Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on ways to modernize the TSA nearly 25 years after it was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. But the morale of TSA officers who went without pay during three funding lapses since Oct. 1, and whom the administration wants to replace at small U.S. airports, overshadowed the talk about better machines and reliable funding.

“Between the 2025 and 2026 shutdowns, transportation security officers endured a total of 119 days impacted by shutdown conditions," Republican Andrew Garbarino of New York, the committee’s chairman, said in his opening remarks. "That means TSA officers spent roughly 40% of this fiscal year reporting to work without a paycheck while continuing to carry out one of the most important security missions in the federal government.”

Several other committee members noted that Congress has failed to pass any of the pending bills seeking to guarantee continued pay for TSA workers. Rep. Lou Correa, a California Democrat, said if TSA workers don't get paid during shutdowns, neither should lawmakers.

Correa also took aim at President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which in addition to spending $477.3 million to have private companies take over airport screening at about 250 smaller airports would cut more than 4,500 TSA positions to save $529.3 million in compensation and benefits. The TSA this week also authorized contractors in its airport staffing program to acquire and maintain screening equipment, which previously was strictly a government function.

“Technology alone can’t replace the experienced people who make the security checkpoints work as they have for the past 25 years,” Correa said. “It's about pushing an antigovernment privatization ideology.”

About 20 U.S. airports already staff their checkpoints through the Screening Partnership Program. Currently airports choose whether or not to opt in. Under Trump's proposed budget, smaller airports would be required to participate.

The TSA has proposed letting private screeners handle security at airports with scheduled flights of passenger planes with 10-30 seats and ones that accomodate charter flights and private planes without fixed schedules. Examples include Oxnard Airport in California, Ocala International Airport in Florida, Alabama's Tuscaloosa International Airport and Gary-Chicago International Airport in Indiana, according to a spreadsheet maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The witnesses at the hearing included Christopher Sununu, president and CEO of the airline trade group Airlines for America; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport CEO Chris McLaughlin; American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley, whose union represents TSA workers. All three said they thoughts airports should get to decide whether to employ private screeners.

“Ensuring SPP remains an option for airports and does not become a mandatory program is paramount to the U.S. aviation industry,” Sununu said.

Kelley took a strong stand against the plans in Trump's budget.

“I'm totally against the privatization of any airport,” he said. “You don't contract out the CIA, do you?”

After several more Democrats on the committee said they thought that handing off airport security to businesses would leave U.S. airspace more vulnerable, Garbarino interjected to point out that “the very conservative cities of San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta” all use private screeners at their airports, “so yeah, maybe it's not a Republican thing.”

Garbarino and Rep. Tim Kennedy, a New York Democrat, championed legislation he and three other committee members introduced earlier this month that would double, from $250 million to $500 million, the amount of money the TSA administrator is required to set aside to reimburse airports for capital costs associated with security. The bill also would establish an annual TSA fund of $250 million for airport screening technology.

Revenue for both would come from a $5.60 fee that airline customers pay for each one-way trip they take on U.S. flights. The 9/11 Passenger Security Fee has existed since 2002, but Congress decided in 2013 that a certain amount had to be used each year to reduce the federal deficit. Since then, an estimated $15 billion went to the U.S. Treasury for that purpose, according to the bill's co-sponsors,.

“Americans and Congress expected this fee to directly fund our aviation security system, but that is not the case. Nearly half the fee's revenue goes to something else,” Garbarino said. “Congress must restore the passenger security fee to its original intent, to fund the next generation of screening technology that protects our people in the skies.”

Trump's budget fiscal 2026 proposal would end the practice of diverting passenger fees and fund the TSA partly with the $1.68 billion that was expected to go to deficit-reduction.

The incident occurred in the 9500 block of Everts Street on Wednesday (May 20).

Police said the suspect approached the UPS driver and announced the carjacking.

The driver was not injured during the incident, police said.

Police did not release a description of the suspect or say whether the stolen UPS truck has been recovered.

The investigation remains ongoing.

“We are aware of the incident involving one of our drivers today. The safety and well-being of our employees is our number one concern, and we are pleased that our driver was unharmed. As this is an ongoing investigation, we defer inquiries to investigating authorities.”

UPS

Leroy Dean McGill, 63, was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT following a lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. McGill was convicted of murder in the death of Charles Perez, who was attacked with his girlfriend in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13, 2002.

It was the first lethal injection carried out this year in Arizona, and McGill didn’t appear to be resisting at any point during the procedure. After a lethal dose of pentobarbital began flowing, he began breathing heavily and made a snoring sound. And, about 21 minutes after the IV insertion process began, he was pronounced dead.

While the state was criticized for having difficulty in inserting IV lines during executions in 2022, it took just one attempt on each of McGill’s arms to successfully insert IVs.

“Today’s process went according to plan,” said John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Barcello quoted McGill’s last words as: “I just want to thank everyone for being so accommodating and nice.”

Before the injection began, McGill looked at the witnesses, smiled and nodded. Media witness Josh Kelety from The Associated Press said he heard McGill at one point say: “I’m going home soon.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office pressed for the execution to be carried out, said her thoughts were with the victims.

Media witness Sean Rice from Phoenix television station KPN said the execution was carried out smoothly.

"I didn’t see any issue at all finding a vein on either arm,” he said. Rice said he also observed a slight twitching on the right side of McGill’s head about four minutes before the inmate was pronounced dead.

Authorities said that in 2002 McGill threw gasoline at Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, as they sat on a sofa in the apartment, setting them on fire. Perez and Banta had accused McGill of stealing a gun from the apartment before the attack. At the time, McGill was using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in several days.

Banta survived, but Perez died.

Twelve people have been executed so far this year in the United States. Tennessee and Florida each are scheduled to carry out an execution Thursday.

At the Arizona trial, Banta testified that McGill had told her and Perez not to talk behind people's backs. Before they could respond, McGill lit them on fire, authorities said.

Perez and Banta ran out of the apartment. Another man who lived in the apartment used a blanket to put out the flames on Banta, who suffered third-degree burns over three-quarters of her body. Perez died later at a hospital in extreme pain, prosecutors said.

Banta identified McGill as the attacker at trial.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting McGill of murder in Perez’s death in October 2004. He also was convicted of attempted murder for attacking Banta, arson and endangerment of people who escaped without injuries when the fire forced them to flee the apartment and a nearby unit where flames spread.

McGill’s lawyers had argued for leniency by presenting evidence about abuse he suffered as a child as well as mental impairment and psychological immaturity. The jury ultimately returned the death sentence.

This spring, McGill’s lawyers made a last-ditch bid to get him resentenced, but a lower-court judge rejected it. The Arizona Supreme Court also declined a request from McGill’s lawyers to postpone the execution.

McGill, who declined an interview request from The Associated Press, waived his right to seek clemency.

Arizona last applied the death penalty in 2025, executing Richard Kenneth Djerf for the 1993 killings of four members of a Phoenix family and Aaron Gunches for the 2002 fatal shooting of his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

The state carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties obtaining execution drugs and by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched. In that 2014 execution, Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.

The state’s current execution protocol calls for administering two syringes of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative.

With McGill’s death, Arizona now has 108 prisoners on death row. ___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix.

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

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

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

Tons of health supplies have been airlifted to Bunia, where the first known death was announced last week, but residents said masks are harder to find and some disinfectants that previously sold for 2,500 Congolese francs (about $1) now cost four times more.

A mother watches her son 'bleeding and vomiting’

At a treatment center in Rwampara, families cried and watched as healthcare workers in protective gear silently disinfected the bodies of their loved ones — suspected Ebola victims — and placed them into coffins for secure burial sites.

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

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

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

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

WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, worried over its “scale and speed." The WHO chief in Congo says it could last at least two months.

The rare type of Ebola, known as the Bundibugyo virus, spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common Ebola virus and came up negative.

Investigations continued into where and when the outbreak started, but “given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago," said Anaïs Legand, with WHO's emergencies program.

So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, and two cases in Uganda, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. There are 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases.

But "the scale of the epidemic is much larger,” he said.

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

This is Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak, and the WHO has said the country's health ministry has experienced staff and capacity to respond. Most outbreaks, however, were of the more common Ebola type.

Any potential vaccine is months away

Dr. Vasee Moorthy, a special adviser at WHO, said a vaccine to address Bundibugyo would not be available for at least six to nine months.

Eastern Congo already faced “immense pressure from conflict, displacement and a collapsing health system,” said Dr. Lievin Bangali, senior health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Congo, adding that years of underfunding have weakened the response.

The outbreak highlights the effects of the Trump administration’s deep cuts in foreign aid. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the administration set a priority on funding 50 emergency clinics in affected areas. The U.S. pledged to contribute $23 million.

Anxiety grows with little protection in affected places

In Bunia, schools and churches remain open while some residents wear masks. Elsewhere in Ituri province, suspected Ebola patients share a ward with others injured or ill at Bambu General Hospital.

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

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

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

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

There were around 30 Ebola patients at Mongbwalu General Hospital, where a student from the local medical technology institute died on Wednesday, Dr. Didier Pay said.

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

They are understaffed and not trained to handle suspected cases, Lokudu said, and added that if confirmed cases surge, “we have no protection.”

In the Ebola-affected city of Goma, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control, the “situation is complicated,” said Dr. Anne Ancia, WHO's representative in Congo.

An American with Ebola is in isolation in Germany

A U.S. national who tested positive in Congo arrived in Berlin on Wednesday and was in a special isolation ward where a “comprehensive examination” was underway, German Health Ministry spokesperson Martin Elsässer said.

Elsässer declined to comment on the condition of the patient, who has not been identified by German or U.S. authorities. The ministry later said, without elaborating, that it would take in the patient's wife and three children at the request of U.S. authorities.

A top health official in the Czech Republic said they are receiving an American doctor who was treating Ebola patients in Uganda and who is without symptoms. It was not clear whether any were infected.

Dr. Satish Pillai, incident manager for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, told reporters Wednesday that the Americans were being transported in coordination with the U.S. State Department and other agencies. One patient, who is in stable condition, is now being treated in Germany, Pillai said.

Asked whether the White House played a role in the decision to move the Americans to Europe, Pillai said the decision was based on conditions on the ground and the need to mobilize rapidly.

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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal; Devi Shastri in Milwaukee, WI; Karel Janicek in Prague and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

In letters dated May 11, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notified the two doctors who chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms.

The Department of Health and Human Services already had largely sidelined the task force, indefinitely postponing scheduled public meetings over the past year and thus leaving some long-expected updates on cervical cancer screenings and other topics in limbo.

The panel, first created in the 1980s, is composed of experts who scrutinize the latest evidence behind a wide array of disease prevention tools, such as depression screenings ad the use of statins to prevent heart attacks. The panel updates guidelines with letter grades showing the strength of the science. Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must cover preventive services given an “A” or “B” grade without requiring a co-pay.

Kennedy’s letters don’t make clear why he ousted Drs. John Wong and Esa Davis from the panel. He wrote that their “leadership, contributions and expertise” have advanced the task force’s work “to improve the health of Americans” and encouraged them to reapply. He said he was reviewing task force appointments “to ensure clarity, continuity and confidence” in HHS oversight.

The letters were first reported by The New York Times. An HHS spokesman didn’t respond to questions about why the two were fired.

Kennedy told lawmakers last month that he was reforming the task force, calling it “lackadaisical,” so that it would meet more frequently and “have, for the first time, transparency.” The panel holds public meetings, opens its draft guidelines to public comment before finalizing them, and publishes the scientific evidence behind them.

Some health advocates had worried that Kennedy was preparing to replace the expert panel with less experienced political appointees, like he had done with a critical vaccine advisory committee. Over the past year, the task force wasn’t allowed to publish its final update to the cervical cancer screening guideline or take steps to update recommendations about maternal depression, said former task force chairman Dr. Michael Silverstein, a pediatrician.

“This is a level of government intrusion into scientific processes that I’ve not experienced in my 10 years on the task force,” he said.

The panel has staggered terms so that normally health secretaries can regularly appoint new members, making their mark on the task force without upending it, said Aaron Carroll of the nonpartisan healthy policy group AcademyHealth.

—-

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

Unfortunately for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it turned into Brunson versus James Harden in the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Brunson continuously attacked the matchup to spark one of the largest postseason comebacks on record, as the New York Knicks rallied from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 115-104 victory. A day later, the Cavaliers shrugged off concerns that one of the most accomplished offensive players in league history might be too poor of a defender to give them NBA Finals hopes.

“I know everybody’s putting it on James, but I’d say a lot of, it’s on the team, our team defense,” coach Kenny Atkinson said Wednesday after the Cavaliers practiced at Madison Square Garden. “And we were great for three quarters. Like, really, really great. So we can do it.”

The Cavs will try again Thursday, hoping to even the series before it shifts to their home court over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Atkinson took as much, if not more, heat than Harden for waiting too long to use a timeout to stop New York's momentum after Brunson kept driving right at Harden as the catalyst for an 18-1 run.

“Kenny’s a great coach and we know that they’re going to come out ready to play,” said the Knicks' Mike Brown, who worked with Atkinson when both were assistants to Steve Kerr in Golden State. “They came to New York to get one game and it’s still within reach.”

The Cavs know they should have it already. They controlled the middle two quarters against a Knicks team that showed plenty of rust in its first game since May 10. Looking nothing like the team that won by 19.4 points per game in the previous two rounds, the Knicks finally went to an offensive scheme that forced Harden to switch onto Brunson, and the All-Star guard had four straight New York baskets during the run.

Cleveland reserve guard Dennis Schroder credited Brunson more than blaming Harden.

“Jalen Brunson is one of the most clutch players in the NBA. Social media for that is just in a bad place,” Schroder said. “I think that we lost the game. Basketball is a team game. It’s everybody on the bench, coaches, the guys who were on the court. At the end of the day, he made some tough shots and good credit.”

The Cavaliers surged late in the season after acquiring Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden is ninth in NBA history with nearly 30,000 points and also 12th in assists. The 2018 NBA MVP was playing on an MSG court Tuesday where he shares the record with Kobe Bryant for points by an opponent with 61.

But he's had some sloppy performances in the postseason and Game 1 was another. Harden shot 5 for 16 overall and 1 for 8 from 3-point range, and had twice as many turnovers (6) as assists. He's bounced back before and Atkinson believes he will again.

“I said, ‘Without you, we’re knocked out in the first round.’ That’s my first (opinion). My personal opinion," Atkinson said. "So, let’s just stop that. We’re in a great position. ‘You’ve played great.’ You know, sometimes micro experiences get exaggerated. ‘So, you know, keep being yourself.’”

The Knicks, who have won eight straight games, understand how the Cavs must be feeling, after a loss that was every bit as gut-wrenching in Game 1 of the 2025 East finals.

New York led Indiana by 14 points with under three minutes remaining in regulation. The Pacers rallied to tie when Tyrese Haliburton's long jumper bounced high off the rim and fell through as time expired, then won 138-135 in overtime.

“Obviously they’re looking at it like that was our game that we gave away,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said of the Cavaliers. “And they’re looking at film of, ‘If we fix this here or fix this here, we would have won the game.’ And that’s what they’re going to try to do tomorrow.”

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AP freelance writer Adry Torres in New York contributed to this report.

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

Philadelphia shifted to remote learning for students at 57 schools, saying that while the district has made progress, a number of them continue to have inadequate air conditioning.

The heat sneaked up on some Philadelphia residents and had them concerned about electricity bills before summer has even set in, said Lauren Authur, who lives in the city.

“Today has been like a heatwave,” Authur said, “and when you have little children, you use more of your air conditioning than anything to try to prevent them from being sick.”

“It honestly got hot sooner than we expected it to be,” she said.

The National Weather Service said another day of record heat was expected from the mid-Atlantic to New England before a cold front brings rain later in the week. Daily high temperature records were broken Tuesday in Portland, Maine, at 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), and in Boston at 96 (35.5 Celsius).

Temperatures were expected to plunge as low as 45 Fahrenheit (7 Celsius) in Portland and 50 (10 Celsius) in Boston as soon as Thursday.

In Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, officials at one high school set up fans, passed around bottled water and allowed students to wear shorts and T-shirts instead of their usual uniforms.

“The heat outside feels like it’s manageable because of the wind but inside it feels just tight and burdening because we also have to go through quizzes, exams, there is no excuse,” student Ariolainy Baez told CBS News.

A heat advisory was in effect for portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island through Wednesday evening.

In Maine, temperatures soared again Wednesday for Portland, and the small town of Fryeburg also sizzled a day after setting its own local heat record. Authorities advised people to use caution when outside.

“Our bodies are not adapted to the heat yet. On the first hot days of the year, it’s especially important to take breaks in the shade or A/C and drink plenty of water,” the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Some people coped by flocking to beaches that were not yet besieged by summer tourists. Others turned front lawn sprinklers into makeshift water parks for their children and neighbors.

In New York City, officials opened cooling centers.

“Just as New Yorkers look out for one another through the coldest days of winter, we must do the same through the hottest days of the year,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

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Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.

Aston Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul on Wednesday to secure Emery a record-extending fifth title in this competition.

Celebrating wildly inside the Tupras Stadium was lifelong Villa fan Prince William, who traveled to watch his beloved team end a 30-year wait for a major trophy.

He had his phone out taking photos as captain John McGinn lifted the cup in the center of the field and in front of an explosion of confetti.

“We had a great season and to top it off with this is amazing,” goal-scorer Youri Tielemans told TNT Sports.

Was the outcome ever in doubt with the ultimate Europa League specialist Emery on the sideline?

The Spanish coach has enjoyed remarkable success in Europe's second-tier competition, winning it three years running with Sevilla from 2014-16 and again with Villarreal in 2021.

Now he has led a third team with ‘Villa’ in its name to the title.

“Normally sometimes in the league games he’s a little bit anxious because obviously he wants us to win, but today he was really calm and I think that set the tone for us boys,” striker Ollie Watkins said.

Two brilliant first-half strikes from Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia put Villa into a 2-0 lead at the break. Morgan Rogers added a third in the second half.

It was Villa's first major piece of silverware since winning the English League Cup in 1996 and its first continental title since lifting the European Cup and then the Super Cup in 1982.

German team Freiburg, which was playing in the second division 10 years ago, was outclassed in its first European final.

Villa was in England's second tier even more recently, in 2019. And while it was the overwhelming favorite going into Wednesday's match, occasions like this looked a long way off when Emery was hired in 2022.

Back then, Villa was one place above the relegation zone and in danger of going down again.

The transformation he has overseen has been remarkable — leading the team into the Champions League last season and qualifying for European club soccer's top competition again next term.

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

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

Wednesday, May 20, 2026, marks 44 years since Kellie Marie Brownlee was last seen. The 17-year-old girl disappeared on May 20, 1982.

Kellie had skipped school to go to the mall to submit job applications. A friend’s mother saw her at the Twelve Oaks Mall at around 11 a.m. that day.

She was last seen wearing white pants, a halter top with another shirt over it, and high-heeled shoes.

Kellie’s friend, Carrie Oswald, opened up to Local 4 about their friendship and her grief.

“Kellie was a bouncing person with joy. When she walked in a room, you knew. She was laughing, bubbly, big smile. Back then, it was big hair 80s. She just glowed, and her philosophy, which I’ve said many times, was live, love, and laugh. She just cared tremendously about everybody in her circle,” Carrie said.

The two met in high school when Carrie was a freshman and Kellie was a sophomore. Her favorite memories of her friend were going to the arcade, listening to Ozzy Osbourne, and grabbing coffee at the Big Boy.

Even though it’s been over four decades, Carrie still hopes they’ll find answers in this case.

“It would bring peace. It would bring a lot of closure to a lot of us who continue to look for her and hope and pray that someday she will be found. Is that ever gonna happen? I don’t know, but it’s a grief that doesn’t go away. It subsides once in a while, but it comes right back at you,” Carrie said.

---> These are the names and faces of people missing in Metro Detroit the longest

Possible ties to suspected serial killer?

In May 2018, officials searched a wooded area in Macomb Township for the bodies of missing persons they believe could be connected to suspected serial killer Arthur Ream. It was the same area where police previously found the body of Cindy Zarzycki, a 13-year-old girl who disappeared from Eastpointe in 1986.

During the May 2018 search, Local 4 learned that authorities were investigating whether Ream was a serial killer linked to the disappearances of Kimberly King, Kim Larrow, and Brownlee.

Carrie does not believe Arthur Ream was involved.

“At one point, I did think Arthur Ream was involved. I actually went up to Michigan, to the Macomb County dig site. I don’t really think it was him,” Carrie said.

---> Previous coverage: Novi teen linked to suspected serial killer last seen 40 years ago at Twelve Oaks Mall

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the West Bloomfield Police Department at 248-975-9200.

If you have a missing persons case you’d like Local 4 to cover, reach out to Kayla Clarke at kclarke@wdiv.com, or the Investigators at Local 4 at Local4Investigators@wdiv.com.

The intersection sits right on the border of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, and that created a problem: nobody could figure out who was responsible for fixing it.

So, neighbors reached out to Local 4’s Lauren Kostiuk for help.

A car crash started it all

A car hit a utility pole, knocking out the traffic light at Pelham and Dartmouth. Crews put up temporary stop signs, but neighbors say those signs blow over or get hit.

“This is my home, and this to me is completely unacceptable,” said Tracy Baker, a Dearborn Heights resident. “These stop signs are knocked down and it’s not safe.”

Chuck Swanberry, another Dearborn Heights resident, said the light has been out for close to two months. He says he has picked up the fallen stop signs himself more than once.

“I’ve picked them up already a couple of times,” Swanberry said.

Sam Ramouni, who works at Dearborn Heights Automotive near the intersection, says drivers are visibly confused and it has even led to crashes.

“You can see it’s confusing. They don’t know what to do,” Ramouni said. “Nothing is getting done. It’s very frustrating.”

The tricky part: whose light is it?

The intersection straddles the city line between Dearborn and Dearborn Heights—and that made getting answers complicated.

Dearborn Heights told Local 4 the light is not their responsibility. Dearborn confirmed it is the city’s light, but said DTE took it down and never informed them. The city then had to order equipment before repairs could be scheduled.

DTE, however, tells Local 4 that Dearborn was notified on May 13 that the light was ready to go.

Repairs now scheduled for Friday

Dearborn says the traffic signals at Pelham and Dartmouth will be reinstalled this Friday at 8:30 a.m.

Neighbors say they are relieved but frustrated it took this long.

“Friday’s great,” Baker said. “But I think it is a month overdue, well overdue, and I think that somebody dropped the ball.”

Local 4 will continue to follow this story.

The deadline to apply is May 31.

Each year, the Rosedale Garden Neighborhood Association holds a Fourth of July parade, and some of the funding comes from the city’s Neighborhood Grant Program.

“I think it’s just a small way that the city can give back to residents to have a small, meaningful impact within the community,” City Councilwoman Carrie Budzinski said.

This year, the city will award 25 grants of up to $500.

“There’s a lot of flexibility in how people see community,” Budzinski said.

In the nine years since the program began, more than 200 projects have received funding, according to the city.

One of the first projects was a 2017 Eagle Scout project by Hans Anderson, who used the grant money to help fund an outdoor classroom at Hoover Elementary School, which is still in use.

“There are lots of opportunities for people to get creative, whether it’s gardening or celebrating or supporting sports,” Budzinski said.

City officials say applications can include neighborhood events such as block parties, as well as community art programs, landscaping, or beautification of public spaces.

Preference goes to first-time applicants.

After the May 31 deadline, applications will be evaluated.

If selected, recipients must spend and document the funds by Nov. 30.

Click here for more information on how to apply.

The crash occurred on Wednesday (May 20) around 2:30 p.m. at 30049 Ford Road.

Police said a dark-colored SUV slammed into the building, causing extensive damage to part of the restaurant.

The vehicle appeared to have crashed through a section of the wall and windows, leaving debris scattered around the scene.

Police said no injuries were reported.

Investigators have not said what led up to the crash, and the extent of the structural damage has not been released.

The incident remains under investigation.

Documents filed on Wednesday show Musk’s SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year, too.

Still, the initial public offering is expected to rank among the largest ever, possibly surpassing the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that went public seven years ago.

The prospectus did not put a dollar figure on the amount Musk hopes to raise but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so. The company has said the money will help to finance projects to put men on the moon and maybe some day Mars in his quest to make making humans an intergalactic species as it faces existential threats that could wipe out civilization.

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

The initial offering could also make Musk, a major holder of SpaceX equity, the world’s first trillionaire.

It will also give Musk big control over the business.

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

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

The company said Wednesday it earned $58.32 billion, or $2.39 per share, in the February-April period, up from $18.78 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Nvidia earned $1.76 per share.

Revenue jumped 85% to $81.62 billion from $44.01 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.75 per share and revenue of $78.91 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Nvidia's results have exceeded the analyst projections that shape investors’ perceptions since Nvidia’s high-end chips emerged as AI’s best building blocks three years ago.

“The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” said CEO Jensen Huang in a statement.

Along with higher profit and revenue, however, Nvidia's operating expenses increased by 49% to $7.75 billion.

For the current quarter, Nvidia forecast revenue of about $91 billion. Analysts are forecasting $87.29 billion.

Despite the solid results and outlook, many investors still evidently are worried about a comedown after a three-year boom that has seen Nvidia’s market value soar from $400 billion at the end of 2022 to $5.4 trillion as of Wednesday.

Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company dipped slightly after-hours to $222.12 after closing at $223.47 in the regular trading session.

“Time and time again, (Nvidia) obliterates expectations and consensus; it delivered exactly on what people wanted, especially regarding data centers,” said David Wagner, head of equity and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. “But the market doesn’t always act as you would expect after a strong report like this one.”

The company also announced plans to return some money to shareholders. It authorized a plan to buy back $80 billion worth of stock and increased its quarterly cash dividend to 25 cents per share from 1 cent.

Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, faces charges including theft of government property and concealment of government records. She pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach. Her attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Prosecutors allege that while serving as a Justice Department prosecutor last December, Lineberger sent a copy of the report that special counsel Jack Smith and his team had prepared, recapping their investigation into Trump’s retention of top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, to her personal email account. At the time she did so, the indictment says, a judicial order barred Justice Department employees from sharing, transmitting or distributing copies of the report.

The indictment alleges that Lineberger sought to conceal her actions by altering the original file name of the report to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving the re-titled file on her government computer and emailing it to her personal email account with the subject line of “Bundt_Cake_Recipe,pdf.”

Several months earlier, according to the indictment, Lineberger created on her government computer a document consisting of portions of internal Justice Department messages, along with portions of an internal memorandum with header and footer markings that indicated it was for official use only.

She sent the material to her personal email address via an attached file titled “Chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf,” prosecutors say.

The indictment does not explain why Lineberger may have wanted to send the report, which prosecutors say she had access to in her professional capacity as a prosecutor, to her own email account.

The volume detailing Smith's findings in a criminal investigation once seen as posing significant legal peril to Trump has never been seen by the public. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers, who argued that releasing the report would be unfairly prejudicial after Smith abandoned the case following Trump's 2024 election victory.

Lineberger worked in the same judicial district where Smith's case against Trump was filed. That case accused Trump of illegally retaining at the Mar-a-Lago property dozens of classified records from his first term and obstructing government efforts to get them back.

“This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should’ve never been brought to begin with,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement posted on X.

The 193-member world body approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing the landmark advisory opinion by the U.N.’s top court last July that called failure by countries to protect the planet from climate change a violation of international law. The vote was 141-8 with 28 abstentions.

The U.S., Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia — some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters — opposed the measure.

The text included adopting a national climate action plan to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius; phasing out subsidies for fossil fuel exploration, production and exploitation; and urging those in violation to provide “full reparation” for damage.

