Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said deputies went to a home Monday, April 13, 2026, in the 500 block of Madison Avenue in Pontiac to check on the welfare of an elderly woman.

Her son had called to tell police that his mother’s breathing was irregular and she was drifting in and out of consciousness. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she later died. The circumstances surrounding her death are under investigation, Bouchard said.

During the course of their welfare check, deputies said they saw printed child porn images.

“(Deputies) were able to see in plain view very disturbing child sexually abusive material," Bouchard said. "The terrible toll this takes on children must be laid at the door of the perpetrators."

Deputies said they got a search warrant and found more pornographic images. Overall, there were thousands of pictures involving children stored on electronic devices, they said.

Detectives confiscated the images, computers, gaming systems, and a cellphone.

Matthew Brockway Kliewer, 42, of Pontiac, was arrested and charged with six counts of aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material. This charge has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

He was arraigned Thursday at 50th District Court and is being held at the Oakland County Jail on $75,000 bond, cash/surety, or 10%.

Kliewer has to wear a tether, if released.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 28, and a preliminary examination is scheduled for May 5.

The 21-story building lost power in December after electrical equipment failed, leaving tenants without lights, elevators, or access to their apartments.

Since then, the property has been tied up in bankruptcy proceedings, forcing hundreds of residents out of their homes.

Many of those displaced have been staying at a hotel in Southfield, with the city of Detroit covering the cost.

An agreement reached during a bankruptcy hearing will allow tenants to return to the building to collect their belongings as part of a broader process that includes selling the property.

Darryl Stewart, who lived in the building for 15 years, said the situation has been especially difficult.

“It wasn’t a fabulous place, but it was great. We were one big happy family,” said Stewart.

A musician and artist, Stewart said much of his work remains inside his unit.

“I’m an artist. I got a lot of art. I’m a musician. I got instruments up there,” Stewart said.

Tenant advocates say the displacement has taken a heavy toll.

Steven Rimmer of the Detroit Tenants Union said some residents experienced severe emotional distress during the initial evacuation.

“There were a few people being evacuated to the hospital because it was such an emotional situation,” said Rimmer.

In some cases, the upheaval had tragic consequences, residents said.

The tenants have not been formally evicted but have been unable to return to the building for months, leaving many without reliable transportation or access to their belongings.

“There’s no real transportation that they have,” Rimmer said. “A lot of folks don’t have cars.”

Stewart said the relocation to Southfield, roughly 20 miles away, has made daily life more difficult.

“Everybody doesn’t drive,” Stewart said.

Under the agreement approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, the property will be auctioned in a three-day online sale scheduled for April 27 through April 29, with a starting bid of $3 million.

If the building sells and the court approves the transaction, residents could receive financial compensation.

Tenants are expected to be allowed back into the building to retrieve their belongings beginning May 4.

For Stewart and others, the decision offers a measure of relief after months of uncertainty.

“I would like to say to the mayor, can you please step in and clear this thing up, so we can move on in our lives,” Stewart said.

Joshua Mills, 32, was sentenced by Judge Richard L. Caretti on Thursday, April 16, after pleading no contest to the following charges, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office:

Sterling Heights Case

• Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder: 63 months to 20 years
• Two counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer: 2 to 4 years
• Second-degree retail fraud: 1 year

Eastpoint Case

• Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder: 66 months to 20 years
• Domestic violence- second offense: 1 year

Officials said that in the first case, an officer attempted to arrest Mills for shoplifting at a Walmart in Sterling Heights when Mills allegedly tried to stab the officer with a screwdriver.

In the second case, Mills is accused of assaulting his wife in Eastpointe.

The sentences will run concurrently. Mills was credited with 193 days already served, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“Today’s sentencing reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s actions—violence against a spouse and an attack on law enforcement," said Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido. “This kind of conduct endangers not only individual victims, but the safety and order of our entire community.”

Jerome Antwan Andrews, 41, pleaded guilty on Thursday (April 16).In his plea agreement, Andrews admitted to possessing the Social Security numbers and driver’s license information for over 250 people, as well as an identification card printer, an embosser, a laminator, and a card cutter.

Andrews also admitted that his business model was to create and sell fake Social Security cards and driver’s licenses in the names of real people, and that his conduct caused more than $550,000 in fraud losses.

Having pled guilty, Andrews faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss.

That was not the case two years ago when the team won only 14 games and started a rebuild in Detroit.

Tobias Harris returned to the Pistons that offseason and has been a key part of this organization’s resurgence.

I caught up with the Pistons forward to chat about the team’s rise in the NBA, their successful 2025-26 regular season, and how he got the “Unc” nickname from his younger teammates.

The Pistons begin their 2026 NBA Playoff run on Local 4 on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.

Watch the full interview above.

Birmingham police said they’ve noticed more electronic motorcycles around the city, many times driven by children.

"Most of these devices are not only illegal to operate within the city, they also pose a significant safety risk to the riders, other motorists, and pedestrians," Birmingham police said.

Electronic motorcycles without pedals are considered motorcycles under Michigan state law, so they’re not allowed on sidewalks, according to police. They must also be licensed through the Secretary of State.

The motorcycles have to meet all safety requirements and be street legal in order for someone to receive a license for it, police said. The driver must also have a driver’s license with a cycle endorsement.

Birmingham police said most of the people they see on these electronic motorcycles are children.

“While there are certainly legal ramifications for those operating these devices illegally, there are also ramifications for those purchasing them and allowing their unlicensed children to operate them,” the release says.

It’s a misdemeanor to let an unlicensed child drive a motor vehicle, officials said.

“The Birmingham Police Department asks for your cooperation in helping us to ensure everyone’s safety by not permitting the use of these devices within the city,” the release says. “Birmingham officers will be providing strict enforcement.”

Mack Davis, 23, of Owosso, "became infatuated with other mass murderers and planned to conduct his own," court documents say.

He drafted a list of weapons and tactical gear for his plan, and his writings show that he surveilled churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, hospitals, and supermarkets, according to federal authorities.

Davis wrote about his "hate for this world and for the people in it, all people," saying, “I hate you all the same,” officials said.

He posted pictures of himself making a Nazi salute and holding a copy of Adolf Hitler’s antisemitic manifesto.

Officials said Davis focused on attacking two locations that were close to each other: a political party’s county headquarters and a bar. He targeted those places because he believed they would contain members of the LGBTQ+ community, police said.

He planned to “fire on anyone and anything” near those spots, federal officials said.

Davis test-fired about 60 bullets into his neighbors’ cars -- one of which he had previously vandalized with an anti-gay slur, police said.

While police investigated that shooting, they found an illegally sawed-off rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a crossbow and arrows, bomb-making parts, tactical gear, and knives.

Davis wrote an anti-gay slur on one side of a knife and “death to you all” with a swastika on the other, police said.

“Davis devised wicked plans,” United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said. “He said he would kill ‘anyone and anything’ that crossed his path and planned to attack homosexuals. And his venom for Jews is part of the sickening rise in antisemitism and attacks against believers. But we will protect every American.”

Davis pleaded guilty to one count under the federal hate crime statute. He was sentenced Thursday, April 16, 2026, to seven years in federal prison.

Oil prices fell Friday, while U.S. futures edged up.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.8% to 58,475.90 after reaching an all-time high on Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi was 0.6% lower at 6,191.92.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1% to 26,143.60. Shares of Chinese spatial design software firm Manycore Tech, one of the so-called leading “six little dragons” technology companies of Hangzhou, was up more than 140% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong, fueled by the artificial intelligence boom. The Shanghai Composite index edged down 0.1% to 4,051.43.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.1%. Taiwan’s Taiex traded 0.9% lower, while India's Sensex gained 0.4%.

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he’s open to extending the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, and Iran’s U.N. envoy said Tehran remained “cautiously optimistic” over negotiations with the U.S.

As optimism over an extended ceasefire grew, oil prices fell early Friday after climbing a day earlier. Brent crude, the international standard, was 1.1% lower at $98.26 per barrel. It had surged roughly 40% since the beginning of the Iran war in late February. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 1.6% to $89.70 a barrel.

Global energy shocks are growing over impacts of the Iran war, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining largely closed while the U.S. imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. The head of the International Energy Agency told The Associated Press on Thursday that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel supplies remaining and warned of flight cancellations “soon.”

On Thursday, Wall Street set another record with the benchmark S&P 500 closing 0.3% higher at 7,041.28, just a day after it eclipsed its previous all-time high in January. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 48,578.72, and the tech-focused Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to 24,102.70.

Shares of PepsiCo gained 2.3% following its announcement of better-than-expected quarterly results. U.S. logistics company J.B. Hunt Transport Services was 6.3% higher also on stronger-than-expected results.

In other dealings, gold was 0.1% lower at $4,806.10 an ounce, while silver prices gained 0.3% to $78.94 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar rose to 159.25 Japanese yen from 159.17 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1782, up from $1.1781.

Leo was travelling Friday to Douala, Cameroon’s main port city, to celebrate Mass and visit a hospital. The Vatican predicted some 600,000 people would turn out for the liturgy, the biggest crowd Leo is expected to draw on his 11-day odyssey, the first to Africa by history's first American pope.

Later Friday, Leo has an appointment back in the capital Youande with students, professors and administrators at the Catholic University of Central Africa. Popes have often used such encounters, especially in the developing world, to rally young people to persevere in the face of poverty, corruption and other challenges.

Catholics represent about 29% of Cameroon's 29 million people. It is an overwhelmingly young country, where the median age is 18.

Attention to young people

Leo has already offered words of encouragement to Cameroon’s youth, including in his opening speech to President Paul Biya, at 93 the world’s oldest leader. In the speech, Leo demanded the “chains of corruption” in Cameroon be broken and said Cameroon’s youth represent the future and hope of the country.

But with Biya in power since 1982, Cameroon perhaps represents the most dramatic example of the tension between Africa’s youth and the continent’s many aging leaders.

Despite being an oil-producing country experiencing modest economic growth, young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites.

“Of course, when unemployment and social exclusion persist, frustration can lead to violence," Leo warned in his opening address to Biya and government authorities earlier this week. "Investing in the education, training, and entrepreneurship of young people is, therefore, a strategic choice for peace. It is the only way to curb the outflow of wonderful talent to other parts of the world.”

According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate in Cameroon stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment.

The dire economic outlook in Cameroon has led to significant brain drain and has strained an already understaffed health sector, as many doctors and nurses are leaving the country for more lucrative jobs in Europe and North America.

In 2023, about a third of doctors who graduated from medical school in Cameroon left the country, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Growing frustration over Biya’s record and long-term rule intensified during last October’s tense presidential election, in which Biya secured an eighth consecutive term.

When Cameroon’s main opposition candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, contested the result of the poll, deadly protests erupted throughout the country.

___

Mark Banchereau contributed from Dakar, Senegal.

___

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.

Judge Greg Grogin granted Roberts-Smith bail in a Sydney court around five hours earlier, ruling the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence.

Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.

Roberts-Smith was driven away from Sydney's Silverwater Correctional Complex late Friday apparently wearing the same clothes he wore when police escorted him from a commercial airliner at Sydney Airport last week, news media images showed.

Roberts-Smith was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan and is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence elite SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Similar allegations against Roberts-Smith were found credible in a civil court case in 2023 when a judge rejected his claims that newspaper articles defamed him.

At that trial, Roberts-Smith testified he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied ever committing a war crime. He claimed he has the victim of spiteful fellow soldiers’ lies and of others’ envy of his medals.

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

Roberts-Smith is accused of personally shooting dead two victims. He allegedly ordered subordinates to shoot the other three victims.

In opposing bail, prosecutor Simon Buchen described the charges against Roberts-Smith as “among the most serious known to the criminal law.”

Buchen said Roberts-Smith had been ”on the cusp of relocating overseas” without telling authorities when he became aware that prosectors were considering charges.

Roberts-Smith had made “advanced plans to relocate overseas. Consideration was being given to moving to various destinations overseas,” Buchen told the court.

Roberts-Smith faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison on each conviction. He has yet to enter pleas.

Defense lawyer Slade Howell told the bail hearing Roberts-Smith’s case “may properly be described as exceptional in the sense that it is out of the ordinary.”

“The use of domestic courts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by a highly decorated Australian soldier deployed overseas repeatedly by the Australian government to fight a war on its behalf is unprecedented and is uncharted legal territory of the common law of this country,” Howell said.

Howell also said Roberts-Smith’s “proceedings will be beset by a multitude of delays, many of which are peculiar to these proceeding.”

Potential delays could arise if prosecutors decide to charge one or more of Roberts-Smith’s fellow veterans, some of whom now live overseas, Howell said.

Roberts-Smith took part in the bail hearing by video link from prison and spoke only when asked by the judge to confirm that he could see and hear proceedings.

Starmer says he was unaware that the Foreign Office had overruled the recommendation of security officials in early 2025 not to give Peter Mandelson the job. Many considered Mandelson a risky appointment because of his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, took the fall for the decision and resigned late Thursday. Starmer is due to make a statement to Parliament on the issue on Monday.

That’s unlikely to end the danger to the prime minister over his fateful decision to appoint Mandelson, a trade expert and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, as envoy to the Trump administration. It was a calculated risk that backfired spectacularly, and could bring down the prime minister.

Opposition politicians expressed disbelief that Starmer could have been unaware Mandelson had failed security vetting. Starmer’s office said he only found out this week.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said Friday that “the recommendation was to not appoint Peter Mandelson to the role,” and that the Foreign Office ignored it. He said that was “astonishing,” but within the rules.

He said no government minister had been told of the security assessment.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said claims the prime minister didn’t know were “completely preposterous.”

“This story does not stack up. The prime minister is taking us for fools,” she told the BBC. “All roads lead to a resignation.”

Ed Davey, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “must go” if he misled Parliament and lied to the British public.

Starmer has repeatedly insisted that “due process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024. Mandelson took up the Washington post in February 2025, after undergoing security vetting.

But documents released by the government in March, after being forced to by Parliament, showed Starmer ignored red flags raised by his staff. He was warned that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

Starmer’s premiership faced its biggest crisis in February after the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Department of Justice showed the closeness of Mandelson’s relationship with the financier, even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for sexual offenses involving a minor.

Emails between the men suggested Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to the disgraced financier in 2009, when he was a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

British police subsequently launched a criminal probe and searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer has apologized to the British public and to Epstein’s victims for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

It was unclear whether a lasting deal would be reached between the U.S. and Iran before the ceasefire ends next week, but the pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could be an indication some progress has been made.

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators. Israel has not been fighting with Lebanon itself, but rather with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group inside Lebanon, which said in a statement that “any ceasefire must be comprehensive across all Lebanese territory and must not allow the Israeli enemy any freedom of movement.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension to the ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in mediation efforts.

Reopening the strait is a key demand by the U.S. and the international community as a global energy crisis worsens daily because of the key oil route's closure. The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries Friday to push forward plans to reopen the strait, although the U.S. will not be included.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

US envoy says ceasefire with Hezbollah is ‘beginning of a road’

Tom Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey, told a diplomacy conference Friday that the “brilliance” of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon was that it ended “senseless killing.”

“The brilliance of what happened yesterday is it stopped senseless killing and President Trump and Secretary Rubio stepping in strongly and saying we need a time out,” Barrack said at the conference in Antalya, southern Turkey.

“This is just the beginning of a road and the ceasefires are so delicate because everybody’s been equally untrustworthy,” he said.

“Everybody is in atrophy over this idiotic war. So will the ceasefire stick? What will we do? It’s baby steps,” Barrack said.

Pakistan leader supports Israel and Hezbollah ceasefire

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday welcomed a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

Sharif said in a post on X that the agreement was “facilitated through bold and sagacious diplomatic efforts led by President Donald Trump.”

Sharif is attending a diplomacy forum in Turkey and expressed hope the ceasefire would pave the way for sustainable peace.

He said Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and will continue to back efforts aimed at achieving lasting regional peace.

Beirut official says Israeli strikes hit neighborhood 62 times

A local government official in Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik said Israel struck the neighborhood 62 times over the past six weeks.

Haret Hreik Deputy Mayor Sadek Slim said 26 buildings were completely destroyed.

“We’ve been able to clear up the rubble of the partially damaged buildings, but for those totally destroyed we will need special equipment,” Slim said in a news briefing under a bridge on a busy intersection.

The area is gridlocked with traffic with people returning to check on their homes and Hezbollah supporters zooming around on scooters and waving the militant group’s flag.

French president praises ceasefire in Lebanon

French President Emmanuel Macron said he supports the 10-day-ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel and called for its continuation.

“Hezbollah must renounce its weapons. Israel must respect Lebanese sovereignty and stop the war,” he said Friday in a post on X.

“I also express my concern that it may already be undermined by the continuation of military operations,” Macron said without elaborating on any specific operations.

The Lebanese army reported Israeli shelling in some areas of southern Lebanon in the early hours of the ceasefire.

German foreign minister says long-term accords needed after ceasefire

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and thanked the U.S. for its role as a mediator.

What is needed now, Wadephul said, are long-term agreements on securing the border, protecting civilians on both sides of the Blue Line, and ensuring the safety of UNIFIL peacekeepers.

He said the talks paved the way for a future reality in which the interests of both sides are equally taken into account: Israel’s legitimate security interests and Lebanon’s right to territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Long-term security in the region can only be achieved through the effective disarmament of Hezbollah, Wadephul added.

Displaced Lebanese return to scenes of destruction

Relief at a ceasefire beginning in Lebanon on Friday was tempered by the destruction that many encountered upon returning to their homes.

In the southern village of Jibsheet, a trickle of residents returned to flattened apartment blocks and streets littered with chunks of concrete, twisted aluminum shutters and dangling electrical wires.

“I feel free being back,” 23-year-old Zainab Fahas said. “But look they destroyed everything: the square, the houses, the shops, everything.”

In the southern Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik, Ahmad Lahham, 48, waved the yellow Hezbollah flag. He stood on a mountain of rubble that was his apartment building and also housed a branch of Hezbollah’s financial arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

Iran’s pressure in its talks with the U.S. brought the truce, condemning Lebanon’s direct talks with Israel, he said.

“Only the Iranians stood with us, no one else,” he said, calling Lebanon’s leaders “the leadership of shame.”

South Korea tanker passes through Red Sea route

A South Korean-flagged tanker carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port has safely exited the Red Sea, South Korean officials said.

The passage marks the country’s first such shipment since it began seeking alternative energy routes while Iran is largely blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday described the passage as a “valuable accomplishment” during the government’s efforts to overcome challenges posed by the war.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries did not immediately say how many tankers would attempt to use the Red Sea route or when the vessel that passed would arrive in South Korea.

Officials say 26 of South Korea’s vessels remain stranded in the strait.

Trump hails Israel-Lebanon ceasefire as ‘historic day’

In two social media posts Thursday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday could have been “a historic day for Lebanon.”

In a separate Truth Social message after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect, Trump added that he hoped the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “acts nicely and well.”

“It will be an GREAT moment for them if they do,” Trump added.

Australia strikes deal with BP to underwrite fuel imports

BP has become a fifth company to strike a deal with the Australian government to underwrite fuel imports at prices inflated by the Iran war.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the BP deal on Friday at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery, southwest of Melbourne, that was damaged by fire over Wednesday night. He said the damaged refinery continued to produce diesel and jet fuel at 80% capacity and gasoline as 60% capacity.

Viva on Thursday secured 570,000 barrels of diesel underwritten by the government in shipments from Brunei and South Korea at prices that might otherwise be commercially unviable.

Australia has sufficient fuel supplies contracted into May, but there are concerns that shortages could emerge in the months ahead.

The pardon order applied to more than 4,500 prisoners, but it was not immediately clear how many people imprisoned for opposing military rule were included and there was no sign that 80-year-old former leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed.

Win Myint is Suu Kyi’s longtime loyalist and was elected as president in 2018. He was arrested on Feb. 1, 2021, the same day the military seized power and detained Suu Kyi. He was later given 12-year combined prison sentences for several offenses, which was reduced to eight years in 2023.

State-run MRTV television reported that Win Myint, who was in a prison in Taungoo township in Bago region, had received amnesty.

Outside Insein Prison in Yangon, buses carrying prisoners were welcomed by relatives and friends who had been waiting since early morning. Among those released was filmmaker Shin Daewe, who was sentenced to life imprisonment under a counterterrorism law in January 2024.

The amnesty comes a week after Min Aung Hlaing was sworn into office following an election that critics say was neither free nor fair and was orchestrated to keep the military's iron grip on power.

State media said in addition to the 4,335 prisoners pardoned, nearly 180 foreigners would be released and deported.

If the freed prisoners reoffend, they will have to serve the rest of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence, according to the terms of their release. A separate report said death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, life sentences were reduced to 40 years and prison terms of less than 40 years were cut by one-sixth.

Under that measure, Suu Kyi’s 27-year sentence would be reduced by 4 1/2 years, leaving her with 22 1/2 years still to serve.

A senior military officer from the capital, Naypyitaw told the Associated Press on Friday that Suu Kyi will be transferred to house arrest as part of the clemency. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information.

Suu Kyi has been serving a prison term on a variety of criminal convictions at an undisclosed location in Naypyitaw and has been moved to house arrest at least once in April 2024.

In his inauguration speech last week, Min Aung Hlaing said his government would implement amnesties that contribute to social reconciliation, justice and peace and support the country’s overall development.

Prisoner releases are common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar.

Since the 2021 army takeover, nearly 8,000 civilians have been killed and some 22,170 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, remain jailed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring group. Total deaths in the ongoing conflict are estimated to be much higher.

Many political detainees have been held on incitement charges, a law widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison. Others have been prosecuted under a counterterrorism law that carries a potential death penalty and has been used to target political and armed opponents, journalists and other dissenters.

Lula and Sánchez are both outspoken in their criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened both with punitive tariffs. They are considered standard-bearers of progressive or liberal politics on their respective continents, where reactionary parties and far-right populism have been on the rise for years.

Lula and Sánchez, along with ministers from their cabinets, will meet at a former royal palace in Barcelona on Friday when they are expected to sign agreements regarding their economies, technology and social policies.

Their bilateral meeting will be prelude for the following day’s double dose of gatherings when Lula and Sánchez confer with other leaders at two events inside a sprawling conference center in Spain’s second city.

‘Not anti-Trump’

The first gathering on Saturday is the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy. The event was launched by Brazil and Spain in 2024 as a forum to exchange ideas aimed at combating the “extremism, polarization and misinformation” that undermines participatory democracy, the organizers say. The first two editions of this event were held at the United Nations and the previous one was in Santiago, Chile, last year.

While both Lula and Sánchez have spoken out against many of Trump's positions and policies, including his decision to attack Iran along with Israel, Lula said that the multilateral summit should not been seen in that vein.

“This is not going to going to be an anti-Trump meeting,” Lula told Spanish newspaper El País on Thursday. “We are going to discuss the state of democracy, to see what went wrong and what we have to do to repair it.”

This edition will include the presence of European Council president Antonio Costa, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Colombia president Gustavo Petro, and other leaders of countries from Uruguay and Lithuania to Ghana and Albania.

Sheinbaum’s participation comes after Spain’s King Felipe VI ironed out a longstanding diplomatic dispute regarding Spain’s colonial past when he recently acknowledged the Spanish conquest of the Americas had led to the “abuse” of native peoples.

At a time that Latin America has felt a rightward political swing and mounting pressure by the Trump administration, Sheinbaum has become one of the most powerful leftist voices in the hemisphere. She enjoys soaring approval in Mexico and has been able to strike a careful balance between maintaining a strong relationship with Trump, while pushing back on key issues like Latin American sovereignty.

Rallying the Left

Many of the leaders from the first event will stay put for the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, held at the same venue later on Saturday. The gathering of left-leaning politicians and policymakers was launched after Sánchez and former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who is now President of the Party of European Socialists, discussed the idea at a meeting of European Socialists last year.

Sánchez and Lula will both give speeches at the event, which is expected to have 3,000 attendees, including U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, and feature round tables dedicated to issues ranging from wage inequality to how to improve election results for progressives.

The meeting comes amid a busy week for Sánchez, who just returned from meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his fourth trip to Beijing in just over three years.

Sánchez's government declared its airspace closed to U.S. planes being used in the Iran war, and said it is not allowing the U.S. to use jointly operated military bases in southern Spain for actions related to the war.

Earlier this week, Lula released a video message expressing “deep solidarity” with Pope Leo XIV following public criticisms made by Trump after the pontiff slammed the Iran war.

Middle powers mingle

Pol Morillas, director of the Barcelona-based foreign affairs think tank CIDOB, said that the gatherings are meant to be a show of force by traditional democratic leaders who have seen how the populist far-right has successfully forwarded its messages of anti-migration and economic nationalism through international gatherings.

Morillas also sees the meetings in the context of the speech by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that shook the Davos economic forum in January on the importance of so-called “middle powers” seeking out new strategies to deal with a world of aggressive superpowers.

Lula, Sánchez and other leaders at the events “share the understanding that the world is not just for the great powers,” Morillas told The Associated Press.

____

AP writers Megan Janetsky in Mexico City and Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo, Brazil, contributed.

GOP leaders rushed lawmakers back into session to late Thursday with a series of back-to-back votes that collapsed in dramatic failure, before they quickly pushed ahead the stopgap measure as they race to keep the surveillance program running past Monday's expiration date.

First they unveiled a new plan that would have extended the program for five years, with revisions. Then they tried to salvage a shorter 18-month renewal that Trump had demanded and Speaker Mike Johnson had previously backed. Some 20 Republicans joined most Democrats in blocking its advance.

Shortly after 2 a.m. they quickly agreed to the 10-day extension, which was agreed to on a voice vote without a formal roll call. It next goes to the Senate, which is gaveling for a rare Friday session, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program running.

"We were very close tonight,” said Johnson after the late-night action.

But Democrats blasted the middle-of-the-night voting as amateur hour. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place?" said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a fiery floor debate.

At the center of the standoff that has stretched throughout the week is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. In doing so, they can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets.

U.S. officials say the authority is critical to disrupting terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage.

Surveillance program fight is a debate over privacy and security

Its path to passage has teetered all week in a familiar fight, as lawmakers weigh civil liberties concerns against intelligence officials’ warnings about national security risks.

Opponents of the surveillance tool point to past misuses. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order.

Trump and his allies had lobbied aggressively all week for a clean renewal of the program, without changes.

A group of Republicans traveled to the White House on Tuesday, and on Wednesday CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke directly with GOP lawmakers. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Thursday there had “been negotiations late into the night with the White House and some of our members.”

“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “We need to stick together.”

The result of days of negotiations

Thursday’s proceedings came to a standstill as lawmakers retreated behind closed doors and Johnson reached for an agreement to resolve the standoff.

Shortly before midnight GOP leaders announced a new proposal, a five-year extension, with revisions. The changes were designed to win over skeptics of the surveillance program who have demanded greater oversight to protect Americans’ privacy.

Among the changes are new provisions to ensure that only FBI attorneys can authorize queries on U.S. persons, and to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases, said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., during the debate.

But the final product, a 14-page amendment, did not go far enough for some holdouts in either party.

With Johnson controlling a slim majority, he has little room for dissent. As the Republicans fell short on both efforts before the short extension, a handful of Democrats stepped in to try to help them advance the longer extensions, but most Democrats were opposed.

“We just defeated Johnson’s efforts to sneak through a 5-year FISA authorization tonight,” said Democratic Rep, Ro Khanna of California. “Now, they will have to fight in daylight.”

But it remained unclear whether Israel would completely stop strikes on Hezbollah, and whether the militant group would recognize a deal it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

Barrages of gunshots rang out across Beirut as residents fired into the air just after midnight to celebrate the beginning of the truce, and displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to attempt to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

U.S. President Donald Trump heralded the deal a “historic day for Lebanon,” even as he expressed confidence that the war with Iran would soon end in a Las Vegas speech.

“I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly,” Trump said. “It should be ending pretty soon.”

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking the current ceasefire deal with strikes on Lebanon. Israel said that deal did not cover Lebanon.

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension of the ceasefire.

While oil prices fell on hopes of a deal, the head of the International Energy Agency warned that energy shocks could get worse if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t reopen soon. Iran closed the crucial waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, shortly after the war began. Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel left and broader economic consequences will grow the longer the strait is closed, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries — but not the United States — on Friday to push forward plans to reopen the strait.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Israel says it will keep troops in Lebanon

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but he said Israeli troops would not withdraw.

Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a “security zone.” Netanyahu, in his video address, said it will extend 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon.

“That is where we are, and we are not leaving,” he said.

Hezbollah has said that Lebanese people have “the right to resist” Israeli occupation of their land and that their actions “will be determined based on how developments unfold.”

The U.S. State Department said that according to the agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” But otherwise, Israel “will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets.”

Trump announced the agreement as a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, but a Hezbollah official said the ceasefire was a result of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars and have been fighting on and off since the day after the start of the Gaza war. Israel and Lebanon reached a deal to end that war in November 2024, but Israel has kept up near-daily strikes in what it says is an effort to prevent the Iran-backed militant group from regrouping. That escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah again began firing missiles at Israel in response to its war on Iran.

Flurry of diplomacy led up to Lebanon ceasefire

The agreement came after a meeting between Israel's and Lebanon’s ambassadors in Washington and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a White House official.

They were the first direct diplomatic talks between the two countries in decades. Hezbollah had opposed direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rubio then called Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.

The State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.

Pakistan army chief meets with Iranian parliament speaker

Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of efforts to press for an extension to a ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire, regional officials reported progress, telling AP the United States and Iran had an “in-principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Trump suggested the ceasefire could be extended.

“If we’re close to a deal, would I extend?” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “Yeah, I would do that.”

___

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. AP journalists Matthew Lee and Ben Finley in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World zoo in Daejeon on April 8, prompting a search that gripped the nation and raised fears about his safety. Animal rights activists questioned whether the wolf could survive outside the zoo and also worried it might be killed during capture, something that happened to a puma that escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

Intense national concern even prompted President Lee Jae Myung to make a statement reassuring the public police, fire officials and the military were doing their best to capture the wolf alive.

At one point, authorities nearly captured Neukgu after spotting him on a mountain near the zoo earlier this week, but he broke away from a perimeter set by rescue workers. A driver also spotted the wolf and shared a video of him trotting along a dark mountain road, lit by the headlights of the vehicle trailing behind.

Neukgu was finally found and tranquilized on a hill near an expressway early Friday, after an hours-long search involving drones, police and emergency workers and veterinarians, according to city and zoo officials. He was in stable condition after being taken back to the zoo, where veterinarians used a scope to remove a fishing hook from his stomach but found no other significant health issues.

Daejeon officials released social media videos showing rescuers pulling the limp wolf from a ditch and placing it in a carrier, and the animal undergoing medical examinations at the zoo.

Social media was flooded with celebratory posts, including messages like “welcome back” and “Neukgu, it’s dangerous outside the house.” Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo in a Facebook post expressed his “deepest gratitude to citizens of Daejeon and also the entire nation for your support in ensuring Neukgu’s safe return.”

Born at the zoo in 2024, Neukgu is a third-generation descendent of a group of wolves brought from Russia in 2008 as part of a project to reintroduce wolves resembling those that lived in the Korean wild before going extinct in the 1960s.

Lee Kwan Jong, director of O-World, said Neukgu will be kept in a separate area from other animals and receive care until he has fully recovered and stabilized.

The zoo’s management, which has been criticized over a series of animal escapes, closed the facility following Neukgu’s escape and says it has not decided when it will reopen.

Lee Kwan Jong said the zoo, which is reviewing its security measures, will prioritize Neukgu’s recovery.

He's expected to be a huge attraction when the zoo reopens.

He went camping. He jammed with local musicians. He drank root beer delivered on roller skates. He shopped for records. He bought a guitar. Then he went home.

The next time people in Benton saw George Harrison, it was with 73 million others who tuned in to watch his band, the Beatles, make their U.S. debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show" about four months later. The British Invasion, which changed popular music and American culture, was underway.

Now, the house where Harrison and his brother Peter stayed in Benton, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, is for sale.

You’ll forgive Beatles fans if they’re worried about its future. In 1995, the house at 113 McCann Street had a date with the wrecking ball. Activists, including Harrison’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, who had moved away in the late 1960s, stepped in to save it.

Coal mining brought the family of Harrison's sister to Benton

Previously known for hosting the state's last public hanging in 1928, Benton, population 6,700, was built on Southern Illinois' rich veins of coal. Louise Caldwell moved to town when her husband, a mining engineer, got a job in what was then a thriving industry.

