sexually explicit pictures and videos of prepubescent children at his home in the 800 block of Harcourt Road.

Read more here.

Weather: Warm and sunny Earth Day across Metro Detroit

Mild and mainly dry on this Earth Day. Yesterday kicked off our stretch of 70-degree weather that will likely stick around through Friday.

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American authors take four of the six places on the shortlist for the 30,000 pounds ($40,000) prize, announced Wednesday by a judging panel led by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Among them are bestselling writer Lily King’s campus-set romance “Heart the Lover” and Susan Choi’s twisty family saga “Flashlight,” a finalist for last year’s Booker Prize.

First novels making the list include U.S. writer Virginia Evans’ “The Correspondent,” a novel told in letters with an older woman as protagonist that became a slow-burn hit after its release in 2025; and Addie E. Citchens’ “Dominion,” a story of power and patriarchy centered on a Black church in Mississippi.

Rounding out the list are two debut novels by British writers: Marcia Hutchinson’s “The Mercy Step,” a girl’s coming-of-age story set in northern England, and Rozie Kelly’s tale of love and grief, “Kingfisher.”

Gillard, who was Australia’s leader between 2010 and 2013, said the books are all page-turners with intriguing characters that explore “power — where it lies, where it doesn’t lie. How you find the ability to chart your own life course, what it means to potentially have others that are pushing you in different directions as you try and chart that life course.”

The number of debut novelists doesn’t mean the authors lack experience. Hutchinson is a former lawyer in her 60s, while Evans wrote seven unpublished novels before finding international success with “The Correspondent.”

“I think the way the publishing industry is working now, there are quite a number of authors coming to the fore for whom being a fiction author is well and truly a second act in a life that has brought other careers,” said Gillard.

“I’m delighted to see that,” Gillard told The Associated Press — though she is not in a rush to join them. While former leaders including Bill Clinton in the U.S. and Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland have written or co-written political thrillers, Gillard says she is not working on a novel.

“Never say never, but I’m not sure about that,” said Gillard, who has written a memoir and nonfiction books about women and leadership. “But I’m a fiction lover, a fiction reader, and it’s been just fantastic to have this experience” as a Women’s Prize judge.

Next, the five judges will meet to choose a winner. Previous winners of the fiction prize, founded in 1996, include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Barbara Kingsolver. A sister prize for nonfiction was founded in 2024.

Winners of both prizes will be announced June 11 at a ceremony in London.

Last December, a major update to Canada’s citizenship law went into effect. A new bill tears down a wall that blocked citizenship from passing down through multiple generations.

If your grandparents were born in Canada, you could already be a Canadian citizen and not even know it. And this is not some loophole. This is a retroactive legal correction. Canada’s courts agreed that the old rules were unconstitutional. This new law fixes that. If you qualify, you are already a citizen -- you just need to apply for proof.

Drew Porter with Porter Migration Law, a firm based in Ontario that’s also licensed here in Michigan, focusing exclusively on U.S. and Canadian citizenship and immigration law, joined Local 4 Live to help break down the law and explain who qualifies.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

The break-ins happened Thursday, April 16, 2026, at a home in the 1000 block of Navahoe Street on Detroit’s east side.

Police said men broke in through a back door six times within a 24-hour period. The home was unoccupied because of ongoing renovations.

The men stole two doors, a gas heater, a tabletop stove, and other items, according to authorities.

Detroit police are asking for help from the public as they try to identify the men in the pictures below. A reward of $1,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the case.

Anyone who recognizes the men or who has additional information is asked to call the 5th Precinct at 313-596-5540, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP to remain anonymous.

Duren said Orlando’s defensive game plan, packing the paint and collapsing quickly on post touches, limited his effectiveness in the series opener.

“They just had a good game plan, packed the paint, had a lot of bodies in there,” said Duren. “Anytime I got catches deep, they just kind of collapsed on me. We made some adjustments, and we’re getting ready for Game 2.”

The Magic’s physical coverage reduced Duren’s shot volume, something he acknowledged must change.

“That’s not enough, and that’s on me,” Duren said. “I just got to be better for my guys.”

Duren said film study reinforced how often Orlando sent help defenders from multiple angles.

“Anytime I got a catch, they were collapsing from anywhere,” Duren said. “I didn’t get as many shot attempts as I would’ve liked. I’m going to keep watching those moments and see where I can get more opportunities.”

Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has repeatedly emphasized returning to the team’s identity rather than overreacting to one loss, and Duren echoed that message.

“I think we just got to meet their intensity from the jump,” Duren said. “They’ve been playing with their backs against the wall. We just didn’t match that early.”

Duren said the Game 1 defeat could sharpen Detroit’s approach rather than shake its confidence.

“We feel like we’re the better team,” Duren said. “We just got to make adjustments, come out smarter, and play harder.”

Offensively, Duren pointed to pace and ball movement as the best counter to Orlando’s interior-heavy scheme.

“When we’re playing with pace, getting the ball side to side, getting downhill and kicking out, that helps us negate their size and physicality,” he said. “You can’t be stagnant.”

Duren also said he is focused on being more assertive in Game 2 after reviewing missed opportunities.

“Me just being more aggressive, finding my spots and attacking more,” Duren said. “Watching film over and over, seeing where I wasn’t effective, and capitalizing next game.”

Despite the loss, Duren said Detroit’s response throughout the season gives him confidence heading into Wednesday’s matchup.

“We’ve bounced back all season,” Duren said. “I have no doubt we’re going to respond.”

Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Benjamin Parris, a 19-year-old from South Carolina, was charged with four counts of malicious destruction of property, two counts of conspiracy to commit malicious destruction of property and one count of carrying a concealed weapon.

Michael Walker, a 19-year-old from Idaho, was charged with two counts of malicious destruction of property and two counts of conspiracy to commit malicious destruction of property.

Each charge is a five-year felony.

According to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, nine swastikas, the number 88, “National Socialism is the way,” and “HEIL,” were spray-painted on a fence near a Sterling Heights home on April 19.

Swastikas, antisemitic phrases, and vulgar messages were also spray-painted on the concrete pillars of an underpass of M-53 and Canal, a brick wall near a business and an electrical box near another business.

Read more --> ‘It’s unsettling’: Sterling Heights police arrest 2 after swastikas spray-painted in several spots

Parris and Walker were arraigned on April 21. Walker’s bond was set $75,000 nad Parris’ bond was set at $100,000. Both will be required to wear a steel cuff tether if bond is posted.

The two are expected to return to court on May 4 at 1 p.m.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Defense Minister Dong Jun are visiting Cambodia to hold talks with their counterparts, Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Defense Minister Tea Seiha.

These talks are an initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit in April last year, aimed at boosting relations and the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations. China has worked to increase its sphere of influence in Southeast Asia, and initiated the ministerial-level “2+2” dialogue format with Indonesia last year.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Wang Yi will also visit Thailand and Myanmar following his stop in Cambodia.

While in Cambodia, both Chinese ministers are also to hold separate meetings with Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet. Following the joint “2+2” meeting, Wang Yi on Thursday is scheduled to have in-depth discussions with Prak Sokhonn to discuss the implementation of existing cooperation frameworks and contributions to regional peace, security and stability.

No details of any of the meetings were immediately available from Cambodian officials.

China is the largest investor and aid donor for Cambodia, which stands as Beijing’s closest political partner in Southeast Asia. Their bilateral trade reached $19.73 billion last year, overwhelmingly in China’s favor.

The close relations fuel suspicions among analysts and the U.S. government that a Chinese-funded project to upgrade Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base will be used as a strategic military outpost by China. Construction at the base, located on the Gulf of Thailand, last year saw the completion of a new pier to accommodate larger ships, a dry dock for repairs and other features.

Washington has publicly expressed the concern that Beijing has been secretly granted exclusive privileges to use the base, though Cambodian officials have repeatedly denied the accusations. At the opening of the base expansion in April last year, Prime Minister Hun Manet specifically denied these allegations, declaring that the expansion wasn't hidden from other countries.

Three months ago, the USS Cincinnati, with a crew of about 100, became the first U.S. Navy warship to dock at the facility since its Chinese-funded renovation was completed.

To celebrate the 22nd year of Bookstock, 22 people have a chance to win $20 in Bookstock bucks. This can be used to make purchases during the used book and media sale which runs April 26 through May 3.

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“The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, period,” Kevin Warsh, a former top Fed official, said under questioning by the Senate Banking Committee. “Nor would I ever agree to do so if he had. ... I will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve.”

Warsh’s comments came just hours after Trump, in an interview on CNBC, was asked if he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t immediately cut rates and responded, “I would.”

The comments underscore the challenge faced by Warsh, 56, a financier and former member of the Fed's board of governors whom Trump named in January to replace the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell. Democrats on the committee accused Warsh of flip-flopping on interest rates over the years, supporting higher interest rates under Democratic presidents and advocating rate cuts during Trump's time in office. Investors are watching the hearing closely to see how Warsh balances Trump’s demands with worsening inflation, as the war in Iran pushes up the price of gasoline.

Higher inflation typically leads the Fed to raise rates, or at least keep them unchanged, rather than cut them. When the Fed changes its key rate, it can affect mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing.

Yet Warsh's account was challenged by Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, who said that Wall Street Journal reporting last year found that Trump had urged Warsh to reduce borrowing costs.

“Who's lying here? Is it you or the president?” Gallego asked.

“I think those reporters need better sources,” Warsh responded.

For all the back and forth, the hearing didn't appear to advance Warsh's nomination, which has been delayed by a Justice Department investigation into the Fed and Powell, over brief testimony Powell gave last June before the same panel about a building renovation.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican on the committee, reiterated Tuesday he wouldn't vote for Warsh until the investigation is dropped. With the committee closely divided and all Democrats opposed to his nomination, Tillis' opposition is enough to bottle it up in committee.

“We have got to get rid of this investigation,” Tillis said, “so I can support your nomination.”

Tillis has previously said that all seven Republicans on the committee have signed a letter stating that Powell did not commit a crime when he testified before the panel last June. Federal prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro, are investigating his testimony for potential perjury, though a judge said last month they offered no evidence to support the charge when he threw out subpoenas Pirro had issued.

Prosecutors from her office as recently as last week sought access to the Fed’s building project but were turned away, revealing that the Trump administration has not reversed course despite opposition from members of his own party that are essential to Warsh’s confirmation.

In his opening remarks, Warsh told the Senate Banking Committee that one of his top goals would be to fight inflation, which remains elevated at 3.3% annually.

“Congress tasked the Fed with the mission to ensure price stability, without excuse or equivocation, argument or anguish,” Warsh said. “Inflation is a choice, and the Fed must take responsibility for it.”

Warsh would be in a tough spot if confirmed. Inflation is worsening, making it much harder for the Fed to implement the interest rate cuts Trump so desperately seeks. The conflict could also slow the economy, as well as hiring. And if Warsh ultimately becomes chair, he may very well find his predecessor, Powell, still sitting on the Fed’s governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

Warsh said the Fed's political independence is “essential,” and that the central bank wasn't threatened when “elected officials — presidents, senators, or members of the House — state their views on interest rates." Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to cut the Fed's key rate from its current level of about 3.6% to as low as 1%, a view almost no economist shares.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that Trump has not just stated his opinions on rates, but has sought to fire a Fed governor and is investigating Powell.

“The Senate should not be aiding and abetting Donald Trump’s illegal takeover of the Fed by installing his chosen sock puppet as chair,” she said Tuesday.

Warren also noted that Warsh has not disclosed all of his financial holdings, which include investments in start-ups and private companies, or the size of those financial stakes. For example, Warsh has said he has holdings in SpaceX and Polymarket, but has not said how large those investments are.

Warren charged that Warsh is not in compliance with ethics requirements. Warsh argued that the Office of Government Ethics has signed off on his plan to sell all his assets within 90 days of his confirmation.

The turmoil could make a potential transition from Powell to Warsh an unusually turbulent one for the world’s most pivotal central bank, which has historically experienced smooth transfers of power. Should the change in leadership prove particularly bumpy, it could unnerve markets and lift longer-term interest rates.

Powell's term as chair ends May 15. He said last month that he would remain as chair until a successor is named. Powell also is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed's governing board that lasts until January 2028. Fed chairs typically leave the board when their terms as chair end, but Powell said last month he would remain on the board, even if a new chair is approved, until the investigation is dropped.

