Paul has been unable to spend unsupervised time with her son since an April 7 hearing, when Third District Court Commissioner Russell Minas said Paul had a history of volatile behavior directed at her former partner, Dakota Mortensen, while kids were present.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the national domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233 in the U.S.

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Minas on Thursday described the pair's dynamic as “very toxic” before granting Paul and Mortensen's dueling requests for protective orders against each other. He found that “there’s been violence that occurred both ways between these parties” and urged them to figure out how to function as co-parents to their son, Ever.

“I'm hoping that you're not people who just thrive on the drama and the conflict,” Minas said. “You've got to put your child first and shield the child from this conflict.”

Paul, Mortensen and their families were present in court, but no other cast members from the Hulu reality show attended.

Attorneys offer competing descriptions of fights

Attorneys for Paul and Mortensen offered competing versions of fights between the pair, with each suggesting the other party was the aggressor.

Paul's attorney Eric Swinyard told the court commissioner that Mortensen is much larger and stronger than Paul — and that when she was faced with physical intimidation from Mortensen during an argument, she responded the same way a lot of people would.

“He said, ‘Hit me,’ and she did,” Swinyard said.

One fight between the two came while Paul was dealing with recent miscarriages, and she felt that Mortensen had been blowing her off while their son was sick.

When Paul lost her footing and fell to the ground, Mortensen kicked her several times in the leg, Swinyard alleged. He submitted to the court photos of her bruises.

Mortensen's attorney Brent Salazar-Hall said his client was a victim of abuse from Paul, but that she kept luring him back with text messages inviting him over for intimacy.

During one argument, Paul and Mortensen were in a truck and she tried to interfere with his driving by squeezing his face, Salazar-Hall said. In response, Mortensen shoved her away, he said.

Paul's lawyers said Mortensen slammed her head into the vehicle's dashboard, causing bruises.

Mortensen had Paul’s initials tattooed on the inside of his lip, which Paul’s attorney pointed to as an example of his possessive nature. Mortensen’s lawyer disagreed with that characterization and said many of the men on the TV show got lip tattoos of their partners’ names in a humorous scene that has not yet aired.

“There seems to be a continuing attraction that they have for each other, whether it’s physical, whether it’s the thrill between the two of them of making themselves celebrities,” Minas said.

“The problem is that the two of them can’t be together in the same place at the same time before it starts to turn violent,” he added.

Violations of the protective orders could result in criminal charges.

Leaked video of fight is one point of contention

Eleven fights between the exes were under examination in their protective order requests. A recently leaked video of one fight from 2023 prompted ABC to make the unprecedented move last month of shelving an already-filmed season of “The Bachelorette” starring Paul. Hulu also paused production of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and resumed filming last week.

In the video, Paul appeared to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her daughter from another relationship watched and cried.

Swinyard alleged that Mortensen leaked that video to the press to ruin Paul’s reality TV career just before her season of “The Bachelorette” was supposed to air.

“Our point with the video is he’s not just trying to come after her for custody. He’s not just trying to seek a protective order. He wants to literally destroy her,” Swinyard said.

Salazar-Hall said Mortensen denies leaking the video.

Just after the fight, Paul was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child. The police body camera footage of her arrest was featured in the first season of the Hulu series.

Paul pleaded guilty to an assault charge, which will be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor if she stays out of legal trouble for a three-year probationary period that ends in August. The other counts were dismissed.

Earlier this month, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declined to file new charges against Paul in recent fights with Mortensen. Any new charges would have violated Paul's probation from the 2023 assault.

Custody of their child is at stake

Minas said he would make custody recommendations by May 11. Mortensen has custody in the meantime.

Paul had majority custody of their son before the April 7 hearing.

A protective order in Utah can restrict or eliminate a parent’s ability to see their child. When both parents have protective orders against each other, the court relies heavily on the recommendations of an attorney appointed to investigate the child's best interests.

Paul and Mortensen's son had a court-appointed attorney present at Thursday’s hearing to help the commissioner determine the safest arrangement for the boy.

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Associated Press journalist Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed.

The trade deal was signed Jan. 17 at a meeting of the South American group. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's move to provisionally enact the deal, effectively sidestepping the EU Parliament, is being challenged by EU lawmakers at the bloc’s judiciary. The agreement will be halted if the European body rules against it.

“This is good news for EU businesses of all sizes, good news for our consumers and good news for our farmers, who will gain valuable new export opportunities, with full protection for sensitive sectors,” she said Thursday.

Von der Leyen is expected to hold a videoconference Friday with leaders of Mercosur nations Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to celebrate the agreement.