The resolution had initially included stronger language from the International Court of Justice opinion that called for establishing an “International Register of Damage” to record evidence and claims, but it was removed after nearly a dozen consultations in order to receive more support.

The adoption came despite reporting by the Associated Press in February that the Trump administration had been urging other nations to press the small island country of Vanuatu — the draft's original sponsor — to withdraw it from consideration.

In guidance issued to all U.S. embassies and consulates, the State Department had said it “strongly objects” to the proposal and that its adoption “could pose a major threat to U.S. industry.”

On Wednesday, Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., blasted the measure once again, calling it “highly problematic” and maintaining that Washington has serious legal and policy concerns despite changes to the draft.

“The resolution includes inappropriate political demands relating to fossil fuels and on other climate topics,” Bruce told the assembly before the vote.

But representatives from Vanuatu and other island nations, who fear for their survival because of the impact of climate change, said it was important for the General Assembly to back the court opinion, which was hailed as a turning point in international climate law.

“We should be honest with one another about why this matters,” Odo Tevi, the Vanuatu ambassador to the U.N., said before the vote. “It matters because the harm is real and it is already here, along our islands and coast lines, for communities facing drought and failed harvests.”

He added, “The states and peoples bearing the heaviest burden are very often those who contributed least to the problem.”

The action by the world body follows decades of frustration for Pacific nations that are watching their homelands disappear.

In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just 2 meters (6.6 feet), more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be underwater at high tide. In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners — offering visa-free access to dozens of countries — in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts.

The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, who turns 95 next month, was Cuba's defense minister at the time. The charges, which were secretly filed by a grand jury in April, included murder and destruction of an airplane. Five Cuban military pilots were also charged.

“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in Miami at a ceremony coinciding with Cuban independence day to honor those killed. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”

Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

Asked what will happen next for Cuba, President Donald Trump said, "We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

The charges pose a real threat, observers said, following the capture by U.S. forces in January of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to face drug charges in New York.

“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Cuban president condemns indictment

While it remains unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom, the murder and conspiracy charges carry the potential for life in prison or the death penalty upon conviction.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.” In a message on social media, he accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shootdown, including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that they would defend against "dangerous violations" of their airspace "by notorious terrorists.”

Among those attending Wednesday's ceremony in downtown Miami was Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was killed while she was away for her first year of college.

Over the years, she spoke to multiple federal investigators about charging Castro, referring to him as “one of the main architects of the crime.” But none until now had the courage to seek justice for her family and the other victims.

“It has been long overdue,” she said standing before a giant photo of her father.

Trump has threatened military action for months

Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured Maduro, the Cuban government’s longtime patron. After ousting the Venezuelan leader, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Since Maduro's capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power and whisking him to New York to face trial.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.

“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes

Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior State Department officials met with the grandson in April.

The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s

In 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.

After Cuban protests, the Federal Aviation Administration also opened an investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by the National Security Archive.

But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All four men aboard were killed. A third plane, carrying the group's leader, narrowly escaped.

Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment

Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor in Miami in the 1990s, first uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces.

In the end, only the head of the Cuban air force and two of the MiG pilots involved in the downing of the planes were indicted but have never been apprehended.

A fourth individual was convicted of leading a Miami-based spy ring called Operation Scorpion that collected intelligence about the flights. He was later swapped for a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba as part of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba.

The shootdown led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.

But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration raised concerns about such a high-profile indictment.

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Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters David Fischer in Miami; Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Meg Kinnard in Houston; Will Weissert in Washington; Michael Weissenstein in New York; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

An arbitration panel upheld the English Football League's decision to remove Southampton from Saturday's final, meaning Middlesbrough will take its place and play Hull at Wembley Stadium for the chance to win promotion to the Premier League.

The decision is final.

Southampton was expelled on Tuesday after admitting to repeatedly spying on opponents.

It was charged earlier this month for the unauthorized filming of Middlesbrough’s practice sessions ahead of their semifinal. It went on to win the two-legged tie to go within one game of promotion to the top flight.

The southcoast club subsequently admitted further breaches this season concerning games against Oxford United and Ipswich. It was also deducted four points for next season.

In its appeal, it described its punishment as “manifestly disproportionate” to any previous sanction in English soccer history.

In a long club statement, Southampton chief executive Phil Parsons had accepted “what happened was wrong” and that the club deserved to be sanctioned.

“What we cannot accept,” he said, “is a sanction which bears no proportion to the offense.”

The playoff final is labeled the world’s richest one-off soccer match because a windfall of at least $270 million in future earnings is on offer for the winning team.

Promotion to the top flight of English soccer — the world’s wealthiest and most-watched league — brings with it access to its multibillion dollar global broadcast deals as well as sold out stadiums for games against the biggest teams in the world like Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Southampton was relegated from the Premier League after finishing bottom of the standings last season and was aiming to make an immediate return.

The league said the final would go ahead on Saturday, kicking off at 3.30 p.m. local time.

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

Background: Mother shot during carjacking outside Oakland County strip mall, man arrested after police chase

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

The victim, a woman in her 40s, was shot in the hip and taken into surgery Tuesday night. Bouchard said the bullet came dangerously close to a major artery.

“The first words out of one of the nurses was, ‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’” Bouchard said.

The sheriff called the woman’s survival a miracle.

“She’s stable, but there’s still a very long road medically,” Bouchard said.

Her young son witnessed the shooting and ran to a nearby store for help.

Suspect waited, watched for target, officials say

Investigators say the suspect deliberately staked out the plaza before making his move.

“This individual sat outside of this shopping mall watching and waiting and as soon as she got to the parking lot he ran, literally ran around a car and then confronted her and her young son and shot her to take her car,” Bouchard said.

Flock cameras -- a network of license plate readers used by law enforcement -- tracked the stolen vehicle into Groveland Township, where it crashed and the suspect fled on foot. An undercover detective later located and arrested him.

Suspect has violent criminal past, officials say

Bouchard said the suspect has a violent criminal history and has been uncooperative with investigators since his arrest.

“He’s currently on probation for hog-tying a woman, duct taping her and suffocating her with a plastic bag over her head, and he’s back out on the street saying no harm, no foul. Is that how the justice system works for our victims?” Bouchard said.

Authorities are working with the Oakland County prosecutor’s office and pursuing federal charges against the suspect.

“He should not be on the street again to find another innocent victim,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard is urging the public to remain alert and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.

The 42-year-old four-time NFL MVP says the 2026 season will be his last. Rodgers will spend it in Pittsburgh reuniting with first-year Steelers coach Mike McCarthy. The two won a Super Bowl together during a highly successful run in Green Bay earlier in their careers.

While McCarthy's time in Pittsburgh is just starting, Rodgers is entering the twilight of a career that will end in the Hall of Fame.

Here's a look at how Rodgers evolved from a junior college unknown into a future Hall of Famer.

Long wait

After developing into an NFL prospect during one year at Butte College and two at Cal, Rodgers was a possibility to go No. 1 overall in the 2005 draft. But he had a longer-than-expected wait before Green Bay selected him 24th overall.

Patience pays off

After sitting behind Brett Favre for three seasons, Rodgers got his opportunity to be the Packers’ starter in 2008 after Favre – who retired briefly and then returned — was traded to the Jets. Rodgers quickly established himself as one of the NFL’s top passers, throwing for 4,038 yards. It was the first of 10 seasons during which he’d pass for at least 4,000 yards.

Super season

Rodgers led the Packers to the Super Bowl to cap the 2010 season and was selected the game’s MVP after throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns in Green Bay's 31–25 win over Pittsburgh.

First MVP

Rodgers won the first of his four AP NFL MVP awards in 2011 after passing for a career-high and franchise-best 4,643 yards with 45 TDs and just six interceptions while setting an NFL record with a 122.5 passer rating.

Second MVP

In 2014, Rodgers and the Packers bounced back from a sluggish 1-2 start to reach the NFC championship game, where Green Bay lost to Seattle. He capped the season by winning his second MVP award.

“Miracle in Motown”

Arguably Rodgers’ most memorable pass came in Detroit in Week 13 of the 2015 season against the Lions, who led the Packers 23-20 and appeared to win until a defensive facemask penalty was called with no time left on the clock. It gave Green Bay one more chance and Rodgers chucked a 61-yard toss that was caught by Richard Rodgers in the end zone for an unlikely victory. It was the first of Rodgers’ four career completed Hail Mary throws, the most in NFL history.

Third MVP

Rodgers threw a career-high and Packers-record 48 TD passes and set a personal best with a 70.7 completion percentage on his way to his third AP NFL MVP award. The Packers made it to the NFC title game again, but lost to Tom Brady and eventual Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay. Rodgers fell to 1-4 in conference championship games and became the first QB to lose four straight appearances.

Vaccination controversy

Rodgers missed a game in 2021 after testing positive for COVID-19 and later acknowledged he hadn’t gotten the vaccine. He said he was “immunized” when asked about his vaccination status before the season. Although he took responsibility for being misleading about his status initially, Rodgers also criticized the way NFL protocols impacted unvaccinated players and frequently spoke out regarding his skepticism over the vaccine.

Fourth MVP

Rodgers capped the 2021 season by winning his fourth AP NFL MVP award, becoming the fifth player to win consecutive MVPs and first since Peyton Manning (2008 and 2009). He and Manning are also the only players to win at least four MVP awards.

Swan song in Green Bay

Rodgers signed a three-year contract before the 2022 season with the Packers worth $150.8 million, with $101.5 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid player in North American sports history on an annual basis at that time. He broke his right thumb early in the season, but continued playing and the Packers finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs.

Big deal, big disappointment

Rodgers was traded to New York on April 26, 2023, immediately raising expectations for the Jets, whose only Super Bowl appearance was in the 1968 season. But just four snaps into his debut in the season opener against Buffalo, Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon.

Broadway bust

Rodgers started off slowly in his return from his torn Achilles tendon and then dealt with other knee, ankle and hamstring injuries as the Jets got off to a 2-3 start and fired coach Robert Saleh. Rodgers played better down the stretch, but New York finished 5-12 and missed the playoffs for the 14th straight year. After becoming the fifth player in NFL history to throw 500 regular-season TD passes in the season finale, Rodgers said he needed to take some time off to ponder his playing future.

Jetting away

On Feb. 13, 2025, the Jets said they had informed Rodgers that new coach Aaron Glenn and new general manager Darren Mougey would be moving in another direction at quarterback. He was released a month later, officially ending Rodgers’ tenure with the franchise.

A happy pit stop in Pittsburgh

Rodgers signed with the Steelers in June 2025 and quickly began leaning into everything that comes with playing for one of the league's iconic franchises. He took rookie quarterback Will Howard under his wing and quickly won over the locker room with his humor and his cool California swagger.

Oh, and the football at times was great, too. Rodgers passed for 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions in 2025, leading the Steelers to their first AFC North title since 2020. He also leapfrogged Favre into fourth place on the NFL's all-time touchdown pass list.

He spent four months pondering whether to return before re-signing with Pittsburgh just before the start of organized team activities and left no room for speculation about whether 2026 would be his last season.

“This is it,” he said.

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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

A trade license that came into effect Wednesday permits the import of Russian oil that has been refined into jet fuel and diesel in third countries such as India and Turkey. The U.K. announced in October that it would ban imports of those products.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, has sent fuel prices soaring around the world and sparked concerns about a shortage of jet fuel.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the British government of “choosing to buy dirty Russian oil.”

But Starmer said the government is phasing in the sanctions package announced in October and has issued a “targeted short-term” license for the refined products to protect British consumers in a volatile situation.

“So, these are new sanctions being phased in. This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever,” he said in the House of Commons.

The licenses have no end date, but the government said they would be reviewed regularly.

Britain has been one of Ukraine's strongest allies since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and the government insists its sanctions against Russia remain among the toughest in the world.

Starmer spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and “outlined how the U.K. was ramping up measures to crack down on Russia’s economy,” Starmer's office said.

It said Starmer “reaffirmed the U.K.’s steadfast support for Ukraine.”

After the call, Zelenskyy posted on X: “I am grateful for all the support the United Kingdom provides to Ukraine — our efforts to protect life."

But lawmaker Emily Thornberry, who chairs Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Ukrainians would “feel very let down” by the easing of sanctions.

A senior Ukrainian official said the Kyiv government was “clarifying the details” with U.K. officials.

“There is currently very active communication between our diplomats, the office (of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy) and the British side,” the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The U.S. has also eased Russian sanctions. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent extended a 30-day sanctions waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil shipments already at sea.

On Tuesday, finance ministers from the U.S., Britain and the other Group of Seven wealthy nations issued a joint statement reaffirming “our unwavering commitment to continue to impose severe costs on Russia in response to its continued aggression against Ukraine.”

John Lough, an associate fellow in the Russia program at the Chatham House think tank in London, said that while the sanctions carve-outs were likely to be temporary, “it has a symbolic effect because it does look as though the sanctions regime is weakening.

“If you’re looking at this from Moscow, you would say, well, this is welcome news, because it shows that when push comes to shove, Western countries are really not that committed to a sanctions regime,” Lough said.

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Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Susie Blann in Kyiv contributed to this story.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, adopting one of the most ambitious efforts by a major university to curb grade inflation. The decision was made by faculty vote earlier this month.

The move comes after top grades became so common that some Harvard faculty argued they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. More than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to university data cited by faculty members who supported the measure.

“The Harvard faculty voted to make their grades mean what they say they mean,” members of the faculty subcommittee that proposed the changes said in a statement.

They said the reform would ensure that “a Harvard A grade will now tell students, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”

Harvard is not the first elite university to confront grade inflation. Princeton University adopted a policy in 2004 to limit A-range grades to 35% of those awarded, though it abandoned the system a decade later after criticism that it disadvantaged students in competition for jobs and graduate school admission.

Nationally, grade-point averages at four-year public and nonprofit colleges rose more than 16% between 1990 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, called grade inflation a “complex and thorny issue” and a “problem that many people have recognized, but no one has solved” in a statement Wednesday.

Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist and Harvard psychology professor who has long criticized grade inflation, said in an email to The Associated Press that he was “delighted” by the result.

For too long, Pinker said, professors “who held the line with challenging material and high standards would see their enrollments plummet.” Failure to address the issue turned “universities into national laughingstocks.”

“Grade inflation forced a race to the bottom,” he said, adding that the problem could only be solved through a university-wide policy.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, Zach Berg and Daniel Zhao, the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, said they recognized concerns with the current grading system but were disappointed that student voices “have not been centered throughout the decision-making process.” In a February survey of students conducted by the association, nearly 85% of roughly 800 responding undergraduates opposed the proposal to limit the share of A-range grades awarded in Harvard courses.

Beginning in fall 2027, instructors in letter-graded courses at Harvard College will be allowed to award A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional students. Other letter grades, including A-minus, will not be subject to a limit.

Faculty also approved a proposal to use average percentile rank rather than grade-point average when comparing students for honors, prizes and awards.

A separate proposal that would have allowed courses to opt out of the A-grade cap by switching to a satisfactory/unsatisfactory system with a new SAT+ designation for exceptional performance failed.

The new policies will be reviewed after three years. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is Harvard’s largest school, comprising 40 academic departments. It is the home of Harvard College, Harvard’s undergraduate program, and all of Harvard’s Ph.D. programs.

Max Abrahms, a political science professor at nearby Northeastern University who studies terrorism and international security, was among those outside Harvard who applauded the decision.

“When everyone gets an A there is no signal,” he wrote on X, calling Harvard’s vote “a huge win for higher education.”

Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters sued Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new nearly $1.8 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions. The lawsuit’s filing comes a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, during his congressional testimony, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of fund payouts for rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6.

Also, Trumpscored another win Tuesday against a Republican rival, dislodging Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s primary and knocking out one of his most outspoken critics on Capitol Hill. Massie has been a particularly difficult thorn in Trump’s side, pushing for the release of the Epstein files, opposing the war with Iran and voting against Trump’s signature tax legislation last year.

The U.S. government will permanently drop tax claims against Trump, according to a settlement document made public Tuesday, in an extraordinary use of executive power that could effectively help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct. As part of the settlement deal, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations.

Here's the latest:

Ex-prosecutor charged with sending herself copy of Smith report on Trump classified files probe

A former federal prosecutor is facing federal charges over allegations that she sent a report detailing Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents to her personal email account, despite a judge’s order to keep it secret, according to an indictment made public on Wednesday.

Carmen Lineberger, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and managed its Fort Pierce branch, pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in West Palm Beach to charges of theft of government property. Her attorney did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

The indictment alleges that Lineberger sought to conceal her actions by altering the original file name of the report to “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf” before saving the re-titled file on her government computer and emailing it to her personal account.

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Republicans mull dropping $1 billion security money request for the White House and Trump’s ballroom

Republican senators are considering dropping a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump’s ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support on Capitol Hill.

The White House has pressured Republicans to add the money to a roughly $70 billion bill intended to restore funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.

But some Republicans are questioning the security price tag and asking for more details about how the money would be used.

Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that the bill was “back to square one” without the security money because “the votes are not there.”

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

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Trump says he will speak with Taiwan’s leader over arms sales

President Trump today suggested he may speak with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te about an arms sales package opposed by Beijing, the second time in a week he raised the possibility of speaking with the island’s leader.

“Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump said when asked if he had plans to call Lai.

On Friday, when returning from his summit in Beijing, Trump said: “I have to speak to the person that right now, as you know, you know who he is, that’s running Taiwan.”

Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, opposes any official interaction between U.S. and Taiwanese officials, and no sitting U.S. president has spoken with a Taiwanese leader since the two governments severed diplomatic ties in 1979.

Trump, as president-elect in 2016, took a congratulatory phone call from the Taiwanese president.

Trump calls the indictment of Raúl Castro ‘a very big moment’

“I think this is a very big day, very important day,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac, after flying back from Connecticut.

Asked what will happen next for Cuba, he said “We’re gonna see” and that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

Trump also said the CIA has a presence in Cuba, and Rubio has been involved in discussions with the island’s leadership.

But Trump added of applying more economic pressure to Cuba, “There won’t be escalation. I don’t think there needs to be.

Trump says he may release his tax returns

Trump has long cited ongoing IRS audits as his reason for not releasing his past tax returns. But that could change now that his legal team has forged a deal with the Justice Department this week that includes permanently dropping tax claims against the president, his family and associates.

“I may even release my current returns,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after a trip to Connecticut.

As part of the settlement deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion l awsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, the U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax examinations, according to a one-page document posted to the Justice Department’s website on Tuesday.

The settlement also includes the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted.

Blanche says he expects Castro to appear in US on charges

Asked to what lengths the U.S. would go to bring Castro to face charges in this country, Blanche said the federal government indicts people outside the United States “all the time” and uses a variety of methods to bring them to justice.

“There was a warrant issued for his arrest,” Blanche said of Raúl Castro. “So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

Blanche went on to say investigations like this one are “never over” when asked whether additional charges would be brought.

Castro should take the indictment as a real threat, observers said

That’s because former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted on drug-related charges before he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized by U.S. special forces in the Venezuelan capital in January

“He’s gonna have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst and specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive.

“They’re going to have no choice but to take this threat extremely seriously.”

Top Communist Party leader praises Raúl Castro, says Cubans will defend his legacy ‘at any cost’

Roberto Morales Ojeda, a senior Communist Party leader, praised Army Gen. Raúl Castro on Wednesday, saying he “embodies the most genuine essence of the Cuban Revolution thanks to his ability to lead with modesty and personal example. His career has been an uninterrupted lesson in loyalty to Cuba and Fidel.”

He also said Raúl Castro has cultivated “an exceptional human sensitivity” and the ability to examine the “revolutionary endeavor,” rectify errors and open spaces for dialogue.

“For all these reasons, the Cuban people are absolutely certain that they will defend Raúl’s physical and ethical integrity and his legacy at any cost,” Morales Ojeda wrote on X. “Defending his legacy means embracing the continuity of the Revolution, updating the economic model without losing its socialist essence, training new generations, and the fundamental lesson: that one can be a revolutionary with firmness, constructive criticism, and unwavering loyalty to the people.”

In Miami, one Cuban American expresses approval of Castro’s indictment

Peter Hernandez, whose family owns Los Pinareños Fruteria in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, said it’s about time for the U.S. to do something about Castro.

“The piracy in that country, Cuba, it has been going on for a very long time,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez, whose parents moved from Cuba to South Florida before he was born, said he doesn’t have a problem with the U.S. sending its military to arrest Castro.

“He’s a criminal,” Hernandez said. ”I think we should do that with all criminals, especially if they’re hiding behind a country that consistently has been proven that they are on the wrong side of our national security efforts and ideology.”

Cuban president condemns Castro indictment

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment of Raúl Castro and accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating the events of 1996. He called it “a political action without any legal basis” that only seeks to “bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

Díaz-Canel wrote on X that Cuba acted in “legitimate self-defense within its territorial waters after repeated and dangerous violations of its airspace by notorious terrorists.”

He said U.S. officials at the time had been warned about the violations but allowed them to continue.

Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured the Cuban government’s longtime patron, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After ousting Maduro, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

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The US has also accused Cuban military pilots of downing the planes

Lt. Col. Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez of Las Tunas is among the Cuban military pilots accused of downing the civilian planes in 1996.

The others include José Fidel Gual Barzaga and Lt. Col. Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, whom the U.S. indicted in November 2025 on charges including fraud and misuse of visa and permits.

At the time, former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said: “This man’s past as a longtime military pilot for the evil Castro regime — which has wrought untold suffering on the Cuban people — should have been front and center in his immigration file.”

González-Pardo Rodríguez was accused in part of falsely claiming he had never received any weapons or military training on an application to register for permanent residence or adjust status.

The others accused are Emilio José Palacio Blanco and Raul Simance Cárdenas.

The penalties in the indictment against Castro

The murder and conspiracy charges Castro is facing carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison upon conviction. However, it is unclear whether Castro will ever step foot in a U.S. courtroom.

Castro is charged alongside five other defendants. One of them, Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez, is in U.S. custody awaiting sentencing later this month in a case alleging he made false statements in an immigration document, according to the Justice Department.

Sen. Moody applauds Trump administration’s ‘accountability’ in Castro charges

Speaking at Wednesday’s event, Sen. Ashley Moody decried what she described as previous administrations’ relaxed attitudes toward Cuba, including moves to “relax our banking restrictions” or “coddle them into freedom.”

But with actions like the Castro indictment, the Florida Republican said the Trump administration is taking “the bold step of actually bringing accountability.”

Trump tells Coast Guard graduates they will ‘be tested’ in their military careers

President Donald Trump has returned to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to give the commencement address at the Connecticut school.

He told cadets on Wednesday that they show “unbelievable heroism and exceptional selflessness” but will “be tested further” as they embark on their military careers.

Trump’s remarks to the class of 2026 were the first time he has given a commencement speech at one of the nation’s military academies after sending U.S. troops to fight the war with Iran. Trump also spoke at the academy’s graduation in 2017 during his first term.

During his address, Trump quickly touched on the war with Iran, now in its 12th week, as a sign of U.S. success from “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

“The only question is, do we go ahead and finish it up or are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens,” Trump said.

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Trump referenced ‘shores of Havana’ in remarks earlier Wednesday

He did not directly address Raúl Castro or any potential indictment, but Trump mentioned Cuba earlier Wednesday in a commencement address.

“From the Gulf of America to the frozen waters of the Arctic, from the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal, we will drive out the forces of lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment, just like we’ve been doing,” Trump said to graduates at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

Charges against Castro include murder

The indictment charges Castro with murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and destruction of aircraft.

A grand jury in Miami returned the indictment late last month, and it was unsealed on Wednesday, acting Attorney General Blanche said.

Blanche explains why Raúl Castro charges announced in Florida and not Washington

Many major Department of Justice cases are announced in Washington, but Blanche said Wednesday that it was important to discuss the Castro case in Florida instead.

“The community here, you all, understands the history of the Cuban regime better than anyone in America,” Blanche said. “Many families here know the cost of oppression.”

Crowd applauds as Raúl Castro indictment announced

Attendees rose to their feet, pulled out cell phones and broke into loud shouts as acting Blanche announced the charges against Castro.

The acting U.S. attorney general and other top Justice Department officials were in Miami on Wednesday for a ceremony to honor those killed in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian planes.

US indicts former Cuban President Raúl Castro over downing of planes in 1996

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro with ordering the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle seven decades of single-party rule in the Caribbean island.

Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister when the planes operated by a Miami-based exile group were shot down, killing four people.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been ratcheting up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open up its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Cuban president dismisses Rubio remarks, blames hardships on US sanctions, energy blockade

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel pushed back on Wednesday following claims by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the suffering of the Cuban people is the fault of the socialist government.

“They lie again and again without any shame, with alarming audacity, without presenting a single shred of evidence to support their claims,” he wrote on the social platform X. “The blame lies with those who order the closure of all access to material and financial resources.”

He noted that the U.S. executive order penalizing any country that supplies Cuba with fuel remains in effect.

“Only the most twisted minds could deny before the world this collective punishment being inflicted upon an entire people, which is already becoming an act of genocide,” Díaz-Canel wrote.

Progressive youth group launches digital campaign highlighting absent congressman

Voters of Tomorrow, a group focused on mobilizing young voters, launched a website highlighting Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s absence from Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday said he expects the New Jersey Republican to return “soon” after dealing with a “personal medical issue.” Kean has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March. His family and staff say that he is battling an undisclosed illness.

Santiago Mayer, Voters of Tomorrow’s executive director, said that Kean had “ghosted” Congress, adding that the issue of congressional absences was especially salient to young voters.

The digital ads depict doctored “Missing” posters with an image of Kean and the text “Have U Seen This Man?” The campaign’s accompanying website includes a voter registration pledge.

Kean’s absence from House votes comes as Republicans face a razor-thin majority, complicating the party’s legislative agenda. Democrats have faced their own challenges in maintaining stable margins, as some members have died while in office.

Trump gives the Coast Guard commencement address in relentless heat

The president called graduates of the Coast Guard Academy “the living standard bearers of America’s first fleet” and suggested danger is “a statement you live by.”

Trump said graduating together would build lifelong camaraderie , saying “You’re always going to be friends with each other. Hopefully with me.”

As he spoke, many in the crowd faced scorching heat with little shade available against the 85-deegre heat and a UV index of 9.

At least one person required medical attention after passing out. Others pleaded with organizers that elderly attendants be allowed to sit under tents.

Chilled water bottles were distributed, but quickly became warm.

Officers’ lawsuit claims government’s ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is an illegal slush fund

And the lawsuit says President Trump will use it to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.”

It describes the fund’s creation as “the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.”

One of the attorneys for the officers is Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases.

Officers who defended Capitol from rioters sue to block payouts from $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of Trump supporters sued Wednesday to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions.

The officers’ attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Over 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.

The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who’s running in Maryland for a seat in Congress.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson says Trump’s endorsement is ‘most powerful’

The Republican leader said he spoke with the president late after Tuesday’s primary elections and the defeat of Rep. Thomas Massie, a once popular GOP lawmaker.

“We talked about how his endorsement is the most powerful in the history of politics,” Johnson of Louisiana said at the Capitol.

The speaker insisted there’s room in the Republican Party for those who cross Trump.

“We don’t demand loyalty to the president,” he said.

“I never ask anybody to violate a core principle,” he said, but “you have to give up on some of your personal preferences sometimes.”

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez blasts US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

He called Rubio “the mouthpiece of corrupt and vindictive interests, concentrated in South Florida.”

Rodríguez wrote on X that Cuba hasn’t rejected $100 million in humanitarian aid the U.S. has offered, adding that the “cynicism is evident to anyone given the devastating effects of the economic blockade and the energy embargo.”