Trump said he would fire Powell if he attempted to remain at the Fed. Yet Trump's previous attempt to remove a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, has been tied up in court. During oral arguments in January, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court appeared to lean toward leaving Cook at the Fed.

The attack happened around midnight Friday into Saturday at a home in the 30 block of North Roselawn Street in Pontiac, officials said.

Deveon Latrell Cole, 22, of Pontiac, is accused of stabbing his father’s girlfriend, Monique Sherrie Taylor, 57, of Pontiac.

The father said he was in the living room when he heard a commotion and went to investigate. That’s when Cole told him that Taylor was dead, officials said.

Cole’s father called 911, and police went to the home. They found Taylor lying on a bedroom floor, bleeding heavily from injuries to her torso, arms, and hands.

Taylor was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead, officials said.

Oakland County deputies said they found Cole in the kitchen, with a bloody kitchen knife nearby.

He was taken into custody without further incident.

Police said Taylor, Cole, and the father all lived at the home on Roselawn Street.

Cole was arraigned Monday, April 20, 2026, on a first-degree murder charge.

He’s being held without bond at the Oakland County Jail.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 30, and a preliminary examination is scheduled for May 7. Both will be at 50th District Court in Pontiac.

Now a transgender woman, she was identified at birth as a boy in San Pedro Jicayán, an Indigenous community in southern Mexico where men are largely barred from becoming weavers.

Merino was expected to tend cattle or work in the fields. Yet her grandmother defied those rigid gender norms, passing on to her the ancestral practice of the backstrap loom — an ancient, portable device operated using a strap secured around the weaver’s waist.

“She began sharing her knowledge with me in secret,” said Merino, who used to hide in her grandmother’s adobe home to weave at age 13. “She taught me how to make the thread from scratch, to feel the textures and respect nature.”

Merino’s maternal lineage comes from the Mixtec people, where origin stories trace the birth of gods and dynasties to sacred landscapes. Her paternal ancestry is Zapotec, where religious life remains woven into everyday moments, from harvest to marriage and death.

Giving back to the land

One of her grandmother’s most cherished lessons was to give back to the land whatever you take from it. Weavers in her community, Merino said, make the rods that they use to control thread tension out of branches from tamarind trees and find ways to restore what they borrow.

“To care for nature is part of our worldview,” Merino said. “Because it provides us with what we need to walk this world.”

Both her ancestral legacy and her gender identity now play a decisive role in her life. In addition to being a trans woman, Merino identifies as a “muxe.” The term is rooted in Zapotec culture and refers to Indigenous people identified at birth as male who take on women’s roles. It can also be regarded as a third gender.

Merino makes a living as a weaver and instructor, hosting workshops on how the backstrap loom can serve as a craft and an act of resistance.

“Everyone is capable of learning how to weave, and it’s not just about creating a piece,” she said during a recent class she led in Mexico City for LGBTQ+ people. “It’s also about weaving our own stories, as we can come to know ourselves through the loom.”

Defiance bears a cost

Merino was once punished for weaving. She was around 15 when neighbors spotted her kneeling, threads in her hands, on their way to a patron saint feast.

That afternoon went by without incident. Parishioners prayed, laughed and shared a meal. But the following morning, through loudspeakers across the community, a voice called on all men to gather and discuss an urgent matter: There was a boy who dared to weave.

The men sat in a circle while Merino was commanded to stand in the middle, next to her mother and her grandmother.

As Merino recalls, one of the men asked her grandmother, “Why would you allow him to weave, if it’s not something boys are supposed to do? Do you realize what kind of example you’re setting for other children?”

Merino said that her grandmother’s answer was simple: She was merely teaching a child how to be creative, to find a path to keep her culture alive through clothing.

A punishment that lingered

Merino’s punishment for her defiance was sweeping the local church. She occasionally wove in hiding after that. But the experience cast a shadow over her craft and she practically abandoned her loom.

“I developed a deep resentment toward textiles and the customs around them,” Merino said. “Having the ability to create and not being allowed to use it was like having eyes and having them taken away — I could no longer see.”

Reconciliation came a few years later, when she moved from her hometown to Mexico City for college. She majored in communications; her coursework included cultural management, textile studies and postcolonial perspectives on Indigenous resistance.

“That made me see how I could use my reality for a greater good,” she said. “My loom became a means to healing.”

A space to be seen

During her latest workshop, one of Merino’s students who had previously taken another course with her told her classmates that a loom mirrors oneself. The joy and the calmness — as much as the anger and stress, she said — are passed on to the threads.

“I love Xan’s way of teaching because she is very human and patient,” Emilia Freire, a trans woman like Merino, told The Associated Press. “She made me realize that once I had my weaving set up and began to work, everything I carried with me through the week would come out.”

Another student, Kristhian Cravioto, said that this was his first backstrap loom workshop. He celebrated finding a safe space for LGBTQ+ people interested in crafts, and also Merino’s defiance against the preconception that men shouldn't weave.

“This is very important for us dissidents,” said Cravioto, a designer and enthusiast of Mexico’s Indigenous crafts. “To know that no matter whether you are a man or a woman, what you do matters.”

Threads that endure

A traditional backstrap loom is made up of cords, threads and wooden rods assembled into a portable frame. Women often work seated on the ground, with one end of the loom tied to a tree or post and the other secured around their waist. Leaning back and forward, they control the tension of the threads with their bodies, turning movement into a steady rhythm of weaving.

Crafting each piece takes time. Merino often weaves for about a month, eight hours a day, to finish a short “huipil,” a tunic traditionally worn by Indigenous women in Mexico.

Weavers who migrated from their hometowns often employ threads and wood available in the cities where they relocate. But Merino travels back home to procure her raw materials. Among them is a purple dye drawn from a sea snail found along the coast, a resource that has become increasingly difficult to gather as the species declines.

The nostalgia for her hometown never leaves her, but Merino takes comfort in the fact that younger LGBTQ+ people in her community have followed her example and become weavers in San Pedro Jicayán.

“At least five trans women and two men are weaving,” she said. “We have gained visibility through the loom and that’s what this fight has been about.”

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

Soccer's governing body announced Tuesday it will make more tickets available at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday for all 104 games in Categories 1, 2 and 3 plus the new “front category” pricing it added this month.

The new category sparked online complaints from fans who said they thought the better seats in the categories they had bought tickets for were withheld and they were assigned less favorable locations.

FIFA in December put tickets on sale at prices ranging from $140 for Category 3 in the first round to $8,680 for the final, then raised prices to as much as $10,990 when sales reopened on April 1.

FIFA did not respond to an April 9 request for comment about the new ticket categories it added.

Also Tuesday, The Athletic reported that tickets sales are lagging for the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12 at Inglewood, California. It said a document distributed to local organizers dated April 10 said 40,934 tickets had been purchased for the U.S.-Paraguay game and 50,661 for the Iran-New Zealand contest on April 15. FIFA projects SoFi's World Cup capacity at about 69,650, noting it may change.

FIFA's December sale priced U.S.-Paraguay tickets at $1,120, $1,940 and $2,735, and Iran-New Zealand seats at $140, $380 and $450.

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

"Those (conversations) have been positive and productive. In order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions. That includes me. That starts with me,” Vrabel said, making an unscheduled statement from the podium at the team's facility on the second day of its offseason workout program.

The photos were of Vrabel and Russini at a Sedona resort and were taken before the annual NFL meetings that began in Phoenix on March 29, according to the New York Post, which published the photos earlier this month.

A Patriots spokesman said there are no plans for other team officials to address the issue further.

The NFL, meanwhile, said last weekend that it is not investigating Vrabel’s behavior. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that the league is not looking into the matter.

Vrabel and Russini, who are both married, released written statements to the Post after the publication of the story downplaying what the photos depict. But Russini resigned from The Athletic less than a week later, after the Post's report prompted an internal investigation at The New York Times-owned sports outlet.

Vrabel said he addressed players about the matter on Monday after they arrived for the start of the voluntary workout program. Two Patriots players were scheduled to be made available to reporters on Tuesday, but Vrabel said he wanted to speak before they did. He also said he didn't want the interest in the Post photos to take attention away from the NFL draft, which begins Thursday.

Vrabel said any conversations he's had with team officials would stay private.

“We never want our actions to negatively affect the team. We never want to be the cause of a distraction,” he said. “There are comments and questions that I’ve answered with the team and will keep those private to ourselves."

Russini joined The Athletic in 2023 after nearly a decade at ESPN, where she held various roles, including “SportsCenter” anchor, NFL analyst and insider. She hosted a podcast for The Athletic and made appearances on their video platform.

Until his appearance Tuesday, Vrabel hadn't spoken in a news conference setting with reporters since the owners' meetings.

Last year, before his first season as Patriots coach, he addressed reporters as part of the lead-up to the NFL draft. He opted not to do that last week, with only Patriots vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf speaking at that news conference on April 13.

“Very involved. Business as usual,” Wolf said when asked how much Vrabel had been involved with the team’s draft process. “I’d say he’s been in there with us this round probably a little more than he was in there last year. ... He’s been in there. He’s been contributing. He’s watched a ton of the players.”

Vrabel, 50, won three Super Bowls as a player with New England. He is preparing for his second season as coach of the Patriots. He led the team to a 14-3 finish last season, which ended with a Super Bowl loss to Seattle.

Vrabel said his focus going forward is football.

“I care deeply about this football team and excited to coach them. I also know that I’m going to attack each day with humility and focus,” he said. "What I can promise you is that my family, this organization, the team, the staff, coaches and our fans, most importantly, will get the best version of me going forward. That’s what I know and I’m excited to do that.”

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

Trump's remarks came at a White House event honoring some 100 athletes from seven teams that won NCAA championships in 2025.

Trump this month signed an executive order that would limit eligibility to five years, allow one transfer without penalty for undergraduates, stop pay-for-play schemes and build in protections for women's and Olympic sports.

Aspects of the executive order might not withstand legal scrutiny, which is why Trump and some college sports stakeholders are asking for federal legislation that would codify restrictions and grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption to enforce rules.

Dozens of athletes have challenged NCAA eligibility rules with the hope of extending their college careers and, in turn, their ability to earn money through name, image and likeness deals. He said it's unfair for athletes right out of high school to compete against 28- or 29-year-olds.

“It’s a very precarious position the courts have left us in," Trump said, adding that the 2025 settlement of House v. the NCAA created a professional model that has led to financial instability for colleges. “And now it’s a total and complete mess. But we’re going to get it fixed up and we’ve got fantastic people doing it. So we need now Congress to act to clear up the confusion created by the courts and institute permanent reforms to protect college sports at every level, especially some sports.”

The national championship teams honored were Oklahoma State in men's golf, Texas A&M in women's volleyball, Wake Forest in men's tennis, Georgia in women's tennis, Youngstown State in women's bowling, Florida State in women's soccer and West Virginia in mixed rifle.

“Seventy-five percent of Olympians competing for Team USA played as college athletes," Trump said. “If we don’t straighten out this, we’re not going to have much of an Olympic team because you have so many of these sports, especially certain sports where it’s like the minor leagues, call it the major leagues, whatever you want. But we've trained unbelievable athletes to go in and win the gold medal. Without college sports and without your ability to go into college sports and compete and learn how to play and get better, we’re not going to have much of an Olympic team anymore.”

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Richard Horne, the head of the NCSC — part of the U.K's signals intelligence agency GCHQ — warned that the U.K. is living through “the most seismic geopolitical shift in modern history.” British businesses, he said, need to prepare themselves to defend against cyberattacks because the U.K. could be targeted “at scale,” if it became involved in an international conflict.

In recent months, authorities in Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway have all warned that hackers linked to Russia have targeted their critical infrastructure including power plants and dams.

Horne said the NCSC currently handles around four “nationally significant” cyber incidents a week and while criminal activity, such as ransomware, remains the most common problem, the most serious threat comes from cyberattacks carried out directly or indirectly by other states.

Dan Jarvis, the U.K. security minister, said the NCSC handled more than 200 nationally significant incidents last year — more than double the year before. Jarvis and Horne spoke at the CyberUK conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

Cyber operations become more sophisticated

In December, Blaise Metreweli, the head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, said the world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades and that the U.K. is operating in a space between peace and war.

“Let’s be clear, cyberspace is part of that contest,” Horne said.