Earlier this week, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of the key supporters of the agreement, signed a decree validating the deal in his country. He said it is a response to unilateral tariffs imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump and a reaffirmation of multilateralism.

“Nothing better than believing in the exercise of democracy, in multilateralism, and in cordial relations between nations,” Lula said in a ceremony in the capital, Brasilia, to celebrate the milestone after more than 25 years of negotiations.

Last week, Brazil's vice president and one of the negotiators of the deal, Geraldo Alckmin, said in an interview with The Associated Press and other news agencies that not striking the deal with the EU would have meant staying behind while competitor nations made other agreements.

Brazil is by far Mercosur’s largest economy, with a gross domestic product estimated at over $2.3 trillion in 2025.

Lia Valls, an associate researcher at the think-tank Fundacao Getulio Vargas based in Rio de Janeiro, agrees that the deal offers better perspectives against unilateralism worldwide.

“The EU and Mercosur are showing that it is possible for big blocs to reach a deal in this world where that multilateral system is being very weakened and where the U.S. clearly operates to do that,” Valls told the AP. “It is a very positive sign.”

The agreement faced opposition from European farmers and environmental groups and was delayed in December, before being referred to the EU’s top court.

South American agribusiness industries, chiefly beef, fruit and minerals, are expecting a boost in exports to Europe. European automakers, pharmaceutical companies and technology firms also look forward to making new inroads in Mercosur markets.

While companies based in Mercosur countries have expressed fear of tough competition from European peers in hi-tech industries, European farmers have shown concerns about price pressures and imports that do not follow similar environmental standards.

French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the critics of the deal, has long demanded safeguards to monitor and stop large economic disruption in the EU, increased regulations in the Mercosur nations like pesticide restrictions, and more inspections of imports at EU ports.

The agreement gradually removes trade barriers and tariffs in the two blocs, but it also keeps economic safeguard clauses for European countries to protect some sectors from excessive competition, such as poultry, beef, sugar, and fruit.

Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, Ryan Poehling scored the opening goal and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves in a standout performance for the upstart Ducks, who stormed to their team’s first playoff series victory since 2017.

After ending a seven-year postseason absence by knocking out the powerhouse Oilers, Anaheim will face the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights’ series with the Utah Mammoth. Vegas leads 3-2 heading to Salt Lake City on Friday night.

Connor Murphy and Vasily Podkolzin scored as Edmonton followed up its worst regular season since 2021 by going out in the first round for the first time since that season.

After winning nine playoff series and reaching two Stanley Cup Finals in the past four years, McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers finally appeared to run out of energy and health during a disastrous defensive performance against the Ducks, who scored three goals in the first period of Game 6.

Even with 14 players making their postseason debuts, the Ducks admirably handled the pressure while winning four of the last five games against the seasoned Oilers. Carlsson had an outstanding Game 6 to cap the 21-year-old center’s strong debut playoff series, while emerging star defenseman Jackson LaCombe scored nine points and led the Ducks’ defensive efforts against McDavid and Draisaitl.

In Game 6, Anaheim also got its best effort of the series from Dostal, who had the NHL’s second-worst save percentage in the postseason after getting pulled from Game 5. The Czech Olympian was sharp all night, highlighted by a breakaway stop on Zach Hyman.

Backed by a frenzied sellout crowd that included Angels slugger Mike Trout, the Ducks scored first in Game 6 for the first time in the entire series when John Carlson’s shot hit Poehling and trickled in for his fourth goal of the series.

Carlsson then set up Kreider off the rush, ending the longtime Rangers star’s 17-game goal drought with his first playoff goal for the Ducks — on his 35th birthday, no less.

Murphy answered for Edmonton 1:31 later, but Gauthier got his fourth playoff goal on a power play when his one-timer arced in off Darnell Nurse’s stick.

Late in a tense second period, Carlsson took the puck from Evan Bouchard and fed Terry for a 4-1 lead.

Edmonton scored early in the third when Kasperi Kapanen’s wide shot deflected in off Podkolzin’s leg, but McDavid and Draisaitl couldn’t get it any closer. The Oilers pulled Ingram with 3:57 left, but Carlsson scored into an empty net.

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

With their top three guards missing because of injuries, the Timberwolves went big with Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid fueling a 64-40 advantage in points in the paint and an 50-33 edge in rebounding.

Minnesota, the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, will start the second round at San Antonio on Monday. The second-seeded Spurs beat Portland in five games in their first-round series.

Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds to lead the Nuggets, but sidekick Jamal Murray struggled to get free from McDaniels and finished with just 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting. Cameron Johnson scored 27 points to lead Denver's 10-for-27 night from deep, but Jokic and the 3-pointers simply weren't enough to keep up with a fiercely motivated Timberwolves team.

With Ayo Dosunmu joining Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo on the inactive list, the Timberwolves were missing a big chunk of their ability to create shots.

Winning this game was going to require extra doses of defense and energy, and they brought both. Shannon added an element of pure speed that the Nuggets couldn’t stop when he found space toward the basket. McDaniels, embracing the villain role, was a monster on both ends of the floor. The Timberwolves fed off the roaring crowd at every turn and consistently made up for their missing offense with hustle and desire.

Shannon’s three-point play with 1:43 left gave the Timberwolves a six-point lead, and McDaniels followed with the dagger shot — his signature mid-range pull-up was a swish from 19 feet to make it a seven-point game with 1:06 to play. Then he intercepted a harried pass by Jokic to get the ball back and start a parade to the line.

Since beating the Timberwolves in five games in the first round and cruising to the NBA championship in the 2023, the Nuggets haven’t found the production or spunk they’ve needed to supplement the three-time MVP Jokic. They extended the series with a decisive win in Game 5 on Monday, but Minnesota’s defense delivered again this postseason in neutralizing Jokic and rendering Murray an afterthought.

McDaniels tirelessly chased him around the perimeter. The four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year award winner Gobert kept giving Jokic a hard time in the paint with his long arms and superb anticipation.

McDaniels tossed even more spice into this well-developed rivalry early in the series with his blanket “bad defenders” jab at the Nuggets, and none of the Timberwolves have made any secret of distaste for their opponent. Then their motivation soared off the charts when DiVincenzo went down in the opening minute of Game 4, and their franchise player Edwards followed him on the injured list. During a stoppage in the fourth quarter, DiVincenzo was shown with a big smile as he sat with his foot propped up in a cast behind the bench.

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

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, posted the video on social media amid questions over whose bullet struck a Secret Service officer as Cole Tomas Allen ran through security with a long gun toward the hotel ballroom packed with journalists, administration officials and others.

Prosecutors had previously claimed the agent was shot in the bullet-resistant vest during the melee, but had not confirmed it was Allen who shot the agent. Pirro, however, said Thursday that there is no evidence that the officer was hit by friendly fire.

The video appears to show Allen run through a magnetometer and point his weapon at the agent, who fired back five times, according to authorities. It's not clear from the video at what moment Allen's weapon fires.

Allen was injured but was not shot during the Saturday night attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.

Allen agreed earlier Thursday to remain jailed while he awaits trial. He did not enter a plea during his brief appearance in federal court.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran defended the agency's security plan for the event and said he would not change it. He said in a Fox News interview that the attack was stopped within seconds at the outermost perimeter of a multi-layered security bubble around the president. The distance from the magnetometers to the podium where Trump was seated was 355 feet, with two sets of stairs, a doorway and many more armed Secret Service officers in between, he said.

"The site was set up perfectly," Curran said.

The nearly six-minute video released by Pirro shows Allen walking back and forth down a hallway the day before the attack, and briefly checking out the hotel gym. Footage from the security checkpoint shows about a dozen federal officers taking down magnetometers and casually standing around when the gunman emerges from a doorway and starts sprinting toward them. The gunman quickly reaches the officers before most of them appear to notice him.

Only one officer visible in the video appears to have drawn his gun before the gunman passed; Pirro said he's the one who was shot and returned fire.

In court papers pressing for Allen's continued detention, prosecutors wrote Wednesday that Allen took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes before the incident, and that he was outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife. In a message that authorities say sheds light on his motive, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and alluded obliquely to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

Allen’s lawyers agreed during the brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya to keep their client behind bars for now after initially arguing in court papers that Allen should be released.

In a court filing Wednesday, the defense wrote that the government’s case is “based upon inferences drawn about Mr. Allen’s intent that raise more questions than answers" and noted that Allen’s writings never mentioned Trump by name. The defense left the door open to pressing in the future for Allen’s release before trial.

“The government’s evidence of the charged offense — the attempted assassination of the president — is thus built entirely upon speculation, even under the most generous reading of its theory,” defense lawyers wrote.

Allen was charged on Monday with that crime, as well as two additional firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

Allen, 31, is from Torrance, California. He worked as a part-time tutor for a test preparation company and is an amateur video game developer.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.

Herrera, who works two jobs at Atlanta's airport, never imagined he would own a home at the age of 27.