The house they chose is a five-bedroom bungalow built in 1935 with a brick facade across its wide front porch.

In the mid-1990s, a state agency bought the house from a subsequent owner with plans to flatten it for parking. Mega-fan Robert Bartel of Springfield, a Beatles author and documentarian, alerted the media and Fab Four loyalists.

Local investors repurchased it from the state and opened the Hard Day's Nite Bed and Breakfast, featuring the couch Harrison traded guitar licks on and stacks of other loaned Beatles memorabilia, including a bevy from Bartel.

The bed-and-breakfast closed in 2010. Benton resident Grady Adams has since operated it as regular bed-and-bath apartments but now wants to sell, listing it for $105,000. Brian Calcaterra, Benton’s director of economic development, suggested the city draft an ordinance to protect the house from demolition by a new owner, but Benton Mayor Lee Messersmith said the city council has not discussed the matter.

“Of course, if it doesn't get demo'd, I would prefer that,” Adams said.

Interest in reviving the bed-and-breakfast is unclear

Whether there's interest — or energy — to return the McCann Street house to its Beatles glory is up for debate.

Jim Kirkpatrick of Creal Springs, author of “Before He Was Fab,” a recollection of Harrison's visit which has been optioned for a movie, has had at least one encouraging conversation with someone considering purchase.

Benton business owner Robert Rea, a historian who helped save the Beatles house three decades ago, said the obsession has faded.

“When we did this (in 1995), the world went crazy because they thought, ‘George is going to come, he’s going to save the house,'” Rea said. “And I’m just being honest with you, maybe I’m missing it or something, but that momentum is not here.”

Harrison's last chance to walk the streets in anonymity

Harrison's trip was perhaps the last time the musician could enjoy obscurity. He camped in Shawnee National Forest. He sat in with a popular local group when they played a nearby Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. The band’s leader took him to a drive-in restaurant with carhops on skates, where he guzzled root beer for the first time.

At a record store on Benton's downtown square, Harrison bought a pile of vinyl. Included was James Ray’s R&B single, “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” Harrison’s 1987 cover of which went to No. 1.

He also bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar like the one bandmate John Lennon had. Harrison played the guitar a month later when the Beatles recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It sold at auction in 2014 for $675,000.

One day during Harrison's visit, he and Caldwell dropped by WFRX radio, where then-17-year-old Marcia Schafer Raubach had a Saturday afternoon teen program. Harrison gave her a copy of “She Loves You,” which he told her had just hit the top of the British charts.

Raubach interviewed Harrison on the air, the first for a Beatle in America, and played the 45, which she still has. She said it sounded different than the songs American teens were then punching up on jukeboxes. But it didn't make an impression on her audience.

Despite his longish hair in a land of crew cuts, Raubach found Harrison, dressed in a crisp white shirt, jeans and sandals, “very clean cut, he was personable and mannerly and they call him the ‘quiet Beatle’ — well, he was.”

“If I had known what they were going to become, I would have handled that differently,” Raubach, now 79, said. “It’s still amazing that he even came here and that I met him. I think he really liked Southern Illinois.”

Harrison never returned to Benton, though, dying in 2001 at 58. Caldwell was 91 when she died in 2023.

The airline will soon open bookings for four-hour stints in the Skynest sleep pods and says they will be the first lie-flat beds for budget air travelers. Fliers will get cozy with their fellow passengers, however, so crumbs, strong perfumes and bedsharing are forbidden.

The curtained berths will be available to economy and premium economy fliers on the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from November. The planes will service the Auckland to New York route, which is one of the world’s longest commercial flights and leaves economy passengers sitting upright for a marathon 16 to 18 hours.

Instead, travelers will have the option of a pre-booked four-hour spot in a curtained pod, with costs starting from 495 New Zealand dollars ($291) on top of the price of their economy tickets. But use of the six pods, arranged in a triple-bunk style layout between cabins, will put fliers in close proximity to others, prompting the airline to publish etiquette notes.

Passengers must refrain from snacking in the pods, which can’t be used by children or any additional visitors.

“That means solo snoozes only please, no musical nests or tag-teaming,” Air New Zealand’s website says. For those worried about cleanliness, the airline assures travelers that the pillows, blankets and sheets supplied “are all refreshed” between four-hour naps.

Fliers are also required to change into specially provided socks to enter the pod, fasten their seatbelts over their blankets and forgo dousing themselves in any smelly “perfumes or potions.” Passengers will be woken by a gentle change in lighting at the end of their four-hour stint in the bunk – or by a flight attendant, possibly less gently, if they don’t rouse in time.

Each berth is about the length of a regular bed — 80 inches or 203 cm — but the pods don’t leave headroom for sitting up and access “requires bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing into the space,” the aircraft’s website says. The bunks are 25 inches (64 cm) wide at shoulder height, tapering to 16 inches (41 cm) at the foot of the beds.

Seats or couches that convert into beds in the sky aren’t a new offering for business and first class travelers, but Air New Zealand believes its lie-flat bunks for economy travelers will be a world first.

The offering from New Zealand’s national carrier is the latest from airlines seeking to sell seat upgrades and other add-ons to economy travelers. Air New Zealand first announced the economy beds were in development in 2020.

The airline has increased fares and cut some domestic flights from its schedule in response to increased jet fuel costs during the war in the Middle East. In March, it suspended its earnings outlook due to fuel price volatility and warned that more changes to its routes were possible.

But on one of its longest flights, travelers might finally get some shut-eye — although they should expect snoring, for which earplugs are provided, the airline said.

“Statistically, someone’s going to do it,” Air New Zealand’s website reads. “It might be you.”

The team announced Thursday night it was bringing back Collier, but didn't disclose terms of the deal.

ESPN reported, citing sources, that the Lynx signed Collier to a one-year, $1.4 million supermax contract. The deal came a day after the WNBA defending champion Las Vegas Aces re-signed four-time MVP A’ja Wilson. ESPN reported that contract was a three-year, $5 million supermax deal, the most lucrative in league history.

The 29-year-old Collier averaged a career-high 22.9 points per game last season while shooting 53.1% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range and 90.6% from the foul line, becoming the first player in WNBA history to post 50/40/90 shooting splits while averaging 20 or more points per game. She finished second to Wilson in league MVP voting the last two years.

“Phee has been such an integral part of the Lynx since she was drafted in 2019," head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said in a statement released by the team. “Coming off a historic 50/40/90 season and guiding the Lynx to the most wins in franchise history, Phee is hungry to position the Lynx for a championship run in 2026.”

Minnesota went 34–10 in the regular season and was the No. 1 overall seed in the WNBA playoffs. But Collier injured her left ankle in Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals against Phoenix, ending her season. The Lynx lost the series to the Mercury in five games.

Collier, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time All-WNBA and All-Defensive Team selection, was the sixth overall draft pick by the Lynx in 2019 out of UConn and won the league's Rookie of the Year award. She has career averages of 18.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.2 blocks per game in seven seasons. Collier ranks second in franchise history in career steals (325) and scoring average (18.4), behind Maya Moore, and second in blocked shots (239) behind Sylvia Fowles.

Last season, Collier set the franchise record with 54 consecutive made free throws and was selected the WNBA All-Star Game MVP after setting the scoring mark with 36 points.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

The Paris meeting is part of attempts by sidelined nations to ease the impact of a conflict they didn’t start and haven’t joined, but that has sent the global economy reeling. After the war started on Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the narrow strait though which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

The U.S. is not part of the planning for what has been branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly defensive,” limited to non-belligerent countries and deployed “when security conditions allow.”

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have spearheaded international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer has accused of “holding the world’s economy to ransom.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory American blockade of Iranian ports has raised the economic jeopardy even higher.

“The unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again," Starmer said before the meeting.

Military planning underway

France and Britain also have led military planning meetings, in an echo of the “coalition of the willing” assembled to provide security for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in that war.

French military spokesman Col. Guillaume Vernet said Thursday that the mission is still “in construction.”

Macron's office said participants will contribute “each according to its capabilities,” stressing options to ensure safe passage through the strait will depend on the security situation after a lasting ceasefire.

“What matters is that ship operators have all the means at their disposal to be sure their vessels will not be hit if they pass through the strait. That may require intelligence, mine-clearing capabilities, military escorts, communication procedures with coastal states, etc.,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency's customary practices.

Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said mine-clearing and creating a warning system for maritime threats were more likely roles for the coalition than warships escorting commercial tankers though the strait.

“You need huge numbers of vessels for that sort of thing, which nobody has,” he said.

Iran expert Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said mine-clearing is an area where European countries and their partners could play a role.

“They would be a better party to do this than the United States, because once you have U.S. military doing this and lingering on Iranian shores, it creates a potential arena for Iran and the U.S. to have miscalculations and get back into a sort of military tension,” she said.

Dozens of countries involved in talks

Britain has discussed using mine-hunting drones, deployed from the ship RFA Lyme Bay, for a Hormuz mission.

The war has highlighted the shrunken state of the Royal Navy, which has deployed just one major warship, destroyer HMS Dragon, to the eastern Mediterranean. France, which has the European Union’s most powerful military, has sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region, alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates.

More than 40 nations have taken part in diplomatic or military meetings led by France and the U.K. in recent weeks, though fewer are likely to commit military resources.

Macron's office said about 30 countries are to attend Friday's talks, including some from the Middle East and Asia. The list has not been disclosed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni are expected to attend in person, with others joining by video.

The operation is partly a response to Trump, who has berated allies for failing to join the war and said reopening the strait is not America's job. The president has called allies “cowards,” said NATO “wasn’t there when we needed them” and telling Britain: “You don’t even have a navy.”

“I imagine there’ll be some desire on the part of many European states, and potentially Canada, to demonstrate the ability to provide security in a way that’s distinct from if not completely separate from the U.S. and which also demonstrates a capacity for independent action,” Kaushal said.

“How many states actually have spare capacity to offer to this is a pretty open question.”

___

Lawless reported from London.

But there is little of that energy so far in 2026. Even though Democrats may have a better shot at winning, there is far less attention and money as their candidates compete for the nomination in next month's primary.

Their struggles raise the possibility that the Democrats could miss another chance to win the Georgia governor's office for the first time since 1998.

National Democrats say they are not going to let that happen. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, said Georgia is “in play” and the money will be there for the party's eventual nominee.

“We’re going to make sure the Democratic candidate in Georgia has the funding they need to compete,” Beshear told The Associated Press on Saturday as he visited Atlanta to keynote a party dinner.

While Republicans have flooded the state with nearly $100 million in advertising, Democrats have spent only $1.24 million. Most observers believe no Democrat will win a majority in the rapidly approaching May 19 primary, prolonging the party's uncertainty.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms could be headed toward a June 16 runoff, thanks to superior name identification and being the only Black woman running in a party that has historically relied on support from Black women. But the scramble for a second spot appears wide-open, with likely contenders including former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state labor commissioner and CEO of suburban DeKalb County Mike Thurmond.

Democrat could face big Republican money

On the Republican side, health care billionaire Rick Jackson has already spent or pledged $50 million toward his bid, twice as much as any previous primary candidate for Georgia governor. There is also Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump; Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; and Attorney General Chris Carr.

It is a contrast to 2022, when Abrams outraised Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. She ended up losing the race, her second defeat to Kemp.

But Democrats say they are not worried this year even if they are outspent.

“I'll still win,” Bottoms said after a campaign event Monday, echoing other Democrats who say money can't paper over voter discontent with Republicans.

She argues that she is a “battle-tested leader” who gained national experience in President Joe Biden's administration. Like other Democrats, she cites expanding health care, affordable housing and better education as among her top issues.

“When given the opportunity to lead, I led on behalf of not just the city of Atlanta, but people across the state, and I am ready to go and fight for all of our communities to make Georgia a better place for our children,” Bottoms said Wednesday.

The Democratic race doesn’t feature notable policy splits along the lines of the progressive-moderate fissures that have opened around the country. It is not even a clear-cut contrast on style like in the Texas Senate primary that James Talarico won over Jasmine Crockett. Only Esteves, who started nearly unknown statewide, has been willing to attack the other candidates.

The noncombative nature of the other candidates was on display Wednesday night in a televised debate that included only Bottoms, Duncan and Thurmond. Duncan made only the most oblique criticisms of Bottoms' record as mayor. After Thurmond blamed Duncan for supporting a bill allowing people to carry guns more widely, he said in a postdebate interview that the criticism wasn't aimed at Duncan directly.

Esteves tries to go from unknown to contender

Esteves is banking on a late surge to propel him to the runoff. He has spent about $1 million on a burst of advertising, the only significant spending by any Democrat thus far. The 42-year-old, who has a Puerto Rican father and a Black mother, argues he can build the “multiracial, multigenerational coalition" needed to win the young and diverse electorate in Georgia.

He often references his experience as a middle school teacher and small business owner in addition to his time as a lawyer, school board member and state senator.

“A lot of the challenges that Georgians are facing, I am facing in real time,” Esteves said in a Wednesday interview. “They’re looking for someone who not only wants to solve their issues, but can identify personally with their issues.”

Esteves is the only Democrat attacking Bottoms on how she managed crime, disorder and the COVID pandemic as mayor before her surprise decision not to seek a second term.

“The fact that she did not run for reelection confirmed people’s belief that when the going gets tough, she stepped out on the city,” Esteves said.

Bottoms defends her stewardship and says she declined to run again “based on what was best for me personally and my family."

Esteves has also repeatedly taken aim at Duncan, saying Duncan “oversaw some of the passage of the worst bills” while lieutenant governor, including Georgia’s ban on abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. Although dozens of state lawmakers are backing Esteves, his top surrogate has been Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, a woman who died in a suburban Atlanta hospital in 2022 after taking abortion pills and developing an infection.

New Democrat Duncan seeks ‘trust’

Duncan is best known for opposing Trump's attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He has spent the past year apologizing for his Republican past and argues he is the only Democrat who can win over enough moderate voters to give his new party a win. In recent weeks, Duncan has begun to pick up some endorsements from moderate Democrats and unions.

“I don’t want to only earn your vote, I want to earn your trust,” Duncan said in Wednesday night's debate.

Thurmond calls himself a “throwback” and says his experience in state and local government, including leading the state child welfare agency, serving as labor commissioner and helping to bail out the DeKalb County school district as superintendent, would let him move quickly to enact Democratic priorities.

“I have a track record of service to the people of Georgia, and I believe this election would turn not on promises, but on performance,” Thurmond said in an interview after Wednesday's debate.

He has been trying to knit together a coalition of rural voters and older Democrats. Among those backing him are Roy Barnes, the last Democratic governor, and Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta and one of the last surviving leaders of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

It wasn’t the Iran war, nor the still-going partial government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding. He wanted to talk about a monumental issue of a different kind, hoisting up large artist renderings of the $400 million White House ballroom he’s building, complete with hand-carved “top-of-the-line” Corinthian columns.

“I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this. I’m fighting wars and other things,” Trump said before extensively detailing plans for “the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.”

His divided attention has become a Democratic point of attack and a concern for some Republicans who worry he’s not spending enough time on issues that voters care most about ahead of November’s midterm races.

The contrast was on full display Thursday, when, as Trump flew to Las Vegas to discuss tax cuts for Americans earning tips, his administration was pushing ahead with plans to build a 250-foot Triumphal Arch near the Lincoln Memorial replete with a Lady Liberty-like statue and a pair of golden eagles.

The president’s ability to speak to the concerns of working people has always seemed incongruous with his biography as a billionaire real estate developer. Yet his populist policies and emphasis on the economy during his 2024 campaign helped catapult him back to the White House.

Republican strategist Rick Tyler noted that, when Trump first ran for president in 2016, his wealth was a selling point.

“While other people, like Mitt Romney, played down how rich he was, Trump was giving free helicopter rides at the Iowa State Fair,” Tyler said. “People loved it.”

Still, Trump’s preoccupation with some of the gilded trappings of the presidency, as more Americans worry about bills, has drawn accusations that he’s a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

“‘Fighting wars’ and surging gas prices, yet Trump has time to brag about his billionaire backed ballroom,” Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, responded on X to Trump’s Air Force One presentation.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, has been more direct in comparing Trump to the last queen before the French Revolution, who has come to embody extravagant opulence — even posting an AI-generated image of Trump's face on her body on social media.

"TRUMP ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE’ SAYS, ‘NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!’ Newsom wrote in October 2025, at the start of a 43-day government shutdown.

White House says Trump's success benefits all Americans

Asked about opponents invoking Marie Antoinette, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump “is going to go down in history as the most successful and consequential president in our lifetime.”

“His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him," Ingle said in a statement.

The president faced similar critiques during his first term. But lately he's been unabashed about accusations he’s disconnected from Americans' worries about high costs, which could leave Republicans with an uphill battle to retain control of Congress.

About two-thirds of Americans said Trump is “out of touch” with the concerns of most people in the United States today, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll from February, though the same percentage said the same about the Democratic Party.

Presidents are usually removed from voters, separated by layers of security and surrounded by adoring subordinates. In her book “Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again,” Elaine Kamarck argues that presidents get too focused on their own political narratives rather than the public's concerns. Yet, when it comes to Trump, “All of this stuff is frankly unique to him.”

She pointed to the ballroom as well as Trump's other White House renovations, soon adding his signature to paper currency, and renaming the Kennedy Center after himself.

“It's a reflection, I think, of his own background as a businessman and somebody who made his fortune selling his name," said Kamarck, who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House.

While Trump focuses on the ballroom and other Washington projects, some public work projects in other parts of the country have languished.

Joe Meyer, the former mayor of Covington, Kentucky, spent years pushing for critical improvements to the Brent Spence Bridge connecting his town with Cincinnati, a project listed as a top federal priority dating back to Trump's first administration.

Federal funds for improvements were approved under President Joe Biden but held up by a Trump-ordered review. Work is now finally set to begin later this year, though delays will likely limit design options and slow the project, Meyer said.

“The ballroom is Washington inside-baseball,” Meyer said. “The bridge is just a wreck. It’s frustration that we’ve been dealing with forever.”

A $100 tip and a golden tractor

Trumpeting new tax deductions for tips, Trump staged ordering McDonald's to the Oval Office — which he has crammed with gold flourishes — and tipped the grandmother making the delivery $100. When she described large medical bills from her husband’s cancer treatments, Trump said she should bring him to an upcoming UFC fight on the White House lawn.

When hundreds of farmers were invited to the White House for an agricultural policy speech, they stood on the South Lawn beside a tractor that had been painted gold. It drizzled, but Trump stayed dry, addressing them from a covered second-floor balcony.

“You don’t mind rain,” the president told the farmers below.

He then flew to Miami for a conference of Saudi investors who, the president noted, were too rich to be impressed by U.S. families scrounging to save up $5,000.

“I know they’re looking like, ‘What the hell is $5,000?’" Trump joked. "Their shoes cost them more than $5,000."

When asked in February, meanwhile, for his message to young people wanting to buy a home, Trump replied: “Save a little longer. Wait a little longer."

Members of the Cabinet have also fed the perception that Trump's promised “ Golden Age ” may not be arriving for everyone. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. advised Americans to buy liver instead of beef.

“If you go and buy a steak, it’s still pretty expensive. But if you buy the cheaper cuts, it’s great meat. And it is very, very affordable. Or liver, or, you know, all these alternatives,” he told podcast host Joe Rogan.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said people could still afford meals consisting of “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing.”

The White House has sought to show that Trump is attuned to voter concerns by sending the president to politically competitive parts of the country to trumpet his efforts to lower costs. But Trump has stepped on the message by insisting that affordability concerns are a Democratic “hoax.”

Texas-based Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser said he thinks that Trump “can kind of get away with" building a ballroom because voters have come to expect that from him as a brash dealmaker and businessman.

But Steinhauser said he worries that dramatic increases in gas prices and a potentially weakening economy could resonate with voters. Ahead of the midterms, Steinhauser said, Democrats could score points “trying to make it more about Trump and his oligarch friends.”

___

Associated Press writers Linley Sanders in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

Tyler Robinson is due in court Friday as his attorneys press their claims that biased coverage is tainting potential jurors in his aggravated murder case.

Among numerous examples cited was a New York Post story they say suggested Robinson confessed to Kirk's killing during a courtroom conversation on Dec. 11, in his first appearance after being charged. The conversation with his attorneys was inaudible, but the story cited a “lip reading analysis” to support its claim that Robinson said, “I think about the shooting daily.”

“The predominant purpose being served by the live stream coverage has not been the educational reporting of the court proceedings, but rather advertising profit, sensationalism, political agendas, and, most prominently, the vilification of Mr. Robinson,” his attorneys wrote in their request to bar cameras.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson should he be convicted in the Sept. 10 shooting of the conservative activist, who was addressing a crowd of thousands on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.

Robinson, who turned 23 on Thursday, has not yet entered a plea.

Media sensationalism around the case has cut both ways. In a March 30 headline, the U.K.-based Daily Mail reported the bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match” a rifle allegedly used by Robinson. The story was based on an inconclusive, preliminary finding by ballistics experts and led to speculation about Robinson's possible exoneration. The FBI is running additional tests, according to court documents.

Media organizations, prosecutors and Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, want the court to allow cameras. They argue the best way to guard against the misinformation and conspiracy theories that concern Robinson's defense team is to make the process transparent.

Yet livestreaming by media outlets already has tested the patience of Judge Tony Graf.

During the December hearing, Graf briefly stopped the livestream and ordered the camera relocated after it showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom decorum order.

Then, a January hearing was interrupted when Robinson's attorneys said close-up shots of Robinson being livestreamed by a local television station could again lead to claims based on lip reading. That, too, was a violation of Graf's decorum order. The judge ordered the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

Mike Judd, a lawyer for a coalition of media organizations including The Associated Press that have been fighting to preserve access, said Graf so far has focused on whether his rules inside the courtroom are being followed, not what the media is saying outside of court.

“The court can do all of that in order to try to control what gets fed into that media ecosystem,” Judd said. "You reduce the likelihood of somebody publishing things that you think may be of potentially biasing concern later on.”

Policies on cameras and livestreaming vary among states, and many including Utah give judges discretion over whether to allow cameras. Cameras are generally prohibited in federal courts.

“There's Supreme Court precedent that says courts generally need to be open to the public, but that's not an absolute right,” said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown. “Even if they allow public access, that does not equal a right to broadcast or record.”

Robinson’s attorneys are seeking to delay his May preliminary hearing, when prosecutors must show that they have enough evidence to proceed to a trial.

Prosecutors have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle. Defense attorneys note that forensic reports indicate multiple people’s DNA was found on some items, which they say requires a more complex analysis.

Robinson reportedly texted his romantic partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

The flood watch has been lifted for the region, as rainfall has tapered off and conditions begin to stabilize. While some flooding concerns continue Up North, Southeast Michigan is seeing a quieter trend heading into Friday.

Friday

Friday will bring a welcome break from the unsettled weather. Skies will gradually clear, with increasing sunshine expected through the afternoon. Temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 60s, offering a mild and comfortable day for outdoor plans, school activities and evening events.

Rain chances return late Friday night as another system approaches. Showers and a few thunderstorms are expected to develop after midnight and continue into early Saturday.

Saturday

Saturday will feature periods of showers and possibly a thunderstorm, with mostly cloudy skies and highs near the upper 60s. While some downpours are possible, storms are not expected to reach severe levels at this time. Outdoor plans may be impacted by occasional rain, especially during the morning and midday hours.

Sunday

A sharp change arrives by Sunday as a cold front pushes through the region. Temperatures will drop significantly, with highs only reaching the upper 40s under breezy conditions. The cooler air will bring a noticeable shift compared to the mild weather just days prior.

By Sunday night into Monday morning, temperatures are expected to fall into the upper 20s to around 30 degrees, creating freezing conditions. This could impact any sensitive plants or outdoor vegetation that may have already started to emerge.

For schools and daily routines, Friday will offer good conditions for outdoor activities, while Saturday may require umbrellas and rain gear. By early next week, colder mornings could also require heavier layers, especially for students waiting at bus stops.

Next week

Looking ahead, conditions improve again as we move into next week. Sunshine returns Monday, with a gradual warming trend bringing temperatures back into the 60s by Tuesday and midweek, restoring a more typical spring pattern across Metro Detroit.

Share your weather photos with Local 4 at MIPics.

Instead, he became the second Guardians pitcher in eight months to fall short in the ninth inning.

“I did my best. Maybe next time,” Messick said after Cleveland's 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.

Leody Taveras led off the ninth with a grounder that just eluded diving second baseman Juan Brito and went into right field for a single to break up Messick's no-hit bid.

Cleveland still has the longest current gap between no-hitters of any major league franchise. The team’s most recent one was Len Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Up to that point, Messick had faced only one batter over the minimum and silenced a Baltimore lineup that came into the game third in the American League in on-base percentage (.334).

Blaze Alexander followed with a line-drive single to center that ended Messick's night. The 25-year-old Messick was removed to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,748.

“That was very special what we got to watch tonight. That’s an unbelievably talented lineup that he took a no-hitter into the ninth against and just continued to attack,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He and (catcher Austin) Hedges were magnificent with their sequencing. With that arsenal, that was a beautiful game.”

It was the first time in 11 career starts that Messick went more than seven innings. He was the 54th overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft out of Florida State and made his big league debut last year.

Messick threw 112 pitches, 78 for strikes. The 69.6% strike rate was the third-highest of his career. He walked two and equaled a career best with nine strikeouts. He was charged with two runs in eight-plus innings.

Messick got ahead of hitters early with 21 first-pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faced. The 18 swings and misses also tied a career high.

Out of Messick's six-pitch repertoire, the most effective was the changeup. He threw it 29 times and got 22 strikes, including nine whiffs. His most-used pitch was his four-seam fastball, which he threw 43 times.

“I know they were looking for it. It's just, the bottom falls out of it when you've got late movement like that, especially when you’ve set it up with other pitches, the heaters and the curveballs and cutters — you have to take an outlier swing to it,” Hedges said of the changeup. “You could tell they were trying to, but it’s just that good of a pitch.”

The sinker was Messick's third-most frequent pitch in his first three starts this season, but he threw it only twice against the Orioles.

Hedges said he had the feeling it might be a special night when center fielder Steven Kwan caught Taylor Ward's deep flyball at the wall to end the third inning. José Ramírez — who had a two-run homer in the first — made a nice stop on a grounder by Coby Mayo deep in the hole at third to end the fifth.

“The crowd got pretty loud and that’s an awesome feeling when everybody gets into it. I was really trying to lock in every pitch,” Messick said. “Pretty much about the sixth inning on, I prayed between pretty much every inning and I just was telling myself to execute.”

Baltimore averted a shutout when Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly against closer Cade Smith drove in Taveras. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double before Smith retired the final two batters with runners at second and third for his fourth save.

“The boys were into it the whole game. Once Leody got that hit, I equate it to a sniper in the NBA, where it only takes one to go in for everything to change," said Orioles first-year manager Craig Albernaz, who was Cleveland's bench coach in 2024 and associate manager last season. “Messick was on. He had all his pitches dialed in the strike zone. He did a great job changing speeds in all counts, (getting) weak contact. He was on tonight.”

It was the fourth time since Barker's gem that a single Cleveland pitcher carried a no-hitter into the ninth. John Farrell went eight innings on May 4, 1989, against Kansas City before Kevin Seitzer broke it up with a single after Willie Wilson reached on an error.

Carlos Carrasco went 8 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay on July 1, 2015, and Gavin Williams had a no-hitter for 8 1/3 innings last season on Aug. 6 against the New York Mets.

Carrasco came within one strike of a no-hitter when Rays left fielder Joey Butler lined a slider on an 0-2 count that just eluded the glove of leaping Cleveland second baseman Jason Kipnis.

Juan Soto broke up Williams’ no-hit bid with a home run to center.

Messick is one of five American League pitchers with at least three wins. He improved to 3-0 this season and is third in the AL with a 1.05 ERA.

“I mean it (stinks), but it is baseball. I’ll have plenty more years to pitch a baseball game, so it might happen again,” he said.

___

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

Thursday

A few isolated thunderstorms will also develop this afternoon, some of which could be strong with wind and hail as the primary threat.

Flood Watch finally expires this evening, but the ground remains quite saturated.

Overnight skies will start to clear a bit with rain finally coming to an end. Lows drop a bit lower than the past few nights, around 53 degrees.

Friday

Enjoy Friday with partly sunny skies and highs in the upper 60s.

Weekend forecast

Friday night into Saturday morning, a strong cold front will bring more rain and storms as well as a much cooler air mass.

Sunday’s highs will barely make it into the upper 40s, with lows early next week below freezing.

Israel has not been fighting with Lebanon itself, but rather with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group inside Lebanon. Hezbollah said in a statement that “any ceasefire must be comprehensive across all Lebanese territory and must not allow the Israeli enemy any freedom of movement.”

Nearly 2,200 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli air strikes.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s army chief met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday in a bid to ease tensions in the Middle East and arrange a second round of negotiations between the United States and Iran after almost seven weeks of war.

The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports continued as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would ramp up economic pain on Iran with new economic sanctions on countries doing business with it, calling the move the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.

The White House said any further talks with Iran would likely take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, though no decision had been made on whether to resume negotiations. Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator after it hosted direct talks between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad.

Here is the latest:

Trump hails Israel-Lebanon ceasefire as ‘historic day’

In two social media posts Thursday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Thursday could have been “a historic day for Lebanon.” In a separate Truth Social message after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect, Trump added that he hoped the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “acts nicely and well.” “It will be an GREAT moment for them if they do,” Trump added.

Australia strikes deal with BP to underwrite fuel imports

BP has become a fifth company to strike a deal with the Australian government to underwrite fuel imports at prices inflated by the Iran war.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the BP deal on Friday at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery, southwest of Melbourne, that was damaged by fire over Wednesday night. Viva on Thursday secured 570,000 barrels of diesel underwritten by the government in shipments from Brunei and South Korea at prices that might otherwise be commercially unviable.

Albanese said the damaged Geelong refinery continued to produce diesel and jet fuel at 80% capacity and gasoline as 60% capacity.

Viva chief executive Scott Wyatt expected to import fuel to make up for the shortfall in the refinery’s production.

Australia has sufficient fuel supplies contracted into May, but there are concerns that shortages could emerge in the months ahead.

Sri Lanka repatriates Iranian sailors, including torpedo attack survivors

Sri Lanka has sent home 238 Iranian sailors, including 32 who were injured in a U.S torpedo attack which sank their warship in early March.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Franklin Joseph said everyone except a few crew members from a second ship which later anchored in Sri Lanka were repatriated earlier this week.

A U.S submarine sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena on March 4 as it returned home after taking part in am Indian naval exercise..

Sri Lankan navy recovered 87 bodies while 32 sailors wounded in the torpedo attack were hospitalized. The second ship was brought to a southern Sri Lankan port after the crew reported technical problems.

Trump says Iran

war ‘going along swimmingly’

The president said in a Las Vegas speech he was feeling pretty positive about the Iran war, despite the energy price spikes, the death and destruction and the anxiety about the future of NATO and the Middle East.

“I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly,” Trump said. “It should be ending pretty soon.”

Trump added that the war was “was perfect” as he praised the power of the U.S. military.

Reports of shelling in Lebanon continue after ceasefire goes into effect

Lebanon’s state-run National News agency reported that Israeli shelling continued in the villages of Khiam and Dibbine about a half hour after the truce began.

The Lebanese Army also repeated its warning to people displaced from southern Lebanon about returning home because of intermittent shelling.

Israel’s military told The Associated Press very early Friday that it was looking into reports of shelling and artillery fire in southern Lebanon.

The terms of the ceasefire, as provided by the U.S. State Department, prohibit Israel from offensive military actions in Lebanon. But they appear to leave more room for “self-defense,” including “against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

UN chief welcomes Israel and Lebanon ceasefire and calls on all parties to observe it

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes the ceasefire will pave the way for negotiations toward a long-term solution to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres commends the United States for facilitating the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, he said.

The secretary-general reaffirms U.N. support for all efforts to end hostilities and the suffering of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, Dujarric said.

A 10-day ceasefire agreed on by Israel and Lebanon has gone into effect

A 10-day ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed on by Lebanon and Israel started at midnight.

The two neighboring countries held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington after more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group.

Hezbollah started firing on Israel right after the start of the Iran war. It kept up attacks focused on northern Israel communities through Thursday night, with at least eight people injured, including two seriously, according to Israel’s emergency services.

Air raid sirens were sounding in a few northern Israeli communities just minutes before the ceasefire was going into effect. Israel’s military also said late Thursday it was striking Hezbollah rocket launchers.