China's intelligence and military agencies display an “eye-watering level of sophistication in their cyber operations,” while Iran is “almost certainly using cyber activity to support the repression of British individuals on our streets who are seen as a threat to the regime,” he said.

Moscow, meanwhile, is using tactics and techniques honed during its war in Ukraine and is “moving them beyond the battlefield,” Horne said, pointing to “sustained Russian hybrid activity” targeting the U.K. and Europe. Companies, he said, must learn how cyber operations have been used in conflict situations in order to boost their own resilience.

Hostile states, Jarvis said, know the most effective way to act is “not to confront us directly, but to quietly hollow us out,” by hacking logistics systems which move goods, for example, or compromising businesses.

He compared a cyberattack at Britain's biggest automaker Jaguar Land Rover — that dented Britain's economic growth late last year — to masked criminals turning up at car dealerships, breaking glass, smashing computers and stealing vehicles from the parking lot.

AI, Jarvis said, is also making it easier for adversaries to attack by finding vulnerabilities in systems “faster than any human team can patch them.” He called for AI companies to work with the U.K. government to develop bespoke programs to boost Britain's cyber defenses.

European countries report cyber attacks on infrastructure

In a conflict situation, Horne said, the U.K. would likely face cyberattacks at scale but — unlike with ransomware — companies will not be able to pay their way out in order to recover data and access to systems. For that reason, he said, every organization needs to understand the “full extent” of the risk they face and improve their cyber defenses before it is too late.

On Friday, Swedish authorities said that a pro-Russian group with links to Russia’s security and intelligence services was behind a cyberattack on a heating plant last year.

Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden's minister for civil defense, compared it to incidents in Poland in December, when coordinated cyberattacks hit combined heat and power plants supplying heat to almost 500,000 customers, as well as wind and solar farms. Poland later said evidence indicated hackers were “directly linked to the Russian services.” Norwegian authorities also warned that a hack in April 2025 which affected water flows from a dam was linked to Russia while in December, Danish authorities said another attack on a water utility company in 2024 left some houses without water.

The four cyberattacks are among more than 155 incidents of disruption — including arson, sabotage and espionage — linked to Russia or its proxies by Western officials and tracked by The Associated Press since Moscow's full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Other incidents linked to Russia by European officials include an attack on German air traffic control, attempts to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to officials and journalists and attempts by hackers linked to Russian military intelligence to steal users' sensitive data by exploiting a weakness in some internet routers.

Detroit police Assistant Chief F.D. Hayes gave an update Tuesday on the triple homicide on the city’s west side that left three young people dead and multiple families grappling with unanswered questions.

Hayes told Local 4 that the triple homicide that happened on April 19 at a Detroit gas station stemmed from an illegal street racing incident that escalated into a confrontation involving guns.

“Truly a tragic incident where three young lives were lost,” Hayes said. “This started from an illegal drag racing incident.”

According to Hayes, the three people killed were inside a car that fled after police arrived at the gathering.

During the incident, their car was involved in a crash with another car, which they then pursued onto local freeways.

“At one point, one of the occupants pointed an AK-style pistol out of the window,” Hayes said.

Haynes said the situation continued onto city streets before ending at a Green Light gas station on West 7 Mile Road, where the vehicles stopped face-to-face.

The occupants of the pursuing vehicle exited, opened a door and began assaulting the other passengers, according to Hayes.

At that point, the other driver, identified by police as a licensed concealed pistol holder, fired shots, killing three people.

“As we understand the tragedy of that, three individuals did not make it home that night,” Hayes said.

Police said this was not a random act of violence, but the culmination of a targeted encounter that began earlier at an illegal drag racing meetup.

“This was not a fight at a gas station,” Hayes said. “This was an individual being pursued, chased on the freeway at gunpoint, and it culminated at that location.”

Hayes said investigators have submitted their findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and could not provide full details while the case is under review.

However, Hayes said the video circulating on social media aligns with the department’s investigation, showing that the individuals who were killed had been pursuing another vehicle and were inside a vehicle that displayed a firearm during the incident.

“Our victims were the ones pursuing,” Hayes said. “They were in the vehicle that brandished a firearm on the freeway and then pulled nose-to-nose with the individual who fired the shots.”

Police said the confrontation escalated at a gas station, where the armed encounter ended with the driver of the other vehicle firing shots, fatally striking the three individuals.

Three firearms were recovered following the deadly shooting, and the weapon used by the shooter was legally registered, Hayes said.

Hayes said the individual who fired the fatal shots is a licensed concealed pistol holder and legally possessed the firearm.

“Three firearms were recovered that night,” Hayes said. “The individual that fired the fatal shots is a CPL holder, and his firearm was registered to him.”

Hayes said he could not confirm the ownership status of the other two firearms recovered at the scene.

The case has been forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for review as the investigation continues.

The person who fired the fatal shots remained at the scene, surrendered the weapon, and was taken into custody, police said.

Hayes said the shooter did not try to run away after the incident and cooperated with officers.

Authorities have not announced any charges as the case has been submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for review.

“That I’m aware of, a charging decision has not come back,” Hayes said.

Hayes urged the public to avoid such gatherings, warning of the risks associated with illegal drag racing events.

“If you’re not out here at these events, this is one less issue you’d have to worry about,” Hayes said. “Please don’t go. Please don’t participate.”

He also emphasized that violence is not an acceptable way to resolve disputes.

“Using firearms, violence is never the answer,” Hayes said. “That is not how we solve problems here in the city of Detroit.”

The investigation remains ongoing.

Detroit police Assistant Chief F.D. Hayes gives update on triple homicide

The bunker emerged in the Trump administration's court fight against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom project in Washington. A federal appeals court last week permitted the president to continue with construction of the project at the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished last fall.

That ruling put on hold a lower-court judge's order blocking aboveground construction but exempted work to ensure the safety and security of the White House. The Republican administration’s appeal cited materials that would be installed to make a “heavily fortified” facility, including adding bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom.

The bunker’s role in presidential history

The history of a bunker beneath the East Wing dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, when an underground bomb shelter was installed in 1942 after the United States had entered World War II. Beyond that, detail is obscured by secrecy resulting from concerns about presidential safety.

Garrett Graff, a historian and national security author, said the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the East Wing was always intended to be for short-term use.

“The whole point of the sort of presidential evacuation and continuity of the presidency is you want to get the president out of the place where everyone knows that he is and get him into a place where people don’t know where he is,” Graff said.

High-profile flights to an underground bunker at the White House include Vice President Dick Cheney being taken there because of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A Secret Service agent burst into the West Wing room, grabbed Cheney by the belt and shoulder and led him to a bunker underneath the White House. “He didn’t say, ‘Shall we go?’” Cheney told NBC News years later. “He wasn’t polite about it.”

More recently, Trump was rushed to a White House bunker in 2020 amid protests stemming from the death of George Floyd. At the time, there were chants from protesters at Lafayette Park that could be heard in the building, and Secret Service and law enforcement officers struggled to control the crowds.

Why a ballroom matters to a bunker

Matthew Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, wrote in court filings that it's important for the ballroom project to go forward for security at the White House.

“An above-ground slab and topping structure is needed to ensure that key underground structures with a security purpose are properly protected and strengthened,” Quinn wrote.

He added: “Leaving the project site unfinished imperils the ability of the Secret Service to meet its statutory mission to protect the President.”

Trump last month offered a list of what’s being done to enhance security while the ballroom is built.

“The roof is droneproof. We have secure air-handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people,” the president said. “We have biodefense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we’re building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we’re building.”

The president took to social media to criticize the lower-court ruling and said the underground portion wouldn’t work without the aboveground facility as well.

What's next in the legal battle over the ballroom

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has argued that Trump overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of the nonprofit group at the end of March but put his decision on hold briefly while allowing underground work to continue. The administration appealed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has a hearing for June 5 to review the case.

Taxpayer dollars will pay for the security aspects of the project, though Trump has said the ballroom costs will be covered by donations from wealthy people and corporations. He's said it's a long-overdue addition to the White House complex.

“The underground portion is wedded to, and serves, the upper portion,” the president said in a social media post.

What that means in practice is unclear and hinges in part on the outcome of litigation.

Researchers have spent decades developing potatoes for chip makers that can grow in all kinds of climates, avoid diseases and pests, sit in storage for months and still deliver a satisfying crunch. They've also kept an eye on consumer trends; a shift to snack-size portions has increased the demand for smaller chipping potatoes, for example.

“The potato industry is dynamic," said David Douches, a Michigan State University professor who leads the school’s Potato Breeding and Genetics Program. “The needs change, the costs, the pressures that they have, and the markets change. So we have to adapt to that with our varieties.”

Douches has developed five new potato varieties for chips in the the last 15 years. His latest breakthrough is a bioengineered potato that can maintain a proper sugar balance when stored at colder temperatures, which can help keep potatoes from rotting. He is currently growing seeds for commercial testing of the potato, which is not yet on the market.

Douches' work helps fight world hunger; he has developed disease-resistant varieties for farmers in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Bangladesh. But he's also helping U.S. chip makers, grateful snackers and Michigan's $2.5 billion potato industry. While Idaho leads the U.S. in potato production, Michigan is the top producer of potatoes for chips.

There are around 50 unique potato varieties grown for chips in the U.S. right now, according to the National Chip Program, a cooperative that brings together Michigan State and 11 other university breeding programs with growers, companies that make chips, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Efforts to improve those varieties are constant. The National Chip Program evaluates around 225 new potato varieties each year and selects 100 for further trials, said Tim Rendall, the director of production research at Potatoes USA, a trade group that oversees the chip program.

The close partnership between researchers, farmers and potato chip companies is unusual in the food industry, said Phil Gusmano, the vice president of purchasing at Better Made Snack Foods, which has produced potato chips in Detroit since 1930. Better Made worked closely with Douches when he was developing two of the varieties the company uses now, Gusmano said.

“We were able talk about size profile and different needs that make a really good chip,” Gusmano said. “And the great thing is, they’re willing to listen to what we have to say, because if they put together a potato that doesn’t really meet the needs for the end processor, it doesn’t do them any good.”

Breeding a new type of potato can take up to 15 years, Douches said. The simple potato has a surprisingly complicated genetic structure, with four chromosomes in each cell compared to two in most species, including humans. That makes it harder to predict which traits that cross-bred plants will inherit, he said.

“We’re never able to fix a trait and carry that over to the next generation, so it’s very difficult to find a potato that has all the traits that we want,” Douches said.

Douches became fascinated with potato breeding and genetics while in graduate school. At Michigan State, he focuses on chipping potatoes, since Michigan is a leading producer. Around 70% of the state’s potato crop is destined for chip processing, according to the Michigan Ag Council. The trade group estimates that one of every four bags of potato chips produced in the U.S. contains Michigan potatoes.

Breeding potatoes that can sit in storage for nearly a year has been one of the biggest challenges in Douches' 40-year career. Historically, farmers harvested potatoes and then stored them in huge piles at around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). Temperatures any colder cause sugar levels to rise in the root vegetables, and higher sugar content leads to darker potato chips. But warmer storage conditions can lead to rot.

“You think they’re just these inanimate objects, but they actually are respiring and breathing,” Douches said. “When you do that to them, you’ve got, like, a two- to three-day window where they’re happy.”

His Manistee variety, which was released in 2013, can be safely stored until July at 45 F (7.2 C) degrees. His new bioengineered potato can be stored at 40 F (4.4 C).

Gusmano said Better Made used to source potatoes from outside of Michigan for half the year because the Michigan potatoes it harvested in the fall only could be stored until February. The company now uses newer varieties, like Douches' Mackinaw potato, which can be stored until July and is resistant to several common diseases.

“We’re not shipping potatoes from all over the country to be fried here in Michigan,” Gusmano said. “Instead, they’re being shipped from an hour and a half away all year long.”

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has removed an estimated 13 to 15 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from the market daily.

Gas prices dip, but remain well above last year

There is some good news for drivers. As of Tuesday, the national average for regular unleaded gas sat at $4.02 a gallon, according to AAA — down 15 cents from the peak of $4.17 seen earlier this month.

Diesel prices remain even more painful, holding at or above $5 a gallon in most states.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered some measured optimism.

“Prices have likely peaked and they’ll start going down,” Wright said.

But he tempered expectations for a quick return to pre-war prices.