“It’s special. It’s magical,” he said.

In May, nearly 1,000 volunteers with Habitat for Humanity will complete Herrera's new home and 23 other affordable housing units in Atlanta's Sylvan Hills neighborhood for the 40th Carter Work Project.

The intensive, weeklong building sessions named after former President Jimmy Carter and his late wife Rosalynn have constructed roughly 5,000 homes in 14 countries since 1984. The project is returning to Atlanta for the first time since 1988, when the Carters helped construct 21 homes in another neighborhood.

Habitat is not just a homebuilder anymore

The Sylvan Hills construction also reflects a new shift into real estate development for Habitat for Humanity, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year amid a growing crisis in affordable housing and a broadening political battle over affordability more generally.

“The gap between what a family can afford and what it costs to create that unit of housing is the widest it has been in modern history,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of the international organization.

The nonprofit plans to serve as a developer on more of its projects because many smaller developers still haven’t recovered from the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or have gone out of business altogether.

The Sylvan Hills project includes another first for Habitat

In Sylvan Hills, Habitat for Humanity is building on 8 acres (3 hectares) of land that it purchased in 2015. It also worked to get the site, which used to house a saw-blade manufacturer, rezoned for residential use. The 24 housing units will be a mix of single-family homes and townhomes, forming a new community called Langston Park. It's the first time Atlanta Habitat for Humanity will build multifamily townhomes.

“We do believe it’s important to get the best use out of every precious piece of land that we’re able to acquire and come by so that we can serve more families,” said Atlanta Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Rosalyn Merrick.

The homes in Langston Park will cost about $200,000 each to build. The new homeowners will pay a monthly mortgage based on their income, but Habitat does not charge them interest. The goal is to eventually build 40 more homes on the site.

Phileena Daniel, 27, also qualified to buy one of the homes. She and her 7-year-old son have struggled with housing over the past two years, including living in a unit infested with rats and roaches. She’s grateful for the stability a permanent home in Langston Park will bring.

“You know, sometimes we don’t see ourselves going far in life as young Black women in this society,” she said. “This is giving us an opportunity to expand.”

Habitat's shift earns praise

Habitat for Humanity’s move into community development is “a classic example of a nonprofit organization really trying to be responsive to community needs,” said Vincent Reina, urban economics and planning professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“They can still be true to their core mission, which is advancing homeownership opportunities, but they are also acknowledging that we need a diverse set of housing solutions to really meet the needs of individuals,” said Reina, who is also founder and faculty director of the Housing Initiative at Penn.

High home prices and 30-year mortgage interest rates over 7% have made it impossible for even moderate-income households to afford a home in all but a handful of the 98 most expensive metro areas in the country, according to research published last year by Reina and Benjamin J. Keys, a Wharton real estate and finance professor.

That shift has made affordable housing a major issue around the country.

Congress steps in

In Congress, both the House and the Senate have passed different affordable housing bills. Lawmakers are working to reconcile differences to send a final bill to President Donald Trump for approval.

Trump has signed executive orders to reduce housing regulatory burdens and help smaller banks provide mortgages. His proposed 2027 budget, however, seeks cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the elimination of numerous community development programs that currently help cities build affordable housing.

Herrera is hopeful

Back in Atlanta, Herrera couldn't stop thinking about all the possibilities homeownership could unlock. His mother had breast cancer, and she and his father could come live with him if the need arose. A low, stable monthly payment for housing would also help him pursue his goal of owning a coffee shop. Herrera said rising rents in the Atlanta area had forced him to move previously, taking time and money away from that project.

“Now, I can finally take some risks,” he said.

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

They performed for a sold-out crowd that summer at Citi Field in Queens — a baseball stadium with room for nearly 42,000 fans — but their fiery set was cut short by Mother Nature: A torrential downpour and fearsome lightning made for unsafe and appropriately ominous conditions.

It was fortuitous in some ways; the next two years for the band would be tumultuous. It was also in 2024 that front man Dave Grohl announced he fathered a child outside his marriage. And then in 2025, the band parted ways with drummer Josh Freese after just one tour, hiring Ilan Rubin to replace him two months later.

Things have since turned around. Last week the band released its 12th full-length studio album, “Your Favorite Toy,” an energetic collection of tracks with an aggressive, fast-paced punk style, distorted vocals and occasional overly compressed production, as The Associated Press' Dennis Waszak Jr. wrote in his review. Those songs felt at home Thursday night at the much smaller Irving Plaza in Manhattan, a sold-out space with a capacity of just around 1,000, where the larger-than-life rock band brought a sonic immediacy to the intimate venue.