In late January, President Trump threatened tariffs on countries that supply or sell oil to Cuba, which recently announced that its oil reserves have run dry.

Rodríguez also criticized Rubio for releasing a video message Wednesday in which he calls on Cubans to reject their government and demand new leadership and a free-market economy.

“He takes advantage of the infamous date of May 20th,” Rodríguez wrote. The date marks Cuba’s independence, but the socialist government rejects that date, saying true freedom began with the 1959 Revolution.

Days after Trump visit, Putin and Xi hail their friendship and growing energy trade at meeting

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their strategic ties and growing energy trade as they met in Beijing on Wednesday only days after a visit by President Trump to China.

Putin and Xi oversaw the signing of more than 40 cooperation agreements in areas such as trade, technology and media exchanges. They stressed their growing trade, particularly in oil and natural gas, and declared themselves aligned on international relations.

The countries’ ties have reached “the highest level in history,” Xi said after the signing ceremony, speaking to members of the delegations and journalists. The two sides also agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001.

Putin told those in the room that “the driving force behind economic cooperation is Russian-Chinese collaboration in the energy sector.”

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Tony Carruthers' attorneys twice asked the Tennessee Department of Correction last month whether it had secured the appropriate drugs for his execution date and for assurance the drugs had not expired.

Assistant Attorney General John W. Ayers' response did not directly answer but said the department will comply with its lethal injection protocol — which includes regular inventory of the drugs to monitor expiration dates.

Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson, his mother Delois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to answer on Wednesday when asked by The Associated Press whether the drugs they plan to use to kill Carruthers are expired. Gov. Bill Lee’s office did not immediately respond to a similar inquiry.

Federal Public Defender Amy Harwell said in an email that expiration dates reflect when a drug can no longer be safely relied upon to obtain the desired result.

“In the execution context, this may mean a slow, lingering death without a reliable loss of consciousness, as the body painfully and fitfully shuts down,” Harwell wrote.

Public opposition to executions has made it difficult for prisons to obtain execution drugs, among the lingering issues for those who use lethal injection. Some states have been forced to speed up executions or stop them entirely due to expiration dates on drugs.

In South Carolina, executions were on hold for 12 years while the state struggled to obtain drugs. They were eventually able to get them only after the state passed a shield law that would keep the identity of the supplier secret.

Tennessee has argued in court that its shield extends to revealing expiration dates. Just before the December execution of Harold Nichols, Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Cody Brandon offered instead to provide a declaration “attesting that the chemicals to be used in Mr. Nichols’ execution will not expire before his execution and have not expired,” according to a transcript of the proceedings.

“The fact that TDOC was willing to provide such assurances to Mr. Nichols, but not Mr. Carruthers, raises serious concerns that TDOC is, in fact, intending to use expired drugs,” Harwell wrote in a May 18 follow-up to Ayers’ letter.

Arkansas, Idaho have faced challenges

In 2017, Arkansas’ then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued death warrants for eight prisoners on the state’s death row in an effort to beat the clock on a batch of lethal injection drugs that were set to expire. The state executed four of the men, but four others were granted stays.

Arkansas has not had any executions since then, in part because of the difficulty in obtaining drugs.

A group of Texas inmates in 2023 unsuccessfully tried to stop the state from using drugs they alleged were expired and unsafe. Prison officials denied their claims and said the state's drug supply was safe.

Attorneys for Idaho’s death row inmates raised similar concerns in 2024, when the state planned to take a second try at executing Thomas Creech after the first attempt was botched.

The Federal Defender Services of Idaho told a federal judge that prison officials apparently failed to even check the expiration date of the execution drugs before obtaining a death warrant for Creech in October 2024. Nine days later, the drugs were returned to the supplier because they were expired, according to court documents. A new Idaho law has changed the state’s primary execution to firing squad in part because of the difficulty of getting lethal injection drugs.

Tennessee has had problems with execution drugs

Tennessee has a history of problems with its execution drugs. In 2022, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed the state's lethal injection drugs were not being properly tested for purity and potency. Executions were on hold for two years to allow for an independent investigation into the problems.

The state attorney general’s office was also forced to concede in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs at the time “ incorrectly testified ” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.

Tennessee released a new lethal injection process in December 2024, and restarted executions in 2025. Several death row inmates have sued over the new protocols, arguing that the Correction Department did not follow the recommendations from the investigation.

Meanwhile, the new process has not been completely smooth. When Byron Black was executed by lethal injection in August, he said he was “ hurting so bad.” Prison officials have offered no explanation for what might have caused the pain.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1% for its first rise in four days and pulled closer to its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 645 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5%.

Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, which offered relief following rapid climbs that had rattled stock markets worldwide recently. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.67% late Tuesday, which is a significant move for a market that measures things in hundredths of a percentage point.

The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4% before the war with Iran began, along with other yields around the world, because of worries that the fighting will keep oil prices high, among other factors. The inflation concerns not only seemed to eliminate the chances for a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year, they also heightened the risk that central banks may have to raise rates in 2026.

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

Yields eased Wednesday as oil prices pulled back some more. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.6% to settle at $105.02, though it remains well above its roughly $70 level from before the war. Prices have been yo-yoing on rising and falling hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to allow oil deliveries to fully resume from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

A report showing less bad inflation in the United Kingdom than economists expected also helped calm yields worldwide.

With the easing of yields, technology stocks helped lead Wall Street higher.

Nvidia rose 1.3% ahead of its latest profit report, which arrived after trading ended for the day, and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500. The chip company reported another quarter of bigger growth in profit and revenue than analysts expected, while it also gave a better-than-expected forecast for revenue in the current quarter.

Other tech stocks leading the market included Advanced Micro Devices, up 8.1%, and Intel, up 7.4%.

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

Also helping to drive the market was the company behind TJ Maxx, Marshalls and other stores, which climbed 5.7% after delivering stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. TJX’s CEO, Ernie Herrman, said the current quarter is off to a good start, and the off-price retailer raised its forecasts for revenue and profit this year.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers jumped 18.2%, and Cava Group rose 3.1% following their own better-than-expected profit reports. Such results raise hopes that households can keep spending and supporting the economy, even though they’re contending with high gasoline prices and widespread discouragement about economic conditions.

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

On the losing side of Wall Street was Target, which fell 3.9% even though the retailer reported better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. A new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, is trying to turn around the company and boost its revenue.

Expectations were high for the company’s performance after Target’s stock came into the day with a gain of more than 30% for the year so far, quadruple the S&P 500’s gain.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 79.36 points to 7,432.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Averae jumped 645.47 to 50,009.35, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 399.65 to 26,270.36.

In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed in Europe following weaker finishes across Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% as the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond slipped but remained near its highest level since 1997.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

“This is it,” Rodgers said Wednesday when the four-time NFL MVP was asked if this would be his final year.

The 42-year-old did not expand on why he came to that conclusion. Maybe because there was no need.

Rodgers acknowledged that he thought his time in Pittsburgh — and perhaps the league — was over when Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stepped down the day after a blowout first-round playoff loss to Houston in January.

Things changed when Pittsburgh hired Mike McCarthy a few weeks later, a decision that Rodgers said he may have played a small role in when he encouraged Steelers general manager Omar Khan to talk to McCarthy. Rodgers and McCarthy spent 13 years together in Green Bay, winning a Super Bowl while becoming a playoff fixture.

McCarthy and Rodgers stayed in constant communication in recent months as Rodgers weighed whether to run it back one last time. While there was no one tipping point, the relative health of his 42-year-old body and the chance to have his career come “full circle" with a team that spent the offseason upgrading the offense in hopes of ending a lengthy playoff victory drought led to a reunion he called “surreal.”

“It is like a (bunch of) ‘pinch me’ moments that have happened in the last few days,” Rodgers said following the second day of Pittsburgh's voluntary organized team activities.

Perhaps because McCarthy hardly came back to his hometown alone.

The familiar faces from Rodgers' time in Green Bay are everywhere inside the Steelers' facility, from defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to offensive line coach James Campen. There are “getting the band back together” vibes everywhere Rodgers looks.

When Rodgers plopped into a chair for a meeting on Monday, in many ways it felt like it was 2006, when he was entering his second year in Green Bay as Brett Favre's backup and McCarthy was a first-year head coach still finding his way.

“Took me back to being a 22-year-old kid,” Rodgers said with a smile.

Only he's hardly that anymore. While the oldest player in the NFL turned back the clock enough last season to throw for 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions and guide the Steelers to the AFC North title, he also missed a game after breaking several bones in his left wrist and looked very much his age during the second half of what became a blowout loss to the Texans that ended both Pittsburgh's season and Tomlin's largely successful 19-year run as head coach.

Still, Rodgers believes he has enough left to attempt the rarest of exits for players of his stature: the ability to go out on his own terms.

McCarthy said Rodgers “can still throw it with anybody," though the time of year when Rodgers will be asked to really cut it loose is still months away. Perhaps Rodgers' most important job through OTAs, minicamp and training camp is helping the Steelers prepare for life without him.

While McCarthy and Rodgers stayed in constant communication as Rodgers hung out in Malibu, California, with his wife and weighed his options for 2026, the Steelers selected Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the third round of the draft, and McCarthy has talked up 2025 sixth-round choice Will Howard at every turn since taking over.

Allar and Howard figure to be in the mix this time next year when the Steelers restart their quest to find a long-term solution at the game's most important position, a search that's been ongoing since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in January 2022.

Rodgers' presence offers a cheat code of sorts. He knows all the answers to the test, particularly when the test is offered by McCarthy. Allar and Howard will get to spend the next seven or so months soaking up what they can from Rodgers about what McCarthy wants and perhaps more importantly, how he wants it.

McCarthy called Rodgers “a tremendous resource” who also happens to be a future Hall of Famer, giving him a certain cachet that might make him a better conduit for what McCarthy is trying to teach than the coach himself.

“It's like parenting,” McCarthy said. “I could sit there and tell my kids something, and then, like if he’d walk in and tell my son George something, he’d jump out the window and do it.”

While Rodgers took a friendly jab at Favre — whom he sat behind during the first three years of his career — by borrowing a phrase from Favre that mentoring is “not in my job description,” the reality is it's a role he relishes.

Just not as much as the chance to win. When Rodgers signed with the Steelers a year ago, he called the decision “best for my soul.” It's much the same this time around.

He likes what the team has done by trading for wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., signing running back Rico Dowdle and drafting wideout Germie Bernard. The offensive line could be better with Troy Fautanu moving over to left tackle. The defense still has a pair of franchise icons in defensive lineman Cam Heyward and outside linebacker TJ Watt.

And now it has a quarterback eager to soak up every last bit of the final chapter of a career that will end with a gold jacket and a bust in the Hall of Fame. Just not quite yet.

“I am excited about these guys," he said. “I’m excited about the team.”

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

But he says that could change now after his legal team forged a deal with the Justice Department this week that includes permanently dropping tax claims against the president, his family and associates.

“I may even release my current returns,” the president told reporters Wednesday.

If Trump makes good on that suggestion, it would end years-long speculation over how much the Republican president owes the federal government. But Trump has made dozens of promises in years past to release his returns, as other presidents routinely have done, only to renege on that commitment.

This week, the Justice Department said the government is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing or prosecuting current tax examinations of Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — part of the settlement deal meant to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over a leak of his tax returns.

The Justice Department has said the settlement refers only to existing audits, not future examinations.

The move came after the Justice Department announced, as part of the lawsuit settlement, the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Democrats and government watchdogs have called the arrangement “corrupt” and unconstitutional.

With the settlement putting an end to any ongoing examinations of the president's finances, the question arises about whether Trump will in fact release his returns. The White House referred The Associated Press to Trump’s comments when asked when his returns may become available.

Trump has said on numerous occasions over the years that he would release his tax returns. In May 2017, Trump said in an interview that he “might” release his tax returns after he stepped down as president.

During his first presidential campaign, he made a commitment to release his tax returns once they were not under audit.

In 2022, after Trump had left office, Democrats in Congress released thousands of pages of his tax returns for the years covering 2015-2020, showing how Trump used the tax code to lower his tax obligation and revealing details about foreign accounts, charitable contributions and the performance of some of his highest-profile business ventures.

“It would be unprecedented,” said Jodi Balsam, a former arbitrator of NCAA infractions cases who is director of the Sports Law Clinic at Brooklyn Law School. “They have never excused betting on one’s own sport or team and it routinely has been met with the harshest of penalties.”

Texas Tech said Monday it had declared Sorsby ineligible after it finalized an agreed-upon stipulation of facts between the school, the NCAA and Sorsby. A school is required to declare an athlete ineligible before it can initiate the reinstatement process.

On the same day, Sorsby filed a lawsuit in Lubbock County, Texas, alleging the NCAA was slow-walking his case and asking for an injunction allowing him to play for the Red Raiders this season after he was one of the biggest transfers of the offseason. Balsam said the claim of stalling is likely baseless since the NCAA had not received a reinstatement request as of Monday.

Sorsby has acknowledged wagering on sports, including on his own team his freshman season at Indiana in 2022. His school said he entered residential treatment for a gambling addiction three weeks ago.

History on NCAA's side

Balsam said courts historically have sided with sports governing bodies when it comes to administering rules concerning gambling and integrity of the game.

“I see the NCAA fighting this one. I don’t see them settling,” she said. “I do believe this is within their core legal authority.”

Sorsby is the highest-profile college football player to face permanent suspension for gambling since Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers three years ago. Dekkers was found to have wagered on a 2021 Cyclones game in which he didn't play.

Iowa State filed two appeals with the NCAA to have Dekkers' eligibility reinstated and was denied each time, a school spokesman said. Dekkers sat out 2023, played at a junior college in 2024 and signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2025. He was released in January and is the starter for the Houston Gamblers of the UFL this spring.

Sorsby's options

At stake for Sorsby is the multimillion-dollar deal he signed with Texas Tech for what was supposed to be his final season of college football. Sorsby alleges the NCAA abandoned “its obligations and duties to promote" his well-being and that the lawsuit was filed to expedite the reinstatement process.

Sorsby is seeking a hearing for a temporary injunction by June 15, one week before the deadline to file paperwork for the NFL's supplemental draft.

Balsam served from 2019-24 on the NCAA’s since-dissolved Independent Resolution Panel, which adjudicated and administered penalties in select Division I infractions cases. She said the NCAA would create a “real slippery slope” if it didn't make Sorsby permanently ineligible.

“To exonerate entirely somebody who has admitted violating this core policy is to open the floodgates for anybody who is ever engaged in gambling that violates the policy and tries to defend, justify or rationalize their behavior," she said.

In the lawsuit, Sorsby acknowledged that in his first year at Indiana, he wagered between $5 and $50 on the Hoosiers football team to win and made prop bets on teammates to exceed statistical predictions. He said he did not bet on the one game in which he played.

Sorsby said he never bet on a game involving Cincinnati after he transferred there in 2024, but he continued to be out of control, even placing wagers on Turkish basketball and Romanian soccer games.

Sorsby contends there is hypocrisy in the NCAA's harsh discipline for gambling violations at a time it has a partnership with Genius Sports, the exclusive distributor of official NCAA data feeds to authorized sportsbooks.

“Maybe that will invite some skepticism by courts,” Balsam said, “but ultimately ... sports gambling bans have always been considered essential to the public trust in the game.”

Judge recuses himself

Balsam said there was “perhaps a little bit of forum shopping” with Sorsby's lawsuit filed in Lubbock, home to Texas Tech, reflecting a trend of eligibility cases being heard in state courts.

The judge initially assigned to the case, Phillip Hays, grew up in Lubbock and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas Tech. Hays recused himself with no explanation in a court filing Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, and the administrative judge who will pick Hays' replacement has no ties to the school.

Balsam said it's conceivable a judge would grant Sorsby a temporary injunction but only to make the NCAA set a clear timetable for processing Sorsby's request so he isn't in jeopardy of missing the supplemental draft.

“I’d be floored if a court said at the end of the day, after a hearing on the merits, that the NCAA could not enforce its gambling policy,” Balsam said.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The company's announcement Wednesday comes a day after the Toronto-based Sherritt said it is no longer pursuing a plan to dissolve its Cuban joint venture, reversing a decision it announced last week amid expanded U.S. sanctions on the country.

The preliminary private placement deal would see Gillon hold a warrant that would allow it to buy enough shares to give it a 55% stake in the company. If the deal goes ahead, Sherritt says it expects the price paid by Gillon will be at a discount to its closing share price on May 15.

Sherritt, which has a 32-year presence on the island, suspended direct participation in its Moa joint venture in Cuba earlier this month after the U.S. ramped up pressure on the Caribbean country.

Gillon is the family office for the Washburne family. Ray Washburne was appointed by Trump as head of the U.S. development bank known as Overseas Private Investment Corporation from 2017 to 2019. He later served as a member of the president’s intelligence advisory board. He was vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee in 2016 and has been a major Republican fundraiser.

Gillon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In connection with the agreement, Sherritt says it has confirmed that the U.S. State and Treasury Departments do not object to Gillon’s talks with the company, but that any deal would require their approval.

“Sherritt has engaged constructively with the United States Department of State, which has confirmed that the Department of State and Department of Treasury do not object to Gillon Capital’s engagement in negotiations with the Corporation and, based on the information provided to date, do not consider such negotiations to be contrary to U.S. law,” Sherritt said in a statement.

Commander John Svec of the 9th Precinct said officers responded around 1:48 p.m. on Wednesday (May 20) in the 9600 block of McKinney Street, near I-94 between Whittier Avenue and Berkshire Street, after a ShotSpotter alert detected multiple rounds of gunfire.

“Nine shots quickly followed by three shots,” Svec said.

Police said they arrived within five minutes and found two victims, suffering from gunshot wounds.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators believe the shooting was targeted.

“It appears targeted based off where the casings are located and where the shots were fired at,” Svec said.

Police said the victims were found near two vehicles parked in a residential area.

Preliminary information indicated the suspect approached and opened fire.

Authorities are still working to identify the victims and determine whether they lived nearby.

The 1-month-old child was found unharmed in the back seat of one of the vehicles, according to Svec.

The infant was taken to the 9th Precinct and is expected to be turned over to family members.

At this time, investigators have not released information about a suspect and are reviewing surveillance cameras in the area for leads.

Police have not said what may have led to the shooting.

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

The shooting happened after 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in the 9600 block of McKinney Street on Detroit’s east side. That’s near I-94 between Whittier Avenue and Berkshire Street.

Local 4 has a crew at the scene and is working to gather more information.

Our cameras captured footage of bullet holes in the driver’s door of a black car, and crime scene tape is set up throughout the area.

The deal with Vox, widely seen as liberal-leaning, represents a major move toward his own media empire for the 53-year-old younger son of Rupert Murdoch, who himself owned New York Magazine from 1976 until 1991. And it comes less than a year after the Murdoch family reached a deal on control of the 95-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death, ensuring no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for conservatives, under Rupert's chosen heir, Lachlan Murdoch.

Under the new deal, expected to close within weeks, Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s media company, acquires the three divisions — about half of Vox Media. Neither Vox Media nor Lupa was disclosing the sum. The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter saying it was more than $300 million. The acquired divisions will operate, according to a statement, as a subsidiary of Lupa — called Vox Media.

Lots included and some excluded

Not included in the deal are the Vox brands Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge. But the deal does include, along with New York magazine, its verticals The Cut, Vulture, Intelligencer, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street.

It also includes the Vox Media Podcast Network. which features wildly popular shows like “Criminal” and “Pivot” with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The network “has been the fastest growing business within Vox Media and will immediately put Lupa at the top of the podcast field,” said the Vox statement.

James Murdoch, a former CEO of 21st Century Fox who resigned from the board of News Corporation in 2020 over differences about content and direction, is known to hold less conservative views than his father. In the deal reached last year, James and his two older sisters. Prudence MacLeod and Elisabeth Murdoch, gave up any claims to control of Fox in exchange for stock valued at the time at $3.3 billion.

That deal created a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.

In his own remarks about the Vox deal, James Murdoch said the acquisition “aligns well with our existing holdings and investments and reflects both our interest in the forward edge of culture and our deep commitment to ambitious journalism and agenda-setting conversations.

It will allow us to apply new tools across the businesses we are building, adding substantial production, distribution, and editorial capability to our group," Murdoch said.

Continuity in leadership expected

Current Vox chairman and CEO Jim Bankoff will lead the new Vox Media, becoming CEO of the new company upon closing.

“We are incredibly proud to have built and scaled several of the leading media properties of this generation,” Bankoff said. “Together under Lupa’s stewardship we are primed to be the best home for talent and the most dynamic media company of this new era.”

David Haskell, New York magazine's editor-in-chief, noted in an email to subscribers that Lupa now becomes the magazine's sixth owner since 1968.

Haskell promised that the magazine would continue with “the fearless, independent journalism that you expect from us."

“We will continue to create news cycles, start conversations, contribute to the most important debates in politics and society, identify and explore what’s most interesting in contemporary culture, and always do our best to challenge our readers, surprise them, and help them make sense of the modern world,” Haskell said.

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Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was both. The Knicks wouldn't have been able to charge all the way back without Cleveland collapsing.

The Cavaliers led 93-71 with under eight minutes to play before the Knicks outscored them 44-11 the rest of the way to win 115-104 in overtime. The only bigger fourth-quarter playoff comeback in the last 30 years was when the Clippers rallied from 24 down to beat Memphis in Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series in 2012, and it matched the biggest in any NBA game this season.

“We should’ve won the game," Cavaliers All-Star Donovan Mitchell said. “We didn’t.”

A look at some of the reasons they didn't.

The turning point?

Impossible as it became to imagine a few minutes later, James Harden made a good defensive play on a then still-struggling Jalen Brunson with the Cavs leading by 20 with 7:04 to play. Harden blocked Brunson's shot on a drive, but Karl-Anthony Towns came up with the ball to extend the possession and kicked it out to Landry Shamet, who made a 3-pointer. After a Cavaliers turnover, New York took a timeout with 6:41 to play. The lead was still 93-76, but as players walked off the court with Shamet pumping his fist to urge on his teammates, the Knicks suddenly looked like they had life for the first time in a while.

“If you’re going to make a run, that’s when you’ve got to do it. So might as well throw your best punch at that point and try to do what you can,” Shamet said.

“You've got to leave it all out there especially at this time of the year and that’s what we did. We had a group that didn’t flinch at that deficit and made some effort.”

Hunting Harden

The Knicks' game plan over the next few minutes was basic basketball. Whoever Harden was guarding when Brunson brought the ball up the court — usually either Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby — would come set a pick on Brunson's defender, so Harden would then have to switch onto Brunson. Brunson then attacked Harden off the dribble, creating angles for a series of floaters and bank shots that he has mastered to become an All-Star.

Brunson made four straight Knicks baskets that way, before eventually making a 3-pointer that cut it to 94-89 with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

Take a timeout?

Moments before Brunson lined up that 3-pointer, ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson noted that the Cavaliers might want a timeout if the Knicks scored.

But was it perhaps too late by then? Cleveland had multiple possessions to see the Knicks were running one thing at them and could have halted play before then to set up a defensive scheme that might've changed things.

The Cavaliers still had four timeouts they could have used at that point. Yet they never called one until after Brunson's shot.

“I like to hold my timeouts,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson explained afterward, when his answer became an internet meme. "I didn’t want to get one timeout at the end of the game, a one- or two-point game. I try to hold them.”

Bad bounces

The game perhaps never would've gotten to overtime if the Cavaliers had gotten a little luckier on a pair of 3-point attempts.

Mitchell had one with 3:47 to play that was inside the rim and then spun out. That would have extended Cleveland's lead to 11. Instead, Brunson hit his 3-pointer 17 seconds later that cut it to 94-89.

Then, not long after Shamet hit a tying 3-pointer that bounced off the rim first before falling in, the Cavaliers had the ball on the final possession of regulation and got it to Sam Merrill from straightaway. His shot looked so perfect that play-by-play man Mike Breen appeared to be beginning his signature “BANG!” exclamation with the ball inside the rim. But he got out only the “BA!” before having to switch to “In and out! That one halfway down!"

“We got a little unlucky," Atkinson said.

The numbers

Counting the last 12:49 of the game — the end of regulation and then all of overtime — Brunson outscored the Cavaliers himself, 17-11. Anunoby nearly did; he had 10 points in that span.

A look at some of the numbers:

— Field goals: New York .750 (15-20), Cleveland .222 (4-18).

— 3-pointers: New York .750 (6-8), Cleveland .182 (2-11).

— Free throws: New York .800 (8-10, all of that from Anunoby), Cleveland .250 (1-4).

— Rebounds: New York 13, Cleveland 2.

— Brunson shot 8 for 10 in those minutes, while Shamet and Bridges were a combined 5 for 5 (all on 3-pointers).

— Harden (1-5) and Mitchell (0-5) were a combined 1 for 10 in the collapse.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later. The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, and burned through the hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, eventually killing 12 people.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His lead attorney, Steve Haney, has said that Rinderknecht is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

During Wednesday's hearing, Judge Anne Hwang ruled that depositions by members of the fire department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial because she thinks the information is irrelevant to the charges against Rinderknecht and could confuse the jury.

The evidence that defense attorneys intended to use included testimony from a firefighter, fire captain and a state park ranger that the New Year’s Day 2025 blaze was visibly smoldering when first responders left the scene. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.

Hwang also barred prosecutors from introducing AI-generated images of a city burning that prosecutors said Rinderknecht created a few months before the fire.

Haney said the exclusion of the ChatGPT images was important to his client because they are “very, very prejudicial” and taken out of context.

Other fire department actions can be discussed, including its initial response to and investigation of the Jan. 1 fire that burned some brush. Haney said he plans to argue that the government does not have solid evidence linking Rinderknecht to that fire, and that first responders had heard fireworks in the vicinity of where the blaze started.

An outline of prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began — appeared in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors will claim he was upset that he didn't have plans for New Year's Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked.

Detroit’s station received initial notification from Erie County dispatchers at around 6 p.m.

The notification reported a possible person in the water.

From the Ohio station a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium boat crew arrived on scene and rescued two people in the water.

After rescue the station transferred them to EMS awaiting ashore Kelleys Island.

It was then confirmed that there was a third person in the water who was still unaccounted for.

A Coast Guard Air Station Detroit MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew located the third person still treading water.

Both air and boat crews worked together to rescue the third person and transferred him to EMS at Station Marblehead.

“We’re just glad to help and save some lives,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Ashlyn Schmidt, coxswain, Station Marblehead. “Make sure when you go on the water to wear a life jacket, it could save your life.”

For additional information, please contact Lt. j.g. Samuel Rodriguez Garcia, Sector Detroit Public Affairs Officer, at 313-910-1234 or via email at Samuel.D.RodriguezGarcia@uscg.mil .

Lincoln Erickson, a former medical resident at a Detroit hospital, pleaded guilty May 20 to receipt of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15, 2026, and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Arrest tied to broader investigation

Erickson, of Farmington Hills, was one of four men arrested in connection with a large child pornography and sexual abuse case that began with the arrest of Brett Tooman in Toledo, Ohio.

On March 29, 2025, Toledo police took Tooman into custody after he allegedly traveled to the area to sexually abuse a 7-year-old girl and a 6-month-old infant he believed existed.

Tooman’s arrest led investigators to Jeremy Brian Tacon, Joshua Ronnebaum and Erickson, who allegedly shared explicit and sexually abusive materials with one another.

---> Doctor, lawyer, therapist, and man in Toledo -- how they’re linked to pedophilia, child porn case

FBI arrests Erickson at Detroit hospital

The FBI arrested Erickson on Dec. 10, 2025, at a Detroit hospital where he was working as a medical resident, after authorities reportedly discovered a conversation on Ronnebaum’s phone linking him to the case.