“That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year,” Wright added.

What happens if a deal is reached?

Even under the best-case scenario — a lasting agreement before the ceasefire expires — drivers shouldn’t expect prices to snap back quickly.

Jason Miller, a supply chain analyst at Michigan State University, says the infrastructure simply isn’t ready for an overnight rebound.

“If a deal is made that actually lasts, the general sense is that crude oil prices are unlikely to fall much further than even where they’re at right now, because it is going to take months for infrastructure to be repaired in some instances, to get vessels over there through Hormuz, get them loaded, get them to market,” Miller said.

Miller uses a straightforward breakdown to explain the timeline. About 50 percent of capacity could be restored relatively quickly. Another 30 percent could come back online within a month or two. But the remaining 20 percent could take several months to recover.

“We’re not going to see $3 a gallon gasoline anytime soon on average in the United States,” Miller said.

The worst-case scenario

If no deal is reached and active military conflict resumes, the outlook turns significantly darker. Miller says a return to fighting — particularly if Iran targets regional energy infrastructure and Houthi forces attempt to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden could send crude oil prices surging to $160 to $200 a barrel.

“The worst-case scenario would be we go back to active military conflict that would especially see the Iranians target the energy infrastructure in that region, and also see the Houthis try to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” Miller said.

At those price levels, he warns the economic consequences would be severe — triggering what he calls “rampant demand destruction,” meaning fewer airline flights, reduced petrochemical activity and a slowdown in broader economic output.

“That would assuredly lead to a worldwide recession that would likely pull the United States into that recession as well,” Miller said.

An ‘air pocket’ in global supply

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for more than 50 days.

Miller describes the current moment as an “air pocket” — a gap in global shipments that is now beginning to hit Western Europe and the United States after weeks of hammering Asia.

The effects are already showing up in manufacturing. Petrochemical production has declined in South Korea and Japan, raising concerns about plastics and industrial parts. Japanese producers have begun drawing down aluminum use, partly because significant quantities of aluminum come from the Middle East.

Miller warned that the global supply situation is nearing a critical threshold.

“We’re very close to essentially what we’ve kind of viewed as the point of no return for the overall economic damage that this crisis will cause, because as we start approaching 60 days of Hormuz closed — and certainly as we would get closer to 75 days — we’re just in a very rough situation,” Miller said.

Why the U.S. can’t simply fill the gap

There has been growing excitement about more tankers heading to U.S. ports to load crude oil. But Miller cautions that American export capacity is nowhere near sufficient to offset the global loss.

The U.S. exports roughly 5 million barrels a day under normal circumstances. Even with the recent surge in loading activity, the country can only process about 2.5 tankers per day in terms of loading capacity. If 80 to 100 vessels arrive to load, it could take two months to work through that backlog. Meanwhile, the world is short 13 to 15 million barrels a day.

“We are in no way a substitute for Hormuz,” Miller said.

How consumers can cope

Unlike countries such as Australia, Bangladesh and India — where fuel shortages are causing gas stations to run out of supply — the U.S. remains relatively insulated, thanks largely to its own oil production and close energy ties with Canada. Still, Americans are feeling the pinch at the pump, and prices for aluminum, fertilizers and freight have also climbed.

Miller’s advice for everyday drivers is practical: be strategic.

“Combine multiple trips into one so you’re not having to burn more than what you need,” Miller said. He also suggested driving at 70 mph rather than 85 or 90, noting that fuel consumption rises sharply at higher speeds. As for rushing out to buy an electric vehicle, Miller says the math doesn’t quite work yet — unless someone was already planning to make the switch.

“The challenge with gasoline is it’s very hard. It’s one of those things where our consumption is relatively inelastic relative to price,” Miller said. “You still have to take your kids to school. You still have to go to work.”

The annual consumer price inflation rate increased to a three-month high of 3.3%, from 3% the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rise was in line with market expectations.

The main reason behind the inflation spike was higher motor fuel, which increased by a monthly 8.7% — the largest increase since June 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Airfares and food prices, both related to the spike in energy prices, were also higher.

Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, whose hopes over the cost-of-living have been blown off course by the crisis in the Middle East, said this is “not our war, but it is pushing up bills for families and businesses” as a result.

The economic fallout has put paid to any expectations that the Bank of England would cut borrowing costs. Prior to the start of the war on Feb. 28, there had been an expectation in financial markets that the bank would cut its main interest rate from 3.75% given that inflation was predicted to fall back toward its 2% target during the spring.

Inflation is set to rise further in coming months, possibly to 4%, as higher energy prices impact household bills. No economist at present thinks inflation will get anywhere near the four-decade highs above 11% in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, partly because oil and gas prices have not spiked as much and partly because interest rates are higher.

But Bank of England policymakers will be keeping a beady eye on whether the evident inflation spike starts to spread through the economy, via higher wages for example. For now, economists think the bank will keep interest rates on hold at the next policy meeting on April 30.

Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at asset management firm Aberdeen, said that it will be “hard” to see workers and firms being able to push through higher wages and prices, given the relative weakness of both the labor market and the British economy.

“That should ultimately limit the size and extent of the coming inflation shock,” he said. “For now though, the Bank of England is likely to remain in wait-and-see mode, keeping policy on hold next week and maintaining maximum optionality about whether interest rates ultimately end up increasing or decreasing later this year.”

How inflation develops will depend on what happens in the war and the crucial waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed to oil tanker traffic since the onset of hostilities, stoking fears over oil and gas supplies in many parts of the world.

A resolution sooner rather than later will limit the long-term impact. With the current ceasefire seemingly uncertain, financial markets remain on edge and energy prices will stay volatile. Over the past couple of weeks, oil prices have oscillated between the $90-$100 a barrel range, having gone even higher during the conflict.

Before the war, oil prices were pretty stable around $60 a barrel.

They were activists meeting to figure out how to better fight against worsening climate change, a cause usually associated with failure, sacrifice and doom.

Across the world, groups of activists, teachers and psychologists are tackling one of the planet's most daunting problems with laughter, dancing, hugs and most especially joy. With a heavy emphasis on what works psychologically, seminars, books and college classes are trying to change how people approach climate change, by talking more about community and happiness than sacrifice. Earth Day, founded in 1970, has become a day of both protest and celebration, its founders say.

“I believe that joy is all the more necessary and maybe all the more holy in difficult times,” said Katharine Wilkinson, an activist who led the Hudson Valley seminar that got the other groups' notice. “Joy is like, how do we take part in the shimmy and the shimmer even as the world lurches?”

People like Wilkinson want to harness happiness to power those fighting to curb the burning of coal, oil and gas and the heat-trapping gases they emit, causing Earth to warm. In a recent speech at American University, Wilkinson called power and joy “a really potent portal to the gifts that we want to offer in this time of immense trouble and yet also immense possibility.”

Some psychologists call such thinking healthy and helpful.

“Joy is what made our species survive in the first place,” said Jiaying Zhao, a professor of psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. “If we’re rewarded, reinforced by it, then we continue doing it. We spill over. We become contagious. We get others on board.”

Often that's with a laugh.

“Laughter is really one of the best strategies for coping with stress,” said Julia Kim-Cohen, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “So there are physiological benefits to laughter. The science shows that it reduces blood pressure and relaxes people’s nervous systems. And so when we’re relaxed through laughter, I think that helps us feel our hearts open to one another. Sharing laughter I think is this ancient, evolutionarily wired thing that humans do to connect.”

First, face some hard realities

But reality is still key, said Christiana Figueres.

Figueres was the United Nations climate chief in 2015 when she helped shepherd the groundbreaking Paris climate deal that sought to limit Earth's warming. At that summit, Figueres said she felt she succeeded because she listened to everyone “deeply with an open heart and an open mind to what people are saying and especially what they're not saying” to find some common ground. And at night she and her staff danced to feel joy.

Figueres later founded Global Optimism, an activist group that put its mindset in its name, and she also runs seminars across the globe that involve joy, dancing and reality.

“We cannot turn our back to the suffering and the grief and the eco-anxiety and all that family of emotions because they are very there,” Figueres said. “Not to deny reality, not to deny the challenges that we have — that's step No. 1.

Figueres said the trick is “to anchor ourselves precisely in the pain and the suffering, embrace the pain, and the suffer” and then turn it into something good. She likened it to converting nasty kitchen waste into compost and fertilizer for a beautiful garden.

In this case it's accepting these emotions and converting them to “a sense of agency” so people can try to the change the world, she said.

Wilkinson, who runs seminars called Climate Wayfinding and a has an upcoming book of the same name, said she invites the darker emotions into her seminars because “when those come in then we also open space for the pendulum to go to the other side.”

And that's where laughter, joke-telling, hugging and dancing happen.

Joy is a message that works better than sacrifice

For years, governments and activists have talked about consuming less — such as energy and meat — to save the planet.

“If we have to win the fight against climate change by getting people to give up the things they enjoy, I don’t think we’re going to win the fight,” said University of British Columbia psychology professor Elizabeth Dunn.

Emphasizing sacrifice “is counterproductive,” said Zhao, who teamed with Dunn to write the book “Leave the Lights On.”

“Instead of asking people to sacrifice the things that bring them joy, our book is making the exact opposite claim: Do more of the stuff that brings you pleasure but also have a low carbon footprint,” she said.

“We’re actually trying to get people to change their behaviors. And joy is the missing ingredient here,” Zhao said. “All we’re saying is give this a shot.”

Dunn, using biking to work as an example, said, “If we enjoy doing something, it is a lot easier to stick with it.”

From ‘eco-pooper’ to making students happy talking about climate disasters

Even though she teaches psychology, including a class on the psychology of climate change, Kim-Cohen said she used to approach fighting climate change all wrong.

“I was that person at the cocktail party bringing up, you know, have you have you heard about the latest wildfire? Have you seen the flood in Spain?” Kim-Cohen said. “It was such a downer. I was such a pooper. There’s actually a term called ‘eco pooper.’ I was that person. And it didn’t work. People would just shut down.”

After a few years she burned out and got angry, Kim-Cohen said. But then Wilkinson's seminar changed that: “I came out with my heart filled with love.”

Senior Leah Glaser said she signed up for Kim-Cohen's class this semester thinking it would be a downer. It isn't.

“I leave every class feeling empowered to do something,” Glaser said. “I definitely leave with a smile on my face. It just really uplifts me in ways that other classes really don't.”

___

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Drones as first responders could become a new tool for the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office. Reaction is mixed.

“I’d feel uncomfortable,” said one resident.

“I’m not a criminal, so I’m not really worried about it,” said another resident.

Macomb County Commander Jason Abro said the Skydio drones they’re testing do not have license plate readers or facial recognition software.

“We can’t stress it enough that there will be no surveillance of our citizens,” said Abro.

After a neighbor in Macomb Township called 911 about car break-ins, police showed us how a drone was used to catch the suspect in action.

“Instead of sending patrol cars in and tipping him off, he’s apprehended and taken into custody,” said Abro.

Two Skydio drones are currently being tested at the Macomb Township substation.

The Skydio drones are autonomous, have a 30-minute battery life, and a 3-mile radius.

While the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is in a testing phase, Oakland County has been using drones as first responders for five years. But their program is facing new scrutiny.

Tempers flared at a board of commissioners meeting in Oakland County earlier this month over the possible use of FLOCK drones.

Critics say FLOCK cameras can share data with the feds, can read license plates and are capable of mass surveillance.

“You keep hearing the word surveillance,” said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. “They are not used for surveillance. They have a 20 or 30-minute battery life. That is not a surveillance platform. Look at our Transparency Dashboard. Every time the DFR goes up, it’s on the page. It shows you.”

Bouchard says they’re looking at options to replace six drones used as first responders after the U.S. government banned drones made in China.

“The drones we’ve been using for five years, we can no longer get, Bouchard said. ”You know FLOCK tends to be a lightning rod, but we’re just looking at options, and those are the two options: Skydio and FLOCK."

Law enforcement officials in Macomb and Oakland counties say drones as first responders will not be used to spy on people.

“We will have the strictest of policies. We understand the citizens’ concerns that ‘are they surveying us?’ I wouldn’t want that, no one would,” said Abro.

“This is almost like a violation of the Fourth Amendment. They’re coming in without a warrant and looking at you,” said one resident.