Trump claims Iran has ‘agreed to give us back the nuclear dust’

The president made the assertion in an exchange with reporters before departing for an event in Las Vegas on Thursday.

If true, it would be a major concession from Iran, and would lock in a key demand of the U.S. to end the conflict.

“They’ve agreed to give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground because of the attack we made with the B-2 bombers,” said Trump, using a term he’s adopted as shorthand for the roughly 970 pounds of enriched uranium buried under Iranian nuclear sites damaged by U.S. strikes on the country last year.

Iran has repeatedly insisted that it doesn’t seek a nuclear weapon and that its program is for peaceful proposes. Neither Iran nor countries acting as intermediaries in the conflict have talked about what would be a major breakthrough.

Pressed by a reporter on what is he waiting for to move forward, Trump offered that it was “very complicated.”

He added, “I don’t think we’re waiting. I think we’re moving very fast. It could happen pretty quickly.”

The White House did not respond to follow-up queries about whether Iran has agreed to give up its enriched uranium, under what terms and to whom it would be surrendered. Trump has previously made claims about Iran’s nuclear program that have turned out to be imprecise.

UN envoy says Israel will react to any Hezbollah threats and hold its positions southern Lebanon during ceasefire

Ambassador Danny Danon told U.N. reporters Thursday that the 10-day ceasefire will be “challenging” because of Hezbollah, which said after the ceasefire announcement that continuing Israeli occupation grants Lebanon the right to resist.

Danon said Israel believes in direct negotiations with Lebanon, but knows this is a complex issue for the Lebanese government because of Hezbollah.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to go to Washington — where the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon met earlier this week — for negotiations, the ambassador said.

“We will come to any meeting to promote peace, but I cannot speak for the Lebanese government. We know that they are under pressure and threats from Iran,” Danon said.

Iran remains ‘cautiously optimistic’ about negotiations with the US, its UN envoy says

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the Islamic Republic welcomes and supports diplomatic efforts to bring a “sustainable end to this unlawful and unwarranted war,” including by Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia.

“Despite our deep mistrust of the United States, stemming from its repeated betrayal of diplomacy, we nevertheless enter the negotiation in good faith and remain cautiously optimistic,” he told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

“We believe that should the United States adopt a rational and constructive approach and refrain from advancing demands that are inconsistent with international law, this negotiation can lead to a meaningful outcome,” Iravani said.

He spoke at an assembly meeting in support of vetoes by Beijing and Moscow of a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by the U.S. and Gulf nations aimed at opening the Strait of Hormuz.

Hezbollah warns displaced people not to rush back home

The Lebanese militant group called on people to exercise restraint and refrain from returning to areas in south and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs that have been hit hard by Israeli strikes “until the situation becomes fully clear.”

The Lebanese army issued similar warnings, urging people not to rush back to those areas after the 10-day ceasefire kicks in at midnight Beirut time.

Previous ceasefires saw tens of thousands of people clogging roads as they attempted to drive back to check on homes and belongings in the first hours of the truce.

More than 1 million Lebanese people have been displaced during the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.

UAE official says Iran is viewed as the ‘main enemy’

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE’s president, said Gulf states have a different view of Iran, seeing it as the “main enemy”, citing its missile and drone attacks despite.

“We are fully aware of the position of many Arab societies in viewing Israel as the primary enemy, but the view in the Gulf states may be different... Iran is the one that attacked the Gulf states with thousands of missiles and drones, and for this reason we do not trust it, and we view it as a primary enemy,” he said during a media briefing Thursday at Dubai Press Club.

Gargash added that the UAE has questions over Iran’s nuclear program as well as its ballistic missiles and drones, and said that just as Tehran is seeking guarantees and reparations for war damage, the UAE also wants assurances that such “cowardly” attacks will not happen again.

Flurry of diplomacy to get to ceasefire in Lebanon

The 10-day ceasefire that Israel and Lebanon agreed to came about following a meeting between the nations’ ambassadors and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a White House official.

After the talks Tuesday in Washington that included Rubio, Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rubio then called Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, the State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker says Lebanon ‘integral part’ of regional ceasefire

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made these remarks on Iranian state television after meeting Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Asim Munir in Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce between Lebanon and Israel in a bid to end the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.

Iran, Hezbollah’s key patron and ally, has included ending the war in Lebanon as one of its conditions in its talks with Washington, mediated by Pakistan.

There was no mention about resuming in-person talks with Washington, as both sides gear up for a second round of talks.

US details ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon

The 10-day halt to the fighting that will begin later Thursday can be extended if there’s progress in talks to reach a lasting peace agreement and Lebanon “effectively demonstrates its ability to assert its sovereignty,” the State Department said.

President Donald Trump announced the truce following talks held in Washington this week. Israel hasn’t been fighting with Lebanon itself but rather with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group inside Lebanon.

In the statement that the U.S. says was agreed to by Lebanon and Israel, there is a provision to allow Israel to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.” Hezbollah has said it will respond to any strikes by Israel.

But otherwise, Israel “will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets,” the statement says.

Trump says he could go to Pakistan to sign deal if agreement is reached with Iran

The president once again claimed progress is being made in talks with Iran and suggested he could be involved in the signing of a peace agreement, if one is reached.

“If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go,” said Trump, who heaped praise on Pakistani Prime Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani Army Gen. Asim Munir for their role as mediators in the U.S.-Iran talks.

“The field marshal has been great. The prime minister has been really great in Pakistan, so I might go. They want me.”

Foreign minister says Portugal is open to ensuring maritime navigation remains free in the Strait of Hormuz

Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Thursday his country’s prime minister will participate in a conference on Friday co-hosted by the French and British leaders on setting up a mission to ensure freedom of navigation through the strait after the Iran war ends.

But Rangel said a decision on Portugal’s contribution to such a mission won’t be taken “before we know exactly what is at stake” because the mission plan is still unclear.

He said the Portuguese “fully understand the value of freedom of navigation” because they have been “navigators for centuries.”

“So let’s go to the meeting, let’s see what are the plans,” Rangel said after talks with Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos.

Trump says he has ‘to do what’s right’ as he pushes back against Pope Leo XIV on Iran war

Trump isn’t worried that his taunting of Pope Leo XIV might offend his voters.

“I have to do what’s right — the pope has to understand that,” Trump told reporters. “I have nothing against the pope. His brother is MAGA all the way.”

The U.S. president has maintained that the Iran war is about stopping that country from developing a nuclear weapon and he criticized that country’s leadership for killing its own people as he objected to the papal emphasis on peace.

The president added that he’s “sure the pope is a great guy,” yet he suggested Pope Leo XIV was naive about geopolitics.

“The pope has to understand that this is the real world,” Trump said.

Trump suggest he’s open to extending Iran ceasefire

The 14-day ceasefire is set to expire April 22, but Trump said it’s possible that the deadline to make a deal could be pushed out further.

“If we’re close to a deal would I extend?” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “Yeah, I would do that”

Netanyahu says Israeli troops will remain in an expanded security zone in south Lebanon despite ceasefire

Israel’s Netanyahu says Israeli troops will remain in an expanded security zone in south Lebanon despite a ceasefire.

He said troops will remain in a10-kilometer deep zone, “much stronger, more extensive and more continuous than before.”

“That is where we are, and we are not leaving.”

Hezbollah, in commenting on the ceasefire, had said continuing Israeli occupation grants Lebanon the right to resist.

Trump calls Israel-Lebanon ceasefire ‘very exciting’ opportunity

“I had a great talk with both of them today,” Trump said of this conversations with Aoun and Netanyahu. “They’re going to be having a ceasefire, and that’ll include Hezbollah.”

Trump in an extended exchange with reporters said also that he expected that Aoun and Netanyahu would meet in the next week or two, before saying the White House meeting between the Mideast leaders could happen in the next four or five days.

The president added that he was open to visiting Lebanon “at the right time.”

Trump says $4 a gallon gas ‘not very high’ given importance of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon

The U.S. president played down prices at the pump averaging $4.09 a gallon nationwide, saying the cost wasn’t so great relative to the risk of evening higher prices tied to keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Well, they’re not very high, if you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters about gas prices before a planned trip to Las Vegas.

The president repeated a past claim that he thought the war with Iran would have driven energy costs much higher.

Gas prices are up roughly 29% from a year ago, according to AAA.

Netanyahu says he has agreed to 10-day ceasefire in bid ‘to advance’ peace efforts with Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said he was taking the step in an attempt “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon opened negotiations this week in Washington aimed at forging a peace agreement. The Hezbollah militant group, which has been fighting Israel for six weeks, has said it opposes the dialogue.

“We have an opportunity to make a historic peace agreement with Lebanon,” Netanyahu said.

Italian premier hails Israel-Lebanon ceasefire as ‘excellent news’

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni greeted the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as “excellent news,” achieved “thanks to the mediation of the United States.”

She added that the ceasefire must be fully respected, singling out Hezbollah “for having started this conflict,” and expressed hope that it would create conditions for talks leading “to a full and lasting peace” between Israel and Lebanon.

Italy has the second-largest contingent of U.N. peacekeepers serving in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah reacts to ceasefire announcement

Hezbollah said in a statement that “any ceasefire must be comprehensive across all Lebanese territory and must not allow the Israeli enemy any freedom of movement.”

Israel offered no official comment on Trump’s announcement.

Hezbollah added that “Israeli occupation on our land grants Lebanon and its people the right to resist it, and this matter will be determined based on how developments unfold,” a stance that could complicate the ceasefire.

Israel has staged a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, where its forces have been engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah militants in the border area. It is unclear whether Israel would withdraw some or all of its forces as part of the truce.

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Northern Israeli leaders criticize proposed Lebanon ceasefire

Two local leaders in northern Israel criticized a proposed ceasefire with Lebanon, warning it would leave communities vulnerable.

Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, said agreements may be signed in Washington but “the price is paid here in blood, in destroyed homes and shattered communities.”

He warned that a ceasefire without strict enforcement against Hezbollah and a buffer zone up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) north of the Israeli border, would amount to “waiting for the next massacre.”

Eitan Davidi, head of the Margaliot moshav, called the move “a surrender” and “a political defeat.” He told the N12 news site it was made without coordination with northern residents and contradicts the stated goal of dismantling Hezbollah’s capabilities.

China’s UN envoy calls US blockade of Strait of Hormuz ‘a dangerous and irresponsible move’

Ambassador Fu Cong said the strait “should be safeguarded” for international navigation and called on Iran to take ‘proactive measures’ to open the waterway, used to ship about 20% of the world’s oil.

“The issue of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is a spillover effect of the conflict in Iran,” he said. “Only a complete ceasefire can fundamentally create conditions for easing the situation.”

Fu told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that Beijing is engaged “in intensive mediation with all parties to actively promote talks for peace”’ and an end to the war in Iran.

The 193-member world body was meeting to hear China and Russia explain why they vetoed a Security Council resolution backed by the U.S. and Gulf nations aimed at opening the Strait of Hormuz.

Fu claimed the resolution would have given “a carte blanche for the continuation of aggressive actions and further escalation” rather than de-escalate the conflict and promote negotiations.

The crash happened around 8:30 a.m. April 9 near Clark and Judd roads, according to Huron Township Director of Public Safety Everette Robbins.

Robbins said the driver was traveling at an appropriate speed and was driving along the right side of the road to avoid potholes when the road surface collapsed.

“This appears to simply be a case of the road being soft, and the driver took the appropriate actions to do what could be done to avoid something worse,” Robbins said in a statement, adding that the driver was not texting or violating Michigan’s hands-free law.

Three students reported minor injuries and were evaluated at the scene before being released to their parents, officials said.

Other students were transferred to another bus, taken to school, or released to their parents.

A week later, the part of the road where the bus went into the ditch is still coned off.

Residents who live along Clark Road say standing water after several days of rain is accelerating damage.

“As you can see here, it’s flooded in, so that was a pretty deep hole due to the bus going in there,” said Heather Riddle, who lives nearby. “All it’s doing with all this water just sitting there is further causing damage to the road.”

Parents and neighbors say the potholes are difficult to avoid even when the road is dry, and nearly impossible to dodge after rain when the holes fill with water.

Sarah Grossman, who was waiting for the bus with her daughter when it crashed down the road from them, said she and others helped students off the bus.

“Nothing’s happened so far. We haven’t seen the county out here addressing the situation at all,” Grossman said. “We know they came out earlier in the year, but it would be nice to see them caring more.”

The Wayne County Department of Public Services said the road was last graded on March 14.

While the road was repaired after the April 9 accident, it still hasn’t been graded.

A spokesperson for the department said the road is scheduled to be graded again soon, likely in the next few business days after the rain dries.

Those who live along the road said vehicles routinely slide into ditches after heavy rain because the shoulders and embankments soften.

“Anytime there’s heavy rain, all the embankments on the sides are soft,” Grossman said. “It explains why what happened with the bus did happen, and plenty of people go in the ditches.”

Parents say they want more than a temporary fix.

“I’m just hopeful that we can maybe look into other plans for the road, other than just filling it with dirt — maybe pavement at this point — at least for this main road where there’s a lot of traffic, where the kids are being transported on the bus,” Riddle said.

Grossman said more routine maintenance would be a start.

“It’s one of those things where I think if there was proper road maintenance, there would be less debate on whether or not we should even have to pave it or not,” she said. “I think people would be happier if it was just maintained properly.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Lyons' departure, calling him a great leader of ICE who helped to make American communities safer. Mullin said Lyons' last day will be May 31.

“We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector,” Mullin said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking why he is resigning.

Lyons, who was named acting director in March 2025, led the agency at the center of President Donald Trump’s plans to reshape immigration to the U.S.

Under his leadership, the agency was granted a massive infusion of cash through Congress, which it used to expand hiring and detention capabilities, and it ramped up arrests to meet demand from the administration.

ICE was also central to a series of high-profile immigration enforcement operations in American cities, including Chicago and Minneapolis, a deployment that ended after backlash erupted over the deaths of two American protesters at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff and the main architect of his immigration policy, called Lyons a "dedicated leader."

“His courageous work at ICE has saved countless thousands of American lives and helped deliver safety and tranquility to millions of Americans,” Miller said in a statement.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson described Lyons in a post on X as “an American patriot who made our country safer.”

It’s not clear who might replace Lyons. But whoever does will take over an agency flush with cash while still a flashpoint for controversy. ICE is at the center of a battle in Congress, with Democratic lawmakers demanding restraints on immigration officers before agreeing to restore routine funding for DHS.

On Thursday, Lyons, along with two other top immigration officials, appeared before a House subcommittee to argue for his agency’s budget and faced continued scrutiny from lawmakers of ICE’s actions.

Lyons' departure also comes as DHS is under new leadership after Trump fired former Secretary Kristi Noem, who led the department through the administration’s major immigration policy changes.

Mullin, who took over as secretary last month, is likely to continue to advance the president’s agenda but has struck a softer tone on some of the administration’s most contentious policies.

Public perceptions of ICE during Lyons' tenure were low. In a February AP-NORC poll, most U.S. adults, including independents, said they have an unfavorable view of the agency.

Lyons faced questions in Congress over the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and was asked if he would apologize for the way some Trump administration officials characterized Good as an agitator. He declined to do so.

“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private. But I’m not going to comment on any active investigation,” Lyons said.

Lyons said he had seen video that captured Pretti’s shooting but said he could not comment, citing an active investigation.

Lyons, who joined ICE in 2007 as an immigration enforcement agent in Texas, signed off on a memo, first obtained by The Associated Press, that granted federal immigration officers sweeping powers to forcibly enter homes and make arrests without a judge’s warrant.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan described Lyons as serving selflessly and “a highly respected and effective acting Director of ICE.”

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Golden reported from Seattle.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the agreement as a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. However, Israel has not been fighting with Lebanon itself, but rather with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants inside the country, who were not formally part of the agreement.

Barrages of gunshots rang out across Beirut as residents fired into the air just after midnight to celebrate the beginning of the truce.

Displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, despite warnings by officials not to attempt to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.

Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a “security zone.” Netanyahu, in his video address, said it will extend 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon.

“That is where we are, and we are not leaving,” he said.

Hezbollah said that “Israeli occupation on our land grants Lebanon and its people the right to resist it, and this matter will be determined based on how developments unfold” — a stance that could complicate the ceasefire.

Israel reserves right to defend itself

The U.S. State Department said that according to the agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.” But otherwise, Israel “will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets.”

The wording suggested Israel would maintain the freedom to strike at will, as it did in the months following the ceasefire that ended the previous war. This time, Hezbollah said it would respond to any strikes by Israel.

It's unclear when the 1 million people displaced by the war will be able to safely return.

Lebanon’s state-run National News agency reported that Israeli shelling continued in the villages of Khiam and Dibbine about a half hour after the truce went into effect. Israel’s military said it was looking into reports of shelling and artillery fire in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah kept firing rockets at northern Israeli towns and communities right up to the start of the ceasefire. Air raid sirens went off in some often-targeted border towns less than 10 minutes before midnight.

Flurry of diplomacy

The agreement came after a meeting between Israel's and Lebanon’s ambassadors in Washington and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a White House official.

They were the first direct diplomatic talks between the two countries in decades. Hezbollah had opposed direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rubio then called Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.

The State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.

“May have been a historic day for Lebanon. Good things are happening!!!” Trump said in a social media post.

Trump extends White House invitation

Lebanon has insisted on a ceasefire to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah before engaging in more talks, while vowing to commit to disarming the group.

Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.

Trump also invited the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to the White House for what he said would be “the first meaningful talks" between the countries since 1983.

“Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly,” Trump wrote on social media.

Lebanon and Israel signed an agreement in 1983 saying Lebanon would formally recognize Israel, and Israel would withdraw from Lebanon. The deal fell apart during Lebanon’s civil war and was formally rescinded a year later.

A Hezbollah official said the ceasefire was a result of Iran’s negotiations with the U.S., in which Iran had insisted Lebanon be included in its own ceasefire, and came about through efforts by mediator Pakistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Pakistan army chief meets with Iranian parliament speaker

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension to a ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

It was unclear whether the frantic diplomacy could lead to a lasting deal before the ceasefire ends next week. The Iran war has killed thousands of people and upended global markets by disrupting the flow of oil.

Iranian state television did not provide details on the meeting between Pakistani Army Gen. Asim Munir and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, his country’s chief negotiator.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, a key mediator after hosting the talks between the U.S. and Iran that authorities said helped narrow differences between the sides.

The White House said any further talks regarding Iran would likely take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, though no decision had been made on whether to resume negotiations. The fragile ceasefire is holding despite a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iranian counter-threats to target regional ports across the Red Sea.

Trump suggested the ceasefire could be extended.

“If we’re close to a deal, would I extend?” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “Yeah, I would do that.”

The war has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have pounded military and civilian infrastructure. Oil prices have fallen amid hopes for an end to fighting, and U.S. stocks on Wednesday surpassed records set in January.

Officials say US and Iran are making progress

Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire, regional officials reported progress, telling AP the United States and Iran had an “in-principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

But tensions simmered.

The commander of Iran’s joint military command, Ali Abdollahi, threatened to halt trade in the region if the U.S. does not lift its naval blockade, and a newly appointed military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he does not support extending the ceasefire.

Mediators seek compromise on sticking points

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic through the strait, which a fifth of global oil transited through in peacetime. Tehran’s effective closure of the strait sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the cost of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.

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Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece. Matthew Lee and Ben Finley in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Mejía, 48, a former head of the Working Families Alliance who had support from Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, will fill the seat previously held by Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill and serve until January.

Her victory is a win for progressives and means Democrats hold on to the 11th District seat in the House, where Republicans hold a thin majority. It also adds to a string of victories for Democrats heading into this year’s midterm elections.

The Associated Press called the race for Mejía minutes after the polls closed.

Mejía later spoke in Montclair to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters who called out in unison with her that she was an “unbought, unbossed, sassy new member of Congress.”

Republicans criticized her throughout the campaign as too far to the left. She pushed back against those arguments, calling for better health care and education and attacking billionaires for having a “stranglehold” on the economy.

“It is not radical to say that a worker who toils every day cannot make ends meet, that they deserve justice, that they deserve higher wages,” Mejía said Thursday night. “That is not radical, that is good conscience. That is a good economy.”

Her speech echoed Sanders, who congratulated her in a social media post and said she would be a “great progressive addition” to Congress.

Mejía emerged from a crowded primary in February and cast the race as a test of Trump’s leadership. She criticized his pardons of people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes and faulted him for freezing funds authorized by Congress.

She campaigned on populist economic policies and pushing to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has criticized the Israeli government and said she stands with Palestinian communities in their “pursuit of peace and dignity.”

Hathaway, 38, tried to use Mejía's progressive credentials to his advantage, as national Republicans cast her as a socialist. After her victory he congratulated Mejía and wished her well. He added that he still believes the district is looking for “balanced, pragmatic” leadership, not “far-left policies.”

The two could go head to head again in November’s election for a full two-year term.

The 11th District, which covers parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey’s wealthy suburbs, was long a Republican stronghold but has become increasingly Democratic since Trump’s first term.

Sherrill first won the seat in 2018’s midterm elections, when Democrats flipped dozens of seats to take control of Congress. In 2024 she won reelection by about 15 points, while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, carried the district by nearly 9 points.

Mejía's margin of victory was greater. With more than 90% of votes counted late Thursday, she led Hathaway by about 20 percentage points. Additional mail-in ballots — which have favored Mejía by an even larger margin — will be counted in the coming days as they can arrive as late as Wednesday.

Saran Cunningham, an 86-year-old retired special educator, said she was initially reluctant to support Mejía, worried that her views were too far to the left. She backed another candidate in the primary. But recently, outside the Morristown early polling location, she said she would now vote for Mejía.

“I think we’ve been tilting a little bit more to the right lately, which worries me,” Cunningham said. “I think that we need people in Congress who will fight for things that will help people as opposed to hurting them.”

Rob Berkowitz, 62, cast his early vote for Hathaway at the Denville polling station. Describing himself as a conservative, Berkowitz gave Trump high marks on immigration, the economy and the war in Iran, comparing him to Winston Churchill. He criticized the Democratic Party for moving away from leaders in the style of Harry Truman, whom he praised.

“They want borders wide open. They don’t want to enforce existing immigration laws,” Berkowitz said.

The February Democratic primary pitted Mejía against former Rep. Tom Malinowski and others in a race where the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was a key player. The group’s affiliated super PAC tried to thwart Malinowski after he questioned unconditional aid to the Israeli government. That effort appeared to backfire as Mejía, who said she agreed that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, came out on top.

Over the years she has been a regular presence in the state Capitol, advocating for progressive causes, and was Sanders’ political director during his 2020 presidential run. During the Biden administration, she was deputy director of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau.

In addition to winning Sanders’ endorsement, she was backed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Hathaway, a former Yale University football player, has worked in health care and finance as well as in politics as an aide for former GOP Gov. Chris Christie.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s latest ruling comes in response to an appeals court’s instruction to clarify an earlier decision on the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom planned for the site where it demolished the East Wing of the White House.

Trump on social media called Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, a “Trump Hating” judge who “has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built.”

The administration filed a notice that it will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review Leon's latest decision, too.

National Trust for Historic Preservation president and CEO Carol Quillen, whose group sued to challenge the project, said in a statement that the group is pleased with the court's ruling.

Leon said that below-ground work on security measures is exempt from his order suspending above-ground construction. Government lawyers have argued that the project includes critical security features to guard against a range of possible threats, such as drones, ballistic missiles and biohazards.

Leon's latest ruling comes several days after a three-judge panel from the D.C. appeals court instructed him to reconsider the possible national security implications of stopping construction.

In his previous order, Leon barred above-ground work on the ballroom from proceeding without congressional approval. The judge also ruled on March 31 that any construction work that’s necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House is exempt from the scope of the injunction. Leon said he reviewed material that the government privately submitted to him before concluding that halting construction wouldn’t jeopardize national security.

Leon had suspended his March 31 order for two weeks. He stayed his latest decision for another week, which gives the administration more time to seek Supreme Court review.

Leon said he is ordering a stop only to the above-ground construction of the planned ballroom, apart from any work needed to cover or secure that part of the project. Otherwise, the Trump administration is free to proceed with the construction of any excavations, bunkers, military installations, and medical facilities below the ballroom.

“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated," the judge wrote. “That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!”

On Saturday, the appeals court panel said it didn't have enough information to decide how much of the project can be suspended without jeopardizing the safety of the president, his family or the White House staff.

Leon said he recognizes the safety implications of the case, but stressed that “national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.” He also said he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager.”

On April 2, two days after Leon's previous ruling, Trump’s ballroom won final approval from the 12-member National Capital Planning Commission, which is charged with approving construction on federal property in the Washington region.

The preservation group sued in December, a week after the White House finished demolishing the East Wing to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people. Trump says the project is funded by private donations, although public money is paying for the bunker construction and security upgrades.

He returned to the piano only after a mentor told him about a large number of piano pieces for the left hand alone.

After exhaustive practice he made a comeback, playing recitals as South Korea's only known professional left-hand-only pianist.

He is now preparing for a new challenge: his first joint performance with an orchestra at an international music festival next month.

“I’m so, so nervous I could die,” Lee, 54, said with a smile during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his Seoul home. “It’s just one concerto but working with an orchestra has its own difficulties.”

Thrown into despair

In August 2012, Lee, then a doctorate candidate at the music school at the University of Cincinnati, abruptly collapsed at his home.

He survived after extensive surgery, but the stroke damaged about 60% of his brain’s left hemisphere. He couldn’t move his right arm and leg and suffered temporary aphasia.

Lee was later brought back to South Korea in a wheelchair. His father, Lee Hae Chang, a baseball legend in South Korea, said his son couldn’t recognize him upon arrival.

“After the stroke, I didn’t even imagine playing the piano. I only thought about whether I could stand on my feet again,” Lee Hun said.

Performing with five fingers

Lee’s condition was also hard on his family, who had to care for him daily. His mother Poong Ok Hee recalled she had fought a lot with her son because of his mood swings. He often resisted her advice and assistance.

Things began changing after he dined with his former piano teacher, Chun Yung Hae, in 2013. Chun encouraged him to play the piano again, saying there were more than 1,000 pieces for the left hand alone. That rekindled his passion for the piano, and Lee began practicing immediately that night.

In 2016, Lee made a formal debut as a one-handed pianist at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, where he received treatment and rehabilitation. After performing Camille Saint-Saens’ “6 Etudes for the Left Hand Alone,” Lee played “Amazing Grace” with Chun, with Lee using his left hand and Chun her right hand. At least one spectator cried.

“He is a pianist so he must play the piano. He was completely hopeless and in despair, so I tried to give him some hope. But I didn’t expect him to play as well as this,” said Chun, who served as dean of the College of Music at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University.

Performing a masterpiece with orchestra

Lee has steadily given recitals, appeared on TV programs and written a memoir. He now walks without assistance and communicates relatively smoothly in Korean.

Local media dub him as “Korea’s Paul Wittgenstein,” an acclaimed Austrian pianist who is considered a pioneer in one-handed piano music. He lost his right arm in World War I and commissioned left-hand repertories by famed composers, including Ravel, Strauss, Prokofiev and Britten. His brother was philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

On May 2, Lee is to appear at the annual Icheon Young-Artist International Music Festival in South Korea, performing with a festival orchestra. They’ll play Ravel’s “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand,” which was also commissioned by Wittgenstein.

It’s a highly difficult piece for a pianist, Lee said, but it’s something he’s been eager to play.

Chung Eun-hyon, head of Lee’s agency, Tool Music, said Lee has told him it’s his dream to play the concerto. Chung said he feels deeply emotional as he helps “make his dream come true.”

Dreams of a two-handed comeback

Before becoming a one-handed pianist, Lee said he focused on how to perfect skills to wow audiences. Now, he agonizes over how to convey his emotions and interpretation of music to people.

“He plays a sort of music that truly touches the heart of people and it’s not about finger dexterity,” said Lee Eungkwang, head of a cultural foundation responsible for the Icheon festival.

“I’m really curious what it was like when he played with both hands,” Lee said.

Lee Hun said he hopes to make a two-handed comeback one day, saying he succeeded in pressing a piano key once with his right hand at a concert in November 2024.

Medically speaking, prospects for Lee regaining the use of his right hand and performing with both hands are dim, according to his doctor at St. Mary’s Hospital, Koo Jaseong.

“I still would like to give him a round of applause to his efforts. Though rare, there have been reports of miraculous recoveries too,” Koo said.

The Pistons defeated the Toronto Raptors 133-95 without their two big men to improve to 40-13 on the season, their second-best record at the All-Star break in franchise history.

Detroit was 42-9 during the 2005-06 season.

With tonight’s victory at Toronto, the Pistons are now 40-13 (.755) entering the All-Star break— their second-best record at the All-Star Break in franchise history (42-9, 2005-06). pic.twitter.com/bh7dfRf3a9

— Pistons PR (@Pistons_PR) February 12, 2026

Langdon addressed concerns around Isaiah Stewart’s reputation in the league following his fight in the Charlotte Hornets game during his appearance on the Costa and Jansen show on 97.1 The Ticket on Wednesday (Feb. 11).

He said the team is more focused on the league’s disciplinary decisions, which could result in suspensions that would hurt the team.

“We’ll rally, and we’ll come together, but we’ll miss him,” Langdon said.

Stewart was suspended for seven games for his involvement in the scuffle, while NBA All-Star Jalen Duren received two games for escalating the hard foul put on him by former Michigan Wolverines forward Moussa Diabate.

Langdon emphasized Stewart’s loyalty to teammates, noting that Stewart acted to defend a teammate but acknowledged that such actions cannot happen again, as they could set the team back.

Regarding communication with the league office about the suspensions, Langdon said it was mostly a “sit and wait” situation as the league conducted due diligence on all players involved.

Kevin Huerter

Langdon then discussed the addition of Kevin Huerter at the trade deadline.

He praised Herder’s basketball IQ and versatility, noting that Herder doesn’t just run plays but creates spacing and scoring opportunities for himself and teammates.

While it’s still early with only a few games played, Langdon expects Huerter to be integrated soon after the All-Star break.

Jaden Ivey

Regarding Jaden Ivey’s struggles in Detroit, Langdon pointed to the timing of Ivey’s injury and subsequent surgeries that sidelined him for nearly a year.

He said transitioning back to NBA basketball midseason after such a long layoff is very difficult, but expressed hope that Ivey will figure it out with time.

When asked about the temptation to make a big move at the trade deadline, given injuries to other Eastern Conference stars, Langdon said the Pistons prioritized responsible moves that help now without hampering future years.

After exploring options, they found no moves that met that criteria.

→ Why Detroit traded Jaden Ivey; what Kevin Huerter, Dario Saric bring to Pistons ahead of playoff push

Title contender

Langdon acknowledged that the Eastern Conference is competitive despite injuries to key players such as Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum.

He stressed the team’s focus on reaching its potential rather than the broader picture, noting that the playoffs present a different challenge for the Pistons, who lack experience.

Asked if the current roster is good enough to win an NBA title, Langdon declined to speculate, citing the team’s lack of playoff success so far.

He said winning a championship is very difficult and requires sustained effort, but he believes the team is competitive and has a chance to make an impact.

Tobias Harris

Regarding Tobias Harris, Langdon highlighted his professionalism, leadership, and consistency.

Langdon said Harris is a key player who contributes in many ways on both ends of the floor and that keeping him was important for the team.

Malik Beasley

On Malik Beasley’s status, Langdon said Beasley is still under league investigation with no clarity on when it will conclude.

Daniss Jenkins

Finally, Langdon praised Daniss Jenkins unexpected rise, calling him a high competitor with good size and character who has taken advantage of opportunities and continues to improve.

Langdon described Jenkins as a great story for the team and the NBA.

→ ‘I knew I was an NBA player’: Detroit Pistons commit to Daniss Jenkins as guard earns 2-year deal

Langdon closed by reiterating his conversation with Stewart about balancing his protective instincts with the need to avoid suspensions that could harm the team.

“This has to be something we talk about, come up with solutions, and hold each other accountable to that,” Langdon said.

“If you book a ticket, we want you and your family to have the certainty that you’ll fly without endless delays and cancellations,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

O’Hare has the most number of flights of any U.S. airport, and it already had one of the worst records for flight delays nationwide last year.

More than 3,080 flights were planned on peak days this summer, which represented a 14.9% increase from the summer before, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. That increase comes as air traffic controllers deal with taxiway closures for construction projects.