After his arrest, Erickson allegedly admitted receiving what he believed was AI‑generated child pornography from a man in Chicago.

He was denied bond.

Erickson and Ronnebaum allegedly spoke about wanting to travel to Thailand and sexually abusing children together.

“Love being a pedo,” read one text message.

Erickson reportedly shared a fantasy about having a relationship with a man where they would raise a child together that they would abuse and groom “from baby to adulthood.”

“Start them young,” read one message.

The FBI said Erickson shared in messages that he knows a father who allegedly allows him to sexually abuse the man’s 3-year-old son.

A Telegram chat on his phone also showed him requesting more videos and writing, “Bro, I love other pedophiles. So hot.”

Court hearings

During a Dec. 16, 2025, court hearing, prosecutors presented evidence of Erickson’s interactions with the father of three minors, including phone sex and in-person meetings, as well as disturbing messages regarding the children.

Erickson, who reportedly has a history of domestic violence and threatening behavior, allegedly attempted to impregnate an adult woman, described by the defense as his best friend.

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

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

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

The text of the bill has not yet been released. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged “ongoing vote issues” as leaders try to measure Republican support, as well as “ongoing parliamentarian issues” as they try to figure out what will be allowed in the bill under the chamber's rules.

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

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

Republican opposition blocks Secret Service request

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

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

"They need to explain to me why we need this,” Tillis said, noting that Trump had originally said private money would cover the project.

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

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

Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., said he is supportive of the security money and thinks it is necessary to protect the president. But he acknowledged that the optics are not very good for Republicans, and that they have not communicated about it well.

“We’ve got people out there who are worried about how in the world they’re going to have enough gas to get home,” Justice said.

Tensions rise between Senate and White House

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

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

“Republicans play a very soft game compared to the Dumocrats,” he wrote. “It is their single biggest disadvantage in politics.”

Trump said Democrats would eliminate the filibuster “on the First Day” if they ever get full power in Washington again and that Republicans need to “get smart and tough” or “you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!”

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

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

Democrats test Republicans on settlement fund

As Republicans move forward on the immigration enforcement legislation, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats plan to force a vote on Trump’s proposed settlement fund.

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

Those amendments, along with others, could pass as a growing number of Republicans speak out against the fund and other parts of Trump’s agenda.

Thune said he was “not a big fan” of the new fund, which the administration announced as a part of a settlement that resolves the president’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Cassidy called it a “slush fund” and said “you can’t just make up things.”

Tillis said he thinks it is a “real risk” that some of the rioters charged — and later pardoned by Trump — in the Jan. 6 attack could get compensation through the fund. He said that would be “absurd.”

On Wednesday, two police officers who helped defend the Capitol in the 2021 assault sued to block the payouts. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Department of Justice in Trump’s second term, would not rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for compensation when he testified in a Senate hearing this week.

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

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

“Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” says Ben-Gvir, waving a large Israeli flag. One handcuffed activist shouts “Free Palestine” as Ben-Gvir walks by and is immediately pushed to the ground by security personnel.

In another video, Ben-Gvir says the activists “came here all full of pride like big heroes. Look at them now,” while appealing to Netanyahu to grant him permission to imprison them.

Israel's leader calls for quick deportation of activists

“I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, give them to me for a long, long time, give them to us for the terrorist prisons,” Ben-Gvir said.

Netanyahu said he's given instructions that the activists be deported “as soon as possible.”

Ben-Gvir drew the ire of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who publicly chastised his fellow minister on X, saying “you knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display.”

“No, you are not the face of Israel,” Saar wrote.

Ben-Gvir shot back at Saar in the Israeli parliament, accusing him of “bowing to the terrorists” and that any Israeli apology to the activists would send a message of “weakness,” “submission” and “surrender.”

Israel accused of humiliating activists

An Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, accused Israeli authorities of “employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists.”

Adalah's statement said this followed similar patterns of ill-treatment by Israeli authorities against activists in previous flotilla missions “for which Israel faced zero accountability.”

Adalah lawyer Suhad Bishara told The Associated Press a group of 11 lawyers who visited the detainees is aware of at least two activists who were hospitalized after being shot with rubber bullets “for no reason, without any justification.” Bishara said the activists will be brought before a judge Thursday who will decide on when their deportation will begin.

Flotilla spokesperson Rania Batrice said Ben-Gvir posts such videos because the world hasn't held Israel to account.

“If they’re doing that to Europeans and Americans and people from South Africa and all over the world, imagine what they’re doing to the Palestinian people,” Batrice told the AP in an online interview.

Batrice urged governments to step up their response. “Strongly worded letters are not what we need right now. We need more action."

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the video “violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity" in how people should be treated and demanded an explanation from Israeli authorities.

Italy condemned the detained activists' treatment as a violation of human dignity and called Ben-Gvir's videos “unacceptable.” It also summoned Israel’s ambassador in Rome to protest the treatment of Italian detainees and demand their immediate release. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she’s directed her officials to summon the Israeli ambassador to Ottawa.

Both Turkey and Greece condemned Israel's treatment of the activists. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the behavior “openly demonstrated to the world the violent and barbaric mindset” of Israel's government. The Greek Foreign Ministry called Ben-Gvir's actions “unacceptable and entirely condemnable” and said it had lodged a formal protest.

Palestinian militant group Hamas called out Ben-Gvir for the “scenes of abuse and humiliation” of the activists, saying they show Israel's “moral decadence and sadism.”

Israel intercepts all remaining flotilla boats

Israeli forces on Tuesday boarded the last of the flotilla boats that tried to challenge the blockade — the latest effort to highlight the grim conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Flotilla organizers claimed Israeli soldiers fired on five boats during the interdictions, causing some damage. Israel's Foreign Ministry said no live ammunition was fired and that “nonlethal means” were aimed at the vessels as a warning, but without targeting or injuring protesters.

Israeli forces had begun stopping the flotilla, which had departed last week from Turkey, around 268 kilometers (167 miles) from the Gaza coastline, according to the flotilla’s website.

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

On Monday, the Israeli navy stopped 41 boats from the flotilla in international waters off Cyprus and detained those on board.

More than a dozen Irish nationals were aboard the flotilla, including Irish President Catherine Connolly's sister. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has called Israel’s interception of the boats in international waters “absolutely unacceptable.”

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

Gaza's coast blockaded for nearly two decades

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

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

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

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Hadjicostis reported from Nicosia, Cyprus. Associated Press journalists Areej Hazboun, Isaac Scharf and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Giada Zampano in Rome; Andrew Wilks in Ankara, Turkey, and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The attack occurred on Feb. 5, 2025.

Authorities say Arthur Foster, 41, of Detroit, while serving as a corrections employee at Cherry Health Community Treatment Center, a federal residential reentry center, told an inmate to meet him in the restroom.

At the time, the inmate was under Foster’s authority.

Officials say when she arrived in the restroom, Foster sexually abused her.

Federal law and prison rules mandate a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse, sexual assault and harassment in all U.S. correctional facilities.

“Sexual abuse by anyone, especially someone entrusted with the custody and care of inmates, is an intolerable abuse of power,” said Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office.

Ujiri also said he wasn't referring to the trade of Luka Doncic, or anyone connected to the February 2025 deal that ended up being a huge setback for the franchise.

“Honestly, that trade has played no part in how I have thought about anything,” Ujiri said at a news conference Wednesday. “I’m in no position to criticize or blame or even really investigate some of the things that happened then. We have to figure out a way to slowly move on from this, and I have to hold myself accountable for doing this.”

Ujiri said he spent plenty of time talking to Kidd since he was hired two weeks ago. He declined to share details of those conversations.

“Being transparent with everybody, I think a new slate was a good way to look at this,” Ujiri said. “I feel sometimes in this organization we needed clarity in where we’re going. We need to really work in one direction and how we build this team and how we create winning.”

Dallas made two deep playoff runs with Kidd and Doncic, reaching the NBA Finals in 2024, two years after a loss to Golden State in the Western Conference finals.

The Mavericks traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024-25 season, getting Anthony Davis as their centerpiece in return. Dallas missed the playoffs that season and again in 2025-26, during which the oft-injured Davis was traded while sidelined with an injury.

Kidd, the Hall of Fame point guard who led the franchise to its only championship as a player in 2011, finished with a .500 regular-season coaching record (205-205) with the Mavs. In two of the three years Dallas missed the playoffs under Kidd, it was clear the club was focused on draft positioning as the seasons ended.

“What he’s done for this organization we truly respect, so this was a very, very tough decision,” Ujiri said. “I have to be accountable with a decision like this. I also have to be very active in how I look at the organization from top to bottom.”

Ujiri has already touted building around Cooper Flagg, the 19-year-old who won Rookie of the Year after being the top draft pick last summer following a standout one-and-done season at Duke.

Flagg still hasn't had a chance to play with fellow Duke alum Kyrie Irving, who thrived under Kidd before tearing the ACL in his left knee in March 2025 and missing all of the 2025-26 season.

When Irving arrived in Dallas, he was coming off tumultuous tenures in Boston and Brooklyn. He enjoyed a career renaissance while teaming with Doncic on the run that ended with a five-game loss to Boston in the 2024 NBA Finals.

Now the 34-year-old awaits word on Kidd's replacement.

“Kevin Durant once told me that there’s only one Kyrie walking around in the world,” Ujiri said. “I think we have to figure out a way, how Kyrie fits with our program. And I’ve had those conversations with Kyrie. And I think Kyrie will fit. As I said it before, there’s a huge curiosity in our minds to see how Kyrie fits playing with Cooper Flagg.”

Ujiri hired Mike Schmitz as general manager three days after he was introduced, and confirmed Wednesday that former co-interim general manager Matt Riccardi is leaving the organization.

Ujiri said discussions continue on a potential role for Michael Finley, the former Dallas player who was promoted alongside Riccardi in November when Nico Harrison, the engineer of the Doncic trade, was fired as general manager.

Moving on from Kidd was expensive for the Mavericks, who had signed him to multiyear extensions during the playoffs in 2024 and again last year after denying the New York Knicks permission to talk to him about their head coach opening.

“I am going to sit here and take responsibility for any of the decisions that we are going to make,” Ujiri said. “It’s not about being defensive. We’re just going to have a vision here that we are going to follow.”

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

Instead of hearing the warm, roaring cheers like other great IndyCar champions and popular personalities, Palou has started hearing a different chorus from the crowd, boos. No, it's not an overwhelming sentiment, yet, but the Spaniard got a first-hand glimpse of what could lie ahead during the parade lap of this month's Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Of course, the four-time series champion understands why it's happening — fans are weary of seeing him reach victory lane race after race — even though Palou isn't tired of winning.

“It was the first time I heard the boos like from multiple sections and I was like, 'All right,’” he said during practice for the sold-out Indianapolis 500. “I think till now, it's been very friendly and now it's getting like more toward boos. But I think it's good, you need to have that. We're getting booed for being successful and for doing the right thing.”

The quick transition from champion to villain is nothing new in sports.

Dynasty teams or even top athletes such as Tom Brady, LeBron James, Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson have all experienced — and embraced — the boos reserved for only the best of the best. Right now, Palou certainly fits the definition.

But in the relatively friendly confines of IndyCar racing, he's a rarity.

Palou has won three straight series titles and holds a 27-point lead in this year's standings thanks to three win in the season's first six races. He owns 11 wins in IndyCar's last 23 events, and just when it appeared Palou's success may finally be waning with an unlucky decision relegating him to fifth place in the Indianapolis GP, Palou's pole-winning qualifying run has made him the betting favorite to win the 500 again.

For Palou, it's a strange place to be. Here, in Indianapolis, he's a big hit on the defending winner's appearance circuit and many fans clamor for photos with the 2025 Indy champ. At the same time, many others want to see someone else win if only to add some intrigue to the championship chase.

Yet in many ways, it appears Palou can do no wrong.

Despite drawing a late spot in the qualifying line on a hot, windy Pole Day and nearly missing the 12-car pole shootout on his first four-lap attempt, Palou somehow surprised himself by delivering on the bold pre-qualifying prediction of Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull by putting his car at the front of Indy's first row. Palou's teammates, six-time series champ Scott Dixon and 21-year-old Kyffin Simpson, couldn't pull that off.

Dixon, the 2008 Indy winner, is starting 10th. Simpson qualified seventh, the inside of Row 3 and now they, like everyone else are find themselves chasing Palou.

“It’s something I’m absolutely, like, ‘How is he doing that week in, week out?’” 2018 Indy champ Will Power said recently. "Well, it’s one, he’s qualifying well. Two is he executes in the race and three is the pit stops, you know, top notch, there’s no mistakes in there. And he’s fast. So that’s what it takes when you’re driving out there.”

Just how dominant has Palou been lately?

He has two top-five finishes to his three wins this year, bringing his three-year totals to 14 victories and an additional 17 top fives in 41 races. His remarkable run of success is even more surprising because he's doing it in a spec series that is supposed to be relatively even.

Palou didn't reach this place by happenstance.

“They (the three drivers' teams) work so well together,” Hull said. “They help each other. We’re able to map the racetrack pretty quickly as well as collectively. That’s been a big deal for us. That’s always what our culture has emphasized.”

Hull's comment may explain why Palou and Dixon have combined to win seven of the last 11 series crowns for Ganassi.

But it doesn't explain why Palou is so far ahead of teammates such as Dixon, who has spent 5 1/2 seasons pursuing a record-tying seventh series title only to watch Palou take the crown four times. Only A.J. Foyt has more all-time series championships than Dixon.

Palou has a difficult time explaining the secret of his success, too.

“I just try to prepare as much as I can before going out on the track,” he said. “Then you have a list of things you need to do as a driver, like hitting references or just following the workload the engineer and mechanic have and that keeps you focused.”

In Palou's case, it's all about being first in practice, qualifying or on race day.

He's less concerned with what fans think though he certainly reveled in the warm, post-qualifying celebration fans gave him after winning the pole with a four-lap average of 232.248 mph. Or whether he'll hear more cheers — or jeers — on Sunday if he becomes the seventh driver in race history to win back-to-back 500s.

“You need to win again. Obviously, that's what they pay us to do as drivers,” Palou said. “We all need to be fighting for wins and winning things. Getting the first (500 win) is probably the toughest or the thing you chase the most, so I feel a little bit of a relief there. But I still want to win more.”

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

“Look, you don't own me. I don't need to play tape of you to have a successful TV show,” he warned an image of Trump. “Someone on television should have a modicum of dignity and it could be me.”

Over the next 11 years, Colbert couldn't curb his appetite for making Trump barbs, often turning his show into a full-throated rebuke of MAGA policies. Trump would call him a “dead man walking.”

The on-air feud between the two men seemingly ends Thursday as Colbert's top-rated late-night TV program goes off the air for the final time, effectively silencing a high-profile White House critic.

“The legacy of this show needs to be that we remember it as the show that was canceled because a presidential administration wanted it off the air,” says Heather Hendershot, a professor of communication studies and journalism at Northwestern University. “We haven’t connected every single dot on that, but it’s very clear that this was a political decision. And I think 20, 30, 40 years later, that is going to be strongly remembered about this show — that this was a moment of authoritarian triumph.”

When comedy and politics collide

When CBS announced last summer that Colbert’s show would end in May, the network said it was for economic reasons but others — including Colbert — have expressed skepticism that Trump’s repeated criticism of the show had nothing to do with it.

The cancellation came after CBS parent company Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview, as Paramount's sale to Skydance Media awaited the Trump administration’s approval. Colbert had called the settlement a “big fat bribe.”

Trump rejoiced over the cancellation in a Truth Social post, writing “I absolutely love” that the host “got fired.” He followed it with: “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.” Just two months later, ABC, buckling to pressure from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair and affiliate networks, temporarily suspended Kimmel — the host of its own late-night show — following his remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

TV experts said there are not many other examples of a hit show being shuttered due to political pressure. In 1969, CBS abruptly canceled “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” which had aired comedy bits in opposition of the Vietnam War and in support of civil rights.

Colbert, a “Daily Show” alum, spent nine years playing a buffoonish, conservative commentator on Comedy Central's “The Colbert Report.” He was not universally welcomed to “The Late Show” by those he had lampooned, with Rush Limbaugh saying “CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America.”

Through Democratic and Republican administrations, Colbert and other late-night comedians have offered their take on the day's events that offered something different from traditional news media.

“In given moments, like when something big happened, you really do want that perspective that says, ‘Here’s another way to look at it,’” says Dustin Kidd, a professor of sociology at Temple University. “Or when it feels really overwhelming, you want that reminder that there’s still some way to laugh at it. And so the more you lose those ways to laugh at it, the more we all decline.”

Colbert put his own spin on late night

“The Late Show” had celebrities, musical guests and jokes about Arby’s and Spirit Airlines, like other late-night shows. But Colbert put his own spin on things, like wearing his Catholic faith and his adoration of his wife and frequent guest, Evie McGee Colbert, on his sleeve.

After the monologue, he had oddball segments like “Meanwhile,” a look at global affairs in “What’s Going On Over There?,” technology with “Cyborgasm” and youth slang in “Stephen Colbert Presents: That’s Yeet. Dabbing on Fleek, Fam!”

“The Late Show,” which began in 1993 with host David Letterman, won two Emmys under Colbert, as well as a Peabody Award. Come Friday, the 11:35 p.m. time slot goes to “Comics Unleashed,” a talk show that host Byron Allen has vowed will eschew politics.

“There’s just going to be a huge void,” says Lisa Rogak, the author of the 2011 biography “And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert.” “And I don’t think anybody’s going to really want to step up and fill it.”

Among those sorry to see Colbert go is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a frequent guest. Johnny Carson used to book scientists, but Tyson notes wryly that not many TV hosts do these days. Colbert even had a segment highlighting new discoveries called “The Sound of Science.”

“Science doesn’t have many opportunities to access centerline pop culture,” says Tyson.

In a departure from the infighting of decades ago, other late-night hosts have rallied around Colbert. Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Seth Meyers — who hosted the “Strike Force Five” podcast with Colbert during the Hollywood strikes — visited “The Late Show” recently.

NBC's “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” which typically air against “The Late Show,” will instead broadcast reruns on Thursday.

Catholics and Tolkien fans mourn, too

Catholics will also mourn the loss of a late-night host who could quote Psalms by heart and who brought up issues of faith with guests and even what happens when we die with “The Colbert Questionert.”

“We’re losing a very well-known Catholic and someone who shares his religious ideas freely and intellectually, too,” says Stephanie Brehm, author of “America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself): Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century.”

She pointed to poignant moments like Colbert's chat with then-Vice President Joe Biden about the death of his son, his discussion of grief with Anderson Cooper and his exploration of the relationship between faith and comedy with Dua Lipa.

Brehm saw Colbert make himself into a sort of moral authority and lean into the social justice camp of progressive Catholics: “He is playing up that moral quality by standing up for American moral values like freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and he’s doing it with a Catholic jargon, with Catholic language.”

Then there are devotees of author J.R.R. Tolkien. Colbert is a superfan of “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” and championed Tolkien in skits, references and competitions, memorably smoking James Franco in a few throwdowns.

“I think if you step back and reflect on his career, everything he’s done is for the betterment of the community,” says Duane Cronkite, head of live programming for the Fellowship of Fans forum and news site.

Timothy Lenz, part of the leadership committee of The Mythopoeic Society, a group dedicated to the study and appreciation of Tolkien, says Colbert inspired new readers.

“Stephen Colbert is easily the most enthusiastic celebrity fan of Tolkien’s works,” he says. “That sort of public, unapologetic enthusiasm for stories that in Colbert’s youth would have been considered like nerdy and uncool, that really helps to encourage fans of all ages to let their geek flag fly.”

Tolkien, fittingly, offers a next step for Colbert after his show goes dark. He's co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie.

“He’s living the fan dream right now,” says Lenz.

Broadcaster Jim Nantz handled emcee duties, and country star Eric Church sat in the front row of a news conference that was more a celebration of landing the biggest event in Tennessee sports history. NFL owners voted unanimously Tuesday to award Nashville the 2030 Super Bowl.

Nantz, who has called seven Super Bowls for CBS and now calls Nashville home, said Music City knows how to host big events.

“We are, among many things, we’re in the entertainment business, and I don’t have a doubt that we’re going to entertain the people that travel to our city and our state to the greatest experience they’ve ever had at a big event,” Nantz said. “That’s what we do, and now we get to show them.”

Weather permitting, a party also was open to the public Wednesday night on Lower Broad, anchor of the 2019 NFL draft with music, a special guest or two and even a drone show.

The bid committee helping Nashville land this Super Bowl included comedian Nate Bargatze, Church and another star in Tim McGraw.

Questions already are flying about who will handle the halftime show, with Taylor Swift a popular suggestion.

Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president of club business as well as international and league events, recalled a big thunderstorm barreling toward 200,000 people during the 2019 draft only to split and go around the town. O'Reilly called that a bit of Nashville magic.

Nashville finished with record-setting attendance, helping reset the standard for host cities since. O’Reilly expects Nashville to do it again.

“Super Bowl 64 in 2030 is going to be a game-changer for the Super Bowl,” O’Reilly said. “Super Bowl 64 in 2030 is going to be a game-changer for the NFL.”

The same people that helped Nashville put on the 2019 draft are still around. Burke Nihill, the Tennessee Titans’ president and CEO, said they will be involved with planning as Nashville puts its Music City stamp on everything up to and including the Super Bowl itself at the new Nissan Stadium.

“Let’s not start with a base understanding of how it’s always been done," Nihill said of going beyond the NFL's expectations. "How can we create something new that’s very different?”

Nantz also is the co-chair of Nashville's Super Bowl host committee with Bill Haslam, a former Tennessee governor and majority owner of the NHL's Nashville Predators. Nantz made clear he believes 2030 will be just the first Super Bowl played inside Nissan Stadium, which opens in 2027.

Deana Ivey, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, said she is focused on 2030 first.

“I haven’t asked that question,” she said. "I’m focused on the first time.”

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

Fox has indicated it likes the 24-team idea, but embedded within that equation is the critical calculation of how much that network, or any broadcast partner, would pay for a new set of games involving second-tier teams that might not garner the same TV ratings as some of the biggest programs in the sport.

“The answer is ‘less,’ but not nothing,'" said Ed Desser, a former NBA executive and media rights expert who co-authored a paper about the value of college football on TV with former ESPN executive John Kosner. “There will be perceived value. It becomes a question of, on the margin, can you create good, meaningful games that enhance the value of the playoff? Or are you just kind of making people wait longer for the entree, for the game they really want?”

The CFP deal that starts this season with ESPN is worth $7.8 billion over six seasons. That network would have first dibs on the first two games added to any package. The rest are up for grabs.

“I want to see whoever is committed to making it work,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said this week when asked which TV partner he'd like to see jump in. “I think it's about whoever has the commitment to scheduling it right and who's going to bring the right resources.”

Figuring the size of the playoff is a puzzle that continues to confound the sport. On one side is the Southeastern Conference, which has held steady to the idea of not expanding past 16 teams though commissioner Greg Sankey teased that some might come around to 24 at meetings next week.

On the other is the Big Ten, which now also has backing from the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences for a move to 24.

The SEC’s idea would more or less keep the overall schedule where it is, including preserving the conference championship games that Petitti estimated to be worth a combined $200 million to the four power conferences.

Sankey has said the league has contracts for its title game and it has to honor those contracts; Petitti didn't seem as tied to the title games, saying he thought the Big Ten could “undo our championship games” as soon as the 2027 season if needed.

A 24-team playoff would eliminate automatic qualifiers and render conference title games virtually meaningless. According to many in the Big Ten, they would give all programs what they crave — more access to the playoff, and a reason for fans and boosters to keep bankrolling all those player salaries.

“I think if we went to 24 teams, there might be 24 teams that could win the national championship,” said Illinois coach Bret Bielema, who is on the board of the American Football Coaches Association that also recently voiced support for the expanded field. “I don’t know if that was true 10 years ago.”

There is still the issue of paying for it.

While popular, college football only captures a fraction of the viewers as the NFL.

The 30.1 million who tuned into last season’s college final between Indiana and Miami would have ranked fifth on the NFL’s list of most-watched regular-season offerings. The Super Bowl drew more than 125 million viewers.

For the weeks when the CFP goes against NFL regular-season games – first-round contests the past two years have taken place opposite NFL games on Saturdays – the NFL games have drawn between 2.5 times and 5 times the viewers. Part of this is because the NFL games are over-the-air on Fox and the college games were on cable, TNT/TBS/TruTv.

There is also the issue of how much networks or streamers will have to spend.

The NFL's recent move into streaming and adding new broadcast windows — for example, Christmas Day and the days before and after Thanksgiving — has led to thoughts that the league will press for sooner renegotiations of its own deals that currently have an opt-out clause in 2029.

While the league controls all its games, college football's rights are spread out among the individual conferences and the CFP.

“We don’t feel that the current Balkanized state of college football lends itself to maximizing (revenue) across the board,” Kosner said. “Nor do I think that just doubling the CFP at this stage is going to be such a revenue motherlode that it's going to make a difference."

Pettiti views filling the gaps from the lost title-game revenue differently. He sees an influx of on-campus games, which generate $6 million or more in ticket sales and other receipts, as part of the equation.

The SEC, once seemingly in the majority in seeking a move to 16 teams, is now in the minority. Sankey said the league will have to do its own research to see how a bigger expansion would impact the college football calendar, the title games and, of course, the financial bottom line.

“I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the commissioners to help make it happen," Kosner said. "I would kind of be surprised if, within two years, it hasn’t happened. But I’d also be surprised if it winds up being the sort of business boom that they might hope that it would be.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The moves toughen the environment in Brazil for giants like Google, Meta and TikTok, who have long tried to dissociate themselves with crimes online committed by users.

The first decree makes key adaptations to government regulations to align them with a decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court making big tech companies liable if they refuse to remove content by judicial order. It also enables the country’s national agency of data protection to investigate those cases. The second decree establishes guidelines for the protection of women in the digital environment.

Brazil’s government said in a statement that from now on platforms must analyze any complaints, and if the content is deemed criminal, remove it immediately, while communicating the decision to the person responsible. Possible penalties for non-compliance include warnings, fines and temporary suspension.

Big tech companies have not commented on the decision by Brazil’s government.

Patricia Peck, a council member of Brazil’s Data Protection Authority and author of 46 books on law and technology, said the country’s executive and judicial branches have pushed for big techs to be proactive against crimes online despite evident stagnation of the debate in congress.

“We don’t have specific legislation to hold these platforms responsible, we are taking a side road,” Peck told The Associated Press. “Those who develop these technologies must think about it with perspective of ethics, privacy, and security as a standard.”

Since the Brazilian Supreme Court ruling last year, these companies have had to actively monitor content that involves hate speech, racism and incitation to violence and act to remove it.

Lula’s move also expands the current law’s capacity to address the growth of digital fraud, online scams and new forms of online violence.

Mattheus Puppe, an expert on Brazil’s digital law, says the decrees seek to stop platforms from profiting from illegal publications and reinforce the country’s Supreme Court’s decision. But he has doubts on whether the government’s initiatives will indeed hinder online crime.

“It is not clear how well this will work because the agency that was chosen to investigate cases can barely do its job now,” Puppe said. “But it is true that it shouldn’t be up to companies to know what is lawful and what is not.”

Brazil’s approach to big techs is increasingly similar to that of the European Union, which has sought to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms.

But it has unsettled the relationship between the South American nation and the U.S. government. Critics expressed concern that the move could threaten free speech if platforms preemptively remove content that could be problematic.

Earlier this year, a law that seeks to shield minors from addictive, violent, and pornographic online content took effect. The legislation requires minors under 16 to link their social media accounts to a legal guardian to ensure supervision and prohibits platforms from using addictive features such as infinite scroll and the automatic play of videos.