When it comes to privacy concerns, say police see something suspicious while they’re up in the air on a drone call. They still have to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant before they can investigate further.

After the month-long testing phase ends, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office says it will evaluate and decide what’s next for the program.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s office says it will decide within a year whether to use FLOCK drones.

After reviewing the film, Bickerstaff said the Pistons focused on correcting issues that strayed from their core approach.

“We came in and watched film yesterday to see what was happening and have discussions about how we solve it,” Bickerstaff said. “Then we came in today and got in a lot of work to execute the things that we think are going to help make us successful.”

The biggest concern: defense.

“It starts always with us defensively,” Bickerstaff said. “We weren’t ourselves. Typically, when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton, around 36 times a game. We went 38, but they went 19. That means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being aggressive. That set the tone.”

Rather than overhauling strategy, Bickerstaff stressed a return to form before making adjustments.

“You want to put your best foot forward,” Bickerstaff said. “But you can’t make changes based on a performance where you didn’t give yourself a chance by playing to your true identity.”

That mindset reflects the Pistons’ season-long approach, focusing on incremental wins.

“Our focus is always on the moment,” Bickerstaff said. “What do we do today to win today? Then it’s shootaround, then the first possession. If you do enough of those things right, it adds up.”

Offensively, Detroit is looking to get one of its primary playmakers, Jalen Duren, more involved after Orlando disrupted pick-and-roll actions.

“We’ve got to put the ball in his hands,” Bickerstaff said. “They did a good job pinching the pick and roll and not letting him get it. We’ve got to find different ways for him to touch it.”

Bickerstaff acknowledged the challenge of in-game adjustments, particularly with rotations and late-game lineups.

“It’s a balancing act,” Bickerstaff said. “You’re trying to figure out in the moment what the team needs, more ball handling, different spacing, while also keeping guys in roles where they can be effective.”

The Magic’s defensive approach, packing the paint and helping aggressively, forced Detroit to explore spacing counters in practice.

“There are ways around it,” Bickerstaff said. “Different ways to space the floor and create openings. We worked on it.”

Despite the Game 1 loss, Bickerstaff pointed to positives, including strong stretches from key contributors and the team’s growing comfort with playoff intensity.

“It was good for us to feel playoff basketball,” Bickerstaff said. “Understanding the difference, teams hunting you versus you being the hunter.”

He also noted a sluggish start that may have stemmed from time off.

“We were a little flat,” Bickerstaff said. “You go a week without playing, and they’ve been playing for their lives. There was a different feel, and our guys recognize it.”

Facing a physically imposing Orlando lineup, Bickerstaff credited the opponent’s versatility.

“They’re talented. They’ve got size, physicality, they pressure the paint, and they can switch defensively,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re a good, well-coached team.”

Still, the message for Detroit remains simple heading into Game 2: rediscover their identity and build from there.

Detroit will look to tie the series on Wednesday (April 22) at 7 p.m. inside Little Caesars Arena.

“It was so ridiculous I couldn't say no,” Jenks said.

The proposal by his Canadian buddy Seth Scott, a fellow lover of cars and crazy adventures, was for them to drive a decades-old British-made Reliant Robin car from London to the southern tip of Africa — a 14,000-mile (22,500-kilometer) journey through 22 countries — to set a record for the longest trip in a three-wheeled vehicle.

Reliant Robins have cultlike status in the U.K. as humble three-wheelers that, in Jenks' words, were designed to go to the shops and back in 1970s Britain. They went out of production in the early 2000s but remain loved in British culture, especially after a Reliant appeared as the Trotter brothers' trusty but battered yellow van in the hugely popular sitcom “Only Fools and Horses.”

Yet you couldn't find a less suitable vehicle to take thousands of miles through tropical jungles, mountain ranges and deserts down the west side of Africa. And that's precisely why Jenks went for the absurd plan.

Sheila the three-wheeler

Sheila, the silver three-wheeler — one of the last Reliant Robins to be built — was acquired specifically for the adventure. Jenks and Scott set off in October with a can of fuel and a few essential supplies strapped to Sheila's small roof, and a large amount of blind hope that they would somehow make it to Cape Town, South Africa, near the bottom of the world.

“No power steering, no air con, and it doesn’t do well up hills or down them. It is the most unsuitable car for probably any journey,” Jenks said in an unkind assessment of Sheila's abilities. “We made friends with the designer of this car, and he’s scared to take it any more than 20 miles.”

Jenks and Scott ignored all the advice and took Sheila on the epic journey over four-and-a-half months that cost in the region of $40,000 to $50,000, Jenks said. They had help from sponsors and crowd funding, and documented the journey on an Instagram page that pulled in nearly 100,000 followers under the title: “14,000 miles, 3 wheels, 0 common sense.”

Attempted coups and airstrikes

They arrived in Benin during an attempted coup. They skirted through northern Nigeria as the U.S. launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets. They were given a military escort for about 300 miles (480 kilometers) through a region of separatist violence in Cameroon.

“Imagine this car in a military convoy,” Jenks said.

And there were many brushes with traffic-related danger, including when an overtaking bus almost flattened Sheila against a cliff face in Congo.

True to form that Reliants are sometimes not so reliable, there were also countless breakdowns on the punishing roads.

Sheila needed her wheel springs replaced in the first two weeks. The gearbox broke in Ghana, leaving them with only fourth gear. In Cameroon, there were clutch and distributor problems and then the big one: the engine blew up.

Through all the technical problems, the kindness of strangers and the intrepidness of Jenks and Scott kept them going. One man got a new gearbox shipped to Ghana. Reliant enthusiasts in the U.K. helped find a new engine to send to Cameroon.

After one breakdown, people helped load Sheila onto a cattle truck so she could be taken to a garage. Mechanics across the continent screwed, hammered and welded Sheila to keep her together, sometimes shaking their heads at the madness of it all.

Where no Reliant Robin has gone before

But there were also majestic moments, the kind that Jenks and Scott had envisioned to make it all worth it.

Sheila cruised through stunning mountain ranges and vast deserts — where surely no Reliant Robin has gone before. She went on safari, driving alongside galloping giraffes, spotting endangered rhinos, and posing for a picture next to a giant elephant.

More than 120 days after setting off, she rattled into Cape Town last month on an engine that began badly overheating in the Namibian desert and had been touch and go for about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers).

“This is a great underdog story,” said Graeme Hurst, a South African car lover who followed them on Instagram and came to see Sheila. “I see the farcical kind of comical nature of it ... but also the sheer admiration. I mean, they have utter tenacity.”

In South Africa, Sheila was put on temporary display in a showroom for high-end cars and was the center of attention ahead of the glittering Porsches and Mercedes, showing off her broken side window, her gas-stained windshield, her bent tire rims, and her countless dents and scratches.

She will rest now and be given the thorough service she deserves, Jenks said. Eventually, she'll be driven to Kenya, put on a ship to Turkey, then make one last trip back to the U.K. to find a home at the London Transport Museum.

Jenks said he felt triumphant after reaching Cape Town, but relieved to have survived and finally be out of the tiny two-seater.

“It was like driving a motorized coffin,” he said.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Like many soft toys, the creatures developed by a manufacturer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are made with polyester and acrylic, synthetic fibers derived from petroleum. Three weeks after the war started, suppliers in China notified Aleni Brands that getting the materials already was costing them 10% to 15% more, CEO Ricardo Venegas said.

“I think this situation demonstrates how much oil permeates throughout our system, and we can’t get away from it,” said Venegas, who founded Aleni Brands last year and is in the process of adding product lines. “Who would have thought that the price of a toy would have a direct relationship with oil?”

It's not just toys. Petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas go into making more than 6,000 consumer products, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Computer keyboards, lipstick, tennis rackets, pajamas, soft contact lenses, detergent, chewing gum, shoes, crayons, shaving cream, pillows, aspirin, dentures, tape, umbrellas and nylon guitar strings are just a few of them.

So far, the war's most tangible and immediate effect for many people outside the conflict zone has been spiking gasoline prices. Travelers also are seeing higher airfares and flight fees as airlines respond to the rising cost of jet fuel. Consumers may find themselves paying more for food, furniture or any of the myriad of goods transported by trucks that run on diesel.

But crude oil isn't just refined as fuel. It gets turned into chemicals, waxes, oils and other mixtures that appear in a vast array of everyday items, including most made with plastic and rubber. Petroleum derivatives also are used in a lot of packaging. With disruptions to global oil supplies now in their eighth week, higher production costs also could make things more expensive for shoppers, according to trade groups and some companies.

Venegas, a 30-year toy industry veteran, said he would absorb higher material costs for now but expects to increase prices for customers by early 2027, if the war goes on another three to six months.

From crude oil to T-shirts and rugs

While 85% of global oil consumption is in the form of fuel, the rest goes into a wide range of consumer products, according to Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia University's School of Business.

Crude oil is mostly a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, which are compounds made of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Refineries and chemical plants separate and break them down to convert them into smaller chemical building blocks known as petrochemicals.

Six petrochemicals — ethylene, propylene, butylene, benzene, toluene and xylenes — are the major foundations of plastics and synthetic materials like nylon and polyesters, which manufacturers in turn use to design and deliver products. More from the Department of Energy: Automobile parts, ballpoint pens, curtains, dice, eyeglasses, fertilizer, golf balls, hearing aids, insect repellant, kayaks, luggage, mops and nail polish.

Materials account for a big share of production costs for many manufacturers, including those that supply carpets, clothing and tires, according to Andrew Walberer, partner and global lead in the chemicals practice of global strategy and management consultancy Kearney.

Take a button-down shirt, for example. Walberer estimated that materials account for 27%-30% of how much it costs a manufacturer to make one. Labor costs contribute 10% to 30%. Business expenses tied to marketing, distribution and administration comprises the rest, he said.

The ripple effect

Experts say if oil holds above $90 per barrel for the next several months, cost pressures will accelerate throughout the supply network.

Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America CEO Matt Priest said most of the trade organization's members keep a two- to three-month inventory of finished products, providing a temporary cushion against higher materials costs.

Roughly 70% of the materials in synthetic shoes are petrochemical-based, and 30% of the costs for those materials are directly tied to oil price rate swings, according to a report the organization published last month on the U.S. footwear industry's “exposure to oil prices & the impact on shoe costs.”

The FDRA analysis estimated that between materials, factory energy and transportation, companies paying more for petroleum could translate into a 1.5% to 3% increase in the price shoppers pay for a pair of shoes by late summer and the fall.

By the end of April, U.S. shoe and clothing manufacturers need to start signing contracts with suppliers, mostly outside the U.S., for orders of polyester staple fiber and polyester filament yarn to get their designs on retail shelves and online for the holiday shopping season, according to Nate Herman, executive vice president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association.

One kilogram, or a little over two pounds, of the materials used in polyester textiles, has increased in price from an average of 90 cents before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran to $1.33 per kilogram, Herman said. He estimated that each garment will cost 10 cents to 15 cents more to produce as a result.

Another cost for importers

Some businesses are looking for ways to offset rising costs.

Lisa Lane is the founder of Rinseroo, which sells portable shower head, bathtub and sink attachments for cleaning, pet grooming, and bathing. She recently tripled the number of the slip-on hoses she procures from China each month after her manufacturer said the cost would be 30% higher in another 30 days. She had a few days to decide whether to place a three-month advance order.

The components of Rinseroo's products include petroleum derivatives like polyvinyl chloride, Lane said. After purchasing 240,000 units instead of her usual 80,000, she is also evaluating cost-cutting options.

Lane said she wants to hold off on increasing prices for retailers that sell the attachments since Rinseroo did that last year to offset higher U.S. tariffs on imports from China. For example, a hose for washing pets in a bathtub went up to $33.95 from $29.95 on retail websites, she said.

“We want to stay at that sweet spot where people want to continue to buy from us and feel like they’re getting a good value," Lane said.

Another company, which sells wound care products like bandages, dressings, pads and sponges to nursing homes and other medical facilities, plans to raise its prices by 15% in a matter of weeks. Gentell CEO David Navazio noted that adhesives in the products rely on several petrochemicals.

Including energy for production and materials, Navazio estimated the company's costs are going up by 20%.

Gentell, which is based in Yardley, Pennsylvania but has its main manufacturing location in Toronto, also makes private label products for other companies, including a medical technology firm that supplies retail stores like CVS.

