The Fed on Wednesday kept its short-term rate at 3.6% and retained language in its statement suggesting the next move would be a rate reduction. Three officials dissented in favor of removing the reference to a future cut, while a fourth, Stephen Miran, dissented in favor of an immediate rate cut on Wednesday.

The dissents underscore the level of division on the Fed's 12-member rate-setting committee ahead of the departure of Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends May 15. The Senate Banking Committee approved his successor, Trump appointee Kevin Warsh, earlier Wednesday on a party-line vote. Warsh has argued in favor of rate cuts, as Trump has demanded.

“Developments in the Middle East are contributing to a high level of uncertainty about the economic outlook,” the Fed said in a statement after its two-day meeting. “Inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices.”

Warsh has promised “regime change” at the central bank and may make sweeping changes to its economic models, communications strategies, and balance sheet, but he will likely find it harder to implement the rate cuts Trump seeks with inflation topping 3%, above the Fed’s target of 2%.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wednesday will likely be a momentous day for the future of the Federal Reserve as Chair Jerome Powell could signal he will stay with the Fed even as a Senate panel is expected to confirm his replacement.

Powell will preside over what will probably be his last meeting as chair and hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon, when he may say whether he will take the unusual step of remaining on the central bank's board of governors, even after his term as chair ends May 15.

Separately, the Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell. The nomination is expected to be approved on a party-line vote, and will then be taken up by the full Senate next month. President Donald Trump nominated Warsh, a former top Fed official, in January. Last year, Warsh echoed Trump's calls for the Fed to lower its key interest rate, leading many Democrats in Congress to question how independently he will operate as Fed chair.

The Fed is widely expected to keep its key rate unchanged Wednesday for a third straight meeting at 3.6%. Most policymakers believe at that level, the rate can still cool inflation by slowing borrowing and spending, but not so much that it will drag down hiring or raise unemployment.

Still, a key issue for the news conference Wednesday is what Powell says, if anything, about his future. Powell serves a separate term as a governor that lasts until January 2028. Chairs typically leave the board when their leadership terms end, but Powell has signaled he could remain. He would be the first chair to do so since 1948.

If Powell, who has made protecting Fed independence a key part of his legacy, chooses to stay, he would deprive Trump of the opportunity to pick his replacement and fill another seat on the Fed’s seven-member board. Three of the seven current governors are Trump appointees.

At the same time, it could worsen tensions with the Trump administration and would create what some analysts refer to as a “two Popes” scenario, with a chair and former chair both on the Fed’s board. In that case, divisions among policymakers could increase, if some decided to follow Powell's lead rather than Warsh's.

Warsh argued for rate cuts last year, but is unlikely to be able to reduce borrowing costs anytime soon, given that most policymakers have signaled they would prefer to wait and evaluate the Iran war’s impact on the economy.

The leadership turmoil comes while the economy remains unusually murky, putting the Fed in a difficult spot. Inflation has jumped to 3.3%, a two-year high, as the war has sharply raised gas prices. That makes it harder for the central bank to reduce rates. The Fed typically leaves rates unchanged, or even raises them, if inflation is worsening.

At the same time, hiring has ground almost to a halt, leaving those without jobs frustrated by the difficulty of finding new ones. Typically, the Fed cuts rates when the job market is weak, to spur more spending and job gains.

But layoffs also remain low, as employers appear to be following a “ low-hire, low-fire ” strategy. Many Fed officials have suggested that as long as the unemployment rate is low, the central bank doesn't need to cut rates to spur more spending and hiring. Unemployment declined to 4.3% in March, from 4.4%.

A key change economists will look for Wednesday is whether the Fed alters the statement it issues after each meeting to signal that it is possible that their next move could be either a rate cut or a hike. Right now, the statement indicates that any change to its rate would be a cut. According to minutes of its last meeting in March, many of the 19 participants on the Fed’s rate-setting committee support considering a hike, though it's likely short of a majority.

The chief financial official for the Pentagon told lawmakers that the estimated cost of the war with Iran is $25 billion so far. During the hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said that most of the expense has been on munitions, but the military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement.

Until now, Hegseth has avoided public questioning from lawmakers about the war, although he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine have held televised Pentagon briefings. Hegseth has mostly taken questions from conservative journalists, while citing Bible passages to castigate mainstream outlets.

Democrats quickly pivoted to the ballooning costs of the Iran war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of an elementary school that killed children. Some lawmakers have also questioned how prepared the military was to shoot down swarms of Iranian drones, some of which penetrated U.S. defenses and killed or injured American troops.

Republicans have said they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

Here's the Latest:

Ultra-orthodox protests against draft law ripple across Israel

Ultra-orthodox Jews are protesting Israel’s draft law throughout Israel this week, including in Jerusalem, where police used stun grenades to disperse demonstrations on Wednesday.

The draft remains a political powder keg in Israel. The Ultra-Orthodox make up 13% of the population and oppose enlistment because they believe studying full-time in seminaries is their most important duty. Courts have demanded the government enforce a law mandating conscription. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — facing elections this year — relies on ultra-Orthodox parties to maintain his coalition.

The arrest of yeshiva students accused of draft dodging kindled this week’s demonstrations, including in Ashkelon, where ultra-Orthodox protesters broke into a military commander’s yard Tuesday, prompting condemnation from Netanyahu.

“It is unacceptable what they are doing to yeshiva students as if they were the worst criminals,” protestor Menahem Adri said in Jerusalem. “All we want is to sit and study Torah.”

Kremlin warns of ‘dire consequences’ if hostilities against Iran resume

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Iran war in a phone call with Trump on Wednesday, with the Kremlin stressing the “dire consequences” if hostilities resumed.

Speaking to journalists, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Putin had told the U.S. president that a ground operation on Iranian territory would be completely “unacceptable and dangerous.”

Hegseth refuses to say why Army general was fired in tense exchange

Houlahan pressed Hegseth on why he fired the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George.

Hegseth refused to answer and didn’t deny the Democratic representative’s suggestion that he fired George via text.

Hegseth said he wouldn’t talk about the removal out of respect.

“However, I will note it’s very difficult to change the culture of a department that’s been destroyed by the wrong perspectives,” Hegseth said.

“So, Gen. George destroyed a culture?” Houlahan asked.

Hegseth said the department “needed new leadership.”

The congresswoman responded: “You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men who’s ever served this nation?”

“We needed new leadership,” Hegseth said. “That’s my answer.”

“And so your answer is a very immature way of responding to my request,” Houlahan said.

Hegseth hearing takes a 10-minute break

The testimony before the House Armed Services Committee has been going on for about three hours.

Democrats who urged troops to defy illegal orders face Hegseth

Four House Democrats are getting their first opportunity to publicly question Hegseth after they were part of a group of Democratic lawmakers who the FBI investigated after releasing a social media video last year that urged U.S. service members to follow military protocol and defy any illegal orders.

Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio and Maggie Goodlander, who all previously served in the military or intelligence agencies, now sit on the House Armed Services Committee.

Houlahan, who was the first Democrat in the group to question Hegseth, reminded the defense secretary that “Democrats, even Democrats in Congress, are patriots as well” and “admire and love our uniformed services.”

Still, they confronted Hegseth with tough questions about how long the U.S. would be at war with Iran and how he has led the Pentagon.

Hegseth refuses to say how much longer the Iran war could last or cost

Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan asked Hegseth, “How many more months, just by order of magnitude, do you think that you’re going to need to be able to conclude operations successfully? And how many more billions of dollars do you think you’re going to ask this body for?”

Hegseth refused to answer the question, saying that the U.S. military would never tip its hand to an adversary about how long it would be committed to the mission.

Trump says he’s rejecting Iran’s latest proposal, keeping blockade in place

The president told Axios on Wednesday that he’s rejecting Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a lift of the U.S. blockade. Iran’s proposal, shared with U.S. leaders this week, sought to postpone discussions around Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump told Axios he doesn’t want to lift the blockade until Iran addresses its nuclear ambitions.

“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” Trump said. “And it is going to be worse for them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hegseth faces criticism over firings of US military leaders

Republican Congressman Don Bacon criticized the defense secretary over his ousting of admirals, generals and other top Pentagon officials. They’ve included Navy Secretary John Phelan and the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, and several others.

“We had a huge bipartisan majority in here that had confidence in the Army chief of staff and the Secretary of Navy,” Bacon said. “And I would just point out … you may have the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn’t make it right or wise.”

Deadly Iran school strike still under investigation

Hegseth says that two months after a deadly strike on an Iranian elementary school killed more than 165 people, including many children, the incident remains under investigation.

That answer came after California Democrat Ro Khanna pressed the defense secretary on the costs associated with the strike.

Hegseth replied that “that unfortunate situation remains under investigation” but that he “wouldn’t tie a cost to that.”

Hegseth told reporters last month that the military assigned a general from outside of U.S. Central Command to investigate the strike. Still, he refused questions about what led to it while arguing that the U.S. does not target civilians.

Those comments came just days after The Associated Press reported that there was growing evidence that pointed to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran.

Hegseth responds to economic costs of war with Iran

The defense secretary faced intense questions from Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, about what American households would have to pay due to the economic repercussions of the war with Iran.

“Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over the next year because of the Iran war?” Khanna asked.

Pete Hegseth retorted, “I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.”

Khanna then accused Hegseth and the Trump administration of failing to live up to the president’s campaign promises of lowering the cost of living for Americans. He argued that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cause American households to pay thousands more dollars for gas and food.

“I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad for them because you betrayed them,” Khanna said.

Hegseth says it’s unfair to call Iran war a quagmire

The defense secretary pushed back on Democratic criticisms that the Trump administration has led Americans into a “quagmire,” pointing out that the conflict is only two months old and asserting it has had great success against the Islamic Republic. The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on for years, he said.

Trump said in early March that operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”

The U.S. and Iran do appear to be locked in a stalemate. Trump seems unlikely to accept Tehran’s latest offer to reopen the strait if the U.S. ends the war, lifts its sea blockade and postpones nuclear talks. The Iranians seem unwilling to give up their nuclear ambitions before ending the conflict.

Hegseth says US military considered that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz

He said the Pentagon “looked at all aspects” of the risk that Iran would blockade the strait. The claim came after Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked Hegseth if he considered “Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz winning.”

“I would say the blockade that we hold that doesn’t allow anything to come in or out of Iranian ports,” Hegseth replied.

So “we’ve blockaded their blockade,” Moulton said — that’s “like saying tag, you’re it.”

Caine declined to say if the risk of Iran closing the critical waterway was considered, but said the military always offers “a full range of military options that are carefully considered with the associated risks.”

The heated exchange was the latest between Hegseth and Democrats who have used the hearing to ask broader questions on the strategy behind the war in Iran and the Trump administration’s use of the military. Meanwhile, House Republicans have largely used their time asking very specific or detailed questions about the Pentagon’s budget and spending.

As TotalEnergies reports huge profits, protesters call for windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies

Climate activists protested outside a TotalEnergies petrol station in Paris on Wednesday after the French energy giant reported $5.4 billion in adjusted first-quarter profit, up 29% from a year earlier, as it “captured higher prices” despite production challenges due to the war in Iran.

The 350.org group said about 30 activists from several environmental organizations unfurled a banner reading, “TotalEnergies profits, we foot the bill.”

The group said war-related price spikes have cost French consumers and businesses more than $2.3 billion so far, urging the French government to “show political courage” by permanently taxing excess fossil fuel profits.

“While families watch their bills skyrocket, TotalEnergies posts some of its best financial results without even paying its fair share of taxes,” 350.org country manager Fanny Petitbon said in a statement. “We are witnessing an obscene transfer of wealth: the war enriches shareholders as it impoverishes citizens.”

Hegseth claims Americans support Iran war despite polling

The hearing has resumed, with a heated exchange between Democratic Rep. John Garamendi and Hegseth.

The secretary said the American people have supported the war’s mission of depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon, “despite your loose talk and words like quagmire.”

While an AP-NORC poll from March found that about two-thirds of U.S. adults said it’s “extremely” or “very” important to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, other polling suggests that most Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue of Iran more broadly.

Garamendi had lambasted Hegseth and Trump for the Iran war, calling it “a political and economic disaster at every level.”

1.24 million projected to face acute insecurity in Lebanon, UN report says

That’s nearly one in four of the population analyzed, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released by Lebanon’s Agriculture Ministry with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program.

The figures are projections and it remains unclear how the estimates were reached. The report notes that the current crisis follows seven years of compounded economic collapse and conflict.

“Compounded shocks are undermining agricultural livelihoods and impacting food security, highlighting the urgent need for emergency agricultural assistance to support farmers,” said Nora Ourabah Haddad, FAO Representative in Lebanon.

US energy secretary says ‘good on them’ after UAE announced it’s leaving OPEC

The United Arab Emirates is “a dynamic rising nation, a great ally of the United States,” Chris Wright said at a press conference in Croatia. “But they are a sovereign nation, they’ve invested massively in their own energy infrastructure, and apparently they want more flexibility about how to deploy that infrastructure.”

Both UAE and Saudi Arabia have been “great partners in investing hugely to power not just their nations and the region, but they are major energy suppliers to the whole globe,” Wright added. “A lot of our standard of living is massively benefited by the investments of the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Kuwait and many of the nations in that region.”

Wright expressed confidence that as the oil flow starts to be unimpeded again after this conflict, “everyone that has spare oil production capacity will lean in and produce as much energy as they can.”

EU commissioner sees ‘no actual evidence’ of fuel shortages due to blockade of Strait of Hormuz

Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said Wednesday commercial jet fuel stocks are markets are “under pressure in certain parts of Europe” and that the 27-member bloc maintains emergency fuel reserves that can be utilized “only if necessary.”

Tzitzikostas didn’t elaborate on when the EU will need to tap those emergency reserves, or offer any figures regarding current stocks.

But he said the EU is enacting a series of measures to dampen the impact of the blockade, including working to secure alternative fuel supplies from the U.S. and to establish a fuel observatory to monitor fuel supply and stock levels.

Joint Staff Chairman says Trump is making ‘tradeoffs’ in focusing military on Iran

Trump ordered three aircraft carriers into the Middle East — a number not seen since 2003. When asked why the U.S. military withdrew resources from Asia after identifying China as a top threat, the president’s top military advisor told lawmakers that Trump has to make “tradeoffs” when deploying troops.

“I’m confident that the president always carefully considers these readiness tradeoffs and I’m sure he has done so in this case based on the military options that we’ve presented with the associated risks and advice,” Caine said.

Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat, fired back by noting that the administration’s own National Defense Strategy released shortly before Trump launched the war said Iran was “weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades.” Putting that many troops to confront them, at the expense of other threats “does not, in my opinion, common sense,” Courtney said.

Hegseth engages in tense exchange over Iran’s nuclear program

Hegseth told Democratic Rep. Adam Smith that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated in a 2025 attack by the U.S., prompting Smith to question the Trump administration’s reasoning for starting the Iran war.

“We had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” Smith said. “Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated?”

Hegseth responded by saying that Iran “had not given up their nuclear ambitions” and still had thousands of missiles.

Smith said the war “left us at exactly the same place we were before.”

Committee takes a break

The committee is taking a brief recess to vote, which is expected to take about 20-25 minutes.

Top defense official says Iran war costs are estimated at $25 billion so far

During a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said most of the expense has been on munitions, but the military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement.

“We will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,” Hurst added.

Caine says his goal is to tell civilian leaders what they need to hear

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the committee in his opening statement that he wants to emulate Gen. George C. Marshall, who served during World War II and later helped Europe recover from the conflict.

“His commitment to civilian control and military and nonpartisan military remains a constant standard in something I borrow from often,” Caine said. “I strive daily to emulate his candor, delivering the facts to our leaders and telling them always what they need to hear, not always what they want to hear.”

Hegseth slams Iran war critics as ‘biggest adversary we face’

“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary, we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” the U.S. defense secretary told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee.

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat, told Hegseth that he finds it “absurd” to claim that the Pentagon’s strategy is built on realism when the war in Iran seems like “the exact opposite of realism.”

Smith also said Hegseth needs to explain what the Trump administration’s goals were for the conflict.

“We’ve seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high,” he said.

Hegseth argued that the historically high Pentagon budget request will maintain “the world’s most powerful and capable military as we grapple with a complex threat environment across multiple theaters.”

Democratic lawmakers calls on Hegseth to answer where the Iran war is going

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he finds it “absurd” to claim that the Pentagon’s strategy is built on realism.

“We started a full scale war in the Middle East against Iran to try to reshape the Middle East,” Smith said, adding that was the exact opposite of realism.

Smith said Hegseth needs to provide an explanation of what the Trump administration’s goals are in the Middle East.

“Where is this going? What is the plan to achieve our objectives? We’ve seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high,” he said.

Republican House armed services chair praises Trump’s historic military budget

Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, praised Trump’s $1.5 trillion plan to fund the military in 2027, stating that it “accounts for the true cost of American deterrence.”

“This will enable us to truly catch up in our modernization efforts by quickly fielding new munitions, aircraft, ships, land, space and autonomous systems to replenish and expand our arsenal,” Rogers said.

Pete Hegseth hearing is underway

A House hearing with the defense secretary has started with a packed hearing room and many other people crowded into the hallway outside.

“Let the public in,” several people chanted outside as lawmakers found their seats. They also yelled at Hegseth as he passed them in the hallway.

The hearing is officially to discuss the Pentagon’s proposed budget, but it will also be the first time that Hegseth publicly answers questions on the Iran war on Capitol Hill. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, is seated beside the defense secretary.

A deal between the US and Iran will take ‘political will’

Grossi said the IAEA participated in U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in February, but not the ceasefire negotiations mediated by Pakistan. He said the agency has been in discussions separately with the U.S. and informally with Iran.

The latest proposal from Iran would postpone discussions on its nuclear program but end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and ends the war.

Grossi described that as an indication Iran wants to sequence how it confronts the objectives mandated by the U.S., including curbing its ballistic missile program and dealing with its proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.

“Where the frustration kicks in, apparently for both, is that they do not seem to come to agreement, or be at an eye-to-eye level on what needs to be done first, or on how,” he said.

Mohammad Sharifullah faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after his one-count conviction in an international terrorism case that President Donald Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress. Sharifullah didn’t testify at his weeklong trial.

Approximately 160 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack at the airport, where U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate.

A federal jury in Virginia convicted Sharifullah of providing material support to an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K. But the jurors deadlocked on whether any deaths at the airport “resulted from” that conspiracy. Sharifullah could have faced a possible life sentence if the jury had unanimously decided that question.

Sharifullah didn't appear to have any visible reaction to the verdict. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga didn't immediately set a date for Sharifullah's sentencing.

Defense attorney Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence tying Sharifullah to the bombing besides his own words during hours of FBI questioning. Rosen said Sharifullah told FBI agents what he thought they wanted to hear, possibly because he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody before he was brought to the U.S.

“The problem was, he didn’t know much about what actually happened that day,” Rosen told jurors during the trial’s closing arguments. “The government has told you nothing about how this attack actually happened.”

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

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

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

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

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

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion. It started Monday and is expected to last about three weeks.

Musk, who invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017, gave his account of OpenAI’s early years, recounting how he lost confidence that Altman would keep it a nonprofit. Questioned by his lawyer Steven Molo, Musk said by late 2022 he was concerned he was trying to “steal the charity.”

"It turned out to be true,” Musk said on the witness stand, wearing his usual courtroom attire of a black suit and tie.

Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was in attendance at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, although he was not scheduled to testify on Wednesday.

Lawyers for OpenAI have rejected the allegations brought in Musk's civil lawsuit and said there were never promises that the company would remain a nonprofit forever. The company has argued Musk's legal challenge is aimed at undercutting OpenAI's rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.

The war has cost $25 billion so far, according to Pentagon numbers presented to the House Armed Service Committee during the contentious hearing that was ostensibly focused on the administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.

While Republicans focused on the details of military budgeting and voiced support for the operation, Democrats pivoted to the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children. Some lawmakers also questioned President Donald Trump's dealings with allies and his shifting justification for the conflict.

Hegseth dismissed criticism of the war as political and referred to lawmakers who have raised questions about it as adversaries of the Pentagon.

“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth said.

Democrats press Hegseth over reasons for war

In one tense exchange, Hegseth told Democratic Rep. Adam Smith that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated in a 2025 attack by the U.S., prompting Smith to question the Trump administration’s reasoning for starting the Iran war less than a year later.

“We had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” said Smith, the ranking Democrat on the committee. “Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated?”

Hegseth responded by saying that Iran “had not given up their nuclear ambitions” and still had thousands of missiles.

Smith said the war “left us at exactly the same place we were before.”

Democrats accused Hegseth of mismanaging the war and lying to Americans about the reasons for the conflict and said rising gas prices are now threatening the pocketbooks of millions of people in the U.S.

“Secretary Hegseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one and so has the president,” said Rep. John Garamendi of California, who called the war “a geopolitical calamity," a “strategic blunder" and a ”self-inflicted wound to America."

Hegseth blasted Garamandi's remarks.

“Who are you cheering for here?” he asked the lawmaker. ”Your hatred for President Trump blinds you” to the success of the war.

Hegseth defends firings of top military officers

The defense secretary faced intense questions from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, about his decision to oust the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, one of several top military officers to be dismissed since Trump's reelection.

Houlahan said George was deeply respected by both members of the military and Congress and asked why Hegseth fired him. Hegseth's response that “we need new leadership” failed to satisfy Houlehan.

“You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men,” Houlahan began to say before Hegseth interrupted her. “We needed new leadership,” he repeated.

Hegseth has also removed Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force, while Trump fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth has said his personnel changes are part of an effort to rebuild a “warrior culture” at the Pentagon.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina defended Hegseth's personnel moves, saying he is “trying to innovate and trying to change the way we do business.”

“I’m glad that you’re firing people," Mace said. “There are people there that are getting in your way. They need to go.”

Democrats ask about war's cost, Republicans back Trump on Iran

While a fragile ceasefire is now in place, the U.S. and Israel launched the war Feb. 28 without congressional oversight. House and Senate Democrats have failed to pass multiple war power resolutions that would have required President Donald Trump to halt the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.

Republicans say they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

Democrats questioned Hegseth over the war's economic impact and rising gasoline costs, noting Trump's promise to lower consumer costs. Hegseth responded by citing the threat posed by Iran.

“What is the cost of Iran having a nuclear weapon that they wield?” he said.

Republicans expressed support for Trump's decision to strike Iran, including Mace, who in late March had expressed concerns about the justification for the war. “The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people,” she wrote in a social media post.

On Wednesday Mace noted her past concerns but said she is “impressed with where we are today.″ She told Hegseth: "Everything I have seen, you have surpassed all of my expectations.”

Iran's closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping corridor for the world's oil, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and posed problems for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. The U.S. has responded by imposing a Navy blockade of Iranian shipping and building up its military forces in the region. Three American aircraft carriers are in the Middle East for the first time in more than 20 years.

The countries appear locked in a stalemate, with Trump unlikely to accept Tehran's latest offer to reopen the strait if the U.S. ends the war, lifts its sea blockade and postpones nuclear talks.

Hegseth has avoided public questioning from lawmakers about the war, although he and Caine have held televised Pentagon briefings. Hegseth has mostly taken questions from conservative journalists, while citing Bible passages to castigate mainstream outlets.

Several conservative justices appeared to be leaning in favor of the Republican administration’s argument that the law limits what courts can do to the program known as temporary protected status, or TPS.

Haitians and Syrians were among those from 17 countries with TPS, which allows migrants already in the U.S. to stay with work permits in 18-month increments, so long as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary deems their country of origin unsafe for return.

In President Donald Trump ’s second term, Homeland Security has ended the protections for 13 countries, exposing their migrants to potential deportation.

Here's the latest:

Lawyers and TPS holders await the Court’s decision

The International Refugee Assistance Project, which represents Syrian TPS holders in the lawsuit heard at the Supreme Court, says stakes are high.

“The Court now faces a choice about whether it will uphold the checks and balances at the heart of the Constitution or whether the President can run roughshod over the laws created by Congress,” said Sharif Aly, president at IRAP.

The Supreme Court, Aly noted, “faces a moral question of whether our country will destabilize countless families, communities, and the economy by stripping legal status from people who have it and sending them back to danger in Haiti, Syria, and beyond.”

A famously fast talker

One thing to know about Solicitor General D. John Sauer is that he talks fast.

The Solicitor General is the person tasked with arguing cases in front of the Supreme Court for the federal government. He or she is basically the federal government’s lawyer at the court.

If he or she isn’t personally arguing a case, it can also be assigned to an Assistant or another government attorney. The solicitor general also plays a role in deciding which cases the government will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Sauer was also the Solicitor General of Missouri from 2017 to 2023.

The speed at which Sauer talks has been a subject of debate on various legal chats on Reddit.

Skeptical Alito wonders who is considered white

Justice Alito was drilling down on Pipoly on the question of who is considered white and who is not.

At one point he listed off various nationalities like Syrians and Greeks and questioned whether Pipoly would consider them white. Pipoly generally answered that he didn’t know or hadn’t considered that question.

At one point Alito — who has Italian heritage — asked whether southern Italians were considered white and Pipoly answered that 120 years ago during the last wave of European immigration, they would not have been considered white.

Alito said he didn’t like “dividing the people of the world into these groups.”

Gorsuch queries court role in TPS

Justice Neil Gorsuch asks his first questions of the day, pressing the attorney for Haitian immigrants on whether the law lets judges step into Homeland Security’s decisions on TPS.

“I’m struggling with that,” he said, seemingly unconvinced by the immigrants’ process argument.

Race and TPS

Pipoly starts with the Haitian immigrants’ argument that the administration ended TPS for Haitians because of “racial animus towards nonwhite immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians.”

He repeats comments from President Trump, including a reference to Haiti as a “shithole country.”

A lower-court judge found that “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians.

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats. Federal authorities have denied racial animus played any role in the TPS decisions.

‘Bombing happening now in Syria’

Justice Kavanaugh asked Arulanantham about how many Syrians have returned since the end of the Assad regime and whether those figures might have any relevance to the arguments.

Arulanantham said it doesn’t matter because there still wasn’t consultations with the State Department over country conditions in Syria.

He did note that many people have gone from southern Lebanon to Syria recently, but suggested it had more to do with the armed conflict in the region driving people out than any improvements in Syria itself.

Arulanantham said it’s “not the same thing as saying ‘We’re going from California to Syria.’”

“There is still active armed conflict. There’s bombing happening now in Syria,” he said.

Arguments about TPS for Haiti begin

Attorney Geoffrey Pipoly begins his arguments on behalf of Haitian TPS holders, who say that their country is unsafe and does not meet the conditions to receive them back.

More than 9,000 people were killed across Haiti last year, with the country now reporting a homicide rate of 76 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the world’s highest.

Gang violence also has displaced more than 1.4 million people, with armed men controlling more than 70% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and swaths of rural land north of it.

Hunger also is deepening, with gangs controlling access to key routes leading in and out of Port-au-Prince.

More than 5.83 million Haitians are expected to face acute levels of hunger from March to June, representing more than half the country’s population, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on hunger crises.

Skeptical questions from some conservatives

Justice Samuel Alito appears skeptical, raising questions about the immigration attorneys’ main argument that the administration short-circuited the process. He says the court would have to take an unusual read on the law for them to win.

Thomas also seems sympathetic to the administration on process. Kavanaugh, meanwhile, seems open to their arguments about foreign policy considerations.

Drilling down on consultations with State Department

A little bit more on that exchange between Arulanantham and Barrett.

She was drilling down into the question of how substantive the consultations have to be between the DHS secretary and State Department on whether country conditions are truly stable enough to terminate TPS.

“Let’s imagine the consultation happens. It’s a robust consultation. But everything that she hears cuts in favor of keeping TPS status and she says ‘I’m terminating it.’ Is that reviewable?” Barrett asked.

Arulanantham says in that case it’s not, but then goes on to argue that she really does have to make a substantive inquiry. And he argues that the consultation process makes for better decisions overall.

Barrett raises big-picture questions

Barrett comes in with a zoom-out question about the immigration attorney’s argument that Homeland Security didn’t follow the right process.

“Is this going to get you very much? If it’s just a box-checking exercise, why would Congress permit review of the procedural aspect when really what everybody cares about much more is the substance?”

Arulanantham says that it’s still important: “Congress, and us too, and the millions of people who live with TPS holders have some faith in government.”

TPS holders have two courtroom defenders

Two different lawyers are arguing for the TPS recipients.

Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, is up now. He’s arguing the Syrian case.

Attorney Geoffrey Pipoly will represent people from Haiti.

Arguments turn to those defending TPS holders

Sauer has now finished his arguments. The court is now hearing from Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the UCLA School of Law who’s arguing for Syrian immigrants.

Arulanantham argues that the Trump administration’s is seeking an open-ended expansion of its immigration power. “The government reads this statue as a blank check,” he said.

Sauer: The T in TPS stands for ‘temporary’

Before wrapping up his argument, Sauer emphasized the issue of the temporary nature of TPS.

“Keep in mind this is temporary protected status,” he said.

He pointed out that a number of the TPS designations go back years, sometimes decades.

That goes to a key Republican complaint about TPS: they say that while it’s supposed to be temporary, it often ends up being extended repeatedly.

Kavanaugh asks about legislative/executive branch powers

Justice Brett Kavanaugh is asking why Congress would have barred courts from considering claims about TPS termination.

Sauer says those decisions should be left to the executive branch, arguing that the decision to grant to revoke protections can have foreign policy implications.

That’s an area where courts have generally given deference to the president.

How much research did Kristi Noem do before terminating TPS?

Some of the liberal justices have really pushed Sauer on the issue of how much the Homeland Security Secretary consulted with the State Department about country conditions.

Advocates have argued that former DHS chief Kristi Noem didn’t really conduct a substantive consultation with State about the conditions of the countries where they were terminating TPS and that means they’re potentially sending people back to countries where they’re at risk.

Sauer is arguing that the secretary can’t force the State Department to respond.

Justices question motives for terminating TPS

Liberal-leaning justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor

are questioning whether racial animus played a part in the administration’s decision to terminate TPS.

Sauer, the government’s lawyer, responded that he “strongly disagrees.”

Barrett asks about the racial dynamic

Justice Amy Coney Barrett jumps in with a question about constitutional claims the migrants have made, which include the argument that race played a role in the decision to end the protections.

She’s another key member of the conservative majority, and one with a personal connection to Haiti. Two of her seven children were adopted from the country.

The Trump administration has denied racial animus played a role in the decision, and Sauer argued the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims are “not a close call.”

Judges question administration lawyer

The three liberal-leaning justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, are grilling Sauer on his main argument.

Their focus: Even if judges can’t question the decision to terminate legal protections, why can’t they weigh arguments about whether Homeland Security followed the steps Congress laid out in the law?

Kagan losing voice & making jokes

Justice Elena Kagan is struggling with some voice issues.

She was questioning Sauer, stopped to cough, and then apologized.

Still struggling as she questioned Sauer further, she then joked that “the likelihood of me asking a follow-up is very diminished.”

That sparked some laughter in the court.

Sauer defends Kristi Noem’s decision-making

Sauer mentioned in his opening statement that when the secretary issued her TPS decisions the fact that her decisions were consistent was a “virtue and not a vice.”

That seemed to be in reference to criticism by immigration advocates that former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wasn’t doing a substantive consultation with the State Department when it comes to assessing country conditions and deciding whether it was safe enough for them to return home.

Roberts questions link to Trump’s original travel ban

Chief Justice John Roberts questions whether Sauer is seeking a “significant expansion” of the court’s ruling in Trump v. Hawaii, the case where the court upheld Trump’s travel ban for Muslim-majority countries during his first term.

Roberts holds a key vote on the court as both the chief and a member of the conservative majority who has voted against the administration in some cases, like the ruling that stuck down Trump’s tariffs.

And they’re off!

Arguments have started in the TPS case.

The justices first released a number of opinions before launching into oral arguments in this key case.

First up is the federal government. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argues that the law doesn’t allow courts to block or delay Homeland Security decisions, or question any of the steps along the way.

Court voids majority Black congressional district in Louisiana

The Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district in a decision that could open the door for Republican-led states to eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts that tend to favor Democrats and affect the balance of power in Congress.

The court’s conservative majority found that the district, represented by Democrat Cleo Fields, relied too heavily on race. Chief Justice John Roberts had described the district as a “snake” that stretches more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to link parts of the Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas.

The decision weakens a landmark voting rights law’s protections against discrimination in redistricting. It’s unclear how much is left of the provision, known as Section 2, the main way to challenge racially discriminatory election practices.

But first, some opinions!

The court is releasing several opinions on previous cases before getting into the TPS-related arguments.

In the first opinion, The court sided with a faith-based pregnancy center that raised First Amendment concerns about an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions.

The high court’s unanimous ruling is a procedural victory for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which is challenging a New Jersey probe of its practices.

The conservative-majority court has given abortion opponents high-profile wins in recent years, most notably the watershed case that overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. First Choice, though, had also drawn support from the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports abortion rights but backed the group’s First Amendment concerns.

The Supreme Court’s decision lets First Choice sue over the subpoena in federal court.

TPS holders are demonstrating outside the Supreme Court

Dozens of immigrants who have been protected from deportation under a temporary status are beginning to gather in front of the Supreme Court to follow the arguments on the Trump administration’s attempt to end these protections for Haitians and Syrians.

The Supreme Court will weigh arguments at 10 a.m. The case has wider implications for more than 1.3 million people from 17 countries who have been living and working in the U.S., protected under TPS.

Immigrants and advocates outside the Supreme Court are demanding “equal justice under the law.”

TPS holders plan to offer their testimony. There are performances by musicians from TPS countries and by Los Jornaleros del Norte, a band from Los Angeles made up of current and former day laborers.

Who’s at the podium

Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the government’s top Supreme Court attorney, will argue the case for the Trump administration.

Two lawyers will argue on the other side, since the court is considering the future of legal protections for people from two countries. Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, will argue the Syrian case and attorney Geoffrey Pipoly will represent people from Haiti.

The new secretary gets the blame

This lawsuit originally was directed at Kristi Noem, who was Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary.

But when she was fired, and Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as the new DHS secretary, he also got the honor of being the person named in all the lawsuits.

Lawsuits tend to follow the head of the agency or department so when those people change, the new secretary or agency head takes over the role of being named in all the lawsuits, even if they happened before he or she took office.

This even happens when administrations change. For example, advocates sued the first Trump administration over its efforts to terminate TPS, specifically naming his DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

But by the time the case concluded six years later, it was Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who was named in the suit.

How temporary is temporary?

One of the key complaints by conservatives about TPS is that something that is supposed to be temporary essentially becomes permanent.

Republicans often point to TPS designations that are extended repeatedly, even after the reason for the original designation has long passed.

The TPS designation for El Salvador, for example, was first designated in 2001 following devastating earthquakes in the country.

But immigration advocates say there’s no time limit on TPS use, and the administration is trying to send people back to countries still in turmoil.

Conditions in Syria

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also known as the UN Refugee Agency, says that Syria’s operational contexts reflect a dual dynamic of large-scale returns and persistent humanitarian needs.

As of March 2026, 15.6 million Syrians required assistance, while over 1.5 million refugees and 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned since December 2024, according to the agency.

“Internal displacement remains high (5.5 million), underscoring that returns are occurring within a still-fragile system with strained absorption capacity,” said the UN agency in a report.

Conditions in Haiti

Haiti has not had a president since Jovenel Moïse was killed in July 2021 at his private residence.

The government hopes to hold the first round of elections by year’s end, but experts say that’s unlikely given the surge in gang violence.

A recent assessment from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) assessment reveals “grave protection risks and rapidly shrinking access to public services” for civilians in Haiti, as the country faces one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

The report notes that conditions could deteriorate further as political instability and violence and clashes between gangs and security forces continue.

“Millions of people in Haiti continue to face a compounding crisis of food insecurity, forced displacement, deadly disease outbreaks, and surging violence,” said Alice Ribes, emergency country director for the IRC in Haiti. “Public services in many areas have collapsed under gang rule, leaving people with limited or no access to clean drinking water, food, medical care, and education.”

Bill to protect TPS

On April 16, in a rare bipartisan moment, the House passed legislation that would extend TPS for Haitians.

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.

But it faces uncertainty in the Senate, and President Trump would almost certainly seek to veto it.

Democratic lawmakers urge the SCOTUS to support TPS

Democratic Senator Edward J. Markey and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, both of Massachusetts, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, of Delaware, and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to reject the administrations attempts to terminate TPS.

They were joined by a coalition of senior, workers and advocates from the American Business Immigration Coalition, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, among other organizations.

“TPS holders serve as a backbone for families and our economy—caring for our elders and loved ones through illness, strengthening our communities, and making innumerable contributions daily,” Pressley. “Our message to the Supreme Court today is simple: do your job, uphold the law, save lives, and protect our communities.”

What the administration says

The administration’s claims that TPS holders can safely return to their home countries, where conditions have changed since the protection was originally granted.