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

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

The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas and President's House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

“We want to save these places," Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important."

For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

The 11 sites are:

Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel

The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center

Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

California: Angel Island Immigration Station

It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House

Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

Michigan: Detroit Association of Women's Clubs

Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape

The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

Seneca Falls, New York: Women's Rights National Historical Park

The park tells the story of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women's rights.

New York: Stonewall National Monument

The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag's removal at the Manhattan site.

After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

Philadelphia: The President's House Site

The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield

The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.

Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus

The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property.

Frank died late Tuesday, according to Jim Segel, Frank’s former campaign manager and close friend.

After representing broad swaths of Boston's suburbs in Congress for 32 years, Frank and his husband moved to Ogunquit, Maine. He entered hospice there in April with congestive heart failure and is survived by his husband, Jim Ready, and sisters, the longtime Democratic strategist Ann Lewis and Doris Breay, along with brother David Frank.

A self-described “left-handed gay Jew,” Frank was known for his acerbic wit, combative style and focus on marginalized communities. He represented the party's left wing while keeping close with Democratic leaders who sometimes frustrated progressives.

He is best known as a pioneer for LGBT rights. After decades of grappling with his sexuality, he publicly came out as gay in 1987, the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. With his 2012 marriage to Ready, he became the first incumbent lawmaker on Capitol Hill to marry someone of the same sex.

But in an April interview as he entered hospice, Frank said he hoped he would be remembered for advocating a brand of politics that embraced progressive ideals without forcing them on voters prematurely. It is an approach he feared was being rejected as Democrats prepare for what could be a rollicking primary as they hope to retake the White House in 2028 and move past the Trump era.

“I hope I made the point that the best way to accomplish the improvements in our society that we need, particularly in making it less unfair economically and socially, is by conventional political methods,” Frank said. “The main obstacle to our defeating populism and going further in the right direction is that mainstream Democrats have to make it clear that we oppose that part of the agenda of our friends on the left that is politically unacceptable. They're right about a lot of things but you have to have some discretion.”

“You should not take the most unpopular parts of your agenda and make them litmus tests," he added. “And that's what my friends on the left have been doing.”

Frank's path to public life

Born in 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank wrote in his 2015 memoir that he was drawn to public life after Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old from Chicago, was lynched by white men in Mississippi. Frank would volunteer in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, though he acknowledged the fast-talking style was a challenge in the Deep South.

“My direct organizing of Mississippi voters was limited by the fact that my accent (to this day more New Jersey than New England), my poor diction, and my rapid speech, especially when I got excited, rendered me largely incomprehensible to rural Mississippians of both races,” he wrote.

He entered politics in 1968 as an aide to Boston Mayor Kevin White before winning a seat in the Massachusetts House in 1972. Frank was elected to Congress in 1980, an otherwise dismal year for Democrats as the party lost dozens of seats in the U.S. House and Republican Ronald Reagan won the White House.

Frank's pragmatic style surfaced early in his congressional career. He joined the liberal Democratic Study Group to help push then-Speaker Tip O'Neill, D-Mass., to respond more aggressively to the Reagan administration. But Frank said he found himself more often agreeing with O'Neill's less confrontational approach.

Years later, as Congress prepared to pass a massive tax overhaul package, Frank intended to vote “no,” opposed to the bill's lowering of top tax rates. He changed his mind, however, when he worked out a deal boosting affordable housing tax credits.

“I was happy to sacrifice my ideological purity to improve legislation that was going to become law with or without me,” he wrote.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat and former House speaker, called Frank an “idealist to the nth degree.”

“The goals, the vision, the promise of it all,” she recalled in an interview. “Nobody could ever surpass what he brought to the table in that regard.”

Making history in Congress

Through his early years in Washington, Frank led something of a double life.

Privately, he socialized in the city's gay circles and had relationships but did not publicly acknowledge his sexuality. The media at the time rarely reported that someone was gay unless that person was involved in a scandal. When Frank in 1987 invited a reporter to his office to formally ask whether the congressman was gay, Frank responded, “yeah, so what?”

Other elected leaders, perhaps most notably San Francisco's Harvey Milk, had come out years before. Members of Congress, including Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., were previously outed through scandal.

Frank's approach made him the most prominent gay leader in national politics for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He helped secure AIDS funding and pressed the Democratic Clinton administration, unsuccessfully, to lift a ban on gays serving in the military.

But there were low points, too, most notably an overwhelming 1987 House vote to reprimand him for poor judgment involving a male prostitute he hired in 1985. Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the Republican whip at the time, pressed for the more severe punishment of censure, which was rejected by a large margin.

Frank became something of a punch line among conservative Republicans, with House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, calling him “Barney Fag” in 1995. Armey said he misspoke and later apologized from the House floor.

Along the way, Frank became known as one of the most quotable lawmakers in Congress.

Regarding abortion, he said Republicans believed “life begins at conception and ends at birth,” criticizing the party's push to curb social programs. After Ken Starr released a report describing President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky in sometimes intimate detail, Frank said it required “too much reading about heterosexual sex.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., entered Congress the same year as Frank and he recalled his former colleague: “You may get a blow, but it was softened by the humor that came with it."

To Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, Frank's "one-liners were wicked and wickedly funny. Barney delivered for working people, and the world is a poorer place without him.”

Presiding over a financial overhaul

By 2007, Frank was the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, where he would leave his lasting policy mark as the U.S. economy careened toward collapse. He worked with the Republican Bush administration to pass a rescue package, providing vital support to financial institutions but spurring a populist revolt that still courses through American politics.

Once the initial crisis eased, Frank helped develop the most significant reform legislation since the New Deal. Working with then-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Dodd-Frank Act would enhance consumer protections, impose new capital requirements for banks and boost the ability of regulators to monitor risk.

“Barney and I shared a fantastic relationship," Dodd said. "I had many good moments in those 36 years in Congress, but none more significant, joyful, or productive than those almost two years working with Barney on our banking bill.”

During President Donald Trump's second term, his Republican administration has worked to roll back many of the legislation's provisions, arguing they were too onerous.

Frank faced his toughest reelection campaign in years in 2010 as the tea party wave swept over American politics. He opted against running again in 2012, though remained engaged in politics long after leaving Congress, including spending time as a contributor to the conservative Newsmax network.

He remained a fierce critic of Trump. Asked for his prediction on who might succeed the president, Frank said “unfortunately I won't get to vote for it.”

The shooting happened at around 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, outside Baldwin Commons Plaza near Baldwin and Brown roads.

According to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, investigators believe a 25-year-old Ann Arbor man had been sitting outside watching for a victim before targeting the woman, who was walking through the parking lot with her young son.

“It looks very random,” Bouchard said. “It looks like he was sitting here looking for someone that would be his victim to steal their car.”

Suspect approached woman in parking lot

According to the sheriff’s office, the man approached the woman in the parking lot, confronted her and shot her before taking her car and driving away.

Authorities said they immediately issued a broadcast alert for the stolen vehicle and used the department’s FLOCK camera system to track its movements northbound from the scene.

Multi-unit search leads to arrest in Groveland Township

Deputies from multiple units, including detectives, the sheriff’s fugitive apprehension team, auto theft investigators, K-9 units, drones, and a helicopter, were deployed to search for the suspect.

The stolen car was later spotted in Groveland Township, where a brief chase ended after the suspect crashed and fled on foot, Bouchard said. An undercover detective eventually located and arrested the man.

“It was about an hour and 25 minutes from the time we got the call of the shooting until the handcuffs were on him,” Bouchard said.

--> Parking lot safety tips following random carjacking, shooting of mother in Oakland County

Suspect on probation for prior assault

The Ann Arbor man was on probation for assault with intent to do great bodily harm, according to Bouchard.

He has not yet been formally charged.

The woman, who is in her 40s, suffered a gunshot wound near her hip and lost a significant amount of blood.

She was undergoing surgery Tuesday night, but police said they were optimistic about her recovery.

The woman’s young son witnessed the attack before running back into a nearby store for help.

“It’s pretty upsetting on lots of levels for anybody, let alone a kid,” Bouchard said.

The investigation remains ongoing.

Watch the full press conference from Tuesday night below

You can watch the press conference held on Wednesday below

The campaign runs until June 6 and raises funds to provide new box fans.

Fans will be distributed locally by The Salvation Army, to help individuals and families stay cool and safe during the hot summer months.

Customers can support by rounding up their purchases at participating Ace stores.

The Fan Drive spans 210 Ace stores across the county.

The effort has raised over $1 million and distributed more than 70,000 fans.

Every dollar raised stays local.

Online gifts can be made here.

“Working together with The Salvation Army and our customers, we’re proud to help provide a simple solution that can vastly improve comfort and safety during the hottest months of the year.” said Jeremy Van Ommeren, vice president of stores for Ace Retail Group.

“Through this partnership, we’re able to respond in a practical and meaningful way—offering not just relief from the heat, but a reminder that people are seen, supported, and not alone.” said Commissioner Merle Heatwole, National Commander of The Salvation Army.

It hasn't always been easy. For instance, there were challenging economic times through the 1980s and various degrees of drought affecting his yield through the years. But this season feels different.

“All in all, it’s not going to be a good year,” said Williams, 76.

Record-setting drought and hotter-than-average temperatures mixed with sharp drops have impacted much of the U.S. early this year, including the Plains region. Drought conditions have worsened the spread of the wheat streak mosaic virus and barley yellow dwarf virus, which impact the potential of the crop. Combined with climbing input costs related to fertilizer, diesel fuel and tariffs, longtime wheat farmers say they are feeling a lot of pain.

“It’s kind of a double whammy,” Williams added.

Crop estimates underscore just how bad the situation is. Growers will see their smallest wheat crop in terms of production since 1972, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1.56 billion bushels this year, down 21% from 2025. That’s especially harmful to Kansas, one of the top overall producers of wheat in the U.S.

Only in five of the past 40 years has Kansas' wheat crop been in such a bad state, an analysis of USDA data shows, with 58% of the crop rated as “poor” or “very poor” as of May 17. The last time the fields were in as bad a condition was during a severe drought in 2023.

“It’s very tough conditions that growers are faced with right now,” said Kansas State agronomist Romulo Lollato. And he said that affects consumers, “whether it is through going to a bakery and having higher bread prices, or whether it’s through losing some of the international market out there for the U.S.”

With this year so bad, many wheat growers have been forced to file for crop insurance or consider whether they can lean on other crops to withstand the uncertainties.

Williams saw close to 100 bushels of wheat per acre irrigated last year, but this year might only have 30 to 40. He splits his wheat crop between irrigated and dryland — for which farmers depend on rainfall and soil moisture — and there, he might only see 10 to 15 bushels per acre.

Williams and other farmers said they know they'll lose money this year. “I guess my attitude is: Stay the course. Don’t make any new purchases,” he added. “And forget your wants and just do your needs.”

The weather is unpredictable, and farmers' costs are adding up.

Climate change, caused by the burning of gas, oil and coal, has made farming a number of crops increasingly challenging over the years, experts say, and wheat is no exception. Several wheat farmers described worsening extremes this year, including the winter's intense and unseasonable heat, late freezes and an ongoing shortage of rain.

The U.S., meanwhile, has lost ground in the global wheat market to Russia and the European Union; national wheat acreage has dropped over the past several years for a variety of reasons, said Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist.

“There’s certainly a downward trend for wheat in the Great Plains and elsewhere in the U.S. based on a number of factors, and certainly the weather challenges over the last couple of decades have been a big part of that,” Rippey said.

Still, wheat is the nation’s third field crop as planted acreage, production and gross farm receipts after corn and soybeans, according to the USDA. The U.S. is one of the world’s largest producers by volume of wheat each year, and it’s a major exporter of the crop.

Thousands of U.S. farmers rely on wheat as an important livelihood, and factors outside of their control have made their work more difficult.

The dry conditions sped up how fast the crop grew, USDA data show, not a positive sign for the quality of the harvest.

By the end of the first full week of May, 86% of wheat crops in Kansas had produced a seed head, while 61% was typical in the previous 10 years at the same point in the season. The plant is “genetically programmed” to produce a head before dying, Rippey said, but if they do so too early, the result will often be poor quality.

Only 32.4 million acres (13.1 million hectares) of wheat were planted this year to begin with, and harvested acreage hit just 22 million, marking abandonment, which is when farmers stop tending to a crop before harvesting, at slightly above 32% of this year's wheat crop, according to USDA estimates.

Except for the 2022-2023 cycle, there have only been a handful of other years in history where U.S. winter wheat abandonment has been higher, Rippey noted.

In Kansas, about 17% of the crop is being abandoned this year.

“Rain makes grain,” said Mike Nickelson, a wheat and corn farmer in western Kansas. “That's the whole key. We can do the very best we can do and then if we don't get the rain, then it makes it pretty tough.”

Forecasters are predicting a substantial El Nino, a cyclical and natural process in which patches of the equatorial Pacific warm and alter the world’s weather patterns, including rainfall. Because in the U.S., that is expected to mean warmer-than-normal temperatures this summer, it could be months before there is any drought relief.

“It seems like we’re the ones out trying to feed the world and we’re the ones suffering the most,” Nickelson, 60, added. “My son is here farming with me, and I’d really like to transition him to help take over the farm. I’m like, really, do I want him to have to do this? I mean, it’s a great life, but man, right now it’s just tough.”

The war in Iran, meanwhile, has sent fuel prices soaring. Williams, the Montezuma farmer, said he drives 150 to 200 miles (240 to 320 kilometers) a day, and diesel is up nearly $2 per gallon from one year ago.

The cost of seed, fertilizer and more is rapidly adding up, too. Some growers bought fertilizer ahead of time for this season, but they worry about the year ahead. Farmers already have been navigating the consequences of the Trump administration’s rocky trade policy.

Nickelson said urea, a type of fertilizer for agriculture, previously cost $400 a ton. He is now paying between $600 and $700 a ton. “You hope to break even, but I’m not sure we’re gonna do that,” he said.

There aren't many options for farmers to make up for losses.

For Ben Palen, a fifth-generation farmer and farming consultant, solutions are tough, and relief feels minimal.

Crop insurance to account for the losses only go so far. The Trump administration has offered one-time bridge payments for qualifying farmers of a variety of crops to aid their increasing costs amid trade disruptions and inflation, but those funds are also limited.

Allowing the wheat to fallow — essentially leaving it unused to prep land for the next crop — or planting something unplanned aren't viable options, either. It's not just a matter of adding more water to the land to try to get wheat to stick, and it's difficult for farmers to change course to another crop at this point in the year.

“It’s a little late now to try to plant something on say, a wheat crop that’s failed on a particular farm,” Palen, 70, said, “because we just don’t have soil moisture to get another crop started.

“This is probably about as challenging of a time to be a farmer that I can recollect,” he added. “It’s a pretty serious situation.”

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This story has been updated to correct that wheat production is forecast to be down 21% from 2025, not down to 1.05 billion bushels that year. This story also corrects the spelling of the Kansas State agronomist's surname; his name is Romulo Lollato, not Romulo Lolloto.

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St. John reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists Alyssa Goodman in New York and M.K. Wildeman in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

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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.

The win is the 4th consecutive win in a row for the island.

The announcement was made official during a ceremony at the Michigan capitol building in Lansing.

“Mackinac Island is the epitome of Pure Michigan, and I’m so proud we’ve been named the ‘Best Summer Travel Destination’ by USA Today for the fourth straight year,” said Governor Whitmer.

The USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards are digital travel awards that provide readers with recommendations for attractions, things to do, and top destinations from the public’s perspective.

Nominees are initially selected by a panel of contributors and editors from USA TODAY and 10Best.

The public is invited to vote online daily for their favorite nominee over a four-week period to determine the final rankings.

Mackinac Island has multiple events upcoming including the Mackinac Island Lilac festival in June, Independence Day celebrations in July, and America250 programming throughout the summer.

Mackinac Island has won multiple awards from travel guides.

Other Mackinac awards include Best Island in the Continental U.S. by Travel + Leisure, Top 15 U.S. Islands by Conde Nast Traveler,2026 No. 1 Summer and 2025 No. 1 Fall Travel Destination by USA Today’s 10Best Readers Choice Awards.

For more information on Mackinac Island and travel planning, you can check out the Mackinac visitor guide or the island’s website.

The lawsuit challenges the state's practice of assigning students to schools based solely on where they live, which can lead to patterns of housing segregation being replicated in school systems.

The case is the latest example of efforts to address segregation and funding inequities through state-level litigation. Even before the Trump administration began taking steps to release districts in the Deep South from court-ordered desegregation efforts, integration efforts had fallen far from their peak decades ago when the federal government intervened in school systems around the U.S.

The plaintiffs include nine students and four community organizations from segregated school districts across Massachusetts, including Springfield, Holyoke, Boston, Lawrence, Brockton, Lynn, and Worcester. The districts border more affluent, predominantly white districts where the plaintiffs are unable to enroll.

In response to the lawsuit, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said it does not have the authority to change school district boundaries, nor the power to compel schools to allow students from other districts to enroll. It said in a written statement the state has invested in efforts to reduce gaps in graduation rates, and sought additional investments for high-poverty districts.

“Massachusetts leads the nation in student achievement, and we are committed to building on this progress to strengthen our education system for every student in our state,” spokesperson Jacqueline Reis said.

Plaintiffs argue the state is failing Black and Latino students

A 2024 state advisory council report found that 63% of all schools in Massachusetts are segregated or intensely segregated, and that the state education department had fallen short in its oversight duties. Schools that have higher concentrations of students of color saw worse outcomes on metrics like graduation and college matriculation.

While the state constitution guarantees students a right to an adequate education and equal protection under the law, it has failed to do so in practice for Black and Latino students, said Jillian Lenson, senior attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the suit with Brown's Promise.

“It's not student potential, it's the conditions of their schools that drive these disparate outcomes, conditions that the state has maintained and perpetuated for decades,” Lenson said.

The lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court in Suffolk County asks to compel the state to address the disparities that emerge from rules assigning students to schools in areas where they live.

GeDá Jones Herbert, chief legal counsel at Brown's Promise, said the lawsuit is not seeking mandatory integration, but rather an investment in evidence-backed practices that benefit all students.

Those include expanding regional magnet programs and investing more in under-resourced schools. The state has regional vocational schools and voluntary inter-district transfers, but a complex system of opt-outs and the small size of most programs prevent equal access, the plaintiffs said.

“Black and Latino students are blocked out of access to those opportunities, and that's unconstitutional,” Jones Herbet said.

Advocates are seeking segregation remedies at the state level

Other recent examples of state-level litigation also have focused on addressing residential segregation.

In 2018, the Latino Action Network and the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP, among other plaintiffs, filed a suit arguing that the state’s system of assigning students based on their residence has created racially segregated schools. And in Minnesota, a 2015 lawsuit asserted that the segregation of schools in Saint Paul and Minneapolis led to inadequate and unequal educations for students of color.

Both cases have been winding their way through state courts, with no decisive resolution.

The state cases come amid shifts in federal enforcement of desegregation in schools. By the early 2000s, a series of Supreme Court cases had significantly limited the tools available to districts to meaningfully integrate schools on the basis of race.

State constitutions, which often have clauses enshrining equality and education, can serve as a pathway for challenges to segregation that results from economics and housing patterns, said Robert Williams, a professor of law emeritus at Rutgers University.

“The government knows about it, but it’s not the government that did it directly,” Williams said. “These cases argue that having so many different school districts that align with housing patterns and having laws that say that you have to go to school where you live, all of those things sort of amount to government segregation.”

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

Sixteen known moons circle Neptune, our solar system’s eighth and most distant planet. Neptune’s biggest moon, Triton, barged in from the solar system’s frigid outskirts billions of years ago, scattering the planet’s original moons and putting them on destructive collision courses.

A team led by the California Institute of Technology used NASA’s Webb Space Telescope to study Nereid. Their observations suggest that Nereid is no party crasher like Triton and likely survived by escaping into its extreme, elliptical orbit around Neptune.

“What we know about Nereid is very limited. For its size, Nereid is extremely understudied,” said study author Matthew Belyakov, of Caltech.

Neptune has only been visited by one spacecraft, NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. Nereid was discovered 40 years earlier by Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who named the moon after the sea nymphs in Greek mythology.

Roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) across, Nereid has an extremely eccentric orbit for a moon. It takes practically an entire Earth year for Nereid to orbit Neptune, with the moon passing less than 1 million miles (1.4 million kilometers) from the giant icy planet at one end of its egg-shaped loop and as far as 6 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) at the other end.

Like so many other moons in the outer solar system, Nereid was long suspected of migrating to Neptune's neighborhood from the frigid outlying expanse known as the Kuiper Belt. But using the Webb telescope, scientists determined that Nereid’s composition was inconsistent with Kuiper Belt objects — it had too much ice. That suggests it was part of Neptune's system all along.

“We don’t have all that much evidence left around Neptune — the system doesn’t have very many moons left,” Belyakov said in an email. But the latest observations “strongly rule out” that Nereid wandered by like so many others and got ensnared by planetary gravity.

The findings appear in the journal Science Advances.

This is “an exciting result," said Carnegie Science planetary astronomer Scott Sheppard, who was not part of the study.

The observations show for the first time that Nereid’s peculiar orbit matches “the history we might expect from a moon that originally formed close to Neptune and was later pushed outward from the capture of Triton,” Sheppard said in an email.

Neptune's innermost moons likely formed out of the shattered remains of the originals that were Triton's casualties, according to Belyakov and his team.

All three of the solar system’s other giant planets have more moons, with Saturn topping the charts at 292.

A visiting spacecraft could clinch the Neptunian system's origin story, according to scientists, although none are currently planned.

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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.

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

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

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

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

Jan. 4

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

Jan. 11

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

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

Jan. 30

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

Feb. 27

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

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

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

Sometime in February

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

March 13

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

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

March 31

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

April 9

Diaz-Canel said he would not resign.

April 10

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

April 12

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

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

April 16

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

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

April 17

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

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

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

April 23

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

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

April 28

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

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

May 7

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

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

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

May 14

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

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

May 15

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

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

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

May 18

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

May 20

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

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

But the gutsy (in more than one way) Vought Cinematic Universe is not coming to an end, with two spinoffs on the horizon at Amazon's Prime Video: “Vought Rising” and “The Boys: Mexico.” “Vought Rising” is due out in 2027 and traces the origins of the titular corporation's “supe” program, bringing back fan favorite Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

“I mean, look, you hope it’s received well. We don’t necessarily know just yet, my fingers are crossed,” Ackles said at “The Boys” series finale's premiere Tuesday in Los Angeles, praising “The Boys” cast and crew for building a remarkable fanbase. “So, I’m hoping that we can just capitalize on that as much as we can and that they will go with us on this new journey.”

How last season of ‘The Boys’ came together

Showrunner Eric Kripke said the final season — in which Homelander essentially takes control of the United States — was based on history but developed “unsettling” parallels to current events. The show, which premiered in 2019, is adapted from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comic book series, which ran from 2006-2012.

“We were looking at what happens in countries that have authoritarian creep, like what happens in Eastern Europe or South America or Germany,” Kripke said, pointing to leaders building statues of themselves, asserting they're ruling by divine right and building internment camps. “And the fact that all of these things happened before we even aired, we genuinely thought we were doing something a little out there. And it ended up sort of becoming reality in a way that’s not great for reality.”

He does see an upside to on-the-nose satire.

“I actually feel like if there’s any silver lining to get out of this dumpster fire, it’s that especially young people might see a golden statue of Trump and say, ‘Oh wait, I saw something like that on “The Boys” and it was so ridiculous that this is completely ridiculous,’” he said. “I think there’s real value in that kind of satire of just pointing out how silly it all is.”

Daveed Diggs felt “very privileged” to join the show as Oh Father, a supe leading a church that evangelizes Homelander as God.

“People aren’t leaning on satire as much as I think we should in these times. You know when stuff gets the hardest, the darkest, when fascism is the most present, that’s when satire is really supposed to kick off,” he said.

For those who have been there from the start, saying goodbye to their characters was emotional. Karen Fukuhara, who plays the regenerating supe Kimiko, said her final scene was with Erin Moriarty and Karl Urban (who plays Billy Butcher, leader and sometimes bane of The Boys).

“I got anxious and it’s hard for me to let go,” she said — so the assistant director had to trick her into thinking it wasn't the final shot so she wouldn't cry during the take.

Moriarty plays the supe Starlight/Annie January — a former member of the Homelander-led group The Seven who joins The Boys in the resistance — and strove to maintain the character's humanity throughout the show.

“I’ll just miss playing this badass female who has this level of strength that is totally defined by her humanity and her flaws, as opposed to... being this invincible superhero. It’s the definition of the humanity behind that superhero that really makes her who she is,” she said.

The wildest stunts and the memes

Emotions aside, it wouldn't be “The Boys” without out-there, gross-out stunts and profane lines just waiting to be turned into memes.

At the season's March premiere in Rome, Jack Quaid — who plays the eminently normal Hughie Campbell, a gadget-store employee who gets pulled into the vigilante group after his girlfriend is thoughtlessly killed by a supe — described the show as a “funhouse mirror, distorted slightly, version” of the world.

“As much as we try to do our best to add a little bit of what our art can do to influence reality, reality is still crazier than fiction. Reality still out-crazies us, and we’re a crazy show,” Laz Alonso, who plays The Boys member Marvin/Mother's Milk, said in Rome. Some of that crazy?

“What am I doing with my life?” Jessie T. Usher, who plays superspeeder A-Train, thought to himself in Season 1 while filming a scene where his girlfriend sucks on his toe.

“I just remember sitting there and it’s like a whole thing and like the makeup team is coming in in between takes and they got wet wipes and they’re wiping my toe down. And I was just sitting there and I was like, ‘Where did I go wrong in my life? I felt like I was on the right path and now they’re prepping my toe to be sucked,’” Usher recalled in March. “I hate foot stuff.”

And what about the big man himself, Antony Starr, who plays the seemingly all-powerful but curiously stunted Homelander? He made a discovery about himself on “Gen V,” the college-set spinoff that was recently canceled after two seasons.

"It was on ‘Gen V’ when he (Kripke) put me up in the air, 80 feet or whatever it was. And I found out that I’m actually terrified of heights. Swore like a truck driver,” Starr recalled during the March junket.

Starr's Homelander — a far cry from the brown-haired New Zealander with his blond hair, American flag-themed suit and perpetually twitching (laser-enabled) eyes — delivered a bounty of memes, something that Starr encouraged Kripke to incorporate into the show.

“Ant had this idea of, like, ‘Let’s have memes be the real thing that get to me.’ He pitched it. I was like, ‘That’s hilarious,’” Kripke said in March.

“The real problem is memes,” Starr said.

___

Jaleru reported from London. Associated Press journalists Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Mallika Sen in New York contributed reporting.

Giovanni Galizia has been the cover shot for the so-called sexy priest calendar for many of the last 23 editions. In the same photo used year after year, Galizia wears a clerical collar and flashes an enigmatic smile worthy of the Mona Lisa against the granite wall of a church in his native Palermo.

“It was the smile of an embarrassed kid, because I saw all my friends in front of me laughing out loud because I was dressed like I was a priest,” Galizia told The Associated Press during an interview Wednesday in his Verona living room.

For Galizia, the shoot was a lark that left no mark on his life, until a story in the Rome daily La Repubblica this week revealed that the “sexy priest calendar” could be more accurately called “the fake priest calendar,” drawing nationwide attention.

The calendar is not affiliated with the Vatican, which declined to comment.

A popular souvenir with 12 black-and-white portraits

Now a 39-year-old flight attendant for a Spanish airline, Galizia was just 17 years old when mutual friends put him in touch with photographer Piero Pazzi, who has also created a calendar featuring Venetian gondoliers and has founded museums in Budapest and Montenegro on the history of cats.