In its draft order, the federal government said both American and United announced expansion plans at O’Hare that could lead to significant delays this summer and limit the airfield’s ability to handle the expected amount of traffic.

Duffy said that the schedule was unrealistic and would have exceeded what the airport could handle. So the number of flights at the airport will be limited to a maximum of 2,708, which is still slightly higher than maximum of 2,680 flights that were scheduled at the peak of last summer. He said that “will reduce delays and make this busy summer travel season a little easier."

On slower days of the week, fewer flights will have to be cut because a smaller number was scheduled in the first place. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are typically slower days of the week for flights.

The flight limits will take effect May 17 and last through Oct. 24.

Airlines will go through the details of the order to figure out how many flights they have to cancel and then will notify customers.

American Airlines said that once implemented, the FAA’s order will improve reliability and reduce delays for customers traveling through O’Hare this summer.

“We are grateful to Secretary Duffy, Administrator Bedford, and their leadership teams for acting swiftly to ensure that Chicagoans and all consumers continue to benefit from sensible competition and to help minimize flight disruptions during the busy summer season,” American said in a statement.

American told employees in a memo that it estimates that it will have to cut no more than 40 arrivals and departures per day, but it estimates that United might have to cut more than 200 arrivals and departures based on the published schedules. United did not provide an estimate of how many flights it will have to cut.

United said the airline appreciates that the government came up with “a solution that makes sense for everyone who cares about O'Hare's success.”

Both airlines will review the order and their scheduled to determine where to make cuts and then notify travelers who are affected.

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Associated Press Transportation Writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.

Hamilton was FEMA’s temporary leader from January to May of last year but was fired one day after testifying on Capitol Hill that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle the organization charged with coordinating the federal government's response to disasters, an idea Trump had repeatedly floated.

“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee.

FEMA has lacked a permanent administrator throughout Trump's second term and is currently on its third temporary leader, something critics have said undermines the agency's effectiveness.

Trump offered Hamilton the job Wednesday, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported Trump's intent to nominate Hamilton.

Hamilton’s nomination would come at a crucial time for FEMA and as its future remains uncertain. Trump has said he wants to shift more responsibility for disasters to states and has created a FEMA Review Council, expected to propose sweeping reforms to how the agency supports disaster-impacted communities.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has expressed support for FEMA while calling for reforms, striking a stark contrast from his predecessor Kristi Noem, who vowed to "eliminate FEMA as it exists today” and whose dealings with the review council grew fraught.

It’s unclear how Hamilton would lead FEMA or what Trump expects from his leadership.

Hamilton's relationship with DHS officials became “very hostile” during his short tenure at FEMA, he said in a September episode of the podcast “Disaster Tough.” He wanted to cut “wasteful spending” and “downsize the agency,” he said, but not dismantle it.

Trump has not officially announced the nomination and could change his mind. Hamilton could also face headwinds during the Senate confirmation process over never having served as a state emergency management director.

Federal law requires FEMA’s administrator to have “a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security” and no less than five years of executive leadership and management experience. If confirmed, he would become the principal advisor to the president and the Homeland Security secretary for all matters related to emergency management.

Hamilton spent a decade in the U.S. Navy Seals, serving on Seal Team Eight for four overseas deployments between 2005 and 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile and a Congressional bio.

He then served as a supervisory emergency management specialist at the U.S. State Department and as the Department of Homeland Security’s director of emergency services for several years.

Hamilton ran for Congress in Virginia’s 7th district in 2024 but lost in the Republican primary.

In a LinkedIn post earlier this month marking 47 years since FEMA’s establishment, Hamilton said he was grateful to have served under Trump and alongside FEMA colleagues. “I wish my tenure had been longer,” he wrote, “as there is still much more work to do for reform.”

Milenko Faria was interviewed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices near Los Angeles, while his wife, Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, entered her sixth day in immigration custody in Texas and was unable to attend the appointment they had been waiting for for more than 10 years.

Bolivar, who worked as a doctor in an area federally designated as medically underserved, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at McAllen International Airport on Saturday. She was with their American-born daughter, preparing to board a flight to join her husband and attend their asylum interview together.

Bolivar, 33, was the second Venezuelan physician arrested in the area within the span of a week. On April 6, Dr. Ezequiel Veliz was detained by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in South Texas. After spending about ten days in detention, his attorney, Victor Badell, said he was able to successfully request a bond hearing and secure his release on Thursday after paying a bond of $8,000.

The arrests are part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Following an enforcement surge in Minnesota in January, in which two U.S. citizens died, the Department of Homeland Security has focused on less visible arrests.

Bolívar worked in the emergency room of a hospital in McAllen, city of about 150,000 in the Rio Grande Valley near the Mexican border, starting in June 2025, when she was accepted into her medical residency program.

“She was always focused on the community, and when she was accepted, it was an immense joy,” Faria, 36, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “We have never done anything outside the law. We have done everything by following the steps in accordance with the law to obtain permanent residency."

The husband said that she arrived at the U.S. with a tourist visa in 2016, after graduating from medical school in her native Venezuela.

Before her authorized period of stay expired, she was included in the asylum application filed by her husband, he said. Both are also seeking a green card through an application for skilled workers, processed by Faria’s employer, a California company where he has worked as an information systems technician since 2019.

The couple was beneficiary of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela that shielded more than 600,000 Venezuelans from deportation. Trump terminated the protections for Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and other countries, a decision that has been challenged in federal court.

The Department of Homeland Security said that Bolivar was arrested because she was in the country illegally.

“She has overstayed her visa since 2017, nearly a decade, and had no legal status,” said DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis.

Jodi Goodwin, an immigration attorney in South Texas, noted that around September or October 2025, she observed a change in policy regarding travel of individuals with pending applications before USCIS.

”It just became a very apparent trend where anyone that had some kind of application pending with USCIS, whether it was an adjustment of status or asylum, anything like that, they were going to be arrested,” said Goodwin.

Faria and Bolivar lived together in Santa Maria, California, until she moved to Texas in the summer of 2025 for her medical residency. He said he traveled every two months to visit his wife and daughter. The day of her arrest was the first time Bolívar had traveled since moving to Texas.

Bolivar was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers before passing through transportation security screening, where she was asked to show her identification. She showed her driver’s license — bearing the “Real ID” endorsement required to domestic flights — and a work authorization valid until 2030.

She told them that she was adjusting status to a green card and was traveling to California for an asylum interview but the officer detained her after asking for her nationality and demanding that she provide proof of legal permanent residency, said Faria. He received text messages from his wife at the time she was being arrested.

Their 5-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested and handed over to her grandfather 19 hours later. The girl is currently in California with her father.

The doctor was transferred to ICE custody on Sunday and is being held at El Valle Detention Facility in Texas.

She has asked several times why she was detained but has not received any response yet, Faria said.

Ezequiel Veliz, the other Venezuelan physician, came to the United States to become a doctor in 2018 under a tourist visa. His friend, Hector Ruiz, described him as a kind-hearted doctor who loves his pet cats and is devoted to his work.

Veliz adjusted his immigration status as a student and later as a doctor at a South Texas hospital in the Rio Grande Valley working under TPS. The pause in the protection status had immediate consequences on his two-year residency.

“He was one year and four months into that. He couldn’t continue working legally. He had to stop,” said Badell, his attorney.

He was waiting for a visa requested by the hospital when he was detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint traveling to Houston with his husband on April 6.

___

Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., expressed alarm that federal workers may be using AI chatbots to handle sensitive government data. Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., asked whether it should be illegal for AI systems to use someone’s likeness to create pornographic images.

Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., expressed concerns that AI systems could deny U.S. military forces from taking lethal actions due to a model's conclusion for “moral” behavior. And Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., raised concerns about the Trump administration’s use of AI in the war with Iran, the technology’s intensive energy usage and its potential effects on the climate.

While members of Congress elsewhere debated other major topics — the scope of the federal government’s surveillance powers, the war with Iran and funding the Department of Homeland Security — the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee roundtable on “Artificial Intelligence and American Power” brought executives of AI firms, academics and those implementing AI at major companies together with lawmakers.

Thursday’s discussion comes as leaders on Capitol Hill grapple with the dizzying pace of global developments in which technology plays a central role. But the conversation quickly considered the potential for artificial intelligence to dwarf every other challenge facing the country.

“People in our districts across this country are going to start feeling impacts very soon, and if we don’t start thinking properly and aggressively and proactively about the challenges that AI creates, I fear that we’re going to have a revolution on our hands,” said Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif.

The subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, also expressed optimism about AI’s ability to cure diseases and boost the economy. But Frost, currently the youngest member of Congress, worried that the technology would outpace lawmakers and pose potentially disastrous consequences if not addressed early on.

“I don’t have faith in this institution to actually put the common sense guardrails in place. And then we fast forward ten years, and the house is on fire,” said Frost. “That won’t be good for anybody, whether it’s the industry or working families and people, or this institution itself.”

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., kicked off the meeting with praise for the industry and marveled at how one panelist’s company used AI to automate and fast-track manufacturing in the firm’s factories.

“It’s truly like the closest thing to Star Trek I’ve ever seen,” Burlison said. He later inquired about what congressional districts should do to attract AI firms for business.

Many also openly fretted about disclosures from technology firms like Anthropic, which recently announced that its Mythos AI model, which the company claims has capabilities so powerful that it is limiting its use to select customers because of its apparent ability to bypass traditional cybersecurity and hack major institutions like banks, government agencies and major corporations.

“I recognize AI is not going anywhere,” said Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., a former Navy SEAL who served in combat. “That being said, does anyone on this panel feel or believe, in any way, that as we are going down the road in this AI race, we might be simultaneously engineering our own destruction?”

The assembled experts and industry leaders all highlighted AI’s vast and growing capabilities. They urged lawmakers, alongside their policy recommendations, to be thoughtful and well-informed when making policy.

Mark Beall, president of government affairs at the AI Policy Network Inc. and a former Pentagon official, warned that Congress risked the country losing its competitive edge on AI if it did not act on key national security concerns.

“I don’t think it’s going to kill us,” Robert Atkinson, founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology think tank, told lawmakers.

“At the same time, I do think it’s important for the federal government to seriously fund AI safety research,” Atkinson continued. “We need to know a lot more about how the models work.”

Spencer Overton, a George Washington University law professor, said the incentives for AI companies “are really what they should be” when asked by lawmakers whether the firms were good actors.

“Constituents are looking for you, not for companies, to step up and protect them," Overton said. "They’re trusting you, the person that they voted for, to do that, as opposed to companies. That’s the way the system works, right?”

The Detroit Regional Communication Center said they received a call from a person who reported hearing gunshots near Cloverdale Avenue and Woodside Avenue on Thursday (April 16) around 12:10 p.m.

When troopers arrived, they said they found the glass front door of God’s Grace Missionary Baptist Church, 8712 Cloverdale Avenue, was shattered and scattered.

Police said no injuries were reported and no suspects were immediately identified at the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Metro North Post at 1-248-584-5740 or Crime Stoppers at 800.SPEAK.UP.

Patrol Activity:
04/16/26 at 12:10 p.m.
Location:
God’s Grace Missionary Baptist Church - 8712 Cloverdale Avenue, Charter Township of Royal Oak
Synopsis:
The Detroit Regional Communication Center received a call from a person who said they heard gunshots in the area of Cloverdale… pic.twitter.com/5JyMkXDI1f

— MSP Second District (@mspmetrodet) April 16, 2026

Owner David Blitzer announced the hire less than 48 hours after the team’s regular season ended without a playoff appearance. Mehta was an assistant when the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup each of the past two years.

“We quickly realized this job was in high demand and were incredibly fortunate to meet with many qualified candidates," Blitzer said. "Sunny’s familiarity with our organization and experience with a two-time Stanley Cup-winning team are characteristics that will serve as a foundation for future success. Our expectations are to be a perennial playoff team and compete for the Stanley Cup, and I look forward to Sunny leading us there.”

Mehta, 48, established the NHL's first full-fledged analytics department when he joined his home-state Devils in 2014 and worked for them through 2018. He spent time with Washington before going to Florida.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, who also had a vacancy after firing Brad Treliving late last month, also showed interest in Mehta, given their interest in a numbers-driven GM. The Devils beat Toronto the punch.

Raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, Mehta grew up a Devils fan. He had a career as a professional poker player and worked in finance before getting into hockey.

“I knew this was the place I wanted to be,” Mehta said, thanking the Panthers for the chance to take the next step in his career. “New Jersey has a tremendous young core that will be looking to get back to being a contender, a complement of young assets and draft picks, and a passionate fan base hungry for success.”

The Devils parted ways with longtime GM Tom Fitzgerald late in the season. The future of coach Sheldon Keefe is not clear, though he guided the team to the playoffs in his first year in charge.

Mehta takes over at an important time for the franchise, with U.S. Olympic hero Jack Hughes at the center of a young core and captain Nico Hischier eligible to sign an extension as soon as July 1.

“I’m focusing on playing hockey here,” Hischier said about it the morning after Fitzgerald left. "I still have one more year. I’m with the Devils right now, and then we’ll see what happens."

If he is able to trade defenseman Dougie Hamilton this summer after his $7.4 million roster bonus is paid, it will clear up valuable salary cap space to use to improve the forward group.

___

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

In his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, kicking off an expected sprint of seven budget hearings he'll attend across congressional committees and subcommittees over the next week, Kennedy emphasized the administration's work to reform dietary guidelines and crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.

Republicans on the committee praised Kennedy as a “breath of fresh air” and asked him to promote his department's recent actions. Democrats, who have been furious over Kennedy's sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, largely had a different agenda.

They needled Kennedy on what they viewed as the Trump administration’s hypocrisy on fraud, demanded to know why he was cutting budgets for various programs and slammed his efforts to pull back vaccine recommendations and messaging, which they said have caused unnecessary deaths.

Kennedy fired back, often raising his voice as he accused the Democrats of misrepresenting his work and past statements.

Here are three standout moments from Thursday's hearing:

A standoff over measles

One heated exchange early in the hearing came between Kennedy and Rep. Linda Sanchez. The California Democrat decried recent measles outbreaks across the U.S. and asked Kennedy to answer for the fact that under his leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled back public health messaging supporting vaccination.

“As a mother, this horrifies me,” Sanchez said. “Did President Trump approve your decision to end CDC’s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?”

Kennedy repeatedly refused to answer, saying first he wanted to respond to the “misstatements that you've made” and later praising the Trump administration's record on preventing measles, although protections against the disease have eroded in some parts of the country as vaccination rates have dropped.

“That's not answering my question,” Sanchez said as the two talked over each other.

But Sanchez also got Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, to acknowledge that a 6-year-old who died of measles last year in West Texas could have potentially been saved with vaccination.

“Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child’s life in Texas?” she asked.

“It's possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.

RFK Jr. denies talking about Black children being ‘re-parented’

A fight erupted between Kennedy and Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, when Kennedy vehemently denied making remarks he'd said in 2024.

The comments dated back to when Kennedy was a presidential candidate. On the “High Level Conversations” podcast in 2024, he said, “Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented to live in a community where there'll be no cellphones, no screens, you'll actually have to talk to people."

“Have you ever re-parented, or parented, I should say, a Black child?” Sewell asked, as her staff held up a poster featuring an abbreviated version of the quote.

“I don't even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said. “I'm not going to answer something I didn't say.”

“You're making stuff up,” he later claimed.

A recording of the podcast shows he made the comments during a conversation about free rehabilitation facilities he was proposing opening at the time in rural areas around the country.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy before joining the administration was referring to spaces where young people facing alienation, mental health challenges and despair could get re-parented, which she said was a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”

For Kennedy and his former party, civility is the exception

Kennedy spent most of his life as a Democrat, the scion of one of the nation's most famous political families. Both Republicans and Democrats during the hearing began their remarks by expressing their admiration of Kennedy's relatives, among them former President John F. Kennedy.

But again and again throughout Thursday's hearing, the fraying of bonds between Kennedy and his former party was on full display as spiteful comments were passed back and forth.

The health secretary grew defensive and visibly agitated. He repeatedly criticized Democratic lawmakers for not giving him a word in edgewise.

“They've all shut me up,” Kennedy said at one point. “They give a little speech that they can go and market, you know, for fundraising, and they don't allow me to answer the question.”

On a few rare occasions, the exchanges were civil. One representative, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, used humor to make that happen.

“I promise to give you easy, comfortable questions if you don't yell at me and hurt my feelings,” she told Kennedy. He promised he wouldn't.

__

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Kennedy's remarks about Black children were made last year. He made the remarks in 2024.

Workers who earn tips and overtime are seeing bigger returns this tax season, but those savings and others resulting from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that Trump signed last year have been eaten away by higher gas pricesdriven by the Iran war.

The president recalled in his remarks how a woman in Las Vegas gave him the idea to make tips tax-free, a move that he said is now helping “thousands of Nevada waiters and waitresses, casino dealers, bartenders, bellmen, barbers, caddies."

“Every single American at every income level has more money in their pockets this week because of the Republican tax policies,” Trump said. “And we got to win the midterms. If we don't, these policies are going to be taken away from you.”

The president’s rare trip out West comes as Trump faces growing political pressure to wrap up the war and focus on a message that helps his party as they try to defend their congressional majorities in November’s elections. Trump insisted before departing from the White House for Las Vegas that gas prices were “not very high” compared with what he thought they would be because of the Iran war.

On Friday, Trump will hold an event in Phoenix with conservative political group Turning Point USA. But his first stop is in Las Vegas where he will hold a roundtable with several police officers who have benefited from new tax breaks on overtime, along with a barber and a casino pit supervisor, who got to claim the new tax breaks on tips.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the average tax refund this year has been over $3,400, up about $340 from a year ago.

Vegas, once known for affordable living, feels economic pain

In Las Vegas, the entertainment industry has been the city's financial lifeblood and many workers depend on gratuities from visitors.

But it’s also a city of commuters, including the tipped workers who drive to their jobs at glitzy casinos. Gasoline is averaging $5 a gallon in Las Vegas, up 28% from a year ago, according to AAA.

Nicholas Delaney, an airline attendant who lives in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson and said he did not vote for the president in 2024, said he thinks Trump is doing a “terrible” job when it comes to the cost of living. He thought the tax break for tips was a good policy, but is concerned about the cost of groceries and gas.

“I gotta spend over $100 for a full tank of gas, 13 gallons? Crazy,” Delaney said.

Paula Goodman, a bartender in a Henderson casino, said the cost of living is her biggest concern right now, adding that she spends more than $400 a week on groceries for her family.

But Goodman, who voted for the president, said she thought he is “doing a pretty good damn job,” and doesn’t blame him for high gas prices, which she portrayed as just a fluctuation. As a bartender, she said she personally appreciated the tax savings on tips she brings home.

“Every little penny nowadays is, like, huge,” she said. “You’ve seen diesel, right? $6.11.”

Tax refunds are offset by gas prices

The White House said Trump is focused on tax cuts, deregulation and boosting U.S. energy production to drive down prices, and describes high gas prices as a temporary disruption from the war in Iran.

“Tens of millions of Americans are benefiting this tax season from the president’s signature provisions” in the tax law, said White House spokesman Kush Desai, saying that shows “how the administration hasn’t lost focus on delivering on our affordability agenda at home.”

Even so, the conflict has made things less affordable. The Bank of America Institute looked at its deposit and spending data and in a Tuesday analysis concluded that “the average increase in tax refunds could cover the average increase in gasoline spending for at least five months.”

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, the insurance and financial services company, said last week in an analysis that “the steep rise in gasoline prices looks likely to completely offset the increased tax funds windfall with households,” stressing that the money back would likely prevent a sharper drop in consumer spending.

Trump's economic message focusing on the tax breaks has also been drowned out this week by distractions from the president himself, who angered even some of his own supporters when he got into a public fight with the pope and posted a now-deleted image on social media depicting himself as Jesus.

GOP strategist Ron Bonjean said among Republicans, “the frustration and concern is growing every week about whether or not we will be able to hold onto the House this November.”

It takes a lot of repetition for a message like promoting the tax bill to break through to voters, but Trump’s tendency to drift into other subjects can dilute that, Bonjean said. Trump, who has at times dismissed affordability concerns as “a hoax,” and “con job” from Democrats, has to acknowledge the economic realities people are facing now if he wants to help his party this November, Bonjean said.

“He absolutely has to talk about his plan to bring down high gasoline costs, or else he’s lost his own message. It won’t be credible just to talk about no taxes on tips,” Bonjean said.

When will gas prices come down?

While the president has said he thinks the war with Iran will end soon, a deal to resolve it has not yet emerged, with the U.S. and Iran still proffering stances that are far apart.

Trump on Sunday said in a Fox News Channel interview that gas prices “could be the same or maybe a little bit higher” by the November midterms.

By Wednesday, in another Fox News interview, Trump walked back that comment. “I think they'll be much lower” before the election, on the assumption the war will be long over.

“When that’s settled, gas prices are going to go down tremendously,” Trump said.

Hours later at the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was less rosy, predicting that gas prices will fall sometime this summer, depending on how the negotiations with Iran go.

“I’m optimistic that sometime between June 20th and September 20th, that we can have $3 gas again,” Bessent told reporters.

Joe Spica, a Democratic candidate for the state legislature and a steward of The Culinary Workers Union, which represents about 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, said Las Vegas workers are feeling belt-tightening that is happening all over, because that means fewer visitors to Las Vegas, and fewer tips for workers.

“Something has to change, and it has to change fast,” Spica, a bellman at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, said at a news conference Thursday organized by the union and the Nevada Democratic Party.

“The policies of this administration are hurting Las Vegas,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Robert Downey Jr. was there to introduce the trailer for the film, which brings together the Avengers and the X-Men together in a Marvel Studios film for the first time.

“What I want to do is give away like 30,000 spoilers right now,” Downey said.

He’s returning to the franchise not as Iron Man, but as the main antagonist Victor Von Doom, or Doctor Doom.

Kevin Feige said they’ll be re-releasing “Avengers: Endgame” in September in the lead up to “Doomsday,” which, he said, “picks up where ‘Endgame’ left off.” It opens on Dec. 18.

“I think we might have nailed it,” Downey said.

Evans said he’d only come back if there was a good reason, and Doctor Doom was a good reason.

Grogu and Mando hunt warlords

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” director Jon Favreau showed the audience the opening of the first Star Wars movie in seven years. The film, which opens on May 22, begins with a title card saying the Galactic Empire has fallen and ex-warlords remain scattered throughout and, in the Outer Rim, the Mandalorian and Grogu hunt them down.

The sequence shows a one man, and child, battle against one such ex-warlord, with a big fight on a snowy cliff as they attempt to take down what looks like AT-AT walkers. Later, Sigourney Weaver’s character scolds the bounty hunter for his messy job, which left the target dead and them with no new information.

She also proposes a new mission, which would put him back in the orbit of the Hutts, with Jabba’s heir Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White).

“’Star Wars’ made me fall in love with movies,” Favreau said. “I hope that our excitement and love and joy of Star Wars translates to a new generation of fans.”

He said that there are over 49 minutes of sequences filmed for large format screens.

Woody and Buzz make their CinemaCon debut

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen made an appearance on behalf of “Toy Story 5,” in what is apparently their first time ever at CinemaCon. The two actors joked about seeing footage of them voicing Woody and Buzz for the original film, which came out in 1995, and saying they look like their grandkids.

Hanks said one of his iconic lines, “you are a toy” and Allen responded with one of his, “you are a sad, strange little man.”

They also showed a new scene showing Woody’s arrival back to Bonnie’s house after his adventures with Bo Peep. The film opens on June 19.

Dwayne Johnson introduces the new Moana

Dwane Johnson helped close out the presentation to promote the live-action “Moana,” in which he reprises his role as Maui.

He said his character was inspired by his grandfather, holding up a picture of him on his phone, describing him as charismatic with a “wicked sense of humor” and a “one of a kind spirit.” He also loved to sing. Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” he said, was a favorite.

The new Moana, Catherine Laga’aia, also appeared on stage with Johnson.

“I grew up watching ‘Moana’ with my family,” she said. “I can’t believe I had this experience.”

A powerhouse studio at the box office

Disney releases dominated the box office in 2025 with nearly $2.5 billion in domestic ticket sales and $6.6 billion globally with hits like “Lilo & Stitch,”“Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” A box office driver for many years, it's fitting that Disney is closing CinemaCon.

Already this year, Disney has boosted the box office with its original Pixar hit “Hoppers,” which has made over $355 million globally to date. Kicking off the summer movie season, which begins the first weekend in May, is not a Marvel movie, however. It’s a legacy sequel from their 20th Century Studios: “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Gird your loins.

Disney's impact on the exhibition industry cannot be understated. Last year its releases made up over 27.5% of the annual domestic box office alone. The studio also has a 60-day exclusive theatrical window, the most robust in Hollywood.

The Walt Disney Co. is facing its own challenges too. On Tuesday, the company began mass layoffs in its ranks, expected to total around 1,000 with some of the cuts coming from the movie studio and its marketing department.

Orson Welles once said, “if you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” And, so, for an exhibition industry that operates on small margins, and with the box office still down around 20% from its pre-pandemic norms, Disney is about as close as the conference can get to going out on a high note.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said in a federal court filing Thursday that it has completed its review of the Second Avenue subway line project, and will begin reimbursing state transit officials again for construction costs.

Janno Lieber, MTA's CEO, said the reversal means “long-awaited transit justice” will soon come to neighborhoods in upper reaches of Manhattan. The Second Avenue subway project is building new stations northward along Manhattan’s Upper East Side, bringing subway service to parts of the Harlem neighborhood.

“It shouldn’t have taken seven months and a lawsuit to get here," he said in a statement.

The federal Department of Transportation said the agreement means taxpayers' “hard-earned dollars will not fund unconstitutional DEI initiatives,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. The administration argued that use of DEI principles has led to soaring costs on federal projects and is unconstitutional.

“This has always been about securing the best deal for the American taxpayer and ensuring their dollars are spent efficiently and fairly,” the agency said in a statement.

Lieber, addressing reporters later Thursday, called the dispute "an “unnecessary waste of the public's time and money” since the state agency was complying with the administration's new rules regarding minority and women-owned businesses in federal projects.

“The whole point was they sent us a letter saying we didn't make the standards of the new rules before they even issued the new rules,” he said. “It was just a bunch of gamesmanship.”

The USDOT had withheld roughly $60 million from the Second Avenue project as it launched its review. Overall, the project is supposed to cost $7.7 billion, with the federal government covering around $3.4 billion.

The dispute over the Second Avenue subway was among a number of major transportation projects in New York and New Jersey that Trump has sought to scuttle as he feuded with Democratic leaders in those states.

The administration in October also halted billions of dollars in funding for a massive new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey. A federal judge in February, however, ordered federal officials to resume payments for the tunnel project under the Hudson River.

Last year, the USDOT rescinded approval for New York's first-in-the-nation congestion fee and threatened to pull funding from the state if it did not abandon the toll, which is imposed on drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan.

But a federal judge ruled last month that the agency lacked the authority to unilaterally rescind approval of the $9 fee.

As of 9:30 a.m., the water was at 5.76 inches below the top of the dam, up .72 inches since the last measurement.

In the latest update, as of 4:15 p.m. Thursday, officials said the water is 5.04 inches below the dam’s top.

This put the area in the “Set” zone under the Ready, Set, Go emergency system, which means that residents should have a go-bag packed and be prepared to leave.

“Ready” means the water is under 12 inches below the top of the dam, while the “set” phase is triggered when water drops below 6 inches from the dam’s top.

Cheboygan Dam Update 04/16/2026 at 10:20am
The Cheboygan Dam Area, and north of Cheboygan Dam is moving to the Level 2 “Set” stage of the Ready, Set, Go model. This indicates the water level is below 6” of topping the lowest point of the Cheboygan Dam Complex. Level 2 indicates a… pic.twitter.com/3zr2k3A8QE

— MichEMHS (@MichEMHS) April 16, 2026

Crews have been working around the clock at the dam complex. As of Wednesday, the DNR’s Incident Management Team has deployed two 24-inch pumps capable of moving a combined 20,000 gallons per minute, according to public information officer Laurie Abel.

Consumers Energy has said it is monitoring the situation and may proactively cut power to parts of the area. On Wednesday, more than 1,000 customers briefly lost power while the company worked on the electrical system.

Authorities are also watching two nearby dams, the Kleber Dam and the Alverno Dam, as water levels remain elevated, Cheboygan County Emergency Management Director Jeremy Runstrom said Wednesday.

-->

What to know about the Ready, Set, Go system

State officials are using the “Ready, Set, Go” safety approach, which includes the following:

• Ready: When water is 12 inches below the top of the dam with levels rising 3 inches a day or more. Plan and/or pack in the event an evacuation becomes necessary.
• Set: When water reaches 6 inches below the top of the dam, with water levels rising at a rate of 3 inches per day or levels rising 3 inches per day and predicted to top the dam within 48 hours. Prepare by packing and preparing your family, pets and vehicle for potential departure.
• Go: When water levels are 1 inch below the top of the dam with a high probability of topping it, with the potential for failure occurring. Follow evacuation orders; roadblocks may be installed around the perimeters.

Previous Coverage

Aberg moved ahead of Harris English and Viktor Hovland with an 8-iron to about 15 feet on the back corner of the green on the par-3 17th and made the birdie. He closed with a par, pleasing because he felt that 8-iron confirmed how well he was swinging the club.

Houston Open champion Gary Woodland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler were in the group of players at 65.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy skipped this $20 million signature event for the second straight year, having said Harbour Town doesn’t suit him.

Scottie Scheffler, the runner-up last week at Augusta after a 65-68 finish, had a shocking start. His first tee shot was out-of-bounds on the right. He didn't know out-of-bounds was over there.

“It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and then hit path and went out-of-bounds,” Scheffler said. “Thumbs up for the start. It was a good bogey.”

That it was, a 12-foot putt to limit the damage, followed by a par save on the next hole and then it was business as usual in the tougher afternoon conditions for a 68.

Aberg had a disappointing week at Augusta National by his standards — a tie for 21st, his first time out of the top 10 in three appearances at the Masters.

“I felt like I was playing well but made some silly mistakes that prevented me from having a real chance,” Aberg said. “But I also felt like in the grand scheme of things, I was swinging it nice, I was moving it nice, so I didn’t have to prepare that much in terms of my golf swing on Monday through Wednesday, and I felt like good golf was in there.”

The challenge for Aberg and the other 52 players who were in the Masters was to stay sharp inside the ropes on an island that makes this tournament feel like a working vacation.

Hovland is feeling less stressful more because of his swing, instead of the week at the Masters when he made a big run up the leaderboard on Sunday only to catch the wrong gust at the wrong time that led to double bogey on the 15th hole. He still shot 67.

Hovland doesn't feel he's all the way back with his swing, but he found enough signs of progress to believe he is getting close. He played bogey-free for a 64 that featured no birdies on the three par 5s.

“The whole year I've been working really hard, and I think now that I’m seeing my game progress and get closer to where I want it to be, I can start to relax a little bit more and focus on kind of the recovery aspect of things,” Hovland said.

English also played bogey-free for his 64, finishing with a birdie to a front pin over the bunker.

Davis Love III refurbished the fabled course to restore greens to their original design, but players felt it looked the same. And it played the same — opportunity from the fairway, trouble otherwise as Scheffler and others discovered.

Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood each opened with a 76.

The toughest day belonged to someone who didn't even play. Brooks Koepka was the first alternate and showed up at Hilton Head in case someone withdrew. That typically means a two-hour wait in the morning, taking a break, and waiting some two hours during the afternoon wave.

Bad news for Brooks — this signature event has players in twosomes off the first tee, one right after the other. He was at the course about 6:45 a.m. (the first tee time was 7 a.m.) and could not leave until the last group teed off at 2:10 p.m.

There were three alternates on property — Keith Mitchell and Taylor Moore — because if Koepka got in, the stipulation for his return from LIV Golf was two additional players added to the field.

Morikawa seemed to be the best hope with his back that first went bad at The Players Championship. But he played the Masters with some trepidation and tied for seventh, and he played bogey-free at Harbour Town for a 66.

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This version corrects the two other alternates were Keith Mitchell and Taylor Moore.

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

In their first news conference since returning to Earth, the three Americans and one Canadian said their lunar flyby puts NASA in a much better position for a moon landing by a crew in two years and an eventual moon base. They spoke from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, their home base.

Commander Reid Wiseman later told The Associated Press that he’s been so busy since getting back that he hasn’t had time to gaze up at the moon, let alone Carroll Crater, the name suggested by the crew for a bright lunar crater in honor of his late wife. They shared two daughters whose anxieties and fears over their father’s journey ended with his safe splashdown late last week.