Advocates argue that safe conditions do not exist for people to return to their countries of origin. They point out that the government is engaging in a contradiction, given that the State Department warns U.S. citizens not to travel to Haiti or Syria due to violence, instability, and limited access to basic services.

“These terminations have come without credible evidence that conditions have improved,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and Chief Executive Officer of Global Refuge, one of the largest faith-based nonprofit organizations serving refugees.

“The administration is essentially arguing two things at once: that these countries are too dangerous for American tourists, but safe enough to deport families to. Policy makers cannot credibly hold both positions at the same time,” Vignarajah said.

What advocates say

Immigrant advocates argue that the administration’s decision to end TPS is not based on conditions in the countries of origin. They contend that, on the contrary, it is part of a broader policy aimed at deporting not only those who entered the country illegally, but also hundreds of thousands of people who have been residing in the country legally.

“By trying to kill TPS, they are attacking people who are living and working here legally, paying fees and taxes, following all the rules,” said José Palma, coordinator at the National TPS Alliance. “They are de-documenting people… it’s cruel, arbitrary, pointless, needless, and wrong.”

Viles Dorsainvil, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Haitian Support Center, and a Haitian TPS holder, said “TPS provides dignity, stability, and hope... TPS represents more than protection. It represents the ability of families to stay together.”

Public Rights Project, a non-governmental that helps local governments with litigation, filed an amicus brief outlining the economic, workforce and public service impacts cities would face if TPS is revoked.

The brief was filed on April 13 on behalf of a coalition of 47 local governments, mayors and local leaders across the country urging the Court to preserve TPS.

Settle in for a lengthy session

The court has set aside 80 minutes for arguments, but it would be unsurprising if they last two hours or longer.

Justice Clarence Thomas goes first

In the post-pandemic era, the other justices allow the 77-year-old Thomas, the longest-serving member of the court, to pose a question or two before the free-for-all begins. In a second round of questioning, the justices ask questions in order of seniority. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose center chair makes him the most senior, gets the first crack.

Court begins at 10 a.m., Eastern time, but the livestream won’t start right away

The justices have some business to take care of before arguments get going. They’ll issue a decision in at least one case that was argued during the fall or winter, and the justice who wrote the majority opinion in each case will read a summary from the bench. Then, the court will ceremonially swear in lawyers to the Supreme Court bar. Once that’s done, the livestream should begin.

Lori Stefek, owner of the full-service auction and appraisal firm, and marketing director Naomi Harani appeared on Live in the D to discuss the event and the broader resale boom fueling its buzz.

Market research indicates secondhand and vintage goods are on track to surpass traditional retail by 2027, a trend Stefek says is reflected in the growing crowds - particularly younger shoppers - showing up to her sales in search of items with character and history.

In addition to the Grosse Pointe estate sale on May 1st and 2nd, Stefek Auctioneers has upcoming charity auctions benefiting the Children’s Foundation and Crystal Ray Schools, a warehouse sale, and a fine goods auction scheduled for June 3rd.

More information is available at stefekauctions.com and on Instagram at @stefekauctions.

To watch the segment, click on the video above.

The stop was part of a busy swing through the city midway through the royal couple's four-day trip to the U.S. to mark 250 years of American independence. It's the first trip to the Big Apple by a reigning British monarch since Queen Elizabeth II visited in 2010.

The king and queen arrived by motorcade and were greeting by various dignitaries at the memorial. They were accompanied by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg while walking to one of the parapets ringing the two pools, bearing the names of the victims of the attacks. Charles laid flowers on the parapet.

The royal couple then shook hands and spoke to a line of people, including families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and first responders. Some relatives held up photos of their lost relatives. Also in the line were New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and other dignitaries. The ceremony came ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

Before leaving, Charles and Camilla did not give any public remarks at the memorial, which is in keeping with tradition. The memorial plaza has generally been off limits to speeches by politicians or other public figures, with the annual commemoration ceremonies there featuring remarks only by the families and friends of the victims.

The queen was scheduled to visit the New York Public Library, where she’ll deliver a new Roo doll to add to the library’s famed collection of Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals, as the beloved children’s character turns 100 this year.

The five dolls currently on display -- Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and Kanga -- were the inspiration for the characters in A.A. Milne’s children’s books. They were owned by the English author’s son, the real-life Christopher Robin, in the 1920s. The dolls were donated to the library in 1987 and are a centerpiece of the library’s collection of children’s literature. Roo, in the books, was a small brown kangaroo and son of Kanga.

The king, meanwhile, was expected to visit an after-school, urban farming effort that works with young people affected by food insecurity, as well as meet later with business and financial leaders in Manhattan.

The royal couple are then expected to attend a reception for the King's Trust, a charity Charles founded in 1976.

The four-day trip is Charles’ first state visit to the U.S. since he became king. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S.

Monday, the king and queen joined President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for tea at the White House.

On Tuesday, Charles and Trump had a closed-door meeting in the Oval Office. The king then delivered a rare speech before Congress -- the first by a British monarch since his late mother in 1991 -- followed by a formal state dinner at the White House.

The monarchs are also expected to make stops in Virginia before wrapping up their U.S. visit back at the White House on Thursday with a formal farewell from Trump. Charles then travels solo to Bermuda on his first visit as king to a British overseas territory.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

The court’s conservative majority found that the district, represented by Democrat Cleo Fields, relied too heavily on race. Chief Justice John Roberts had described the district as a “snake” that stretches more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to link parts of the Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Supreme Court “has humiliated and dismantled the life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and every man and woman who marched, bled, and died for Black Americans to have an equal voice at the ballot box.”

The plaintiffs argued that Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district, drawn to correct a previously discriminatory map, has an unconstitutional racial basis and did not follow the standards for drawing a district, including compactness.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act, the centerpiece legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, succeeded in opening the ballot box to Black Americans and reducing persistent discrimination in voting. Nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by Section 2, election law experts estimate.

It’s unclear how much is left of Section 2, but the ruling could open the door for Republican-led states to eliminate Black and Latino electoral districts that tend to favor Democrats and affect the balance of power in Congress. President Donald Trump has already touched off a nationwide redistricting battle to boost Republican chances.

Here's the latest:

Rights groups aren’t mincing words about the Supreme Court decision

Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the decision is a blow to American democracy and one that will further erode trust in the Supreme Court among diverse populations.

“It’s a day of loss of any remnant or modicum of credibility of this Supreme Court to rise above partisan politics,” Nelson said. “It has elevated the principle of partisanship and politics over the right to vote.”

Wednesday’s decision is a “profound betrayal of the civil rights movement,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. Minority communities won’t just potentially lose a seat in Congress, she said, they’ll lose a voice on issues like healthcare, education and infrastructure.

“States can now point to partisan objectives to justify maps that strip voters of color of representation, and federal courts will have little basis to intervene,” she said.

A voting rights advocate doesn’t know if the ruling will spur redistricting this year

David Becker, the founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the ruling will allow lawmakers to reduce the power of minority voters — at least eventually.

“How it will affect 2026, I don’t know,” Becker said Wednesday on a call with reporters. “It could be open season now, but we’re also running out of time.”

Obama’s attorney general says this Supreme Court has earned an infamous place in history

Eric Holder, the former Obama-era U.S. attorney general whose administration lost a crucial voting rights battle in 2013, said Wednesday’s ruling amounted to “Supreme Court sanctioned racial and partisan gerrymandering.”

“The Court today ensures that it will be remembered as one of the most destructive and deeply irresponsible Courts in the history of our nation,” Holder said in a statement.

“It should not be lost on anyone,” he added, “that the Roberts court makes this decision at a time when Republican leaders across the country are foaming at the mouth to draw the American people out of a meaningful say in our elections.”

After leaving public service, Holder formed the National Redistricting Foundation to protect voting rights and challenge gerrymandered congressional and state legislative districts.

Candidate for Tennessee governor calls for redistricting after Supreme Court decision

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running for governor this year, called on social media for the GOP-supermajority state Legislature to reconvene and draw Tennessee’s only Democratic congressional seat to favor a pickup for Republicans.

The district centers on the majority-Black city of Memphis.

One top Georgia Republican calls for immediate redistricting, even with voting underway

Redrawing Georgia’s maps for the 2026 elections would be difficult because early voting is already underway for the May 19 party primaries, in advance of the November election.

A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to queries about immediate redistricting. State Senate Minority Harold Jones II, an Augusta Democrat, said he’s unsure of the prospects of quick action.

But one leading GOP candidate to replace Kemp urged the governor to act immediately, which could protect Republican power even if Georgia Democrats make gains this fall.

“Democrats nationally are trying to redistrict their way back to power, and what happened in Virginia is just the tip of the spear,” businessman Rick Jackson said in a statement. “There is no time to waste. Georgia must act now to ensure secure elections in Georgia and counter the Democrats’ national assault on our elections.”

Hakeem Jeffries slams the Supreme Court decision as ‘far right extremists’ thinking

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the Supreme Court of being “far right extremists” and of voter suppression being “a way of life” for Trump and Republicans, in a strongly worded statement on social media.

“Republicans know they cannot win a free and fair election in November and so they are desperate to rig it. We will never let them succeed,” the Democrat wrote.

Jeffries has previously claimed Trump makes power grabs when it comes to voting.

When Trump signed an executive order in March to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting, Jeffries said it would make voting unnecessarily difficult of communities of color, people with disabilities and other key demographics.

King family ‘deeply troubled’ by Supreme Court decision

Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and his wife Arndrea Waters King said in a statement that the Supreme Court decision “further weakened the Voting Rights Act.”

“This decision silences the voices of millions of voters of color by undermining the purpose of the VRA – securing and protecting the political rights of Black and Brown communities across the country,” they said. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that voting rights are the foundation of our entire democratic system. Without them, we are a democracy in name only. “

The couple are the founders of a civil rights organization called the Drum Major Institute.

Congressional Black Caucus says the Supreme Court has ‘signed the death certificate of the voting Rights Act’

The 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is currently made up of all Democrats, said the ruling erased “decades of Black progress.”

“Republicans now have the ability to move forward with a nationwide scheme to rig congressional maps in their favor — to manufacture more districts for themselves by eliminating majority-Black districts, while stripping away the ability to challenge those racist, anti-Black maps in court,” the group said.

The caucus added this could open the door for huge redistricting changes in the South and vowed to initiate “any measure necessary” to find a legislative remedy, and called for a vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Inside the Supreme Court as the decision was announced

The already quiet courtroom went silent when Chief Justice John Roberts said Justice Samuel Alito would be reading the majority opinion.

Members of the audience listened raptly as he read, waiting to hear the depths of the Section 2 decision. Some in the audience nodded as Justice Elena Kagan read the dissent and said the majority had effectively finished a yearslong pursuit of the Voting Rights Act.

A Black voter in Alabama reacts to the court’s decision

Shalela Dowdy in Mobile, Alabama, said she’s worried the decision will lead to the rollback of an Alabama congressional district created in 2023, which she said gave previously ignored voters a seat at the table.

“It’s a setback. Putting it in the hands of the states on this level is dangerous,” Dowdy said. “There’s just been a history of the states not doing the right thing based off their state population.”

Dowdy, who is Black, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that resulted in the creation of the new district, now represented by Rep. Shomari Figures.

She added that they are going to have to battle in court, and at the ballot box, to maintain representation: “The fight continues. You can’t get comfortable.”

Rev. Al Sharpton says the decision is a ’bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement'

“The Supreme Court has not just weakened a law, it has humiliated and dismantled the life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and every man and woman who marched, bled, and died for Black Americans to have an equal voice at the ballot box,” Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network, said in a statement.

“This ruling does not just dishonor the generation that marched, it steals from the generation that hasn’t voted yet,” Sharpton added in the statement. “Black children growing up in this country deserve the same protections their grandparents bled for.”

He called on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act through federal legislation, a task that has proved elusive while Capitol Hill has been narrowly split between Democrats and Republicans.

Former New Orleans mayor sounds off about the decision

A growing number of civil rights and racial justice leaders denounced the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v Callais.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and a former New Orleans mayor, said the court had issued a “profound setback for American democracy and a direct blow to the voting power of Black communities in Louisiana and across the nation.”

“At its core, this case was never about fairness or constitutional principle—it was about whether a multiracial democracy will be permitted to function as intended, or whether the voices of Black voters can once again be weakened, diluted, and silenced,” Morial said in a statement.

The AP has asked Louisiana Republicans when lawmakers plan to draw a new map, but has not received a timeline

Lawmakers are currently in the midst of their 2026 legislative session, which is set to conclude June 1.

Louisiana state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, a Republican who chairs the House committee tasked with drawing any new congressional map, said in a text message to the AP on Wednesday morning that lawmakers are currently reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision and “will know more once we know the particulars” of the ruling.

Louisiana’s Republican attorney general applauds the decision

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she will work with fellow Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-dominated Legislature to “provide guidance as we move forward to adopt a constitutionally compliant map.”

“The Supreme Court has ended Louisiana’s long-running nightmare of federal courts coercing the state to draw a racially discriminatory map,” Murrill wrote. “That was always unconstitutional—and this is a seismic decision reaffirming equal protection under our nation’s laws.”

Republican redistricting group hails the decision

The ruling is expected to be an enormous boost for Republican efforts to expand their number of winnable seats in the House of Representatives and state legislatures.

The GOP has long complained that Democrats turned the Voting Rights Act’s protections into a partisan weapon to gain seats.

“For decades the left has spent hundreds of millions of dollars seeking to divide Americans along racial lines in a cynical pursuit of partisan power masquerading as civil rights,” said Adam Kincaid, the National Republican Redistricting Trust’s executive director, in a statement. “Today’s decision rebukes that divisive and unconstitutional effort.”

The decision will likely reignite legal battles over congressional districts in southern states including Alabama

A federal court in 2023 ordered the creation of a new near-majority Black district which led to the election of Alabama’s second Black congressional representative.

Alabama is under a court order to use the new map through the rest of the decade, but the state appealed to the Supreme Court. Alabama has argued the court-drawn map is an illegal racial gerrymander.

Alabama House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, a Republican, said he is hopeful that the Louisiana ruling means justices will rule in favor of Alabama in that appeal, eventually clearing the way for Alabama to draw its own map.

“I do believe the ruling today vindicates the state’s argument that the court illegally racially gerrymandered the state in its ruling,” Pringle said.

A Democratic official says state legislative elections take on new significance

The head of an organization that works to elect Democrats to state legislatures says it’s an “all-hands-on-deck moment.”

Heather Williams, who leads the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, says Democrats need to strengthen their numbers at statehouses to fight GOP gerrymanders. She says the ruling gives Republican-led legislatures greater ability to “rig maps to protect their own power.”

“State legislatures play a role in drawing over 300 congressional districts, and we must charge into the 2026 elections clear-eyed about the urgency and stakes,” she said.

The Supreme Court decision is hugely consequential, but maybe not for the 2026 election

In most of the states where Republicans could benefit from eliminating Democratic districts that have majority Black or Hispanic populations, filing deadlines for congressional elections have already passed. In some, primaries have already occurred.

Barring extraordinary action, that means the most likely impact of Wednesday’s decision will come in 2028, when the GOP can potentially replace more than a dozen Democratic-held House districts that were previously protected under the Voting Rights Act.

“The Voting Rights Act as a means to protect minority voters from vote dilution is essentially dead,” said Jonathan Cervas, a political scientist at Carnegie-Mellon University who’s served as a special master in multiple Voting Rights Act cases.

Decision could cut Black political power in states and localities

Over time, the decision could result in a sweeping rollback to Black political power at the state and local level.

There are hundreds of Black state legislators in the South. There are many more Black officials on county and parish governing bodies, school boards and city councils that make decisions about policing, road paving and school districting that touch everyday lives.

In many cases, Black-majority districts that those officials represent have been carved out through decades of repeated Section 2 litigation. In states like Alabama and Mississippi, the racial cleavage is so deep that there are few Democratic state legislators who aren’t Black.

Wednesday’s ruling could let white majorities wipe out districts where Black voters exercise power, particularly where they are numerous but in the minority. That would be a change from today, where Black officials often exercise real influence, even on governing bodies where they are in the minority.

A top House Republican calls the decision a victory for Constitution

Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina is the chairman of the House GOP campaign arm.

“The Supreme Court made clear that our elections should be decided by voters, not engineered through unconstitutional mandates,” he said.

“For too long, activists have manipulated the redistricting process to achieve political outcomes, dividing Americans instead of bringing them together,” he said. “This ruling restores fairness, strengthens confidence in our elections, and ensures every voter is treated equally under the law.”

One of two Black Democrats representing Louisiana in Congress calls the decision a ‘devastating blow’

“This ruling is about far more than lines on a map — it’s about whether Black Louisianians will have a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard,” U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, whose predominately Black congressional district encompasses New Orleans, said in a written statement.

Carter said the consequences of the high court’s decision will be “immediate and severe” and that Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts are now at risk of being dismantled.

“Without the protections of the Voting Rights Act, there is no evidence to suggest that Black voters in our state will be able to elect candidates of their choice,” Carter wrote.

Conservative Heritage Action’s Kevin Roberts welcomed the majority opinion from Justice Alito

“The Civil War Amendments were forged at tremendous human cost to secure a constitutional order grounded in equality before the law—not racial classifications,” Roberts said. “Today’s decision restores that understanding and reaffirms that the Constitution does not permit sorting Americans by race in the exercise of political power.”

A top House Democrat predicts the court’s ruling will backfire on conservatives

“Today’s appalling decision by the Supreme Court is the latest in a long line of attacks by the conservative Court, congressional Republicans, and President Trump against the fundamental right of every American citizen to vote,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads Democrats’ campaign efforts for the U.S. House.

She said “Democrats remain poised to retake the House Majority in November.”

‘A devastating blow’

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights group, said the high court’s decision delivers “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act.”

The ruling is “a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities,” Johnson said Wednesday. “The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy.”

The ruling comes a month and a half after foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement marked 61 years to the day that voting rights marchers were brutally beaten by Alabama state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The violence that became known as Bloody Sunday shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark legislation that the Supreme Court has now weakened.

“This ruling is a major setback for our nation and threatens to erode the hard-won victories we’ve fought, bled, and died for. But the people still can fight back,” Johnson said. “Our democracy is crying for help.”

Voting rights group: Supreme Court decision lets states use partisanship to cloak racism

The decision “guts” voting rights protection while “pretending to uphold it,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, executive director of Fair Fight Action, a Georgia-based voting rights group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams.

She said the court rewrote the law to require a showing of intentional discrimination.

That’s after Congress in the early 1980s specifically rewrote the Voting Rights Act to overturn an earlier Supreme Court decision in an Alabama case that tried to do the same thing. At the time, Roberts was a Justice Department attorney advocating for a showing of intentional discrimination.

“It allows states, counties and cities to shield their discriminatory maps by claiming they are advancing their own partisan interests, ignoring that race and party are highly correlated in places across the country, particularly the South,” Groh-Wargo wrote in a text message to the AP.

White House hails the court’s decision

“This is a complete and total victory for American voters,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.

“The color of one’s skin should not dictate which congressional district you belong in. We commend the court for putting an end to the unconstitutional abuse of the Voting Rights Act and protecting civil rights,” she said.

The Supreme Court decision could spur more states to join a national redistricting battle

More than a half-dozens states have already adopted new U.S. House districts since Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw their districts last year in a bid to win more seats and maintain a slim House majority in the midterm elections.

The battle has been pretty even thus far. Republicans think they could gain up to nine more seats from new districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio — and perhaps four more if Florida lawmakers pass a new map. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could win 10 additional seats from new districts in California, Utah and Virginia.

The mayor of New Orleans condemns the Supreme Court decision

Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who represents the largest city in Louisiana’s other predominantly Black congressional district, said the Supreme Court’s ruling was “a step backward.”

“For decades, the Voting Rights Act has served as a critical safeguard to ensure every voice, especially those historically marginalized, has a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” Moreno said.

“Striking down a district that reflected diversity suppresses voices and weakens our democracy. We should be working to expand representation, not roll it back,” she said.

The Voting Rights Act marked its 50th anniversary last year

AP took a closer look at the history of the act, which the NAACP’s Demetria McCain said last year was at “a critical juncture.”

▶ Read more

Florida is pressing ahead with redistricting votes after the Supreme Court decision

The Florida Senate reversed itself and took a brief break so senators could review the decision and talk with attorneys. But the Republican-dominated chamber is still expected to vote later Wednesday to approve a GOP gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts.

House Republicans have not broken to consider implications of the Louisiana case in their arguments, despite the Democratic majority’s urging.

The current Florida congressional map gave Republicans a 20-8 advantage in the 2024 election. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal is designed to push that to as much as 24-4 in November.

▶ Read more about redistricting in Florida

Things to know about the Voting Rights Act

The 1965 voting rights law was the centerpiece legislation of the Civil Rights Movement. It succeeded in opening the ballot box to Black Americans and reducing persistent discrimination in voting.

Nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by Section 2, election law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos has estimated.

▶ Read more on what the Voting Rights Act did

Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the three liberal judges

“The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter,” Kagan stated in dissent.

The court split 6-3

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the six conservatives, said the Louisiana district at the heart of the case “is an unconstitutional gerrymander.”

Roberts, the chief justice, described the district as a “snake” that stretches more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to link parts of the Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas.

Redistricting is also being debated in Florida

The court’s decision was released as Florida legislators debated a proposed redraw of the state’s congressional lines, submitted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and intended to give the GOP a chance at as much as a 24-4 advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

Senate Democrats urged the Republican supermajority to delay debate to at least offer lawmakers a chance to read the decision and consult attorneys on how it might affect DeSantis’ proposal. Florida Senate Republicans refused.

Legal experts are still poring over the decision

The AP contacted multiple law professors and redistricting attorneys in the minutes after the decision came out who said they were still reading the decision so did not yet know its full implications.

Comey was indicted in North Carolina on Tuesday on charges of making threats against President Donald Trump related to a photograph he posted on social media last year of seashells arranged in the numbers “86 47.” The Justice Department contends those numbers amounted to a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Comey has said he assumed the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence against the Republican president, and removed the post as soon as he saw some people were interpreting it that way.

The indictment is the second against Comey, a longtime adversary of Trump dating back to his time as FBI director, over the past year. The first one, on unrelated false-statement and obstruction charges, was tossed out by a judge last year. Now prosecutors pursuing the threats case face their own challenge of proving that Comey intended to communicate a true threat or at least recklessly discounted the possibility that the statement could be understood as a threat.

The indictment accuses Comey of acting “knowingly and willfully,” but its sparse language offers no support for that assertion. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to elaborate at a news conference on what evidence of intent the government has. But broad First Amendment protections for free speech, Supreme Court precedent and Comey's public statements indicating that he did not intend to convey a threat will likely impose a tall burden for the government.

“Here, ‘86’ is ambiguous — it doesn’t necessarily threaten violence and the fact that it was the FBI Director posting this openly and notoriously on a public social media site suggests that he didn’t intend to convey a threat of violence,” John Keller, a former senior Justice Department official who led a task force to prosecute violent threats against election workers, wrote in a text message.

The case was charged in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the location of the beach where Comey has said he found the shells. He made a brief court appearance Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the state where he lives.

Comey didn’t speak or enter a plea during the appearance, which lasted roughly five minutes. But his legal team teed up at least one argument expected to be invoked, with defense lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald saying the defense intended to argue that the prosecution is vindictive and selective and would ask prosecutors to save communications that might be relevant for that motion.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick also rejected the government’s request to set conditions on Comey’s release, calling it unnecessary.

As FBI director, Comey had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election. Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term, and the president and his supporters have since sought retribution over the Russia investigation.

What the law says on threats

The Supreme Court has held that statements are not protected by the First Amendment if they meet the legal threshold of a “true threat.”

That requires prosecutors to prove, at a minimum, that a defendant recklessly disregarded the risk that a statement could be perceived as threatening violence. In a 2023 Supreme Court case, the majority held that prosecutors have to show that the “defendant had some subjective understanding of the threatening nature of his statements.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has found that hyperbolic political speech is protected. In a 1969 case, the justices held that a Vietnam War protester did not make a knowing and willful threat against the president when he remarked that “If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J,” referring to President Lyndon B. Johnson. The court noted that laughter in the crowd when the protester made the statement, among other things, showed it wasn’t a serious threat of violence.

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

Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

What the government will try to prove

John Fishwick, a former U.S. attorney in the Western District of Virginia, said the government will likely try to prove that Comey should have known better as a former FBI director.

“I think they're going to try to circumstantially say that you were head of the FBI, you knew what these terms meant and you said them out to the whole world as a threat to the president,” Fishwick said, though he noted that such an argument would be challenging in light of Comey's obvious First Amendment defenses.

Comey was voluntarily interviewed by the Secret Service last year, and the fact that he was not charged with making a false statement suggests that prosecutors do not have evidence that he lied to agents Fishwick said.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday that “despite being one of Comey’s longest critics, the indictment raises troubling free speech issues. In the end, it must be the Constitution, not Comey, that drives the analysis and this indictment is unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny.”

“If it did,” he added, “it would allow the government to criminalize a huge swath of political speech in the United States.”

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Tucker and Richer reported from Washington.

The Broncos announced Simmons' retirement on Wednesday and noted the news came exactly 10 years after the team selected the safety in the third round from Boston College in 2016.

Though Simmons started 16 games for the Atlanta Falcons in his final season in 2024, when he had two interceptions, he enjoyed most of his success with Denver. Each of his two Pro Bowl seasons came with the Broncos. He also was a four-time second-team All-Pro for Denver.

“Being a Denver Bronco was more than just a team,” Simmons said in the Broncos' announcement on social media. “It was my heart, my home and my story.”

Added Simmons: “I'm always going to be a Bronco, and I'm always going to be a Broncos fan. They took a chance on me, extended me. This is my home.”

Simmons intercepted at least two passes in each of his nine seasons and finished his career with 32, including an NFL-leading six in 2022. He started in 124 of 134 games in his career.

The Falcons also offered congratulations to Simmons on social media.

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

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in June jumped 7.3% to $119.34, as of 1:15 p.m. Eastern time and got as high as $119.76, bringing its gain of the week so far to more than 10%. Brent to be delivered in July, which is where more of the trading is happening in the oil market, rose 6.6% to $111.27 per barrel.

Oil prices have leaped as President Donald Trump appears willing to keep up the U.S. blockade of Iranian ships, which is preventing the country from making money by selling oil.

Iran, in turn, is keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed to other oil tankers hoping to carry crude to customers worldwide as long as the blockade continues.

The U.S. stock market lost some ground as the countdown ticks to an afternoon announcement from the Federal Reserve on what it will do with interest rates.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, a day after falling from its all-time high due to drops for artificial-intelligence stocks and worries about higher oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 335 points, or 0.7%,, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

Some companies on Wednesday pointed out how the war is hurting their business: Booking Holdings swung between losses and gains after the online travel company said the war with Iran is affecting its results and kept some potential customers from booking rooms during the latest quarter.

The company behind Booking.com, Priceline and other brands is expecting the conflict to continue affecting its business through the end of June. It could affect travel not only in the Middle East but also in major transit corridors, such as between Europe and Asia.

Visa jumped 9% after delivering stronger results than analysts expected, and CEO Ryan McInerney said consumer spending remained resilient in the quarter. Starbucks climbed 9.1% after likewise reporting better results than expected, while saying customers spent more at each visit, particularly at its North American stores.

Most companies so far this earnings reporting season have been topping analysts’ expectations, which has helped the U.S. stock market rally to records despite the high gasoline costs and soured confidence among U.S. households caused by the Iran war.

But those not meeting expectations have gotten punished. GE Healthcare Technologies dropped 11.9% after falling short of analysts’ forecasts. Robinhood Markets tumbled 14.1% after reporting growth in profit that was not as strong as analysts expected.

In the oil market, Brent crude’s price is well above its roughly $70 level from before the war. A ceasefire is still in place between the United States and Iran, but so is a closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran and a U.S. blockade of Iran's ships. That's all keeping oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and crude prices high.

Expensive oil is one of the main reasons virtually all of Wall Street believes the Federal Reserve will not announce a resumption of its cuts to interest rates in the afternoon. While lower rates can help the economy, they also risk worsening inflation.

The consensus among traders is instead that the Fed will hold the federal funds rate steady in what’s likely to be Jerome Powell’s final Fed meeting as its chair. The bigger question is whether Powell will say if he’s staying on at the central bank after ceding the chairmanship. He has been a target of President Donald Trump’s anger for not cutting interest rates more quickly and more sharply.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.40% from 4.36% late Tuesday following the latest rise in oil prices.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, several AI stocks held firmer ahead of reports due after trading ends for the day from the biggest spenders on AI technology. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft could help show whether all the investment in AI chips and data centers is providing the kind of profits and productivity that would make it all worth it. Worries are high on Wall Street that it may not be and that all the immense spending is just a bubble.

Broadcom fell 0.5%, a day after falling 4.4%. Nvidia slipped 1.7%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.7% for one of the world’s strongest moves.

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AP Business Writer Chan Ho-him contributed to this report.

More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, The Associated Press found. A growing number of states are making it legal to sell. Dairy farmers say they can barely keep it in stock, even though prices can exceed $10 or $20 a gallon.

Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House last May and previously promised to halt “aggressive suppression” of the product. On social media, posts about raw milk have surged in recent months, often touting unproven claims about its health benefits.

All of this alarms public health officials, who have long warned that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs. The current outbreak — tied to raw milk cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm — has sickened nine people with E. coli, half of them children younger than 5. One victim developed a serious complication that can impair kidney function for life.

Petra Anne Levin, a biology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said she doesn’t understand the products' appeal.

“If you wouldn’t lick a cow’s underneath, why would you drink raw milk?” she said. “There’s a reason pasteurization is around.”

Pasteurization kills germs by heating the milk, commonly to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit (71.7 degrees Celsius) for at least 15 seconds. Experts say it has no significant impact on milk’s nutritional quality and has saved millions of people from foodborne illness.

But some consumers would rather drink their milk raw despite the risk. Recognizing this trend, advocates and critics alike are increasingly calling for federal regulation of the product.

“People want access,” said Mary McGonigle-Martin, co-chair of Stop Foodborne Illness, a consumer advocacy group. “Public health has lost the battle on raw milk.”

Raw milk legislation pops up across the nation

Bills favoring raw milk have been introduced in the current legislative session in 18 states, including those controlled by Democrats and Republicans.

AP searched legislation in all 50 states using the bill-tracking software Plural and analyzed bills for whether they expand or streamline access to unpasteurized milk or products made from it. More than 40 bills introduced as of late April would make it easier to buy, sell or consume raw milk.

Some would allow raw milk to be sold for human consumption for the first time. A bill in New Jersey’s Senate, for example, would create a raw milk permitting program.

“You can buy cigarettes. You can buy alcohol. You can buy quote-unquote legalized marijuana,” said state Sen. Michael Testa, a Republican sponsor. “Why shouldn’t someone be able to consume raw milk?”

If the bill becomes law, New Jersey would join more than three dozen states in allowing raw milk sales. Wider access will probably mean more outbreaks, said Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor.

Other bills seek to manage, guide or expand already legal sales. A bill advancing in the Iowa House would make it easier for farmers to sell unpasteurized products by offering them at farm stores alongside foods like meat.

Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Chad Ingels, said he was initially opposed to legalizing raw milk because of safety concerns.

“But it’s law now, and I’m very pro-local foods,” said Ingels, who expects the current bill to pass. “I just thought it made sense to allow those farm businesses to sell all their products in one location.”

Two bills in Missouri would allow unpasteurized dairy products to be sold in grocery stores, farmers’ markets or similar places as long as they include a label warning of the potential for harmful bacteria and herds are tested.

“We just want to make it more accessible, so that way, people have the freedom of choice,” said Republican state Rep. Bryant Wolfin, who sponsored one of the bills.

The legislation specifically invokes the Raw Milk Institute, defining “retail raw milk or cream” as being produced on dairy farms that in one bill meet standards set by the California-based organization, and in the other “have obtained listed status” from the institute.

The organization, headed by Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee, says its mission is to improve the safety and quality of raw milk, which is how Wolfin sees it. But Schaffner said the organization focuses on raw milk advocacy rather than managing risk. He pointed out that McAfee’s farm has been linked to numerous outbreaks.

It’s unclear how many raw milk bills will pass in statehouses this year. But there is also legislation being considered on a national level.

A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House would prevent federal departments, agencies or courts from restricting the movement of raw milk between two states where its sale is legal. Called the Interstate Milk Freedom Act, it was introduced in March by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and Maine Democrat Chellie Pingree.

Whether it passes or not, there are steps the federal government could take to make raw milk more available, legal experts say. The FDA could revoke the ban on interstate sales. The agency could also create national raw milk standards and urge or incentivize states to enforce them.

FDA officials did not respond to questions about whether such actions are likely.

Raw milk risks are well-documented

Despite raw milk's popularity, scientists and public health experts warn against drinking it. Websites run by the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to the well-documented risks of serious illness from a host of germs, including campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and E. coli.

A CDC review counted more than 200 outbreaks tied to raw milk that sickened more than 2,600 people and sent 225 to hospitals between 1998 and 2018.

Another analysis found that raw dairy products cause 840 times more illness and 45 times more hospitalizations than their pasteurized counterparts.

Children are especially vulnerable to such illness, because their immune systems are immature and because they drink milk frequently, noted Alex O’Brien, food safety and quality coordinator for the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin.

Before milk standards were adopted more than a century ago, about 25% of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. were related to dairy consumption, O’Brien said. Now, dairy products account for about 1% of such illnesses. In European and American societies of the early and mid-19th century, research shows infant mortality rates were 30-60 times greater than today. In one example, thousands of infants died every year from a condition known as “summer diarrhea,” which was primarily caused by bacterial contamination in milk that worsened in the heat.

O’Brien, who grew up on a farm, said he knows people who drink raw milk and has consumed it himself in the past. Drinking it once might not hurt you, he said, but the risk increases with every exposure.

Understanding and accepting the risks of raw milk has become more difficult in this political climate, said Martin, the consumer advocate.

“They can’t grasp it, or they think it’s so rare it won’t happen to them,” she said.

Martin’s son, Chris, nearly died in 2006 after drinking raw milk contaminated with E. coli sold by Organic Pastures, Raw Farm's previous name. For two decades, Martin has worked to raise awareness of the dangers and hold suppliers accountable.

Mari Tardiff, of Ashland, Oregon, was hospitalized for five months after drinking raw milk contaminated with campylobacter in 2008. She said she tried it because she was interested in “a natural probiotic.”

Doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barré syndrome, caused by her campylobacter infection. She spent time on a ventilator and was temporarily paralyzed and unable to talk. When she got home, she used a wheelchair and slept in a hospital bed, relying on her husband to turn her every two hours so she wouldn’t get pressure sores.

“Your whole life is completely blown apart,” she said.

Still, she said she wouldn't tell other adults whether to drink raw milk — although she worries about giving it to kids.

“If you make a mistake, it’s one thing to come to terms with when you’re the one dealing with the consequences,” said Tardiff, now 70. “But holy moly … if I did something like that and one of my kids or my grandchildren was going through what I went through, I would never forgive myself.”

Raw milk supporters see an ‘exciting’ future, but concerns remain

Proponents of raw milk are gratified that it’s becoming more available. Even in states where it can’t be sold in stores for human consumption, people can get raw milk marketed for pets or join a “herd share” in which consumers buy a partial ownership in a dairy herd.

“I’ve been involved in raw milk for roughly 14 years,” said Ben Beichler, of Creambrook Farm in Middlebrook, Virginia, which relies on herd shares. “To see how public perception and political perception has altered over the years with raw milk is quite exciting.”

Beichler said safety is key.

“My family and my wife, who’s currently pregnant, drink about a gallon of our own raw milk every single day,” he said. “So if there’s anybody who has a vested interest in making sure our milk is safe, it is us.”

Beichler said his 150-cow farm works with a veterinarian on regular herd checks and has a safety process that includes sending milk samples to labs every week to test for common germs.

In Foristell, Missouri, Tony Huffstutter said his family tests their milk daily for bacteria in an on-site lab at their Twisted Ash Farm & Dairy, where they keep 15 cows and sell raw milk for $29 a gallon.

“You can’t just go out there, throw a bucket under the cow and start milking it,” he said. “There are so many steps in doing it right.”

He said raw milk shouldn’t be treated differently from other natural products such as spinach, which has been associated with past foodborne outbreaks.

“They don’t pasteurize the salad,” he said. “They don’t force you to only buy cooked salad.”

With raw milk gaining a foothold, Martin said she believes that the best action might be for the FDA to regulate it as strictly as pasteurized dairy products.

McAfee agrees. “High standards and testing should be part of that,” he said.

Schaffner, the food safety expert, also favors regulation. Although he has serious reservations about giving raw milk to kids, he calls himself “a raw milk libertarian” when it comes to adults.

“It’s kind of like legalization of weed, right?” he said. “If people want it, we should find a way to regulate it and do it safely.”

Then again, he said, there’s already a dependable way of making raw milk safe.

“It’s called pasteurization,” he said. “And it works really well.”