Officially named Calendario Romano, each edition features 12 black-and-white portraits of men mostly in clerical attire — many of which are recycled year after year. Galizia only knew one of the other subjects, a French man who also was not a priest.

Pazzi told the AP that at least one-third of those pictured in the already released 2027 calendar are actually priests but provided no details.

Galizia said he has never been stopped on the street, though his cousins once gave the calendar to their grandmother as a gift, “and they all died laughing.”

The calendar was intended as art, not deception

Galizia sees the photographs depicting priests as part of an artistic tradition, noting that no one watching a TV drama involving priests believes they are actually played by clergy.

“Of course, it winks a bit at the dynamic between the sacred and the profane, because it is clear that seeing a world that is distant and in some ways so lofty as the ecclesiastical world, with such a fresh-faced young man, creates a kind of dissonance,” he said.

But he also said he doesn't understand why the black-and-white close-ups have been interpreted as sexy. Pazzi also said that was not the point.

“There’s a tendency to confuse what is beautiful with what is sensual, because nowadays, especially in today’s world, which is quite sexualized, beauty is expressed only through sensuality,” Galizia said.

“That said, I appreciate the observation and take it as a compliment — because managing to be sexy in a priest’s collar is no small feat.”

It has the blessing of at least one real priest

Pazzi won’t say how many of the Roman calendars have been sold — but estimates several thousand a year. While Pazzi says he receives royalties, Galizia, who signed a release form when the photo was taken, said he has never sought payment.

The calendar sells for around 8 euros (around $9.30) in shops that surround the Vatican and crowd Rome’s historic center. One shop clerk, Hassam Mohammad, said he sells a handful of them every day.

Pazzi includes a page of information about the Vatican in the calendar, but its production is independent and unrelated to the Holy See.

A priest from South Korea walking near the Vatican this week said that the calendar is well known in his home country, especially among young people who view the calendar with humor.

“They often think priests are stiff and distant,” said the priest, who identified himself informally as Father Domenico. “But looking at this calendar, they think priests are more familiar, and priests can be funny. I think in Korea this calendar is very famous, and it is OK.”

____

Barry reported from Verona, Italy. Giada Zampano in Rome and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed.

Buchwald is an RV specialist at General RV in Wixom, and he’s logged more than 500,000 miles behind the wheel of a motorhome. He’s owned seven of them. He knows what he’s talking about.

“I have learned to like this more than a hotel because I don’t have to unpack and pack every time I go in and leave something behind,” he said. And when you finally pull into camp? “When you get where you’re going, you’re sleeping in your own bed.”

The rigs at General RV range from compact weekenders to full coaches stretching 350 square feet - with slide-out walls that expand the living space when you’re parked and retract when you’re rolling. Kitchen, bathroom, shower, multiple sleeping areas. One reporter on a recent tour called it bigger than her first apartment. Buchwald just nodded.

“My motorhome sits in my driveway plugged in, refrigerator’s on, ready to go, the clothes are in it, and everything I need for camping is in the basement,” he said. The result is total spontaneity. His wife will say she wants to go somewhere, and they’re at the end of the driveway in minutes. Destination? “I don’t know, turn right, we’ll figure it out.”

That spirit of adventure is exactly what Buchwald wants people to embrace - even first-timers.

General RV has travel trailers starting at just $10,000 – all the way to luxury motorhomes with all the bells and whistles. Truly, something for everyone.

General RV has several locations in Michigan. To find the location near you, visit GeneralRV.com.

The officers' attorneys filed the federal lawsuit a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund's creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn't rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.

The lawsuit claims the government's “Anti-Weaponization Fund" is an illegal slush fund that Trump will use to “finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” It describes the fund's creation as "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century" and calls for dissolving it.

“No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law,” the suit says.

The fund stems from a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations’ Justice Department. Decisions on payouts will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot. Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to erase all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.

The plaintiffs suing Trump over the fund are Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who is running in Maryland for a seat in Congress. Hodges and Dunn both testified before Congress about their harrowing experiences on Jan. 6. Videos captured a rioter ripping a mask off Hodges as he was pinned against a door during a fight for control of a tunnel entrance.

The officers claim the fund “encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so.”

“Dunn and Hodges already face credible threats of death and violence on regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger,” the suit alleges.

On Tuesday, members of Congress peppered Blanche with questions about the fund. He described it as “unusual” but not unprecedented. Blanche failed to acknowledge that Trump’s Justice Department has investigated and prosecuted some of the Republican president’s political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also are named as defendants in the officers’ lawsuit. Spokespeople for the Justice and Treasury departments didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.

One of the attorneys for the officers is Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that nearly 1,600 people, not over 1,600, were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.

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Coach Jared Bednar announced after the morning skate that Makar was out and called the standout blueliner “day to day.”

“I think he's doing a lot better,” Bednar said. “He's on the ice again this morning, feeling pretty good.”

Makar left the ice holding his right arm following a collision late in Game 5 against Minnesota last Wednesday but returned as Colorado won the game in overtime. He also briefly left Game 1 after taking a hit along the boards, with his right leg flying into the air before he fell to the ice.

Makar's absence is a blow for the Avalanche, who are 8-1 in this postseason. This is the first time Makar has missed a playoff game for the Avalanche with an injury. He was suspended one game for interference during a series against Seattle in 2023.

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

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

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

Bednar said defenseman Jack Ahcan will step into the lineup. Ahcan made his Stanley Cup playoff debut in Game 4 against Minnesota and played limited minutes in Game 5. Ahcan also skated in four Calder Cup playoff games this season with the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League.

Forward Artturi Lehkonen is expected to be in the lineup as well. Lehkonen missed the final two games of the Minnesota series with an upper-body injury.

“He touches every aspect of our game, five-on-five, power play, penalty kill," Bednar said. "He’s a big-time playoff performer, a great two-way player, so just helps us slot all of our lines where we need them in order to play a team like Vegas.”

___

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

Richard Alan Harris, 65, was found dead on a trail in Woodland Hills Park at around 4 p.m. on May 3. Investigators confirmed his death as a homicide.

As the investigation continues, police released a sketch on May 20 of a person of interest, who was reportedly seen by several witnesses at the park the day the murder happened.

Witnesses described the person of interest as a man, 20 to 30 years old, of average height with a slender build, black hair, a scruffy beard and olive-toned skin.

Police said some witnesses saw the man in the park before Harris was there, and others placed him near Harris.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Farmington Hills Police Department’s command desk at (248) 871-2610. Callers can remain anonymous.

Preparations will take place elsewhere after an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, which is thought to have killed more than 130 people and caused nearly 600 suspected cases.

The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.

Congo is scheduled to play World Cup-warmup games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium on June 3 and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Both matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“There were three stages of preparation: in Kinshasa to say goodbye to the public, Belgium and Spain with two friendly matches against Denmark in Liege and Chile in Spain, and the third stage from June 11 in Houston, United States. Only one stage was canceled – the one in Kinshasa,” Kalemo said.

All of the Congo players and the team’s French coach, Sébastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country with most of them playing in France.

Some team staff who are based in Congo “are leaving in the next hours,” Kalemo said.

Soccer's governing body FIFA issued a statement that “it is aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the Congo DR Football Association to ensure that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the U.S. would ban entry of all foreign nationals who had been in Congo, Uganda and South Sudan within the past three weeks. The ban lasts for 30 days.

A U.S. official said the Congolese World Cup team would not be affected by the CDC entry ban because it had been training in Europe for the past several weeks. That means team members, coaches and other officials who have not returned to Congo in the past three weeks would not be subject to the entry ban, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy has not been publicly announced.

Those members of the Congolese World Cup delegation who did return to Congo during the 21-day period will be subject to the same quarantine requirements as U.S. citizens seeking to return from affected countries, according to the official. That exception will not apply to Congolese fans who want to attend the World Cup, the official said.

The White House World Cup task force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that it is “coordinating closely” with various agencies on health and security matters and that the government is “closely monitoring” the outbreak.

Congo, which qualified for the World Cup after winning a playoff tournament in Mexico, has been drawn in Group K. It faces Portugal for its opening game in Houston on June 17.

The Leopards then face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 before playing Uzbekistan in Atlanta for their final group game on June 27.

Congo's first World Cup qualification since 1974, when it was called Zaire, sparked scenes of jubilation across the nation, which has been battered by decades of conflict.

___ Associated Press writers Matt Lee and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

“They'll be able to make adjustments way before they get anywhere close,” said Thomas Hall, director of operations for San Francisco Bay Ferry. “It will also allow us to track data over time and see where the whales are camping out so we can adjust our routes during whale season to avoid those areas completely.”

The effort comes amid an alarming rise in gray whale deaths in the bay. Last year, 21 dead gray whales were found in the wider Bay Area — the highest number in 25 years, according to The Marine Mammal Center — with at least 40% killed by ship strikes. At least 10 more have died in the Bay Area so far this year.

Scientists say those figures likely underestimate the true toll as many whale carcasses sink or are swept back out to sea before they are ever found or reported.

Gray whales have long migrated along the California coast on their roughly 12,000-mile (19,300-kilometer) journey between breeding lagoons in Mexico and feeding grounds in the Arctic.

But instead of simply passing offshore, increasing numbers are now diverting into San Francisco Bay and lingering for days or even weeks inside the crowded estuary — a shift scientists increasingly link to climate change. Warming temperatures and shifts in sea ice in the Arctic are disrupting the food web gray whales rely on during summer feeding months, according to a 2023 study in Science, leaving many malnourished during migration.

Many whales now concentrate in a high traffic corridor between Angel Island, Alcatraz and Treasure Island, directly overlapping with ferry routes and shipping lanes.

“It’s the worst place possible in terms of all the ship traffic,” said Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory who led the initiative. There have been so many collisions that “the teams responding to strandings said they ran out of places to even land dead whales.”

The eastern North Pacific gray whale population was once hailed as a conservation success story after rebounding from commercial whaling and being removed from the Endangered Species Act in 1994. But numbers have since plummeted, decreasing by half over the last 10 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Just 13,000 remain.

“They may not be getting the quality or quantity of food they’re used to in the Arctic,” Rhodes said. “That means they’re starting this incredibly long migration at a disadvantage.”

The thermal camera system provides real time alerts to mariners

Artificial intelligence automatically flags potential whale sightings, which are then verified by trained marine mammal observers before alerts are sent via radio to ferry operators, vessel traffic controllers and posted publicly on the Whale Safe website.

WhaleSpotter systems are already used on vessels and fixed installations such as lighthouses and coastal towers in the United States, Canada and Australia. But researchers say the San Francisco Bay network is the first to directly integrate land-based and vessel-mounted detections with official mariner alerts, allowing whale sightings to be relayed in near-real time to ships navigating the bay.

The first hours of testing produced an immediate flood of detections.

“Suddenly to have a full sense of how much whale activity is in this space honestly put me a little bit on edge,” said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff lab. “But we're going to use that data and we're going to be smart about how we use that space and share it with the whales.”

Researchers say the system’s biggest advantage is constant monitoring. Unlike human observers, thermal cameras can operate through the night and in many foggy conditions common in the bay.

One camera was installed on Angel Island and a second will soon be fixed aboard a ferry traveling between downtown San Francisco and Vallejo to create what Rhodes described as a “moving data collection platform.” Scientists hope additional cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz could eventually expand coverage across the bay.

Warming oceans are also threatening humpbacks

A severe marine heat wave lingering off the California coast is shrinking the band of cold, nutrient-rich water where krill, anchovies and sardines thrive. As offshore waters warm, humpback whales are increasingly following that prey closer to shore, where California’s Dungeness crab fishery operates.

The fishery uses tens of thousands of vertical lines that connect traps on the seafloor to surface buoys, creating entanglement hazards for whales migrating and feeding along the coast.

This spring, regulators again closed parts of the fishery off central California to conventional gear, a measure that has become increasingly common in recent years as warming waters increase whale overlap with crab fishing seasons.

While grey whales are also at risk, humpbacks are most vulnerable.

“Humpbacks are curious and they’ll scratch their backs on the gear,” said Kathi George, director of cetacean conservation biology at The Marine Mammal Center. “If they get a line caught on their body, they’ll breach and they’ll roll and end up entangling themselves.”

Whales can drag heavy gear for months, unable to dive or feed properly, leading to starvation, infection and drowning.

Thirty-six whales were confirmed entangled off the West Coast in 2024 — the highest number since 2018, according to NOAA — though scientists caution most cases go undocumented.

California approved commercial use of ropeless pop-up crab fishing gear for the first time this spring, which will allow fishermen to continue harvesting through the end of the season.

Instead of floating surface buoys tethered to traps, the system stores ropes and buoys on the seafloor until fishermen return and trigger an acoustic release that brings the gear to the surface.

Supporters say the technology allows fishermen to continue harvesting crab while dramatically reducing the risk to whales.

As climate change reshapes ocean conditions and whale migration patterns, scientists expect the overlap between whales, ships and fishing gear to persist.

“We will have to continue to be adaptive and science driven in terms of our management to reduce wildlife risk and keep fishermen on the water,” said Caitlynn Birch, Oceana’s Pacific campaign manager and a marine scientist. “California has been a national leader in developing whale-safe fishing technologies and we hope that model can help guide other fisheries on the West Coast and nationally.”

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Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram: @ahammergram.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Trump's remarks to the class of 2026 were the first time he has given a commencement address at one of the nation’s military academies after sending U.S. troops to fight a new war.

He told the cadets that they will be America's “first defenders” and “first responders.”

“You’ve all been tested. You’ll be tested further and probably at higher levels as your career goes on,” Trump said.

During his address, Trump quickly touched on the war with Iran, now in its 12th week, as a sign of U.S. success from “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

“The only question is, do we go ahead and finish it up or are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens,” Trump said.

The Republican president had threatened to launch renewed strikes on Iran this week as talks with Tehran seemed to have stalled and a fragile ceasefire appeared to be teetering. But Trump on Monday said he was giving Iran a few more days because “serious negotiations” were underway.

He has not offered details and has in the past backed away from following through on threats to Iran, citing breakthroughs in talks that have not publicly materialized.

Earlier Wednesday, he told reporters that he's “in no hurry” to strike a deal to wrap up the war because of political concerns and the November midterm elections.

The commencement was held on a day with scorching heat and there was little shade available as the crowd waited for the ceremony to begin.

At least one person required medical attention after passing out. Others pleaded with organizers for elderly attendants to sit in the shade under tents. Chilled water bottles were distributed freely but quickly became warm.

Trump, who spoke at the academy’s graduation in 2017 during his first term, said he was proud to be the first president to give two commencement addresses at the school.

“We’re going to have to try it maybe a third time, too, to keep that record intact,” Trump said Wednesday.

Trump told the cadets that they were graduating at “an incredible, exciting time for our nation,” a time he described as resurgence of national strength, morale and confidence.

As he declared “America is back,” the president departed from what is traditionally a nonpolitical speech by the commander in chief to military graduates and shifted to critiques of his predecessors, saying the country had been “run by foolish politicians.”

He promoted his tariff policies and immigration crackdown and said that "under this administration, we don’t apologize for American power or wealth.”

“What we do really is we want to maximize it. We take advantage of it,” he said. “We unleash it, and we wield it to pursue our country’s glorious destiny and our beautiful American Dream.”

The president and vice president traditionally speak at one of the military service academies every year. Vice President JD Vance is set to give the commencement address on May 28 at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Before he flew to Connecticut, Trump told reporters that his message to the cadets would be, “Just enjoy your life.”

“You know, you don’t really realize how important Coast Guard is until you have a hurricane,” Trump said as he praised the maritime service.

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Price reported from Washington.

Unfortunately for them, Botswana's government said a notice announcing they could have the day off Wednesday in celebration was fake news.

The government posted the so-called official statement on X with the words "FAKE" in red across it. The government posted: “No, there is no holiday for Arsenal fans.”

The fake statement circulating online — complete with a Republic of Botswana coat of arms and a stamp from the office of the president — said President Duma Boko had rewarded Arsenal fans for their “passion, loyalty and unwavering support.”

Eagle-eyed fans, however, might have noticed that the fake statement was dated May 17: Sunday. Arsenal's triumph was only confirmed on Tuesday after nearest rival Manchester City drew 1-1 with Bournemouth.

One X user speculated jokingly that the fake statement was issued by a Manchester United fan.

An emergency announcement from the military urged people in the region of Vilnius, the country's capital, to “immediately head to a shelter or a safe place.”

The alert, which lasted for about an hour, also led to the closure of the airspace over Vilnius Airport. President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were taken to shelters, and there was also an evacuation order at Lithuania's parliament, the Seimas, the BNS news agency reported.

It was the first major alert that sent residents and political leaders in a European Union and NATO capital rushing to shelters since Russia’s invasion of neighbor Ukraine in February 2022.

It came hours after a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine apologized for that “unintended incident,” without specifying what had happened.

In another sign of heightened tensions, Britain’s military said Wednesday that two Russian jets “repeatedly and dangerously” intercepted a Royal Air Force spy plane over the Black Sea last month. The Ministry of Defense said one Su-35 aircraft flew close enough to trigger emergency systems on the unarmed RAF Rivet Joint plane and disable its autopilot.

The ministry said the British plane was in international airspace as part of operations to secure NATO's eastern flank.

NATO chief praises response to drone incursions

Lithuania borders Russia-allied Belarus to the east and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west. Wednesday’s alert came after the military said it detected drone activity in Belarus, but no drones were sighted over Lithuania.

“Based on the parameters we saw, it’s most likely either a combat drone or a drone designed to deceive systems and lure targets,” Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center, said in a news briefing. It wasn't possible to ascertain whether the drone had a warhead, he said.

Belarus reported the potential drone to Lithuania and neighboring Latvia, according to Brig. Gen. Nerijus Stankevicius, commander of the Lithuanian Army’s Land Forces.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte commended the alliance’s reaction to several drone incidents in recent days, saying Wednesday in Brussels that they had been met with “a calm, decisive and proportionate response.”

Vilnius residents sought shelter

Vilnius resident Maryia Malevich said she was terrified when the alert sounded.

“I and my colleagues, we went downstairs and waited probably for 30 minutes" before the all-clear notification came, she said. “We were unprepared and we didn’t know what we should do. And even now, we don’t know what really happened.”

Another Vilnius resident, Iuliia Dudkina, said she wasn't scared because her friends live in Israel and frequently have to head to shelters. She said her husband had a different reaction.

“He was actually very worried and asked me to take our dog and go downstairs to the underground garage. So I did it," Dudkina said. “There were no people except me. So I guess no one really got very scared.”

Drones crossing borders heighten tensions

In recent months, Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory on numerous occasions. Western officials have blamed what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the drones. Russia, meanwhile, has renewed threats that it would retaliate if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries or if those countries are complicit in their use against Russia.

“Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace while waging smear campaigns” against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said late Tuesday. “It’s a transparent act of desperation — an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: (Ukraine) is hitting the Russian military machine hard.”

Last week, Latvia’s government collapsed following a dispute over the handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine hammer each other with drones

In a recent escalation of aerial attacks, Russia and Ukraine have sometimes fired hundreds of drones a day at each other.

Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that it shot down 131 out of 154 drones that Russia launched overnight. The ones that got past air defenses killed three civilians and wounded 18 others, including two children, officials said.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its aerial campaign against Russia’s vital oil industry, with the General Staff reporting its drones struck a major Russian oil refinery and a pipeline pumping station overnight.

Russian media reports also indicated that a chemical plant in the southern Stavropol region was hit and caught fire, although local officials didn’t confirm any direct hit.

Russia gets some relief from oil sanctions

The U.K. government, a strong supporter of Ukraine's war effort, loosened sanctions Wednesday on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise and fears grow about supplies due to the Iran war.

That step comes two days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington was granting a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea.

The move, designed to reduce the oil supply shortages, marked a continued policy reversal by the Trump administration, which had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April.

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Associated Press journalists Siarhei Satsiuk in Vilnius, Lithuania; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Jill Lawless in London; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Kostya Manenkov in Tallinn, Estonia, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.

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

In August 1972, William Greaves assembled as many artists, writers, poets, musicians and organizers from the Harlem Renaissance as he could. They came for a cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse. There, they talked about the seminal 1920s cultural movement: what they remembered, who not to forget, what it all meant.

“My father would say, ‘Capture the life that’s happening,’” David recalls.

It took more than half a century for the result to see the light of day. But 54 years after that gathering, “Once Upon a Time Harlem” screened this week at the Cannes Film Festival.

No movie in Cannes had a longer road to get here. William Greaves died in 2014 having never finished what he felt would be his most enduring work. With David ultimately stepping in as director, his family saw it through.

“It’s not the film he was thinking of in his mind,” David Greaves said in an interview by the beach in Cannes. “But it’s definitely the film he would have wanted.”

It was fitting that “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” got its moment in Cannes. William Greaves’ 1968 opus, “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One,” was rejected at the time by the festival. The experimental documentary would nevertheless grow to become revered by filmmakers, and in 2015 it was added to the National Film Registry.

Given that history, it was hard for David Greaves to summarize what it felt like to be at the festival, bringing his father’s work finally to cinema's global stage.

“It feels magical,” he said, his eyes welling up. “Even surreal.”

Now, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” might be the nonfiction movie event of the year. Following its premiere earlier this year, Neon acquired it and is planning an awards campaign. It will play at top fall festivals. After seeing an unfinished cut of the film last year, The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called it “a film for the ages.”

Gathered that day in Harlem was a spectrum of Harlem Renaissance luminaries including the poet and novelist Arna Bontemps; the artist Romare Bearden; the actor Leigh Whipper, then 96; Ida Mae Cullen, the widow of the poet Countee Cullen; the musician Eubie Blake, the poet and painter Richard Bruce Nugent; the scholar John Henrik Clarke.

Together, they take turns reminiscing about the flourishing in Harlem — laughing, arguing over and celebrating their place in Black history. In the 1970s, it wasn’t as widely recognized. Now, the film arrives at a time when African American history is increasingly under siege in America.

For David Greaves, the definition of the Harlem Renaissance is simple: “It’s the wellspring.”

“People say: How can there be a renaissance? People without history arriving here?” he says. “I first wanted to open the film with a history stretching back to Africa. Everyone was like, ‘OK, OK, where’s the party?”

Instead, the documentary opens with a poem that Greaves felt expressed it all: Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”

William Greaves’ original purpose with the footage was to use it for the 1974 film “From These Roots.” But he instead opted to use archival photographs. Over the years, he would return to the 1972 footage in Harlem but never shaped it into a film.

After he died in 2014 at the age of 87, his widow, Louise Archambault Greave, took up the project. She died in 2023 but not before securing funding for the restoration.

“Louise was a lock protecting the footage. She told the Smithsonian, who asked for a copy, ‘No!’” David Greaves says, laughing.

Though he was raised assisting on his father’s films, David Greaves didn’t remain in moviemaking. He co-founded and ran the progressive Brooklyn community newspaper Our Time Press. It was years before he stepped forward to direct. His daughter, Liani, is a producer.

“Louis was talking about directors. ‘Who could we get?’ I just sat there and said, ‘I don’t know,’” David Greaves says. “Then it came to a point in the editing room after she had passed, (adviser) Marcia Smith said, ‘Who’s going to direct this? Are you going to direct it?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ I couldn’t imagine anyone else directing this film. I just couldn’t do it.

David Greaves barely remembers what he shot in 1972. He's seen fleetingly in a mirror at times. But it was too long ago to really remember — longer than the time span from the Harlem Renaissance to that townhouse meeting. “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is a luminous artifact of the past, twice over.

“Usually after seeing a movie, people say ‘Congratulations,’” says Greaves. “Here they say, ‘Thank you.’”

Greaves can hardly get the words out before the tears come streaming again. He wipes them away, lifts his head and smiles.

May 29-June 1, EB I-94 from M-3 to Metro Parkway will be closed.

The following 3 weekends are also scheduled to have closures.

Closures are set to begin 8p.m. Friday, May 29 until 5a.m., Monday, June 1.

There will be a detour - NB M-3/Gratiot to EB Metro Pkway.

The following ramps will also be closed:

• EB I-696 ramp to EB I-94
• 11 Mile ramp to EB I-94
• 12 Mile ramp to EB I-94
• Little Mack ramp to EB I-94
• Harper Rd ramp to EB I-94
• Shook Rd ramp to EB I-94

All work is weather dependent. Project info can be found at MovingMacomb.org . Please drive slowly and safely through construction zones.

Joe Vitale, owner of Vitale Wealth Management, says the answer has been hiding in plain sight - and he’s put his own money on it. “I took a couple hundred personally of myself, and I just put it into an income annuity where when I want to turn it on at 62 or 65, I have a guaranteed lifetime income that I’ll never outlive,” he said.

The product Vitale is referring to - a guaranteed lifetime income annuity - is not new. But he argues there has rarely been a better moment to buy one. With the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes still reverberating through financial markets, Vitale says the timing is unusually favorable. “Because interest rates are so high right now, we’re able to lock into a higher payout factor,” he said.

Annuities have long carried a reputation for complexity and hidden costs, a stigma Vitale acknowledges is sometimes deserved. The key distinction, he says, is between advisors who are legally required to act in a client’s best interest - fiduciaries - and those who are not. “As a fiduciary, I always ask, make sure that they’re upfront telling you what the fees are,” he said, noting that some fixed and fixed-index annuities carry zero fees, while variable products can carry significant costs if buyers aren’t careful.

For skeptics, Vitale draws a pointed comparison to bonds - a traditional safe-haven asset that comes with its own risks and costs. “What if I can get a 5% rate of return with no risk and no fees and no volatility, and I can have a guaranteed income like a pension? Why wouldn’t I put that in a retirement program for safety?” he said.

His enthusiasm comes with a clear caveat, however. Annuities are not meant to be an all-or-nothing bet, and Vitale is quick to say so. “You don’t put all your money in there, but your portion,” he said. “Perfect place for a portion of the money.”

For those already holding an annuity purchased years ago, Vitale recommends a complimentary evaluation, pointing out that products bought when rates were lower may no longer be competitive in today’s environment.

More information is available at VitalityWealth.com.

The renegade Republican who rose to prominence as an idiosyncratic yet consistent outlier in his party, popular in the Kentucky district that repeatedly sent him to the House, lost his primary bid for reelection Tuesday after a vicious and costly attack by President Donald Trump.

The stunning outcome caps a career like few others and shows the extent of the president’s ability to badger, badmouth and eventually boot out his political adversaries — and that no lawmaker is apparently safe. Massie's defeat comes after the Trump-led ouster of Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana over the weekend and the president's endorsement Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his challenge to Sen. John Cornyn, which sent chills and anger through the Senate.

Trump had reserved his fiercest attacks for Massie, a quirky conservative who had become among the most powerful rank-and-file Republicans in the House because of his willingness to vote as he pleased, rather than as the party demanded. And now he's been toppled like so many other Republicans who crossed the president.

Massie was undaunted after losing to Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL handpicked by Trump.

“If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king,” Massie told cheering supporters Tuesday night. But if lawmakers follow the Constitution, he said, “we have a republic.”

Massie also teased that his political career may not be over quite yet during the closing moments of his concession speech, as a raucous crowd broke into chants of “2028!” and “President!”

“You’ve made a compelling argument,” he replied. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Trump said of Massie’s defeat: “He deserves to lose.”

Massie's rise from backbench to prominence to defeat

Massie rose from the House Republican backbench, charting his own path and showing again and again he was willing to buck his party and the president.

He voted against Trump’s big tax cuts bill last year, worried the several trillion-dollar costs would add to the nation’s deficits.

He rejected Trump’s military forays against Iran and Venezuela, opposed to U.S. intervention overseas, and he routinely voted against U.S. foreign aid, including to Israel, drawing millions of dollars against him from pro-Israel interest groups.