“Being 252,000 miles away from home was the most majestic, gorgeous thing that human eyes will ever witness,” he said in an interview with the AP. But hurtling back through the atmosphere at 39 times the speed of sound, “that is scary and that is risky.” That’s why he yearned for home midway through his flight. “You just want to hold your kids and you just want them to know that you’re safe.”

Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen launched to the moon from Florida on April 1, NASA’s first lunar crew in more than a half-century and by far the most diverse.

They became the most distant travelers ever — breaking Apollo 13's record — as they whipped around the lunar far side, illuminated enough to reveal features never viewed before by the human eye. The sight of a total lunar eclipse added to the wonderment.

Their Orion capsule, which they named Integrity, parachuted into the Pacific last Friday to close out the nearly 10-day voyage. Artemis II's Houston homecoming the next day coincided with the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13.

Wiseman said he and Glover “maybe saw two moments of a touch of char loss” to the heat shield as Integrity plunged through the fastest, hottest part of reentry. Once aboard the recovery ship, they peered at the bottom of the capsule as best they could, leaning over to view any signs of damage. They spotted a little loss of charred material on the shoulder, where the heat shield meets the capsule.

“For four humans just looking at the heat shield, it looked wonderful to us. It looked great, and that ride in was really amazing,” Wiseman said.

He cautioned that detailed analyses still need to be conducted. “We are going to fine-tooth comb every single, not even every molecule, probably every atom on this heat shield," he said.

The heat shield on the first Artemis test flight in 2022 — with no one aboard — came back so pockmarked and gouged that it pushed Artemis II back by months if not years. Instead of redoing it, NASA opted to change the capsule's entry path to minimize heating. Future capsules will sport a new design.

As the parachutes released right before splashdown, Glover said he felt like he was in freefall — like diving backward off a skyscraper. “That’s what it felt like for five seconds,” he said, adding when the ride smoothed out: “It was glorious.”

Since their return, the four astronauts have endured round after round of medical testing to check their balance, vision, muscle strength and coordination, and overall health. They even put on spacewalking suits for exercises under conditions simulating the moon’s one-sixth gravity of Earth to see how much endurance and dexterity future moonwalkers might have upon lunar touchdown.

NASA already is working on Artemis III, the next step in its grand moon base-building plans. The platform from which the rocket launches headed back Thursday to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, where it will be prepped for next year’s Artemis launch.

Still awaiting an assigned crew, Artemis III will remain in orbit around Earth as astronauts practice docking their Orion capsule with one or two lunar landers in development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Artemis IV will follow in 2028 under NASA’s latest schedule, with two astronauts landing near the moon’s south pole.

NASA is aiming for a sustainable moon presence this time around. During the Apollo moonshots, astronauts kept their visits short. Twelve astronauts explored the lunar surface, beginning with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 and ending with Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972.

Koch said that since returning, she and her crewmates are “feeling even more excited and just ready to take that on as an agency.”

“We made it happen,” she added.

Everyone will need to accept extra risk to achieve all this and trust that any future problems can be figured out in real time, Hansen noted. “We’re not going to be able to pound everything flat before we go. We're going to have to trust each other," he said.

While everything went smoothly for them, “it was also very clear to us that it can get pretty bumpy,” he said. Future crews will have to "understand it can get real bumpy real fast.”

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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.

Local 4 traveled to the northeast side of the Black Lake and spoke with residents whose homes and lives are entirely underwater.

“This is how deep everything is. There’s everything in my house,” one homeowner said as water inside her home reached window level.

Their home has been right off of Black Lake for almost 90 years. It’s a family fixture and now a flooded frame.

The people who own it say they’ve never seen water this wild.

“It’s going to keep going up, so now I am saving things,” the homeowner said.

Their neighbor, Jeff Gapczynski, has been coming there since he was nine years old.

“Twenty-four inches,” Gapczynski said as he was measuring the water near the home.

“That’s 26 inches deep,” Gapczynski said as he was measuring another area near the door. “It’s devastating. It’s just simply devastating. This place here has been here since 1939.”

Officials say water levels continue to climb, driven by stronger flow through the spill gate at a nearby dam.

--> Cheboygan dam update: Water level now less than 5 inches from top

Bill Rettray has lived off the lake for decades. He says he’s also never seen this kind of surge.

The current is so forceful that the lost gear is drifting right up to his deck.

“This morning while I was having a cup of coffee, I saw the raft float up,” Rettray said. “I said, ‘Where is that from? Somebody may be looking for it.’ I didn’t want it to hit the house or anybody else’s house. So, I just took a rope and tied it up to a tree. Hopefully, the owner will come by and retrieve it in the spring.”

The devastation comes as water levels rise at the Cheboygan Dam and officials worry the dam could fail.

The city of Cheboygan is warning residents to pack their bags in the event of an evacuation.

On the Black Lake, many people are leaving town, Rettray included.

“Leaving today, and we are going to be spending some time with our daughter in Traverse City,” he said. “We have people up here the year round, neighbors that will keep a good track of my house while I am gone.”

“My neighbors are trying to help their house right now, but nobody knows what’s going to happen. All the way up to the lid of the toilet,” another homeowner said.

Previous coverage:

No one was arrested after more than a half dozen drone sightings around Coors Field April 3 to April 5, but it is possible the drone pilots could still face a fine later. Still the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI issued a warning Thursday to try to keep drones away from the stadium during the Rockies' next home games because they are concerned about the potential threat they pose.

“The illegal drone activity did not jeopardize anyone’s safety, but there were enough violations that the teams on the ground were concerned about the number of operators that did not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. Thus the proactive messaging,” FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya said.

The FAA routinely restricts the airspace around major sporting events to protect the crowds and make sure the game can be played without interruptions.

The greatest fear is that someone could use a drone in a terrorist attack that could be just as deadly as the drone attacks that have become common on the battlefields of the Ukraine and Iran wars. That is why the federal government and World Cup host cities are investing hundreds of millions in drone defenses ahead of those games.

But even without a threat like that, Migoya said the problem is that illegal drone activity distracts law enforcement.

“Every instance of illegal drone activity requires a law enforcement intervention to ensure the intent is not nefarious; the fewer violations there are, the more law enforcement can focus on what might be a true threat,” she said.

All the airspace within 3 miles of Coors Field is restricted starting one hour before a game and continuing for one hour after a baseball or football game. Pilots are responsible for checking those restrictions before they fly.

The FAA said that drone operators who violated the restrictions could face fines up to $75,000 per violation and even lose their licenses.

Drones are also required to broadcast their locations. But authorities have other methods available to track down the operators.

This week, the Detroit Fire and Police Departments are recognizing the men and women who staff the city’s emergency communications center as part of National Telecommunicators Week.

The dispatchers and call takers work around the clock, answering calls, gathering critical information, and guiding residents through some of the most intense and chaotic moments of their lives.

“When someone calls 911, we are the first voice they hear,” said Charlene Gross, a Detroit 911 call taker who has been on the job for seven years.

Gross said her focus is always on quickly getting the details needed to send help as fast as possible.

On the fire communications dispatch floor, supervisors like Lt. Antoinette Smith oversee teams handling multiple emergency situations at once.

“We work for the people. We are the unsung heroes that you don’t see,” Smith said, describing a job that requires constant multitasking, dispatching runs, monitoring responses, and staying alert to ensure nothing is missed.

The work is nonstop.

Commander Sonia Russell of the Detroit Police Department said the communications division handled about 1.3 million emergency calls last year, a volume that demands focus, speed, and professionalism.

“The men and women that work here have to be very passionate and very serious about what they are doing and what they are handling,” Russell said.

For dispatchers like Eric Brock, the mission is personal. “At the end of the day, I know I’m helping someone on the back end, because it could be my family or a friend of my family,” Brock said.

Staff members also shared that some of the hardest calls include walking residents step-by-step through lifesaving measures like CPR, while help is on the way.

Their message to Detroiters: if you ever need to call 911, stay calm and be as detailed as possible so police, fire crews, or paramedics can be dispatched quickly.

“You may not see us, but know that we are working for you at all times to get you the help that you need,” Smith said.

The James clan has the chance to add another chapter to its family lore this month, thanks to Bronny's growth into a player that all of the Los Angeles Lakers can trust.

LeBron and Bronny seem likely to play postseason minutes together this month when the Lakers face the Houston Rockets in the first round. The greatest scorer in NBA history and his 21-year-old son have been teammates for nearly two years, but the prospect of accomplishing a new first is still special to both generations.

“It’s insane,” Bronny said Thursday after practice at the Lakers' training complex. “I mean, I’ve literally watched his whole career. Now I’m a part of it. So it’s a great experience. I’m appreciative of it — but I’m part of the job, too. So I have to do my job as well. I’ve got to lock in.”

Bronny's playing time has increased over the last month, and he has been a rotation member for the Lakers since Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves went down with injuries two weeks ago.

LeBron takes an obvious fatherly pride in Bronny's development into a contributor for their short-handed team.

“Every moment we get an opportunity to play together is something I never take for granted," LeBron said.

“Me being on the floor with him postseason, regular season, training camp, practices, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career, above everything I've accomplished," he added. "The fact that he's put himself in position to get his number called for a postseason game is pretty remarkable and pretty cool, given the circumstances that he's been through over the last couple of years. He earned it. He deserves it. He'll be ready.”

After playing sporadic NBA minutes during his first 1 1/2 NBA seasons, Bronny has stepped up into a regular role — partly out of necessity with the Lakers' top two scorers sidelined, but also because he earned more playing time. He has played 13 minutes or more in seven of the Lakers' past 10 games, averaging 19 minutes over the past four.

That responsibility seems likely to continue in the postseason, since Doncic and Reaves won’t play in Game 1 on Saturday, and there’s no timetable for their return.

Lakers coach JJ Redick confirmed he will be using every healthy option while Los Angeles attempts to beat overwhelming odds without its starting backcourt.

“We’re going to have to have all hands on deck in this series,” Redick said. “That’s just what we’re handed. I think Bronny has improved a lot. We trust him. The shooting piece (of his game), I’m a believer in, because of how well he shot it the last two years in the G League. ... He’s improved a ton defensively, in terms of his body positioning, both on and off ball. We want him to continue to evolve as a disruptive defender as well.”

Bronny played only four playoff minutes last season during two of the Lakers’ first-round losses to Minnesota, and he acknowledges hasn’t played in many big games during his brief basketball career.

He spent his sole collegiate season at Southern California, but he didn’t suit up for the Trojans until midseason after his recovery from an offseason cardiac incident, and that team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s what I’ve wanted, to play in the playoffs,” Bronny said. “I wasn’t able to play in March (Madness), and this is a bigger stage than that. I’m so excited to get out there with my teammates and try to get some wins and try to make it further in the playoffs.”

If and when they play together this month, Bronny thinks they can connect quickly. After all, he knows LeBron’s game pretty well.

“I don’t want to give all the answers to the test, but I’ve been watching him for a long time, and I’ve kind of picked up on his tendencies,” Bronny said with a grin. “I think it’s good that I’m paying attention during his career and what he likes to do in the postseason. I think we’ll be able to play good together. My IQ isn’t going to be far behind him, but I know what he’s doing and where he likes to get the ball on the floor.”

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

And one city council member said this could include penalties for both kids and their parents who don’t follow the ordinance.

The proposal follows two recent crashes involving children under 13 riding e-bikes, including one earlier this week.

Both left the children injured.

The city’s director of communications, Mohamed Qasim, said they want to curb such accidents by setting clear rules on where and how young riders can use e-bikes.

Qasim said the city’s attorneys are working to draft the ordinance so it doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights or go against state rules.

While it’s unclear what this will be, he noted this could include where e-bikes can be ridden or how they could be patrolled.

“They’re too fast for the sidewalk,” said Rob Akers, an owner of International Bike Shop. “They’re dangerous.”

Akers’ shop, which also sells e-bikes, said those bikes have many benefits but believes cities need clear guidelines for safe operation, especially when children are involved.

To learn more about what the Dearborn Heights ordinance might include, Local 4 reached out to Hassan Saab, a city council member who recently posted on social media that “any minor found operating these machines in violation of laws could face enforcement action and so will parents.”

In a phone call, the council member said city attorneys are still determining the specifics but added that he hopes the final ordinance includes “hefty fines” for violators. He said this way it would help deter parents from letting kids ride them.

Not everyone supports that approach.

“Why would you fine a parent for letting their kid enjoy life?” said Chris, a resident who questioned the idea of penalizing adults for their children’s behavior. “An e-bike is nothing more than a gift, a toy.”

Latanya Gater commented underneath the councilmember’s post, saying in part:

“I think your post (while the intent may have been to give advanced notice to the public regarding a chronic safety matter that has had a negative impact on many), it does read as if you had not taken into consideration parents who have researched and implemented safe practices regarding electric bikes and the like.”

Dearborn Heights is not the only community seeing issues with minors operating motorized vehicles.

Birmingham police on Thursday (April 16) released a memo reminding parents that motorized vehicles should not be driven on sidewalks and warning that adults could face consequences for allowing unlicensed children to ride them.

The Dearborn Heights director of communications said the city’s attorney aims to have a draft of the ordinance ready for the next City Council.

According to the city’s website, the meeting is at the end of the month.

The arch is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing alongside a White House ballroom to leave his lasting imprint on Washington.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump, approved the design concept for three projects: the arch, a plan to paint the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and construction of an underground facility to conduct security screenings of tourists and other guests.

It's the first step in the commission's process. The federal agency next will review updated designs for all three projects at a future meeting before taking any final votes.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said the action by the commission is "another step in accomplishing President Trump’s promise to the American people from the campaign trail — to Make America Safe and Beautiful Again.”

Triumphal Arch

The arch itself would stand 250 feet tall (76 meters) from its base to a torch held aloft by a Lady Liberty-like figure atop the structure. That figure would be flanked up top by two eagles and guarded at the base by four lions — all gilded. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All" would be inscribed in gold lettering atop either side of the monument.

A public observation deck on top would provide 360-degree views of the surroundings.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pitched the arch in a statement he personally delivered at the meeting, saying that long-ago plans for Columbia Island, the federal land where the arch would rise, called for a monument to be built there. But those plans fell by the wayside, he said, allowing the plot to become a “barren" and “grass-covered” traffic circle in need of adornment.

His department oversees the National Park Service, which manages the land where the arch would be built. Burgum said Washington is the only major Western world capital without such an arch.

But at 250 feet tall, the arch would dwarf the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet (30 meters) tall, and be close to half the height of the Washington Monument, an obelisk that is about 555 feet (169 meters) tall. Three of four people who delivered public comment at the meeting opposed the arch, largely because of its size. The commission received about 1,000 written comments, all opposing the project, according to its secretary Thomas Luebke.

The commission’s vice chairman, architect James McCrery II, said he preferred the arch without the figure and eagles on top, which would significantly reduce its height by about 80 feet (24.4 meters). McCrery also objected to the lions on the base, saying they are “not a beast natural to the North American continent." He also sounded opposed to a planned underground tunnel for pedestrian access to the arch.

A group of veterans and a historian has sued in federal court to block construction on the grounds that the arch would disrupt the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery, among other reasons.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building paint job

Trump dislikes the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

“It’s one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in Washington," he said last year. “I think it’s just incredible, but you have to get past the color because the stone they used was a really bad color.”

The White House presented two proposals to the commission: paint the entire building bright white, or paint most of it white while leaving the granite on the exposed basement and subbasement.

Josh Fisher, a White House official, said the administration prefers painting the entire building, which opened in 1888. He said the exterior is in “great disrepair” and that experts who were consulted could not guarantee that a cleaning would improve the condition.

Public comment, both written and in person, was 100% against the proposed paint job, with opponents arguing that it would harm the granite and fail to solve the problem. Other opponents asserted that the building is beautiful as is.

White House officials have to return at a future date with the results of paint testing, the commission said.

Commissioner Chamberlain Harris, who also is Trump's deputy director of Oval Office Operations, noted that most White House staff work out of the EEOB. She said painting the building white to match the White House would create a “homogenous environment" and help foster a “sense of belonging” for the staff.

The office building sits across a driveway from the West Wing and its granite, slate, and cast iron exterior makes it one of America’s best examples of the French Second Empire style of architecture. It originally housed the departments of State, War and Navy, and currently is home to ceremonial offices for the vice president, offices for the second lady, the National Security Council and other White House offices.

The building is a National Historic Landmark and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the proposed paint job is also the subject of litigation in federal court.

Underground screening center for White House visitors

The U.S. Secret Service, the Interior Department, the National Park Service, and the Executive Office of the President want to start construction in August on a 33,000-square-foot (3,066-square-meter) center to screen tourists and other visitors to the White House.

It would be built beneath Sherman Park, federal land southwest of the White House, to provide a more secure place to screen those going on White House tours or attending events. The new facility would have modern technology and seven lanes to ease processing and reduce wait times.

Officials want it operating by July 2028, six months before Trump’s term ends.

A Henry Ford Health allergist-immunologist says the old approach of restricting allergenic foods early in a baby’s life was unknowingly making the problem worse. Between 2005 and 2015, the prevalence of peanut allergies doubled.

The turning point came in 2015, when the LEAP study (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The LEAP study showed that early introduction decreases the chance of peanut allergy by 80%,” said Dr. Amy Eapen, an allergist-immunologist at Henry Ford Health.

The guidelines changed after that.

The current recommendation calls for introducing peanuts and other allergens earlier than most parents might expect.

“Around 4 to 6 months of age, after infants have started solids, they should introduce peanut and other food allergens and keep it in their diet at least 3 times a week,” Eapen said.

And it’s not just peanuts. Parents are encouraged to introduce a wide range of common allergens early, including:

• Eggs
• Fish
• Milk
• Shellfish
• Soy
• Tree nuts
• Wheat

The newest research shows the approach is working.

“The rates of peanut allergy and other food allergies are about 30% lower after the introduction of these new guidelines compared to prior,” Eapen said. “It’s working.”

Early introduction hasn’t eliminated food allergies entirely; some children will still develop them. The goal is to reduce the chances, not guarantee immunity.

Parents of children at higher risk, including those with a family history of allergies or with eczema, should talk with their pediatrician about when and how to introduce these foods.

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman granted Heinecke a preliminary injunction against the NCAA on Thursday that gives him immediate relief and allows him to rejoin his team days before the Sooners' annual spring game. Balkman said the NCAA “failed to consider the totality of the case” while announcing his ruling in court.

It was not immediately clear if the NCAA would appeal Balkman's ruling.

Heinecke called Sooners coach Brent Venable after the decision and said, “Let's go coach!”

Heinecke played three games of lacrosse at Ohio State in February 2022, costing him a year of eligibility. He transferred to play football at Oklahoma, then sat out a year because of injury. He was mostly a special teams player in 2023 and 2024 before breaking out last season with 74 tackles, including 12 for a loss.

Oklahoma submitted a request for an eligibility waiver, but it was denied in January, and an appeal was denied in February. The emergency hearing was critical in determining Heinecke's future, especially with the NFL draft next week.

Heinecke hired an agent and participated in the Senior Bowl, Oklahoma's pro day and NFL scouting combine while trying to gain college eligibility.

Heinecke’s lawyers argued he deserved the additional year because of factors beyond his control. They said Heinecke lost his year of eligibility as a freshman because the Ohio State’s lacrosse coach ignored his request to redshirt so he could recover from high school injuries. They said the NCAA “breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing owed to Owen, and acted in bad faith, in denying Owen an additional year of eligibility so that he can compete as an intercollegiate athlete in the year 2026-27.”

Heinecke told the court he wanted to return to school to improve his draft stock while working toward a master’s degree in accounting. Oklahoma backed his quest.

Heinecke's case came while an NCAA panel is preparing to discuss potential changes to eligibility rules.

The proposal, which mirrors language writ ten in the executive order issued by President Donald Trump, would give athletes five years of eligibility with the clock starting when an athlete turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever is earlier. There would be limited exceptions, but they would not include injuries, which has been a common reason for players to ask for and receive extra eligibility.

The details are being reviewed and discussed by a Division I Cabinet.

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Preston Henry Tolth, 26, could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in federal prison, with credit for three years already served, under the conditions of the proposed agreement.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes asked Tolth during a hearing in Phoenix if he was entering the plea because he was, in fact, guilty.

“Yes, your honor,” Tolth said.

Ella Mae Begay was 62 when she vanished in 2021 from Sweetwater, Arizona, a community in the northern part of the Navajo Nation where she spent her days visiting with relatives and weaving rugs that she sold to nearby trading posts.

In 2022, Begay's niece Seraphine Warren walked from the Navajo Nation to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about her aunt's disappearance and the high rate of homicides and missing persons cases in Indian Country. Begay's case has drawn national media attention and provided fuel for tribal leaders and victim advocates as they push for more law enforcement resources and cooperation between tribal and federal investigators.

Navajo Nation police identified Tolth, whose father was dating Begay's sister, as a suspect within days of her disappearance.

Under the conditions of the agreement, Tolth acknowledged using force to take Ella Mae Begay’s pickup truck, striking her in the face several times and leaving her on the side of the road before driving away and eventually selling the truck for money and methamphetamine.

Rayes is scheduled in May to review the latest plea agreement, which also protects Tolth from future murder or manslaughter charges in relation to Begay's case.

Members of Begay’s family say prosecutors negotiated the agreement against their wishes and without their input.

Begay’s son, Gerald Begay, took a break from his construction job in Denver to listen to Thursday’s hearing by phone. He told The Associated Press that he plans to attend the next court hearing and ask the judge to reject the plea agreement in hopes that Tolth can be put on trial.

“The prosecutors aren’t thinking about our rights or what we need as a family,” he said.

In an emailed statement, Lennea Montandon, a spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the district of Arizona, said the office has complied with federal victims' rights law while prosecuting Tolth and will continue to do so. Tolth's public defender declined to comment on the new agreement.

In a 2021 FBI interrogation, Tolth confessed to attacking Begay in a fit of anger and leaving her for dead. But Rayes dealt prosecutors a major blow by ruling that confession inadmissible in court, saying the FBI agent had unlawfully coerced Tolth into waiving his right to remain silent. In court filings, prosecutors acknowledged that weakened the government’s case significantly.

At a hearing earlier this month, Rayes rejected an earlier agreement that would have released Tolth from federal custody on a sentence of three years of time served in exchange for a guilty plea. The judge's rare move came after Begay's grieving family members testified that Tolth should not walk free without leading investigators to her remains.

“Accountability is not time served,” Begay's niece Seraphine Warren had told the judge. “It’s about truth, and we still don’t have the truth.”

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Peters reported from Edgewood, New Mexico.

Officers called to the home in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Annandale early Thursday found the bodies of Fairfax, 47, and his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, 49, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife, a successful dentist, in the basement before going to an upstairs bedroom and killing himself, Davis said. Their son called 911.

One of Justin Fairfax's longtime friends told The Associated Press that he became increasingly despondent after his wife filed for divorce last year. The judge overseeing the divorce recently wrote that his “isolation, drinking, and a lack of participation in family life are manifestations of what seems to be a sense of fatalism and hopelessness.”

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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. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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A turn in fortunes

Less than a decade ago, Justin Fairfax's political career was taking off. He won the race for lieutenant governor in 2017 and seemed poised to become Virginia’s second Black governor two years later when Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam faced widespread calls to resign over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook. Fairfax would have become governor if Northam had stepped down.

But two women came forward accusing Fairfax of sexually assaulting them years earlier.

Fairfax said the encounters, which occurred before he was married, were consensual and refused calls to resign. He tried to run for governor in 2021, but was largely shunned by Virginia Democrats and defeated in the Democratic primary.

A career and marriage fall apart

Cerina Fairfax said in court filings that she and her husband separated nearly two years ago. But they were still living in the same house with their two teenage children, who were both home when the deaths occurred, Davis said.

In a March 30 order, the judge told Justin Fairfax to move out by the end of April, writing “it is clear tensions in the Fairfax home have been extremely high for an extended period of time.”

The judge said in court documents that Justin Fairfax’s “mental and emotional health” suffered after two setbacks: his unsuccessful 2013 campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney general and the 2019 sexual assault scandal. After both, he drank heavily and withdrew from his family, but while it took about a month to recover from the first setback, he never bounced back from the second.

Cerina Fairfax testified during the divorce proceedings that her husband drank daily, and that his living space was littered with empty wine bottles and piles of dirty laundry. He bought a handgun in 2022 with money intended for horseback riding lessons for their children, court records showed.

Sophia A. Nelson, a Virginia author and journalist who described Justin Fairfax as a close friend, said Thursday that he never moved past the 2019 scandal.

She told the AP that during a group text with her and another friend Tuesday night, he expressed how the recent sexual assault allegations against Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California had brought back for him what he continued to insist was an unfair rush to judgment.

Nelson said she and other friends repeatedly asked Fairfax to seek help. She urged him to move out but believes he wasn't able to do so financially.

“I was concerned, as were other close friends, fraternity brothers, family members,” Nelson said. "There were talks of suicidal thoughts.”

Filings show that Justin Fairfax had financial challenges following the sexual assault allegations, which prompted his resignation as a partner at a prestigious law firm. The IRS filed a lien against the couple for more than $91,000 in unpaid taxes that was resolved in 2021.

Nelson said Fairfax was “unemployable” after the scandal and tried to rebuild his legal career, but with a few successes.

Davis, the police chief, said Justin Fairfax was recently served with paperwork telling him when next to appear in court. He said officers went to the family’s home in January after Justin Fairfax alleged that his wife had assaulted him -- but cameras she had set up around the home showed “the alleged assault never occurred.”

Cerina Fairfax had a thriving dental practice

The couple met as undergraduates at Duke University and married in 2006. Cerina Fairfax also attended the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, which honored her in 2015 as an outstanding alumna.

A profile page on the website of her family dentistry practice described her as an avid reader who liked to travel, practice yoga, go on trail runs with her Vizsla-breed dogs, and “spend time with her wonderful family.”

“It’s very sad for this community,” Davis said. “A lot of people who know the Fairfax family, everybody’s shocked. We’re shocked.”

An outpouring of grief

The deaths stunned political leaders throughout the state.

“We are keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s family — especially their two children — in our prayers as we all process this shocking and horrifying news,” Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, said in a joint statement.

Fairfax had served as co-chair for Warner’s 2014 reelection campaign.

Virginia's Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, posted on X that she was deeply saddened and praying for the families.

“This tragedy reminds us that domestic violence can occur in any family and in any place,” she wrote.

Nelson said that as much as she and Justin Fairfax’s other friends wanted to believe he would never abuse women, killing his wife would be his epitaph and undercut the good and honorable things he had done in public life.

“You now fit what many, many men have done in domestic violence incidences like this,” Nelson said while fighting back tears. “And that’s how you’re remembered.”

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Biesecker reported from Fairfax County, Virginia. Associated Press reporters Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Trout homered for the fifth time during a four-game series on Thursday, crushing a 446-foot drive in the seventh inning for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-4 victory.

The three-time MVP joined Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990) as the fourth player with five homers in a series against the Yankees, according to MLB research.

Trout homered twice on Monday before going deep again in the following two games. In the series finale Thursday, Trout drove a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left field bleachers to give the Angels a 7-4 lead. That drive made Trout the first player to hit five homers in a series in the Bronx.

“I heard that after the game,” Trout said. “It’s pretty surreal. All the great players that came through here, so it’s pretty cool.”

“Honestly, not surprising,” Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki said. “When you’re with Mike every day, there’s nothing that you believe that he can’t do."

He also became the first visiting player to homer in four consecutive days at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.

Trout went 6 for 16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. He also has homered in his last five games at Yankee Stadium and drew an intentional walk in his next plate appearance before Jo Adell hit a grand slam.

“At this point it’s vintage Mike Trout,” Adell said. “When he’s healthy and feeling good, there’s nothing like it. It’s special. It’s one of a kind. So for all of us to experience it, it’s special.”

“He’s unbelievable,” Suzuki said. “He really is. It’s been an amazing week for him.”

Trout is hitting .246 with seven homers and 16 RBIs. He is 9 for 27 (.333) with five homers and 13 RBIs on the Angels’ road trip, which coincides with him making a mechanical tweak.

Trout’s career-high homer streak is seven games, achieved Sept. 4-12, 2022. He has homered in four straight games for the fourth time in his career.

Trout’s homer was part of a four-game series that featured four homers from Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge. Judge homered twice Monday, again on Wednesday and went deep in the first inning in the series finale.

“He’s unreal,” designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said after the Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games. “Cool showing from him and Judgie all series. Obviously, you don’t want that against us, but you got to acknowledge the greatness.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time opposing players who owned multiple MVPs hit at least three homers in the same series.

“It was an impressive show by those two,” Suzuki said. ”

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

Doncic played in 64 games and Cunningham played in 63. But the league and the union both agreed that each should be on the ballot based on the “extraordinary circumstances provision” in the collective bargaining agreement.

Doncic — who is one of the favorites to contend for MVP honors after winning the league's scoring title — missed two games to attend the birth of his daughter in Slovenia. Cunningham missed 12 games as a result of a collapsed lung that was diagnosed on March 17.

“The NBA and NBPA agreed that, taking into account the totality of the circumstances for Cunningham and Doncic, each player qualified for awards,” the league and the union said in a statement.

Doncic, in a statement posted to social media, said he is “grateful to the NBPA for advocating on my behalf and to the NBA for their fair decision," adding that it was important to him “to be present for the birth of my daughter in December.”

“This season has been so special to me because of what my teammates and I have been able to accomplish, and I am honored to have the opportunity to be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards,” the statement said.

Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, who played in 60 qualified games, also tried to get on the awards ballot through the extraordinary circumstances challenge — but sought his approval before an independent arbitrator. His challenge was denied.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch — noting that Edwards doesn't get held out to rest — was not pleased about that and said he'd like an explanation.

“I’m not sure why we have a rule if we have an appeal process that is overturned in two-thirds of the cases that were held before," Finch said. “Feels more like a suggestion than a rule.”

The statuses of Doncic and Cunningham were a major topic toward the end of the season. San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama — an MVP candidate and the likely defensive player of the year — got to the 65-game mark in the Spurs' next-to-last game, and Denver's three-time MVP Nikola Jokic became qualified for this year's awards on the final day of the regular season. Jokic has been first or second in MVP balloting in each of the last five seasons and won the league's rebounding and assist titles this season.

And the union — which worked with the league to come up with the 65-game policy — has said it wants the rule changed, saying it was put into place to address load management and not to keep deserving players from awards. That said, many players have spoken out in favor of the rule.

“I would say it's an opportunity for us to reevaluate the rule in itself,” NBPA President Fred VanVleet of the Houston Rockets said.

VanVleet — speaking in a video posted by the union and filmed ahead of Thursday's news — said he thinks voters should be able to make decisions for All-NBA and other awards on a case-by-case basis.

Nuggets coach David Adelman said last week that he hopes the 65-game rule is changed, somehow, this summer. He said if players like Jokic can play 64 games, never wanting to come out, and not be award-eligible, then something is wrong.

“That’s not the spirit of what that rule is,” Adelman said.

A number of players will be ineligible for most major individual awards this season because of the 65-game rule, including the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James — whose 21-year streak of making an All-NBA team will end. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Golden State’s Stephen Curry have also missed too many games to be eligible.

With the decisions on Doncic, Cunningham and Edwards now complete, the NBA sent ballots to the panel of reporters and broadcasters who cover the league on Thursday — a few days behind the typical schedule from recent years.

It's unclear when the announcement of award winners will begin.

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

A Plymouth man told Local 4 he lost $37,000 after scammers frightened him into depositing cash into a Bitcoin ATM.

Steven Cooke said the ordeal began March 20, when a warning took over his laptop screen, claiming he’d been “compromised” and urging him to call a number.

He said a woman who identified herself as “Veronica J. Wilson” told him his identity had been stolen and that Apple Security detected unusual activity, including child pornography.

“I’m literally yelling into my phone like this isn’t me,” Cooke said.

He said the caller then claimed the scammers had access to his accounts and began listing the starting digits of his credit cards.

“They started numbering. Do you have one that starts with a five, a three, six, whatever? And Heather and I, my wife, were looking at our credit cards and were saying yes, but we didn’t give them the whole numbers,” Cooke said.

He said the woman later told him his phone was compromised and called him back on what she described as a secure line.

Cooke said a second person joined the call, identifying himself as “Richard Lee” from Chase Bank.

He said the man claimed money had been removed from his accounts and told him there was a way to get it back. Cooke said he was instructed to withdraw $37,000 from his bank and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM.