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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.

Paris Saint-Germain's 5-4 win over Bayern Munich on Tuesday felt more like an NBA game than a traditional soccer match and set new goalscoring records for the sport's biggest club tournament.

And it might not be just a one-off. The thrilling first leg of the semifinals in Paris points toward a growing trend as some coaches embrace a high-risk, high-reward strategy that is leaving fans breathless.

PSG coach Luis Enrique summed it up perfectly, telling French broadcaster Canal+ that "we deserved to win, but we also deserved a draw, and we would have even deserved to lose, because this game was that incredible.”

Soccer's new age of entertainers

Despite being the world's most popular sport, soccer has been criticized, in the United States in particular, because of the low-scoring nature of games, which can result in single-goal victories or even goalless ties over 90 minutes of play.

Compare that to the high octane, high-scoring NBA or NFL and it is understandable why soccer has taken time to fully grab the attention of U.S. fans.

But Champions League holder PSG is at the vanguard of soccer's new entertainers, with Luis Enrique an uncompromising coach, determined to reach new levels of excitement in his pursuit of dominance.

PSG became champion of Europe for the first time last year by beating Inter Milan 5-0 in the final in one of the most spectacular performances in the tournament's history. It completed a trophy treble for the French club, which also won its national league title and cup last season.

Luis Enrique also won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2015 and on Tuesday became the fastest coach to record 50 victories in the competitions — proving his all-action approach is working.

The attacking trend is catching on

It is no surprise then that his methods are being echoed elsewhere. Not least by Bayern, which has blazed a trail through the Champions League this term under Vincent Kompany and already clinched the German title.

PSG, with 43 goals, is the highest-scoring team in the Champions League this season. Bayern is second with 42.

Tuesday's nine-goal thriller was the highest-scoring semifinal in the history of the competition and neither club is talking about changing its approach for the second leg in Munich next week.

“I asked my staff how many goals we think we’ll have to score, and we agreed on three,” said Luis Enrique. "We’ll show the same mentality. We’ll be going to win the match.”

PSG's Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembele is also ready for another high-scoring affair.

“We won’t change our philosophy. We want to attack and so do they, so I think a great game is in the offing,” Dembele told Canal+.

Kompany, who was a serial title-winning defender for Manchester City in his playing days, is showing his offensive flair as a coach.

“It’s one thing to look at the goals conceded — normally, five goals away from home in a Champions League semi-final, you’re out,” he told Amazon Prime. "But if you look at the chances we created, we could have scored more. And that has to give us belief.”

A clash of styles

Soccer has always involved contrasting styles of attack and defense. Brazil has traditionally been a team that embraces the individual flair of its players. Italy has been more defensive and has nullified opponents' attacking strengths.

Two-time Champions League-winning coach Jose Mourinho has taken a more pragmatic approach to winning the competition — shutting opponents down with well-organized and powerful teams. Pep Guardiola, by contrast, has tried to dominate games with the ball and has won Europe's top prize on three occasions. That approach has sometimes been used to criticize him when, despite having some of the best players in the world at Man City, he has often fallen short in the Champions League.

It is refreshing to hear both Luis Enrique and Kompany accept the dangers associated with their all-out attacking soccer.

“It’s my job to accept nothing but perfection," said Kompany. "There was a part of the match that was inevitable, and that was the risks that we were both willing to take.”

More goals, more thrills

Higher scoring games are the trend in the Champions League. This season there is an average of well over three goals a game (3.51).

That is above last season's 3.27, which was the previous highest average.

Each of the last five seasons feature in the top seven high-scoring Champions League campaigns, pointing to a clear trend toward more attacking soccer since the turn of the decade. In only one of those years did the average drop below three goals a game — in 2022-23 when it dipped to 2.98.

The European Cup was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992. During the 1990s the average goals per game was 2.69 and that figure dropped to 2.59 from 2000-10.

It rose to just under three goals a game (2.95) from 2010-20 and so far this decade the average is three goals a game, with teams loading their lineups with attacking talent.

PSG is led by Dembele, who is flanked by brilliant wingers like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue.

Bayern has England captain Harry Kane, who took his season's tally to 59 goals in 51 appearances for club and country this season when opening the scoring on Tuesday. The German giant has also paid big money for France star Michael Olise and Colombia forward Luis Diaz. Both also scored at the Parc des Princes.

Barcelona is another leading proponent of thrill-first soccer, and features the spectacular Spanish teenager Lamine Yamal, Brazil winger Raphinha and goal-scoring icon Robert Lewandowski. But its German coach Hansi Flick has been criticized for being too open in Europe — most notably by losing 7-6 on aggregate to Inter Milan in last year's semifinals.

The good news for fans next week is that PSG and Bayern seem determined to stick to their attacking principles, which should serve up another thrilling clash.

“The game there will be the same game — a crazy game between two teams that want to win and score. We need to go there with the same mentality, the same personality, so we can do an amazing job there like we did here,” PSG captain Marquinhos said.

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

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

It won’t be the original, but it’ll be a dead ringer.

For a savings bond drive in 1950, the Treasury Department commissioned copies of the famously broken bell, one for each U.S. state and several territories. Except for the serial numbers, they were faithful replicas — right down to the Pass and Stow trademark and a faux crack.

There’s a small but growing group of “bell hunters” who’ve dedicated themselves to visiting as many of the replicas as possible. If they were a gang, Tom Campbell would be the ringleader.

“It was a casual thing that turned into an obsession,” Campbell, a graphic designer, said.

Let freedom ring!

Although Fort Collins, Colorado, is now his home, Campbell was born and raised in Philadelphia and visited the original Liberty Bell as a boy.

Ordered for the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, the bell cracked on its first test ring in the 1750s, was melted down and cast anew. There’s no evidence it was even rung on July 4, 1776; abolitionists rechristened it in the 1830s for the Bible verse encircling its crown, “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.”

No one knows exactly when or how the bell cracked again, but the last major attempt to restore it to ringing condition was in the 1840s.

Campbell didn’t know about the replicas until he moved to Denver in the late 1990s.

“I was wandering around, meeting a friend at a bar for a drink, and cut across the Capitol lawn and saw a full-size Liberty Bell sitting there,” he recalled. He read about the bond drive on a small bronze plaque, and a quest was born.

As Campbell and his wife, Dawn Putney, traveled the country, they began building bell trips into their itinerary. One day, she surprised him with his own website: tomlovesthelibertybell.com

“It was just a kind of a fun goof,” he said.

But three decades after he stumbled on that first bell, Campbell has become the go-to expert on these pieces of Americana.

From France, avec amour

The replicas were cast by the Paccard Foundry, run by a family who've been making bells in southeastern France since 1796.

They weigh the same as the original — 2,080 pounds (944 kilograms) — but differ from the OG bell in one very important respect: metallurgical makeup.

According to the National Park Service, the original was 70% copper, 25% tin and “small amounts of lead, gold, arsenic, silver, and zinc.” In a bell, those other metals amount to “impurities,” said Anne Paccard, the foundry’s communications director and chief for “art of sound” projects, like sculptures that feature bells.

“I must say that the original Liberty Bell is a very poor quality bell, metallurgically speaking,” she told The Associated Press in a recent email. “The bells we delivered in 1950 are made of a specific alloy of bronze called ‘airain’: 78% copper, 22% tin, nothing else.”

The Treasury bells toured the country on the backs of flatbed Ford trucks equipped with loudspeakers and festooned with red-white-and-blue banners.

“You could buy a savings bond, ring the Liberty Bell, have a party,” Campbell said.

At drive’s end, Treasury gifted the bells to the 48 states and the then-territories of Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The District of Columbia and the Treasury Department each got one as well. (Three others went to Tokyo, a church in Paccard’s hometown and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, giving that state two bells.)

Trouble is, they came with no guidance and no funds to preserve them.

“A local or state historian described it to me as an 'unaccessioned artifact,’” Campbell said. “Not every state wanted them necessarily, and not every state knew what to do with them.”

Virginia held a contest, and the people voted to send the bell to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. It later went into a storage shed until finally finding a home outside a local fire station.

More than half have spent most of their lives outdoors. Time, neglect and exposure to the elements have taken their toll.

Some of the painted-on cracks have faded or disappeared completely. Others bells are displayed without their clappers and/or yokes, or in steel frames that prevent them being rung.

“At that point, it really transitions to more of a monument than a functional bell,” Campbell said. “And, to me, that’s kind of sad.”

But as the nation prepares to celebrate 250 years of liberty, some of those orphan bells are getting a new life.

Just like new... sorta

Kansas’ bell languished, disassembled, for years in a Capitol parking garage until state Sen. Elaine Bowers got involved. In October, the reassembled bell — resting on a heated concrete pad and supported by a custom-made wooden yoke, but still sans clapper — was given a place of honor outside the new Docking State Office Building.

“It just belongs here,” said a beaming Bowers as she stood beside bell No. 21. “It’s a fascinating piece of artwork, but also history that we all should be proud of.”

The Alabama and Idaho bells were shipped to the Bell Foundry Christoph in Charleston, South Carolina, for restoration and are expected to be home in time for the Fourth. Several other bells have also received recent touchups.

Campbell doesn’t set out to guilt states into fixing up and displaying their bells. But if his website happens to nudge them a bit, “maybe I’ll take a little credit for that.”

He’s also helped inspire a new generation of bell hunters.

By age 4, Zoe Murphy of Morris County, New Jersey, knew all the state capitals and their flags. At 5, she saw her first replica in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Now a 14-year-old high school freshman, she has her own website zlovesamerica.com. She’s visited 39 of the bells over the years, from Alabama to Wyoming and even far-off Alaska.

Zoe says traveling the country has given her a deeper appreciation for America’s “collective mix of people and our culture.”

Meanwhile, Campbell's recent visit to Arizona’s newly restored bell — which was touring the state, complete with a rope for the tugging — brought his toll up to 40. Why does the Liberty Bell resonate with him?

“The fact that a cracked bell is the symbol of the United States is really the perfect symbol of an imperfect union,” he said.

Nothing to see here

Try as they might, it’ll be nearly impossible for these Liberty Bell fans to check all the replicas off their list. Three replicas remain totally unavailable to the public this anniversary year, as far as Campbell can tell. Ironically, one of them is Pennsylvania’s.

For many years, the Treasury bell was the centerpiece of a museum in the former Zion’s Reformed Church of Allentown, where the original was briefly hidden to prevent the British redcoats from melting it down for munitions. But the building changed hands in 2023, and the bell is no longer accessible to the general public while the church is being renovated. (Local officials are placing a lighter, taller replica in front of the church for the anniversary.)

Last June, North Carolina’s bell was hoisted from its spot across from the Legislative Building in Raleigh amid a multiyear renovation of the state history museum. When the AP asked to see it, the request was politely denied.

“Our Liberty Bell is in a secure storage facility,” spokeswoman Mary Huntley said.

The only replica that's truly lost is the one sent to Washington, D.C., which went missing from storage in the early 1980s. Campbell suspects it’s long since been melted down.

“That’s 2,080 pounds of bronze,” he says. “So, that has a scrap value.”

But if anyone has information about the capital bell, feel free to give Campbell a ring.

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Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and video journalists Thomas Peipert in Fort Collins, Colorado; and Ted Shaffrey in Mount Olive, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

In a memo late Tuesday to lawmakers, the Office of Management and Budget said money that President Donald Trump tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other workers through executive actions will be exhausted by May. It called on the House to quickly approve the budget resolution senators approved in an all-night session last week that would pave the way for full funding for the department.

“DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk,” the memo said.

The pressure from the Trump administration could help House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose narrow Republican majority has been stalled out, tangled in internal party disputes on a range of pending issues, including the Homeland Security funding. They have left the chamber at a virtual standstill.

The House was expected to vote as soon as Wednesday on the Senate budget resolution that is designed to unlock a multistep process to eventually fund the department. But by midday, House action again screeched to a halt. The administration has warned GOP lawmakers off making changes that could prolong passage.

“Restoring funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never been more urgent, as demonstrated by recent events,” the memo said, a nod to the situation over the weekend when a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the annual White House correspondents' dinner that Trump, the vice president and top Cabinet officials were attending.

Homeland Security shutdown is longest ever

Homeland Security has been operating without regular funds for more than two months after Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without changes to those operations after the deaths of Americans protesting Trump’s deportation agenda.

While immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through the flush of new cash — some $170 billion — that Congress approved as part of Trump's tax cuts bill last year, others, including TSA, have had to rely on Trump’s intervention through executive action to ensure their paychecks.

But with salaries topping $1.6 billion every two weeks, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently, those funds are drying up.

More than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to Airlines for America, the U.S. airlines trade group that called Wednesday on Congress to fully fund the agency.

“The urgency to provide predictable and stable funding for TSA is growing stronger by the day,” the group said in a statement. “Time and time again, our nation’s aviation workers and customers have been the victim of Congress’ failure to do their jobs.”

Complicated budget strategy ahead

House and Senate Republicans have embarked on a go-it-alone strategy, attempting to approve funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without Democrats. They want to provide $70 billion for those immigration operations for the remainder of Trump's term to ensure no further interruptions.

It's a cumbersome process, the same that was used last year to approve Trump's tax cuts bill, that will play out over several weeks.

The Senate launched the process last week, and is now waiting on the House to act. Once that budget resolution is approved, both the House and Senate are expected to draft the actual funding bill, a process that can take weeks.

In the meantime, Johnson is next expected to quickly turn this week to legislation that would fund the other parts of Homeland Security, including TSA, the Coast Guard and other agencies.

That bipartisan bill has support from Democrats and already passed the Senate a month ago, when Republicans reluctantly agreed to carve out the immigration-related funds that Democrats had opposed. But it has been stalled out in the House, as Republicans in that chamber disagreed with the Senate's approach.

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Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at https://apnews.com/hub/us-department-of-homeland-security.

The Democrat with a personal fortune estimated at $2.4 billion wants wealthy people and corporations to pay higher taxes. He's endorsed by a progressive advocacy group that believes billionaires shouldn't exist. He founded one of the world's largest hedge funds yet he's the candidate taking the heaviest hits from business groups.

“I'm the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires,” he's fond of saying, though he's given only tenuous backing to a billionaires' tax proposal likely to appear before California voters in November.

Steyer has long leaned into the contradictions between his business success and political views. While his hedge fund invested in fossil fuels, Steyer spent millions to protect a California law aimed at curbing planet-warming emissions. As a presidential candidate in 2019 vying to succeed President Donald Trump, another rich man, Steyer championed eliminating corporate money from politics.

“I’m not one of the people who begrudges people’s success,” Steyer told The Associated Press, referring to businesspeople who become wealthy in California. “If you’re going to come here and build a company and make a ton of money, great.”

“But you’re part of a system — you’re depending on a system built by, basically, poor people,” he continued. “If you aren’t willing to pay your fair share, I feel like you’re spitting on those people.”

His stances, often unpopular with other billionaires, have earned him staunch support from some and persistent skepticism from others. Despite his vast wealth, progressive supporters perceive him as “one of the good ones” who will stand up to monied interests. But critics in both parties view him as disingenuous and making unrealistic promises to appeal to voters. Democratic rivals accuse him of trying to buy the election, noting he's spending nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest party opponent on ads.

After decades of using his pocketbook to influence politics and policy, Steyer is now a leading contender in the race to govern the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies ahead of the June 2 primary. His former hedge fund's investments have been a persistent topic of criticism from his Democratic rivals.

“You made the billions that you're using to fund your campaign off fossil fuels,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter charged during Tuesday night's debate. Steyer responded by noting business groups are spending to oppose him: “That's how you know I'm for real.”

From businessman to megadonor

Steyer, 68, founded Farallon Capital Management in 1986 in San Francisco. He earned the respect of business peers for the firm's rapid success and learned to weather criticism from environmentalists for the company’s stakes in oil and coal. In 2012, he left and founded NextGen America, a group encouraging young people to vote.

Much of his political giving has focused on climate change, including a $5 million donation in 2010 to oppose a California ballot proposition that would have suspended a law requiring the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The climate law prevailed. Starting in 2013, he used the political arm of NextGen to back governor and U.S. Senate candidates seen as strong on climate with mixed success.

Steyer has spent more than $62 million on California ballot measures, including an unsuccessful effort in 2020 to keep a law that eliminated cash bail. He was one of the largest donors to a successful 2016 measure to tax tobacco products to raise money for healthcare for low-income Californians.

His contributions have been met with some cynicism. Longtime Sacramento strategist Rob Stutzman, a Republican, pointed to an ad Steyer paid for last year that prominently features him urging voters to support a redistricting ballot measure. It was an initiative championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Steyer had no involvement other than simply spending on advertising.

Steyer “has always been a self-promoter with his dollars,” Stutzman said.

Making friends and enemies

Steyer says he wants to tackle three main crises: climate change, California's high cost of living and threats from the Trump administration.

Hundreds of people gathered at a ping-pong club and bar in San Francisco recently to drink cocktails and nibble on hors d’oeuvres — on the campaign dime — as Steyer touted his commitment to fighting climate change. His plan is light on specifics but includes defending the state’s cap-and-trade program.

Some major environmental groups have endorsed him. Progressive organizations have also backed him, including Our Revolution, which was founded by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and advocates for ridding politics of corporate and billionaire influence. State Assemblyman Alex Lee, chair of the progressive caucus, said he's backing Steyer in part due to his support for a government-run healthcare system, an idea that's failed repeatedly in Sacramento.

Lee was hesitant to back a billionaire but said Steyer is different.

“He is someone who became wealthy in his lifetime,” Lee said, “but didn’t go off and become (Mark) Zuckerberg level.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the nation's largest utilities, spent $10 million to oppose him. Steyer has vowed to “break up utility monopolies” to bring down Californians’ notoriously high electricity rates. One ad funded in part by PG&E says Steyer isn't a “different type of billionaire” as he claims. The California Chamber of Commerce says Steyer will raise costs, not lower them.

“His policy promises will cost billions, driving investment out of California and worsening the state’s affordability crisis,” chamber spokesperson John Myers said in a statement.

Steyer's 2020 presidential bid flopped

It remains to be seen whether money and endorsements will translate into votes. Some political observers say it would be evident by now if Steyer was poised to break away from the pack, given his spending blitz.

Money wasn't enough in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest. Steyer staked his campaign largely on appealing to voters of color, highlighting inequalities in healthcare access, the environment and criminal justice system. In South Carolina, he spent $24 million on ads — more than all the other candidates combined — but dropped out after finishing third.

He often garnered attention for his quirks over his policies — the red tartan tie and colorful belt he made part of his campaign trail uniform, his dance moves to a performance by rapper Juvenile.

Steyer had planned to spend $100 million, and his wealth proved a liability in a race where rivals including Sanders decried the existence of billionaires.

He's spent more in the California governor's primary alone, including on an ad attacking a rival. This time, he's being received differently.

“Tom Steyer is running on taxing the wealthy, supporting single-payer healthcare, and taking on corporate power — positions that are central to our movement,” Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese said in a statement. “That alignment with a pro-worker, anti-corporate agenda — and the urgency of this race — is why we are backing him.”

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Associated Press politics reporter Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority found that Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. Chief Justice John Roberts had described the 6th Congressional District as a “snake” that stretches more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to link parts of Shreveport, Alexandria, Lafayette and Baton Rouge.

“That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the six conservatives.

The effect of the ruling may be felt more strongly in 2028 because most filing deadlines for this year's congressional races have passed. Louisiana, though, may have to change its redistricting plan to comply with the decision.

It is unclear how much is left of the provision, known as Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the main way to challenge racially discriminatory election practices.

Not much, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent for the three liberal justices. “The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter,” Kagan wrote.

In a statement, Fields said the decision's "practical effect is to make it far harder for minority communities to challenge redistricting maps that dilute their political voice.”

The voting rights law succeeded in opening the ballot box to Black Americans and reducing persistent discrimination in voting. Nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by Section 2, election law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos has estimated.

Alito wrote that "allowing race to play any part in government decisionmaking represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context.” He said Section 2 is effectively limited to instances of intentional discrimination, a very high standard.

Kagan said the upshot of the decision is that states "can, without legal consequence, systematically dilute minority citizens’ voting power.”

Reaction to the decision broke along partisan lines.

“This is a complete and total victory for American voters. The color of one’s skin should not dictate which congressional district you belong in. We commend the court for putting an end to the unconstitutional abuse of the Voting Rights Act and protecting civil rights.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote in an email.

The chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called the decision “appalling.” Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state said it was the latest in a long line of attacks by President Donald Trump and the conservative court “against the fundamental right of every American citizen to vote.”

She said Democrats remained poised to regain the House majority in November “despite this corrupt and targeted assault on the voting rights of Black and Brown Americans from the Supreme Court.”

Trump had touched off a nationwide redistricting competition this year to boost Republican chances of preserving their House edge.

Legislatures already are free to draw extremely partisan districts because of a 2019 Supreme Court decision.

Wednesday's ruling came out as Florida legislators debated a proposed redrawing of the state’s congressional lines, submitted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and intended to give the GOP a chance to pick up as many as four seats in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

Democrats in the Florida Senate urged the Republican supermajority to delay debate to at least offer lawmakers a chance to read the decision and consult lawyers on how it might affect DeSantis’ proposal. Republicans refused.

In the Supreme Court's Louisiana ruling, the justices did an about-face from a decision in a similar case from Alabama less than three years ago that led to a new congressional map for the state that sent two Black Democrats to Congress.

The Alabama decision also prompted Louisiana lawmakers to add a second majority Black district. About a third of Louisianans are Black and they now form majorities in two of the state’s six congressional districts. Alabama has a separate appeal pending at the Supreme Court

Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the three liberals to form a majority in the Alabama case, the same term in which the conservative-dominated court ended affirmative action in college admissions. Both joined Alito's opinion Wednesday.

The chief justice has been at the center of the effort to limit the use of race in public life. He has had the Voting Rights Act in his sights since his time as a young lawyer in the Reagan-era Justice Department.

“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race,” Roberts wrote in a dissenting opinion in 2006 in his first major voting rights case as chief justice.

In 2013, Roberts wrote for the majority in gutting the law’s requirement that states and local governments with a history of discrimination, mostly in the South, get approval before making any election-related changes.

“Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” Roberts wrote.

Barring extraordinary action, the broader impact probably will be felt in 2028, when Republicans potentially can replace more than a dozen Democratic-held House districts that were previously protected under the Voting Rights Act.

“The Voting Rights Act as a means to protect minority voters from vote dilution is essentially dead,” said Jonathan Cervas, a political scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who has served as an outside legal expert in multiple Voting Rights Act cases.

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Associated Press writers Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, La., Nicholas Riccardi in Denver, Bill Barrow in Tallahassee, Fla., and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

“This was what he lived for,” said Todd Pletcher, now an accomplished trainer himself after working for Lukas beginning in 1989.

Lukas' eternal optimism about the future was an annual tradition that lasted until June, when the Hall of Fame trainer was hospitalized with a severe blood infection and died at age 89. The horse racing community gathers this week for the first Kentucky Derby without Lukas, though his presence lingers over everything around the biggest event in horse racing.

"I miss Wayne. I miss talking to him," two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer and longtime friend Bob Baffert said. “The thing is, without him here, it’s a different little vibe.”

His name remains a part of Churchill Downs, with a sign marking the “Lukas Gap” impossible to miss on the way between the fabled track and barn 44, which he occupied for more than four decades. Baffert wanted it badly, he said, but it's now where Mike Maker's horses are.

It's fitting because Maker is one of countless horsemen now thriving after learning under Lukas. Pletcher, who has won the Derby twice and has the favorite this year in Renegade, is one of the strongest branches on Lukas' racing version of a coaching tree.

“It’s an incredible tree, really, when you look at all the different branches and how many people are currently training that either worked for Wayne or worked for me or worked for one of the other assistants (who worked) for Wayne,” Pletcher said. “It just shows you how many lives Wayne directly or indirectly touched.”

Among them is now-retired jockey Jerry Bailey, whose second of two Derby victories came aboard Lukas-trained Grindstone in 1996. Their connection traced back to Lukas' days training quarter horses in New Mexico before getting into thoroughbreds and becoming one of the faces of the sport.

Bailey recalled once riding a horse for Lukas that finished up the track, nowhere close to winning, and thinking afterward he never would get aboard again. Lukas changed his mind in their conversation on the way back to the jockeys' room.

"He was such a glass-half-full, positive guy," Bailey said. “He had me believing this horse was the next coming of Secretariat by the time I got back. ... And that’s really who Wayne Lukas was: always Mr. Positive. And I think the game was better off for him.”

Lukas was still riding his pony himself into his late 80s, showing no signs of slowing down the get-up-early work ethic that made him successful. Still, Bailey made it a point to visit every time he got the chance, not knowing when it would be the last time they got to talk.

Fellow jockey-turned-NBC Sports analyst Donna Brothers, who rode for Lukas in the '90s, also was a regular visitor, eager to get his perspective on not just his horse and stable but any number of things leading up to a big race. Working her final Derby, she doesn't get that chance.

“It’s quite a void to walk by Wayne’s barn and not see Wayne’s pony sitting out there and know that you’re not going to be able to go by Wayne’s barn and talk to him about who he likes for this year’s Derby and why,” Brothers said. “He was a consummate horseman, knew his horses well, but he also knew the competition pretty well also, so it was always nice to go by his barn and pick his brain about who he likes and why. Beyond that, he’s just a legend.”

Lukas won the Kentucky Derby four times, trailing only Baffert and Ben Jones for the most victories. He saddled 51 horses in the race from 1981 through last year, second only to Pletcher.

“He recognized very early in his career that the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup races were what drives the industry and draws the owners to the game,” Pletcher said. “It won’t be the same without him, for sure.”

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

Several conservative justices appeared to be leaning in favor of the Republican administration's argument that the law limits what courts can do on program known as temporary protected status, or TPS. The outcome could come down to how Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett vote.

The government is appealing lower court orders that blocked the Department of Homeland Security from quickly ending temporary protected status for people from Haiti and Syria. If the justices agree with President Donald Trump, authorities potentially could strip protections from up to 1.3 million people from 17 countries, exposing them to possible deportation.

The court has sided with the administration before and allowed the end of the program for people from Venezuela as lawsuits continue to play out, though the justices did not detail their reasoning.

The Department of Justice argues that the homeland security secretary has the power to end the program, and that the law bars judges from questioning those decisions. “’No judicial review’ means no judicial review,” federal lawyers wrote in court documents.

But lawyers for about 350,000 migrants from Haiti and 6,000 from Syria say judges can consider whether authorities followed all the steps laid out in the law. They contend that in both cases, the government short-circuited the process.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, DHS has ended the protections people from 13 countries. Some who have lived and worked in the U.S. legally for more than a decade have lost jobs and housing in a matter of weeks, lawyers said. Returning to Haiti and Syria is out of the question for many people because those countries remain wracked with violence and instability, said Sejal Zota, co-founder and legal director of Just Futures Law.

“This really is life or death,” she said. Four Haitian women who were deported from the United States in February were found beheaded and dumped in a river several months later, lawyers said in court documents.

The administration appealed to the high court after judges in New York and the District of Columbia agreed to delay the end of protections. One judge found that “hostility to nonwhite immigrants” likely played a role in the decision to end protections for Haitians.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating dogs and cats. Federal authorities have denied racial animus played any role in the protection decisions.

Syrians were first granted protected status in 2012, during a civil war that lasted for more than a decade before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.

Haitians joined the program in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake and have been extended multiple times amid ongoing gang violence that has displaced more than a million people, according to court documents.

Maryse Balthazar was on vacation in the U.S. when the earthquake hit Haiti. She has now been in the U.S. for 16 years with temporary legal status. She has two children and works as a nursing assistant to the elderly. That profession relies on Haitian immigrants like her and would be hobbled by a Supreme Court decision that allowed their status to end, an industry group said in court papers.

For Balthazar, losing those protections would be devastating. She lost her home in Haiti to the earthquake, and another house she could have lived in was destroyed in a fire, possibly due to gang involvement. “I’d be homeless,” she said. “I’m scared … it’s a fear we are all living with.”

Other immigration cases the high court is considering this year include Trump's push to restrict birthright citizenship and the administration's power to revive a restrictive asylum policy.

When that question appears on a Missouri ballot later this year, it will mark the first time since the modern income tax began over a century ago that a U.S. state legislature has asked voters whether to eliminate the tax. If they say “yes,” they will also be authorizing a sales tax expansion.

Missouri's unique proposal caps a five-year tax-cutting binge in states that flourished while governments were flush with cash during the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and only recently abated as some Democratic-led states embraced higher tax rates on millionaires. During that time, almost every state made either permanent or temporary reductions to some type of tax, whether on income, sales, property or gas. And more than half the states that levy income taxes reduced their top tax rate.

Those tax cuts seldom were offset by increasing other types of taxes. But Missouri's new measure implicitly acknowledges that it's hard to eliminate an income tax without raising other revenues to keep government running.

When did the income tax begin?

Congress gained the power to tax income with the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913. Many states adopted their own income taxes over the ensuing years, including Missouri in 1917.

But some states — Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming — never adopted an individual income tax, instead relying on sales taxes, oil taxes or other sources. New Hampshire and Tennessee, which taxed income from interest and dividends but not wages, each ended those taxes within the past five years.

Alaska is the only state so far to impose a general individual income tax and then repeal it. Lawmakers eliminated the tax in 1980 while rich with oil revenues.

Massachusetts voters rejected an income tax elimination in 2008 and 2002. But those ballot measures were initiated by citizens, not lawmakers responsible for building the state budget.

Which states are trying to phase out their income tax?

A 2022 Kentucky law reduced the state’s income tax rate and set a series of revenue-based benchmarks that could gradually lower the tax to zero. It also expanded the sales tax to some services, such as personal fitness training and website design. But the revenue triggers aren’t automatic, meaning the General Assembly must approve each additional income tax rate reduction.

A Mississippi law enacted last year gradually reduces the income tax rate from 4% to 3% by 2030 and sets revenue growth benchmarks that could trigger additional cuts. It could take over a decade to eliminate the tax, if all the benchmarks are hit.

Oklahoma also enacted a law last year that would trigger gradual income tax rate reductions based on revenue growth, until the tax is phased out. But the state won't know until next year whether it's met the revenue mark to trigger the first tax-rate reduction.

South Carolina joined the trend a month ago, when Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed a law that could eventually phase out the individual income tax as revenues grow.

What does the Missouri proposal say?

Missouri's proposed constitutional amendment directs the General Assembly to eliminate the individual income tax through gradual reductions based on revenue growth. To spur that along, it gives lawmakers the authority to raise revenues by imposing the sales tax on “any goods and services” — sidestepping a constitutional ban on expanding the sales tax base that voters approved in 2016.

The legislature would have five years to decide which additional sales to tax without needing another vote of the people.

But some voters may not realize they are authorizing more sales taxes. The ballot wording asks whether to phase out the income tax and “modify” the sales tax — avoiding the words “increase” or “expand.”

The amendment, which was approved last week by the legislature, will appear on the November ballot, unless Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe sets an election sooner.

A businessman explains his move

Kehoe has made the individual income tax repeal a priority, arguing it will spur the economy while attracting businesses and new residents.

At a House committee hearing earlier this year, Will Spartin said he attended business college in St. Louis but located the headquarters of his beverage businesses in Florida because that state has no individual income tax. He would love to return to Missouri, but only if it makes financial sense, Spartin said.

“If Missouri moves in this direction, even gradually, it would be a meaningful signal to people like us that Missouri wants to compete for modern industries,” Spartin told lawmakers.

A retiree raises sales tax concerns

Retired elementary school teacher Sharon Wells, of suburban St. Louis, said she paid a few hundred dollars in state income tax this past year. She's worried her overall tax bill could rise if the income tax is replaced with a broader sales tax.

Wells pays someone to mow her lawn. She goes to a hair salon twice a month. She has periodic medical and dental visits and a car that needs maintenance. None of those services currently are taxed. But they all could be under the Missouri proposal.

“I think it’s a huge mistake,” she said. “We’re already paying far more than we have in the past for groceries, medicine, all kind of services. Everything has gone up.”

What does the data say?

A family earning between $49,000 and $78,000 annually would pay an average of $535 more in taxes if Missouri's income tax is repealed and replaced with higher sales taxes, according to an estimate by the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Those earning less would pay even more, the group said.

“Pretty clearly, this is going to be a tax increase for most people,” said Carl Davis, the institute's research director.

Other data suggest that income tax policies — though not the primary motivation — can play a role in attracting people to states. Texas, Florida and Tennessee all ranked in the top five for net interstate migration of federal income tax filers in 2023, while the higher-tax states of California, New York and New Jersey ranked near the bottom, according to an analysis of IRS data by the nonprofit Tax Foundation.

If Missouri's referendum is approved by voters, “it could embolden other states to accelerate their own planned income tax reductions,” said Katherine Loughead, the foundation's director of state tax projects.

As part of the settlement, the California Coastal Commission acknowledged its members made “improper” statements about Musk's political beliefs at a 2024 hearing on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch program.

“The commission agrees that it may not consider irrelevant factors in performing its function and specifically agrees that it will not take into account the perceived political beliefs, political speech or labor practices of SpaceX or its officers in considering any regulatory action concerning SpaceX,” the commission said in federal court documents filed Tuesday.

SpaceX had sued the commission over its opposition to expanding the launch schedule for Falcon 9 rockets from the Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Southern California coast near Santa Barbara.

The company's lawsuit accused the coastal commission of engaging in political discrimination by refusing to sign off on a U.S. Air Force proposal to boost the number of launches at the busy base owned by the federal government.

The lawsuit alleged the commissioners voted against SpaceX because of their dislike of Musk’s outspoken political views, violating constitutional rights to free speech and due process.

According to the settlement, the case will be permanently dismissed while both parties agree that the deal doesn’t constitute an admission “of any liability or unlawful conduct.”

The commission also agreed it wouldn’t require a coastal development permit pertaining to SpaceX’s launch program in the state.

Representatives for SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.

The coastal commission acknowledged in a statement Wednesday that it had apologized for “irrelevant” statements made by its members. The commission said it continues to have serious concerns about the impacts to coastal resources from increased rocket launches at Vandenberg.

“These impacts include restrictions on public coastal access, harm to sensitive species and coastal habitat, as well as the frequency and intensity of sonic booms,” the statement said. "Federal law requires the federal government to provide information to and coordinate with the Coastal Commission on such issues. The federal government has yet to provide sufficient information to the Coastal Commission about these activities and their impact on the California coast.

The settlement came while Musk took the stand this week amid a separate court battle with OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman that could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.

Tracy, the sexual-assault advocate who said former Michigan State Spartans football head coach Mel Tucker sexually harassed her, filed the lawsuit against the university in June 2025, claiming they leaked her name during the sexual harassment investigation.

The case was dismissed on April 17.

Tracy accused the Board of Trustees of leaking her identity as the complainant against Tucker to the press during the investigation, claiming the leak had severe consequences for her career and had left her subject to harassment and threats.

The judge acknowledged that Tracy suffered sexual misconduct and serious consequences, but dismissed the lawsuit, saying the trustees have immunity and Tracy failed "to connect the dots from her factual allegations to the necessary elements of her legal claims, an outcome made almost inevitable by the failure to cite the complaint a single time in the argument section of her response brief."

Lawsuit against MSU donor, Phoenix Suns owner

Tracy filed a lawsuit against major Michigan State University donor and Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia on April 15.

According to the complaint against Ishbia, Tracy accuses Ishbia of trying to interfere with the university’s investigation into Tucker, even giving Tucker inside information to protect his own interests.

The suit also names Ishbia’s company, United Wholesale Mortgage, as a defendant.

The “explosion of emotions inside” came after the 56th-ranked Austrian became the first “lucky loser” to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal by defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 on Wednesday at the Madrid Open.

She almost gave up the victory, squandering three match points in the second set and having to overcome a 1-3 deficit in the decisive set.

“I (had) a few match points in the second set, on serve, but I couldn't manage my nerves at that time,” the 25-year-old Potapova said. “It seems that this tournament keeps giving me second chances and I keep using them. So yeah, supper happy.”

The Russian-born Potapova said she got a huge boost when her boyfriend, Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor, arrived to watch.

“I was a little bit gone mentally in the third set. I didn’t believe in myself at that moment,” she said. “But big respect to my boyfriend who came just on time. He saved me. He kept telling me, ‘You can do this, we are all together here, just keep going.’”

Potapova said Griekspoor is “not scared” of telling her anything and deserved some credit for her victory.

“I just played, and mentally he kept me there,” she said. “It just happened at the such important moment, and it gave me a lot of energy. Mentally, I think he got this match. I did it physically. He did it mentally."

She will face either Linda Noskova or Marta Kostyuk for a spot in the final.

Potapova got into the main draw as a lucky loser despite losing her second qualifying match in Madrid. She became the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 or Tier I semifinal since the Tier format’s inception in 1990, according to the WTA.