And perhaps most remarkably, Massie, in partnership with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, persisted in a long-shot effort to force the Justice Department’s release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

It was his work on the Epstein files, perhaps more than any of his repeated votes against spending bills and other party priorities, that elevated Massie's profile.

Khanna said on X that Massie “lost because he had the guts to stand up to the Epstein class and against the war.”

Trump lashed out at the “lowlife” Massie as the congressman pushed the issue last year, prolonging a political concern for the White House — a phrase the president repeated Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters as he prepared to travel to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to deliver a commencement address, Trump celebrated the “great number of victories."

“Not just Massie. Massie’s a low life,” Trump said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wasn't surprised that Massie lost, noting the power of the president's endorsements.

“We don't demand loyalty to the president,” said Johnson, R-La. But he said the GOP needs people “who are not, you know, trying to carve out their own lane.”

Off the grid and into Congress

First elected in 2012, at the tail end of the GOP tea party wave before Trump’s Make America Great Again movement burst onto the scene, Massie stood out from the start.

An engineer by training, Massie designed several patents — some on display in his office — as well as a debt calculator that blinks in flashing red numerals as the nation’s deficits pile up. He often wears a miniature version of the debt calculator as a lapel pin.

He married his high school sweetheart, Rhonda, and joined her at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They raised their four children living largely off the grid in a solar-power home he designed himself, making him something of a legend among a generation of do-it-yourselfers. He raised cattle, drove an early Tesla and drank raw milk.

Inspired by fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul after having put up lawn signs for the senator’s election, the libertarian-leaning Massie ran for office himself.

Once he won his own House seat, Massie declined to join the newly forming Freedom Caucus, his own far-right views not fully aligning with the conservative coalition. He voted against Johnson, at the start of this session, for House speaker.

Trump attacked Massie early and often

Trump set his sights on Massie in 2020 during his first presidential term, when the congressman dared to object to a $2.2 trillion aid package to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Massie refused to allow the COVID-19 package to be approved without a formal roll call, forcing hundreds of lawmakers back to the Capitol. Trump called him a “third rate Grandstander.”

Trump did not let up his criticisms, even after Massie's wife died in 2024. Massie announced in 2025 that he had remarried, after proposing to Carolyn Grace Moffa, a former Paul staffer, on the steps of the Library of Congress. He said they planned to live on the farm.

The president suggested that Massie got remarried too quickly, writing on social media that “his wife will soon find out that she’s stuck with a LOSER!”

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Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this report.

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

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

“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”

Perry County Mayor John Carroll did not immediately respond to a Wednesday message left with his office seeking an interview.

Bushart was arrested in September after he refused to take down Facebook memes that joked about Kirk’s killing, which had prompted an outpouring of grief among conservatives, including in Perry County, which is near Bushart's home and which held a candlelight vigil.

The meme Bushart posted that prompted his arrest read: “This seems relevant today...” and featured President Donald Trump and the words, “We have to get over it.” That quote, the meme explained, was said by Trump in 2024 after a school shooting at Iowa’s Perry High School.

Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told news outlets that most of Bushart’s “hate memes” were lawful free speech, but residents were alarmed by the school shooting post, fearing Bushart was threatening a local school, also called Perry County High School, even though Weems said he knew the meme referred to a school in Iowa.

“Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community,” Weems said in a statement to The Tennessean last year.

Bushart's bail was set at $2 million before he was released as the case drew national attention.

“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” said Cary Davis, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which helped represent Bushart. “When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable. Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”

Lewandowski said SkyeVantage combines the buying power and systems of a growing national brand - now operating in 14 states - with the personalized service of local ownership. That model allows the company to offer streamlined communication, proven installation processes, and preferred pricing on materials while still supporting small business owners working directly in the communities they serve.

Ashley said the biggest eye-opener came when he personally shopped for roofing quotes on his own home. He found major differences not only in pricing, but in what companies actually included in their proposals. Many quotes lacked detailed itemization, making it difficult for homeowners to compare options or understand what they were paying for.

SkyeVantage says transparency is where they stand apart. The company allows customers to choose their own materials, provides detailed breakdowns of costs, and even refunds homeowners for unused roofing materials after the project is complete. According to Ashley, the average refund in 2025 has been about $670, with one recent homeowner receiving back $876.

The company also emphasized the importance of installation quality and accountability, noting that SkyeVantage relies on a preferred installation network instead of traditional subcontractor-heavy models. The goal, they say, is to create more consistency, stronger oversight, and better long-term warranty protection for homeowners making a major investment in their property.

To schedule a free virtual estimate, visit SkyeVantage.com.

The police say on May 10 they responded to an animal complaint.

The 28-year-old Warren woman was allegedly paid to care of a dog.

Police say the dog accidently escaped, in attempt to get the dog back inside the woman kicked and struck the dog repeatedly in the face.

The dog did not sustain any permanent injuries.

The woman was arraigned on May 19 on the following charges:

· Animals – Cruelty to One Animal, a 93-day misdemeanor

· Dog – Stray, a 3-month misdemeanor

The Judge granted the woman a $5,000 personal bond.

She was ordered to not have contact with animals that may be considered pets.

A Pretrial Conference before the judge has not yet been scheduled.

Customers spent money across all of Target’s main merchandising categories and helped deliver better-than-expected sales. Comparable sales — those coming from stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months, rose 5.6% in the three-month period ended May 2. It was the biggest gain since early 2022, and the first positive read after three consecutive quarters of negative comparable sales.

Target raised its annual revenue outlook, saying it expected momentum to continue the rest of the year. Yet the upgraded sales expectations were still below the pace of the first quarter and investors reacted negatively.

Shares fell 5% Wednesday.

CEO Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year company veteran who took over in February, said he remained guardedly optimistic given where the company is in its operational overhaul.

“We’re encouraged to see a strong guest response so far,” Fiddelke said, adding: “We’re maintaining a cautious outlook given the work we know we have in front of us and ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment.”

In March, Fiddelke unveiled a $6 billion plan to reverse three straight years of sales declines. Target said it would remodel stores as part of an attempt to reclaim its reputation for stylish clothing on a budget, while it improved staffing and worker training.

New collaborations with labels like Roller Rabbit, an apparel and home goods brand known for its whimsical, block-print designs, resonated with shoppers, according to Target.

Target is one of the first big retailers to report financial results and industry analysts are watching closely to determine whether surging gasoline prices due to the Iran war have altered consumer behavior.

The chain was struggling long before the U.S. and Iran attacked Iran in February, however. Customers complained of disheveled stores that lacked the fashionable yet affordable niche that had earned Target the nickname “Tarzhay.”

Fiddelke reshuffled the leadership team at Target and on Tuesday, Target named a former Walmart executive as its new head of supply chain, another problematic area.

Some of Target's problems were self-inflicted. Its decision to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives led to protests and boycotts. And this winter, Target stores became another flashpoint with a federal immigration crackdown in its own hometown of Minneapolis.

Fiddelke acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press in early March that boycotts had taken a toll, but said this week that increased store traffic in the first quarter was broad-based. He noted that more shoppers are picking Target more often, and “that’s a positive sign.”

Analysts, however, say Target's first-quarter performance offers a positive sign for the company.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, wrote that the results “represent an early win for Michael Fiddelke and his team.”

Saunders believes Target's lackluster sales had more to do with failing on execution than being caught up in cultural crosshairs like DEI.

“As important as that matter is, and as much as it does have some impact, it has never been the main issue,” Saunders wrote.

Target posted first-quarter earnings of $781 million, or $1.71 per share, for the three-month period ended May 2. That easily topped the $1.47 per share that analysts had expected, according to FactSet, but it was down from $1.04 billion during the same time last year.

Net sales rose 6.7% to $25.44 billion, also topping expectations.

For the full year, Target said it expected earnings per share near the high end of $7.50 to $8.50, the guidance it offered in March. Analysts are expecting $8.12 per share for the year, according to FactSet.

Target said it now expects net sales growth to be up 4% for the year, up from the previous forecast of 2%. That would bring sales to $108.97 billion.

The San Antonio Spurs — and this season's unanimous Defensive Player of the Year pick in Wembanyama — are headed to Europe next season for a pair of regular-season games. They'll play the New Orleans Pelicans, first in Paris on Jan. 14 and then in Manchester, England, on Jan. 17.

Wembanyama and the Spurs played a pair of games in Paris in January 2025, with tickets for those matchups against the Indiana Pacers getting snapped up quickly.

“Always looking forward to expanding the game and being part of the cool process of being able to play outside the country," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said this week when asked about his team returning to France next season.

Wednesday's announcement comes with the NBA and FIBA, the sport's global governing body, deep into plans for a new league that could start play in Europe as early as the fall of 2027. Paris and Manchester are on the list of cities expected to have teams in that league.

The Spurs, tapping into the massive global appeal that follows Wembanyama, have maintained a near-constant presence in France since landing the 7-foot-4 center with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft.

Earlier this season, the team debuted "Spurs Week Paris” to bring elements of its business and fan experience from San Antonio directly to French fans, with a retail pop-up shop, a court renovation, free youth clinics, a professional development program for French women working in sports and a watch party.

This trip for the Spurs and Pelicans will include similar elements, with plans for those days in Europe already scheduled to include youth basketball clinics, coach and referee development programming and interactive fan events.

And it will be the second visit for a New Orleans team to Paris in a three-month span. The NFL's Saints will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris on Oct. 25, that league's first regular-season game in France.

“Together with the Saints playing in Paris next season, the opportunity for the Pelicans to play internationally in Paris and Manchester represents another significant step in strengthening our organization’s cultural and economic ties in these regions," said Pelicans governor Gayle Benson, who also owns the Saints.

The NBA revealed last year that it planned to play at least six regular-season games in Europe over three seasons. That started with a pair of games between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic this past January, in Berlin and London. The games in the 2027-28 season will take place in Berlin and Paris, with teams to be announced.

Jamahl Mosley coached Orlando in those Grizzlies-Magic games; he'll return to Europe next season, this time as the coach of the Pelicans.

“Playing games in Paris and Manchester reflects the strong momentum we’re seeing for basketball and the NBA in France, the U.K. and across Europe,” George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s managing director for Europe and the Middle East, said in a statement.

“As interest in the game continues to grow across the continent, we look forward to working with the Pelicans, the Spurs and our partners to deliver unique experiences for fans, aspiring players and the local communities.”

The NBA will be playing a regular-season game in Paris for the sixth time and playing in France for the 16th time since 1991. The league is going to Manchester for the second time — the first for a regular season game — and to England for the 20th time since 1993.

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

The fireworks show will be broadcast live on Local 4 and Local 4+, which is available for free, even outside the Detroit area.

Coverage of the 2026 Ford Fireworks will begin at 8 p.m. with pre-show events. The fireworks are expected to start around 10 p.m.

Watch the 68th annual Ford Fireworks live in the video player above with pre-show coverage at 8 p.m. and the fireworks show at 10 p.m.

Fireworks Cam Zone

We’re offering viewers a chance to watch the fireworks from four different angles at once with our Fireworks Cam Zone.

Click here to try it out!

Barry Garza was sentenced to 30-60 years for second-degree murder and attempted murder.

The charges stem from the death of 40-year-old Amber Thomas in August 2023. It happened near the intersection of Woodland Drive East and North Maple Road in Saline. Garza reportedly shot Thomas and led police on a chase that ended in a crash.

Thomas had a personal protection order against Garza that was granted less than a week before the shooting, but it had not yet been served to him.

Thomas was walking to her car while on a break from work when Garza allegedly opened fire, killing her and injuring a 55-year-old man.

Prosecutors claimed he told police he wasn’t sorry he killed her.

Garza eventually pleaded no contest to the murder and attempted murder charges. A felony firearm charge was dismissed.

He was sentenced April 24, 2026, and was given credit for 995 days served.

Chanise Coyne, 46, pleaded guilty to a charge of wire fraud.

Officials say the woman admitted that she obtained over $4.6 million from a local family by claiming that money would be used for advance fees for the family’s young daughter in modeling events across the country.

Coyne also admitted that she generated false records, including fake text messages, emails, and invoices, said authorities.

The false records were related to the supposed placement of that young girl’s events.

Zero of the money was used in connection to the placement of the young girl in a single modeling event, said officials.

Authorities say instead, Coyne used the money for gambling.

Sentencing is set for September 1.

Coyne faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

“Coyne exploited a child’s dreams and ripped off a local family with her fake claims. But she will face real consequences,” stated U.S. Attorney Gorgon.

Winds have shifted to the north, bringing in colder air. Highs today will remain in the low to mid 60s under mostly cloudy skies, and those further north and east will stay in the 50s. Our normal high is 72°.

A bit of drizzle can’t be ruled out but most will stay dry.

Tonight temperatures will be around ten-plus degrees below normal, in the upper 30s to low 40s.

Clouds will decrease, giving way to some sunshine Thursday. Highs tomorrow will only be in the lower 60s before we go back to the mid 60s Friday.

Friday brings the next chance of rain. We look to see showers Friday evening, continuing into Saturday. The first half of the weekend in particular looks to be rainy, with the chance of storms, so if you’re traveling you may want to leave earlier Friday or allow a little extra time Saturday.

Afternoon temperatures Saturday will make it back to around 70° before hitting the mid 70s Sunday and Monday.

Scattered rain chances will remain Sunday and Monday, Memorial Day. This is still days away and may change, but for now you might want to plan a few inside activities and have an umbrella handy for the weekend.

They accounted for 35% of all homebuyers in their generation, while single Gen Z men represented 18%, according to survey data from the National Association of Realtors.

NAR surveyed people who bought a home between July 2024 and June 2025. The survey included homebuyers from several generations, from Gen Z, ages 18-26, to the Silent Generation, ages 80 to 100. No other generation had a bigger share of single women homebuyers than Gen Z.

Overall Gen Zers, which the survey defines as those born between 1999 and 2011, still only made up 4% of all homebuyers during the survey period. And at the time of the survey, the share of U.S. homes bought by first-time buyers of all ages sank to the lowest level on record going back to 1981.

First-time buyers often don’t have equity from a previous home to put toward a down payment. That was the situation for Bri LaFluer. After years of socking away half her pay, working two jobs and aided by a slowing housing market, she bought her own home in 2023 at the age of 24.

“I’ve always been a really independent person and I just wanted my own place to have peace and quiet by myself,” said LaFluer, now 27.

Her home search began in 2021, but historically low mortgage rates made the market ultra competitive, which turbocharged prices. Two years later she finally landed a house in Baldwinsville, N.Y., about 15 miles from Syracuse, that was built in 1900 and has three bedrooms and 1.5-baths and a big yard. She got it for $175,000.

“I feel like it was meant to be and this just ended up being the perfect house for me and my dogs,” she said.

A content creator for a video game company, LaFluer lived with her mom and paid a modest rent, which helped her save up faster for the $20,000 down payment.

The NAR survey data are the latest sign that single women overall are becoming homeowners at greater rates than single men. Gen Z homebuyers are much more likely than homebuyers in all other generations to be unmarried. But single women across the generations made up a quarter of all homebuyers in the July 2024-June 2025 period, according to NAR. Single men, meanwhile, accounted for 11% of all home purchases.

This has been a longstanding trend going back at least to 1981. In 2006, at the height of the mid-2000s housing boom, the share of homes bought by single women peaked at 22%, according to NAR. For single men, their share of homeownership peaked at 12% in 2010.

Experts say there is no one-size-fits-all answer to why across the generations single women outnumber single men as homeowners.

Women now are outpacing men in college attendance, which can lead to higher incomes, said Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist.

They tend to have a strong desire for homeownership as a way to secure their independence, something they historically could not easily do alone.

“It wasn’t until the 1970s where women were legally protected to have a mortgage on their own,” Lautz said. “And they have embraced this and been very strongly embracing this.”

Aspiring Gen Z homeowners face a number of challenges to affording a home: They’re typically just getting started in their careers, with their best income-earning years ahead. They are unlikely to be married and may have student loans to pay off.

Their median annual income of $76,000, as of 2024, also was the lowest compared to homebuyers from all other generations, according to NAR.

Years of soaring home prices have further stretched the limits of affordability. While home price growth has slowed and prices have fallen in many metro areas, prices are mostly still rising. The median U.S. home sales price stood at $417,700 last month, up 0.9% from a year earlier, according to NAR.

Still, Gen Z homebuyers are also more likely to receive financial help from family, and many are savvy about looking into community grants or other payment assistance programs for first-time homebuyers. And 1 in 10 tapped their 401(k) retirement savings plan to put toward their down payment, according to NAR.

Other home shoppers have no recourse but to save up on their own.

That's what Mariah Berry focused on when many of her fellow college grads were going out and living it up.

“I did not go out and was driving an old beat-up car,” said Berry, a social media content creator. “It was not fun.”

The penny-pinching paid off in 2023, when Berry bought her two-bedroom, one-bath home in Charleston, Tennessee, a small town about 45 miles outside of Chattanooga. She was just 23.

Berry had always wanted to be a homeowner, but the goal took on more urgency after a period when she and her boyfriend were bouncing between living in short-term rentals or couch surfing with friends.

Berry got her home, one of two units in a ranch-style duplex, for $218,000. She financed the balance after making a $7,000 down payment with a 30-year mortgage at 6% interest.

“I do think it’s pretty frickin’ awesome that I’m a homeowner and that I became a homeowner at 23,” she said. “I will say that after I put in the offer, I wanted to puke. I was like, ’Oh my God, did I do the right thing?'”

Berry's now looking at the possibility of buying the other half of the duplex some day.

“That could be a good opportunity for us to have and like rent out half of it," she said.

State data shows Heart disease as the #1 cause of death in 2023, and stroke comes in 4th place.

Experts say together the two are linked in nearly 1/3 of every death across the state.

Strokes are often considered a later-in-life issue, but researchers are now estimating 10-15% of all strokes happen in younger adults.

Doctors say they’re becoming more common for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

High blood pressure, smoking, stress, poor diet and not getting enough exercise are all major risk factors for any age, according to experts.

Doctors worry many don’t recognize signs until it’s too late.

Dr. Hebah Hefzy, Neurologist at Henry Ford Health, joined Local 4 Live to tell us what signs you should never ignore.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

Shoppers had access to a wide variety of free items, ranging from LED light bulbs to gel nail polish kits.

Eboni Dozier, a shopper at the event, called the giveaway a blessing.

“It’s just a real big blessing. Good for the community,” Dozier said.

For many attendees, the free items meant more money in their pockets for everyday necessities.

“I could put my money in something else because I got this here today,” Dozier said.

With the cost of living putting pressure on families across the region, events like this one are making a real difference for Detroit residents.

Ashleigh Pope, chief administrative officer at Second Ebenezer Church, said the event was about spreading kindness.

“We’re just showing out love to the people in our community. Showing them that there’s still kindness that’s happening here on a daily basis,” Pope said.

Dozens of volunteers of all ages helped bag items and prepare food for attendees. For volunteer Zachariah Williams, being part of the effort felt meaningful.

“It just feels good to be a part of this. It feels good to help out because this is really what community is all about,” Williams said.

The spirit of the day was summed up on the back of volunteers’ T-shirts — one good deed, one kind act, one good neighbor at a time.

Dozier said the people behind the event left a lasting impression.

“They are beautiful people in and out and I appreciate them so much,” Dozier said.

Organizers said they hoped to serve hundreds of people throughout the day.

Putin and Xi oversaw the signing of more than 40 cooperation agreements in areas such as trade, technology and media exchanges. They stressed their growing trade, particularly in oil and natural gas, and declared themselves aligned on international relations.

The countries’ ties have reached “the highest level in history,” Xi said after the signing ceremony, speaking to members of the delegations and journalists. The two sides also agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001.

Putin told those in the room that "the driving force behind economic cooperation is Russian-Chinese collaboration in the energy sector.”

“Amid the crisis in the Middle East, Russia continues to maintain its role as a reliable supplier of resources, while China remains a responsible consumer of these resources," Putin added, an apparent reference to the U.S. war in Iran.

Xi stressed the need for a “complete cessation of hostilities” in the Middle East, according to Chinese state media.

“An early end to the conflict will help reduce disruptions to energy supply stability, the smooth flow of industrial and supply chains, and international trade order,” Xi said.

In the evening, Xi and Putin had a conversation over tea in the Great Hall of the People, where the Chinese leader expressed confidence in continuing to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, according to state media. Putin later left for the airport and departed on his official plane.

A growing trade relationship

China became Russia’s top trading partner after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has said it is neutral in the conflict while maintaining trade ties with the Kremlin despite economic and financial sanctions by the U.S. and Europe.

China is also the top customer for Russian oil and gas supplies, and Moscow expects the war in Iran to increase the demand. There was no visible progress, however, on the prospective Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline that Russia has pushed to boost exports to China.

A Russian presidential aide said earlier that Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 and that Russia is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to China.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached around $228 billion in 2025, according to Xinhua news agency.

Xi said trade in areas like energy served as "stabilizing pillars” of the relationship and pledged to accelerate cooperation in other areas, like artificial intelligence, the digital economy and technological innovation.

Xi and Putin show a united front on international affairs

The trip comes just days after Trump’s own visit to Beijing -– in a sequence that is meant to cement China’s image as an influential superpower, experts say.

“The message is clearly one that China maintains friendship and strategic partnership with whichever power it likes, and the USA is just one of them,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.

Putin also described China and Russia’s cooperation in foreign policy as “one of the key stabilizing factors on the international stage.”

“In the current tense situation on the international stage, our close cooperation is particularly in demand,” he said.

Xi also repeated criticisms of “unilateralism and hegemonism,” in what appeared to be a veiled reference to U.S. actions. He said “the world faces the danger of reverting to the law of the jungle.”

In February 2022, just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia announced a “no limits” partnership during a trip by Putin to Beijing.

Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict, though in practice it supports Moscow through frequent state visits, growing trade and joint military drills. China has also ignored demands from the West to stop providing high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries.

Putin invited Xi to visit Russia in 2027 and said he would take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in southern China.

Xi and Putin praise each other as ‘friends’

Both Putin and Xi continued to praise their close personal ties.

“My dear friend,” Putin said as he greeted Xi. “We are truly delighted to see you. We keep in constant touch, both personally and through our aides in the government.”

Xi also addressed Putin as “my longtime friend” at the start of their talks and said it was important to build upon “the foundation of mutual trust” between the countries. The two leaders have praised each other profusely in the past, with Xi at one point describing Putin as his “best and most intimate friend.”

Putin and Xi both need to use their close ties in order to prop up their images at home, said Willy Lam, a senior China fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.

Putin “needs to tell his countrymen and the world that Russia has China’s support in terms of buying its oil and gas and other tangible and intangible financial support,” Lam said.

Meanwhile, for Xi, having both Trump and Putin visit in such close succession is a major source of credit with the country’s top Communist leadership.

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Mistreanu reported from Bangkok.

The announcement was made after a last-minute government-mediated negotiation with management over how much bonus payouts must be provided to employees to reflect soaring profits fueled by the global boom in artificial intelligence.

Union leader Choi Seung-ho told a televised briefing that the union agreed not to go ahead with an 18-day strike that he earlier said would start from Thursday. He said union members will vote on the tentative agreement from May 22-27.

“We would like to express our apologies to the people for causing concerns due to our internal conflicts,” Choi said. “The agreement is the result of our all-out struggle spanning about six months.”

Choi’s negotiating partner and senior Samsung official, Yeo Myounggoo, told the briefing that the company hopes that the agreement will be a starting point for more stable relations with the union.

“The company will faithfully implement the terms of this agreement and will make its utmost efforts to promote labor–management cooperation,” he said.

Government officials earlier had threatened to invoke rarely used emergency powers to force a settlement at Samsung, as its union’s strike was feared to rattle global semiconductor supplies and the country’s trade-dependent economy. The union represents more than 70,000 workers.

Earlier Wednesday, the union and the management held each other responsible for a failure to reach a deal, after their previous round of negotiation ended without a breakthrough. Choi accused management of refusing to accept a government-mediated proposal whose details he refused to disclose. The management accused the union of calling for excessive compensation packages for workers at loss-making units.

Samsung and its cross-town rival, SK Hynix, together produce about two-thirds of the world’s memory chips, which are seeing surging demand driven by AI. Samsung said last month its operating profit for the January-March quarter jumped eightfold to a record 57.2 trillion won ($38 billion).

Union leaders have demanded a compensation structure in which Samsung would commit to spend 15% of its annual operating profit on employee bonuses and scrap bonus caps, which are currently set at 50% of annual salaries. The company says the demands are excessive, citing the highly cyclical nature of the semiconductor business.

Samsung and union leaders did not immediately confirm the details of their tentative agreement. Yeo suggested that the company had agreed to union demands to extend bonuses beyond its lucrative memory division to less profitable units.

“For example, we need to invest in the future of both our memory and foundry businesses. These engineers all work in semiconductor production, and we discussed ways to better motivate them,” he said.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, the government’s No. 2 official after President Lee Jae Myung, said in a televised statement Sunday that the strike could cause up to 100 trillion won ($66 billion) in economic damage by disrupting Samsung’s highly complex semiconductor manufacturing processes.

The planned strike could potentially have had a major global impact.

Given that supply in the global memory semiconductor market is struggling to keep up with demand, the Samsung strike would have been expected to further drive up prices and push back AI infrastructure investments in other countries, said Lee Jun, an expert at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.

The strike could have hurt operations of Samsung’s production of smartphones and other consumer electronics as well, observers say.

A local court on Monday partially granted the company’s request for an injunction against the planned strike, ruling that the union must maintain certain staffing levels to prevent damage to facilities and materials and ensure safe operations. The Suwon District Court also barred unionists from occupying key facilities and offices.

Police said Noah Winters, 17, left his home in the 23000 block of Saxony Avenue in an unknown black SUV with an unknown person. He has not been heard from since.

He was last seen on May 14.

His mother told police that she received multiple messages from social media that Noah possibly died and was left in a vacant house somewhere in Detroit.

Police said the photo at the top of this article shows what Noah was wearing when he left and said there is no threat to the public at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Eastpointe Police Detective Bureau at (586) 445-5100 ext. 1025.

The numbers reveal a trend.

RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan says home sales in April jumped 15% from March. From February to April, that number is up to 32%.

The average price for a home in southeastern Michigan is more than 3.5% higher than last year at $319,000.

Homes are now selling faster, spending an average of 31 days on the market. Last year, the average was 39 days.

Following the trend, pending sales are also up.

Numbers are up, but supply is down.

Sales are down nearly 4% from last year because of inventory and affordability.

There are not enough homes on the market for those who want to buy, and prices are still rising.

Jeanette Schneider, president of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan, joined Local 4 Live to help us better understand what’s happening in the market and what you should do.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

A group have already targeted the upcoming clay-court tournament for reducing players’ share of revenue to an alleged 14.3% — compared to 22% at other ATP and WTA events.

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and No.4 Coco Gauff were among leading players who threatened a boycott of the Slams earlier this month if they don’t start receiving more compensation.

L'Equipe newspaper reported Wednesday that many players competing at Roland Garros, which begins Sunday, are planning to limit their conversations with reporters to 15 minutes during Friday's traditional pre-tournament media day.

The French tennis federation (FFT), which organizes the French Open, said in a statement to The Associated Press that it regrets the players' initiative “which penalizes all stakeholders involved in the tournament: the media, broadcasters, federation staff and the entire tennis community that enthusiastically follows each edition of Roland Garros.”

Sabalenka and fellow No. 1 Jannik Sinner were among leading players — most of them ranked in the top 10 — who earlier this month issued a statement expressing “deep disappointment” over French Open prize money.