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that exists only online and isn’t controlled by a bank or government.

Even as doubts crept in, Cooke said he stayed on the phone.

“There were points where I would challenge him to a certain extent, like is this real?” Cooke said.

After he made the deposit, Cooke said the caller pushed him to withdraw more money from another bank.

“I went to a different bank, got more cash out, sat in my (car), and I still was on the call with them. And at that point, they were telling me to go to another (bank). And I paused, and I’m thinking, ‘I might have just lost $37,000,’” Cooke said.

Cooke said he decided against sending more money.

“I hung up, drove home, called a real Chase bank myself on my work phone, and that’s where I realized legitimately that this was a complete scam,” he said.

Cooke said he called Lee back, and the person answered using a different name.

“I had some choice words if you can imagine,” he said.

Now, Cooke said he’s sharing his story to warn others, even if it’s embarrassing.

“I’m probably a little bit more educated than the average person on this, it can really happen to anybody,” he said.

The FBI urges people to “Take a Beat,” watch for red flags, resist pressure, and think before sending money or personal information.

The agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center receives nearly 3,000 complaints per day.

Cooke said, looking back, a simple reboot could have ended the scare.

“We talked to the real Apple people. They said just turn it off and turn it back on,” he said. “So, you just feel abused.”

Cooke reported the scam to the Plymouth Police Department and the Federal Trade Commission and reached out to Local 4.

Plymouth Police Chief Al Cox said the case is a common type of fraud, often targeting older adults. He said scammers rely on urgency and emotion to push victims into quick decisions.

“Slow down and think about it for a second,” Cox encourages people to do when someone asks for money to be sent right away.

He also warned people never to call numbers provided in pop-ups or alerts. Instead, they should look up official contact information and call directly.

Anyone who believes they’ve been targeted by a scam should contact the FBI at 313-965-2323 or file a report online at The Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Ramagem, a former lawmaker, was sentenced in Brazil in September to 16 years in prison for his role in the coup attempt by supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2023. He fled the South American nation before he would have started serving his sentence.

“I am here to thank the U.S. government, the highest ranking members of the Trump administration,” Ramagem said on his social media channels. He added his release “did not require any bail payment, which is common in migration cases” like his.

The former intelligence chief was arrested on Monday in Florida, the same day Brazilian senator Jorge Seif told the U.S. embassy in Brasilia his ally should not remain in custody because he was allegedly being persecuted at home.

Local media reported he was released late on Wednesday.

Ramagem had already filed for political asylum before this week's incident, but his case has not yet been decided.

On Monday, Ramagem appeared as in custody in ICE’s online detainee database. ICE did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press about Ramagem's release.

Ramagem was stripped of his seat in Brazil’s congress in December as a consequence of his conviction in the coup case.

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

Unai Emery's team reached its second European semifinal in three seasons with a 7-1 aggregate victory.

Watkins had netted twice in last week's 3-1 win in the first leg of the quarterfinal in Italy, and the striker set the pace at Villa Park.

He tapped in a low cross from the left provided by Morgan Rogers for a 1-0 lead after 16 minutes for his 100th goal for Villa.

Rogers had a golden opportunity to increase the lead but Bologna goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia saved his penalty kick.

Only a minute later, though, Villa doubled its lead when Emiliano Buendía scored from a tight angle.

Rogers made it 3-0 with another angled shot in the 39th, and Ezri Konsa finished the scoring seconds before the final whistle.

Villa reached the Champions League quarterfinals last season and is on course to secure a spot in the lucrative top-tier competition next campaign while sitting fourth in the Premier League.

Big return to Europe

Forest made the semifinals by beating 10-man Porto 1-0 in what's been a successful return to European competition after a 30-year absence. It advanced 2-1 on aggregate after last week's draw in Portugal.

Morgan Gibbs-White put the hosts ahead in the 12th minute with a deflected effort from outside the box after Porto defender Jan Bednarek was sent off for fouling Chris Wood, who then had to be substituted with a knee injury.

Wood is a key striker for relegation-threatened Nottingham — and New Zealand's World Cup plans — and only recently returned from a long-term knee injury.

Porto has never beaten a Premier League club in England in 24 attempts.

The last time Nottingham reached a European semifinal was in 1984 in the UEFA Cup.

Freiburg’s first final four

Freiburg marched into the semifinals by beating Celta Vigo 3-1.

The Bundesliga team reached the last four in a European competition for the first time on a 6-1 aggregate score after last week's 3-0 victory in the first leg of the quarterfinal.

Freiburg has scored 11 goals in its last three games in the second-tier competition.

Igor Matanović put Freiburg 1-0 up with a stunning left-footed volley from outside the area. Yuito Suzuki doubled the advantage with a deflected shot late in the first half and then beat goalkeeper Ionut Radu after interval.

Williot Swedberg’s consolation goal came in stoppage time for the Spanish hosts.

Freiburg’s next opponent will be Braga, which came from two goals down to win 4-2 at Real Betis after those teams were tied 1-1 from the first leg.

Crystal Palace in Conference League semifinals

Crystal Palace clinched a last-four spot in the third-tier Conference League despite a 2-1 loss to Fiorentina in Florence.

Palace advanced 4-2 on aggregate after a 3-0 home win in the first leg to meet Ukraine’s Shakhtar, which advanced past AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

Strasbourg and Rayo Vallecano also advanced.

Italy in trouble

Italy’s soccer crisis only worsened with European exits for Bologna and Fiorentina.

As a result, Italy doesn’t have any club in a European semifinal for the first time in seven years.

That came after after Atalanta — the only Italian club to reach the Champions League round of 16 — was eliminated in a whopping 10-2 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich.

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

“Prevention, Intervention, and Enforcement,” Sheffield said, summarizing the city’s approach.

The plan comes in response to a series of so-called teen takeovers in downtown Detroit, as well as growing concerns about drag racing.

Teen takeovers prompt community conversation

Not everyone views the teen gatherings as purely criminal. Demetris Jones, co-owner of Culture, a downtown Detroit shop, described the moment a large group of teens entered his store.

“They didn’t steal anything. They weren’t trying to steal — they were really just coming in to show their presence,” Jones said.

Jones believes the root of the issue is a lack of space and opportunity for young people, not a lack of character.

“When you give them something to do, and you treat them like humans, regular kids — they respect you. If you treat them like animals, then they act like animals,” Jones said.

Enforcement measures include curfew crackdowns, parental fines

While the city works to create safe spaces for youth, it is also making expectations clear. Detroit police will increase their visible presence at active parks and recreation centers to deter risky behavior.

Officers will detain minors found out past curfew, and parents could face parental-responsibility tickets — $250 for a first offense and $500 for repeat violations.

Chief Bettison urged families to see themselves as partners in the effort.

“We are calling on families to be partners with us — this is about the safety of our children. You should know where your children are,” Bettison said.

City officials say the plan will be expanded over the next two months, with additional strategies added as summer approaches. Officials emphasized that community support will be critical to the plan’s success.

WAYNE COUNTY – Strep throat, stomach viruses, RSV, upper respiratory viruses, spring allergies, asthma flare-ups, outdoor injuries

Dr. Ayed Mahmoud -- Trinity Health Livonia Emergency Medicine Physician

“This week, we have seen an increase in respiratory conditions such as COPD and asthma exacerbations, likely related to seasonal weather changes and rising pollen levels. Patients with underlying lung disease are encouraged to stay on their prescribed inhalers, monitor symptoms closely, and limit outdoor exposure on high-pollen days. We are also managing a rise in cardiovascular exacerbations, including heart failure and hypertension-related issues. Staying well-hydrated, adhering to medications, and seeking early care for symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, or swelling can help prevent complications.”

Dr. Kelly Levasseur -- Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency, Children’s Hospital of Michigan

“RSV is still around, although it is on the decline. And another thing we’re still seeing a lot of is kids coming in with vomiting and diarrhea. And we’re still strep throat – it’s like 25% to 30% positivity. Usually we have ups and downs in the positivity rate, but for months we’ve been at that positivity. Oftentimes, our kids 8 to 10 years of age or younger, they don’t complain about sore throat; they have a fever and belly pain and headaches. So when we see that, we need to think about testing for strep.”

Dr. Robert Sherwin -- Emergency Medicine, DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital

“We’re seeing a lot of cold symptoms. We’re pretty much out of flu season, but we’re still seeing people coming in with upper respiratory infections, which could be as much allergies as anything else. And as people emerge from their winter hibernation and get out and about, they’re coming in with bumps and bruises from falls, car accidents, etc.”

Dr. Arsala Bakhtyar -- Medical Director, Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Corewell Health in Southeast Michigan (based in Dearborn)

“We are seeing a lot of gastroenteritis, and unfortunately, we are still seeing RSV. We don’t usually see it this late into the spring. In fact, the CDC extended the vaccine season this year until 4/30 instead of 4/1.”

Dr. Christopher Loewe -- Emergency Department, Henry Ford St. John Hospital

“We are seeing a lot of people with viral upper respiratory infections, seasonal allergies, and asthma exacerbations.”

OAKLAND COUNTY— RSV, strep throat, spring allergies, asthma flare-ups

Dr. Trevor Eckenswiller -- Emergency Physician, Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital

“We are seeing RSV and strep throat. And there have been an uptick of rain-related motor vehicle crashes. With spring thunderstorms, people need to remember to adjust to the driving conditions.”

Dr. Rena Daiza -- Primary Care Physician, Henry Ford Medical Center Bloomfield Twp.

“With changing weather, primary care is seeing increased allergy symptoms and asthma flare-ups. Prevention includes avoiding triggers, using prescribed medications regularly, and see your doctor if home remedies and usual medications not working.”

WASHTENAW COUNTY – Stomach viruses, RSV, asthma flare-ups, upper respiratory infections, pink eye, influenza, sore throat

Dr. Brad Uren -- Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Michigan Medicine

“Still seeing a fair amount of GI illness this week, with a slight increase over last week and a lot more upper respiratory infections this week than before. We’ve seen RSV, human rhinovirus and human metapneumovirus. This is causing problems for individuals with asthma and COPD, especially. We’re also starting to see some seasonal allergies causing trouble for vulnerable populations with the warming weather.”

Dr. Stuart Bradin -- Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Michigan Medicine

“We’ve seen pneumonia, asthma, croup, RSV, human rhinovirus, and enterovirus. There is still lots of GI illnesses.”

Washtenaw County Health Department

“Influenza cases in Washtenaw County residents are currently elevated but appear to be decreasing. Influenza A wastewater detection is currently at low levels in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Influenza B wastewater detection is currently at low levels in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. According to the most recent MDHHS MI Flu Focus report, influenza A H3N2 is currently dominating the 2025-2026 influenza season. Influenza-related deaths in Washtenaw County adults have been reported this flu season. All individuals were confirmed with Influenza A.”

MONROE COUNTY – Stomach viruses, strep throat, spring allergies, asthma flare-ups

ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital – Emergency Center

“We are seeing an increase in gastrointestinal illness, including vomiting and diarrhea, as well as an increase in strep throat cases. Gastrointestinal illness is affecting all age groups, while strep throat is more common among school-aged children. We recommend frequent handwashing and staying home if you have a fever or are feeling ill to help limit the spread of illness.”

MACOMB COUNTY – Upper respiratory infections, asthma flare-ups, spring allergies, outdoor injuries

Dr. Stephanie Hernandez -- Emergency Physician at McLaren Macomb

“There has been a noticeable volume of patients experiencing symptoms of an upper respiratory infection—cough, congestion, runny nose—but testing negative for COVID-19, RSV, and the flu. While allergy activity has been relatively low, conditions have led to further breathing complications for asthma sufferers. While the warmer temps have resulted in injuries for many enjoying the outdoors, there has also been a significant increase in the number of car accidents.”

LIVINGSTON COUNTY – Spring allergies, coughs, pneumonia

Dr. Bashar Yalldo -- Henry Ford Byron Family Medicine- Howell

“Seeing lots of cough, congestion, and allergy flares. Had a few ER follow-ups for pneumonia. “

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters she had met with Warsh Thursday and urged him to disclose more information about his assets than was included in financial disclosure forms released earlier this week. Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, listed financial assets worth well more than $100 million. The figures are given in ranges so a precise value wasn't disclosed.

Warsh has large stakes in several investment funds and owns a solo financial advisory firm, Vicarage LLC. He has pledged in ethics filings to sell those holdings and stop working as an adviser if he is confirmed as Fed chair. Yet he has not disclosed the values of all his investments through the funds, or the names of some of his clients.

“This is a real problem,” Warren said. “No one has gone forward in the Trump administration without disclosing fully their financial holdings."

It's the latest hurdle for Warsh, 56, who is already facing an unusually turbulent path toward the Fed chair position, which he has sought for at least a decade. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and member of the Banking panel, said this week he won’t vote for Warsh until a Department of Justice investigation into current Fed chair Jerome Powell is resolved. The stand-off threatens to delay Warsh’s confirmation until after Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.

But even if Warsh is confirmed, he will likely face ongoing pressure from Trump to cut the Fed's key interest rate despite the Iran war pushing inflation higher and many other policymakers expressing skepticism about cuts. And he could end up serving while Powell remains on the Fed's governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

Warsh was a member of the Fed's governing board from 2006 to 2011, and is married to Jane Lauder, the daughter of billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, a major Republican donor. He has also worked in finance and has made roughly $10 million as an advisor to billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller's family office, according to his disclosure form.

Warren said Warsh declined in their meeting to disclose more information about his holdings, “which, frankly, raises more concerns.” She added that his extensive investments are “a red flag surrounded by fireworks and sparklers.”

Warsh said in his disclosures that “pre-existing confidentiality” agreements prevent him from specifying the size of individual holdings or in some cases what they are. For example, he owns a stake in Polymarket, the prediction betting market, but did not say how large it is. He said he would comply with all ethics requirements by selling those investments if confirmed.

Also Thursday, all 11 Democrats on the Banking Committee called for next week's hearing to be postponed until the DOJ drops the investigation into cost overruns for a $2.5 billion Fed building renovation project and Powell's role in it, as well as an effort by Trump to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook.

Both moves “appear to be part of the Trump Administration’s broader effort to take control of the Fed,” the letter said.

Powell said last month that he would continue to serve as Fed chair if no replacement is confirmed by the end of his term. He added that previous chairs have done the same. Yet on Wednesday, Trump threatened to try to fire Powell if he did so.

Powell has also said he would remain on the Fed's governing board even after his term as chair ends if the investigation isn't dropped. By doing so, he could prevent the Trump administration from filling another seat on the board, a step he might take if he saw it as a way to preserve the Fed's political independence.

Powell serves a separate term as governor that lasts until January 2028. A Fed chair hasn’t remained on the board as a governor even after a new chair is appointed since 1948.

The battles over Powell, as well as the uptick in inflation from the Iran war, could create extensive headaches for Warsh.

“The ground has shifted materially beneath Warsh’s feet since he was nominated,” Marco Casiraghi, an analyst at Evercore ISI, an investment bank, wrote earlier this week. “Both with the oil shock and the failure to swiftly resolve the DOJ investigation, which we think means Powell will now likely stay on as a regular governor for several months.”

Trump is likely to keep pushing for Fed rate cuts regardless of who is chair. The Fed’s short-term rate influences other borrowing costs in the economy, including for mortgages, auto loans, and business borrowing.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier this week appeared to reduce the pressure on the Fed somewhat, when he told reporters Tuesday that rates should be cut, “but if they want to wait for some clarity, I understand that.” Many Fed officials have said they want to see if the jump in energy prices starts to push up inflation more broadly. If it doesn't, the Fed could potentially look past the gas price spike and cut rates, particularly if the economy weakens.

Yet when Trump was asked Wednesday on Fox Business whether he still expects interest rates to decline, he said, “when Kevin gets in, I do. ... interest rates should be much lower.”

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Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

The memo, a copy of which was sent to The Associated Press, followed a long day of reports suggesting Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was on the verge of cutting its financial backing of the upstart league.

The newsletter Money in Sport reported in February that LIV Golf already had spent $5.3 billion and was projected to surpass $6 billion by the end of the year.

“I want to be crystal clear: Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle,” O'Neil said. “While the media landscape is often filled with speculation, our reality is defined by the work we do on the grass. We are heading into the heart of our 2026 schedule with the full energy of an organization that is bigger, louder, and more influential than ever before.”

Left unclear was how long the funding would last for LIV Golf, which launched in June 2022 by paying roughly $1 billion in signing bonuses to some of the PGA Tour's biggest names, such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm.

Prize money for individuals and the 13 teams was raised to $30 million this year.

Koepka since has left LIV and was allowed to rejoin the PGA Tour this year with stipulations. Patrick Reed also left LIV and is playing a European tour schedule this year. He is virtually certain to be eligible to return to the PGA Tour in 2027 through the European tour points race.

Questions about LIV's future funding were raised as the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia revealed a new five-year investment strategy.

“The 2026-30 strategy marks a natural evolution as PIF moves from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation, with a strengthened focus on maximizing impact, raising the efficiency of investments, and applying the highest standards of governance, transparency and institutional excellence,” the PIF said in a release.

The plan was developed before the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who loves golf and was behind LIV Golf, told the London-based Financial Times, “Of course the war would add more pressure to reposition some priorities.”

LIV players at Chapultepec Golf Club for LIV Golf Mexico that starts Thursday did not have answers as speculation ran rampant throughout the day.

One player said Al-Rumayyan met with players the first week of March in Hong Kong and said funding for LIV was set through 2032. The player spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. The player also said O’Neil arrived in Mexico City Wednesday and was to meet with the players.

LIV Golf promoted the Mexico event Wednesday evening on social media with the message, “Slow news day? We are ON.”

LIV has played five events this year, in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa. It celebrated an inspirational victory at its biggest event in Australia when Anthony Kim won after the American had been away for 12 years while battling drug and alcohol addiction.

DeChambeau won the last two events in playoffs, and this week tries to become the first LIV player to win three in a row. DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion, missed the cut in the Masters last week.

LIV's focus has been on a global reach, with its first U.S. tournament not scheduled until May 7-10 at Trump National in northern Virginia.

“The life of a startup movement is often defined by these moments of pressure,” O'Neil said. “We signed up for this because we believe in disrupting the status quo. We have faced headwinds since the jump, and we’ve answered every time with resilience and grace. Now, we answer by doing what we do best: putting on the most compelling show in sports.”

He ended his note to the staff by saying, “We are pioneers, and while the road isn’t always smooth, the destination is worth every mile. Let’s go out and show the world why LIV Golf is the future of the game.”

LIV is in the second year of a Fox Sports television deal, with network putting it on various platforms like FS1. The opening round of the Mexico event has three hours on the Fox Sports app. The previous two years, its U.S. broadcast partner was the CW.

___

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

Security guards detained the man without incident shortly after 10 a.m., within 3 minutes after he entered the Hartford building. They held him until city police officers arrived, a spokesperson for Hartford police said.

It wasn't immediately clear what the man's plans were, Lt. Aaron Boisvert said.

The man was brought to Hartford police headquarters and charged with illegal possession of an assault weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of a large-capacity ammunition magazine and trespassing. Court and public records show he has a criminal history that includes convictions for assault, threatening and drug possession.

It was not immediately clear if the man has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health, Aetna's parent company, released a brief statement on the incident and did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.

“Earlier today, a suspicious person attempted to enter our office, was apprehended immediately by our security team and taken into custody by local police,” the statement said.

The arrest comes amid concerns about health care executives' safety, following the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges connected to the killing. He has become a cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry.

In February, CVS Health announced it would be laying off more than 300 remote workers who reported to the Aetna headquarters.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, specifically pointed to operations in the Pacific, saying the U.S. would be targeting vessels that left before the blockade began earlier this week outside the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy and other shipments.

U.S. forces in other areas of responsibility “will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The military also detailed an expansive lists of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.” A notice published Thursday says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

The expansion of U.S. military efforts to target Iranian shipping is another pressure point for Tehran and comes as a ceasefire is set to expire in mere days. Mediators are pressing for an extension to a truce that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

US military details items that could be seized from Iran-linked ships

The military's new list of banned materials includes products such as weapons, ammunition and military equipment that are classified as “absolute contraband.” However, it also lists items such as oil, iron, steel, aluminum and other goods as “conditional contraband” that it argues can be used both for civilian and military purposes.

Otherwise innocuous items like electronics, power generation equipment or heavy machinery can be seized if “circumstances indicate intended military end-use,” the notice says.

More than 10,000 American troops are helping enforce the blockade on Iranian ports. While no ships have yet been boarded, defense leaders say the military is warning Iran-linked ships that it could fire warning shots or escalate to other force if they try to outrun the Navy.

In the first three days of the military action, 14 ships have turned around rather than confront the naval blockade, according to U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Iran war.

Some Iran-linked or sanctioned vessels that left through the strait have appeared to halt their movements, turn off their radio transponders or head back toward Iran's coast, shipping data firms say.

Ships near th

e blockade face US warnings

Vessels that approach the blockade, which is being enforced in Iran’s territorial seas and international waters and not in the Strait of Hormuz, get a warning, Caine said.

“Any ship that would cross the blockade would result in our sailors executing pre-planned tactics designed to bring the force to that ship — if need be, board the ship and take her over,” he said.

U.S. Central Command has released a recording of a radio broadcast sent to vessels in the region that said the military was ready to use force if needed to compel compliance.

“Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure transiting to or from Iranian port,” the message said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that “less than 10% of America’s naval power” is being used to enforce the blockade. The Navy has 16 warships — 11 destroyers, three amphibious assault ships, an aircraft carrier and a littoral combat ship — in the Middle East out of a battle force of roughly 300 total warships.

Also supporting the blockade are a series of aircraft as well as surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence operations designed to give the Navy the latest information on the vessels it is encountering.

The Navy is likely tracking ships linked to Iran through satellites, drones and other forms of surveillance as well as each commercial vessel’s past history, said Kevin Donegan, a retired vice admiral and former commander of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

“It’s a pretty complex operation to make work,” said Donegan, who spoke Thursday during a webinar hosted by the Middle East Institute. “Not just from the intelligence standpoint, but positioning all the ships in the right way to make the intercepts if you have to.”

Donegan stressed that the blockade is only one pressure point on Iran and that it won’t end the conflict on its own.

“For it to be most effective, this military tool is added to the other operational tasks that were being done and paired with — hopefully, diplomacy,” Donegan said. “And if those two are scripted together in the right way, we can potentially get the outcomes we want.”

US Central Command chief appears at the Pentagon

As Hegseth and Caine discussed the blockade, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, made a rare appearance in the Pentagon briefing room.

He said that before the ceasefire took hold, American service members and troops from allied countries in the Persian Gulf had “fought together side by side.”

“In creating the largest air defense umbrella in the world across the Middle East, we embedded specially trained U.S. military air defenders alongside our partner nation soldiers,” Cooper said, adding that Bahrain’s king and crown prince knew American soldiers by name.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said it is the first criminal case against a federal officer involved in the Minnesota immigration crackdown, which was part of a surge of forces into cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans.

“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law in the state of Minnesota,” Moriarty told a news conference, saying the agent acted outside the scope of a federal officers’ authority.

An arrest warrant filed in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, says Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. is charged with two counts of second-degree assault. Minnesota authorities say Morgan, 35, was driving back to immigration offices at the end of his shift when the incident occurred Feb. 5.

The driver and front-seat passenger of a car called 911 saying the driver of an unmarked SUV pulled alongside them, rolled down his window and pointed a handgun at them both. The car's driver told investigators they feared it was a “crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people," according to the warrant.

A spokesman for Moriarty’s office said no arrangements have been made for Morgan to surrender and that there is an active nationwide warrant for his arrest. If convicted, Morgan faces up to seven years in prison for each assault charge.

Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

A person returning a call to a possible phone listing for Morgan said it was a wrong number for him. A message sent to a possible email address for Morgan bounced back as undeliverable. No one immediately returned a phone message left at a number for a person listed as sharing an address with Morgan. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney who could speak for him.

Accused agent told state investigators he 'feared for his safety'

Moriarty said during a news conference that Morgan was driving a rented, unmarked SUV on the shoulder of the highway when a car also moved into the shoulder to try to slow Morgan down, its driver not knowing he was an officer. After the car returned to the legal lane, she said, Morgan pulled up alongside and pointed his service weapon at the two people in the car.

According to the warrant, Morgan then merged his SUV back into traffic ahead of the victims, who took cellphone photos of the SUV’s license plate.

The warrant does not identify the victims.

Morgan and his partner, who was not charged, told investigators they were returning at the end of their shift to the federal building being used to stage officers. The arrest warrant says Morgan "made no claim that he was conducting any law-enforcement operation or activity or responding to any emergency situation.”

Morgan told investigators with the Minnesota State Patrol that the other vehicle “swerved over in front of him and cut him off,” the warrant said. Investigators wrote that Morgan said “he feared for his safety and the safety of others” when he drew his gun and yelled: “Police! Stop!”

The warrant says the victims couldn’t tell Morgan was a law enforcement officer and couldn't hear him because their windows were up.

Trump administration has warned against arresting federal agents

The charges could intensify a clash between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials over the crackdown. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has warned that the Justice Department could investigate and prosecute state or local officials who arrest federal agents for performing their official duties.

Moriarty said she is not concerned about blowback from federal authorities and that her office will “hold people accountable if they violate the laws of the state.”

Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said federal officers are granted immunity for actions within the scope of their official responsibilities.

He said the actions described in the arrest warrant don’t seem relevant to the officer’s duties. But because he apparently was on-duty at the time, the officer could petition to move the charges to federal court and make a claim for immunity.

“When you look at it more closely, flashing a gun is a serious threat,” Gerhardt said. “And there’s a good argument that isn’t part of his official duties … it’s abusing his powers.”

Minnesota still investigating killings of 2 US citizens by federal officers

DHS deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area from December through February in what the department called its “ largest immigration enforcement operation ever.” The Minnesota operation led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

Backlash over the officers' aggressive tactics mounted, and two of the crackdown’s most high profile leaders were soon gone. Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March shortly after the Minnesota surge ended. That same month, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief who led immigration operations in several large cities, announced his retirement.

Minnesota authorities continue to investigate the conduct of federal officers during the immigration crackdown, insisting they can't trust the federal government to investigate itself. Minnesota sued the Trump administration last month for access to evidence in three cases involving shootings by federal officers, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

___

Lauer reported from Philadelphia and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.

Hastings plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Hastings had served as Netflix’s CEO for more than 20 years until 2023 after taking over the role from his friend and fellow company co-founder Marc Randolph in the late 1990s.

“My real contribution at Netflix wasn’t a single decision; it was a focus on member joy, building a culture that others could inherit and improve, and building a company that could be both beloved by members and wildly successful for generations to come,” he said in a statement.

The company announced Hastings' departure along with its quarterly results Thursday, its first earnings report since walking away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in February.

Netflix shares fell nearly 9% to $98.32 in after-hours trading after the company's outlook disappointed investors despite strong quarterly results.

Police in Waukesha, west of Milwaukee, said the “area was experiencing heavy rainfall accompanied by significant thunder and lightning” when someone reported seeing the man on the ground Wednesday evening.

“Preliminary information indicates the individual was struck by lightning while walking through the parking lot during the storm,” police said.

A weather pattern combining very moist air with a strong jet stream has stretched from as far south as central Texas into the Midwest and east across the Great Lakes. From Monday through Wednesday, the National Weather Service received more than 1,100 reports of large hail, winds above 60 mph (96 kph) and tornadoes as part of the storm system, said Bill Bunting, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center.

Teams were out Thursday surveying damage to determine the exact number of tornadoes, Bunting said.

The storms have rumbled across a number of states for the better part of this week and could continue into the early weekend.

“There's been a tremendous amount of lightning with these storms over the last few days,” said Mark Gehring, a meteorologist with the weather service in Milwaukee.

“We've had the temperature and humidity of summer and it's lasting an entire week — in mid-April,” he added. “In addition to a very stormy pattern, nearly every day we're having heavy rain. We've had tornadoes nearly every day, very large hail.”

Five tornadoes have been confirmed across southern and central Wisconsin, but the number could rise after surveys, Gehring said.

In addition to lightning, hail and tornadoes, the storms have brought rain — lots of it, with scores of flood warnings and flood watches issued by the weather service over multiple states.

Crews were hurriedly pumping water from a dam in Cheboygan, Michigan, this week, even removing floodgates to relieve pressure. Some residents were told to prepare a “go bag” containing important personal items, though Cheboygan County Sheriff Todd Ross said the number of people in the zone was relatively small.

“We are in crisis mode now,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who declared emergencies in dozens of counties because of flooding and other weather woes.

In northern Michigan, Bellaire, population 1,000, said its wastewater treatment system was being overwhelmed, forcing the release of partially treated waste into area swamps. The village urged residents to reduce home water use.

Carl Johnson, 59, has a home on the rapidly rising Muskegon River in western Michigan. He went on Facebook to tell people that his boats were ready if someone needed help. People living in the river’s flood plain below the Croton Dam in Newaygo County were ordered to evacuate.

“It’s out of the banks everywhere. It’s really bad,” Johnson said of the river.

Bruce Carlson, who lives behind the Croton Dam, said the roar of the water was “deafening.” Consumers Energy, which owns the dam, said it was structurally sound.

The Wisconsin River is at major flood stage in Portage, Wisconsin, and is forecast to reach or surpass the 20.7-foot (6.3-meter) record sometime Friday morning, meteorologist Gehring said.

“Right now, it's at 19.9 feet (6 meters), not that far off,” he said. “In Portage, there's a large area of low-land flooding. Many roads are flooded. There's a levee there. It's important that the levee holds.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency earlier this week.

Cars were stranded Wednesday night in high floodwater on a highway in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office posted online to urge people not to drive in southeast Wisconsin.

But at least in Wisconsin, a respite could be near.

“We have one more severe, heavy rain event coming this way before we get a good break,” Gehring said. “That's going to be on Friday evening. That's going to be the last gasp of severe rain.”

Bunting said the storm system will continue to move north and east and likely will take three to four days to finally move off the U.S. east coast.

“Probably, the most concerning day in terms of intense thunderstorm potential and tornadoes is Friday, extending from northern Oklahoma into central Wisconsin and far eastern Illinois,” he said.

___

Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan. White reported from Detroit.

Revenue jumped 8.5% to $19.44 billion in the January-March period compared to the same period a year ago, the Purchase, New York, company said Thursday. That handily beat Wall Street’s forecast of $18.95 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

“The consumer is coming back multiple times to our brands, responding to our holistic value plus execution, plus advertising, plus innovation strategy,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said Thursday during a conference call with investors.

PepsiCo leaned heavily into price increases to combat inflation in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. The company hiked prices by double-digit percentages for eight straight quarters in 2022 and 2023 before settling into more moderate price increases.

That took a toll on sales. Consumers stopped buying Frito-Lay snacks or shifted to cheaper store brands. PepsiCo's market value has fallen by more than $40 billion from 2023.

PepsiCo began cutting prices on value brands like Chester's and Santitas last spring to win back exasperated customers. Then, last September, activist investor Elliott Investment Management took a $4 billion stake in the company and began pressing for further price cuts and other changes. PepsiCo agreed to accelerate its price cuts late last year.

In February, ahead of the Super Bowl, PepsiCo slashed U.S. prices on Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos chips by up to 15%. At a Michigan Walmart on Thursday, a 9.25-ounce bag of Doritos was advertising a price rollback to $3.97, down from $4.48.

PepsiCo said new products like Cheetos NKD and Doritos NKD, which have no artificial ingredients, and snacks with trendy ingredients, like Smartfood FiberPop and Doritos Protein, are also attracting shoppers, both in the U.S. and internationally.

On the beverage side, PepsiCo is seeing new customers thanks to its recent acquisition of Poppi, a gut health soda, and a new lower-sugar version of Gatorade that has no artificial ingredients. On Thursday, PepsiCo announced that it will shift Gatorade's packaging and marketing to focus more on hydration for general consumers and less on athletes.

“So two types of consumers are coming into the category, because both of a stronger core and also innovation,” Laguarta said. “And I think we’re going to continue to play both levers.”

Net income rose 27% to $2.33 billion for the quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $1.61 per share. That also beat Wall Street’s forecast of $1.54 per share.

PepsiCo shares rose 2% in morning trading.

The renowned Baron, also a former editor of The Boston Globe and The Miami Herald, gave a keynote address Wednesday as New York University handed out journalism awards. The Associated Press was praised for its “unyielding defense of ethical standards and principles” for not changing its style guidance after President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico. The AP's lawsuit against the White House for reducing some of its access is currently under consideration by an appeals court.