Because bandages and dressings are necessities, Navazio said he doesn't think his business will suffer if it raises customer prices. Less certain is whether prices will come down once the war ends and oil shipments stabilize.

“In the past, I’ve seen transportation costs come down, but I’ve never seen prices of raw material come down,” he said.

UV Index

Very high today across Metro Detroit with a sunburn time of 15 to 25 minutes.

Allergy Forecast

Levels of maple, ash and poplar are very high today through the weekend.

Additional chances for showers and thunderstorms will return on Friday, so if you need to get yardwork done, today and Thursday are the best days to do it. Seasonal sixties are forecasted for the upcoming weekend.

Calling his father and uncle gusanos — or worms, a Spanish-language term coined by Castro to denigrate those fleeing the island — the agent seized the bank and in an instant dispossessed a family that arrived from Spain in the 16th century.

“They told them this was now the people's bank,” said Valdes-Fauli, an attorney and former mayor of the Miami suburb of Coral Gables. “They couldn’t even take family pictures off the walls of their office.”

Seven decades later such traumatic episodes are resurfacing with urgency, as President Donald Trump's threats of military intervention, backed by a naval blockade of fuel shipments that has brought the island's already-anemic economy to its knees, have spawned negotiations between Washington and Havana. Many Cuban Americans are convinced that 2026 could — finally — be the year of regime change on the communist-run island.

But that cautious optimism among exiles is tempered by concern they could be cut out. Their nightmare scenario: a repeat of what happened recently in Venezuela, where Trump ousted Nicolás Maduro only to join forces with his former allies in a partnership where demands for democracy are taking a back seat to oil industry dealmaking.

“I hope that he doesn’t do what he did in Venezuela, which is keep the thieves in power,” said Valdes-Fauli, who married a Venezuelan.

An emotional element of the talks, and one of the toughest to resolve, is the potential for hundreds of thousands of legal claims by Cuban Americans whose homes, businesses and land were seized after Castro took power in 1959.

New hope for getting compensation

Nick Gutiérrez's home is full of fading land titles, black-and-white photographs and obscure books including one torn-apart tome — “The Owners of Cuba, 1958” — that describes the 550 biggest fortunes taken over by the revolution.

As president of the National Association of Cuban Landowners in Exile, Gutiérrez advises Cuban exile families on how to seek compensation for the forced collectivism. For decades that was a lonely mission relegated to the legal fringes, because there was never any hope of getting Cuba to pay.

“A lot of it just fell on deaf ears,” Gutiérrez said.

But with rising speculation about possible regime change, real interest in the issue has exploded among those who previously saw costly litigation as a fool's errand, as well as younger Cuban American entrepreneurs eager to help rebuild a country they barely know but whose heritage they proudly carry.

“Now we're talking about the existential issue of whether the Cuban dictatorship will survive until next month,” said Gutiérrez, whose parents fled the island two years before he was born.

Resolving the claims

Untangling property claims in Cuba is akin to battling a multiheaded hydra, said Robert Muse, a Washington attorney who specializes in U.S. laws relating to Cuba.

In the hierarchy of property losses, those with the strongest standing under U.S. law are the 5,913 claims certified by the Justice Department in 1972 for $1.9 billion. They include corporations like ExxonMobil and Marriott International whose assets were seized as part of Castro's nationalization drive of everything from oil refineries and the telephone system to hair salons and shoeshine stands.

Under U.S. law those claims — worth $10 billion today — must be resolved for a full restoration of economic and diplomatic relations. In practice, however, the executive branch is authorized to assume control of private losses for a lump-sum payment and fold the dispute into any settlement with Havana.

In a break from the past, Cuba has signaled a willingness to discuss the claims — as part of a broader conversation over its demand for compensation for damages wrought by the U.S. trade embargo, enacted in 1962.

A thornier issue is Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. The law allows exiles to sue any company deemed to be “trafficking” in property confiscated by Cuba.

All past U.S. presidents suspended Title III because of objections from U.S. allies doing business in Cuba. Similarly, many exiles viewed the legislation as an empty threat because of the remote prospect of ever collecting from a bankrupt government.

But Trump lifted the suspension in 2019, and about 50 lawsuits have since been filed. The floodgates to more claims could open soon depending on two cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this year.

One of the cases, brought by Exxon, seeks $1 billion from Cuban state-owned entities. The other was filed by the Delaware-based company, Havana Docks, against four cruise liners that paid Cuba's government to disembark nearly 1 million tourists at a port it once operated after President Barack Obama reestablished diplomatic relations.

Will Trump strike a deal?

Muse likened the legal risks of doing business in Cuba to a “stalactite” formed over several decades, deterring investment and political compromise.

“You can't have a restitution remedy for hundreds of thousands of claimants,” Muse said. “It’s unworkable.”

However if Havana's stated aim to attract foreign capital is sincere, it has incentives to cut deals with Cuban Americans willing to invest in the country, Gutiérrez said. A model for that would be the former Communist states in Eastern Europe that compensated for property seizures at the conclusion of the Cold War, helping their economies surge ahead.

Trump, Muse said, may have the right mix of business sense, impatience with convention and political freedom as a second-term president to work through the complex mess. A signal that he is unlikely to be bogged down by legal haggling, Muse added, was when he hosted oil executives at the White House following Maduro's ouster and told them they would have to write off any unpaid claims from asset seizures in Venezuela.

Gutiérrez worries that Trump’s eagerness for a trophy that has evaded 12 Democratic and Republican presidents could get the better of him. But he is reassured by the president's longstanding friendship with Cuban Americans who are among his most ardent supporters.

“Trump doesn't have moral qualms of doing business with bad guys,” Gutiérrez said. “But he knows how important this is to us, and that gives us some comfort he won't sell us out.”

While there are gonzo versions of full-size trucks available, your best bet for maximizing value and capability is a midsize truck. Edmunds’ auto experts have identified the five best off-roading midsize trucks right now. They all tackle off-roading a little differently, but each delivers a blend of trail-readiness and everyday usability that makes them easy to recommend. All of the following pricing includes destination fees.

Chevy Colorado ZR2

The Chevy Colorado ZR2 is the stoic overachiever of this group. When the terrain gets technical — think rocks, ruts and tight trails — it feels right at home. A big reason for that is its specialized suspension system that provides precise damping control coupled with a simple, durable design. A 3-inch suspension lift over the standard Colorado, lockable front and rear differentials, and big all-terrain tires give the ZR2 obstacle-clearing talents.

But it also strikes a usable balance between off-road capability and daily comfort. Its ride is not as harsh as some rivals, allowing you to drive it to work during the week and hit the dirt on weekends. With 310 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque, it offers solid towing capability, too. This is the truck for someone who wants serious off-road ability without sacrificing drivability.

2026 Colorado ZR2 starting price: $52,795

GMC Canyon AT4X

The GMC Canyon is a close relative of the Chevy Colorado. The two share mechanical underpinnings, including their powertrains and most fundamental off-road hardware. But the Canyon leans into luxury and comfort more than the Colorado. It also costs a bit more.

Inside, the Canyon looks and feels different. Standard multi-color leather front seats include heating and ventilation functions. And the leather theme continues on the dash and doors with red stitching and other highlights. You also get more standard features such as a premium Bose sound system and a surround-view camera system. Think of the Canyon as the luxury-like off-roader of the group.

2026 Canyon AT4X starting price: $59,395

Ford Ranger Raptor

If the Colorado ZR2 is about precision, the Ford Ranger Raptor is about speed. With electronically controlled suspension dampers, the Raptor is designed for high-speed off-roading on sandy washes and wide-open terrain. The Raptor also gets an engine upgrade over other Rangers thanks to a turbocharged V6 that produces 405 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque. Despite its desert-shredding ability, it remains comfortable and surprisingly refined for everyday driving.

That dual personality — fast and fun off-road, calm on-road — makes it an impressively capable pickup. If your idea of off-roading includes covering ground quickly, this Raptor is the truck for you.

2026 Ranger Raptor starting price: $58,965

Jeep Gladiator Rubicon

The Jeep Gladiator Rubicon is different. While the others are trucks first, the Gladiator is related to the iconic Jeep Wrangler, and that shows in how it performs off-road. Features like front and rear locking differentials and a disconnecting front stabilizer bar help the truck crawl over obstacles that would challenge most pickups. For now, the Gladiator is only available with a 285-horsepower V6, but rumors suggest Jeep will introduce a V8-powered Gladiator soon.

The Gladiator also offers something none of the others do — an open-air driving experience. You can remove the doors and roof, which makes the experience much more immersive. The trade-off is less on-road refinement. It’s not as smooth or quiet as the others, but that’s part of its character. If you prioritize trail capability above all else, the Gladiator Rubicon can’t be beat.

2026 Gladiator Rubicon starting price: $54,515

Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro

The Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro has long been a go-to choice for off-road buyers, and today’s Tacoma pushes that reputation even further. Its standard hybrid powertrain delivers 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque. It also features a specialized suspension and shock-absorbing front seats that help smooth out rough trails. The Tacoma may be the most well-rounded off-roader here. It doesn’t limit itself to any single off-road category.

Beyond capability, the Tacoma stands out for its usability. It boasts easy-to-use controls, plenty of technology features, and a reputation for reliability that continues to attract buyers. It is, however, the priciest truck in our group.

2026 Tacoma TRD Pro starting price: $66,045

Edmunds says

All five of these trucks are exceptionally capable, but they cater to slightly different buyers. There isn’t a single best option — just the one that best matches how you plan to use it.

____

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Josh Jacquot is a contributor at Edmunds.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 1967, a McDonald’s franchisee in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, debuts a double-decker burger that would soon be known around the world as the Big Mac. The price: 45 cents.

Here are a few things to know about for Wednesday, April 22, 2026:

⛅ 4Warn Weather: Mild and mainly dry on this Earth Day. Yesterday kicked off our stretch of 70-degree weather that will likely stick around through Friday. Check the 10-day forecast.

🚤 River Rescue: Four people were rescued yesterday morning after a boat capsized in the Detroit River near the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Read more.

🚨 ‘In fear for his life’: A triple fatal shooting on Detroit’s west side early Sunday morning has left three young people dead and multiple families grappling with grief, shock, and unanswered questions. Read more.

🌳 Park Dispute: A Brightmoor resident who built a community gathering place on his property says years-long efforts to expand the park have stalled amid disputes with the city and a separate legal fight with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Read more.

🦦 Welcome, Pups: Kalee and Gus, the North American river otters at the Detroit Zoo, have welcomed three pups, zoo officials announced. See photos.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

Today is the 56th Earth Day, an event celebrated by more than one billion people in 193 countries worldwide, currently coordinated by the Earth Day Network. Dane Kelly reporting:

Origins of Earth Day

Earth Day traces its roots to Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who was inspired to organize the event after the Jan. 28, 1969, Santa Barbara oil spill. More than three million gallons of oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 10,000 animals. Nelson enlisted Stanford University graduate Denis Hayes to assist in coordinating and organizing the event.

The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970. The New York Times estimated the gathering in New York City had crowds of 20,000 people and more than 100,000 over the day. Since New York City was home to most television networks and several large publications, coverage of Earth Day was spread nationally.

A movement takes hold

Across the country, approximately 2,000 colleges and universities and approximately 10,000 schools participated in the first Earth Day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The first Earth Day was said to bring 20 million Americans together, pressuring the United States to prioritize environmental issues.

(Related: Why people think the Detroit River caught on fire -- and why the truth is somehow more alarming)

“My primary objective in planning Earth Day was to show the political leadership of the nation that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement,” Nelson said in 1980. “While I was confident that a nationwide peaceful demonstration of concern would be impressive, I was not quite prepared for the overwhelming response that occurred on that day.”

Impact, lasting legacy

The first Earth Day’s success didn’t take President Richard Nixon by surprise, having representatives around the country at events. On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed consolidating the environmental responsibilities of the U.S. government into one agency, the EPA.

In the 55 years since its inception, Earth Day continues to influence the environment locally and internationally.