Potapova went on to win four straight matches, including against world No. 2 Elena Rybakina in the round of 16.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect myself being in the draw again because at first they didn’t take my name as a lucky loser,” she said. “And then the days kept on going and nobody was injured or pulling out. Then the last moment I got the information, literally 30 minutes before the match, that I was given a chance to step on court here again.”

She said she had been just enjoying “some nice days” in the Spanish capital, with no expectations.

“Maybe that’s the key, you don’t need to be always so zoomed in and so locked in on the tournament,” Potapova said. “Maybe it’s just a matter of sometimes just enjoy yourself and enjoy the journey, and maybe that’s how the results can also come.”

She said it feels like “a miracle” to have made it all the way to the semifinals.

"It’s pretty rare when you get the second chance and that you go almost all the way until the end,” Potapova said. “But also at the same time I always say, if you got it, maybe you deserved it. So I did work hard. Also, you know, anyone can get a second chance, but how many of those will actually take it? So I’m happy that I didn’t waste it, and I was able to convert it and to be here now.”

___

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

The high court's unanimous ruling is a procedural victory for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which is challenging a New Jersey investigation of its practices.

The conservative-majority court has given abortion opponents high-profile wins in recent years, most notably the watershed case that overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. First Choice, though, had also drawn support from the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports abortion rights but backed the group's First Amendment concerns.

The Supreme Court's decision lets First Choice sue over a state-issued subpoena in federal court, though the ruling does not resolve the underlying case.

Lawyer Erin Hawley with the Alliance Defending Freedom argued the case, and said the group looks forward to taking up the case in federal court if New Jersey's attorney general decides to "continue these efforts on remand.”

Facilities often known as “crisis pregnancy centers” have been on the rise in the United States as Republican-controlled states enforce bans or restrictions on abortion and some steer tax dollars to the centers, which provide prenatal care and steer women to carrying pregnancies to term.

As Democratic-leaning states seek to protect abortion access, several have investigated whether the anti-abortion centers mislead women, including by implying they offer abortions.

In New Jersey, then-Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin sent a subpoena asking for donor lists and other information.

First Choice pushed back, arguing the investigation was baseless and the demand for donor lists threatened their First Amendment rights to free speech and association. They tried to challenge the subpoena in federal court, but a judge found the case was not yet far enough along. An appeals court agreed.

First Choice then turned to the Supreme Court.

They argued access to federal court is important in cases where government investigators are accused of misusing state power, and the ACLU agreed that subpoenas seeking donor information can scare away supporters.

The state argued that the information would only be used to ask donors whether they had been deceived about First Choice’s services, and the subpoena could not have threatened their First Amendment rights because the group hadn’t yet been required to turn over any information.

A court order is required to enforce the subpoena, and the judge overseeing the underlying case has so far only ordered the two sides to negotiate.

New Jersey also argued that allowing First Choice to sue could usher in a glut of lawsuits from the thousands of businesses that get similar subpoenas.

The Trump administration weighed in to support First Choice. The Justice Department argued that any impact would be relatively small since the decision would only apply to groups with similar First Amendment arguments.

Thirteen women and children from four families last week left Roj camp, a remote facility near the border with Iraq that houses relatives of suspected militants, on Friday and headed to Syria's capital.

An official at the camp at the time said that the families were expected to remain in Damascus for around 72 hours and then be sent to Australia.

In response to an Associated Press inquiry about their status, Syria's information ministry said in a statement that after the families left the camp, the foreign ministry was informed that "the Australian government had refused to receive them.”

They were turned back before reaching Damascus International Airport, the information ministry's statement said.

“These families are still awaiting a solution, which can only be achieved through coordination with the relevant international parties.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Wednesday that “we are providing no support for repatriation and no assistance for these people.”

At a separate news conference in Beijing, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday said that her government has made “very clear that we are not assisting in their repatriation.”

Syria's information ministry said that the families, through a lawyer, had obtained passports that were delivered by an “individual” that it didn't identify while they were still in northeastern Syria in an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

A Lebanese-Australian doctor, Jamal Rifi, previously told Australian media that he was helping to coordinate the repatriation effort. Rifi couldn't be reached for comment.

A previous attempt to return 34 women and children to Australia from the camp in February was turned back by Syrian authorities.

Former IS fighters from multiple countries, along with their wives and children, were held in a network of camps and detention centers in northeast Syria after the militant group lost control of its territory in Syria in 2019. Though defeated, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.

The larger al-Hol camp has now been closed down, and thousands of suspected IS militants previously held in Syria were transferred to Iraq by the U.S. military to stand trial there.

The moves came after fighting between government forces and the SDF in January. Government forces seized much of the territory formerly held by the SDF. Amid the chaos, many detainees fled al-Hol and some prisoners escaped from a detention center.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have also returned without government assistance.

___

Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to this report.

Prodded by his son, Mattingly decided to give baseball another go, and he accepted a job over the winter as bench coach in Philadelphia, where he would be reunited with old friend Rob Thomson from their New York Yankees days.

But manage again when the Yankees great known as Donnie Baseball was about to turn 65?

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

Mattingly seemed candid about his future at the time because all logic and recent history showed that he was joining a heavyweight World Series contender in Philadelphia. Why even toss around the idea of ever filling out a lineup card again, especially with a high-priced, postseason-tested roster brimming with talent including Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler?

Fast forward four months and the Phillies' season has come to this: Mattingly's last best shot at winning his first World Series ring after more than 40 years in baseball starts with managing one of the worst teams in the National League.

Mattingly is indeed the manager for the rest of the season, taking the interim job Tuesday after the Phillies fired Thomson — and openly flirted with the idea of replacing him with former Red Sox manager Alex Cora — with the stout belief that a championship team beats in the heart of this underachieving roster.

The job either comes with a perk or the potential for awkwardness with Mattingly also the father of his new boss, Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly.

“I know how competitive he is,” Mattingly said. “Him and I are a little different. He looks at things, he's a little outside the box at times, which I appreciate. It's helped me grow.”

Also give 11-year-old son Louis Mattingly the bulk of the credit for flipping dad’s decision in the offseason.

Mattingly — who wore a white pinstriped suit in the 1980s Hit Man poster that was a staple in many an '80s New York kid's bedroom — is off to a fine start in Philly.

Thomson, who led the Phillies to four straight postseason berths, including the 2022 World Series, might still have his job had Philadelphia regularly played as well at it did in a 7-0 win over San Francisco in Mattingly's debut.

“I’m going to watch our game,” Thomson said in a video call with reporters shortly before the game. “I really am.”

Thomson surely enjoyed the result — even if it perhaps came with a bit of frustration that the Phillies failed to play more consistent complete games throughout April.

Turner became the first Phillies player all season with a four-hit game. Jesús Luzardo, just two starts after the lefty allowed nine runs and 12 hits against the Cubs, tossed two-hit ball, struck out eight and walked none over seven innings. He teamed with two relievers for the Phillies' first shutout of the season.

The Phillies lost 10 straight games and 11 of 12 in Thomson's final stretch of an otherwise successful tenure. Mattingly kept the coaching staff intact — notably beleaguered hitting coach Kevin Long, who took most of the heat for the Phillies' woes — and third base coach Dusty Wathan was promoted to bench coach.

“I don't know if I'm a whole lot different from Rob, honestly,” Mattingly said. “I trust players, I believe in players, I like players. But I want us to play better baseball.”

Mattingly, who managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22, also didn't seem to mind he was Philadelphia's second managerial choice.

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies’ president of baseball operations, made it clear Tuesday that Cora was his first choice to succeed Thomson. Dombrowski ran the front office in Boston when Cora managed the Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2018. A Philly reunion made sense on paper, though Cora ultimately passed.

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

The Phillies' woes stretch way beyond the manager.

From former All-Star third baseman Alec Bohm to second baseman Bryson Stott, the Phillies underperformed for a team with $284.7 million payroll. The Phillies are aging and the rotation was a disaster — which led to the decision to release Taijuan Walker — all part of a recipe for a team that used Tuesday's win to move to 10-19.

The Phillies, of course, have been here before, notably in 2022 when Dombrowski fired Joe Girardi after a 22-29 start and they went 65-46 the rest of the season under Thomson. The schedule works in Mattingly's favor to duplicate that run, with nine of the next 13 games at home, with only the Athletics (out of three other teams) holding a winning record.

Mattingly thought he was out. He's now all the way back in — and the Phillies' World Series hopes are firmly pinned on a manager who's never won one.

“This is not about how I'm going to do,” Mattingly said. “It's really about club.”

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

The Metropolitan Police said the attack in the Golders Green area left two men, ages 34 and 76, hospitalized with knife wounds.

Counterterrorism police are investigating whether the stabbings are linked to recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the British capital. Detectives are probing a potential Iranian link to those incidents, but police said it's too soon to say whether Wednesday's attack is connected.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain," and called a meeting of the government's emergency committee to discuss the response. Buckingham Palace said King Charles III was “deeply concerned.”

Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said that it was “another horrendous act of violence directed against our Jewish communities.”

But some British Jews expressed anger at authorities' failure to keep them safe. Rowley faced shouts of “shame on you” and “resign” from bystanders when he made a statement to media at the scene of the stabbings.

The security organization Shomrim said that a suspect “was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public." It said that the suspect was detained by Shomrim members and arrested by police, who used a stun gun on him.

Surveillance camera footage showed a man beside a bus stop donning a kippah, or traditional skullcap, before a passerby with a knife lunges at him.

Police said that the suspect also tried to stab police officers, but none was injured. Rowley said the suspect, whose name hasn't been released, had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.”

Arson attacks in recent weeks targeted Jewish sites in London, including a charity's ambulances in Golders Green and a synagogue a few miles away.

“Today is somewhat worse because it’s a physical attack against two human beings,” said resident Anthony Silber, adding that “it’s shocking to hear, shocking to listen to, shocking to watch for those that saw, but it’s not a surprise.”

Britain’s Jewish community is long-established, but tiny as a percentage of the population, numbering about 300,000. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants, Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.

“There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.

No one was injured in the arson incidents. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.

Counterterror officers are investigating whether the arson attacks were the work of Iranian proxies. The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting Iranian opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year ending in October.

Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said that Jews face a campaign of violence and intimidation and that words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.

“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country," he said. “This is a hatred that we must face down together."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the world must “wake up” to a rising wave of anti-Jewish hatred.

“In one of the great capital cities of the West, it has become dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew,” Herzog posted on X. “This is an unacceptable situation.”

The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.

In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.

___

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.

Caris Adell Wade pleaded no contest in March to charges of reckless driving causing serious injury and failure to stop at the scene of a crash. Her drunk driving charge was dismissed, as part of a plea deal.

The crash happened at about 3 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2025, at a Center Line home near 10 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue.

A 9-year-old girl, who was sleeping at the time, was thrown from her bedroom and into the yard, suffering multiple serious injuries.

--> Road to recovery: 9-year-old Macomb County girl opens up after car crashes into bedroom

Police said the SUV missed hitting a 22-month-old baby girl in the home by four feet.

According to police, Wade crashed the SUV and ran off on foot, but she was taken into custody shortly after by a nearby Warren police officer.

On April 29, she was sentenced to 290 days in jail and three years’ probation. She was also ordered not to contact the victim or the victim’s family.

You can watch the full sentencing hearing in the video at the beginning of this article.

Doggy Deli makes small batch treats with ingredients ranging from blueberries to bananas, cheese, pumpkin, and beyond.

Watch the video above to see some of the treats that Doggy Deli offers and to learn about how you can purchase them for your furry friend.

“We believe literacy is liberation,” said Rogers, CEO of KIPP Detroit Public Schools, the city’s first campus in the national Knowledge Is Power Program network. “We start very early. Every kindergartner, our promise is that they leave reading.”

The results at KIPP Detroit are striking. Ninety-one percent of kindergartners left the school year reading at grade level - compared to 67% nationally. Rogers says that gap is a matter of life trajectory.

“The school-to-prison pipeline shows that 70% of those in prison did not pass 4th grade reading,” Rogers said. “And so, we are a school who is just going to lock hands to disrupt that pattern.”

KIPP, which stands for Knowledge Is Power Program, operates 280 schools across the country. The Detroit campus is the network’s first in the city. It is tuition-free and open to any Michigan resident, regardless of background or academic history.

Rogers pushed back on common misconceptions about charter schools. “All of our teachers are certified,” she said. “There is no cost. If you live in Michigan, you can attend our school.” She added that enrollment requires a completed application but involves no selection criteria - if a seat is available, it’s yours.

For students who have struggled in traditional school settings, Rogers said the approach starts with something deceptively simple.

“They have to know you love them,” she said. “I know it does not sound very scientific, but we really try to create a sense of belonging for our kids, and that way they will be receptive to what we are trying to teach them.”

The school’s mission, Rogers said, is built on a straightforward conviction: “Any child can achieve no matter what your zip code is, no matter what your demographic is.”

KIPP Detroit is currently operating out of a temporary facility at the Sainte-Suzanne community resource center. A permanent, 200,000-square-foot facility on Tireman Avenue is expected to open in August 2027. Transportation service is also in development and expected to launch with the new building.

More information and enrollment applications are available at KIPPDetroit.org.

To watch the segment, click on the video above.

Amin Gemayel spoke with The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday after the first direct talks between Lebanon and Israel since the 1980s, as they explore what could lead to a security agreement or even the eventual normalization of relations. He is part of one of Lebanon’s strongest political dynasties that founded the Christian Phalange party, which held powerful positions for decades.

The 84-year-old Gemayel, who rarely speaks to international media, acknowledged that much has changed as Lebanese leaders again pursue talks with Israel and as a fragile ceasefire holds. The discussions in Washington have led to angry protests as the Israeli military invasion of southern Lebanon continues, and as parts of Beirut recover from a devastating Israeli bombardment early this month.

For one, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah had only been established during Gemayel's presidency and was far from the powerful armed and political presence it has since become. Hezbollah opposes direct talks with Israel and believes Lebanon instead should support Iran in its talks with the United States, saying Tehran has more leverage.

But Hezbollah has taken major blows, Gemayel noted, and he supports its disarmament. The group's military capabilities were significantly weakened by Israel’s strikes in Lebanon over the past two years. And the ouster of longtime backer Bashar Assad in Syria by Islamist-led armed opposition groups closed off much of the porous border used for transporting weapons.

Regional circumstances also have changed, Gemayel said.

“During my time, discussing a peace agreement with Israel was an unforgivable fatal crime,” he said.

Now he believes there is more openness in the region, and pointed to Syria’s direct talks with Israel as well as the Abraham Accords, where a handful of Arab countries, notably the United Arab Emirates, established diplomatic ties with Israel.

The deal with Israel in the 1980s crumbled quickly

Gemayel was Lebanon's youngest-ever president in 1982 when he was sworn in, at 40 years old. The country was in the middle of a devastating 15-year civil war, occupied by both Syrian and Israeli troops.

He decided to enter U.S.-brokered direct talks with Israel, via a foreign ministry official, and reached an agreement in May 1983 that included ending the state of war that had existed between the countries since Israel’s inception in 1948. Israeli troops would withdraw from southern Lebanon and Lebanese troops would deploy there.

Despite U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s backing at the time and the Lebanese parliament voting overwhelmingly in favor for the agreement, it never went into effect. Gemayel blamed Syria and its allies in Lebanon, which were critical of any talks with Israel from the start, as well as Israel itself.

“Israel, though we had finished the negotiations and reached the stage of signing, tried to impose an article outside of the framework of the agreement, which was the simultaneous withdrawal alongside the Syrian army in Lebanon. So the Israeli military wouldn’t withdraw unless the Syrians would,” Gemayel said.

“It gave the Syrian military a veto to the agreement ... and a public atmosphere of doubt that (then-Syrian President Hafez) Assad and his crew created.”

But now, Gemayel said, Lebanon's leaders should pursue a long-term peace deal. Even an armistice, like the one signed in 1949 to bring calm to tense frontier for 18 years, could be a good step forward, as long as it keeps the country in one piece.

Lebanon's president seeks a step short of full normalization

President Joseph Aoun has said he is seeking a deal similar to the 1949 agreement, not a full normalization of relations with Israel.

The move by Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to enter into direct talks with Israel was met with both wide support and criticism in the deeply divided country. The officials have said the negotiations are the only way to secure the withdrawal of Israeli troops and bring about long-term calm.

“There is an opportunity for the Lebanese government to go into negotiations to reach a solution that achieves peace, security, and stability in Lebanon,” Gemayel said.

“That would also satisfy the feelings of Lebanese who yearn for the bare minimum of calm, peace, stability, and an end to the war."

During this latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which began two days after the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, over 2,500 people in Lebanon have been killed and over one million people displaced.

Israeli troops remain in large swaths of southern Lebanon and continue to clash with Hezbollah fighters despite a truce being nominally in place. Both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

Lebanese have largely been critical of Hezbollah’s decision to launch rockets into Israel on March 2, but they have also been horrified by Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion.

Gemayel said the situation remains complicated, especially in a “boiling region” suffering from serious security and economic repercussions from the Iran war.

“We have to see how far we can go,” he said. “We trust General Aoun to enter negotiations as far as they go while maintaining the interests of the country and the unity of Lebanon. And he knows exactly how far he can go in negotiations.”

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Associated Press senior producer Malak Harb in Bikfaya, Lebanon, contributed to this report.

Mothfire Brewing Co. won a global award in the 2026 World Beer Cup. The brewery earned silver in the Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale category for its Panda beer.

Watch the video above to learn more about Mothfire Brewing Co.

Barry Goodman, co-founder and partner at Goodman Acker, says renters and property owners alike are often unprepared for the legal and financial consequences of injuries at vacation rentals, from slip-and-falls to dog bites to out-of-control parties.

The Hazards Are Closer Than You Think

Goodman says the most common injuries stem from basic property defects: uneven floors, poor lighting, and faulty railings. He described one case where a guest opened a door, stepped into darkness, and tumbled down a flight of stairs to a basement.

“Doors are supposed to come out to you when you’re at a stairway,” Goodman said, noting the homeowner was held liable. He added that pools, bikes, kayaks, boats, and golf carts all present additional risk on rental properties.

Who Bears Liability?

Goodman said responsibility can fall on the owner, the renter, or both - depending on the circumstances. He pointed to a recent incident in Birmingham in which a renter hosted a party that spiraled out of control, with bullets flying into neighboring homes.

He urged renters to inspect properties the moment they arrive and document any pre-existing damage.

“You want to let the owner know because they’re going to claim that you did it,” Goodman said.

Owners: Get the Right Insurance

For property owners, Goodman’s advice was direct: inspect constantly, fix problems fast, and carry the right coverage.

“The cost of that repair is going to save you a lot of money compared to the cost of litigation and an accident,” he said.

He recommended owners obtain a commercial general liability (CGL) policy separate from their standard homeowners insurance, which typically excludes business use.

“You have to make sure you have the right policy. Should have at least $1 million in liability coverage. And if you can afford it, you should have 2,” Goodman said.

If You’re Injured: Act Fast

If an injury does occur, Goodman outlined a clear order of steps: seek medical attention immediately, photograph the scene, notify the owner, and contact a lawyer.

“Get medical attention. Secondly, take pictures,” he said. He cautioned against dealing directly with insurance companies without legal representation.

Renters should also check whether their own homeowners policy extends to short-term rentals - it often does.

“Coverage is important and watching out for safety,” Goodman said.

To watch the segment, click on the video above. If you have a case you’d like to inquire about, contact Goodman Acker at GoodmanAcker.com or 248-985-8236.

The revival — directed by Jamie Lloyd — will play at a Shubert theater to be announced in the spring of 2027, producers said Wednesday. The musical is about the caustic intersection of politics and showbiz.

“Performing  Tim  Rice  and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brilliant show  in London was a dream come true, but being able to  partner once again with Jamie to  bring ‘Evita’  to  Broadway  is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Zegler said in a statement. “I can’t wait  to perform for my home, New York City.”

Zegler won the Olivier Award as best actress in a musical earlier this month. She received lots of attention for performing the song “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” on an exterior balcony, attracting large crowds to the street every night while theatergoers inside watched on screens. Lloyd did something similar with his revival of “Sunset Boulevard” — placing the actor Tom Francis outside the theater each night.

“Evita” began as a rock opera concept album and transferred to Broadway in 1979, starring Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. It was revived in 2012 starring Elena Roger and Ricky Martin, nominated for a best revival Tony.

America's most famous horse race says more than 125,000 mint juleps are consumed at the annual two-day festival at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky. According to its website, that requires about 10,000 bottles of Kentucky bourbon, 2,250 pounds of freshly harvested mint and 475,000 pounds of ice.

But you don’t have to be there in person to enjoy this classic cocktail. The julep — a simple mix of sugar, water, fresh mint, crushed ice and bourbon — is accessible and easy to recreate.

First, a little history

Mint juleps have been drunk at the Kentucky Derby since it began in the late 19th century, but they became its signature drink in the 1930s. That's when the Derby created a commemorative cup to serve them in, and people began sneaking them home as souvenirs, says Martha Dalton, co-founder of Never Say Die bourbon.

“Instead of kind of fighting against that, they embraced it. And so from then on, (the mint julep) really became completely synonymous with the Derby," says Dalton, whose company is named after a Derby-winning racehorse said to have been revived with a shot of whiskey as a foal.

The julep’s roots, she says, are in ancient Persia, where sweetened rose water tonic called “gulab” was used for its medicinal properties. It spread to medieval Europe, where alcohol was brought into the mix, and on into the American South, where there was an abundance of mint and bourbon distilleries.

Why does the drink maintain its Southern charm?

“Every sip is slightly different,” says Angelos Bafas, bartender and co-founder of Cato bar in London. The bar is named after Cato Alexander, the 19th-century Manhattan bartender believed to have popularized juleps.

“The ice dilutes and the aromatics of the bourbon open up as the day proceeds,” says Bafas.

How to make one at home

For a traditional mint julep, Bafas says, stirring the ice is key to getting the right amount of cold and dilution. Keep stirring until the outside of the cup turns frosty.

“People tend to forget that water is an ingredient, and it’s actually one very active and important ingredient when it comes to juleps as it allows the bourbon to shine through. And also it allows the drink to be more palatable,” he says.

Plucking some mint from his homegrown plant and brushing it lightly against the side of the cup, he adds that the mint should be slapped (a light tap) not muddled (mashed).

“The mint has to release the delicate aromas,” says Bafas, explaining that muddling “can give you this kind of grassy very chlorophyll flavor.”

Variations

Bafas also suggests adding a few drops of aromatic bitters to “give a bit of flavor and to bring some body to the game.”

If you want to get creative, there are plenty of twists on the classic mint julep. Bafas makes a London Julep, which uses slightly less bourbon and adds a serve of elderflower liqueur for a sweeter, easier introduction to the drink, with a quintessentially English stamp.

He also suggests a highball julep, created by adding a bit of soda. “It’s technically a mojito made with bourbon, but you know, it’s based on the DNA of juleps,” he says.

Recipe for a Cato Classic Mint Julep

Single Serve

Ingredients:

2 oz bourbon whiskey

0.5 oz filtered water

0.5 oz simple syrup

3 dashes Angostura bitters

10 fresh mint leaves

4 drops of mint tincture (optional)

Crushed ice in a metal cup

Directions

Pour the whiskey into a julep cup, lightly slap the mint leaves to release their aroma, and add them in. Stir briefly, then add the remaining ingredients and crushed ice. Stir until the cup turns frosty on the outside, then top with more crushed ice, garnish with a fresh mint sprig, and serve with a straw.

The trick then is to take your time and make your drink last longer than the race record of 1 minute 59.40 seconds set by Secretariat in 1973.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the court that the men — Ukrainian nationals Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Petro Pochynok, 35; and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen — were involved in setting the blazes in London between May 8 and 12.

They are accused of conspiracy to commit arson, but Atkinson said that Lavrynovych was identified by police as the man behind all the fires. He's also charged with damaging two properties by fire with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

The men deny the charges against them. The court wasn't told how much money was offered or if anyone was injured in the house fires.

“Three fires in the same area within five days would be pretty unusual. However, three fires all involving property linked to the same person were beyond a coincidence,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson said that a Toyota car was deliberately set ablaze in the early hours of May 8 in the Kentish Town area of north London, followed by a house on May 11 and a second house on May 12.

The property fires were started with similar materials and "were set in the dead of night, when the occupants of the addresses would inevitably have been asleep,” he said, arguing that the men who set the fires must have intended to endanger the lives of the people inside.

The car, he said, had once belonged to Starmer, the first house on Ellington Road was managed by a company where the prime minister had once been a director and shareholder, and the second house on Countess Road was occupied by his sister-in-law and still owned by Starmer.

The attacks against the car and houses were “planned and directed, with those involved promised payment for their participation,” Atkinson told the court. Lavrynovych was offered payment to set the fires on the messaging app Telegram by a contact using the name “El Money,” Atkinson said.

In both cases, the occupants of the houses woke up because of the fires, Atkinson said.

On May 11, the occupant of the top floor apartment in the house, which had been turned into separate dwellings, was awakened by the smell of smoke at around 3 a.m., Atkinson said. The resident opened the front door and found the communal hallways full of smoke, had trouble breathing and retreated to the roof for safety, the prosecutor said.

A day later, the prime minister’s sister-in-law heard loud bangs and saw that billowing smoke was coming through the front door and filling the stairs at around 1 a.m., Atkinson told the court. She also struggled to breathe and her 9-year-old daughter was “very frightened,” he said.

Atkinson told the jury that it didn't need to decide what motivated the defendants to carry out the alleged attacks and that it “does not matter whether they knew that the property they were targeting was connected to the prime minister or whether that formed part of their motivation.”

The court heard how more than 320 messages dating back to September 2024 were recovered between Lavrynovych and “El Money,” but Atkinson told the jury that they were not to concern themselves with who “El Money” was and why they decided to recruit people for attacks.

The sale runs from April 28-30, and includes availability from major hubs and many regional cities.

Here’s what to know about the sale for travel to Latin America, according to Delta:

• Book by: April 28–30
• Travel window: Roughly May 1–June 30 (varies by route)
• Destinations Include: Cancún (CUN), Punta Cana (PUJ), Los Cabos (SJD), Aruba (AUA), St. Thomas (STT), Montego Bay (MBJ), Nassau (NAS), Puerto Vallarta (PVR), Providenciales (PLS), San José, Costa Rica (SJO), Liberia (LIR), Belize (BZE), Grand Cayman (GCM), Curaçao (CUR), Cartagena (CTG), Rio de Janeiro (GIG), and more.
• Cabins: Delta Basic and Main

Here’s what to know about the domestic sale:

• Book by: April 28–30
• Travel windows:
• • April 28–June 10
  • September 9–October 7
• Destinations include: Miami (MIA), Palm Beach (PBI), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Orlando (MCO), Tampa (TPA), Fort Myers (RSW), Daytona Beach (DAB), Pensacola (PNS), Charleston (CHS), Savannah (SAV), Myrtle Beach (MYR), Key West (EYW), Wilmington (ILM), Asheville (AVL), and more Florida and Southeast leisure destinations.
• Cabins: Delta Basic and Main

Flights from DTW

Some of the flights headed out of DTW that you can get deals on during this flash sale include the following:

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to Miami, FL (MIA)
• • Outbound Travel Period: Sept. 13-19, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 12,400 Miles + $12
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 19,200 Miles + $12

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to West Palm Beach, FL (PBI)
• • Outbound Travel Period: Sept. 9-22, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 15,400 Miles + $12
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 23,600 Miles + $12

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to Myrtle Beach, SC (MYR)
• • Outbound Travel Period: Sept. 9-16, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 22,800 Miles + $12
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 28,000 Miles + $12

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ)
• • Outbound Travel Period: May 23-29, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 15,400 Miles + $12
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 23,600 Miles + $12

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (PLS)
• • Outbound Travel Period: May 24-30, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 68,000 Miles + $125
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 73,000 Miles + $125

• Detroit, MI (DTW) to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (GIG)
• • Outbound Travel Period: June 23 –June 29, 2026
  • Main Basic Miles Round Trip Fare: From 118,000 Miles + $42
  • Delta Main Miles Round Trip Fare: From 140,000 Miles + $42

For more flights, including ones headed to Aruba, Jamaica, Punta Cana, several other places in Florida, and more, click here to see the full list.

According to the American Lung Association, more than 1.3 million kids in Michigan are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution. In Metro Detroit, air quality actually worsened. The region ranks 9th worst in the country, with an F grade. And that’s putting kids at risk.

Why? Their lungs are still developing, and they breathe more air per unit of body mass than adults.

The report says poor air exposure for your little ones can lead to reduced lung growth, new asthma cases, and a higher risk of respiratory disease later in life.

And this is not just a Metro Detroit problem. Across the country, 46% of children -- 33.5 million kids -- live in an area that received a failing grade on at least one measure of air pollution. That is exactly why this Sunday matters.

The Fight for Air Climb is back at Ford Field on May 3, more than 1,600 stairs -- all to raise money for the American Lung Association and the push for cleaner air.

Kaelyn Gates, the Executive Director with the American Lung Association, joined Local 4 Live to talk more about the climb.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

Cole Allen wore black pants, a black shirt and a red tie as he snapped the image in his room at the Washington Hilton, where Trump and hundreds of journalists were meeting for a gala Saturday night, authorities say.

The 31-year-old from Torrance, California, was captured when he tried to race past security barricades near the hotel's ballroom, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents tasked with safeguarding the event, investigators say.

New details emerged in a court filing made by prosecutors who want Allen to remain in custody. A hearing is set for Thursday.

The government said Allen repeatedly made online checks to keep track of Trump’s status that night, including live coverage of the president exiting his vehicle at the Hilton hotel. Investigators said preset emails with an “Apology and Explanation” attachment were sent at approximately 8:30 p.m.

“He intended to kill and fired his shotgun while trying to breach security and attack his target. Put simply, the defendant poses an uncommonly serious danger to the community if released pending trial. The defendant’s lack of criminal history and other personal circumstances do not alter this conclusion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones wrote.

Trump, a Republican, was uninjured. A Secret Service officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest and survived.

Allen appeared in court on Monday and was charged with the attempted assassination of the president as authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks. He did not speak at length during the quick court appearance, as is customary. One of his lawyers, Tezira Abe, noted he had no criminal record and said he “is presumed innocent at this time.”

Trump was rushed off the stage by his security team Saturday night and appeared at the White House two hours later, still in his tuxedo.

“When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” he said. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”

An FBI affidavit filed Monday revealed other details about the planning behind the assault, with authorities alleging that Allen on April 6 reserved a room for himself at the Washington hotel where the event would be held weeks later under its typical tight security. He traveled by train cross-country from California, checking himself into the Washington Hilton a day before the dinner with a room reserved for the weekend.

The Republican administration adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action. Three agreements have been announced.

U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, are demanding information about the first and largest of the three. Under a deal made public in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting $1 billion — essentially a refund of its leases for offshore wind projects off North Carolina and New York— if it invests the money in fossil fuel projects instead.

Huffman said that is a “scam” and the administration is going to "light a lot of federal taxpayer money on fire if we let them."

In a letter sent Wednesday to TotalEnergies and provided to The Associated Press, Huffman and Raskin are letting the company know that Democrats have begun an investigation, are demanding documents and communications and are advising the CEO not to take the money. The letter outlines the ways they think the deal appears to be illegal.

“You can’t come into the United States and do a backroom deal like this, that just essentially treats the treasury as a slush fund, and walk away with a billion dollars," Huffman said.

Asked for comment, TotalEnergies pointed to its news release when the payout was announced. CEO Patrick Pouyanné said at the time that TotalEnergies renounced U.S. offshore wind development in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees, “considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest.”

Nearly $2 billion in payouts so far

In the latest deals announced Monday, the administration said Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind agreed to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided they invest equally in fossil fuels. Trump has gone all in on fossil fuels for generating electricity, which he says will lower costs for families, increase reliability and help the U.S. maintain global leadership in artificial intelligence.

Both Bluepoint and Golden State are co-owned by Ocean Winds, a joint venture of EDP Renewables and French energy giant Engie. Michael Brown, CEO of Ocean Winds North America, said that when market conditions change, “we must adapt.”

Opponents of offshore wind projects praised the administration for being creative.

“This is the latest strategy and we think it’s a winner,” Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, said Wednesday. Shaffer said the administration “is well within their rights to do this and private businesses can’t be forced to build anything.”

But to the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, it is a "bailout for fossil fuel donors dressed up as a deal.”

“Donald Trump spent years calling offshore wind subsidies a waste of taxpayer money," Schumer said in a statement. “Now his administration is handing nearly $2 billion of those very same taxpayer dollars to companies to abandon clean energy projects that would have powered millions of American homes and created thousands of good-paying union jobs.”

Once the deals are complete, Ocean Winds will have one remaining U.S. offshore wind project, SouthCoast Wind off Massachusetts. Its development has slowed under Trump.

Amber Hewett, senior director of offshore wind energy at the National Wildlife Federation, said forcing developers to abandon offshore wind energy for more oil and gas sets the U.S. further behind in efforts to curb climate change. Burning coal, oil and gas is the largest contributor to global climate change by far.

Lease buyouts are part of a campaign against offshore wind

When Trump returned to office in January 2025 he ordered a temporary halt to leasing and permitting for wind energy projects. His administration has paused work wind farms under construction, canceled plans to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development and added an extra layer of review for wind and solar projects.

Federal judges allowed construction on the wind farms to resume, struck down the Day One order blocking wind energy development, and stopped the administration from requiring that all solar and wind energy projects on federal lands and waters be personally approved by Trump's interior secretary.

Energy law expert Kristoffer Svendsen said that after the administration's losses in the courts, the lease buyouts appear to be a last attempt to close down as many offshore wind projects as possible. He was not aware of any other arrangements where energy projects owners have been paid to walk away.

“This saga never ends. They continue to surprise the industry and those of us following the industry,” said Svendsen, assistant dean for energy law at the George Washington University Law School.

Svendsen said he expects to see energy companies head to markets in Europe and Asia because the future for new offshore wind development in the United States is “quite bleak.”

“At this point if you’re interested in offshore wind, you’ll most likely go to a jurisdiction where they want you,” he said.

The global wind industry installed a record 165 gigawatts of onshore and offshore wind last year, with 138 countries now powering their economies with wind energy, the Global Wind Energy Council said last week in its annual report. That is enough to power 118 million households. The Asian market, led by China and India, had 80% of the global total.

David Carroll, CEO and chief renewables officer for Engie North America, also thinks offshore wind will not advance in the United States in the next few years. He cited the administration's pulling of permits that were granted after years of work and much money spent, and the stopping of fully permitted projects under construction, eroding business certainty.

“The offshore wind industry does not have a strong future here in the U.S. And that’s unfortunate,” Carroll, who is chair of the board at the American Clean Power Association, said in an interview this month. “The Northeast needs more energy and that is one of the very key ways we can get energy in the Northeast.”

___

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

Almost two years later, federal authorities say a different man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday was arrested with a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol he brought with him to Washington, D.C., on an Amtrak train from California.

It's just the latest security incident involving long-distance public ground transportation — and it won't be the last unless Amtrak and other companies find a way to address passenger screening and security at their stations, union officials who represent on-train employees say.

An Amtrak spokesperson declined to discuss security or to say whether Cole Tomas Allen followed the company's protocol for transporting firearms. Amtrak is working with federal investigators to provide his travel information, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. A lawyer representing Allen notes he has no criminal record and is presumed innocent.

Policy for transporting firearms

Amtrak requires firearms on its trains to be declared, unloaded, secured in a hard case and to meet certain size and weight requirements. Those weapons are only allowed in checked baggage, similar to policies for firearms being transported via passenger airplane.

But unlike airports where passengers undergo Transportation Safety Administration screening of their carry-on bags and their person, train passengers are not screened by security officials, whether they board at the unstaffed station in unincorporated Lamy, New Mexico, or at the bustling Union Station in Washington.

Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs and policy at the Rail Passengers Association, said Amtrak and many other ground transportation companies barred weapons on trains and buses after 9/11, but none put security measures in place to detect or screen every passenger for firearms. In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring Amtrak and others to allow firearms to be transported as long as they are checked.

In most cases, that means weapons are secured and placed on baggage cars accessible only by employees. But not every train has dedicated baggage cars. Several former Amtrak employees said when they don't have baggage cars, the bags are zip-tied and labeled to show a firearm is present so workers can see if they are tampered with.

“It is a little hard to take a train hostage, to say it is different than the post 9/11 concerns raised regarding an airplane,” Jeans-Gail said. “Amtrak has been safe from gun violence largely. The main incidents have been police shootings or interdictions.”

Incidents of concern

Railway worker unions started requesting Amtrak and other companies look at security during the COVID-19 pandemic, when enforcing a mask mandate on trains was difficult at best. They asked again after an influx of participants in the Jan. 6 riots came to Washington by train and rowdy behavior on the way home raised concerns.

Jared Cassity, the national safety and legislative director for the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division union, or SMART-TD, said Amtrak conductors and other on-train workers often don't speak publicly about incidents for fear of retribution from the company.

“Operator assaults are the most common conversations we have with our membership, but guns on trains is second or third in terms of concerns for workers,” Cassity said.