NYU also honored The Atlantic for how it wrote about its editor inadvertently being included in a text chain with Trump administration and military figures, and student journalists at NYU, Stanford and the University of Texas at Dallas.

Worries that ‘to each his own’ is replacing an ethical compass

While conceding he risked sounding sanctimonious, Baron dove right in. He said he worried that journalists can't agree on an ethical compass — seeking the truth with humility is his suggestion — and that “to each his own” is becoming the evolving ethos for many who cover and talk about the news.

“We will be doing ourselves no favors if that turns out to be the case,” he said. “All of us will likely be tainted by the worst practices of any one of us.”

Baron praised some work he considered exemplary, including Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown's reporting on the Jeffrey Epstein case and Knight Ridder stories in the run-up to the Iraq War more than two decades ago. But he spent more time on his concerns.

Among them: How Paramount Global mogul David Ellison and his choice for CBS News editor-in-chief, Free Press founder Bari Weiss, are positioning that network. Paramount is also seeking Trump administration approval for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would also give the company control over CNN. Ellison has said CBS News — and CNN if it comes to that — will maintain editorial independence.

Ellison has said he wants CBS News to prioritize talking to Americans who identify as center-left or center-right politically, a group that he considers the majority of the country. Baron said that was “a political goal. It is not a journalistic one.”

He said that a news organization using that as a guiding principle “is fated to compromise ethics when a rock-solid story moving toward publication is deemed to fall outside the designated political comfort zone.” A CBS News representative had no immediate comment.

Ellison's perceived closeness with the Trump administration has become a prism through which much of CBS News' coverage is now viewed.

For example, the network was criticized in February for different framing of statistics on who ICE was arresting in immigration crackdowns. The network initially reported that 40% of those arrested had no criminal history and that 14% were charged or convicted of violent crimes — the so-called “worst of the worst” the administration had talked about deporting. But later on “CBS Evening News,” the focus had shifted to the statistic that 60% of those arrested had a criminal history.

CBS News has also received attention for inviting Trump administration officials to sit at its table later this month at the White House Correspondent Association dinner. Those dinner invites are common for news outlets at that event — not just CBS — but are being watched more closely due to the administration's attacks on the media.

Cable networks that operate as a bullhorn for the administration

In his NYU speech, Baron also criticized “cable networks that function as mouthpieces and bullhorns for the administration, who routinely funnel on-air personalities into its top positions and who supply them with lucrative landing spots when they exit. These outlets render themselves largely indistinguishable from the governments they are supposed to cover.”

His remarks came less than 24 hours before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel host, used his Pentagon podium to criticize journalists he said were “only looking for the negative” in their coverage of the Iran war. He said it reminded him of a biblical story of Pharisees who cast doubt on a miracle performed by Christ.

“Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,” Hegseth said Thursday.

Baron denounced media figures from both political sides who see everything through a partisan lens, consult only people who say what they want to hear and seize on an isolated fact to make sweeping judgments. “This is an outrage and advocacy industry," he said, “not a fact-finding profession.”

He also said many journalists failed to live up to the mission of seeking the truth about Biden's cognitive and physical struggled during his term as president. Baron announced his retirement from the Post in January 2021, days after Biden took office.

“Did some among us shy from aggressively exploring his intellectual and physical health for fear of aiding Donald Trump's campaign and alienating loyal readers, viewers and listeners?” Baron asked. “My guess is yes. If so, would that be an ethical breakdown in our profession? Again, I'd say yes.”

___

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

The department said that more than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the audit had significant problems such as remaining valid long after an immigrant was authorized to be in the country. So the state was ordered to review all of this type of licenses and revoke illegal ones.

The federal government has reviewed records related to these non-domiciled CDLs in every state since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put a spotlight on this issue after an August crash in Florida that killed three people. Most states have either complied or are in negotiations with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but California has lost $200 million. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina — have been warned they are at risk of losing some funding.

“I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I’m delivering on that promise today,” Duffy said.

Duffy has said that immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide, but these non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. New York issued 32,606 of them. New rules the Transportation Department has announced will prevent 97% of those foreign drivers from getting a commercial license again.

New York officials have defended their licensing practices and said they are complying with federal law and that audits during the first Trump administration supported that.

This is not the first time that the Transportation Department had withheld or threatened to withhold funding from New York since Trump returned to office.

Duffy put a hold on $18 billion in funding for a subway extension in Manhattan and tunnels beneath the Hudson River for Amtrak and commuter rail trains. The Trump administration agreed Thursday to restore funding for the subway project. In February, a judge ordered the funding to continue for the tunnel project. Duffy also threatened to pull federal funding from New York if it did not abandon a congestion pricing fee for driving into a large swath of Manhattan and if crime on the subway system was not addressed. The state also fought those efforts in court and won.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's spokesman Sean Butler said the action related to commercial driver's licenses seems to be part of broad effort to attack blue states.

“This continues a yearlong pattern of Secretary Duffy threatening to withhold money that keeps our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back, and once again we will win,” Butler said.

Trucking industry groups have praised the Transportation Department's efforts to get unqualified drivers off the road, crack down on questionable trucking schools and go after trucking companies that violate the rules and then just change their names and keep operating. The industry said that too often unqualified drivers who shouldn’t have licenses or can’t speak English have been allowed to get behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound (about 39,916 kilograms) truck.

"Thes“ enf”rcement actions will remove bad actors from the road and restore accountability to the system. Today’s action is an important step toward safer highways and a stronger, more professional trucking industry.” said Todd Spencer, who is president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association trade group.

But immigrant groups say some drivers are now being unfairly targeted. The spotlight has been on Sikh truckers because the driver in the Florida crash and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October are both Sikhs.

--> Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham headlines NBA awards eligibility decision amid pneumothorax comeback

Detroit secured its first Central Division title in 18 years with a season-ending win over the Indiana Pacers, reaching the 60-win mark for the first time since the 2005-06 season.

Despite the success, Cunningham will be ineligible for major NBA honors after appearing in 64 games this season, one shy of the league’s 65-game minimum for awards eligibility.

The two-time All-Star missed time this season due to multiple injuries, including a wrist issue and a collapsed lung suffered March 17 during a road game against the Washington Wizards.

--> What is pneumothorax? Cade Cunningham injury explained: Detroit Pistons await reevaluation

The injury sidelined him for 11 games before he returned on April 8 to help the team take a 137-111 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring 13 points, dropping 10 assists, and notching five rebounds in the victory.

--> Michigan basketball national champs, Fab 5 member, attend Pistons game in return for Cade Cunningham

Under league rules, players must appear in at least 65 games to qualify for awards such as All-NBA.

An exception exists for players who have appeared in at least 62 games and suffer a season-ending injury, though it remains unclear whether Cunningham will qualify after falling short by one game due to a serious injury.

“I feel a lot of ways about it,” said Cunningham. “I think what they are trying to do is have superstars play and not sit out just to rest because fans pay a lot of money to watch us play games, so I have a lot of respect for that. The fans come to watch me play, and I want to make sure that I’m available and I give them a show whenever they come out.

Cunningham continued:

“So in that way, I respect the rule. I think that it is a good rule in that way. It’s tough for me right now this year because I think I’ve done a lot of work to be in consideration for awards and All-NBA and all of that stuff. So, I’m in a tough spot, but it will all play out how it is supposed to play out, and I’m just trying to do my best, just trying to help my team win. I’m hearing all of this stuff about exceptions and all of this other stuff. I don’t know how all of that stuff works. I just keep doing my job day by day, and whatever comes will come, and what’s meant to be will be.”

Cunningham has been a central figure in Detroit’s turnaround, alongside fellow All-Star Jalen Duren and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

The Pistons finished with their best record in two decades, echoing the franchise’s past success.

Detroit’s 60-win season marks its strongest showing since the “Goin’ to Work” era team that reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2006.

It also joins the franchise’s elite seasons, including the 1988-89 “Bad Boys” team that went on to win an NBA title.

The Pistons will open the playoffs Sunday and will learn their first-round opponent Friday night, when the final Eastern Conference play-in spot is decided between the Charlotte Hornets and the Orlando Magic.

Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. EDT, but before the playoff tip-off, should Cunningham get an exception?

News broke Thursday (April 16) afternoon that the NBA and the NBPA have agreed in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement that Cunningham and Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić are eligible for all awards after both players suffered major injuries during the season, leaving them one game shy of the league’s 65-game minimum for awards eligibility.

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/ZT2SldeN6X

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 16, 2026

Cunningham and Dončić played in 64 games this season, with the Pistons star being diagnosed with a collapsed lung on March 17 during a road game against the Washington Wizards.

--> What is pneumothorax? Cade Cunningham injury explained: Detroit Pistons await reevaluation

Dončić missed two games due to the birth of his daughter in Slovenia.

The injury sidelined Cunningham for 11 games before he returned on April 8 to help the team take a 137-111 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring 13 points, dropping 10 assists, and notching five rebounds in the victory.

--> Michigan basketball national champs, Fab 5 member, attend Pistons game in return for Cade Cunningham

The league and union said that, considering the totality of the circumstances, both players qualify for awards under the extraordinary circumstances provision.

Meanwhile, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who played in 60 qualifying games, filed an extraordinary circumstances challenge seeking eligibility for an award before an independent arbitrator.

The challenge was denied, making him ineligible for annual awards for the 2025-26 season.

Prior to Wednesday’s decision, Cunningham spoke about the potential of being ineligable for regular season awards.

“I feel a lot of ways about it,” said Cunningham. “I think what they are trying to do is have superstars play and not sit out just to rest because fans pay a lot of money to watch us play games, so I have a lot of respect for that. The fans come to watch me play, and I want to make sure that I’m available and I give them a show whenever they come out.

Cunningham continued:

“So in that way, I respect the rule. I think that it is a good rule in that way. It’s tough for me right now this year because I think I’ve done a lot of work to be in consideration for awards and All-NBA and all of that stuff. So, I’m in a tough spot, but it will all play out how it is supposed to play out, and I’m just trying to do my best, just trying to help my team win. I’m hearing all of this stuff about exceptions and all of this other stuff. I don’t know how all of that stuff works. I just keep doing my job day by day, and whatever comes will come, and what’s meant to be will be.”

The Pistons capped a historic regular season with a 60-22 record and the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but the milestone comes with a costly caveat for the two-time All-Star.

Detroit secured its first Central Division title in 18 years with a season-ending win over the Indiana Pacers, reaching the 60-win mark for the first time since the 2005-06 season.

Cunningham has been a central figure in Detroit’s turnaround, alongside fellow All-Star Jalen Duren and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

The Pistons finished with their best record in two decades, echoing the franchise’s past success.

Detroit’s 60-win season marks its strongest showing since the “Goin’ to Work” era team that reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2006.

It also joins the franchise’s elite seasons, including the 1988-89 “Bad Boys” team that went on to win an NBA title.

With the weight of the decision off his back, Cunningham and the Pistons can turn their focus to the playoffs on Sunday as they will learn their first-round opponent Friday night, when the final Eastern Conference play-in spot is decided between the Charlotte Hornets and the Orlando Magic.

Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. EDT, but before the playoff tip-off.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, a day after topping its prior all-time high set in January, for its 11th gain in 12 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 115 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.

U.S. stocks have leaped more than 10% since hitting a low in late March, driven by hopes for an end to the war or something that could avert a worst-case scenario for the global economy. Now, the wait is on to see if such hopes were prescient or just wishful thinking.

Pakistan’s powerful army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of efforts to press for an extension to a ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and the Islamic Republic.

Oil prices climbed, showing that caution still remains in financial markets. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 4.7% to settle at $99.39. It’s gone from roughly $70 before the war to as high as $119 at times on uncertainty about how long the war will keep oil stuck in the Persian Gulf area and away from customers.

“The key upside risk for the market is that peace talks between the US and Iran break down,” ING Bank strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote Thursday. “This isn’t an unrealistic scenario, given that US and Iranian demands remain fairly wide apart.”

In the meantime, big U.S. companies are continuing to deliver growth in profits for the start of 2026 that’s even better than analysts expected. Such growth is the lifeblood of the stock market, whose level tends to follow the track of corporate profits over the long term.

PepsiCo rose 2.3% after reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Customers bought more snacks during the quarter, after the company said in February it would cut prices on Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos chips to win back people frustrated by high prices.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services vroomed 6.3% higher, and Marsh & McLennan climbed 4.4% after both likewise delivered stronger results than expected.

Technology stocks also broadly got some support after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., an industry heavyweight, reported stronger revenue and profit for the start of 2026 than analysts expected. TSMC’s Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the company expects strong demand to continue into the spring.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Abbott, which fell 6% even though it reported slightly better results than analysts expected. The health care company cut its forecast for profit over the full year, mostly because of its purchase of cancer-screening company Exact Sciences.

Allbirds slumped 35.8%, but that gave back only a portion of its 582% surge from the day before. The company formerly known for sneakers is pivoting to the artificial-intelligence industry and hopes to rent out the use of high-powered AI chips as a service.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 18.33 points to 7,041.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 115.00 to 48,578.72, and the Nasdaq composite gained 86.69 to 24,102.70.

In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed across much of Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4%, South Korea’s Kospi rallied 2.2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7% for some of the world’s larger moves.

China on Thursday reported 5% economic growth for the January-March quarter, an acceleration from the previous quarter. While economists say China has largely shrugged off the initial impacts of the Iran war, some are warning its massive export engine could be hit more significantly in the coming months on slower global economic growth.

In the bond market Treasury yields rose a bit after a report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.31% from 4.29% late Wednesday.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

On Thursday, Hennepin County announced charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of pointing his gun at a motorist and passenger on a Minneapolis highway. A local prosecutor described the warrant for Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr.'s arrest as the first of its kind against an officer involved in the crackdown in Minnesota.

The government has suggested Minnesota prosecutors don’t have jurisdiction to investigate federal officers. Nevertheless, Minnesota last month sued the administration for access to evidence for investigations into three shootings, including two that resulted in deaths.

Here's where some of the more high-profile cases stand:

Alex Pretti

Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was one of many protesters on a commercial street on Jan. 24 when he was shot and killed by federal officers.

The Trump administration said shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti, who federal authorities said had a semiautomatic handgun and was “violently” resisting officers. Multiple videos of the shooting contradict those claims, showing Pretti had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground. One of the officers removed a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer shot him in the back.

The Justice Department said the FBI was conducting a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing, and Customs and Border Patrol is conducting its own internal investigation.

Renee Good

Good, a 37-year-old mother, was blocking a residential street with her SUV and honking her horn when immigration officers approached the vehicle. She began to pull forward and an ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle fired at least two shots into the car, killing Good.

The Department of Homeland Security has said the matter remains under investigation but that footage shows Good impeded law enforcement operations and weaponized her vehicle, leading the officer to act in self-defense.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the department’s Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”

Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis

Sosa-Celis was wounded in January when a federal officer shot his right thigh. Federal officials initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. But federal prosecutors later dropped all charges against the men, and authorities opened a criminal investigation into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about the shooting.

DHS has said both officers are on administrative leave as ICE and DOJ conduct a joint review.

ChongLy “Scott” Thao

Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul, is investigating federal officers' arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a Hmong American man, as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment.

ICE officers bashed open the front door of Thao’s St. Paul home with guns drawn, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions. The arrest was captured on widely shared video.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Monday that they are pursuing information from DHS but have not been able to determine whether ICE officers had a warrant for Thao's arrest.

DHS said in a statement that ICE does not kidnap people and called the county's investigation a political stunt.

Other incidents

In early March, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office was investigating at least 17 cases and considering whether to bring misconduct charges against federal officers, including Border Patrol official Greg Bovino.

Included in the investigation was an incident in which Bovino threw a smoke canister at protesters on Jan. 21. Another on Jan. 7 involved federal officers making an arrest outside a high school and deploying chemical irritants with students and staff nearby.

In the first three months of the year, Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign said he brought in $27 million, while vulnerable incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said he raised $14 million. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s campaign reported raising $8.8 million and former Sen. Sherrod Brown reported $10.1 million in his comeback bid in Ohio.

The money will help Democrats make their case to voters and counter Republican attacks, but it doesn’t change the fundamental fact that control of the Senate will be decided in territory that favors Republicans. Except for Maine, where Democrats Graham Platner and Janet Mills are still battling for the party's nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, all of the top battleground races are in states President Donald Trump won in 2024.

The totals reported to the Federal Election Commission Wednesday offer only a snapshot of overall fundraising, as most major campaigns have joint fundraising committees and other accounts from which they can spend. National parties and independent groups also will spend hundreds of millions across the country.

Republicans lagged

Democrats far outpaced Republicans.

In Texas, incumbent Sen. Jon Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton — who are locked in a bitter runoff for the GOP nomination — raised $4.2 million combined, just 15% of Talarico's revenue for the quarter. Two of the three main Republicans in Georgia — Derek Dooley and Buddy Carter — combined for about $1.1 million. The third, Mike Collins, raised just over $1 million.

Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley raised $3.2 million in North Carolina and Sen. Jon Husted raised $2.9 million in Ohio.

Collins, a top target for Democrats, raised $3.1 million in Maine. Mills, the governor who is preferred by much of the Democratic establishment, raised $2.6 million, while Platner, an oyster farmer backed by progressive leaders including Sen. Bernie Sanders, raised $4 million.

In Alaska, Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola reported raising $8.7 million, compared with $1.7 million for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Money isn't everything

Republicans said flush coffers don't guarantee victory.

Retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina pointed out that his opponent in 2020 also celebrated successful fundraising quarters but didn't win.

Democrats Beto O'Rourke in 2018 in Texas and Jaime Harrison in 2020 in South Carolina shattered fundraising records and still lost to their Republican rivals.

"We don’t have to outraise them," Tillis said. "We just got to out run them.”

There's an imbalance in Republicans' favor at the national committee level. The Republican National Committee reported roughly $109 million cash on hand in its most recent FEC filing, compared with roughly $16 million for their Democratic counterpart, plus Democrats are carrying about $17 million in debt.

Waiting in the wings for Republicans is a super political action committee tied to Trump — MAGA Inc. — which has more than $300 million cash on hand, according to the FEC.

The rosy first-quarter contributions carry some advantages for Democrats, namely the ability to buy limited advertising slots ahead of the election to get on the air early and make an impression with voters. Candidates also get favorable rates for television ads so their money goes further than independent expenditures by outside groups, though that advantage is eroding as ad spending increasingly shifts toward digital streaming.

“Winning in Texas will require unprecedented resources,” Talarico campaign manager Seth Krasne said in a statement. “This grassroots fundraising haul puts our movement in a strong position to spread our message in some of the most expensive media markets in the country.”

Talarico will face the winner of the GOP runoff on May 26 between Cornyn and Paxton.

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This story has been corrected to show that Cooper raised $8.8 million, not $13.8 million; Brown raised $10.1 million, not $12.5 million; Whatley raised $3.2 million, not $2.1 million; Peltola raised $8.7 million, not $8.9 million; and Cornyn and Paxton raised $4.2 million combined, not $2.5 million.

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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.

Lerui Zheng, 11, of Troy, is a student at Avondale GATE Middle School. He was just announced as one of five finalists for the Doodle for Google contest.

The public can vote for their favorite Doodle now through April 29, 2026.

A national win would increase Lerui’s college scholarship from $10,000 to $55,000. His school would also get a $50,000 technology grant.

His piece, “Turning Brass into Happiness,” will be featured on the Google homepage as part of a revolving gallery on April 28.

Click here to vote in the contest.

The U.N. is warning against privatizing a global aid system that delivers crucial assistance to some of the world's most vulnerable populations.

Ahead of the initiative being formally introduced at the U.N. at the end of April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered all U.S. diplomats to deliver a call to action to high-level foreign officials to sign on with their support by Monday, according to a diplomatic cable sent this week and obtained by The Associated Press.

According to the directive, the “Trade Over Aid Initiative" is meant to encourage U.N. member states to “make pro-business reforms" to their aid processes by facilitating conversations between governments, the private sector and international organizations.

The proposal also calls for “free market” policies to attract foreign trade that include "limited regulation, low taxation, multiple energy sources, private property rights, sanctity of contracts, and a trusted judiciary."

“The idea that trade and free market capitalism is the surest path to prosperity has been proven by the facts and by history," said Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman. “The U.S. remains the most generous country in the history of the world, but those arguing for ‘aid not trade’ are really arguing for lining the pockets of a corrupt NGO industrial complex.”

While signing on to the proposal is nonbinding and does not create obligations or require changes to national laws, it would reflect global opinion on the increasingly dire global aid situation as powerful countries like the U.S., the United Kingdom and others have decreased funding for humanitarian aid and increased their nations' defense spending.

The latest move is also seen by the U.N. and other international organizations as further abandoning the aid system at a moment of growing conflicts around the world, while increasing the risk of exploitation by for-profit companies.

Despite the U.S. effort, the United Nations is committed to putting in place its sustainable development agenda by 2030, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, which includes ending poverty, achieving gender equality and urgently tackling climate change.

"For us, trade, investment, and private sector engagement can be powerful drivers of inclusive growth and job creation," he told AP. “They should, however, not be used to substitute international development cooperation or for principled humanitarian assistance.”

Eric Pelofsky, who served at the State Department under the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations, blasted the effort in a statement, saying that “there’s no American who looks at a picture of a starving child and sees an opportunity for companies to enrich themselves.”

“That’s because Americans have historically run to the fire to help rather than looking for ways to sell fire hoses to those suffering,” according to a statement from Pelofsky, now an executive at the Rockefeller Foundation. "This approach betrays America’s traditions, values, and national security interests — and it makes us less safe.”

Devex, a news organization covering global development, earlier reported details of the initiative and The Washington Post earlier reported on the cable.

The initiative builds on the Trump administration’s pattern over the last year of pulling back from organizations that promote global cooperation. Since taking office in January 2025, the administration has suspended support for agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.

The Trump administration also dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, while taking a larger, à la carte approach to paying dues to the United Nations, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and avoiding those that no longer serve U.S. interests.

In December, U.S. officials announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid, a small fraction of past contributions but a reflection of what the administration says is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

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Amiri reported from New York.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Marie-Therese Ross in Alabama on April 1 after she overstayed her 90-day visa, according to DHS. Ross is now being held at a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana.

Ross is among the thousands of people targeted by the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda that has detained the spouses of U.S. soldiers and military veterans who previously received greater leniency under scrapped policies.

Rodolphe Sambou, Consul General of France in New Orleans, told the AP that the French government has “fully mobilized” to push for her release. He said he has visited her in detention twice so far.

“Given her age, we really want her to get out of this situation as soon as possible,” Sambou said. “We want to get her out of jail.”

Sambou said that he has been communicating frequently with Ross’ family and French officials in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Paris to try and coordinate Ross’ release and ensure she has access to sufficient food and health care. He said the French government has also contacted DHS.

He declined to comment on her legal status or other details of her case.

Ross married Alabama resident William Ross in April last year, Calhoun County marriage records show. Ross died in January, according to an obituary from his family, which says he was a former captain in the U.S. Army.

A lawyer who is representing Ross in a separate legal matter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ross' family did not respond to requests for comment.

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Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin contributed reporting from France.

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

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This story has been corrected to say that Marie-Therese Ross is 85, not 86.

Friar and other company executives are banking OpenAI's future on more of the latter as it shifts its focus to business-oriented products while shedding some of its consumer offerings as a pathway to profitability.

OpenAI says it will introduce a new artificial intelligence model for “high-value professional work” as the company faces heightened competition with rival Anthropic in attracting corporate customers to adopt AI assistants in their workplaces.

“You’ll see a new model coming from us in short order. We feel very excited about it,” Friar said in an interview with The Associated Press.

OpenAI boasts of more than 900 million weekly users of its core ChatGPT product, and Friar said about 95% of them “don't pay anything” for the popular chatbot. But while all those interactions build habits and reliance, they also strain the costly computing resources needed to power the company's AI systems and highlight the need for big business customers to help pay the bills.

OpenAI, valued at $852 billion, and Anthropic, valued at $380 billion, both lose more money than they make, putting the privately-owned San Francisco-based AI research laboratories in a fierce competition to generate more revenue as they race toward becoming publicly traded on Wall Street.

A push to improve performance and sales of OpenAI's business-oriented products — already Anthropic's bread and butter — has driven OpenAI to abandon some consumer initiatives, like the AI video generator app Sora.

“I think it was a little heartbreaking, but we’re like, OK, it’s not the main event right now," Friar said. "We need to make sure that our new model that’s coming has enough compute.”

Codenamed Spud, OpenAI says its “smartest model yet” offers “stronger reasoning, better understanding of intent and dependencies, better follow-through and more reliable output in production.” It will be part of OpenAI's answer to Anthropic's new Claude Mythos, which Anthropic claims is so “strikingly capable” that it is limiting its use to select customers because of its apparent ability to surpass human cybersecurity experts in finding or exploiting computer vulnerabilities.

While most people can't use Mythos, Anthropic also on Thursday released Opus 4.7, describing it as its most powerful “generally available" model. OpenAI hours later introduced its own new specialized model called GPT-Rosalind, named after scientist Rosalind Franklin, that's designed to advance drug discovery and other life sciences research.

Friar, the former CEO of neighborhood social platform Nextdoor, said business customers accounted for about 20% of OpenAI’s revenue when she was hired in 2024 as chief financial officer. She said it’s now 40% and expected to account for half of OpenAI’s sales by the end of the year.

It's a sharp turnaround from late last year, when OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was promoting a now-shuttered Sora partnership with Disney, launching a plan to sell ads on ChatGPT and floating the idea of letting ChatGPT engage in erotica with paid adult users.

Altman said on the “Mostly Human” podcast earlier this month that a sharper focus was needed — and Friar agrees.

“Tech companies, when they’re growing, it’s just this natural thing that happens. There’s so many cool things you could do,” she said, adding that companies can end up doing “really badly” if they do too many things, while "great companies are very good at, in a reasonable period of time, kind of doing that winnowing down and refocusing and it’s super painful.”

Signaling that shift was the hiring three months ago of Slack CEO Denise Dresser to be OpenAI's first chief revenue officer.

Dresser said in a recent AP interview that she has been laser-focused on meeting with corporate leaders and positioning OpenAI as the go-to platform for workplaces employing AI agents to automate a variety of computer-based job tasks.

“It’s really clear to me that companies are past the experimentation phase and they’re into using AI to do real work,” Dresser said. “Leaders at companies are recognizing that AI is probably the most consequential shift of their lifetime.”

But those leaders also have a choice, namely Anthropic's Claude that has become widely used by software professionals. Founded in 2021 by a group of ex-OpenAI leaders who said they wanted to prioritize AI safety, Anthropic has positioned itself as the more responsible AI vendor. The distinction drew attention when President Donald Trump's administration punished the startup after a contract dispute over AI use in the military, and Altman used the opportunity to cement OpenAI's own deal with the Pentagon.

Consumer interest in Anthropic surged and the company said its annualized revenues hit $30 billion, a higher number than what OpenAI has reported, though they measure it differently. Friar and Dresser declined to reveal OpenAI's latest sales but both have suggested that Anthropic's number is inflated because it doesn't account for revenue it must share with cloud computing providers Amazon and Google.

Even so, it remains a tight competition that's also tied to the health of the stock market and the future of the economy.

“They’re likely quite close,” said Luke Emberson, a researcher at nonprofit institute Epoch AI. "Certainly the trends show Anthropic is growing much faster than OpenAI. If that continues, they’re likely to cross soon.”

The urgency led Dresser to send a memo to OpenAI employees on Sunday, first reported by The Verge, that asserted that Anthropic's coding focus “gave them an early wedge” but expressing confidence that OpenAI has the “real structural advantage” as AI usage expands beyond software developers and OpenAI builds enough computing capacity to operate its AI systems.

“Their story is built on fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI," Dresser's memo said of Anthropic. “Our positive message will win over time: build powerful systems, put in the right safeguards, expand access, and help people do more.”

But for skeptics of the financial viability of the AI industry, the trajectory of both money-losing companies is alarming as smaller startups increasingly become dependent on their AI tools. Anthropic has imposed rate limits on heavy users, forcing some to wait for hours to use Claude, and both companies have set up service tiers that reward premium payers, said author and AI critic Ed Zitron.

“It’s what I call the subprime AI crisis,” Zitron said. “People built their lives and they built their businesses on top of these companies that, as they try and save money, will start turning the screws.”

One thing that both AI leaders and critics agree on is that it is an expensive technology, though whether it is worth the cost in electricity-hungry AI computers remains to be seen.

“People will say, well, ‘Once they go public, they’re safe.’ That’s not true,” Zitron said. “Public companies can and will die, especially ones that are dependent on $100 billion to $200 billion every year or so, just to keep breathing.”

In an exclusive Associated Press interview Thursday, International Energy Agency Director Fatih Birol said Europe has “maybe six weeks” of remaining jet fuel supplies and said the global economy faces its "largest energy crisis."

In general, some European countries hold several months' worth of jet fuel inventory at a time, according to an IEA report released this week.

Jet fuel — a refined kerosene-based oil product — is airlines' biggest cost, making up about 30% of overall expenses, according to the International Air Transport Association. And jet fuel prices have roughly doubled since the war began. Shortages could start next.

“Every passing day that the Strait of Hormuz remains shut, Europe is edging closer to supply shortages,” said Amaar Khan, head of European jet fuel pricing at Argus Media. “The strait accounts for around 40% of Europe’s jet fuel imports, but no jet fuel has passed the strait since the war broke out.”

Airline officials have largely reacted with caution, acknowledging potential fuel issues but working to reassure customers. Still, some carriers have already passed costs on to consumers by increasing fees for baggage and other add-ons, embedding costs into ticket prices, or raising fuel surcharges.

A handful of airlines already are cutting flights. Experts say other parts of air travel — such as scheduling flexibility and routes — would likely be impacted.

Here's a look at how jet fuel supplies work and how consumers might see effects.

How does jet fuel get to the plane?

Jet fuel is made from crude oil at refineries, which also create gasoline and diesel.

Airlines generally buy jet fuel from refineries or fuel companies, similar to drivers buying gasoline from stations, but on a much larger scale. Jet fuel travels on ships and through pipelines and is stored by airlines at airports.

Purchasing is handled by airlines. If fuel supplies are running out in a region, that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be no flights. Some airlines might have more stored than others.

But remaining flights are likely to be expensive, reflecting fuel costs.

Larger airlines have advantages in regions with shortages. They have the financial means to deal with high prices, said Jacques Rousseau, managing director at financial firm Clearview Energy Partners.

In Europe, a number of countries are now relying on less than 20 days of coverage in their fuel supplies, according to this week's IEA report. Supplies haven’t dropped below 29 days since 2020, the report said.

If that falls under 23 days, physical shortages may emerge at some airports, resulting in flight cancellations and lower demand, the report warned.

Which regions could feel pain?

Asia-Pacific countries are the most reliant on oil and jet fuel from the Middle East, followed by Europe, Rousseau said.

Most of Europe’s jet fuel is produced by European refiners, but about 20-25% of its supply is missing because of the war, Rousseau said.

To fill some gaps, the U.S. has increased its exports of jet fuel to Europe considerably, sending about 150,000 barrels per day in April, or about six times the normal level, Rousseau said.

Availability of jet fuel is less of an issue in the U.S., a major oil producer, he added.

“I tell my kids ... we’re not so much going to run out of supply," Rousseau said. "It’s just going to cost more here, whereas in different parts of the world you could actually get to a point where there’s just no fuel.”

How much is the world supply of jet fuel lagging?

The world is losing 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil a day due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, said Pavel Molchanov, senior investment strategist at investment firm Raymond James & Associates.

“There are exactly the same refineries in exactly the same places in Asia and Europe, but if there is not enough oil for those refineries to operate, it’s going to lead to physical supply disruption,” he said.

Even though the IEA has released 400 million barrels of oil from members' emergency reserves, that won't help in the short term, he added.

“It could take until the end of the year to get all of those barrels onto the market,” he said.

How will my travel be affected?

Christopher Anderson, a professor of operations, technology and information management at Cornell University, said travelers should prepare for more than just higher airfares.

“This is no longer just a fuel-price story. For airlines, it is now a network-planning story,” he said. “Higher fuel costs matter, but so do longer routings, reduced scheduling flexibility and greater uncertainty about what demand will look like even a few weeks out.”

Travelers might see “a market with later booking patterns, more schedule volatility and fewer low-fare options if this disruption lasts into the core summer season,” he said.

What are airlines doing?