In 1995, Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his environmental work. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 89.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• 13-year-old sisters missing after they left Detroit home
• ‘Fiasco’: Detroit water project faces backlash after residents report unsafe access conditions
• US military pushes for boost in 2027 spending on drones and air defenses used in Iran war
• Republicans launch a new effort to fund the Department of Homeland Security
• University of Michigan to investigate regent’s ‘disturbing messages’
• Dr. Oz announces a 50-state audit of Medicaid program oversight
• Searchers find body of 1 of 6 missing crew members from ship that overturned during typhoon
• Mexico’s famous Teotihuacan pyramids are closed after gunman opens fire on tourists
• Police reveal new details in triple homicide at gas station on Detroit’s west side
• Gun used to kill 8 children was stolen from truck, Louisiana man tells investigators
• Grocery prices are going back up -- here’s what to know
• City of Dearborn Heights launches pilot program to improve neighborhood traffic safety
• Water wars game draws police warnings as Michigan seniors compete for cash
• Suspect on the run after officer struck by vehicle door during escape in Detroit is captured
• 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:

An abrupt swing from hot weather to cold across the Northeast is frustrating some flower and fruit farmers who have had to either harvest blooms extra early or fear they could lose some crops altogether.

Frosty nights aren’t unusual this time of year. Across the region, the average date of the last frost ranges from mid-April to early June, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. But the first half of April was unusually warm for much of the region, and that, coupled with the quick drop in temperature, could cause some problems.

Boston saw temperatures climb into the high 70s (around 26 Celsius) last week, with cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. reaching temperatures in the 90s (around 32 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service. By the weekend, temperatures across the region dropped into the 50s (around 10 Celsius), with some areas in New England seeing snow showers. (Read more)

----

Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into classrooms.

The 9-8 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a boost to backers of similar laws in Arkansas and Louisiana. Opponents have argued that hanging the Ten Commandments in classrooms proselytizes to students and amounts to religious indoctrination by the government.

In a lengthy majority opinion, the conservative-leaning appeals court in New Orleans rejected those arguments in Texas, saying the requirement does not step on the rights of parents or students. (Read more)

----

South Korean police said Tuesday they are seeking to arrest music mogul Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS, as they expand an investigation into allegations that he illegally gained more than $100 million in an investor fraud scheme.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that it has asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for arresting Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe.

Bang’s legal team in a statement to The Associated Press did not directly address the accusations but expressed regret that police were seeking his arrest “despite our full and consistent cooperation with the investigation over an extended period.” (Read more)

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

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Nonplus /ˌnänˈpləs/ (noun or verb) -- defined as “To bewilder or confound (verb) ... A state of confusion (noun).”

Example: “If you can’t awe them with acumen, then nonplus them with nonsense.”

🧹 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 American professional Bicycle Motocross. 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.)

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack deep inside Russia struck a residential building, killing a woman and a child, Russian officials said Wednesday.

Kyiv has asked Turkey to help facilitate top-level talks and has reached out to other capitals as potential hosts, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, adding that Ukraine would consider any venue outside Russia and Belarus.

“We are … advocating for a (summit) meeting now to bring new momentum to diplomacy,” Sybiha told reporters on Tuesday. His remarks were embargoed until Wednesday.

U.S.-mediated talks over the past year between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv have made little or no headway on key issues, such as the future of four Ukrainian regions Moscow is trying to capture but doesn’t fully control. With Washington’s attention now gripped by the Iran war, the talks are on ice.

Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused. Putin thinks that time is on his side, that Western military and financial support will fade and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse, analysts say.

Meanwhile, a grim war of attrition continues along the about 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line that snakes along eastern and southern areas of Ukraine. Western officials and analysts claim Russia is suffering several tens of thousands of battlefield casualties each month, drawing comparisons to the carnage of World War I.

Independent verification of battlefield casualties and which side has the upper hand is not possible.

Ukraine has developed a domestic arms industry which is increasingly producing long-range drones and missiles capable of striking deep inside Russia. It has taken aim at Russia’s oil production and manufacturing plants that supply the Russian military.

In Syzran, a city in Russia’s Samara region that is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, a drone attack caused the collapse of a section of a residential building, local authorities said.

The bodies of a woman and a child were pulled out from under the rubble and 12 others were injured, local officials said.

Images from the scene showed a part of a four-story building reduced to a massive pile of rubble, with emergency workers on top of it.

Russian media reports said a Rosneft oil refinery — a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks — is located on the same street as the damaged building.

Ukraine’s aerial attacks on Russia increased by nearly four times last year, from 6,200 in 2024 to more than 23,000 in 2025, Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said last month.

___

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

The pathways are located nearly 9,700 kilometers (6,000 miles) apart but share a notable feature: they were designed for visitors to use without wearing socks or shoes.

Barefoot trails exist around the world, inviting people to get closer to nature through sounds and sensations. Feeling cool mud squish between toes, stepping on pine needles and exploring meditation caves, scent stations and dark rooms transform a routine walk into an immersive experience.

Walking shoeless on varied surfaces also may contribute to emotional well-being and overall foot health, according to podiatrists and barefoot enthusiasts.

Below, more about where and why some people are bringing themselves down to earth one step at a time.

Barefoot trails as an environmental and health movement

Theories about the benefits of going barefoot have gained popularity among runners and other athletes in recent decades, as well as with environmentalists and as an alternative mental health treatment, but the idea has been around for well over a century.

Sebastian Kneipp, a 19th century German Catholic priest and early pioneer of naturopathy, promoted nature exposure, water therapy and barefoot walking as exercise and a way to stimulate circulation and support overall health, including immune function. He recommended walking barefoot over “dew-wet grass” or snow and is said to have called shoes “foot-bending machinery.”

His philosophy inspired trails and paths across Europe, where they are sometimes known as Kneipp paths, and to a lesser extent in the United States. In Asia, reflexology trails made of stones, pebbles and grass are intended to stimulate acupressure points on the soles of the feet, a concept linked to traditional medical therapies.

Germany's Park mit allen Sinnen, which in English translates to “park with all senses,” reflects a broader focus on wellness tourism in the Black Forest, which covers more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,317 square miles) and where visitors can breath mountain air, soak in thermal baths and visit spas offering treatments that incorporate local plants and herbs.

The park charges an admission fee. Its website says that meandering barefoot over the 2 kilometer-long (1-mile-long) trail's different surfaces "is ideal for exercising your back and spine, and at the same time, it’s a perfect foot reflexology massage in the fresh air.”

Leah Williams, the owner of The Barefoot Trail park near Flagstaff, Arizona, opened a manicured trail of the same length near Route 66 two years ago after a family trip in Europe. Tickets are required, though Williams operates the park as a nonprofit charitable foundation.

Williams said her mother, who is from Germany, encouraged her to go barefoot as a child climbing trees and playing in the forests and creeks around Seattle — a practice Williams carried into adulthood and passed on to her own children. While living in the Netherlands, her family visited a barefoot trail in Belgium.

“I loved everything about it. I saw all ages, and I loved seeing older people at the park because you don’t see that here in the United States," Williams said. "I thought, ‘Wow, when I get back to the United States, I’m going to build one of these parks myself.'”

She offers educational materials for schools, summer programs and camps to children who visit the park.

“Being good stewards of nature is really our job as human beings, and we have taken 13 acres (5 hectares) of land at our park for our community enjoyment, ... for local, statewide and regional enjoyment,” Williams said, her eyes moist with emotion.

A sensory experience

Most people don't walk outside barefoot regularly, and exposing their tender feet to different textures, temperatures and types of contact can take getting used to.

“You should see people’s faces when they start walking,” Williams said, chuckling at the thought.

While many parks with barefoot trails encourage users to walk the paths sans shoes, naked feet are not required. Guests with neuropathy, diabetes or other foot conditions are welcome to keep their shoes on at the parks in Arizona and Germany.

Some barefoot trails are designed to engage multiple senses.

At Park mit allen Sinnen, a sign that reads “Please be quiet” in German identifies a spot described as a meditation cave. Inside, a long bench faces tall windows overlooking the forest, and soft music plays through hidden speakers.

Elsewhere at the park, visitors can squeeze red bulbs to release the scent of papaya or apricots, or place their hands inside a box filled with wild boar fur.

Ditching the shoes step by step around the world

Austria, Denmark, France, Hungary, Switzerland and the U.K. are among other European countries with barefoot trails. Some are meant for local residents and not tourists, so finding them can prove difficult. Searching the terms “barefoot” or “barefoot paths” in the local language might help.

In Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, some public parks have pebble trails, which are walkways with smooth stones cemented into place that can be used for reflexology and foot massage.

Similarly, there are so-called wellness parks and informal barefoot hikes on regular trails in the United States. But because of how rare they are in the U.S., Williams plans to expand the The Barefoot Trail concept elsewhere.

The foundation recently received about 8 hectares (20 acres) of land in a commercial and residential area of college town Lawrence, Kansas, to develop a park similar to the one she opened in Arizona.

“The park will be one of the components of a larger commercial space being developed,” Williams said. “It’s about integrating those natural environments into people’s daily lives and providing those safe spaces for people to enjoy.”

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Mumphrey reported from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Origins of Earth Day

Earth Day traces its roots to Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who was inspired to organize the event after the Jan. 28, 1969, Santa Barbara oil spill. More than three million gallons of oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 10,000 animals. Nelson enlisted Stanford University graduate Denis Hayes to assist in coordinating and organizing the event.

The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970. The New York Times estimated the gathering in New York City had crowds of 20,000 people and more than 100,000 over the day. Since New York City was home to most television networks and several large publications, coverage of Earth Day was spread nationally.

A movement takes hold

Across the country, approximately 2,000 colleges and universities and approximately 10,000 schools participated in the first Earth Day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The first Earth Day was said to bring 20 million Americans together, pressuring the United States to prioritize environmental issues.

Related: Why people think the Detroit River caught on fire -- and why the truth is somehow more alarming

“My primary objective in planning Earth Day was to show the political leadership of the nation that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement,” Nelson said in 1980. “While I was confident that a nationwide peaceful demonstration of concern would be impressive, I was not quite prepared for the overwhelming response that occurred on that day.”

Impact, lasting legacy

The first Earth Day’s success didn’t take President Richard Nixon by surprise, having representatives around the country at events. On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed consolidating the environmental responsibilities of the U.S. government into one agency, the EPA.

In the 55 years since its inception, Earth Day continues to influence the environment locally and internationally.

In 1995, Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his environmental work. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 89.

Detroit will look to tie the series on Wednesday (April 22) at 7 p.m. inside Little Caesars Arena.

Game 1 on April 19 was ugly in front of a sold-out LCA, as the Pistons came out flat and got embarrassed from the tip, with the Magic jumping out to a 35-27 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Pistons went on a 13-3 run in the third quarter to tie the game, but that was the closest they would get as Orlando outscored them 57-50 in the second half to take a double-digit victory in upset fashion.

Of all the home teams in the first round of the NBA playoffs, Detroit was the only one to lose its opener, as the Magic exposed its weaknesses in the opener.

Speaking of being at home, the Pistons have now lost 11 straight games inside LCA, meaning their last home playoff victory dates back to their 94-75 victory over the Boston Celtics on May 26, 2008, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, which has been demolished.

Detroit, as a city and franchise, is all about toughness, but on Sunday, the Magic were more aggressive on both ends of the floor, especially on the glass, as they out-rebounded the Pistons 45-39 while shooting 44-90 from the field.

The Pistons were 31-77 from the field but did not convert at the free-throw line, going 29-38, while Orlando was 14-19.

“It starts always with us defensively,” said J.B. Bickerstaff. “We weren’t ourselves. Typically, when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton, around 36 times a game. We went 38, but they went 19. That means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being aggressive. That set the tone.”

Orlando also had more assists (26) than Detroit (19), knocking down uncontested three-pointers that forced the Pistons to overhelp, leading to easy looks at the rim.

Maybe Game 1 was the one the team could wash their hands of, given the old adage of rest vs. rust, as they had been off since their 133-121 victory over the Indiana Pacers on April 12, 2026.

The most jarring aspect of the game was how Orlando forced Detroit to generate offense, a talking point for the 2025-26 team.

All-Stars Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren were a lethal duo in the regular season, but in Game 1, Cunningham scored 39 points with five rebounds and four assists, while Duren finished with eight points and seven rebounds in the defeat.

Orlando’s Paolo Banchero dropped 23 points while snatching nine rebounds and four assists in the victory.

Banchero had four teammates score in double figures, including former Michigan Wolverines star Franz Wagner with 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

Orlando had three-point shooting as well as Jalen Suggs (16 points), Desmond Bane, and Wendell Carter Jr., both of whom finished with 17 points in the victory, which is something that has plagued Detroit all season.