SMART-TD has had some luck pushing state legislation and has two bills pending before Congress. That legislation would clear up jurisdictional challenges making it easier to arrest and charge someone when a rail worker is assaulted during a trip and would make interfering with a rail worker during their duties a crime comparable to interfering with an airline employee on a flight.

Cassity said the conductor who identified the alleged potential mass shooter in 2024 had just taken union-sponsored security training. He received some recognition but the arrest didn't get much news coverage.

A 2022 fatal shooting on an Amtrak train near Lee's Summit, Missouri, did get media attention after the train didn't stop for staff to seek medical attention for the victim until it reached a station — delaying medical care. A federal jury said in 2024 that Amtrak should pay 90% of a $158 million award to the man's family, who had alleged negligence including failure to implement reasonable security measures.

Michael Callanan, a former Amtrak employee and now a rail safety consultant, said he's heard of other security incidents involving smuggling drugs and other illegal items because of the lack of security screenings.

“They never want to spend money on infrastructure or security,” Callanan said. “Maybe this shooter will be a significant enough of an event to push Amtrak to fund things.”

Callanan said Amtrak police officers are not comparable to TSA agents. He said they are mainly charged with patrolling stations, doing track checks and sometimes riding lines and walking trains, but one officer can have a huge amount of territory.

“There's one officer who I think patrols from Orlando to Miami,” he said. “Something has to be done to increase security.”

Geography presents a problem

Jeans-Gail said the Rail Passengers Association supports increasing Amtrak police patrols on trains, but isn't in favor of adding TSA-style security before boarding at the roughly 500 stations across the country.

“The thought of expanding that, even outside of the logistical issues, if you look at the experience of riding the Amtrak network it’s very impractical because it ranges from New York's Penn Station where it's very active, many points of access to the station, unlike an airport where all traffic is filtered to specific points,” he said. “Then you have Whitefish, Montana, on the other side of the spectrum — a rustic structure with not a lot of traffic.”

Cassity said that difference in security needs doesn't escape him. The union isn't expecting a one-size fits every station solution like airports, but he wants the conversation to start.

“We have to change the narrative about safety and realize something has to be done to prevent guns from getting onto the trains freely,” he said. “We sympathize with the challenge this is for Amtrak. ... When you start talking about how you secure the most rural places, and those being the majority of stations, it becomes a daunting, daunting task. ... But we need to have the conversation.”

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office announced the upgraded charges Tuesday against 54-year-old Keith Blackwell, citing a review of additional evidence in the March 14 crash on Gratiot Avenue.

Charges

Second-degree murder is a felony punishable by life in prison or any term of years. The two new counts come on top of charges Blackwell already faces: two counts of first-degree fleeing and eluding a police officer and two counts of reckless driving causing death (all 15-year felonies).

Blackwell was arraigned on the murder charges on Monday, April 27.

After hearing arguments from Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Natalie Sullivan, Judge Sebastian Lucido raised Blackwell’s bond from $100,000 to $200,000 cash or surety only, no 10%, according to the release. He also must wear a steel-cuff tether if he is released.

How the crash happened

Clinton Township police spotted Blackwell speeding south on Gratiot Avenue near Quinn Road on March 14, 2026. Officers activated emergency lights and sirens to pull him over, but Blackwell kept driving at high speeds.

His 2002 Jeep Cherokee reached speeds exceeding 100 mph before slamming into a white Volvo S60 traveling east on 14 Mile Road at the intersection of Gratiot Avenue.

The two men inside the Volvo, 23-year-old Richard Talley and 24-year-old Joshua Jones, were killed, and Blackwell was hospitalized.

“There is simply no excuse for failing to stop for law enforcement,” said Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido. “The Michigan legislature needs to finalize legislation to impose mandatory prison time for those who flee law enforcement, thereby endangering the public. We have seen too many lives lost.”

Separate case

Blackwell is also now facing charges in an unrelated case.

The day before the crash, on Friday, March 13, 2026, Blackwell allegedly entered the home of a woman in Mount Clemens without permission.

He was arraigned on charges of third-degree home invasion and aggravated stalking, both five-year felonies.

Bond in that case was set at $50,000 cash or surety only, with no 10-percent option. A judge ordered Blackwell to have no contact with the woman (directly, indirectly, or through social media) and to wear a steel-cuff tether before any release.

He is scheduled to appear in court for a probable cause conference on June 22, 2026, at 8:30 a.m.

The ride-hailing and delivery company said Wednesday that users of its app can now book hotel rooms. Uber is using hotel listings provided by Expedia Group, a booking service that works with 700,000 hotels and other properties globally. More than 1 million vacation rentals from Vrbo – which is owned by Seattle-based Expedia – will be added to the app later this year, the company said.

Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, said hotel booking is a big step toward San Francisco-based Uber’s goal of becoming an “everything app” that serves many customer needs. Uber, which was founded in 2009, launched Uber Eats for restaurant deliveries in 2015 and expanded with grocery deliveries in 2020.

“Consumers are spending too much time coordinating their life, using multiple apps. AI is in the air and they’re all trying to figure out, how does AI help me or does it not help me?” Kansal told The Associated Press. “Our goal with these announcements is to bring everything into one app, to help them save time, and to also help them save money.”

Any Uber app user will be able to make hotel reservations. But Uber One members, who pay $9.99 per month for zero delivery fees and other perks, will get a 20% discount off a rolling list of 10,000 hotels plus 10% back in Uber credits they can use to book rides, Kansal said.

Kansal said Uber evaluated multiple partners before partnering with Expedia. Uber then spent months integrating Expedia’s technology into its own app. Kansal wouldn’t share the financial terms behind the partnership.

“They’re very excited because Uber brings a certain user base that is very travel-friendly,” Kansal said. “So I would say it’s going to mutually beneficial for both the parties.”

Travel is a big part of Uber users’ lives, he said. More than 100 million people use Uber to get to or from an airport each year. And last year, more than 1.5 billion Uber trips took place outside of a rider’s home city.

The hotel-booking feature was one of several travel-related announcements at Uber’s annual new product event Wednesday. Uber said an upgraded travel mode will help users find restaurants and other points of interest in the cities they visit.

Uber said users will soon get restaurant recommendations and be able to book tables in its app through OpenTable. Rival delivery service DoorDash recently began offering restaurant reservations in its app after buying hospitality platform SevenRooms.

Uber said it's also launching a service that will let users order a drink or snack that would be waiting for them when they get picked up by a driver using a premium Uber Black vehicle. The service is set to launch in the coming weeks in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other cities.

The British actor may not have grown up in a moviegoing family, but he was still very aware the Spielberg thing as a '90s kid. It’s just in our psyche, O’Connor told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

There were Blockbuster nights, of course, with viewings of “E.T.” and he’s since caught up with the classics. But even he was taken aback by just how ingrained those quintessential Spielberg images were on his first day shooting “Disclosure Day.” They were on a backlot, he said, and there were dripping pipes and big beams of light and smoke and mist. It was an environment he recognized so vividly. All he could think was, “Wow, I’m in a Steven Spielberg movie.”

While very little is known about the plot of “Disclosure Day,” which opens in theaters on June 12, it's territory that Spielberg knows well. And it has been suggested by Emily Blunt, and confirmed by O'Connor, that it answers some questions raised by “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” O’Connor plays a cybersecurity expert who has a mysterious connection with Blunt’s meteorologist. He holds some truths that the men in suits don't want the world to know.

O’Connor spoke to the AP about the film, the secrecy, the awe of watching it for the first time and having “the greatest Steven Spielberg story.” Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Have you been able to take stock of this whole experience?

O’CONNOR: It’s sort of still quite surreal. There have been many directors for me where it’s felt like kind of intensely surreal in the lead up to going and doing a movie with a person and then once you start, it sort of settles down and then the next thing you know you’re best friends with that director and it’s all just very normal. I do feel very close to Steven, but it still feels surreal having shot it. And every aspect of making this film was like a pinch-me moment, including seeing it for the first time. It’s sort of a dream for anyone.

AP: Was he what you expected?

O’CONNOR: He was more than I expected. He’s got this energy about him. He’s still so excited. He’s still like a child. He’s inquisitive. He is excited about performance. You know, there’s nothing better in the universe than hearing Steven by a monitor, crying or laughing or shouting with joy. He’s still, I imagine, that same director he was when he made “Jaws” or “E.T.” or any of those other classics. So yeah, he’s still got it. I can confirm he’s still got it

AP: What can you tell us about your character?

O’CONNOR: Daniel’s got some special powers. I’m resistant to saying that because I think it sort of overplays him in some ways. He and Emily’s character have this special bond between them and they’re not even aware of it. And the film really is pulling these two characters together. That’s sort of like the drive for these two, even if they’re unaware of it for half the movie.

Daniel has never really computed it and that’s sort of bubbling away underneath Daniel’s character. But he’s sort of an unglamorous hero. He’s your everyday guy and he’s found himself in this situation and he has to adapt and he is able to adapt, but, you know, he’s not a natural Tom Cruise.

AP: There’s a lot of secrecy around “Disclosure Day.” Was it like that on your end too?

O’CONNOR: There was, of course, a level of secrecy. When I received the script I was filming “Knives Out” and I was in a hotel and a motorbike turned up with the script, and a motorbike turned up to take away the script the next morning. That’s the first time that’s happened for me. It’s a very strange experience but it makes sense. You know, anytime you hear that Steven’s got a film coming out, everyone, myself included, wants to know what it is, so I totally understand why.

AP: What was the setup for watching it? Did it involve a guy showing up on a motorcycle again?

O’CONNOR: No, actually, not this time. It was just me and Emily and we sat in a screening room. You know, seeing any movie you’re in for the first time is a nightmare. It’s impossible to enjoy it fully because all you’re seeing is like, “Why do my ears look so big” or “Why do I stand like that I’m such a freak.” All those things are natural and so there is a little bit of competing with that, but this experience was unlike any other I’ve ever had. Emily and I were just in awe.

AP: You’ve been able to work with such a varied group of filmmakers and in all these different forms in your career.

O’CONNOR: That’s the thing I’m most proud of, I think … Getting to work with diverse artists and people like Alice (Rohrwacher) and Kelly (Reichardt) and Steven and Rian Johnson. They all work in very different ways and make very different films and tell different stories and ultimately that was my dream. I looked up to people like Gene Wilder, or like Robin Williams who’s able to make us roar with laughter and then have us in tears. I think that flexibility, that versatility is what I’ve always wanted in my career.

AP: Do you have a favorite Spielberg story?

O’CONNOR: I have the greatest, in my opinion, the greatest Steven Spielberg story. When it happened, I was sort of like punching the air for this very reason, knowing that when it comes to doing press for this film, I can tell the story, which is that I was halfway through the shoot and we had a scene coming up, which is quite an emotional scene and I was struggling with it. I was in my hotel room trying to prep it, as Steven does so brilliantly, and it’s extraordinary he’s so available to talk about these things.

I reached out to Steven, we discussed the scene, we talked about the emotion of the scene and how to access that and what we’re ultimately aiming to show in the story. And I felt quite satisfied, but not completely with it. And then I got a text from him quite late at night, just saying ,“The door is on the latch, just push.” And it made so much sense. I was like, “of course.” The character’s kind of got all this emotion, it’s built up and it’s like a door on the latch and you just push and it all comes out and it’s an emotional release. I was so thrilled with that note and I came in the next day and said, “Steven, you totally unlocked it for me that was amazing.” And he was like, “What are you talking about?”

I said, “The text about ‘the door on the latch just push’ it’s incredible.” And he laughed and said that that text was supposed to be for his wife. It became a very big joke for all of us. But it did unlock the scene for me, so, fair play.

AP: It’s so good, I almost don’t believe it.

O’CONNOR: I know. It’s ridiculous.

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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies

The vote was 13-11, with all Republican senators voting in favor and Democrats opposed.

Warsh is a former top Fed official but has also been a sharp critic of the institution and Powell’s leadership. He has called the inflation spike to 9.1% in 2022 the central bank’s biggest policy mistake in four decades. A vote on his nomination probably won’t take place until next month, but he could be confirmed by the time Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.

The Senate Banking vote is the first of two key events surrounding the future of the Fed’s leadership. Also Wednesday, Powell is presiding over what will probably be his last meeting of the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Powell may indicate whether he will remain as a member of the central bank’s board of governors after his term as chair ends.

It would be unusual for Powell to stay, but doing so would deprive the Trump administration of an opportunity to appoint a new member to the board. Powell may choose to stay if he sees it as necessary to protect the Fed’s independence, which has become part of his legacy as its leader.

Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the committee, said Warsh is “battle tested” and added that, "It is incredibly important that we break the bind of Bidenomics on households across this nation.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, criticized the banking panel for voting on Warsh's nomination. Doing so “will bring the president one step closer to completing his illegal attempt to seize control of the Fed and artificially juice the economy,” she said, citing Trump's effort to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook and investigate Powell.

The Fed on Wednesday is widely expected to leave its key rate unchanged at about 3.6% for its third straight meeting, defying Trump’s calls for lower rates.

Warsh has called for “regime change” at the Fed and could alter many of its practices, including the economics models it focuses on, how it communicates with the public, and how large its bondholdings will be in the long run.

Those changes could affect financial markets, but otherwise won’t necessarily be visible to the general public. But Warsh has also advocated for additional interest rate cuts, which could potentially lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. He will face barriers to implementing those cuts anytime soon, however, largely because the Iran war has caused a spike in gas prices, pushing inflation to a two-year high of 3.3%.

The Fed typically keeps rates elevated, or even raises them, to combat worsening inflation.

Most of the other 11 members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee have indicated they would prefer to wait and evaluate where inflation and the economy are headed before making any changes to rates. It could take time for Warsh to build up enough influence to push for rapid rate cuts. He will also replace Stephen Miran, a member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee who was appointed by Trump last September and is the most consistent advocate for rate reductions at the central bank.

Warsh also faces questions about his independence from the White House, a key issue that dogged him during a Senate Banking hearing last week. On Wednesday, Warren said, “Mr. Warsh is a Trump sock puppet who is so cowed by the president that he could not even say that Trump lost the 2020 election.”

Last December, Trump called for much lower interest rates in a social media post, and added that “anyone who does not agree with me will never be Fed chair!” And just last week he told Fox Business that he expects rates to head lower, “when Kevin gets in.”

Warsh denied at his hearing, however, that Trump had ever pressured him directly to cut rates.

Silent Tactic opened at odds of 13-1 on the morning line. His exit means Great White is in.

“You can’t run in the Kentucky Derby and not be 100%,” Casse said at his barn at Churchill Downs. “It’s very, very slight. It’s very slight, so that’s the good news. The timing’s poor, but it’s not a big deal and that’s the most important thing.”

Casse compared the horse’s ailment to a fingernail separation, which is painful and enough to lead to him and owner John Oxley to make the decision to scratch Silent Tactic more than 72 hours before the race.

"It wasn’t a tough decision," Casse said. “It’s not tough because we’re always going to try to do what we feel is best for the horse, Mr. Oxley and our entire group.”

The most difficult part for Casse is this means jockey Cristian Torres will have to wait to ride in the Kentucky Derby for the first time. Casse said the call to skip the Derby was made early to allow preparations to begin to run Silent Tactic in the Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on May 16.

“Today we start preparing for the Preakness,” Casse said. “And the quicker we made the decision — we could’ve held on for another day or two — but then it would slow down our chances of getting to the Preakness.”

The timing is beneficial for those around Great White, who was first on the also-entered list and was initially set as a 50-1 long shot.

"We’re just delighted to have confirmation that we did get in and we draw in so early," trainer John Ennis told The Associated Press. “It’s only Wednesday, so everybody’s thrilled and over the moon.”

The big, and still growing, gray colt is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 4.

“He didn’t need to be on the lead,” Ennis said. “We kind of thought he’d run big in the Blue Grass, and he kind of disappointed. He was flat the week prior, of the Blue Grass. He was kind of quiet himself and lacking in energy.”

It has been an uncertain week for Ennis and his stable, not knowing if Great White would get to the starting gate on Saturday.

“It can be tough mentally in your mind to straighten things out and get things squared away,” Ennis said. “It's not easy when you’re kind of sitting on the fence like that.”

Jockey Alex Achard will make his Kentucky Derby debut aboard Great White, who by all accounts is doing well.

“The horse is fit and healthy and strong,” Ennis said. “Yes, he has to improve, but it’s the Kentucky Derby and if you’re not in, you can’t win.”

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

The NCAA released a brief statement Tuesday in the wake of an ESPN report that cited unnamed sources saying a decision to add eight teams to the bracket is a mere formality that's expected in May.

“Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time,” the statement said.

Earlier this month at the Final Four, NCAA President Charlie Baker said the committees would, in fact, return to discussing the expansion once this year's tournament was over.

The tournaments have been at 68 teams since 2011, when four play-in games were added to the beginning of the first week of play. The new format would add eight more at-large teams and take eight more teams out of the main bracket for play-in games.

“People can criticize the NCAA all they want, but they put on a championship and an event like no other,” Michigan coach Dusty May said Wednesday. “If more young players and coaching staffs could have an opportunity to experience March Madness, then I’m for it. The traditionalists in me says, ‘No, let’s keep it at 64,’ and it’s slightly tilted toward keeping it as it is, but I could be easily persuaded.”

The expansion isn't expected to generate a lot more income because it will only add games early in the first week. The current TV deal runs through 2032 and could be tweaked slightly.

Regardless of finances, the expansion would give power conferences more chances to place teams in the bracket — a growing concern as those conferences seek more power and control over college sports in the era of name, image and likeness compensation and the transfer portal.

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AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it summoned the Russian ambassador to its offices in London to inform him of the “reciprocal action.” The tit-for tat moves reflect spiraling tensions between Moscow and the West.

“This behavior is wholly unacceptable, and we will not tolerate harassment or intimidation of our diplomatic staff,’’ the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The move came after Russia last month expelled a British diplomat over spying allegations that the U.K. rejected as “complete nonsense.”

Russia’s top domestic security and counterintelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, said the British diplomat had sought to gather “sensitive information” about the Russian economy in “unofficial meetings” with Russian experts. The diplomat was ordered to leave Russia within two weeks.

Russia and NATO member states have carried out multiple rounds of mutual expulsions of diplomats since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sending diplomatic relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War.

At Tuesday’s state dinner honoring King Charles III and Queen Camilla, U.S. President Donald Trump said that during a private meeting earlier in the day the British monarch had agreed with him that Iran should never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

“We’re doing a little Middle East work right now … and we’re doing very well,” Trump told the audience. “We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever — Charles agrees with me, even more than I do — we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon."

While many Britons would agree with the president’s sentiment, the comment triggered mild consternation among pundits in the U.K.

In Britain, you see, this just isn't done.

By convention, people aren't supposed to relay private conversations with the monarch. That is partly because the king has to remain above the political fray, but also because the sovereign doesn’t have the ability to wade into a public debate and correct the record if he's misquoted.

“Generally, as a matter of protocol, I think I would expect discussions between heads of state to be sort of behind the scenes, in those closed meetings, for those to be sort of kept private,” said Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London. “And, you know, this was something that the U.K. government wanted to avoid.”

There had been a fair amount of jitters before the king’s trip to the United States, which comes amid Trump’s very public frustration with U.K. Prime Minster Keir Starmer over his failure to support U.S. actions in the Iran war.

Like all royal visits, this is a carefully choreographed diplomatic event carried out at the request of the U.K. government, which hopes that warm relations between the king and Trump, who seems to love all things royal, can help repair the rift.

But Trump is an unconventional leader who has a penchant for breaking protocol, and there were concerns about just what he might say or do.

At least in this case, the king’s comments seemed clearly within the bounds of existing U.K. government policy.

“The King is naturally mindful of his government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement designed to provide context to the president’s remarks.

Prescott said that “in a sense, this was always the issue, just what Trump would do or say — would he put the king in an embarrassing position,’’ Prescott said.

“You always had that sort of issue of what he would post on social media," he said. "And I think, you know, this could have been much, much worse.”

Before the state dinner, Charles gave a speech to a joint session of U.S. Congress. The king received repeated standing ovations during the address, which celebrated the longstanding bonds between the U.S. and Britain while nodding to differences over NATO, support for Ukraine and the need to combat climate change.

Now, from the U.K. government’s point of view, the trip is shifting to safer ground as the king and queen leave Washington behind and head to New York, where the focus will be on the city’s creative industries, rather than politics.

The most difficult part of the trip may be over, Prescott said.

“If this is the only controversy arising out of this phase of the state visit, I think overall this has been an enormous success for the king and the British government, because the king was able to make some quite pointed remarks in Congress and it hasn’t really yielded any sort of negative reaction from the president.”

“In a sense,” he said, “you get the feeling that the king (has) rather charmed Washington with his speech to Congress and, you know, his very witty speech at the state banquet.”

It will be the first time in nearly two decades — and in Russia’s 4-year-old war in Ukraine — that no military equipment will rumble through Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, the day Russia celebrates its most important secular holiday. The Kremlin has used it to showcase its military might and global clout, and it is a source of patriotic pride.

Victory Day parades on Red Square have involved military equipment and various weaponry every year since 2008. Smaller parades are held elsewhere across the country, including in cities like St. Petersburg.

The ministry cited the “current operational situation” as a reason for excluding military equipment, as well as cadets, from this year’s parade on the 81st anniversary of the victory. Ukraine has launched drone attacks deep inside Russia to counter Moscow’s more than 4-year-old invasion.

While the ministry did not elaborate, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday blamed Ukraine, accusing it of “terrorist activity,” in an apparent reference to the drone strikes. In recent months, attacks have reached locations deep inside Russia, like the Baltic port of Ust-Luga to the north of Moscow, the Samara region near the border with Kazakhstan, and the Perm region in the Ural mountains.

“All measures are being taken to minimize the danger,” he told reporters.

The parade will feature “servicemen from higher military educational institutions of all kinds and certain service branches of the Russian Armed Forces” and a traditional military aircraft flyover, the ministry said.

Boosting national pride

World War II remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule, and the Kremlin has leveraged that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power.

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche.

President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify the war in Ukraine.

“Traditionally, the parade of tanks, missile systems and other military hardware across Red Square has been central to these celebrations, providing powerful optics and reinforcing Russia’s image as the heir to Soviet victory in World War II," said Natia Seskuria, associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute.

"Removing this important element weakens the propaganda value of the event, particularly for domestic audiences, as it reduces one of the most visible symbols of Russian power and military prestige,” she told The Associated Press.

Security concerns are the most likely explanation, Seskuria said.

But there also could be practical military considerations, "including the need to preserve equipment, avoid highlighting battlefield losses, and reduce the exposure of valuable military assets,” she said,

"This decision signals a degree of vulnerability rather than strength, because even last year, Russia demonstrated a range of new tanks and drones in front of invited world leaders,” Seskuria added.

An 80th anniversary drew dignitaries

Last year’s parade on the 80th anniversary was the largest since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests like Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fico will attend this year, too, along with other foreign dignitaries, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday.

It featured over 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armored infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine, as well as huge Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as drones carried on military trucks. Fighter jets flew over Red Square, too.

Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7, 2025, and authorities blocked cellphone internet in Moscow for several days to avert Ukrainian drone attacks.

In 2023, the parade was scaled down, with fewer troops and military equipment on display and no flyover.

In the Soviet era, the first Red Square parade marking the defeat of Nazi Germany took place on June 24, 1945. Then it was held on May 9 several times after that, with the last Soviet-era parade taking place in 1990.

After the USSR collapsed, the parades resumed in 1995. That year, troops and veterans marched through Red Square, and a separate parade of military equipment took place at the sprawling Poklonnaya Gora World War II memorial. After that, parades were held every year. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities moved the parade to a later date, and it was held on June 24.

“We will continue to insist that compliance alone is not enough; we must also report the figures to the public in the interest of transparency,” said Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid.

Indonesia began implementing a new government regulationat the end of March banning children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.

Hafid said that young people in Indonesia spend up to eight hours a day online.

Not all social media and digital platforms immediately complied with the regulation, which affects some 70 million children and young people in Indonesia.

TikTok became the first platform to report measurable progress in compliance when it said it deactivated 1.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16.

The country’s large population likely "explains the platforms’ reluctance to accelerate compliance with this regulation,” Hafid said.

Seven of the eight platforms classified as high-risk, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, have committed to restricting children’s access to their services.

Only Roblox, the gaming platform, has yet to agree to block access for children under 16. The company did not immediately reply to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

YouTube announced its commitment to restricting access for younger users three weeks after the restrictions took effect, but has not yet specified how many accounts belonging to children were identified and suspended.

“We remain focused on protecting the community and will continue working closely with the Indonesian government to support a secure digital future for the next generation,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.

Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to follow suit.

Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children’s access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.

Hafid believes there are still challenges in implementing the regulation, and the Indonesian government has said it would allow platforms to determine their own methods for account verification.

“We understand the technology will continue to evolve rapidly. However, the platform is responsible for determining the best and most appropriate technology for its needs,” Hafid said.

Critics have highlighted the practical challenges of enforcing the rule. Reliable age verification often requires collecting sensitive personal data, prompting concerns over privacy and data security. Some children will find a way to use fake identification, such as using their parents’ account, said Nenden Sekar Arum, executive director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, or SAFEnet, a digital rights group.

Arum said that is why the government needs to oversee the user identity verification methods employed by each platform to ensure consistent compliance.

“The core problem is not the presence of children in the digital space, but how that digital space is shaped into a safe ecosystem. And how to ensure that those who are actually making this ecosystem harmful are held accountable. That is what needs to be addressed,” Arum said.

This week, Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock locked in a $150 million state bond to finish four major downtown projects: the Hudson’s Tower, the Book Tower, an expanded Campus Martius, and the new Cadillac Square development.

Hudson’s alone is expected to be done next year. And that is just the construction side.

On the culture side, Detroit just got into the Michelin Guide. Movement is coming, so is the Jazz Festival, the Grand Prix, and the African World Festival in July. And then-- the big one -- the 2027 NCAA Men’s Final Four is less than 11 months away. Plus, three new downtown hotels are opening the same year.

And the numbers back it up. According to the Downtown Detroit Partnership, last year nearly 31 million visited Downtown Detroit — and more than 8.5 million had never been here before.

Claude Molinari, President and CEO of Visit Detroit, joined Local 4 Live to talk about how far the city has come and what’s to come.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

On Wednesday, April 29, 2026, the statewide average reached $4.25 -- over a dollar more than the $3.16 average one year ago. Some gas stations around Metro Detroit are charging over $4.50.

So we’re wondering, what are our viewers doing to cut down on gas spending? Are you leaving the house less? Changing your driving habits?

When we cover rising gas prices, we want to make sure we’re telling the stories our viewers want to see. So please take a moment to fill out the form below and let us know the changes you’ve made!

It was more than four decades ago and Mills, the first female prosecutor working in the state attorney general’s criminal division, secured a successful verdict in a murder trial. Yet a newspaper headline focused on a more trivial angle: “The prosecutor wore pale powder blue.”

“That wasn’t the first time someone underestimated me. And it certainly wasn’t the last,” Mills, now running for U.S. Senate, wrote in a recent memo to campaign donors.

The message is one the two-term governor is returning to frequently as she seeks the Democratic Senate nomination to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Despite having decades in public office and the support of the party establishment in Washington, she's back to being the underdog ahead of the first Democratic primary debate next week.

Mills' top opponent in the June 9 primary, military veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, is drawing bigger, more enthusiastic crowds. He has raised more money than Mills, and has flooded airwaves with ads since entering the race last summer.

Mills argues she is the strongest candidate to face Collins in a race that is crucial to Democrats' effort to win the Senate. Her smaller, more intimate gatherings help her better connect to voters, Mills says. Their May 7 debate is scheduled to be the first of five, and Platner's past controversies will undoubtedly be a focus. She's leaning on her vast experience, while Platner has served no higher than the planning board in a small town.

Speaking after a Portland rally in support of Planned Parenthood, Mills noted she co-founded the Maine Women's Lobby, which has pushed for gender equity since the 1970s, and that she has been fighting for reproductive rights for years. Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Mills earlier this month.

“He’s been nowhere on these issues,” Mills said of Platner. “He’s never walked the walk.”

Establishment vs. new face

Mills has a long track record of success. She’s been Maine’s first woman district attorney, first woman attorney general and the state’s first woman governor. In the Senate race, she is endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

But it's not clear that what has worked in the past will work in this year's Democratic primary, when the party is divided over whether establishment candidates or new faces offer the best way forward. Platner is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and other progressive leaders who say Democrats' 2024 losses prove the party needs a new direction.

Age also has surfaced as a factor. Mills, 78, has said she will only serve one term if elected. Platner, 41, argues voters should elect a senator who will stick around in Washington, where it often takes years to gain seniority and influence over policymaking and funding. Age is a double-edged sword in the race, as Maine has one of the oldest median ages in the country and many thousands of older voters, but Democrats have grown increasingly wary of older candidates since Joe Biden's aborted run for a second term at 81 years old.

“I’m really torn, I want the person who can win,” said Karen Tilbor, 79, who described herself as a supporter of Mills as governor but said she's unsure how she’ll vote in the primary. She said she thinks “many more young people” will vote for Platner.

While Platner has held large-scale rallies and events around the state, Mills supporters say the governor doesn't need to pack theaters or hold rallies because she already has the widespread name recognition and voters largely know her positions and personality.

For voters like Denham Ward, 79, that's important.

“She has got supporters who have known her for a long time, who know what she can do,” Ward said. “She's a known commodity for the state and has an organization that I think can take on Susan Collins.”

Emily Cain is a former Maine state lawmaker and former executive director of EMILY’s List, a group that supports female Democratic candidates and is backing Mills. She said the question ultimately facing primary voters is: “Who do you think has the best chance of beating Sen. Collins?”

Maine supported Democrat Kamala Harris for president over Donald Trump in 2024, but Collins has served for decades by winning as a moderate in a blue state.

“If it’s just about who you like better, or who makes you feel better, then that is different than who you think can win in the fall,” Cain said.

Political liabilities

Even Mills supporters like Cain hesitate in declaring that she holds the upper hand in the Democratic primary.

“I think the governor has a path to victory,” Cain said. “I think it’s going to be up to her, her team and her supporters to get across that finish line.”

Mills argues that Platner, who has courted controversy since entering the race, has political baggage that makes him the riskier candidate to send to the general election.

There have been lingering questions about inflammatory comments Platner made in old online postings, which he has since disavowed but that Mills highlighted in an attack ad where women described his statements as “disgusting.” He has been dogged by questions about the skull-and-crossbones tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol that he said he got during a night of drinking when on military leave in Croatia. Platner has since covered up the tattoo.

Mills also faces challenges. Some liberal voters have criticized her opposition to a voter referendum to create a red flag gun law in the state. The referendum ultimately passed.

Separately, Mills has fashioned herself as an opponent of Trump, a position that may be helpful in much of Maine but could turn off voters in rural parts of the state. Trump won the presidential vote in the Republican-leaning 2nd Congressional District three times in a row.

Platner has centered his campaign on affordability issues such as housing and healthcare and focused his ire on billionaires and what he calls “oligarchy.”

On a recent Saturday, he was joined at a rally by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told the crowd of hundreds that the country needs major change.

Mills, meanwhile, spent a recent Friday visiting with small business owners in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, coastal communities just south of the state’s largest city of Portland.

The events were not designed to attract huge crowds, and they did not. One consisted of her chatting with a handful of patrons at a lunch restaurant and another of her speaking with the owner and staff of a floral shop. They attracted about five to 10 people each.

But some of the voters who were there said Mills' experience in office could benefit the state.

“Janet Mills has a ton more experience at many levels of government and I think has the best chance to hopefully give Maine a little bit of a leg up in terms of getting federal funding for us, and some federal recognition,” said Shelley Stevens, 51, who owns Fiddleheads, the florist in Cape Elizabeth. “It's just very pragmatic for me.”

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Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I.

The program, born in the grief of one of the nation’s worst mass shootings, teaches students how to identify warning signs among their peers and urges them to report any red flags to an anonymous tip system or a trusted adult to head off any violence.

Since that first class in a Columbus church, the program, “Say Something,” has been presented to thousands of students nationwide. Nearly 395,000 tips have been sent in, ranging from threats of school shootings and suicides to drug use and bullying. One tip last year led to the arrest of an Indiana student who threatened a shooting at her school.

“It’s been very successful,” said Hockley, whose son Dylan was among the 20 first graders and six educators who died at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012. “Having had direct experience of both of my children being in a school shooting and my youngest one dying, I feel very compelled to honor that legacy by doing all that I can to prevent future acts of violence and school shootings.”

Trainers with Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit founded in early 2013 by Hockley and other relatives of the Newtown victims, have traveled to all 50 states to show students how to spot signs of potential violence or self-harm — which can include threats on social media, an obsession with weapons or behavioral changes — as well as the importance of speaking up before something bad happens.

Shootings are on students' minds

For students who have grown up in an age where mass killings are often in the news and whose schools regularly run lockdown drills, having a way to take action can be comforting.

“School shootings are definitely very scary, and they do run through your head as a high school student,” said Addison Hunt, a 17-year-old junior at Hanover High School in Hanover, Massachusetts. “But I think being able to have these outlets where you can report things definitely makes me feel a lot safer.”

On a recent afternoon, a “Say Something” instructor took Hunt and her classmates through the program in the auditorium of the school, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Boston.

Keely Rogers, a 28-year-old former high school music educator, explained to the group that research has found that nearly all school attackers showed warning signs beforehand, most commonly on social media.

“You are going to become the eyes and ears of your school through social media, right?” she said. “Your teachers and staff don’t follow the same people as you. They can’t keep an eye out. They can’t keep everyone safe.”

In a slideshow she pointed to an Instagram post, pulled from a real tip to the group’s reporting system, that said, “Don’t come 2 school tomorrow if you wanna live.” Rogers said someone reported the post within three minutes and action was taken.

Ava Khouri, Hanover’s senior class president, said one of the program’s key points, for her, was not to worry about what others will think about you if you speak up.

“I think that definitely students are wary to bring these issues up to adults and administration in the school, because they’re worried they’re either going to be made fun of for tattling or getting someone else in trouble,” she said. “So I think that this program definitely gave light to the fact that you’re not a tattletale if you’re helping someone and you’re helping others.”

Both Hunt and Khouri said they had reported troubling behavior to parents and educators before learning about the program.

A tip leads to an arrest

Trained crisis counselors staff the “Say Something” anonymous reporting system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, referring serious situations to police and school officials. The most common tips are concerns about bullying, drug use, harassment and self-harm, according to Sandy Hook Promise.

Every once in a while, the system receives an alarming tip that is immediately passed on to law enforcement.

Last year in Indiana, among many examples, someone used the system to report that a student was planning a shooting at Mooresville High School, near Indianapolis, on Feb. 14. That's the anniversary of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The student, 18-year-old Trinity Shockley, was arrested Feb. 12.

The tipster, a friend of Shockley, said Shockley was obsessed with the Parkland shooter and had access to an AR-15 rifle, according to a police report. Authorities said Shockley’s social media postings included one that said “Parkland part two. Of course. I’ve been planning this for a YEAR.”

Shockley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced in November to 12 years in prison, though her lawyer insisted that Shockley would not have carried out the plan, local news outlets reported.

Sandy Hook Promise believes that its program and reporting system prevented a shooting in Mooresville, as well as in other communities, and has also stopped suicides.

“So it’s bittersweet,” said Hockley, the co-founder, “because I wish this had existed before Sandy Hook.”

And the Orlando Magic are in position to pull off a stunning upset.

Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs are through to Round 2 after eliminating the Portland Trail Blazers in their Western Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday night and finishing off a five-game ousting.

The Spurs join Oklahoma City (4-0 winners over Phoenix) in the second round. San Antonio awaits the Minnesota-Denver winner. The Thunder could see James in the second round; James and the Los Angeles Lakers have a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets going into Game 5 of that matchup on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday: The eighth-seeded Magic take a 3-1 series lead into Detroit for Game 5 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal, while Toronto goes to Cleveland — with the winner of Game 5 in that series set to emerge with a 3-2 lead.

Tuesday recaps

— 76ers 113, Celtics 97 to get within 3-2 in series. Boston falls apart late.

— Knicks 126, Hawks 97 for a 3-2 series lead. Jalen Brunson broke out.

— Spurs 114, Trail Blazers 95 to win series 4-1.

Stories of note

— NBA moves closer to lottery changes

— Rockets' Kevin Durant out for Game 5

— Jones enters guilty plea in gambling case

— Edwards (knee) officially week to week

— NBA going through bids from Europe

— Pat Riley says Heat will be ‘aggressive’

— Taylor Jenkins set to return to Milwaukee

— AJ Dybantsa formally enters NBA draft

— Donovan steps down as Chicago's coach

— Warriors brace for possible Kerr departure

— Some news, notes going into the postseason

— Heat equipment manager needs transplants

Awards watch

Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics has won the NBA's Executive of the Year award, his second time receiving that honor in the last three seasons.