Dutch airline KLM and U.K. budget carrier easyJet told AP they weren't experiencing current fuel shortages, without commenting further on the IEA’s warning.

Still, both airlines are among those that have seen higher costs eat into their budgets.

On Thursday, KLM said it would cut 160 flights next month — about 1% of its total European routes. The airline cited “rising kerosene costs” and said a limited number of flights are “no longer financially viable to operate.”

In a Thursday update, EasyJet said it expects to see a pretax loss of 540 million to 560 million pounds (about $731 million to $758 million) for the first half of the 2026 fiscal year. Still, CEO Kenton Jarvis said demand remains strong overall — noting that Easter travel was easyJet’s busiest ever for that holiday period.

Lufthansa said Thursday that labor disputes and high fuel prices are forcing it to immediately shut down feeder airline CityLine, earlier than planned, and take its 27 older, less fuel-efficient planes out of service. The decision accelerates a shutdown that had been expected for next year.

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines — which frequently flies to European destinations — said on Thursday that it was “aware of the potential jet fuel supply issue” on the continent and monitoring the situation. Delta, which bought a refinery in Philadelphia in 2012 to manage its largest expense, said it doesn’t expect any “near-term impact to our operations.”

How are prices affected?

Other airlines have sounded the alarm about rising fuel prices, with some already passing along new costs to travelers, often embedded into ticket prices and add-on fees.

U.S. carriers Delta, United, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue have all increased checked baggage fees, for example, in recent weeks.

United CEO Scott Kirby said in a recent memo to staff that if fuel prices stay elevated, it could add $11 billion in annual costs. “For perspective,” Kirby wrote, “in United’s best year ever, we made less than $5B.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific recently bumped fuel surcharges by roughly 34% across all routes, while Air India added up to $280 in fees to some flights earlier this month. Emirates, Lufthansa and KLM have also adjusted fees or fares to keep pace with the price volatility.

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AP writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

In an interview with the arts website Hyperallergic, Duwaji, an illustrator, said she felt “a lot of shame being confronted with language I used that is so harmful to others," adding “being 15 doesn't excuse it."

"I’ve read and seen a lot of what others have had to say in response, and I understand the hurt I caused and am truly sorry," she said in the interview, published Wednesday, in response to a question about adjusting to life as a public figure.

Duwaji did not specify which comments she was referring to, nor did she address other, more recent social media activity regarding Israel that has attracted heavy scrutiny as Mamdani tries to ease concerns among some in the city's Jewish community over his own criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Last month, The Washington Free Beacon reported on years of Duwaji’s online activity across a handful of social media platforms, finding she had shared posts praising female Palestinian militants who participated in plane hijackings and bombings in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 2015, she shared a post in which someone else wrote that Tel Aviv was occupying Palestinian land and “shouldn’t exist.”

Duwaji also once used a racial slur for Black people while affectionately addressing a friend and used an abbreviated slur for gay people in 2013.

The mayor has previously said his wife is a “private person” who does not hold a formal position in City Hall. Asked Thursday about which specific posts his wife regretted, Mamdani demurred.

“She shared some of her reflections in this interview. I won’t add much to them, what I will say, however, is that she is someone of incredible integrity,” Mamdani told reporters.

He added that questions about Duwaji's social media activity were “part and parcel” of his own choice to run for mayor, “a decision that has ramifications for those that I love.”

Separately, Duwaji has also come under criticism for liking an Instagram post that appeared to cheer Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel. The Free Beacon has also reported that Duwaji provided an illustration for an essay by an author who described the Oct. 7 attack as “spectacular" and had called Jewish Israelis “rootless soulless ghouls.”

Mamdani has previously said his wife had been commissioned to illustrate an excerpt of a book by a third party, and said she had never engaged or met with the author, and that Duwaji had not seen the author's previous comments. He called the author's rhetoric “patently unacceptable” and “reprehensible.”

___

AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed

A change-of-plea hearing for Jones is scheduled for April 28 in Brooklyn federal court, according to a court filing Thursday. It was originally set for May 6, but was moved at the request of the parties.

Jones, 49, had previously pleaded not guilty to separate indictments charging him with profiting from rigged poker games and providing sports bettors with non-public information about injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Jones is charged in both cases with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

A message seeking comment was left for his lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery. He told a judge at Jones’ arraignments in November that they “may be engaging in plea negotiations.”

Jones, a onetime teammate of James, was arrested last October along with Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and others, including a sports bettor accused of cashing in on injury information.

Jones was one of three people charged in both the poker and sports betting schemes. He remains free on bail.

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to the indictment, Jones was paid $2,500 for a game in the Hamptons where he was instructed to cheat by paying close attention to others involved in the scheme. His instructor likened those people to James and NBA All-Star Steph Curry, prosecutors said. When in doubt, Jones was told to fold his hand, prosecutors said.

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

The poker scheme often made use of illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano crime families, according to prosecutors.

Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, officials said in court documents.

A hot hand from outside the three-point arc, Jones once proclaimed himself in an interview with insidehoops.com as “the best shooter in the world.” He played in every regular season game for three consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2006.

After his playing days, he worked as a “shooting consultant” for the Cavaliers and was an assistant coach when the team, led by James, won the NBA championship in 2016.

“Long live the movies,” Ellison said.

A starry show and a commitment to theaters

His company’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, in a deal valued at $111 billion, has been the source of much handwringing and speculation in Hollywood and exhibition. But Ellison came to the conference ready to show the exhibitors in the audience that he is serious about his commitment to movies and theaters, with a glossy mini movie about the studio’s past and future directed by Jon M. Chu and narrated by Tom Cruise. The promo featured cameos by Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg, Chris Pratt, Timothée Chalamet, John Krasinski and Teyana Taylor and closed with sweeping music and Cruise seated atop the iconic Paramount water tower.

“The future is paramount and the future looks pretty great from here,” Cruise said in the video.

Ellison told the exhibitors, “I love cinema and I love film. I always have and I always will,” and promised, “you can count on our complete commitment.”

The studio also announced that a third “Top Gun” movie is in development, in the script stage, with Cruise returning.

Paramount put on a big show for exhibitors with appearances by Johnny Depp, Billie Eilish and James Cameron. They touted planned franchises and IP like the live action “Call of Duty,” “A Quiet Place Part III” and the fourth “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie. They also originals including the adaptation of “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” with Daisy Edgar-Jones, a new Damien Chazelle movie with Cillian Murphy and Daniel Craig, and Teyana Taylor’s directorial debut, the dance movie “Get Lite.”

Depp was there to talk about starring in Ti West’s “Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol,” a story he said he’s been obsessed with since he was a child. Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Anna Faris came out for the sixth “Scary Movie.” And Gina Prince-Bythewood and actors Thuso Mbedu and Damson Idris also previewed the tribal action movie “Children of Blood and Bone.”

Debate about the merger

In late February, Paramount Skydance reached a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which has been at the center of many discussions at the trade show and convention about what the implications might be for the depleted exhibition business.

No one mentioned Paramount at the over two-hour Warner Bros. presentation on Tuesday, but several of the filmmakers who made appearances were among the thousands who signed an open letter opposing the merger, including Denis Villeneuve and J.J. Abrams. In fact, the only studio other than Paramount to reference it at all was Amazon MGM, itself the product of an $8.5 billion merger, and it was in an irreverent promo for the “Spaceballs” sequel.

Cameron, who co-directed Paramount’s upcoming concert film “Billie Eilish — Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D),” is one of the filmmakers who has said he supports the deal and is unbothered by the prospect of a Paramount-owned Warner Bros. In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Cameron praised Ellison as a “natural born storyteller” who “really cares about movies.”

“He’s the right man for the job to run a major studio, and now it looks like he’s going to have two of them, you know, swept under his leadership, which doesn’t bother me at all,” Cameron said.

The regulatory question

Paramount, which closed its own $8 billion merger with Skydance just months ago, promised that it would release 15 movies in theaters in 2026. The deal awaits a shareholder vote later this month and government regulatory approval at the state and federal level. The U.S. Justice Department still needs to weigh in on the blockbuster combination that could give Paramount pricing power over movies and other offerings, potentially hurting customers.

In documents filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paramount said, “Our priority is to build a vibrant, healthy business and industry — one that supports Hollywood and creative, benefits consumers, encourages competition, and strengthens the overall job market.”

They’ve also said they would look for ways to save some $6 billion through job cuts in “duplicative operations.”

Executives at Paramount have argued that merging with Warner will allow it to compete with bigger rivals particularly in the streaming space and bring larger content libraries for its customers. The 102-year-old Warner Bros. has a film library that includes “Harry Potter,” “Superman” and “Barbie.”

On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held a spotlight hearing in Washington, D.C., on the potential anticompetitive impact of the consolidation of two of Hollywood’s big five studios into one.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the merger said, “tens of thousands of workers will be left poorer, along with the audiences we serve.”

David Borenstein, who just won an Oscar for his documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” noted that it could further erode access to documentary filmmaking, “because a small number of distributors have consolidated power and decided to feed audiences a narrow and politically safe diet of content.” While neither Paramount Studios nor Warner Bros. are particularly well-known for their non-fiction releases, WBD companies CNN and HBO are.

Ellison did not attend the meeting in D.C. on Wednesday. An Ellison spokeswoman confirmed he attended a funeral Wednesday.

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The bill, pushed forward by House Democrats with a group of Republicans over the objections of the GOP leadership, would require a three-year extension of temporary protected status for Haitians by the Trump administration. That would allow hundreds of thousands of qualifying immigrants to remain in the United States without fear of deportation.

The vote was 224-204, drawing applause in the chamber. But it faces uncertainty in the Senate, and the Republican president would almost certainly seek to veto it.

“I know firsthand how important our Haitian neighbors are to our communities, to our civic life, to our culture, to our workforce, to our economy,” said Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who is co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian communities in the country.

During the debate, she recounted the number of Haitian immigrants working in health care, housing construction, and other industries. Haitians with temporary legal status "are not the problem, quite the contrary, they are part of the solution,” she said.

Pressley has said deporting Haitians back to the troubled Caribbean country would be a “death sentence,” given the effects of natural disasters and gang violence. "Congress can do the right thing," she said.

Ten Republicans, many from districts with large numbers of Haitian residents, joined all Democrats and one independent in voting for passage.

Congress tries to act before the Supreme Court does

The effort to help 350,000 Haitians living lawfully in the United States comes as the administration is working to end the temporary legal status for several groups, exposing them to deportation.

In less than two weeks, the Supreme Court is prepared to consider a fast-track case that would end the protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants in a challenge widely seen as threatening the broader program. The administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of the program.

It is part of the administration's efforts to strip certain immigrant groups of legal status as the White House works to fulfill Trump's campaign promise of conducting the largest mass deportation operation in history. Some 1.3 million people fleeing countries around the world have been granted temporary protected status in the U.S.

The protections for Haiti, first approved after a devastating 2010 earthquake, have been extended multiple times. The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest.”

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy organization, fought back tears as she described the fear of deportations coursing through the community.

“We are asking, where will you be on the right side of history?" she asked at a news conference outside the Capitol. “Or continuing to cause trauma to people who are asking for nothing other than safety and protection.”

Trump has described migrants from poorer countries in vulgar terms, and he has falsely accused Haitian migrants in Ohio of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.

The conservative majority court has allowed the end of temporary legal status for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out, leaving them to face potential deportation.

Lawmakers debate whether to help Haitians or stick with Trump

Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., whose district includes Long Island's Haitian community, said she promised constituents she would work to protect their status. She introduced the legislation with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York as soon as she took office last year.

“It's cruel to expect Haitians to be forced to return to these deadly, dangerous conditions,” she said at a news conference. “Human lives are at risk.”

Lawler said there are differences of opinion on immigration policy, but that Haitian immigrants have become vital to his community and forcing them out would be unjust and unwise.

“They are small business owners, they are nurses, they are caregivers, they participate in our economy and take care of American citizens,” he said. “Congress has a responsibility to act.”

But Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, decried the number of immigrants, including Haitians, who have entered the U.S., and cited Democratic efforts to halt funding for enforcement and deportation efforts.

“Make temporary permanent,” he said, “that's their plan.”

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said the program was a “backdoor amnesty” for foreigners.

To Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., the temporary status first granted under the Obama administration has become an “an open-ended invitation” for immigrants to enter the country, including some illegally, and remain.

"The Trump administration has heeded the cries of the American people," he said.

Using a discharge petition to force votes

The vote was the latest effort by House Democrats to maneuver past the Republican majority using a discharge petition — once a rare tool, but now used increasingly to form bipartisan coalitions.

The discharge petition process forces the bill to the House floor for consideration, powering past House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and GOP leaders. It was used to help pass legislation that required the Justice Department to release the files of the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and are typically able to swat back such efforts from Democrats. But Democrats and Republicans have formed bipartisan alliances to reach the majority needed on the discharge petitions.

Pressley's effort to discharge the bill won support from four Republicans on the initial petition, and several more once it came to the floor vote.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

“In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ It’s a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world,” he told The Associated Press.

The impact will be “higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices,” said Birol, speaking in his Paris office looking out over the Eiffel Tower.

Economic pain will be felt unevenly and “the countries who will suffer the most will not be those whose voice are heard a lot. It will be mainly the developing countries. Poorer countries in Asia, in Africa and in Latin America,” said the Turkish economist and energy expert who has led the IEA since 2015.

But without a settlement of the Iran war that permanently reopens the Strait of Hormuz, “Everybody is going to suffer,” he added.

“Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis,” he said.

'Slow growth or even recession'

Nearly 20% of the world’s traded oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz in peacetime. Birol warned that not reopening the waterway within weeks could compound the repercussions for global energy supplies.

“In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left,” he said. “If we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz ... I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.”

Dutch airline KLM and U.K.-based budget carrier easyJet said Thursday that they were not experiencing current fuel shortages, without commenting further on the IEA’s warning. Meanwhile, U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines — which frequently flies to destinations across Europe — said it was aware of the continent's "potential jet fuel supply issue” and monitoring the situation, although it didn't expect immediate impacts. Still, all three airlines are among those that have already seen higher costs eat into their budgets.

KLM is cutting 160 flights to and from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport next month, accounting for about 1% of its total European routes. The airline cited “rising kerosene costs,” and said a limited number of flights are “no longer financially viable to operate.”

Travelers are already paying the consequences. Beyond flight cancellations, some carriers are increasing ticket fares and add-on fees.

Birol added: “Many government leaders tell me that if Hormuz is not open until (the) end of May, many countries — starting from the weaker economies — are going to face huge challenges, and this will go from the high inflation numbers to coming close to slow growth or even to recession in some cases.”

Birol spoke out against the so-called “toll booth” system that Iran has applied to some ships, letting them travel through the strait for a fee. He said allowing that to become more permanent would run the risk of setting a precedent that could then be applied to other waterways, including the vital Malacca Strait in Asia.

“If we change it once, it may be difficult to get it back,” he said. “It will be difficult to have a toll system here, applied here, but not there.”

“I would like to see that the oil flows unconditionally from the point A to point B,” he said.

Damage for Persian Gulf energy facilities

More than 110 oil-laden tankers and over 15 carriers loaded with liquefied natural gas are waiting in the Persian Gulf and could help ease the energy crisis if they could escape through the Strait of Hormuz to world markets, Birol said, adding: “But it is not enough.”

Even with a peace deal, war-damage to energy facilities means it could be many months before preconflict levels of production are restored, he said.

“Over 80 key assets in the region have been damaged. And out of these 80, more than one-third are severely or very severely damaged,” he said.

“It will be extremely optimistic to believe that it will very quick,” Birol said. “It will take gradually, gradually, up to two years to come back where we were before the war.”

‘Dark shadow’ of geopolitics

Birol said it is incomprehensible that “a couple of hundred men with guns” — apparently referring to Iranian forces — are able to hold hostage the global economy. He said his Paris-based agency, which advises governments on energy policy and helped coordinate a record release of emergency oil reserves earlier in the crisis, has warned for years about the critical importance of the Strait of Hormuz.

The global shock could spur the embrace of other energy technologies, including nuclear power, and “will reshape the global energy map for the next years to come,” he said.

On his office shelves, Birol has a couple of soccer balls — he's a devoted supporter of the Turkish club Galatasaray — and other memorabilia, including a photo of his late father playing soccer, and reams of books. One in particular stood out for its timely title: “Oil, Power and War.”

“Energy and geopolitics have been always interwoven,” Birol said. “But I have never, ever seen ... such a dark and long shadow of geopolitics.”

He added: "Unfortunately, energy is at the heart of many conflicts which, again, makes me, as an energy person, rather sad, to be honest.”

___

AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed from New York.

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

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

He spoke as tensions remain high between the two countries, with Cuba’s crises deepening as a result of a U.S. energy blockade.

Earlier this week, Trump said his administration could focus on Cuba after the war in Iran ends.

“We may stop by Cuba after we finish with this,” he said. He described it as a “failing nation” and asserted that it’s “been a terribly run country for a long time.”

Trump previously has threatened to intervene in Cuba, like he did in early January when the U.S. military attacked Venezuela and halted key oil shipments from the South American country.

Weeks later, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

Both Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1950s before the revolution — have described the island’s government as ineffective and abusive. The U.S. demands on Cuba's government in return for easing sanctions have included an end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a liberalization of the island's ailing economy.

Díaz-Canel accused them of trying to construct a “narrative” that has no justification.

“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state. Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade and an energy blockade,” said Díaz-Canel, the main speaker at Thursday’s rally.

“Cuba is a threatened state that does not surrender. And despite everything. And thanks to socialism. Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and make no mistake, a state that will prevail,” Díaz-Canel added.

Both Cuba and the U.S. have acknowledged talks to resolve the tension, but no details have been disclosed.

The Cuban president recalled the achievements made possible by the revolution and its social welfare system, which allows for free education that has trained thousands of professionals, many of whom have chosen to emigrate due to the country's economic crisis.

The oil embargo imposed by Trump worsened the already harsh conditions brought on by an economic crisis that has lasted for five years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a tightening of U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring for a change in the island’s political model.

Experts have warned of a humanitarian crisis.

Measures to prevent the island from acquiring oil from its Venezuelan, Mexican and Russian suppliers are exacerbating the already poor living conditions of the population, including prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages.

The rally commemorated the 65th anniversary of a historic speech by the late leader, Fidel Castro, during a crisis with the United States. That moment marked the ideological course the Caribbean nation would take and its opposition to Washington’s continental hegemony.

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

The organization opened an emergency shelter at the Knights of Columbus, located at 9840 N. Straits Highway in Cheboygan. Forty-three people stayed there overnight after being evacuated due to flooding.

Anyone affected by the flooding can stop by the shelter for a hot meal, a place to sleep, or simply to charge a phone.

All Red Cross disaster assistance is free.

The Red Cross said it is working closely with emergency management agencies and community partners who are keeping a close watch on the Cheboygan Dam and Lock Complex, and other dams and rivers across Northern Michigan.

Those waterways are at varying flood stages and concern levels, according to the organization.

Residents who need help or have been impacted by the flooding can call 1-800-RED CROSS.

Flood safety tips

Here’s a list of flood safety tips that the Red Cross shared:

• Never walk, swim or drive through floodwater.
• Just 6 inches of fast-moving floodwater can knock you over and 12 inches can carry your vehicle away.
• Avoid fallen power lines, poles and wire. They can electrocute you.
• Watch out for falling trees and other debris.
• Flooding can contaminate drinking water. Check with your local public health department. 
• Stay away from floodwaters. They can contain sewage, sharp items, chemicals that can make you ill.

Nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles were used, as Ukrainian officials acknowledged that vital stocks of advanced interceptors are running low.

Tetiana Sokol, a 54-year-old Kyiv resident, said two missiles hit near her home and she took cover with her dog in the hallway as flashes lit up the night and windows shattered from the blast wave.

“On the third attack everything broke, everything flew, we were shocked, we didn’t know where to run. I grabbed whatever came to hand and ran away with the dog,” she told The Associated Press.

Moscow's forces have hit civilian areas almost daily since its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, with the regular assaults occasionally punctuated by massive attacks. More than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the strikes, the United Nations says.

Russia's Defense Ministry maintained the operation was launched against military-related targets “in retaliation” for Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia against oil refineries and weapons plants.

European Council President António Costa described Thursday's strikes in Ukraine as “yet another horrendous attack” while people slept in their homes.

Zelenskyy on a mission to improve air defenses

The attacks came in the wake of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 48-hour trip this week to Germany, Norway and Italy in an urgent search for more air defense systems that can stop Russian missiles.

Ukraine has developed a significant domestic arms industry, especially in the production of drones and missiles, but cannot yet match the sophistication of U.S. Patriot air defense systems.

Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for the Ukrainian air force, said the Russian attack made extensive use of ballistic missiles, which only Patriot systems can reliably shoot down.

“We desperately need more missiles for the Patriot systems," Ihnat told Ukraine’s private TV channel 1+1.

Ukraine fears the Iran war is depleting stockpiles of the advanced American-made air defense systems it needs, and strongly opposes a U.S. pause on Russian oil sanctions.

“Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions,” Zelenskyy said on X.

Ukrainian city grieves over death of young boy

Thursday's strikes killed four people in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old, with more than 50 others injured, authorities said. Attacks killed nine people in the southern port city of Odesa and four in the central Dnipro region.

The central city of Cherkasy declared a day of mourning Thursday for the funeral of eight-year-old Bohdan Serhiiev, killed in a Russian drone strike earlier this week.

Mourners left flowers and stuffed toys next to the open casket before the burial, while friends and classmates held white balloons and a sign reading “Eternal Memory.”

“He was such a happy kid. He was always running around and he loved me so much,” Bohdan’s 15-year-old brother Denys Zhuk, told the AP. "We played together, went to soccer l together. I love my younger brother so much. I just wish he was here with me.”

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Hanna Arhirova and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed.

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

The accessibility of generative AI tools has exacerbated the perennial issue of online spam and scams that’s persisted since the advent of the internet. And while creators of such content have access to this ever-evolving technology, tech giants are also honing their internal AI systems to fight the deluge.

“It's not that this is a new problem. It is an old problem, supercharged,” said Nate Elliott, a principal analyst at Emarketer. “The biggest difference is the speed and the scale that AI offers both the good actors and the bad actors.”

The FBI’s recent Internet Crime Report detailed receiving more than 22,000 complaints reporting AI-related scams last year, with the total losses associated with those complaints exceeding $893 million.

Google released its annual ads safety report Thursday, acknowledging that scammers are increasingly trying to run sophisticated, malicious ads but emphasizing that its AI-powered tools are strong defenders.

Google's generative AI technology known as Gemini was able to catch over 99% of policy-violating ads before they ever reached an audience last year.

In 2025, the company blocked or removed more than 8.3 billion ads, including 602 million ads with policy violations that are most closely associated with scams. That's up from a total of 5.1 billion ads blocked or removed in 2024. About 24.9 million advertiser accounts were suspended last year, more than 4 million of those for scam-related activity.

Google has long been a dominant force in the digital advertising world. The company saw more than $200 billion in net worldwide ad revenues last year according to data from Emarketer, but the research firm predicts Meta will outperform Google in 2026.

Google said it has a team of thousands of people working to create and enforce its advertising policies at scale. Keerat Sharma, Google's vice president and general manager of ads privacy and safety, said the advancement of generative AI as a part of Google's defense system has led to more powerful results in combatting problematic content.

Gemini now allows the team to analyze hundreds of billions of signals — including account age, behavioral cues and campaign patterns — to better understand the “nuance of what an advertiser's intent actually is,” Sharma said. This means they're able to largely determine legitimacy or whether an advertiser's intent could be malicious. Reaching that nuance has also helped keep real businesses' ads online, with the report detailing that incorrect advertiser suspensions were reduced by 80% last year.

Gemini has also helped with speed, Sharma said. Analyzing the digital assets in an ad used to take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes or even longer, but now, Sharma said that can happen in milliseconds. That “allows us to stop things right at the front door," he said. Google also relies on several other defense mechanisms, like an expansive advertiser verification program, that work together to fortify protections.

The kind of content that Google is aiming to block and remove is vast and varied. Bad ads could take shape as “all the forms of spam and scam that have always existed, just people are able to produce them faster and at higher volume,” Elliott said.

A Google spokesperson said the company doesn't report the number of AI-generated ads it blocks or removes because its enforcement isn’t based on how an ad was created, but rather which policies it violates. The spokesperson noted that many AI-generated ads come from legitimate businesses and comply with Google's policies.

Experts who spoke with The Associated Press said the push and pull between AI-powered scams and AI-powered defense mechanisms will endure as the technology advances.

“We’re already close, but it’s going to be heading even more to (where) it’s just AI versus AI,” said Matt Seitz, the director of the AI Hub at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The volume of this problem is so large that it can’t be managed directly through humans.”

White, owner of Mobility Remodelers, built his Metro Detroit company around a simple premise: as the baby boomer generation ages, millions of homeowners will need smarter, more accessible living spaces. He was right.

“That’s going to be around for the next 50 years with all the baby boomers,” White said of the stay-in-place remodeling market.

What began as a niche specialty has gone mainstream. White says the customer profile has shifted dramatically, with younger homeowners increasingly driving demand for walk-in showers, accessible flooring, and full bathroom overhauls.

“It no longer is taboo to pull a tub out and put in a shower,” White said. He noted that tub-to-shower conversions have surged - what was once 95 percent tub installations has flipped to roughly 75 percent showers today.

The company differentiates itself through product breadth and a whole-room approach. With more than 360 styles, colors, and design options - including acrylic and a quartz-like material called Purestone - Mobility Remodelers positions itself as a full solution rather than a single trade.

“We do the wet area, we do the vanity, we do the flooring, and we have specific items we picked that are great for all homeowners, not just select few,” White said.

Low-maintenance materials are also a selling point. The company’s bath products use Microban antimicrobial technology built into the surface.

“Our bath products have Microban infused in it so you don’t get mold, mildew, bacteria. By nature, it’s a clean, easy clean,” White said.

On the sales side, Austin Barlass, Vice President of Client Services, said the company has deliberately moved away from the high-pressure negotiating tactics common in the home improvement industry.

“We go out, we give them exactly what they ask for, and then we give them our best price. We don’t do the back and forth with people,” Barlass said. The philosophy is straightforward: “best price, first price, every time.”

Barlasz also emphasized the company’s lifetime service commitment. Customers receive a single point of contact for any issues - his personal number - after a job is complete.

The company currently serves Metro Detroit, the Thumb region, and Grand Rapids. A new showroom in Lansing is set to open the first week of May, extending Mobility Remodelers’ footprint across lower Michigan.

More information is available at mobilityremodelers.com.

A Marginal Risk for severe weather has been issued for today generally south of a line from Howell to Port Huron. We could see isolated severe storms this afternoon with the main threats being strong winds and large hail. The rain chances are with us all day, but the potential for greater convection (stronger storms) would be this afternoon. However, there are a lot of factors from now until then that will sway the level of that severe threat.

If showers are less prevalent and partial sunshine develops today then instability would be greater. The more rain and clouds today will hinder that instability. Even with the rainfall, highs today are expected to be in the low 70s.

Dry conditions briefly return on Friday, but will give way to rain and a chance of thunderstorms late Friday night through the first half of Saturday as a strong cold front moves through. Our stretch of 70s and 80s will come to an end... We turn breezy and much colder Sunday with high temperatures dropping into the mid-to-upper 40s. A few snowflakes are even possible given that temperatures drop into the 20s Sunday night.

He was released pending an appeal, which will be heard at a later date.

If the verdict and sentence are upheld, Malema will be disqualified as a lawmaker. South African law bars anyone from serving in Parliament if they have been convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of a fine.

Malema was convicted in October on five counts, including unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, discharge of a firearm in a built-up area and reckless endangerment.

Malema addressed hundreds of his party supporters, popularly known as “fighters," many of whom traveled from various provinces to attend the sentencing. Clad in their red party regalia, they chanted and sang before and after the sentence was delivered.

A defiant Malema criticized the magistrate, claiming she was biased against him throughout the case. “We were tried by a magistrate who doesn't read, who uses emotions, who speaks politics. We are done with her, we are going to a higher court,” he said.

Delivering the sentence, Magistrate Twanet Olivier said she considered the magnitude of the offense when she determined his sentence. “We hear daily, or weekly, of children playing in the front yards, in the street, who are caught in crossfire, random shots fired, killing people. It’s just the first time that we hear, it’s being called celebratory shots,” Olivier said.

The fiery lawmaker, who leads the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party, was charged alongside his bodyguard Anton Snyman, after the video of the incident went viral. Snyman was found not guilty.

During his trial and sentencing, Malema said that the charges against him were politically motivated as they were brought by Afriforum, a lobby group for the white Afrikaner minority group that has been at odds with Malema for years.

Olivier said the sentence and verdict was based solely on his actions on the day.

Malema, whose party is the fourth-biggest in the country, is a divisive figure, mainly because of his party policies, which include the expropriation of white-owned land without compensation and the nationalization of mines and banks.

He appeared in a video shown by U.S. President Donald Trump during a tense meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, where he was singing a controversial anti-apartheid song that has been interpreted by some as calling for violence against Afrikaners.

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Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Jay Bryant pleaded not guilty to murder after his 2023 indictment, but his lawyer and federal prosecutors told the court in recent letters that they were negotiating a plea agreement.

A court docket entry Thursday indicated that Bryant intends to change his plea, without saying anything about the charge or conduct to which he might admit or the punishment he might expect. No date was set for a change of plea, and prosecutors declined to comment; a message was sent to Bryant’s attorney.

The notice isn't an irreversible commitment, and defendants can change their minds about pleading guilty even as they're sitting in court.

If Bryant goes through with the plea, it could bring a measure of both closure and complexity to the already convoluted case. Co-defendants Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were convicted by a jury, but Jordan was later cleared by a judge — and Bryant has been something of an outlier.

He was indicted nearly three years after the others, when authorities said Bryant's DNA was found on a hat in the music studio where Jam Master Jay was gunned down. Born Jason Mizell, he was the DJ in Run-DMC, crafting beats and scratches that helped propel rap into music’s mainstream in the 1980s. The trio's hits included “It’s Tricky” and a take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

By the time the DNA was allegedly matched to Bryant, prosecutors had long since articulated a theory that Jordan and Washington — both of whom were close to Mizell — went after him out of anger over a failed drug deal. According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot the DJ while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell's to get on the ground. Both men denied the allegations.

Jordan was Mizell's grandson, and Washington was one of the DJ's childhood friends. Bryant, by contrast, had little if any connection to the rap star. He knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial, but it was unclear whether Bryant had ever met Mizell.

After the alleged DNA match, prosecutors contended that Bryant had slipped into the studio building and opened a back fire door so that Washington and Jordan could avoid buzzing up and could ambush the DJ.

Meanwhile, Bryant’s uncle claimed that his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. No other witnesses even placed Bryant in the studio, however, and prosecutors differed with the uncle's account, even though he was their witness . Instead, they suggested that Bryant touched the hat and then Jordan or Washington carried it into the studio and dropped it.

Neither Washington's nor Jordan's DNA was found on the hat, according to court papers.

One of Jordan’s lawyers, Michael Hueston, argued that the charges against Bryant raised reasonable doubt about the case against Jordan. Jordan's conviction ultimately was overturned for unrelated reasons.

Bryant, now 52, was jailed on federal drug and gun charges when he was indicted in Mizell's death. He has since pleaded guilty in the drug and firearm case and is awaiting sentencing.

Kelly Johns, director of physical therapy at MetroEHS, says the work is as unpredictable as it is rewarding, and that’s exactly what draws her to it.

“Physical therapy with children is the same no matter the diagnosis. We’re there to help strengthen the children, work on their balance and coordination, and help them grow and play with their peers.”

Johns recalled one patient whose family had a simple but meaningful goal: help their son climb safely to the top bunk of the bed he shared with his sibling.

“He slept in bunk beds with his sibling, and mom and dad had asked, can we work on climbing up to the top bunk? And so that was something we started to work on, and lo and behold, he did great with it. A few weeks later, he’s able to climb to the top safely and independently on his own,” she said during an appearance on Live in the D.

At MetroEHS, therapists from multiple disciplines work under one roof - speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavior analysts - all focused on the same child.

“I feel spoiled to be there because we have therapists from almost every discipline under the roof.”

For those considering the field, Johns is candid about the commitment required - a doctorate degree - but says the payoff is worth it.

“It is one of the most rewarding jobs. And I personally just love it because there’s such a variety.”

MetroEHS is hosting a career event on April 30. Those interested can register at metroehs.com/wdiv.