The players are also seeking better representation, health options and pensions from the four Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

Roland Garros organizers announced last month they were increasing overall prize money by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), with the total amount up 5.3 million euros from last year. But the players said “the underlying figures tell a very different story,” claiming they will receive a smaller share of tournament revenues.

The FFT said it will continue to maintain an open dialogue, adding that it proposed a meeting expected to take place Friday with the players and their representatives.

“The FFT is ready for direct and constructive discussions on governance issues, with the aim of giving players a greater role in decision-making, contributing to players’ social protection, and evolving the distribution of value, and it put forward several proposals in this direction during the meeting,” it said.

The players claim their share of Roland Garros revenue has declined from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% projected in 2026. They say the event generated 395 million euros in 2025, a 14% year-on-year increase, yet prize money rose by just 5.4%, reducing players’ share of revenue to 14.3%.

“With estimated revenues of over 400 million euros for this year’s tournament, prize money as a percentage of revenue will likely still be less than 15%, far short of the 22% that players have requested to bring the Grand Slams into line with the ATP and WTA Combined 1000 events,” the players said.

The Australian Open this year increased the players’ compensation by 16%, and the U.S. Open prize money last year went up by 20%.

The singles champions at Roland Garros will each receive 2.8 million euros, an increase of 250,000 euros compared with 2025.

“Beyond the prize money, a Grand Slam tournament like Roland Garros offers players exceptional exposure, generating indirect income through sponsorships, partnerships, exhibitions and appearance fees,” the FFT said.

“This year the French Tennis Federation also chose to direct a significant portion of these increases toward players eliminated in the early rounds of the main draw and qualifying rounds, with increases of more than 11%, in order to better support those who depend most on tournament earnings to finance their season.”

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

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

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

While athletes from North and South Korea have previously competed on combined teams and marched together in Olympic ceremonies during periods of warmer ties, such exchanges have largely disappeared in recent years as relations between the rivals deteriorated over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Naegohyang has drawn intense media attention since its 39 players and staff arrived in South Korea on Sunday on a flight from China.

North Korea last sent athletes to the South in December 2018 for a table tennis event, part of a brief period of diplomatic engagement that included the participation of North Korean athletes and a high-level delegation at that year’s Winter Olympics in the South.

The brief period of inter-Korean detente collapsed after U.S.-led negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program broke down in 2019 amid disputes over international sanctions.

Since then, North Korea has conducted a flurry of weapons tests aimed at expanding its nuclear arsenal and rejected South Korean and U.S. efforts to revive diplomacy.

Hundreds show up in rain-soaked match

The liberal government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which has pushed for improved ties with North Korea, said it would financially support civic groups that had planned to organize a 3,000-member squad to cheer both sides at Wednesday’s match.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether that many people showed up for the rain-soaked match, although at least hundreds filled the stands in raincoats, pounding balloon sticks and loudly chanting “Naegohyang” to drumbeats, appearing especially enthusiastic about the North Korean team.

Some held signs reading “We welcome the Naegohyang Women’s FC team” and other similar messages.

Ri Yu Il, Naegohyang’s coach, brushed aside questions about South Korean supporters cheering for his team, saying at a Tuesday news conference that he and his players were focused “solely on tomorrow’s match and the match after that.”

North Korea is a powerhouse in women’s soccer and the defending Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup champion. While Ri’s team defeated Suwon 3-0 in the group stage in Myanmar in November, Wednesday’s match was much more closely contested and forced his team to stage a comeback.

North Koreans rally

Naegohyang played aggressively out of the gate, pressing Suwon’s defense early with long passes and runs on the flanks, but struggled to finish and had an offside goal disallowed in the fourth minute.

Suwon responded with counterattacks as the North Koreans struggled to clear crosses into the box, with a header from home forward Haruhi Suzuki bouncing off a post in the 21st.

Teammate Milena Barreto de Oliveira squandered another chance in the 30th when her close-range attempt also struck the post.

Suzuki gave Suwon the lead in the 49th, pouncing on a deflected ball in the box and chipping it past Naegohyang goalkeeper Pak Ju Gyong.

Naegohyang equalized five minutes later when Choe Kum Ok headed in from a set piece, then grabbed the lead in the 67th after Kim Kyong Yong collected a high-arching clearance from a Suwon defender to nod home.

Suwon had an opportunity to tie the match in the 79th but Ji So-Yun's penalty went wide.

Naegohyang will return to the Suwon Sports Complex on Saturday for the final.

— Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. AP writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed from Seoul.

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

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted Jesus Gonzalez Penuelas, a fugitive known as Chuy Gonzalez, who is alleged to be involved in trafficking narcotics into the U.S. and laundering funds for the cartel. The State Department has been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest since 2024.

Additionally, Armando de Jesus Ojeda Aviles, who allegedly helps launder the proceeds of fentanyl and other drugs on behalf of the cartel, has also been hit with sanctions.

A restaurant in Chihuahua, called Gorditas Chiwas — controlled by sanctioned businessman Alfredo Orozco Romero — was hit with sanctions.

The sanctions cut them off from the U.S. banking system, cut off their ability to work with Americans and block their U.S. assets. Its unclear how embedded the sanctioned individuals and firms are in the U.S. financial system.

Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement that Treasury, “will continue to target terrorist cartels and their fentanyl trafficking networks to protect our communities and Keep America Safe.”

Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. A tiny amount, 2 milligrams, ingested into the body can be fatal.

And while drug overdoses dramatically increased over the last two decades, with the number of deaths increasing approximately 520% from 1999 to 2023, drug overdose deaths are beginning to decline — by nearly 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the latest CDC data.

Mexico and China are the primary sources for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking. Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make fentanyl come from China. And the companies that make the precursors routinely use fake return addresses and mislabel the products to avoid being caught by law enforcement.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly offered to send the U.S. military after the cartels and his administration designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group in 2025.

The Government of Mexico’s financial intelligence unit worked with Treasury and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to identify targets for Wednesday's sanctions.

It happened at about 4 a.m., Saturday, May 16, near the intersection of Nine Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue in Warren.

Police said a 54-year-old woman was crossing the street when she was struck by a southbound vehicle on Van Dyke Avenue.

The driver did not stop after the crash.

The woman was seriously injured and taken to a hospital, where she died.

Investigators identified the vehicle as a Chevrolet Malibu, which was located at a Detroit home later that same day.

Earnest Square reportedly admitted to driving the vehicle during the crash and was taken into custody.

Square was charged Tuesday, May 19, with leaving the scene of an accident causing death and driving while unlicensed, causing death. His bond was set at $250,000 cash/surety only.

The crash remains under investigation.

“Oftentimes, one of the biggest deterrents from students wanting to go in college is being out of their comfort zone,” Kerrie Mitchell, President of the DPSCD Alumni Foundation, said. “Our strategic plan goals are reducing chronic absenteeism wanting our students to really come to school so they can learn and get the best education that we can provide”

“Many of the students didn’t have a meaningful connection to high school because we were still delivering it the same way you and I got it 20-plus years ago,” Mitchell said. “Our students are vocal and they want to know how is high school going to prepare them for the future and what it looks like.”

The initiative was officially announced on Saturday night at the Foundation’s Annual Gala. The district says that it’s the most significant structural change to the curriculum in decades.

As part of the plan, every student will be able to choose from one of 5 new diplomas:

• Honors: AP classes to provide students with a competitive application to a four university
• Dual Degree: An associates degree and high school diploma at the same time
• Career Ready: Students graduate with the necessary credentials for a role right after high school
• Arts: A competitive portfolio for college advancement
• Michigan Merit: Signals successful completion of all high school requirements

Additionally, an 8th period will be added to the school day for either a seminar class or an elective that satisfies a graduation requirement.

As part of the plan, by junior and senior year, the students will spend more time outside the school building with the introduction of dual enrollment programs for college credit at schools such as Wayne State, U of M-Dearborn, Ferris State, and Wayne County Community College.

“I’ve always felt, and this goes back to even when I was leading schools in Miami, is that if you can give students a dual enrollment opportunities in high school, they automatically know that they’re college ready,” Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the Detroit Schools Superintendent said. “The real the challenge in getting kids to graduate in four years is really coupled to attendance and I think that’s part of the solution here with the high school redesign.”

The total annual cost for the redesign is $13.5 million. The alumni foundation is also leading a massive fundraising effort to bridge the remaining gap.

It comes at a time when things have gradually improved in the district. DPS’ on-time 4-year graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent, surpassing the previous record of 78.3 percent and placing it near the state average of 84 percent.

Those numbers include the “Big 3” schools of Renaissance, Cass Technical, and Martin Luther King High Schools. In the neighborhood schools, however, the numbers have lagged as 52 percent of 10th graders are currently behind on graduation credits and only 24 percent attend college.

This redesign also addresses the longstanding perception that DPS only cares about three high schools.

“We gotta get beyond this idea that, well, if I don’t get in Cass, I don’t get in King, or I don’t get into Renaissance, then I can’t go to DPSCD,” Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the Detroit Schools Superintendent said. “I’ve always said in Detroit, we don’t have a talent gap, we have an opportunity gap.”

Changing the Approach

Angel Garcia has been the Principal at Western International High School since 2015. This school is part of his DNA.

“My father taught here and my aunt was the principal here years ago,” Garcia, who graduated from Western in 2000, said. “We have over 20 alumni working at Western and I think it’s a testament to the community that we build in the school, but also the programs that we offer.

“We have a lot of students wanting to follow in their family members’ footsteps,” he said. Western is one of two schools where the “redesign” was rolled out this school year as a pilot program, along with East English Village.

Western was chosen because it has one of the city’s largest and most diverse student bodies. The school, which opened in 1898 is one of the city’s oldest schools.

It used to be one of three high schools in Southwest Detroit, along with Chadsey and Southwestern.

The district shut down both schools in 2009 and 2012 respectively, consolidating all the students to Western. It is also the only Detroit Public High School where the majority of the students are either Latino or Hispanic.

“We’re the home of all young people in Southwest Detroit,” Garcia said. “Where Southwestern used to be, in Chadsey as well, those students now come to Western. We’ve become a lot larger”

The other nine schools in the program will be Central, Cody, Denby, Henry Ford, Mumford, Northwestern, Osborn, Pershing, and Southeastern. After initially having questions about how the redesign would it would work, Garcia was all in.

“We’ve been doing the best we can with students with the resources and supports that we could,” he said. “Once we got into the nuts and bolts of what the high school design really meant, redesign really meant I was excited.”

One of the focal points is on advanced placement classes happening earlier. Normally, students don’t start taking AP classes until their junior year. The redesign allows students sophomores to start taking them.

“It’s like my first time taking honors in AP,” Edgardo Camacho, a 10^th grader at Western, said. He wants to eventually become a Marine Biologist and is currently taking three AP Math classes.

“This is my first time taking AP exams,” he said. “All these exams are kind of coming in and coming in but, yeah, 10th grade’s been going really smooth.”

The redesign is seen as a shot in the arm to the near dozen schools that have felt overlooked for decades, and for Garcia, it makes the sales pitch of getting a family to choose Western a whole lot easier.

“We know that families face all kinds of challenges, things that come up out of nowhere, things that have to do with socioeconomic status,” Garcia said. “If I were to talk to a prospective parent right now, I would just say that our programming here at Western is built to not allow your student to fail and to fall through the cracks”

Sarah Elise Hager, 39, of Port Huron, was charged with seven felony counts, including child abuse and torture.

She allegedly abused the children under her care from 2017 to 2021. The accusations were laid out in an affidavit filed on Feb. 13, 2026.

In the affidavit, the children -- a boy and a girl who have not been identified because they are still minors -- say they lived with Hager in Emmett, 20 miles west of Port Huron. The kids said they experienced unspeakable horror.

They told authorities that Hager routinely abused them, including beating them and locking them inside darkened rooms and a dog cage.

The boy told authorities that he once wet the bed, and Hager proceeded to beat him and then rubbed his face in the urine-soaked bed.

Hager was taken into custody by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 27.

According to court records, Hager pleaded guilty on May 18 to two counts of second-degree child abuse, one count of second-degree child abuse in the presence of another child and one count of attempted torture. All other charges were dismissed.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 22 at 1:50 p.m.

In a Republican-led Congress defined by deference to President Donald Trump, there's a small but steadily growing cohort who have found themselves more willing to break with the White House. Although the president maintains a firm grip on Republican voters, the expanding club could hinder his agenda on everything from the Iran war to immigration funding at a moment when his party holds a tenuous majority on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is the newest member of the club. Just days after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, Cassidy on Tuesday reversed himself on legislation involving the war in Iran and voted with Democrats to rein in U.S. military action.

“The way our Constitution is set up, Congress should hold the executive branch accountable,” he told reporters the day before.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas could be next after Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, Cornyn's rival for the Republican nomination in next week's runoff.

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is perhaps a founding member of the YOLO caucus — slang for “you only live once,” used to punctuate unbothered or even foolhardy behavior. He frustrated Trump since the president's first term, and his status was solidified after losing his primary on Tuesday to a Trump-backed challenger. Massie has enraged Trump by voting against his signature tax and spending bill and by pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

He hinted there's more to come before he leaves office.

“I got seven months left in Congress,” Massie said with a grin during his concession speech as the crowd erupted.

More Republicans feel free to shrug off Trump

Other similarly situated Republicans include Sen. Thom Tillis, who was a fierce critic of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and has more recently turned his attention to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. There’s also Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who joined Democrats last week in a bid to curb Trump’s war powers in Iran. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have voted against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks. And in the House, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has pushed to reclaim congressional power over tariffs.

“If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king,” Massie said in his concession speech Tuesday.

This hardly amounts to a revival of the Never Trump movement that some Republicans unsuccessfully hoped would curb the president's excesses during his first term or block him from returning to office. Many in the party, including Trump's occasional detractors, have either stood by or been unable to block the president as he launched the war in Iran and presided over an aggressive immigration enforcement operation and the dismantling of the federal workforce.

Today's unencumbered Republicans don't fit into an ideological box. But they are united by a sense of emboldening that can only be attained in a few ways in Trump's Washington.

Many, like Tillis, McConnell and Bacon, have decided to retire and can cast votes knowing they'll never again have to face Republican primary voters. Others like Collins and Murkowski have more leeway because they represent states that tend to reward political independence. And some like Massie banked on the idea that voters could support both Trump and someone who occasionally crossed him.

It's a paradox for Trump. As he demands total loyalty and pushes out Republican dissenters, he's left with a growing cohort who, for one reason or another, owe Trump nothing.

Democrats look to capitalize

That could be a problem for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who are already governing with threadbare majorities. Shifting loyalties of even a few Republican lawmakers could dramatically complicate the ability for either chamber to pass substantial legislation ahead of the November midterm elections.

Thune called Cornyn a “principled conservative” and “very effective senator” on Tuesday.

“None of us control what the president does,” he said.

The next tests could come later this week as Thune pushes a funding package for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection designed to pass on a party line basis.

Democrats are eager to pounce.

Speaking at an event in Washington on Tuesday sponsored by the Center for American Progress, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he would aim to drive a wedge between Republicans by using a so-called discharge petition to bring issues directly to the floor for a vote.

That tactic has been successful in securing House passage on issues ranging from the Epstein files to temporary protection of Haitian immigrants.

“When we're disciplined and when we're focused and when we put pressure in particular on the so-called swing seat Republicans, they have been breaking with us,” Jeffries said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters on Tuesday that Trump's endorsement of Cornyn's rival was a sign that his political power lies within the Republican base — not the American public at large.

“He’s showed the only influence he has, and that’s an outsize influence within the base of the party,” the potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender said. “Otherwise he’s shown little to no influence with the American people.”

Counting the votes

That leaves Republicans gaming out how they might cobble together the votes needed to pass legislation.

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota called Cassidy a “good friend” and said the loss was “tough for him.” He said Cassidy “will always vote in line with what he thinks is best” but doubted he will become a less reliable Republican vote.

His fellow Louisianan, Sen. John Kennedy, said Cassidy deploys power “rationally and maturely” and “will continue to do the same thing.”

Cassidy repeatedly rejected the notion that he will spend his final months in Washington as a troublemaker for Trump, saying he's going to do “what's good for my country and my state.”

Yet the independent streak that ended his political career quickly resurfaced. A week after Trump visited China, Cassidy spoke of a western alliance that's “totally falling apart” and will be unable to “push back on the threat China represents.” He seemed stunned that the administration would create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who they believe have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted.

“I just came off the campaign trail,” he said. “People are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting a slush fund together without a legal precedent.”

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the fund intended to compensate Trump allies is valued at nearly $1.8 billion, not nearly $1.8 trillion. It's also been corrected to reflect the proper name of Customs and Border Protection.

The bird dropped a surprise from above, hitting the king's suit jacket and splattering others around him, including members of the press.

“It’s well it didn’t land on my head,” the king quipped, according to Irene Marting, who witnessed the incident and met the composed king shortly afterward.

“Being hit by a seagull, it’s supposed to be good luck,” Marting said. “We’re so thrilled he’s come to Northern Ireland to see us and it’s really nice to see him in Newcastle.”

Charles was visiting the southeast coastal town on the second day of a three-day visit with Queen Camilla. The queen was spared the spectacle because she was making a separate visit to Royal Hillsborough, where she tried her hand at pouring a pint of Guinness at a pub.

The king seemed to foreshadow his fate earlier in the day during a visit to a food pantry when he picked up a roll of toilet paper and said, “very important.”

About 6 in 10 Republicans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That's down from about 8 in 10 in February, before the war began.

The poll comes as the war with Iran fuels higher gasoline prices, while the U.S. and Iran struggle to move toward a permanent ceasefire. Trump’s hold on the GOP remains strong, as he demonstrated on Tuesday when his handpicked candidate defeated Rep. Thomas Massie, a Trump critic, in a primary election challenge. The findings highlight Trump's continued strength within the Republican Party, even as economic frustration grows.

Ariel Gutierrez, a 55-year-old Republican in Wisconsin, usually requires his teenage children to pay for their own gas. But with spiking gas costs, he’s helping out his 15-year-old, who’s just learning how to drive.

“The whole Iran issue has just exacerbated it,” he said. “Maybe we were seeing it in groceries before, but now — with this push on gas and travel and all that — that is how people want to live the leisure part of their lives ... and it is directly impacting us there now. And yes, that is, I believe from Trump’s policies, not from his predecessors.”

Trump remains unpopular outside his base. Most Americans continue to disapprove of Trump’s approach to both Iran and foreign policy. His overall approval rating in the new poll stands at 37%, up slightly from 33% in April. Nearly all Democrats disapprove of his performance as president, as do about 7 in 10 independents.

The economy remains a struggle

About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy. That’s in line with an AP-NORC poll conducted in late April, but down slightly from the start of his second term, when 40% of U.S. adults approved.

The economy was a strength for Trump in his first term, but he's struggled with skepticism about his handling of the issue ever since he reentered the White House last year, after repeatedly promising to bring prices down. His second-term economic approval has fallen among Republicans, in particular. While a majority, 63%, still approve, that’s down from 79% in February, a few weeks before the war with Iran began.

Richard Baumgartner, a 77-year-old Republican from Las Vegas, believes higher costs are a necessary side effect of the war, which he supports.

“Unfortunately, because of the war, the economy is a little bit off kilter,” Baumgartner said. “I think it’ll fall back into place after things resolve over there. Temporary price increases — it’s unfortunate, but it’s something that has to be confronted in a situation like this where you have a very serious problem.”

Trump regains some strength on immigration

While economic promises were pivotal to Trump’s reelection, so were his goals of stricter immigration enforcement — and this issue may be reemerging as an asset.

Immigration emerged as one of Trump’s strengths early in his second term, with about half of U.S. adults saying they liked his approach, but approval of his handling of the issue dipped to 38% in January and February, after months of aggressive immigration enforcement that led to the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Now, just under half of U.S. adults, 45%, approve of how he is handling that issue.

Brenda Theiss, an independent from Cullman, Alabama, doesn't like everything Trump is doing. But she gives him credit for being willing to disrupt the status quo to reduce the flow of immigrants who are in the country illegally compared to Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“I liked Obama; I voted for Obama — but Trump was the only one that did something. All of the other presidents sat back and went, ‘Well there’s nothing we can do,'” the 73-year-old said. “He's closing the border. He did it. Biden didn't do it. For that, I give him one hundred.”

Over the past few months, the Trump administration has appeared to recalibrate its approach on immigration, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement.

Immigration remains one of Trump’s stronger issues among Republicans. About 8 in 10 approve of his handling of the issue, which is roughly 10 points higher than the share that say he’s doing a good job as president.

Few approve of Trump on Iran or issues abroad

Trump's handling of the war with Iran remains unpopular.

Only about one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Iran. Roughly two-thirds of Republicans approve, though an AP-NORC poll conducted last month found that younger Republicans are more likely to disapprove of Trump's performance on the issue than older ones.

Similarly, about one-third of Americans approve of Trump’s approach to foreign policy. Though Trump has zeroed in on a more aggressive international approach this year — including capturing the leader of Venezuela and threatening Cuba — Americans’ views of his overall handling of foreign policy have not shifted significantly in recent months.

Amanda Wylie, a 22-year-old who lives in Athens, Georgia, says Iran is one of the few issues where Trump doesn't have her support.

“I feel like we’re wasting resources over there at this point and not for the benefit of the American people,” said Wylie, who identifies as a Republican-leaning independent. “Especially if everyone is worried about gas prices and the ultimate goal of this is to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Yes, that’s important, but at what cost?”

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,117 adults was conducted May 14-18 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 3.8 percentage points.

“Minotaur,” which debuted Tuesday night at the French festival, was one of the most anticipated selections at this year's Cannes. The film rewarded those expectations, receiving one of the festival's most enthusiastic responses and putting the Russian filmmaker squarely in the mix for the Palme d'Or.

While “Minotaur” is outwardly centered around a married couple, its story has obvious political reverberations. Dmitriy Mazurov plays the chief executive of a large shipping company who, as Russia's military mobilizes for the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is asked to contribute a quota of 150 workers to the mounting war effort.

At the same time, Mazurov begins investigating the suspected infidelity of his wife, played by Iris Lebedeva. As “Minotaur” evolves, their family drama takes on darker symbolism for the deceptions and savagery of Putin's war.

“It was important for me to make this film given the current Russian context,” Zvyagintsev told reporters on Wednesday. “It was a perfect pretext to say some important things.”

For Zvyagintsev, it was a long-in-coming triumph. His previous two films — “Leviathan” (2014) and “Loveless” (2017) — were both critically acclaimed Oscar nominees. But during the pandemic, illness forced Zvyagintsev into an induced coma for 40 days. Recovering in a German clinic, he had to relearn how to walk and hold utensils. A year later, in 2022 and still in a wheelchair, he moved his family to Paris.

“It’s one of the greatest things that’s happened to me over these last nine years,” Zvyagintsev said of returning to Cannes, where his previous two films debuted. “Coming back after such a lengthy absence to the Cannes Film Festival is an absolutely incomparable event.”

Zvyagintsev had previously worked in Russia, and while his films resisted overt political statement, their critiques of Putin's government weren't hard to infer. Russia’s Cultural Ministry, which had partly funded “Leviathan,” was highly critical of the movie, saying it “openly spit on” the government.

“Minotaur” is the first film made by Zvyagintsev outside Russia. He shot it in Latvia.

“I perhaps lost a link when I left Russia six years ago, but I know what I’m talking about,” he said. “I know how the people think, how they react, how they go about things. I know a lot about corruption, too, which has developed in the country.”

While Zvyagintsev didn't make many direct statements about Russia on Wednesday, he explained how he sees politics filtering into his filmmaking.

“I didn’t want to make the most of the politics because that would discredit what you hear,” the director said. “It was better to indulge in silence and rely on gestures.”

The broad outlines of “Minotaur” were inspired by Claude Chabrol's 1969 film “The Unfaithful Wife.” Zvyagintsev first began working on it years ago. But after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine transpired during his recovery, the film began to shift. As in his previous movies, geopolitics seeped into a family drama.

“There’s nothing more interesting than studying a couple,” he said. “Each member of a couple have to make choice, choices which call the relationship in the family into question. A family is like a battlefield.”

Splashed beneath his portrait is the slogan, “Happy Birthday America!”

About 100 auto-rickshaws carrying large images of Trump and the Statue of Liberty have appeared across the Indian capital in recent weeks. In a city where the backs of thousands of three-wheelers are routinely covered with ads for little-known fertility clinics, English-speaking courses and herbal remedies, the American branding stands out.

The unusual advertising campaign was unveiled last month by Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India. It is part of a broader push by the U.S to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, with celebrations, cultural events and public outreach campaigns planned in several countries.

Announcing the initiative on social media last month, the U.S. Embassy posted, “Freedom is on the move … literally!”

And it urged people in the capital to flag down the auto-rickshaws, saying, “Catch them if you can — they’ll be popping up all over Delhi soon.”

Washington is seeking to stabilize relations with India after ties soured over Trump’s tariff policies, which raised duties on several Indian exports. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also expected to visit New Delhi this weekend.

For many auto-rickshaw drivers, though, the campaign carries little meaning.

Driver Ganesh Kumar, whose vehicle carried one of the Trump posters, said he initially refused when organizers approached him.

“I told them I didn’t want it,” Kumar said. But he relented after organizers offered him a valuable inducement.

“They said, ‘Please let us put (the poster). We’ll give you a packet of tea,’” he said.

Another driver, Pradeep Kumar, said he agreed to carry the poster mostly because the canopy of his auto-rickshaw was torn and needed covering.

Asked if he knew what the advertisement said, Kumar replied: “I know he is Trump. Don’t know much other than that.”

At ballparks across the country, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that's loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head.

Soccer-like chants or singing usually follows — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that occasionally is chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium.

After getting its start in St. Louis last Friday, it has spread across the league to places like Detroit, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Seattle and Anaheim.

Chad Bitzer, who has been coming to Mariners games for about 13 years, was among the shirtless fans in Seattle. His reasoning was simple: “Cause everyone else was taking it off. Why not?”

“It’s fresh. It’s a beautiful night. Take it off," Bitzer said. "Great Northwest night. We live for the summers. We live for the good weather.”

Ground zero for the shirtless outbreak was in St. Louis last Friday, when a club baseball team affiliated with Stephen F. Austin State University was in Alton, Illinois, for the National Club Baseball Division II World Series. The Cardinals offered tickets to the team, and 17 players attended.

That group started the fun, dozens of others joined and suddenly there were a couple hundred fans creating a ruckus in right field that helped propel the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory in 11 innings over the Kansas City Royals. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol loved the energy so much that he bought tickets for the shirtless revelers for Saturday's game and they returned.

“It’s hard not to have fun when the fans are like that,” Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn said Friday. “We’ve got the best fans in the world, but it seems like the younger generation makes it more like a college atmosphere.”

Even Cardinals mascot Fredbird joined in on the fun.

Now it might be the start of a tradition — more shirtless fans cheered for the Cardinals in Tuesday's game against the Pirates. It certainly seems to be a boost for the club's home-field advantage: Ivan Herrera hit a three-run homer to lift the Cardinals to a 9-6 win in 10 innings.

A similar outbreak of shirtless fans broke out at a Tampa Bay Rays game Monday and again Tuesday. Another small group celebrated in Philadelphia as the Reds and Phillies played in the rain. Angels fans celebrated with a mix of joy and irritation, chanting for owner Arte Moreno to sell the team.

MLB certainly won't complain about the attention. Attendance is up at big league stadiums so far this season, averaging roughly 1,000 more fans per game than a year ago through Monday's contests.

If the trend continues, baseball could average 30,000 fans per game for the first time since 2016.

More and more, they might just be shirtless.

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AP Sports Writer Andrew Destin in Seattle and AP freelance writer Warren Mayes in St. Louis contributed to this report.

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