Other awards being announced this week are the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year on Wednesday and the Hustle Award on Thursday.

A breakdown on the awards handed out to this point:

— San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama became the youngest Defensive Player of the Year, and the first to win the award in a unanimous vote.

— Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nearly became the first unanimous winner of the Clutch Player of the Year award. He got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes.

— San Antonio's Keldon Johnson topped Miami's Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Sixth Man of the Year, getting 63 first-place votes.

— Boston's Derrick White was revealed as the Sportsmanship Award winner, as selected by the league's players. Indiana's TJ McConnell — who got more first-place votes than anyone else — was second.

— Atlanta now has back-to-back Most Improved Player winners, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker taking that trophy this year. Dyson Daniels won for the Hawks last year.

— Dallas' Cooper Flagg edged fellow former Duke player Kon Knueppel of Charlotte for Rookie of the Year.

Among the announcements still to be scheduled:

— Most Valuable Player, which will be either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year, which will be either Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio's Mitch Johnson or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Wednesday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Orlando at Detroit (Prime)

7:30 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Toronto at Cleveland (ESPN)

10 p.m. EDT — Game 5, Houston at LA Lakers (ESPN)

Thursday's games

7 p.m. EDT — Game 6, New York at Atlanta (ESPN)

8 p.m. EDT — Game 6, Boston at Philadelphia (Peacock/NBCSN)

9:30 p.m. EDT — Game 6, Denver at Minnesota (ESPN)

Betting odds

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (-115) are favorites to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+400), Boston (+550), Cleveland (+1500), New York (+2000), the Los Angeles Lakers (+2800), Denver (+3000) and Detroit (+5000).

Orlando, even with a 3-1 series lead on Detroit, is at +25000. Minnesota, even with a 3-2 series lead on Denver, is at +35000 after injuries to Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards.

Key dates

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

Quote of the day

“He should get Executive of the Year for not making a move." — San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, on Spurs general manager Brian Wright and how the team has stayed the course.

Stats of the day

— Boston has wasted leads of 13 or more points in four of its last six home playoff games, going back to last season. The Celtics in that scenario — up 13 or more, in Boston (not the bubble), and in the playoffs — were 66-3 in such games between 2002 and May 2025.

— Teams are shooting .450 from the floor so far in Round 1, on pace to be the worst-shooting conference quarterfinal round in the NBA since 2019 (.447).

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

Sixteen cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada will be hosting the 2026 World Cup in June and July. On average, July is the hottest month of the year for the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and it’s only gotten warmer since record-keeping began in 1895. Wet bulb globe temperatures, which factor humidity, wind speed, sun angle and more, could exceed 90 F (32 C) in the afternoons in the Texas cities of Dallas and Houston and Monterrey, Mexico, research shows.

“Almost all of the host locations, 14 out of 16 of them, experience levels of extreme heat, which could be potentially dangerous to players, match officials and possibly spectators,” said Donal Mullan, a senior lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast who lead a paper last year examining the heat risks of this year's host cities. Some stadiums have the advantage of being fully covered, reducing the risks.

Exposure to heat, amplified during exertion, can lead to nausea, dehydration, headaches, stroke and, in extreme cases, death. Worries from some that millions of people could be exposed during the tournament were amplified in March, when record-breaking temperatures hit large swaths of the U.S. And with global temperatures rising because of pollution from burning oil, gas and coal, scientists have warned that staging soccer tournaments in the summer is getting more dangerous.

The 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar was moved from summer to winter because of the threat of extreme heat. Last year's Club World Cup experienced a heat wave that sent temperatures soaring into the 90s F (32s C) and above in many areas. Following the event, the soccer players' global union warned that extreme heat would likely be an even bigger problem at the next two men’s World Cups. The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

This year, host cities, stadiums and FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, are working to protect players and spectators by conducting heat risk assessments, enhancing shade, cooling zones and water access, stationing medical teams during events and more.

Some plans are still being finalized, but here’s a look at what to expect inside stadiums and at outdoor events:

Protecting athletes and FIFA personnel

Players will get 3-minute hydration breaks midway through each half, regardless of weather conditions, FIFA said. Other welfare plans include allowing teams the usual of up to five substitutions, a minimum of three rest days between matches, and staff and substitutes will have access to climate-controlled benches at outdoor matches. Climate conditions are factored into the match schedule.

“Outdoor matches during the hottest parts of the day have been strategically limited, kick-off times adjusted in certain markets, and matches expected in warmer windows prioritized for covered stadiums where possible,” FIFA said.

The federation has also created a Heat Illness Mitigation and Management Task Force made of medical and operational experts. Ahead of the games, they are finalizing heat-risk alert systems, coordinating stadium medical action plans and other standardized guidance.

Heat messaging, activating extreme heat plans and medical personnel

Officials will be monitoring weather conditions and be prepared to activate extreme heat plans if they determine that temperatures are too hot. If activated, plans will include sending out public safety messaging on how to protect yourself from heat and how to recognize signs of heat exhaustion and stroke.

If Canada's federal agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada, issues an official heat warning, for instance, the city of Vancouver will add more temporary drinking fountains, handwashing and misting stations outside to complement its multilanguage heat awareness campaign.

Along main tournament and festival routes, volunteers will also be providing heat safety information to attendees and workers.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said it will be disseminating heat safety and proper hydration information leading up to and during the games. It will also be launching a heat dashboard for the public with near-real-time data on heat-related emergency room visits in the county.

New York City will be prepared to send out notifications in 14 different languages to its 1.5 million public warning subscribers, as well as international visitors on the Everbridge app and WhatsApp channels.

Educational campaigns are helpful for promoting hydration, use of shade and more, but research shows passively disseminating information doesn't always have the intended effect, said William Adams, assistant professor in kinesiology at Michigan State University who researches exertional heat stress among athletes. It requires a more active approach, but that isn't really feasible with large events like this one, he said.

Medical personnel will also be stationed and available in FIFA Fan Festivals and around several stadiums during matches to manage heat-related illnesses, including at the Toronto Stadium in Canada and the Dallas Stadium in Texas.

At Dallas' outdoor events, all medical professionals will have access to ice and ice immersion bags, and the city’s festival site — where people can watch live matches — will also have two medical stations in climate-controlled locations.

Increased access to shade, water and cooling stations

Cities and stadiums will be increasing access to shade, cooling areas and water for spectators and workers.

In addition to being ready to implement its heat and smoke response plans if necessary, the Seattle Office of Emergency Management in Washington State is exploring using air-conditioned buses, tents and water misters at fan fests and matches.

In Vancouver, there will be shaded seating areas at all the various tournament events and locations around the city.

Volunteers and workers at outside events in Dallas will have mandated rest and hydration breaks. And officials will be working with volunteer organizations to hand out water.

These combined efforts hope to reduce heat‑related illnesses and help minimize strain on local hospitals during the tournament.

Stadium coverage and cooler hours

Some stadiums are covered, such as Canada’s BC Place Vancouver stadium that will host seven games. It is “one of only four 2026 World Cup stadiums which are fully covered so players and fans will not be exposed to weather conditions while inside the stadium,” the City of Vancouver said in a statement.

The Dallas venue has air conditioning and is also enclosed, “so we don’t anticipate any weather-related issues inside,” said Tim Ciesco with the Arlington Police Department.

In Santa Clara, California, all matches will be played in the evening, when weather conditions are cooler.

Elliot Arthur-Worsop, founding director For Football for Future, a group focused on creating environmental sustainability in soccer, said the tournament's organizers have a responsibility to keep people safe. “That’s a social contract that exists between the fans and football governing bodies,” he said. In a climate report they published ahead of this year's games, they found heat and other climate risks will intensify in most stadiums hosting games in 2050.

“By the next time the World Cup comes back and is awarded in this part of the world,” he said, “it will have to be structured differently and adapted.”

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Associated Press writers Graham Dunbar and Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

It’s part of a routine he and other weather observers at Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center, a weather station 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Boston, have followed every day for the last 141 years. Using largely unchanged analog tools, they have built a continuous record of temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind and other measurements that can feed weather forecasts and scientific research.

“My routine is the same every day,” said chief weather observer Douglas, who has worked there since 1997, sporting a dark blue sweatshirt with the name of the observatory on the front. “The only thing that changes are the numbers and the weather itself.”

Blue Hill is the nation’s oldest continually operating weather observatory, according to executive director Alex Evans. Since 1885, staff and volunteers have relied on many of the same instruments, including mercury and alcohol thermometers, hygrometers that use human hair to measure moisture in the air, and that glass sphere on the roof tracking the hours of bright sunshine.

Keeping the same tools in the same place for nearly a century and a half, Douglas said, means that if they spot a change in weather patterns, they can be sure it’s real and not a result of new instruments measuring data differently than the old ones. Having a “tried and true database” as a reference is very important for climate research, he added.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a collaboration between the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing and The Associated Press.

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As climate science has come under fire from the Trump administration, budget cuts and layoffs have swept through federal weather institutions since 2025. Blue Hill, as a private nonprofit, avoided much of this maelstrom. However, its continuing work is not a given. Funding opportunities are limited in this political environment, Evans said.

Blue Hill’s work, though seemingly outpaced by modern technology, serves not just to keep weather records, but also to connect ordinary people to climate science.

A continuous weather record in America makes climate change visible

Few weather observatories in the U.S. are as old as Blue Hill, and fewer still continue to collect data manually. Though similar methods are still used by networks of volunteers across the country that feed data to the National Weather Service, weather observatories — both private ones and those affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — have adopted automated digital systems since at least the 1990s.

Blue Hill sends a daily summary of its observations to the National Weather Service, which chief scientist Michael Iacono said may contribute to weather forecasts in some circumstances, and monthly summaries to the National Centers for Environmental Information, where they can be distributed to climate researchers. Local television meteorologists also receive the daily summaries and may use the observations in their broadcasts in rare cases, he said.

Inside Blue Hill’s round tower, which stands three stories tall with castle-like notches at the top, two weather observers, Douglas and Amanda Joly, share an office filled with the results of their daily work. Boxes with sun cards line the walls, wind-speed charts drawn on EKG paper fill the cabinets and computers store the spreadsheets where Douglas and Joly meticulously record temperature and humidity.

Having records that stretch back over 100 years “is really unique,” said Chris Fiebrich, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma. This “dataset is golden,” he said, because climate change involves slow trends so “you can only see that clearly if you have measurements that go way back, from before we had satellites” and other modern equipment.

Blue Hill’s records show, for example, a 5-degree Fahrenheit (or about 2.8-degree Celsius) increase in the average annual temperature at the observatory since 1885, and that two local ponds remain frozen during winter nearly three weeks less than they did then.

Observers can also spot the impact of climate policies. Since the 1990s, Blue Hill has recorded an uptick in bright sunlight duration after it reached a low point in the 1980s. Because air pollutants like particulate matter interfere with sunlight, cleaner air means more sunshine, so this uptick can partly be traced back to the Clean Air Act — a federal law passed in 1970 and amended in 1990 to improve air quality by reducing emissions of pollutants.

A third of Americans believe climate scientists understand “not too well” or “not at all well” whether climate change is happening, according to a Pew Research Center survey from 2023. Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last September, and has sought to undermine climate science.

At a time when “the word ‘climate’ is politically demonized in some circles,” said Alan Sealls, president of the American Meteorological Society, places like Blue Hill can be “a small part of many possible solutions” to make weather and climate science relatable to people, including children.

Blue Hill connects people to science

The road to Blue Hill Observatory is a winding asphalt track that weaves through forest and borders a ski lift; making the drive, one needs to carefully wend between hikers and dog walkers. At the peak, visitors can enjoy the westward view over the treetops or slip through an open arch into the observatory’s courtyard.

Annie Hayes, a local from Milton who visited Blue Hill in mid-March with her husband and two children, said that seeing how observers collect data builds deeper trust in the science, which otherwise can seem “a little bit of a mystery.”

The mercury barometers in the observers’ office — one of which the observatory believes to be the oldest such instrument in active daily use in the United States — are a case in point. “If somebody’s standing there seeing it while you’re explaining it to them … it becomes a little less scary,” said chief scientist Iacono.

Blue Hill’s barometers, which measure atmospheric pressure, consist of glass tubes and small containers of mercury — a shiny, silver-white liquid — housed in a wooden case on the wall. As air presses down on the exposed mercury, it is forced up the tubes, and how far it travels reflects changes in atmospheric pressure. This is where the pressure unit “inches of mercury” comes from.

Another instrument popular with visitors is the Campbell-Stokes recorder, used to measure hours of bright sunshine. Its glass sphere, mounted in a curved metal frame, acts as a magnifying lens, focusing sunlight onto a paper card and burning a streak along it as the sun moves through the sky.

As she pointed to the glass sphere on display in the history room, Amanda Joly, Blue Hill’s deputy chief observer, explained that this recorder, which dates back to 1898, was stolen in 1993 and later recovered. The upside of that burglary is that, while a modern duplicate does the job on the building’s roof, visitors are now free to interact with the old sphere — something kids love to do — and the observers don’t have to worry about it affecting the measurements.

Hayes’ family, which lives nearby, was checking out some rain gauges in the gift shop when facilities head Don McCasland told them about a new Blue Hill citizen science program, which will allow residents to collect and add weather data to a central database. The family plans to start using their rain gauge this summer.

It’s “a great way to involve the kids and get them excited,” said Hayes. “And who knows? Maybe they’ll find an interest and want to pursue it on their own, too.”

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

Neck-strengthening exercises are integral in the fast-paced world of Formula 1 racing. Plenty of drivers will bring specialized training gear for that purpose when they arrive in Florida for Sunday's Miami Grand Prix, the next event of a lucrative, year-long championship which spans the globe.

Working out with weighted harnesses or using deep body-weight stretches stabilize their heads and help them stay focused on the track through high-speed corners while forces up to five times as strong as gravity heave their bodies from side to side.

Adults with “tech neck” don't work in such extreme conditions, but the training techniques of professional race car drivers highlight an often-overlooked muscle group. Paying greater attention to posture while using screens and adding neck-specific exercises to a fitness routine are small changes that could ease discomfort, according to Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, an Atlanta-based sports medicine specialist who works with athletes of all ages from a range of sports.

“Does a normal person need to have a neck like an F1 driver? Probably not,” Antti Kontsas, an experienced performance coach who worked with four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel and other stars of the sport, said.

Still, “the healthy foundations are the same for the normal person and for the driver. Where you would start is exactly the same," Kontsas told The Associated Press.

As with any other fitness activity, neck training needs to be practiced safely and with attention to an individual's physical needs and limitations. When in doubt, seek guidance from a doctor or other medical professional, especially if you have experienced neck injuries or don't know what might be causing your aching neck.

When you’re aware of your limits, “it’s just knowing the loading, exposing gradually. That’s the safe way to progress,” Konstas says.

How drivers train

The days when F1 drivers smoke and drank before a Grand Prix are long gone. Even in the 1990s, fitness was crucial to Michael Schumacher's success; the seven-time champion from Germany emphasized cardio and strength training. After all, fatigue causes mistakes.

A key element of Kontsas’ training programs is not overlooking the neck, otherwise known as the cervical spine, when exercising your back and core.

Body-weight exercises like keeping the head level with the shoulders in a lateral, or side, plank position can help. Another easy exercise can be done lying down.

“The most simple thing is lying on your back on a bench with your head hanging and then holding your head in a complete horizontal line. You’re holding your head still and seeing how long you can hold that. That’s a good way to train, particularly, the front musculature,” Kontsas said.

To increase the challenge, drivers typically use a resistance band or a weighted harness that straps around the head to work their neck muscles.

Beating the pain of ‘computer neck’

Training doesn't have to take up a lot of time. Even F1 drivers might only do neck exercises for 10 to 15 minutes a session, two or three times a week, according to Kontsas.

If you spend a lot of time at a desk for work, improving neck health can start with a simple reminder to be aware of your posture and simple stretches like tucking the chin back to compensate for leaning forward toward a screen.

“Computer neck,” a modern ailment that causes neck, shoulder and back pain, comes when “your head sits in different positions off the spine” while working, explains Jayanthi.

“You sit in front of the computer for two, three, four hours, and you never realize that your head was in the wrong position the entire time," he said. "So we can go back to positioning our neck and actually doing chin tucks and isometrics to push your head in the correct position on the spine. Just remind yourself every 30 to 60 minutes.”

There's evidence that having a strong neck and trunk can help with other serious issues, according to Jayanthi. For example, neck training is “one of the most accessible, least expensive” options for concussion recovery and prevention, he said.

Likewise, spine strength can be a predictor of injury prevention or mitigation in tennis players, Jayanthi said.

Life in F1 can be a pain in the neck

It’s hard to measure how much faster fitness makes a driver, but it's notable that one of Formula 1's most celebrated non-driver staff members of the last 15 years is Angela Cullen, longtime personal physiotherapist to seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

The physical challenge of racing at the top level can be shock to first-timers.

At age 18, British driver Oliver Bearman made his F1 race debut with two days’ notice as a replacement for Ferrari when regular driver Carlos Sainz, Jr. needed emergency surgery in 2024. Bearman was fit from racing in junior series Formula 2, but the strain on his body from going at F1 speed was in another league.

“Destroyed” was his response to being asked how he felt afterward.

“Physically it was a really difficult race. ... I think especially my lower back and my neck, it’s hurting,” Bearman added.

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Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on all aspects of wellness, at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

Six people were aboard the 145-foot (44-meter) ship, called the Mariana. Divers on April 21 recovered one crew member's body from the overturned ship.

“The decision to suspend the search is an incredibly difficult one that is only made after very careful consideration of all available information,” Cmdr. Preston Hieb of the U.S. Coast Guard Oceania District said in a video posted on X. “From working and communicating with the families, I know how devastated they are by this outcome.”

The search by sea, air and land lasted more than 100 hours and covered an area larger than the state of California, he said. Agencies from Guam, Japan and New Zealand assisted, looking for an orange, 12-person life raft.

The Coast Guard identified the six crew members who were aboard the Mariana as Frederick L. Nosek Jr., Landon Delos Reyes, Jose L. Ramirez, Mohammed A. Rahaman, Chet R. Brochon, and Vincent B. Agulto. Their ages and hometowns were not immediately available.

It also was not immediately known which crew member had been found dead.

“We offer our deepest prayers and ask for God’s comfort and strength to surround their families and friends during this incredibly difficult time,” the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chalan Kanoa in Saipan posted online Wednesday.

The diocese also expressed “profound gratitude” to the Coast Guard and all of the international and military partners in the search. “Thank you for your bravery and your service to our islands,” it said.

Community members held a shoreline vigil for the crew last week, near the 13 Fishermen Memorial Monument honoring the victims of a capsized vessel during a typhoon in 1986.

The suspension of the search came two weeks after the crew notified the Coast Guard that the ship had lost its starboard engines and needed assistance as Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered the Pacific island chain. The Coast Guard lost contact with the vessel the next day.

Heavy wind hindered initial search efforts, but the overturned ship was eventually spotted April 18 about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Pagan, one of the islands that make up the Northern Marianas, which is a U.S. territory.

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

“We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of the Mariana crew, as well as the entire Saipan community,” Hieb said.

Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered the Northern Mariana Islands, causing wind damage and flooding.

Work Location: Detroit, MI

Description

The Client Experience Manager leads a high-performing team of Client Experience Account Managers and a Digital Solutions Planner to drive client satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth. The Manager is responsible for overseeing all aspects of client support, building scalable processes, and fostering a culture of excellence. This role blends leadership, customer engagement, project management, and data-driven strategy to ensure clients receive exceptional service and measurable results.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team that focuses on the client experience through advisement of result-based solutions, execution of campaigns and recommendations for optimization and future growth.
• Develop, implement, and refine workflows that streamline pre- and post-sale processes.
• Establish best practices for client deliverables, including reporting cadence, onboarding, and project management.
• Foster team growth through training on campaign strategy, optimization, and industry trends.
• Track and analyze team KPIs to measure impact and identify areas for improvement.
• Partner with Director of Digital, Digital Sales Strategist and Account Executives to develop and deliver compelling, data-driven presentations using tools like Claritas.
• Support revenue growth by building retention strategies and strengthening client relationships.
• Collaborate with leadership to align client experience strategies with organizational goals.
• Travel for market visits to support client retention and business growth.
• Design and deliver training for Account Executives on Ad Operations processes and data-driven reporting.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of account management experience, preferably within media or digital advertising.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience managing direct reports.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, both pre- and post-sale.
• Proven ability to think critically, proactively solve problems, and adapt to change.
• Strong digital acumen and understanding of marketing trends.
• Ability to train, coach, and inspire team members and sales partners.
• Detail-oriented team player with excellent interpersonal skills.

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A dyslexic teenager from a working-class background, Welch struggled with his college entry exams and took a job installing tires after leaving school at age 15. When he lost that gig, he lined up at the Liverpool job center. The job board featured a funeral director's listing — a “great career," he's sure, but “pretty grim" — and an advertisement for a charity event where entrepreneurs could win business grants.

Welch took that one and, less than 24 hours later, found himself inside a church filled with vintage furniture and friendly grandparents. It looked nothing like ABC's “Shark Tank," but he recalls feeling very much like one of the reality show's contestants as he described his proposal to sell cheaper tires to niche customers like his friends who drove souped-up cars.

That was Welch's first interaction with the then-Prince's Trust, which became known as The King's Trust when King Charles III became Britain's ruling monarch in 2023. “It wasn’t a well thought out plan, really,” said Welch, who is now based in Florida. “But they backed me. And they backed my enthusiasm. And they gave me a chance.”

Generations of Brits can tell stories similar to Welch, thanks to The Prince's Trust and The King's Trust, which have been supporting young people launch their careers since 1976, when then-Prince Charles took his Royal Navy severance pay and established the charity at a time of great economic distress for the United Kingdom. In the past 50 years, the King's Trust says it has reached more than 1.3 million young Brits through its education and employment initiatives, creating countless success stories that include those of celebrated actor Idris Elba and noted fashion designer Ozwald Boateng.

As Charles and Queen Camilla make their first state visit to the U.S. since he became king, their visit will also include a nod to The King's Trust, as the charity works to deepen its impact in more than two dozen countries including the United States. On Wednesday, The King's Trust will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala in New York.

Members of the British Royal Family have traditionally served as patrons of charities, boosting awareness and fundraising for existing organizations in the areas where they rule as nobles. Observers say that Charles' lasting interest in young people's employment is evident in his decision to establish his own foundation and continue lending his title to its expanding work even as he ascended the throne.

“The harsh reality today is that the need for the work of people like the trust is growing at a rate far faster than we can grow,” said Jeremy Green, a trustee of the King's Trust Group Company and chair of the King's Trust USA.

Giving young people an opportunity

The trust's geographic footprint largely consists of countries that, at one point or another, fell under British rule.

Its programs reach young people through schools and established nonprofit partners. They include Get Hired, which helps young people — oftentimes without college educations — land their first jobs, and the Development Awards, a grant that helps them afford purchases to advance their careers such as a laptop or professional clothing.

The Enterprise Challenge is an afterschool program where students develop businesses that address a problem in their community.

“What we see every time is that young people want to be helped. They want to be taken seriously,” Green said. "And it’s not just giving them money. It’s giving them opportunity.”

LaKenya Sharpe, principal of The Collins Academy High School in the Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale, said being taken seriously by The King's Trust has meant the world to her students, who won The King's Trust US' Enterprise Challenge for launching C2C: Crops2Customers. Their business grows and sells fresh vegetables to stores in their area, which lacked access to stores that sold produce.

“A lot of times our babies, especially in this community, feel like no one’s watching, no one is looking, no one is paying attention," Sharpe said. “This shows that they can achieve anything. Their belief now is ‘Oh, other people are watching. Other people are seeing this.’ And they ask ”How far can this go?" My answer is, “It can go as far as you guys take it. Don’t let anything limit you.'”

Highlighting philanthropic ties between the US and UK

Wednesday's gala aims to showcase “the very best of British-American philanthropy through the individual arts, culture, investments between the two countries,” according to The King’s Trust USA CEO Victoria Gore.

The gala arrives at a moment of unusual tension between the elected leaders of the two longstanding allies. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to support the United States’ war in Iran has angered President Donald Trump.

The trust’s leaders emphasized that the anniversary celebrations have been in place long before the recent rift. But Charles' emphasis on the country’s deep philanthropic ties could serve as a reminder of their shared interests, according to JP Tribe, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Liverpool who has written about royal patronages.

“Hopefully the gala is a kind of event which shows that both countries have and can continue to engage in very positive public benefit activity that helps the most disadvantaged in our society,” Tribe said.

Expanding in the United States

The King's Trust US has set a goal to reach 1,000 young people in the United States this year.

Their biggest partner in that effort is City Year, the education nonprofit that introduced The Collins Academy to The King’s Trust and sends young adults to help teach in schools nationwide. AmeriCorps members are helping them pilot a version of the “Get Hired” program. They're also relying on the nonprofit Per Scholas and Maryland school districts to test some other programs.

Gore said student participants tend to be very focused on their immediate communities. The goal is to show them they can have an impact where they live.

"Keeping employment in communities and keeping people in communities is actually the key to everyone’s success," Gore said.

Welch said it doesn't require giant investments to make an impact. He received a 500 pound ($677) grant and, perhaps more importantly, a mentor who provided office space for the nascent company that he’d eventually sell for 50 million pounds ($68 million) to Michelin.

He said the blueprint for The King's Trust's expansion to succeed already exists. It's just a matter of building relationships with on-the-ground partners who can reach the people with the most need.

“What we see in Chicago, what we see in Orlando, is really no different -- with obvious local nuances," said Welch, who launched his latest venture the Anglo Atlantic advisory and investment firm. "But it’s not very different to what we see in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester.”

___

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

Macomb Township man tried to meet minor for sex. Instead, police were waiting

A Macomb Township man arranged to meet a minor for a sexual encounter, but police were waiting for him instead. Now, he’s been bound over on three felony counts.

Angelo Lupo, 49, was bound over on Thursday, April 23, following a preliminary examination before Judge William H. Hackel III in the 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore, according to a release from the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

Read more here.

6 Detroit elementary school students hospitalized after consuming marijuana edibles

Six students at an elementary school in Detroit were hospitalized after consuming what appeared to be marijuana edibles, school officials said.

The incident occurred on Tuesday (April 28) at Edison Elementary School, located at 17045 Grand River Avenue.

District Public School District leaders urged families to secure cannabis-infused products and to speak with their children about the risks of consuming any food or candy that is not purchased directly by them or brought from home.

Read more here.

Former Detroit Pistons sixth man Vinnie Johnson revives site of The Palace with major business expansion

Legendary Detroit Bad Boys sixth man Vinnie Johnson is expanding his automotive business, bringing new investment and jobs to the site where The Palace of Auburn Hills once stood.

Johnson, known to Pistons fans as “The Microwave,” toured a new “Piston Automotive” facility on Tuesday (April 28) afternoon.

Read more here.

Delta launches 3-day sale for US, Latin America leisure spots -- here’s a list of flights from DTW

Delta Air Lines just launched a three-day flash sale, offering deals on flights to popular leisure destinations in the U.S. and in Latin America.

The sale runs from April 28-30, and includes availability from major hubs and many regional cities.

Read more here.

Weather: Spotty showers possible across Metro Detroit, cooler than average temps through the end of the week

Waking up to scattered light rain showers this morning. We mainly dry out and stay cloudy for the afternoon. However, spotty showers could expand across the area this evening. Temperatures top out in the mid to upper 50s today due to the cool, northwesterly winds which will result in temperatures falling roughly 10 degrees below average for late April and early May the remainder of the week.

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The rial had remained stable in the early weeks of the war that began Feb. 28, in part because there was little trading or imports.

The rial began to slide two days ago. Experts warn that its fall is likely to further fuel inflation in a country where many imported goods, from food and medicine to electronics and raw materials, are affected by the dollar rate.

A U.S. naval blockade during the ceasefire has increased pressure on Iran’s already battered economy, cutting into a key source of government revenue and hard currency by stopping or intercepting oil shipments.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday his government was continuing efforts to help ease tensions between the U.S and Iran following an initial round of direct talks on April 11.

The latest slide of Iran's currency comes months after a currency shock helped fuel nationwide protests in January. At the time, the rial weakened from about 1.4 million to 1.6 million to the dollar in less than a week, deepening public anger over rising prices and fears about the country’s economic future.

Iran’s economy has faced decades of sanctions, chronic inflation and a widening gap between official and open-market exchange rates.

Prices of basic household goods had already been rising before the rial's latest fall, adding to pressure on Iranian families. Over the past two weeks, people buying daily essentials have faced higher prices for milk, yogurt, cooking oil, bread, rice, cheese and detergents.

The increases point to broader inflationary pressure in the economy driven by uncertainty, supply disruptions, higher transport and production costs and the continuing impact of the U.S. blockade. The rial’s latest slide is likely to add further pressure particularly on goods tied to imports, packaging and raw materials.

The economic pressure also has extended to the labor market. The reformist Shargh newspaper reported Monday that 500 workers at Pinak in Rasht and 700 workers at Borujerd Textile Factory had been laid off since the beginning of the new Iranian calendar year in late March after their contracts ended.

The reported layoffs add to concerns that rising costs, weaker demand and uncertainty after the war and blockade are forcing some companies to cut jobs or avoid renewing temporary contracts.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has satellite images showing the effects of the latest U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and that “we continue to get information.”

IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched a 12-day war that saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear sites.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog believes a large percentage of Iran's highly enriched uranium “was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and it has been there ever since,” Grossi said.

“We haven't been able to inspect or to reject that the material is there and that the seals — the IAEA seals — remain there,” he said. “I hope we'll be able to do that, so what I tell you is our best estimate.”

Images from an Airbus satellite show a truck loaded with 18 blue containers going into a tunnel at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center on June 9, 2025, just before the start of the June war. Those containers, believed to contain highly enriched uranium, likely remain there.

Grossi says all Iran's nuclear sites must be inspected

The IAEA also wants to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordo, where there is also some nuclear material, the IAEA director-general added.

Iran is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, whose five-year review is underway at U.N. headquarters. Under its provisions, Iran is required to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection, Grossi said.

Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the agency. Grossi has said the IAEA believes roughly 200 kilograms (about 440 pounds) is stored in tunnels at the Isfahan site.

The Iranian stockpile could allow the country to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, Grossi told the AP last year, should Iran choose to rush for the bomb.

Tehran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. President Donald Trump said one of the major reasons the United States went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons even as he has insisted that the strikes last June “obliterated” the country's atomic program.

IAEA has talked to Russia and others about taking Iran's highly enriched uranium

Grossi said the IAEA has discussed with Russia and others the possibility of sending Iran's highly enriched uranium out of the country — a complex operation that would require either a political agreement or a major U.S. military operation in hostile territory.

“What's going to be important is that that material leaves Iran” or is blended to reduce its enrichment, he said.

Grossi said the IAEA participated in the last cycle of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in February but hasn’t been part of recent ceasefire negotiations mediated by Pakistan. He said the agency has been in discussions separately with the U.S. and informally with Iran.

The latest proposal from Iran would postpone discussions on its nuclear program but end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial sea route for oil and natural gas shipments, if the U.S. lifts its blockade and ends the war.

Grossi described that as an indication that Iran wants to sequence how it confronts the objectives mandated by the U.S., including curbing its ballistic missile program and dealing with its proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.

“What is indispensable is that we address it,” the IAEA director-general said of Iran’s nuclear program.

A deal between the US and Iran will take ‘political will’

This will take “political will” from Tehran, he said, stressing that “Iran has to be convinced that it is important to negotiate.”

Iran's leaders say they are willing to negotiate and so does the Republican U.S. president, Grossi said, but “where the frustration kicks in, apparently for both, is that they do not seem to come to agreement, or be at an eye-to-eye level on what needs to be done first, or on how.”

Calling himself a negotiator who likes to see a “flicker of hope,” Grossi noted that “one important thing is that there is apparently an interest on both sides to come to an agreement.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Channel this week that preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon “remains the core issue” that must be confronted.

Asked if he thinks the Iranians are serious about making a deal, Rubio said that they are skilled negotiators looking to buy time and that any agreement must be "one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

Grossi said in any political agreement, full IAEA inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities must take place.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will sit before a Senate committee Wednesday, the last of three budgetary hearings this week, to argue for sharply reduced funding for an agency that has already seen its staffing reduced to its lowest level in decades under his leadership. He took an aggressive approach, responding to Democratic lawmakers with his own questions and at times accusing them of being unprepared or failing to care about the agency’s track record.

Zeldin has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted deregulatory efforts he calls the biggest in American history and canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants to halt what he calls “EPA’s radical diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.”

The Republican administration’s proposed $4.2 billion EPA budget would sharply reduce support for state environmental programs and state-administered loans for water projects. It also would halt what it calls “radical climate research” and slash resources for enforcement and compliance. Officials also asked for more money for faster project permitting and to address drinking water disasters.

Zeldin aggressively responded to questioning from Democrats

Congress gets final say, which commonly departs from White House requests. Last year, lawmakers rejected most of Trump’s proposed cuts, reducing agency spending by just 3.5% despite an administration request to cut spending by more than half. Democrats said the budget plan shows that Zeldin is a friend to industry and ignores the cancers, asthma and other consequences of pollution.

“The budget proposal reads like a climate change deniers’ manifesto,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. At a hearing Monday, she asked how the EPA can justify abandoning its duty to protect Americans “under the false flag of economic growth?”

The EPA has proposed rescinding a landmark finding that climate change is dangerous, loosened Biden-era rules limiting pollution from coal plants and proposed scrapping greenhouse gas emission limits for certain vehicles.

In response to DeLauro, Zeldin asked where the Clean Air Act mentions fighting climate change and whether she had heard of a recent Supreme Court decision that restricted the EPA’s authority to write aggressive regulations.

“You do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it’s a hoax,” DeLauro said.

Zeldin said that he understood she was upset and that she should know about major Supreme Court decisions. “You’re just somebody who likes to have the microphone on,” he said.

It devolved from there. DeLauro said that the Trump administration's behavior is “arrogant” and that it was ”making a mockery of what the agencies are all about.”

Zeldin told California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder that data he cited on the agency's rollback of certain coal plant emissions limits was worthless — “Have your dog pee on it. It is not accurate.” Harder's office later provided the EPA report that it said the numbers came from.

Zeldin's vision for the EPA

Zeldin argued that even with less money, the agency has continued to enforce environmental laws and achieved significant wins: an agreement with Mexico to reduce sewage flows into the heavily polluted Tijuana River and sped-up work to address radioactive contamination in the St. Louis region, as examples.

That work complements strict adherence to the law, a departure from what Zeldin says was the regulatory overreach of President Joe Biden's Democratic administration that wanted to strangle vital industries such as coal.

Republicans were largely supportive of Zeldin’s message that, “Not only will we be able to fulfill all of our statutory obligations, we will be able to do more with less.”

The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law provided tens of billions of dollars for drinking and wastewater loans through programs administered by states. That boost, however, ends this year, and the EPA’s proposed budget would cut off most of the agency’s support.

“It was never intended to be a new norm for spending,” said Virginia Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith.

But that would choke off money to remove harmful PFAS from drinking water. The agency’s contention that better technology could do the job for less was unpersuasive, according to Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts.

“How do we get rid of PFAS in municipal water supplies with 90% fewer dollars?” he asked.

Zeldin responded that technologies were promising and then mentioned congressional earmarks, which members have used to fund projects in their districts with money that would otherwise go to states for loans — a practice many experts have criticized.

“I know that members of Congress are going to raid it, and they have been doing it for a long time,” said Zeldin, a former New York congressman.

Auchincloss replied that Zeldin wasn’t in charge of earmarks and that “hope is not a strategy.”

Zeldin was also questioned about industry influence on policymaking, with a particular focus on the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has attacked environmental harms from products like fertilizer. The movement's biggest champion is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree asked Zeldin whether he understood concerns from those advocates about industry influence at the EPA and the Trump administration's support of more pesticides.

He called much of the lengthy question inaccurate and then mentioned plans to look at microplastics as a potential contaminant in drinking water and an upcoming review of the high-profile herbicide glyphosate.

“I get it, you have an agenda," Zeldin said. “I mean, I understand you’d like to have a gavel in your hand.”

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of the AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Bongos, rare antelopes known for their striking stripes, have been declared critically endangered due to poaching and diseases. There are fewer than 100 mountain bongos left in the wild, according to the Kenyan government. Many were sent to Europe in the 1980s after a major rinderpest disease outbreak killed thousands.

The returnees arrived from Dvur Kralove Zoo in wooden crates at Kenya’s main airport and were received by the Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano, who hailed it as a “homecoming of the majestic bongos.”

It's the third such return in recent years, with the previous one in February 2025. After a period of quarantine and acclimatization, the bongos will be sent to the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, which houses 102 bongos, before being released into the wild.

The conservancy runs a national recovery plan for the mountain bongo in collaboration with the government and plans to use the four bongos to interbreed and strengthen the gene pool.