Motor Cade, coming back from pneumothorax, was at tip-top form as he tried to will the Pistons to victory, but he took 27 shots in the loss.

The Pistons shot 10-32 from beyond the arc, which was not great, but as a 60-win team, they are good enough to adjust for Game 2.

But they’ll need to make shots, create offense for shooters Duncan Robinson and Kevin Huerter, and get players like Duren and Tobias Harris involved to tie the series at 1-1, which is something potential NBA Coach of the Year, J.B. Bickerstaff, will have the team equipped with ahead of the pivotal Game 2.

The Los Angeles interim coach had shattered glass fall on him after a pane broke behind the Kings bench Tuesday night in Game 2 against Colorado.

It happened right after Quinton Byfield was stopped on a penalty shot by Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood with 16:48 remaining in the second period. The glass began to sway as fans pounded on it in excitement and then gave way, with pieces raining on Smith. He covered his head and then brushed the glass off his suit before heading down the tunnel to the locker room. He returned a few minutes later.

“Whoever the guy (was) just kept pushing and pushing and pushing,” Smith recounted. “I looked back because it hit me a bunch of times, then it broke.”

The Avalanche cleanup crew brought out shovels and buckets to clean up the fragments from the LA bench. The Kings players mingled on the ice as they waited for a new pane to be brought in and installed.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog told ESPN hockey analyst Erik Johnson he's never seen something like that happen before. Landeskog added: "It was loud there when ‘Wedgy' made that save and fans got a little too excited."

The delay took more than 15 minutes. The score was 0-0 when play was halted. Colorado won 2-1 in overtime on Nicolas Roy's winner to take a 2-0 lead in the first-round series heading into Game 3 on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

“There's nothing you can do to control it. There's nothing you can do about it, so you just deal with it," Landeskog said of the delay. “I think maybe the only thing was that there were so many bodies on the ice that it (wore) the ice out a little bit for the rest (of the period).

“I thought the ice crew did a good job and they did their best to fix it as fast as possible. Doesn't happen every day.”

It was a first for Avalanche coach Jared Bednar.

“That’s a different one," Bednar said. "But, I mean, stuff happens. Fans get excited. Our guys were excited, competing hard. There was a bunch of melees on the ice today. It felt like playoff hockey.”

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

Roy put the winner through the legs of defenseman Brandt Clarke and into the net to set off a wild celebration.

“Just trying to chip in as much as I can, to help these guys out,” said Roy, who was acquired in a deal with Toronto on March 5. “Getting that goal was big.”

The game was halted for roughly 17 minutes in the second period when a pane of glass shattered behind the Kings bench, sending pieces raining on interim coach D.J. Smith. The incident occurred right after Quinton Byfield was stopped on a penalty shot by Wedgewood and fans began to celebrate by pounding on the glass. It gave way as Smith covered his head and then brushed the glass off his suit.

The Kings had the game plan to steal a road win — clog up the middle of the ice and disrupt the flow of the fast-flying Avalanche. They lost both games by a 2-1 score, but kept the highest-scoring team this season largely in check.

“Played two good games,” Smith said. “We had every opportunity, got a lead with whatever to go. You have to be able to close it out.”

Colorado is 17-2 in playoff series when taking a 2-0 lead since relocating to Denver before the 1995-96 season. Los Angeles is 3-12 in postseason series when facing an 0-2 hole, according to NHL Stats.

The Kings took the lead on Artemi Panarin’s power-play goal with 6:56 remaining. Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog tied it up with 3:35 left when he got loose in front of the net.

It set the stage for Roy, who scored his second career OT winner in the playoffs. He also had one while with Vegas in 2021.

“He’s been awesome,” Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. “He’s a great player, a really smart player.”

Game 3 is Thursday night in Los Angeles.

This was a showdown between Wedgewood and Anton Forsberg, who both turned in sensational saves. Forsberg stopped 34 shots.

It was a physical game, too, that featured 52 hits, 52 blocks, 11 penalties, plenty of skirmishes and lots of hard feelings.

“Playoffs are going to be hard. It’s a really good team over there,” MacKinnon said. “They’re playing hard. We’re playing hard. It’s low scoring, but it’s fun hockey."

Colorado thought it had a goal after a shot from Sam Malinski seconds into the third. The horn went off and the fans erupted, but it was quickly ruled that the puck stuck into the side of the net and never went in.

Forsberg and his defensive teammates did their part. Mikey Anderson broke up a 3-on-1 with a slide across the ice in the second when Martin Necas elected to pass, and Drew Doughty made a similar sliding play later in the period.

“We believe in our way of playing and we’re right there with one of the best teams in the league,” Forsberg said. “You just have to stick with it and find a way.”

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

Marcus Smart had 25 points with five 3-pointers and seven assists for the Lakers, who have twice overcome the absences of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves with a comprehensive team effort led by the 41-year-old James. Los Angeles did it in Game 2 despite the return of Kevin Durant, who scored just three of his 23 points in the second half against the Lakers' tenacious defense.

“We executed the game plan offensively and defensively, shored up some of our mistakes from Game 1, and just got into a dogfight,” James said. “When we have two big guns out like we have, we've all got to pick up our play, and that's all it's about. We're all just trying to make contributions on offense and seize the opportunity.”

Luke Kennard scored 23 points for Los Angeles, which nursed a small lead throughout the fourth quarter of Game 2. Smart found James streaking down the lane for a theatrical two-handed dunk with 55 seconds left, and Kennard added two late free throws to ice it.

Game 3 is Friday in Houston.

Alperen Sengun had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the fifth-seeded Rockets, who again struggled offensively even with Durant making his Houston playoff debut. Jabari Smith Jr. scored 18 points and Amen Thompson had 16, but the Rockets made only 40.4% of their shots and managed just seven 3-pointers.

Three days after he missed the series opener with a right knee bruise, Durant took only 12 shots and had nine turnovers to begin his fourth career playoff matchup against James. The superstars previously met in the NBA Finals in 2012, 2017 and 2018.

“They started doubling me from possession one,” Durant said. “I’ve got to do better and not put my teammates in bad positions when I’m swinging the ball. ... We're just not making shots, to be honest. We're not shooting the ball well. We're missing a lot of layups. I just think that's the difference in the game. They're making shots. Smart was the guy that knocked down shots for them today. Kennard, too.”

Durant blocked Kennard’s shot on the first possession of Game 2, but then got in early foul trouble while the Lakers again streaked to a large first-half lead.

The Lakers are getting exceptional postseason play from Smart, the longtime Celtics guard who joined Los Angeles this season. Although he missed much of the regular-season stretch run due to injury, Smart has immediately added toughness and playmaking acumen to the Lakers' supporting cast.

“He just had a killer game tonight,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Smart. “He did a great job defensively. He made shots. He's an unbelievable player.”

Both Smart and Kennard went 8 for 13 from the field, combining for eight 3-pointers..

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

And since then, chaos. Road teams figured out how to avoid being pushovers.

Of the six first-round series that have completed two games, only two higher-seeded teams — Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers — have managed to hold serve at home and take 2-0 series leads. Oklahoma City could join the Cavaliers and Lakers in that club if it beats Phoenix in Game 2 of that series on Wednesday.

Otherwise, that home-court advantage teams spent 82 games of regular-season basketball trying to obtain? It's already gone, meaning a whole bunch of Game 3s are coming up later this week with lower-seeded teams feeling pretty good about their chances at springing an upset.

— East No. 8 Orlando beat No. 1 Detroit in Game 1 of their series on Sunday. The Pistons will try to salvage a split when the series resumes Wednesday.

— East No. 6 Atlanta beat No. 3 New York on Monday, while West No. 6 Minnesota beat No. 3 Denver later that night.

— And on Tuesday, East No. 7 Philadelphia beat No. 2 Boston, and West No. 7 Portland beat No. 2 San Antonio in a game in which the Spurs saw Victor Wembanyama depart with a concussion in the first half.

Cleveland is up 2-0 on Toronto, while the Lakers are up 2-0 on Houston.

“It's the playoffs,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said after his team — which beat the 76ers by 32 points in Game 1 — lost by 14 points in Game 2. “They've got ballplayers over there and they came to play. On any given night, you can lose a game if you don't come out with the right mindset.”

Road teams getting wins isn't uncommon. It's been a trend in recent years.

Over the last six postseasons, not counting the 2020 playoffs held inside the bubble at Walt Disney World because of the pandemic, home teams have won only 58% of playoff games — a steep dip from what used to be the norm. In the 15 seasons before that, home teams won playoff games at a 69% rate.

“Whatever story you told yourself during the regular season, that story is done,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “And now it’s the playoffs, so it's an entirely new season.”

It's not like the Pistons, Celtics, Spurs — with or without Wembanyama — or Nuggets will be intimidated by the notion of now having to win at least one road game if they're going to eventually prevail in these opening-round series. They all made road wins look routine this season.

Oklahoma City had the best road record in the NBA. The next four winningest road teams, in order, were San Antonio, Detroit, Denver and Boston.

“You have to just keep your temperament where it's at, understand these games ebb and flow," Denver coach David Adelman said after the Game 2 loss to Minnesota. “And we can play better. We know that.”

And Houston's 30 home wins tied for the fourth-most in the league, so the Lakers — even after they were one of the clubs defend home floor and take a 2-0 lead — know their matchup with the Rockets is far from over.

“It's the postseason. So, it's the first to four," Lakers forward LeBron James said. “It's never the first to one. It's never the first to two. Our whole mindset now is focused on Game 3. We know we're going into a hostile environment. Guys tend to play better at home than they do on the road, so we have to be ready for that.”

In the current playoff format, higher-seeded teams win conference quarterfinals series 77.4% of the time, and that goes up to 92.5% of the time when those higher-seeded clubs start with 2-0 series leads. The road warriors so far — Orlando, Atlanta, Minnesota, Portland and Philadelphia — have at least put a good-sized dent in those odds.

That said, they all know there's a ton of basketball left to be played.

“It's 1-1. Who cares?” 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey said. “Now we've got to go home and try to protect home court.”

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

Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said occurred while the convoy was returning from an operation to destroy drug labs of criminal groups. There have been discrepancies in the public accounts of what happened from U.S. and Mexican officials, which experts say underscores heightened American involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.

The CIA's involvement was confirmed Tuesday by the three with knowledge of the crash, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. That the U.S. officials worked for the CIA was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

It comes after days of contradictions from Mexican and U.S. authorities about the role that American officials played in an operation to bust a narco-laboratory in northern Chihuahua state.

The lack of clarity from authorities reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexico's security operations as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum faces extreme pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to crack down on cartels. Trump has taken a more aggressive stance toward Latin America than any leader in recent U.S. history, capturing Venezuela's president, blockading oil shipments to Cuba and launching joint military operations in Ecuador, a country also marked by criminal violence.

Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, an intervention that Sheinbaum has said was “unnecessary.”

The CIA officers were initially identified as U.S. embassy personnel by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, who is himself a former CIA employee.

The U.S. Embassy declined Monday to identify the individuals or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.” The embassy, State Department and CIA declined to comment on the identities of reports of CIA involvement in the operation.

Local Mexican officials originally claimed they were working with the U.S. on an operation, but later walked those comments back after the effort came under scrutiny from Sheinbaum.

Sheinbaum said she knew nothing of a joint operation between Chihuahua’s government and the U.S. despite reports that the Mexican army was also involved in the raid on the lab.

She maintained in a Tuesday press briefing that she didn’t know if the officials were part of the CIA but acknowledged that state officials and the U.S. “were working together.”

It’s a sensitive issue for the Mexican leader as she walks a careful line with the Trump administration, working to maintain a strong relationship to offset threats of U.S. intervention on cartels and tariffs while also underscoring Mexico’s sovereignty.

The CIA has recently expanded its collaboration with Mexican authorities, part of the Trump administration’s effort to stop the flow of illicit drugs.

The presence of U.S. intelligence officials in Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has only intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico’s request after a series of conflicting public statements.

The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.

“There is a rise of hidden operations by the United States in Mexico under Trump,” said David Saucedo, a Mexican security analyst. “They're hidden because … the Mexican government has a discourse that they can't permit the presence of armed U.S. agents — it's a kind of violation of sovereignty. The Mexican government has always tried to hide this collaboration.”

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Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.