Kenyan-raised nature explorers and filmmakers Jahawi and Elke Bertolli told The Associated Press that the bongos will bring genetic variation that is critical for their conservation, adding that the species plays a key role in protecting the forests that are vital to Kenya’s water supply.

Czech Republic Ambassador Nicol Adamcova said the relocation reflects a long-standing partnership between the Czech Republic and Kenya in conservation and a shared commitment to protecting endangered species.

Mudavadi said such milestones show what can be achieved when policy, science, and collaboration come together in pursuit of a shared conservation goal.

Performance and driving experience

As the de facto replacement for the recently retired Challenger, the two-door Dodge Charger is significantly longer, wider and heavier than the coupe it replaces. But some of that additional heft can be attributed to its all-wheel-drive system, a standard feature on all current Charger models, which provides better all-weather capability as well as improved off-the-line acceleration.

Both the Charger R/T and Charger Scat Pack come with a new turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine. The R/T’s makes 420 horsepower and the Scat Pack’s high-output version produces 550 horsepower. That’s enough grunt to get the Scat Pack to 60 mph from a standstill in just 4.2 seconds, which is several tenths quicker than both the 480-horsepower Mustang GT and 500-horsepower Mustang Dark Horse models we’ve tested. But we were underwhelmed by the Charger’s lengthy braking distances, and light steering with minimal feedback also makes it difficult to pinpoint the tires’ limit of grip in corners.

Although we tend to associate the name with muscle cars, the modern Mustang has been inching toward sports-car territory for years. That evolution is exemplified by the Dark Horse model, which is tuned for road courses rather than drag strips. The GT and Dark Horse deliver nimble handling, responsive straight-line performance, and massive stopping power. The Mustang’s V8 also sounds better and can be had with a manual transmission for greater driver engagement.

Winner: Mustang

Comfort and convenience

Without an adaptive suspension on the options sheet, the six-cylinder Charger models make do with a solid balance between ride quality and body control. Combined with a nicely calibrated throttle pedal, a smooth-shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox, and a hatchback-style rear liftgate that makes it easy to load and unload bulky cargo, this is a car that’s ultimately at its best when cruising or dispatching daily errands.

Technology is arguably where the Charger makes its strongest case, though. There’s no shortage of USB ports throughout the cabin, along with a wireless charging pad up front, and the 12.3-inch central touchscreen display offers sharp graphics, fast response, and a robust feature set. Dodge also earns bonus points for retaining physical controls for frequently used climate functions.

The level of comfort on offer in the Mustang really comes down to how it’s optioned. Both the GT and Dark Horse are available with adaptive suspensions that are tuned for performance, but the systems allow you to adjust ride stiffness on the fly. No matter how you option it, though, the Mustang’s comparatively svelte proportions equate to tight confines for rear passengers as well as limited cargo capacity.

On the tech front, the Mustang’s big 13.2-inch touchscreen gives its cabin a more contemporary vibe than the outgoing model’s, but all of the climate controls have been moved to this central display. This makes adjustments more cumbersome and distracting.

Winner: Charger

Features and value

With a starting price of $48,645 including destination, the Mustang GT comes in a few grand cheaper than the base 420-horsepower Charger R/T, which starts at $51,990. But stepping up to the Dark Horse requires a substantial outlay of $66,075, and tacking on options can easily push the price to over $70,000.

By contrast, the Charger Scat Pack has a starting price of $56,990, making it a compelling value for those who’re primarily concerned with straight-line performance and creature comforts. But if you’re not judicious with the options, the price can quickly rise into similar territory.

Winner: tie

Edmunds says

Dodge’s reimagined Charger offers turbocharged hustle, a spacious interior, and a level of modernity that its predecessor lacked. But it falls short of the Mustang GT and Dark Horse in a number of performance categories, and its six-cylinder powerplant simply cannot match the extroverted charisma of the Mustang’s V8. The Charger certainly has its virtues, but in this comparison, the Mustang is the clear winner.

_____

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Bradley Iger is a contributor at Edmunds.

GasBuddy reports the average price for regular unleaded gas jumped from $3.78 to $4.19 between April 21 and April 28 -- a 41-cent increase in just seven days. The fuel-tracking company is predicting Michigan could see a total price hike of 65 cents a gallon this week.

Riders fill SMART buses as pump prices climb

In Wixom, the morning commute starts early.

Route 805 departs from the 12-Beck Park and Ride before reaching its final destination in Detroit. It winds through communities, including Redford Township.

Riders say the bus is getting more crowded.

“There’s been a few more people on the bus,” said Jeff Blaisdel, a SMART rider. “Usually, you get your own seat. But there’s not any extra seats anymore.”

Most of these SMART riders say they regularly commute by bus to avoid paid parking downtown.

Saving gas is just an added bonus.

Audricka Grandison, another SMART rider, says she fills up her car only about every two and a half weeks.

For Chris Nuth, the decision to switch from his SUV to DDOT was brand new. When a Local 4 crew met him, it was day one of riding public transit.

“It’s just economical right now,” Nuth said. “Right now, with the price of gas and with everything, you just have to be careful.”

The Detroit Department of Transportation told Local 4 it has seen roughly an 8 percent increase in ridership compared to the same time last year, but it couldn’t attribute the rise to any specific cause.

Despite a particularly cold and snowy winter, SMART experienced notable ridership growth this year. January ridership increased by 4.8% compared to the previous year, with even larger gains of 14.1% in February and 13.8% in March.

Refinery issues add pressure on top of Iran tensions

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, adding ongoing pressure to fuel prices. Yet, geopolitical tensions are not the only driver of this week’s spike.

Two refineries in the Great Lakes region are contributing to the crunch. The Phillips 66 refinery near St. Louis in Illinois is undergoing scheduled maintenance. Meanwhile, the BP refinery in Northwest Indiana unexpectedly lost power overnight recently due to what BP describes as a systems-related issue which is triggering a major flaring event.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, says the convergence of these factors is significant.

“The bottom line for motorists is that we could continue to see prices tiptoeing higher every week or two until the situation with Iran, specifically the Strait of Hormuz, is reopened,” De Haan said.

Michigan gas prices reached $4.29 a gallon as of Monday, matching the previous 2026 high-water mark. De Haan says another jump is possible later this week if oil prices continue to rally.

On Monday, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil was trading at about $97 a barrel as of the interview. Brent Crude Oil -- another major benchmark -- was sitting at about $109 a barrel.

“Without any drastic improvements, we could continue to see prices going up a few dollars every day or two, and that could push us back above the $100 mark,” De Haan said.

Drivers feeling the pinch beyond just the pump

For some, the financial squeeze extends well beyond gas. Kris Golding, who works for G Fence, says he is spending between $200 and $300 a week on fuel and absorbing all of it.

“I’m about ready to buy a horse and buggy,” Golding said. “I got kids at home. I’ve got to feed them, too, because even grocery prices are going up. It’s not even just gas. In order to put gas in the vehicle to provide for the household, you know, you’ve got to make check prices on other things.”

Golding says the spike brings back painful memories of the COVID-era surge, when unleaded gas approached $5 a gallon.

Ways to stretch your fuel dollar

Drivers with flex-fuel vehicles -- sometimes labeled FFV or badged as a flex-fuel vehicle -- may have an option at the pump. E85, a blend of gasoline and up to 85 percent ethanol, is typically priced $1 to $2 less per gallon than regular gasoline.

De Haan cautions that E85 comes with a trade-off.

“E85 generally has about 20 to 25 percent less energy content than traditional gasoline,” he said. “Those who are filling up with E85 will probably see a reduction of about 20 to 25 percent in the amount of miles they get per tank.”

He adds that only flex-fuel vehicles are approved to run on E85, so drivers should check their owner’s manual or contact their dealer before switching.

Beyond fuel type, De Haan offered several tips for improving fuel efficiency:

• Slow down on the highway. Dropping from 70 mph to 65 mph can add 50 to 100 miles per tank -- the equivalent of a couple of gallons.
• Accelerate slowly and use cruise control.
• Remove excess weight from the vehicle.
• Keep tires properly inflated and address any check engine lights promptly.
• Use apps like GasBuddy or Google Maps to find lower prices nearby.
• Check for loyalty programs, which can reduce per-gallon costs by 5 to 10 cents. The Pay with GasBuddy card may offer savings of up to 33 cents per gallon with flash deals.

The facility is in the Perm region of Russia, located in the Ural mountains more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from Ukraine. Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, said it had struck a Russian oil pumping station near the city of Perm as part of efforts to target Russia’s energy infrastructure.

Russian media also reported the attack, though Perm Gov. Dmitry Makhonin said only that a drone hit an unspecified industrial facility, sparking a fire.

Russian officials have not been forthcoming about Ukrainian claims that Kyiv is carrying out more long-range attacks and that its domestically developed drones are increasingly accurate.

Advanced drone technology has become a defining feature of the battle as Russia’s bigger army presses its more than four-year invasion of its neighbor. Ukraine’s response has included a drive to develop new drones for attack and defense.

Ukraine claims it hit a key Russian oil hub

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday posted a video on the Telegram messaging app showing a large plume of black smoke rising into the sky in countryside near a built-up area. Without specifying it was the reported Perm attack or what was hit, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was expanding the range of its long-distance strikes, describing them as a new phase in efforts to limit Russia’s ability to wage war by denying it crucial oil revenue.

It was not possible to independently verify the video.

The SBU claimed that most oil storage tanks at the facility, which it said is owned by Russia’s pipeline operator Transneft and is a key hub in the country’s oil transportation system, were ablaze. The claims could not be independently verified.

Zelenskyy thanked the SBU for the precision of its strikes.

“The straight-line distance is more than 1,500 kilometers. We will continue to increase these ranges,” he said.

The attack came a day after Ukraine struck the Tuapse oil refinery and terminal on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks, prompting the evacuation of local people and threatening what Russian President Vladimir Putin said could be “serious environmental consequences.” Local authorities said the fire at the Tuapse had been “contained” by Wednesday.

Ukrainian drones exploit Russian vulnerabilities

Ukraine has escalated its long-distance strike campaign against Russian oil facilities in an effort to stop Moscow gaining a financial windfall from a U.S. waiver on sanctions amid global supply restrictions caused by the Iran war, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Kyiv is exploiting the vulnerabilities of Russia’s large land mass, it said.

“Ukrainian forces will likely continue to exploit the large attack surface of Russia’s deep rear and overstretched Russian air defenses to launch more frequent and larger strikes against Russian oil infrastructure and military assets, supported by increased Ukrainian domestic drone production,” the institute said late Tuesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its air defenses overnight intercepted 98 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Ukraine's weapon surplus could go to partner countries

After years of relying heavily on foreign military support, Ukraine is now poised to export its sought-after drone know-how.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is producing a surplus of up to 50% in some types of weapons.

Military cooperation with partners supporting Ukraine “is already underway” with countries in the Middle East, the Gulf, Europe and the Caucasus, he said on Telegram late Tuesday.

The deals involve the production and supply of drones and missiles as well as software and technology, according to Zelenskyy.

Kyiv has also handed a proposal to the United States for cooperation on drones, defense systems and other types of weapons for use in the air, on land and at sea, he said.

Russian nighttime attacks wound civilians

Russia, meanwhile, hasn’t eased up on its own long-range attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas, damaging homes and infrastructure, regional authorities said.

Eight people were injured in an overnight attack on the northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

In the northeastern Sumy region, officials said a 60-year-old woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of an attack.

In the southern Odesa region, Russian forces struck Izmail, damaging infrastructure facilities in the city, according to the local administration. A district hospital building was damaged.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 154 of the 171 drones launched by Russia overnight.

___

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

Don’t plant yet! Some patchy frost could possibly develop tonight though Sunday as lows settle into the mid 30s outside of Detroit. Friday night-Saturday morning is expected to be the coldest.

🍇 Grapevine

🌅 Good morning! On this day in 2004, the World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C. to thousands of visitors, providing overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war.

Here are a few things to know about for Wednesday, April 29, 2026:

⛅ 4Warn Weather: Waking up to scattered light rain showers this morning. We mainly dry out and stay cloudy for the afternoon. However, spotty showers could expand across the area this evening. Check the 10-day forecast.

⚖️ Guilty verdict: A jury found Michael Lopez guilty on all counts in the killing of Melvindale police officer Mohamed Said, bringing an emotional end to a nearly two-year wait for Said’s family. Read more.

🗣️ Data Center Controversy: An effort is underway to recall all seven members of the Lyon Township Board of Trustees following months of resident opposition to a proposed hyperscale data center known as Project Flex. Read more.

🐾 Pet Ordinances: The city of Eastpointe has passed a package of updated animal ordinances, including a rule requiring microchipping for all dogs and cats. Read more.

🏭 Pistons Automotive: Legendary Detroit Bad Boys sixth man Vinnie Johnson is expanding his automotive business, bringing new investment and jobs to the site where The Palace of Auburn Hills once stood. Read more.

🏊 Morning Dive

Good morning ☀️

A viral social media post claiming two great white sharks are headed for the Great Lakes is making the rounds and it’s completely false.

Dane Kelly explains why the science just doesn’t add up:

Water too cold, too fresh

The most obvious one: the Great Lakes are freshwater. Sharks need saltwater to survive. That basic biological reality alone is enough to debunk the claim. C’mon, what are we doing here?

Temperature is another problem. The Great Lakes run cold, making them inhospitable to most shark species, including great whites.

Greenland sharks can handle the cold, but they live for hundreds of years. I think they have better things to do than to visit Ohio.

What about bull sharks?

Some sharks, like bull sharks, can regulate salt in their systems and tolerate freshwater for periods of time, but they still require saltwater to survive long-term.

The claim that “some sharks can swim in freshwater” is partially true, but it doesn’t apply to great whites, and it doesn’t mean any shark could simply take up residence in the Great Lakes.

Plus, I don’t know if San Jose is open to trades.

Getting here would be nearly impossible

Even if a great white wanted to reach Lake Erie from the Atlantic Ocean, the journey would be a logistical nightmare. The shark would need to travel roughly 1,000 miles and pass through 15 separate locks, or, alternatively, clear eight locks and then leap up Niagara Falls like a coked-up salmon.

Niagara Falls drops 167 feet. Great white sharks can leap about 16 feet out of the water. They can dunk, sure, but they can’t clear Niagara.

If it were real, you’d know

If a great white shark were actually making its way toward the Great Lakes, you would not learn about it through an AI-generated social media post.

Our newsroom would never shut up about it. It would be my favorite thing. We would have a livestream of the shark’s progress.

Maybe once we get a PWHL team, they would be more likely to visit.

Fingers crossed.

🗞️ Other headlines to know today

• 6 Detroit elementary school students hospitalized after consuming marijuana edibles
• Search suspended for 5 missing crew of ship that overturned near Northern Marianas during typhoon
• Why a family living on the state border pays $2.8K more yearly in Michigan car insurance than Ohio
• Man sentenced in stabbing outside Oakland County restaurant
• King Charles III and Queen Camilla visiting 9/11 Memorial and other NYC landmarks as part of US trip
• How a lost cellphone led to federal charges in Romulus child exploitation case
• Delta launches 3-day sale for US, Latin America leisure spots -- here’s a list of flights from DTW
• ‘Effective immediately’: Wyandotte cracks down on reckless teen biking, parents face citations
• New York City’s first full casino with live table games opens
• Weinstein rape accuser tells jury that ‘he just treated me like he owned me’
• Find more Local News headlines here
• Find more Entertainment headlines here
• Find more Health headlines here
• Check out the latest ClickOnDeals here
• Introducing the ClickOnDetroit Help Desk: How it works and how to use it

🌎 Meanwhile

News from around the world via the Associated Press:

One of the directors of Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country, offered a tearful apology Tuesday to the families of the 25 campers and 2 counselors killed in a 2025 flood.

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

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

----

Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok a proportion of their revenue to pay for news reporters.

The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.

The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector. (Read more)

----

It might be a divided lobster, but it has united New Englanders in fascination.

A Cape Cod seafood company has donated a rare two-colored lobster to a science center, sparing the critter from the kettle because of its remarkable coloration. The lobster found is the typical brown color on one side and bright orange on the other, and the two-toned pattern goes all the way from its head to its tail.

Representatives for Wellfleet Shellfish Company in Eastham, Massachusetts, said Monday they have been fielding inquiries about the crustacean for days. The company gifted the lobster to Woods Hole Science Aquarium in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and it will be put on public display when the aquarium reopens, the company said. (Read more)

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

📝 Word Up

Today’s Word Up is: Whelve /hwɛlv/ (verb) -- defined as “To turn (as a dish or vessel) upside down, usually to cover something.”

Example: “He whelved a bowl over the receipt so that his wife wouldn’t see how much he spent on groceries.”

🧹 Housekeeping

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

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

Things feel a bit different now, with the Wild going home for Game 6 on Thursday night with a chance to eliminate the Dallas Stars and advance to the second round for the first time since 2015.

“I think it’s important just to stay calm. You know, don’t overthink it,” said Zuccarello, the 16-year NHL veteran in his seventh season with the Wild. “Don’t read whatever you guys (media) say about we haven’t gotten out of the first round in a couple of years. Just calm and collected.”

Zuccarello scored the first goal less than four minutes into Game 5 on Tuesday night in Dallas, which was the 38-year-old top-line forward’s return from a three-game absence with an upper-body injury. The Wild, in their 12th playoff appearance over 14 seasons, went on to a 4-2 win for a 3-2 series lead.

The only other time Minnesota has ever had a 3-2 series lead was that first round in 2015, when they beat St. Louis in six games. The Wild have since lost nine consecutive playoff series, including to Dallas in 2016 and 2023.

“We’ve got to just look to control our emotions in Game 6 and in front of our home crowd, a place where we had a good feeling leaving last time,” said forward Marcus Foligno said, who is in his ninth season. “I think it's a little bit different. I think we have a lot of leadership and guys that are experienced. ... It’s a close group but a really hard working group and a confident one right now.”

Wild captain Jared Spurgeon and fellow defenseman Jonas Brodin are the only two current players who have taken part in a postseason series victory in Minnesota. Spurgeon was then a 25-year-old in his fifth of his 16 NHL seasons — all with the same team. Brodin's status is uncertain for the potential clincher at home after leaving Game 5 with a lower-body injury.

If Minnesota can't wrap up the powerhouse first-round series at home, where it won Game 4 in overtime, a deciding Game 7 would be Saturday in Dallas.

The series winner will advance to play well-rested top-seeded Central Division foe Colorado, which finished off a sweep of its first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings last Sunday.

Kirill Kaprizov had two assists on Tuesday night, two days after his 29th birthday, before an empty-net goal with two minutes left. His second goal in this series was the 17th playoff goal of his career, breaking a tie with Zach Parise for the most in franchise history. His ninth career multipoint playoff game also surpassed Parise.

Matt Boldy, the 25-year-old budding standout, had the tiebreaking power-play goal in the final minute of the second period after having one taken away because of a goalie interference challenge at the end of the first.

Jesper Wallstedt, their 23-year-old rookie who has started every game in net over Filip Gustavsson in this series, had 20 saves in Game 5. He has allowed only three goals against the Stars in five-on-five situations, with neither coming that way.

“We’re very confident of where we’re at. ... Now we get to bring the series home,” Wallstedt said. “I’ve never played in a game of that type of magnitude. I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to it so much.”

___

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

The conviction for obstruction of justice and other charges comes on top of a life sentence he has already received on rebellion charges stemming from his baffling authoritarian push, which triggered the most serious crisis for the country’s democracy in decades.

Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court said the conservative former president sidestepped a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law, falsified documents to conceal the lapse, and deployed security officials “like a private army” to resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him in the weeks following his impeachment. Former President Yoon stood quietly as the verdict was delivered and made no comment.

Yoo Jeong-hwa, one of Yoon’s lawyers, called the verdict “very disappointing” and said the legal team would appeal to the Supreme Court. Yoon has also appealed his life sentence.

A lower court in January sentenced Yoon to five years in prison but partially cleared him of abuse-of-power charges tied to the Cabinet meeting ahead of the martial law declaration, finding he was not responsible for the failure to attend of two members who were invited.

The Seoul High Court reversed that acquittal, finding him guilty on all counts and ruling that he violated the rights of those two as well as seven other Cabinet members who weren’t notified by convening only a select few to simulate a formal meeting.

Though brief, Yoon’s Dec. 3, 2024, martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June.

Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025.

Following his suspension from office, he refused to comply with a Seoul court's warrant to detain him for questioning, setting up a standoff in which dozens of investigators arrived at the presidential residence in early January 2025 but were blocked by presidential security forces and vehicle barricades. He was detained later that month, released by another court in March, and was then re-arrested in July.

He remained in custody after that as a series of criminal trials, which are continuing, began.

Wednesday’s ruling came a day after the same court increased to four years the sentence of Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, for charges including accepting luxury gifts from the Unification Church, which sought political favors from Yoon’s government, and involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme.

Prosecutors in a separate trial last week also requested a 30-year prison term for Yoon over allegations that he deliberately tried to escalate tensions with North Korea in 2024 by ordering drone flights over Pyongyang as he sought to create justifiable conditions for martial law at home.

From April 29 through May 5, fans can buy $30 tickets through Live Nation’s Summer of Live sale.

Live Nation All Access members get early access to the sale from April 23 to 28.

How to buy $30 tickets

Here’s how you can buy tickets through this sale, according to Live Nation:

• The general on-sale will begin on Wednesday, April 29, at 10 a.m. local time through Tuesday, May 5, at 11:59 p.m. local time.
• All tickets are available at LiveNation.com/SummerofLive.

When purchasing the tickets, fans should look for the “Summer of Live Promotion” ticket type.

Last year, Live Nation held a similar sale, and before that, it offered tickets for $25 during the Live Nation Concert Week sale.

List of participating Metro Detroit shows

Little Caesars Arena

• 4/28 Demi Lovato with ADÉLA
• 5/31 Summer Walker with Monaleo and Odeal
• 6/25 Josh Groban with Jennifer Hudson
• 7/1 Lionel Richie & Earth, Wind & Fire
• 8/15 Bryan Adams with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo
• 11/1 Maná
• 11/8 ZAYN

Fox Theatre

•  5/13 Dethklok & Amon Amarth with Castle Rat
• 5/17 Ari Lennox with Lekan and PHABO
• 5/19 Charlie Puth with Daniel Seavey and Ally Salort
• 6/23 Marcus King Band with Penelope Road
• 6/29 An Evening with Chicago

Pine Knob Music Theatre

• 5/23 Kid Cudi with M.I.A., Big Boi and A-Trak
• 6/5 Kesha with Chromeo & Sizzy Rocket
• 6/16 MGK with Wiz Khalifa and Mod Sun
•  6/18 Santana & The Doobie Brothers
• 6/19 Sammy Hagar with Rick Springfield & Dauzat St. Marie
• 6/21 Godsmack with Stone Temple Pilots & Dorothy
• 6/27 Darius Rucker with Corey Kent, Lauren Alaina, and Austin Williams
• 7/1 The Pussycat Dolls with Lil’ Kim & Mya
• 7/3 The Guess Who with Don Felder
• 7/12 Luke Bryan with Shane Profitt, Lauren Watkins, RaeLynn and DJ Rock
• 7/13 Muse with Bloc Party & The Temper Trap
• 7/16 John Mellencamp
• 7/17 Hank Williams with Sammy Kershaw and Mary Kutter
• 7/18 The Black Crowes & Whiskey Myers with Southall
• 7/20 Mötley Crüe
• 7/26 KIDZ BOP LIVE
• 7/30 311 & Dirty Heads with Ocean Alley & ROME
• 7/31 Lynyrd Skynyrd & Foreigner with Six Gun Sally
• 8/1 Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band
• 8/2 Evanescence with Spiritbox & Nova Twins
•  8/4 Avenged Sevenfold & Good Charlotte
• 8/5 Train with Barenaked Ladies & Matt Nathanson
• 8/6 5 Seconds of Summer with The Band CAMINO
• 8/16 Five Finger Death Punch with Cody Jinks and Eva Under Fire
• 8/21 Deep Purple with Kansas
• 8/22 Outlaw Music Festival with Willie Nelson & Family, The Avett Brothers, Lukas Nelson, Stephen Wilson Jr, Sierra Hull and Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble
• 8/23 TLC & Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue
• 8/28 Tim McGraw with 49 Winchester
• 8/29 Toto with Christopher Cross & The Romantics
• 9/4 Rob Zombie & Marilyn Manson with The Hu & Orgy
• 9/6 Wu-Tang Clan with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
• 9/13 Breaking Benjamin with Chevelle, Starset & Kami Kehoe
• 9/15 $UICIDEBOY$ with Destroy Lenely, Shakewell, DRAIN, Black Kray & $lim Gucci
• 9/18 Babymetal with Halestorm & Violent Vira
• 9/24 Brooks & Dunn with David Lee Murphy & Willow Avalo
• 9/27 Stain with Seether, Hoobastank & Hinder

Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre

• 5/13 Yellowcard with New Found Glory and Plain White T’s
• 5/21 Khalid with LAUV
• 5/23 The Kid LAROI with Tommy Richman and Wiz The MC
• 6/5 Parker McCollum with Max McNown and Kassi Ashton
• 6/9 Mt Joy
• 6/13 Turnpike Troubadours with Muscadine Bloodline and Katie Pruitt
• 6/25 Young the Giant with Cold World Kids and Almost Monday
• 7/10 Ted Nugent
• 7/15 Sarah McLachlan with Allison Russell
• 8/15 Motionless in White with Lorna Shore, Fit for a King and Static Dress
• 8/19 Lindsey Stirling with PVRIS
• 8/20 Empire of the Sun with Polo & Pan and Midnight Generation
• 8/22 Billy Currington & Kip Moore with Kenny Whitmire
• 8/28 The Fray with Dashboard Confessional and Colony House
• 8/29 The Rock Orchestra
• 9/5 O.A.R. (…of a Revolution) with Gavin DeGraw and K.T. Tunstall
• 9/12 Dermot Kennedy with Jonah Kagen
• 9/29 Bleachers with This is Lorelai

Meadow Brook Amphitheatre

• 5/16 SatchVai Band (Joe Satriani and Steve Vai) with Animals as Leaders
• 5/31 Primus, Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade & The Claypool Lennon Delirium
• 6/13 Wilco
• 7/24 Emmylou Harris and Graham Nash
• 7/29 Rainbow Kitten Surprise with Spacey Jane
• 8/8 Howard Jones, Wang Chung, English Beat, Modern English with Richard Blade
• 8/15 The Beach Boys
• 8/30 NEEDTOBREATHE with Drew & Ellie Holcomb
• 9/24 CAAMP with Whitney

Here’s why the science just doesn’t add up.

Water too cold, too fresh

The most obvious one: the Great Lakes are freshwater. Sharks need saltwater to survive. That basic biological reality alone is enough to debunk the claim. C’mon, what are we doing here?

Temperature is another problem. The Great Lakes run cold, making them inhospitable to most shark species, including great whites.

Greenland sharks can handle the cold, but they live for hundreds of years. I think they have better things to do than to visit Ohio.

What about bull sharks?

Some sharks, like bull sharks, can regulate salt in their systems and tolerate freshwater for periods of time, but they still require saltwater to survive long-term.

The claim that “some sharks can swim in freshwater” is partially true, but it doesn’t apply to great whites, and it doesn’t mean any shark could simply take up residence in the Great Lakes.

Plus, I don’t know if San Jose is open to trades.

Getting here would be nearly impossible

Even if a great white wanted to reach Lake Erie from the Atlantic Ocean, the journey would be a logistical nightmare. The shark would need to travel roughly 1,000 miles and pass through 15 separate locks, or, alternatively, clear eight locks and then leap up Niagara Falls like a coked-up salmon.

Niagara Falls drops 167 feet. Great white sharks can leap about 16 feet out of the water. They can dunk, sure, but they can’t clear Niagara.

If it were real, you’d know

If a great white shark were actually making its way toward the Great Lakes, you would not learn about it through an AI-generated social media post.

Our newsroom would never shut up about it. It would be my favorite thing. We would have a livestream of the shark’s progress.

Maybe once we get a PWHL team, they would be more likely to visit.

Fingers crossed.

George Pointer, 68, of Mt. Clemens, was sentenced to 56 months to 7 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections. Four of the eight counts against him were dismissed.

Pointer was sentenced on two counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and two counts of using a computer to commit a crime related to possession of child sexually abusive material.

As part of his sentence, Pointer must register as a sex offender under Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) as a Tier 2 offender. He is also subject to Wyatt’s Law.

Wyatt’s Law is designed to protect children from serial abusers. It gives parents access to information about adults with prior child abuse convictions who are caring for their children, helping stop repeat offenders before they can harm another child.

The law is named after Wyatt Rewoldt, who was abused by his father’s girlfriend. She had a previous history of child abuse that his family had no way of knowing about.

Pointer was arraigned on Oct. 31, 2025, on eight charges stemming from an investigation that began April 14, 2025, when authorities allegedly found “many files of child sexually abusive material” in his possession, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

His original charges included:

• One count of aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material (10-year felony)
• One count of using a computer to commit a crime related to aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material (10-year felony)
• Two counts of using a computer to commit a crime related to possession of child sexually abusive material (each a 7-year felony)
• Two counts of possession of child sexually abusive material (each a 4-year felony)

A judge had set Pointer’s bond at $500,000 cash/surety, 10%, at arraignment.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald announced charges on Monday (April 27) against Rehman, including third-degree fleeing and eluding and driving with a suspended license.

Police said the incident occurred on April 24 when Rehman was driving a white Tesla Model 3 and allegedly ran a red light in Royal Oak, prompting an officer to initiate a pursuit.

During the chase, Rehman is accused of weaving through traffic at high speeds before losing control of the vehicle.

Police said the vehicle then crashed into a Verizon store at the corner of Lewiston Avenue and Woodward Avenue in Ferndale.

Investigators said Rehman had a suspended driver’s license, outstanding warrants, and no insurance at the time of the crash.

Third-degree fleeing and eluding is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $1,000 fine.

Driving with a suspended license is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

Rehman’s charges are pending.

Angelo Lupo, 49, was bound over on Thursday, April 23, following a preliminary examination before Judge William H. Hackel III in the 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore, according to a release from the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

The purpose of a preliminary examination is for a judge to determine if there was sufficient evidence to bind the defendant over to a higher court, where they could then face trial.

Lupo was bound over on the following charges:

• Accosting a child for an immoral purpose — a four-year felony
• Using a computer to commit a crime (maximum sentence of four to less than 10 years) — a seven-year felony
• Possession of cocaine, heroin, or another narcotic under 25 grams — a four-year felony

Prosecutors say Lupo arranged a meeting on Nov. 13, 2025, with someone he believed was a 15-year-old minor for the purpose of a sexual encounter.

When he arrived at the meeting location, New Baltimore law enforcement officials were waiting and arrested him.

Lupo is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court on Monday, May 11, 2026.

“Protecting children is not optional, it is the core duty of any just society,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said. “Justice demands that those who prey on the vulnerable are identified, prosecuted, and held fully accountable. As prosecutors, we will use every lawful tool available to ensure predators face consequences and our communities remain places where families can live without fear.”

Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference after a 60-22 regular season, has been outplayed in three of the first four games and now faces elimination in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena.

History offers mixed comfort

The situation echoes a notable chapter in franchise history.

In the 2003 playoffs, Orlando, led by Tracy McGrady and coached by Doc Rivers, took a 3-1 series lead over Detroit before the Pistons rallied to win in seven games.

That comeback was fueled in part by McGrady’s now-famous remark, “It feels good to get into the second round.”

Like in years past, Orlando holds the advantage, and its confidence has been evident.

During their Game 4 victory inside the Kia Center, fans held signs reading “Magic in 5.”

History offers only limited encouragement as 13 teams have rallied from 3-1 deficits to win a postseason series, most recently the Denver Nuggets in 2020, when they did so twice inside the league’s pandemic “bubble.”

The most famous comeback came in the 2016 NBA Finals, when LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Golden State Warriors.

An early exit would put Detroit in rare company as only two teams in NBA history, the 2007 Dallas Mavericks and the 2011 San Antonio Spurs, have won at least 60 games and failed to advance beyond the first round.

There have been only six No. 8 seeds to have ever upset a No. 1 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs, taking place in 1994 (Denver over Seattle Supersonics), 1999 (New York Knicks over Miami Heat), 2007 (Golden State Warriors over Dallas Mavericks), 2011 (Memphis Grizzlies over San Antonio Spurs), 2012 (Philadelphia 76ers over Chicago Bulls) and 2023 (Miami Heat over Milwaukee Bucks).

Pistons’ struggles run deep

The Pistons’ struggles have been consistent throughout the series.

All-Star guard Cade Cunningham scored 25 points in Game 4 but shot just 7 of 23 from the field and committed eight turnovers.

He has 24 turnovers over the past three games, the most in a three-game postseason span since the league began tracking the statistic in the 1977-78 season, according to ESPN.

Center Jalen Duren added 12 points in Game 4 but has struggled to assert himself against Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. Veteran Tobias Harris finished with 20 points and six rebounds but missed all five of his 3-point attempts, including several open looks late.

Former Michigan Wolverines standout Duncan Robinson scored seven points while shooting 1 for 6 from beyond the arc and was frequently targeted defensively.

As a team, Detroit went just one for 16 from three-point range in the second half of Game 4, a slump that underscored its offensive inconsistency.

The Magic, meanwhile, have controlled the tempo and executed on both ends, putting Detroit on the brink of elimination.

What’s next

Despite the deficit, the Pistons can draw on their past comeback for inspiration.

But to avoid elimination and a historic disappointment, Detroit will need a far sharper performance in Game 5.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. EST.

One of the convictions was for first-degree murder.

At least 10 deputies lined both sides of the courtroom aisle as the verdict was read.

Before the verdict was read, those in the gallery were instructed to control their emotions “regardless of the verdict.”

When the final “guilty” was read aloud, members of Said’s family expressed relief.

“Today we are so glad we heard something to make us happy,” Said’s uncle Dave Said, said outside the courtroom.

“It’s a happy moment. We’ve been waiting so long, it’s been almost two years,” his brother, Ahmed Said, said. “Finally, it came to an end.”

Jurors deliberated for roughly two hours before returning their verdicts against Lopez, who was accused of shooting and killing Officer Said on July 21, 2024.

During the trial, prosecutors said Lopez shot Said after a minor interaction escalated.

Lopez testified that the encounter stemmed from him flicking a cigarette onto the ground, and the officer told him to pick it up.

The situation intensified; at one point, Said used a stun gun on Lopez.

Later, Lopez shot the officer, who died.

Lopez’s attorneys argued he fired in self-defense.

Prosecutors countered that the shooting was not self-defense and that Lopez harbored animosity toward police.

Throughout the trial, Lopez’s behavior drew attention.

At times, he appeared to smirk; at other points, he had outbursts, including shouting that “they don’t care about my life” and claiming his attorney was not fighting for him.

He was escorted from the courtroom, causing delays in the proceedings.

The jury ultimately convicted Lopez on all charges, including first-degree murder, drug offenses, and felony in possession of a firearm.

“Justice has been served,” one man leaving the courtroom said.

Melvindale’s police chief said the department will always remember Officer Said.

Sentencing for Lopez is scheduled for May 18.

The EU's executive branch said Meta Platforms lacked effective measures to prevent children younger than 13 from signing up, and that it was not doing enough to identify and remove children after they had opened accounts.

Meta's own minimum age to open an account on Facebook or Instagram is 13.

The problem is not just that children are getting access. The European Commission said Meta is also inadequately assessing the risk of children younger than 13 being exposed to “age-inappropriate experiences” on the platforms.

Meta disagreed with the decision, saying that it has measures in place to detect and remove accounts for anyone younger than 13.

“Understanding age is an industry-wide challenge, which requires an industry-wide solution, and we will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission on this important issue,” the company said in a statement, adding it will have more to share next week about additional measures it plans to roll out soon.

Brussels is targeting the Meta with the Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations that requires tech companies operating in the 27-nation bloc to do more to clean up online platforms and protect internet users.

Meta now has the chance to respond to the preliminary findings, before the commission issues its final decision. Violations can result in hefty fines worth up to 6% of a company's worldwide annual revenue.

Henna Virkkunen, an executive vice president at the European Commission, said the bloc's investigation launched in 2024 found that Instagram and Facebook “are doing very little” to prevent children from getting access despite their own terms and conditions indicating “their services are not intended for minors under 13."

“The DSA requires platforms to enforce their own rules: terms and conditions should not be mere written statements, but rather the basis for concrete action to protect users – including children,” she said in a statement.

Atletico last played in the semifinals in 2016, when it reached the final before losing to city rival Real Madrid. Arsenal last appeared in the final in 2006, when it lost to Barcelona.

“It’s a huge objective, something the club has never achieved,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said Tuesday. “But it’s a soccer match and, ultimately, it’s the players who decide these games.”

Simeone could be without striker Ademola Lookman, who missed the last two games because of a muscle issue.

Kai Havertz has been ruled out for Arsenal. The Germany international was substituted in the first half of Arsenal’s win over Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday because of a muscle injury. Jurrien Timber also won’t make it to Wednesday’s match.

Arsenal was eliminated by eventual champion Paris Saint-Germain in last year’s semifinals.

PSG edged Bayern Munich 5-4 at home Tuesday in the first leg of the other semifinal.

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

The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.

The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work.

“It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content,” Albanese told reporters.

“We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” he added.

It’s Australia's second legislative attempt to make the platforms pay for the Australian news text and images that their users view.

Digital platforms had been pressured to strike deals with Australian news publishers to pay for journalism by legislation passed in 2021 that created the country's News Media Bargaining Code.

The platforms chose to reach commercial deals with news creators rather than be forced into arbitration and have a judge set the price.

But they have since avoided renewing those deals by removing news from their services.

The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue.

The platforms would be given offsets and their overall costs would be lowered if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said.

The government expects the incentive would raise between 200 to 250 million Australian dollars ($144 million-$179 million) a year. That was about as much as the platforms paid news outlets when the News Media Bargaining Code was working at its peak.

The government would distribute that income among news organizations based on how many journalists each organization employed, Communication Minister Anika Wells said.

The tax would apply to Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., and TikTok, which is majority-owned by U.S.-backed investors.

Opposing the proposed legislation, Meta said news organizations “voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.”

“The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” Meta said in a statement.

“A government-mandated transfer of wealth from one industry to another, with no connection to the value exchanged, will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector. Instead, it will create a news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme,” Meta added.

Google said “we reject the need for this tax.”

“It ignores the fact that Google already has commercial agreements with the news industry, misunderstands how the ad market changed and mandates payments from some companies while arbitrarily excluding platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI -- despite the major shift in how people consume news,” a Google statement said.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All the targeted platforms are American. U.S. critics have argued that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code had disproportionately cost American corporations.

Albanese was not concerned by potential pushback from the United States.

“We’re a sovereign nation and my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” Albanese said.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino pushed for changes after Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni tried to hide verbal insults toward Vinícius Júnior in a Champions League game and Senegal's team walked off the field to protest a referee's decision in a heated and chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final.

Soccer’s rulemaking panel, the International Football Association Board, agreed that players can be penalized with a red card if they cover their mouths when verbally confronting another player.

The rule is not mandatory within The Laws of the Game but gives competition organizers like FIFA the option to use it.

It was unanimously approved by IFAB officials from FIFA and the four British soccer federations at a special meeting Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, ahead of the FIFA Congress on Thursday.

FIFA's proposal followed Vinícius, backed by Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé, accusing Prestianni of making a racially charged insult while raising his jersey to cover his mouth during the game in February.

Last week, UEFA handed Prestianni a six-game ban — three of the games deferred for a probationary period — for the verbal abuse, which it said was homophobic. UEFA could not prove the racial insult which Prestianni denied, though he admitted using a homophobic slur.

If Prestianni is selected for Argentina's World Cup squad, he must sit out the defending champion's first two matches in June, although the ban can be appealed.

“At the discretion of the competition organizer, any player covering their mouth in a confrontational situation with an opponent may be sanctioned with a red card,” IFAB said.

IFAB also agreed any player who leaves the field in protest of a referee's decision can be sanctioned with a red card. The rule also applies to team officials who urge players to leave the field.

Senegal players left the field during stoppage time of the AFCON final in January to protest host nation Morocco being awarded a penalty when the score was 0-0. Play was delayed for nearly 15 minutes before Morocco's spot-kick was saved. Senegal scored in extra time to win the title.

Senegal was later stripped of the title by an appeals panel of African soccer's governing body, and the case will now be judged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

IFAB said the amendments will be communicated to all 48 teams playing in the World Cup starting June 11, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 31-year-old two-way superstar gave up two runs, one earned, and five hits while walking three against the Miami Marlins. He threw 104 pitches — his most for the Dodgers — with 67 for strikes before leaving trailing 2-0. The Dodgers lost 2-1.

“Stuff-wise, it wasn’t that great,” Ohtani said through a translator. “I wasn’t happy with how the runs scored, too. So overall, it wasn’t that great of an outing.”

It was the second time in three weeks Ohtani only pitched and wasn't in the batting order as the designated hitter.

“It’s almost like a half-day for him,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “I think that in itself is a win for his mind and body.”

Dalton Rushing replaced Ohtani as both the DH and leadoff hitter. Rushing was 0 for 4 with a run scored and a strikeout.

Roberts said the lineup's performance when Ohtani isn't the DH won't figure into decisions on when to use him solely as a pitcher.

“Even without him in the lineup, we should have won the game,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers are trying to carefully manage Ohtani's workload in his first full season with them as a two-way player on a team that is attempting to win a third straight World Series championship.

“Obviously having him do both duties, theory, practice, it’s great,” Roberts said beforehand. “But how sustainable is it without kind of taking a little bit off his plate? That’s the question and it’s not exact science.”

It's too early for Ohtani to tell whether sometimes being a one-way player will preserve him for a potential run deep into the postseason.

“We're only going to find out in the totality if it’s a plus or a minus,” he said. “I think for players who want to do two-way and want to DH, they should get the option to do DH. But at the same time, it’s hard to tell now. We’ll see how it goes at the end of the season.”

Ohtani said he will respect any decisions that are made about when he pitches and hits or just hits.

“I also understand the importance of getting to the end of the season with everybody healthy,” he said. “So talking with the training staff, talking with the team, I think it’s really important that the team makes the decision on what’s good for the team.”

Struggling with his command at times, Ohtani gave up his second earned run in 30 innings over five starts this season, bumping his ERA from 0.38 to 0.60.

“I don’t think he felt completely in sync,” Roberts said. “There was a lot of misfires and bad misses. It was probably with him a delivery situation. But for him to find a way to still navigate six innings and then give up two runs, we should win the game.”

Ohtani was pitching on five days’ rest for the first time this year instead of his usual six or more.

“From the bullpen (onward), I didn’t exactly feel like my stuff was in line with where I wanted to be,” Ohtani said. “I feel great physically. I think it’s something to do with my mechanics.”

Ohtani joined Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 and himself last season as the only Dodgers pitchers to allow just one run over their first five starts of a season. In 2025, Ohtani did so while tossing only 9 1/3 innings.

Ohtani will return to hitting Wednesday afternoon in the series finale.

The four-time MVP is batting .278 with six home runs, 13 RBIs and 32 strikeouts in 108 at-bats. He has an .898 OPS.

“I do feel like over the course of my career it’s just a reality that I’m not exactly hitting at the best of my ability at this time of year,” Ohtani said. “At the same time as a player, I do want to be better and get to that position where I’m feeling really good. It’s a balancing act of the two.”

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

De'Aaron Fox had 21 points, Julian Champagnie added 19 and Dylan Harper scored 17 for the Spurs, who led by as many as 28 in winning their third straight game in the best-of-seven series to advance to the second round.

“We didn’t want to go back to Portland,” Champagnie said. “That was kind of the emphasis for the guys on the team. We just didn’t want to fly back to Portland. It's a four-hour flight. So being up 3-1 and playing at home, it’s a good chance to close it out and not go back. So, that was all of the motivation we needed tonight.”

San Antonio advances to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since 2017, when it beat the Houston Rockets before losing Kawhi Leonard to an ankle injury and then getting swept by Golden State in the conference finals.

The Spurs will face the winner of the series between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves lead that series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday.

Leonard’s injury and subsequent trade led to a rapid descent in the Spurs’ fortunes. That futility allowed San Antonio to draft Wembanyama, and the 7-foot-4 center from France was stellar in closing out the Blazers.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Portland coach Tiago Splitter said of Wembanyama's defense. “You've got to do a lot of tricks and try to set back screens and seals and spin actions. It's not easy, because he can contest the 3 and the rim at the same time, basically. He's going to create a lot of problems for a lot of teams for a long time.”

Portland cut its deficit to 91-82 with eight minutes remaining following an 11-0 run. But the Spurs stuffed the rally, including Wembanyama sending Deni Avdija’s floater off the top of the backboard and into the crowd in the final minutes.

Avdija finished with 22 points, but was 1 for 6 from 3-point distance as the Trail Blazers shot 23% from long range.

Portland’s Scoot Henderson scored five points. He was limited to 10 points after a skirmish with Harper in the final minute of the third quarter in San Antonio’s 120-108 win in Game 3 on Saturday.

It was one of several skirmishes during a physical and chippy series between the second-seeded Spurs and No. 7 seed Trail Blazers.

Coach Mitch Johnson said the Spurs could not afford another early double-digit deficit as they had in the third and fourth games. San Antonio responded by charging to a 17-4 start, fueled by a pair of 3-pointers and eight points from Champagnie.

“It’s never perfect, of course, but that’s exactly what we said we wanted to do before the game,” Wembanyama said.

Champagnie finished 5 for 7 from long distance and San Antonio shot 40% from 3-point territory.

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

Sure enough, there was David Pastrnak already heading toward Buffalo’s zone.

Set up by Lindholm, Pastrnak scored on a breakaway 9:14 into overtime, and the Bruins avoided elimination with a 2-1 win in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.

“He’s pretty special when it comes to those opportunities, too, so it was fun to see it go in,” Lindholm said.

Pastrnak said the chemistry he has with Lindholm is a result of them being neighbors.

“We always call it the neighbor connection,” Pastrnak said. “Seems like anytime he has the puck and I have an opening, I have the confidence that he’s gonna find me.”

The series shifts back to Boston for Game 6 on Friday night, with Buffalo still seeking to clinch its first playoff series victory since eliminating the New York Rangers in six games of a 2007 second-round series. The Sabres are in the playoffs for only the third time since, and after snapping an NHL record 14-season playoff drought this year.

Elias Lindholm also scored for Boston which overcame a 1-0 deficit. Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots, including foiling Jason Zucker set up in front 3:30 into the extra period.

Rasmus Dahlin scored for Buffalo and Alex Lyon stopped 27 shots.

“He’s always lurking,” Lyon said of Pastrnak, whom the goalie robbed on several chances. “Obviously, he’s one of the best players in the league,” Lyon added of a player who reached the 100-point mark for a fourth straight season. “It’s just one play at the end from a really good player. That’s usually how these things go. And now it’s just incumbent on us to move forward.”

The Sabres were caught up ice, and the Bruins jumped into making a line change, with Pastrnak coming off the bench as the turnover occurred.

Accepting Lindholm’s pass in stride as he crossed Buffalo’s blue line, Pastrnak drove in on net a step ahead of Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson. He faked cutting across the front and nearly lost his balance before slipping the puck inside the right post.

“He always gets it done. And what a nice finish from him,” coach Marco Sturm said of the 12th-year player. “I’m just very happy because this guy puts a lot of pressure on himself and he wants to be the difference. And today he was.”

The goal was the 41st of Pastrnak’s playoff career, and second in overtime. He scored Boston’s last overtime goal, also coming in an elimination game, to seal the Bruins’ 2-1 win over Toronto in Game 7 of their 2024 first-round series.

Lindholm tied it 9:24 into the second period after his bad-angle shot bounced into the slot. Lindholm got to the loose puck first and, with his back to the net, spun around and fired in a low shot through a crowd.

Dahlin opened the scoring at 3:35 with his first playoff goal, and Buffalo’s first power-play goal in nearly a month. Driving up the left wing, Zucker’s initial pass attempt was blocked before recovering the puck and feeding Dahlin for a one-timer in the right circle.

The Sabres had gone 0-of-17 with the man advantage this series, and entered the playoffs failing to convert 22 straight chances, dating to a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders on March 31.

The Bruins played without second-line forward Viktor Arvidsson, who was hurt in the first period of Game 4 on Sunday.

Buffalo lost rookie forward Noah Ostlund to a lower-body injury in the first period.

Coach Lindy Ruff didn’t reveal what the injury was, but said, “it doesn’t look good.” Ostlund had just returned to the lineup from an upper-body injury in Game 3, in which he had a goal and assist.

The Bruins have won back-to-back outings in Buffalo after squandering a 2-0 lead in the final 7:58 of a 4-3 loss in Game 1. The Sabres won both outings in Buffalo, and were coming off a 6-1 win on Sunday.

“We’re in a good spot. We should be ready for the next one,” Dahlin said. “It’s a tight game and stuff happens, so we’re ready for going to Boston.”

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

“It would be to avoid media,” said Cohen, an independent voter who has opposed Trump since he announced his 2016 presidential campaign.

Although Cohen has given up, others have not. A new Media Insight Project survey finds that about 6 in 10 U.S adults say they actively try to avoid news stories about Trump “often” or “sometimes.”

Most aren't finding hope in the news — particularly the people who are more apt to dislike Trump. Republicans are more likely to say the news they consume gives them a hopeful view of the world, while few Democrats say this is how they feel.

The findings from the new survey reflect divisions in an American electorate at a time when increased polarization and social media are changing the way people consume news.

David Sterrett, a principal research scientist at the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was a partner on the project, said Democrats may be exercising wishful thinking when they say they try to avoid news about Trump.

“They would like to avoid Trump news, but they’re probably not because most national politics news is somewhat connected to the president,” he said.

Most Democrats follow political news, but it doesn't make them hopeful

Democrats tend to have more faith in media, particularly national news outlets, compared to Republicans, and they're also more likely to regularly follow national political news, the survey found.

But Republicans are more likely to say the news they consume gives them a hopeful view of the world, while Democrats are more likely to say the news is too stressful to read or watch.

About two-thirds of Democrats and independents say that they “often” or “sometimes” actively try to avoid news stories about Trump. Among them is Fernando Ocegueda, a Democrat in Los Angeles who said he recently cut back on consuming political news for precisely that reason.

“I don’t agree with his decisions,” the 50-year-old phlebotomist said of the president. “I don’t think he’s fit, so I don’t even want to bother in paying attention to what he has to say.”

Cohen, the retiree, said he thinks the president has created a sense of instability that puts many Americans in fight-or-flight mode. He thinks that’s part of what keeps people coming back for more.

“People don’t want to know, but they sort of want to know, because of the imminent sense of threat that is attached to him,” he said. “You know it’s a train wreck, and you just can’t take your eyes off of it.”

Even Republicans say they at times try to avoid Trump news

It's not just Democrats. About half of Republicans in the survey said they “often” or “sometimes” actively try to avoid news stories about Trump. Nicole Pratt, who identifies as a moderate Republican, is one of them.

The 62-year-old in Torrance, California said she supports some things the Trump administration is doing and wants to know the news, but she doesn’t need to read any more stories about what she views as the president's narcissism.

“His fights with other people, his arguments — I don’t bother with that anymore,” she said. “It’s like, I have other things to do.”

Sterrett said some Republicans might say they avoid news about Trump not because they're tired of Trump updates but because they distrust traditional news sources.

“A lot of his followers do get news directly from him via social media, and his posts and announcements,” he said.

Both parties get news on social — even as they say it's a misinformation haven

About 4 in 10 Republicans and Democrats say they get news from social media at least “daily,” but they also recognize the pitfalls of what’s shared there.

Most Democrats and Republicans point to social media users as having “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the spread of misinformation about events and important issues.

They're more divided on where to place the blame otherwise.

About three-quarters of Democrats say politicians have a high amount of responsibility for misinformation spreading, compared to 65% of Republicans. Another 64% of Democrats say that about social media companies such as Facebook or Meta, X, and YouTube, compared to 53% of Republicans.

Most Democrats, 58%, also see at least “quite a bit” of responsibility for misinformation coming from artificial intelligence companies that create and develop AI chatbots. A smaller share of Republicans, 47%, see AI companies as responsible.

Most Republicans, meanwhile, point to national news media as having “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the spread of misinformation about events and important issues. About half of Democrats say the same.

Partisans are hooked on news. Independents, not as much

While Americans aligned with one of the two major parties often differ on their specific views of trust in media, it's independents who are less engaged.

About 8 in 10 Democrats and Republicans regularly follow various news and information topics, compared to roughly 7 in 10 independents.

Other than Trump-related news, partisans are similarly likely to report avoiding news about celebrities, news in general, or news on their various devices — such as on social media or on their phone. Most on both sides of the aisle try to avoid the news when talking with friends or family at least sometimes.

Sterrett said even as the political parties differ in their news preferences, the survey shows some areas of overlap. For example, Americans in both parties are similarly likely to say they follow sports news, weather news or crime news.

“Especially when it comes to local issues and the stuff that affects people’s daily lives, it does seem like Republicans and Democrats are following similar sources and following similar topics,” Sterrett said.

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Swenson reported from New York, and Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina. ___

The Media Insight Project survey is an initiative of the American Press Institute, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll of 2,101 Americans included 1,092 U.S. adults ages 18 and older and 1,009 teenagers ages 13 to 17 but partisanship was only asked of U.S. adults. The poll of adults was conducted Feb. 5-8 and the poll of teens was conducted Feb. 2-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points and the margin of sampling error for teenagers overall is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

With their second straight lopsided victory, the Knicks positioned themselves to win the series Thursday night in Atlanta. They would have another chance at home in Game 7 if they need it — and it's getting harder to picture why they should.

The Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the series with one-point victories in Games 2 and 3, but a pretty sizable gap between the teams has appeared since. The Knicks led by 24 on their way to a 114-98 win in Game 4 in Atlanta and by 32 on Tuesday, when the lead was never below double digits in the second half.

“I know they’re going to try to bring a lot of force down there,” Knicks reserve Jordan Clarkson said. “So we've got to be prepared and we know what’s coming, so we’ll be ready.”

Brunson already had eight 40-point games in his first three postseasons with the Knicks. He hadn't even cracked 30 in this series until pouring in 17 points in the fourth quarter to prevent any chance of Atlanta making it a game.

Brunson said the Knicks have picked up their play in the last two games and said they were confident, but also cautious.

“Anything can happen in this series, so we’ve just got to be locked in for Game 6,” he said.

OG Anunoby added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, while Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. The Knicks need one more victory to reach the second round for the fourth straight season, which would continue their longest streak since advancing nine straight times from 1991-92 through 1999-2000.

Jalen Johnson had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Hawks. Dyson Daniels scored 17, but CJ McCollum, the catalyst of both Atlanta victories, had just six.

The Knicks outrebounded the Hawks 48-27 and had a 13-4 advantage in fast-break points against an Atlanta team that needs to win the transition game.

“I just think that their mindset was to come out and try to bully us and be physical, and they did that," Daniels said.

The Knicks made eight of their first 12 shots, then broke free with a 9-0 run late in the first quarter and were ahead 35-22 at the end of the period. Brunson had the last two baskets of an 8-0 surge in the second that pushed it to 59-37, and the Knicks led 64-48 at the break after making 58.5% their shots.

Leading by 18 after three, they put it away when Brunson had a three-point play and 3-pointer to ignite a 12-0 spurt that made it 110-82.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Onyeka Okongwu both had 16 points for the Hawks.

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

The message is not one of punishment but of unceasing support. The men start to perk up.

“We’re going to talk about keeping you and those you love alive and free,” Jim Hopkins, emeritus pastor of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, says he told the men who gather at his church. “If you put down the gun, start taking the (city's) services, we’ll help you find another way.”

The California city has driven homicides to historic lows, and experts say part of the credit goes to a program that identifies people who are most likely to get pulled into gang violence and pairs them with life coaches to help turn their lives around.

City officials meet weekly to review recent shootings and identify the participants. The city's Department of Violence Prevention finds and talks to those people, one-on-one or in a group session at the church, and offers a host of services, including a life coach.

There is no single reason why a city’s homicide rate falls, but officials say the Oakland Ceasefire-Lifeline program has been key, making a difference one person at a time.

Oakland records lowest homicide rate since the '60s

Homicides rates have plummeted in major cities across the U.S. in recent years but the shift in Oakland has been particularly dramatic.

Homicide rates have not been this low in the city of roughly 400,000 people since 1967, when the Black Panthers were a powerful force and hippies overran nearby San Francisco for the Summer of Love.

For nearly 25 years, Oakland ranked among the nation's most dangerous cities. City police recorded annual homicide rates ranging from 16.2 up to 36.4 deaths per 100,000 people, while the U.S. rate hovered around five per 100,000.

Oakland adopted the lifeline program, which originated in Boston, after gun violence in 2011 took the lives of three children ages 1, 3 and 5 in separate incidents. The city recorded a 43% reduction in homicides from 2012 to 2017.

Officials subsequently watered the program down until it was essentially dismantled during the pandemic, according to an audit in 2023.

It wasn’t until city officials implemented changes recommended in the audit that the number of homicides declined, from 118 in 2023 to 78 in 2024.

Last year, Oakland hit a record low of 57 homicides.

Meeting people whose lives were changed by violence

Police are not involved except to provide the names of people expected to retaliate for a shooting that wounded or killed a friend or relative, or to be a victim of retaliation.

“People may underestimate how little the clients believe in themselves, and how little they value their own lives,” said Holly Joshi, chief of the violence prevention department.

Once selected, the men meet or learn of people whose lives have been forever changed by gang violence, such as parents who have lost a child, or someone left paralyzed able to communicate only by clicking their tongue.

Last year, Bernard, a 27-year-old former gang member, was among 200 people matched with a life coach. He was contacted as he was leaving prison after serving six years for attempted robbery. Today, he has a full-time job, an apartment and a new outlook.

He’s more aware of community ties, he says.

“When I was younger, I didn’t realize I wasn’t only hurting myself. I was hurting everybody around me, everybody who cared for me,” said Bernard, who asked that his last name not be used because he fears sharing his background could hurt his future opportunities.

Ready to turn his life around

At first, Bernard was standoffish with his life coach, 35-year-old LaSasha Long.

But then the young man who missed his mother’s funeral because he was still behind bars when she died suffered another loss. A close childhood friend had died. He had to talk to someone.

“As soon as I called Sasha, she was there with advice,” he says.

Long understood. She had a chaotic upbringing, bouncing between relatives after a stray bullet killed her mother when she was a toddler. She told him what she felt would have helped her move forward: That he'd lost a lot, but had a lot to live for too. And she reminded him his friend would have wanted him to live.

He listened.

“I can’t take the credit for it because it was all him. He was the pilot,” she says, adding that she helped with rides and reminded him of upcoming appointments. “But he wanted to change. He wanted that.”

Now, they chat on the phone every day. He makes goofy faces at her while posing for photographs for The Associated Press. She says she'll be the best man at his wedding one day. He says she's not a man. She says he hasn't seen how good she looks in a suit.

Long describes life coaching as “heart work,” helping someone see light in a dark tunnel.

Wanting to inspire others

Bernard aspires to be like Long one day, a coach who can offer a lifeline to others who grew up surrounded by violence and with bills to pay. His mother was loving but addicted to drugs. His father was in and out of jail.

He has discovered the joy of helping people.

On a recent day, Bernard was on break from his job cleaning streets in San Francisco when he saw a teen crash his bike. The old him would not have rushed over, much less reassured the embarrassed boy that everyone falls sometimes.

But Bernard helped wash the gravel burn on the boy’s face and told him jokingly: “Tell your girl you got jumped.”

“All some of us need is to see or know that people care,” he said. “Once people realize that, I believe they start to do better, they want to do better. They figure there’s more to life.”

The unruly format underscored the instability in a crowded race that has no clear leader, with mail ballots going to voters in less than a week.

Candidates sparred over questions ranging from how to cut gas prices to potential state charges against federal immigration agents to how best to contend with wildfires. Several sought to show their working-class roots, pitching themselves as the candidates who truly understand affordability woes.

The debate brought together the two leading Republicans, conservative commentator Steve Hilton and county sheriff Chad Bianco; and six Democrats, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, billionaire Tom Steyer, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state schools superintendent Tony Thurmond.

The candidates were asked to address the state's long-running homeless crisis, wildfire insurance shortages, projected budget shortfalls and staggering housing costs. Voters, meanwhile, are saddled with growing everyday costs for groceries, utility bills and gas.

A mostly mannerly debate last week without Villaraigosa and Thurmond on stage proved largely inconclusive, with no candidate managing a breakaway moment. It was the same case again Tuesday, but for different reasons.

With time running out to make an impression with voters, candidates appeared eager for conflict, and many questions resulted in interruptions as they tried to speak over each other. Answers were cut short, sometimes by moderators.

“Wow, that was a bit of a mess,” said a college student in the crowd who was given an opportunity to poise a question to the candidates.

Becerra was targeted repeatedly, suggesting that other candidates see him gaining momentum. They and one of the moderators pressed him whether he could legally declare a state of emergency his first day in office and freeze home insurance rates, as he has pledged to do.

Hilton accused him of misunderstanding state law. But Becerra, who is also a former state attorney general, said his proposal is legal and noted that he led through states of emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The governor’s office is not a place with training wheels,” he said.

President Donald Trump, who has a long-strained relationship with the heavily Democratic state, came up in exchanges, though he was not the major focus of the night. Hilton and Bianco support the president, while Democrats have vowed to stand in the way of federal immigration raids and Trump’s conservative agenda.

Becerra, alluding to the president's endorsement of Hilton, referred to Trump as “Steve Hilton’s daddy.”

Hilton responded: “All these big things that affect us on a daily basis, these are decisions made here in California by our politicians. And we’ve had the same people in charge for 16 years now.”

The debate largely hewed along partisan lines, with Hilton and Bianco saying heavy regulations and taxes supported by Democrats are to blame for the state's challenges. The Democrats, meanwhile, each tried to sell themselves as having practical solutions and the right experience.

Porter stressed that she is the only one who refuses corporate campaign donations, saying, “I am not for sale.” That came after she hit Steyer for his former hedge funds investments in fossil fuels.

Steyer, who left the firm in 2012, said utilities and other business interests are spending money to attack him because he is unafraid to take them on.

The race is to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred by law from seeking a third term.

California puts all candidates on a single ballot, and the two with the most votes go on to the November general election regardless of party. Democrats have worried that their crowded field could result in two Republicans advancing, which would be a historic calamity for the party.

Democrats have dominated state government in California for years. The GOP has not won a statewide election in two decades, and registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2-to-1.

The race was shaken up this month after the dramatic downfall of U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell over sexual assault allegations. When he left the race — and then Congress — he was among the leading contenders.

The debate was hosted by CBS LA and aired on the network's state TV stations and websites.

___

Austin reported from Sacramento, California.

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

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

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

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

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

Find the latest forecast from the 4Warn Weather team here

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

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The incident occurred on Tuesday (April 28) at Edison Elementary School, located at 17045 Grand River Avenue.

District Public School District leaders urged families to secure cannabis-infused products and to speak with their children about the risks of consuming any food or candy that is not purchased directly by them or brought from home.

“We continue to remind all families to secure their edibles and to have conversations with their children,” DPSCD officials said in a statement.

The incident comes amid growing concerns about youth exposure to marijuana edibles since legalization.

Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has previously called for tighter restrictions on the sale of cannabis products in the city and statewide, as well as expanded public awareness campaigns focused on the health risks of youth consumption.

Officials said the investigation is ongoing.

If a child ingests a THC edible, families are urged to call the Michigan Poison & Drug Information Center at 1-800-222-1222 immediately.

And that was good enough for the Philadelphia 76ers to avoid elimination in their first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics.

Less than three weeks after an emergency appendectomy knocked Embiid out for the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs, the Sixers center scored 33 points as Philadelphia beat Boston 113-97 in Game 5 on Tuesday night.

“He was dominant. Especially the second half, he was extremely dominant,” said Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, who had 25 points and 10 rebounds. “He did a really good job of just inserting himself. I was proud of him tonight, man. That's the dominance that you go into a playoff game with: He did that.”

After scoring two points in the first quarter on 1-of-6 shooting, Embiid scored 13 in the second, 10 in the third and eight in the fourth, when the Sixers went on a 12-0 run to turn a three-point lead into a 15-point runaway.

“I feel like he had too many easy baskets," said Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, who scored 22 points. "We’ve got to make him work. ... Tonight he got a bunch of easy baskets, and I feel like that propelled him.”

Paul George had 16 points and nine rebounds for the seventh-seeded Sixers, who lost Games 3 and 4 at home to fall behind 3-1 in the series before returning to Boston to keep their season alive.

Jayson Tatum had 24 points and 16 rebounds and Neemias Queta had eight points and 14 boards for the Celtics, who will try again to eliminate the Sixers back in Philadelphia in Game 6 on Thursday night. Game 7, if necessary, would be back in Boston on Saturday.

“No need to put any extra pressure on ourselves,” Brown said. “There’s enough of that as it is.”

Earlier Tuesday, Celtics president Brad Stevens was named NBA Executive of the Year for the second time in three seasons after disassembling the team that won it all two years ago and getting Boston back to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics did it despite missing Tatum for all but 16 regular-season games as he recovered from a torn Achilles tendon.

The Sixers missed the playoffs last year after seven straight postseason appearances, but earned the No. 7 seed this year with a victory over Orlando in a play-in game. After losing by 32 in Game 1, they coasted to a win at Boston in Game 2 but then lost both at home — with another 32-point blowout in Game 4 on Sunday, despite Embiid finishing with 26 points and 10 rebounds in his first game since April 6.

“Our fans deserve a win at home. We lost a tough one, then we got blown out of the water,” Maxey said. “After that performance that we put on last time in front of our fans, that was a disgrace and it was unacceptable.”

The Celtics led by 11 in the second quarter and held a 13-point edge early in the third. Both times Philadelphia rallied within a basket, using a 15-3 run to make it 66-65 Boston midway through the third.

It was still a one-point Celtics lead heading into the fourth, when George hit a 3-pointer to give Philly its first lead since the first quarter. After a pair of 3-pointers by Sam Hauser kept Boston close, Hauser fouled Quentin Grimes while he was shooting a 3; the three free throws started the Sixers on a game-ending 19-5 run.

“We got a little rocky start there in the third,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “But then we really, really got going. And then once we closed the gap, we we’re pretty solid.”

Boston scored just 10 points in the fourth quarter on 3-of-22 shooting after making almost half its shots in the first 36 minutes.

“When you have empty possession, empty possession, and you’re not getting stops, it’s frustrating," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

___

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

The Oakland County Election Commission approved recall petition language on Monday (April 27).

The petitions do not mention the data center and instead cite the board’s decision to raise township employee salaries, according to organizers.

Craig Kreutzberg, who lives about a mile from the proposed site, is part of the group No Data Center Lyon Township, which has been dedicated to fighting the project.

“This is going to suck up a lot of resources, this is going to impact our infrastructure quite heavily, this is going to be something of an eyesore,” Kreutzberg said. “This is going to drive down property values in the nearby area.”

Organizers have tried three times to get recall language approved. Kreutzberg said the group was advised that the salary-related wording had the best chance of being accepted, even though it doesn’t reference Project Flex.

“On the advice of the attorney that we had been working with, he said this was our best chance at getting the recall language approved, even though it did have nothing to do with Project Flex,” Kreutzberg said.

Project Flex would span about 1.8 million square feet between Milford Road and South Hill Road. The proposal includes six buildings and an on-site utility substation.

Since the property was already zoned for industrial use, the Lyon Township Planning Commission was not required to hold public hearings before it conditionally approved the project.

Local 4 reached out to all seven trustees for comment on the recall effort.

Trustees Lise Blades and Sean O’Neil said they share concerns about the data center but that the decision was out of their hands after the planning commission vote.

O’Neil told Local 4 by phone that the vote to increase salaries was part of the annual salary approval process. O’Neil said the board has no legal avenue to stop the project now that it’s been conditionally approved, but that trustees are looking at ways to update ordinances to better regulate data centers.

In March, the board passed a six-month moratorium on approving any additional data center proposals.

Blades sent the following statement to Local 4:

“The Township was very transparent in identifying Project Flex as a data center on the September 8, 2025 Planning Commission agenda.

It is unfortunate that some residents are attempting a recall against the Board members for doing what we took an oath to do, which includes voting on salaries.

Many of us in the community are upset that Verrus chose Lyon Township for their data center location.

But my elected position does not permit me to vote on projects that do not come before the Board.

This issue never came to the Board for a review or vote. Let’s be honest: the recall language has nothing to do with the data center, but the recall effort has everything to do with it.

I am just as worried about public health and safety in regards to a data center as those who are trying to recall me.

The perpetual worry of health, safety, and energy consumption of data centers seems to be a David and Goliath story across the state of Michigan. To put it simply, legally speaking, my hands are tied.

The Board has no legal authority to overturn the Planning Commission’s approval of this project. Attempting to do so would more than likely cost the Township residents millions of dollars, and we would still end up with a data center.”

Lise Blades, Lyon Township trustee

“The recall language concerns my vote in favor of an annual cost-of-living wage bump that was in the approved Township budget,” said Trustee Kristofer Enlow. “This was extended to all Lyon Township employees. If voters feel as though we should not be giving cost-of-living raises during these economic times, then they can continue with the recall effort.”

Trustee Robert Swain also provided a statement to Local 4.

“While I respect the right of residents to pursue a recall, it is important to clarify that this petition is based on a routine, legally required salary vote with an inflationary adjustment that applied to every township employee—not the ‘Project Flex’ data center.

My understanding is that the Board of Trustees has no authority to overturn the Planning Commission’s decision on the data center and attempting to do so would likely trigger a multi-million dollar lawsuit at the taxpayers’ expense without actually stopping the project. I sincerely empathize with the frustration many feel.

We have already enacted a moratorium on similar developments and are updating our local ordinances to better protect the community moving forward.

I encourage everyone to work with us on these proactive changes, as this is the most effective way to shape our township’s future while protecting our community and tax dollars.”

Lyon Township Trustee Robert Swain

The remaining trustees did not immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.

Kreutzberg said residents believe township leaders should have done more to inform the community before the project moved forward.

“The Board of Trustees and the Planning Commission were obligated as our local government officials to do a much, much better and proactive job of informing citizens about what Project Flex would entail,” Kreutzberg said.

Developers have said the facility would be more efficient than traditional data centers. Jeff Bladen, head of energy at Verrus and the developer for the project, previously told Local 4 the facility would use significantly less water by recirculating the same supply and would avoid diesel generators, reducing noise.

Bladen also said the project could create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of full-time positions once the campus is built out, spanning information technology to operations and maintenance.

To put the recalls on the November ballot, organizers must collect about 3,000 signatures for each trustee and submit them to the Oakland County Clerk by July 31.

Speaking Tuesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Charles repeatedly highlighted the historical and cultural ties that he said have cemented an enduring bond between the United States and the United Kingdom. But even as he spoke in unifying, optimistic terms, he delivered a series of nuanced warnings encouraging leaders in the U.S. to remain collaborative and engaged in global affairs.

He said the alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., tested anew by President Donald Trump's war in Iran, “cannot rest on past achievements.” Charles urged “unyielding resolve” in backing Ukraine against Russia and heralded the NATO alliance that Trump has consistently undermined.

The king praised religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue in terms that are rare in Trump's Washington. As the White House rolls back regulations aimed at denting climate change, the king encouraged those in power to “reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset.”

At one point, Charles traced the notion of checks and balances on executive power to the Magna Carta, the foundational legal document sealed by King John in 1215. Trump told The New York Times earlier this year that he was constrained only by “my own morality.”

And acknowledging a scandal that has roiled politics in both the U.S. and U.K., Charles subtly alluded to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender with ties to British officials, including the king's brother, Andrew.

King celebrates independence and focuses on repairing a frayed relationship

Charles is on a four-day visit to the U.S. intended to both celebrate American independence and to repair the country's fraying relationship with the U.K. He hardly arrived in Washington as an oppositional figure to Trump. Joined by Queen Camilla, Charles had a warm greeting with the president and first lady Melania Trump at the White House earlier Tuesday.

In his welcome remarks, Trump also highlighted the shared history between the two countries.

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

The leaders met privately in the Oval Office for a meeting Trump later described as “really good,” adding that Charles is a “fantastic person.”

Trump hosted the royal couple for a jovial state dinner later Tuesday in the East Room of the White House. About 130 guests were seated at two long tables that were decorated with low floral arrangements. The guests included tech leaders such as outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, along with conservative Supreme Court justices and several Fox News journalists and hosts.

Charles and Camilla will continue their U.S. tour this week with stops in New York City and Virginia.

During his roughly 20-minute speech to Congress, the king, who is expressly apolitical, never directly criticized Trump. Still, the contrast was apparent at times and some British commentators described his speech as more political than they had expected.

Just two months earlier, Trump stood at the same lectern and chided Democrats for not standing during part of his State of the Union address. The king, for his part, elicited multiple standing ovations from Democrats and Republicans who listened with rapt attention.

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

Charles acknowledges a ‘more volatile and more dangerous’ world

While the king paid tribute to those remarks, he acknowledged that today's environment is “more volatile and more dangerous than the world to which my late mother spoke."

Many of the lawmakers in the room were at Saturday's White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was disrupted by a shooting that authorities have described as an attempted assassination against Trump.

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

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

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

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

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

If Charles offered low-key criticism of Trump, the president didn't seem to mind. He said later that the king “made a great speech.”

“I was very jealous,” he said.

___

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

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

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

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

One artist was displaced seven times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A child collecting firewood is among the dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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