A secret show for a lucky few

Foo Fighters announced two surprise shows Wednesday: one at Irving Plaza on Thursday and another at the Starland Ballroom on Saturday in New Jersey. Tickets were priced at $30, limited to two per purchaser and available only on a first-come, first-served basis at 10 a.m. Thursday at each venue.

Some fans camped overnight. Others lined up long before 10 a.m. The lucky few able to grab tickets to the Irving Plaza show night wore vintage Foo Fighters merchandise into the venue and bought new designs. They swapped stories about the last time they saw the band and theorized about how they would perform on such a small stage.

When the Foo Fighters emerged, it was six minutes after 8 p.m. “How ya doing?” energetic front man Dave Grohl said in greeting the crowd, promising a lot of new tracks and some “old school.”

And the band delivered: 2002's “All My Life” and “Times Like These” were next to late '90s hits like “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero,” and week-old songs “Spit Shine” and “My Favorite Toy.”

“Sometimes I ask the audience if they love rock ‘n’ roll music,” Grohl told the crowd. “I'm not gonna ask you all because I know you love rock ‘n’ roll music.”

Even if the location was stripped down, the band had no interest in a minimized show. There were no pyrotechnics or fireworks or fanfare, sure, but surprises abounded: “Window,” a new song, got its live debut. The band opened a five-song encore with “A320,” its contribution to the oft-overlooked 1998 “Godzilla” soundtrack.

At one moment a concertgoer shouted, “Taylor Hawkins forever!” in memory of the band's late drummer. Grohl instinctively responded, “That's right!”

“For those who've never seen us before,” Grohl said two and a half hours into the set, “next time we'll try to make it feel like this.”

Of course next time is likely to be in a venue 40 times the size of Irving Plaza. It gave the still-buzzing crowd something to think about as they exited into a rainy April night.

Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force within 60 days — a deadline that falls on Friday — or within 90 days if the president asks for an extension. But Congress made no attempt at enforcing that requirement, leaving town for a week on Thursday after the Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to halt the war for a sixth time.

The Trump administration has shown no interest in seeking congressional approval at all. It is arguing that the deadlines set by the law don't apply because the war in Iran effectively ended when a ceasefire began in early April.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday he doesn’t plan on a vote to authorize force in Iran or otherwise weigh in.

“I’m listening carefully to what the members of our conference are saying, and at this point I don’t see that,” Thune said.

The reluctance to defy Trump on the war comes at a politically perilous time for Republicans, with public frustration mounting both over the conflict and its impact on gas prices. Still, most GOP lawmakers say they are supportive of Trump’s wartime leadership, or are at least willing to give him more time amid the fragile ceasefire.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota says he’d vote for an authorization of war if Trump asked for it. But he questioned if the War Powers Resolution, passed during the Vietnam War era as a way for Congress to claw back its power, is even constitutional.

“Our founders created a really strong executive, like it or not like it,” Cramer said.

Still, some GOP senators made clear that they eventually want Congress to have a say. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a floor speech Thursday that she will introduce a limited authorized use of military force when the Senate returns from the one-week recess if the administration has not yet presented what she called a “credible plan.”

“I do not believe we should engage in open-ended military action without clear accountability,” Murkowski said. “Congress has a role.”

Some Republicans signal they want a vote

A handful of GOP senators have said for weeks that Congress should assert its authority over the war at some point. One of those senators, Maine's Susan Collins, voted for the first time with Democrats on Thursday to halt the war. She said in a statement she wants to see a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close.

“The president’s authority as commander-in-chief is not without limits," Collins said, adding that the 60-day deadline is “not a suggestion, it is a requirement."

In addition to Collins and Murkowski, Republican Sens. John Curtis of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Josh Hawley of Missouri, among others, have said in recent weeks that they would eventually like to see a vote.

Curtis said he would not support continued funding for the war until Congress votes to authorize it.

“It is time for decision-making from both the administration and from Congress — and that can happen in league with one another, not in conflict,” Curtis said.

Thune suggested the White House step up its outreach to lawmakers with briefings and hearings if it wants continued support from Capitol Hill.

“Obviously, getting readouts from our military leadership on a somewhat regular basis I think will be helpful in terms of shaping the views of our members about how comfortable they are with everything that’s happening there, and the direction headed forward,” Thune said.

Trump administration argues deadline doesn't apply

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 states that a president has 60 calendar days after notifying Congress that the U.S. is engaged in military hostilities to either end the military campaign or gain approval from Congress. The White House can use a 30-day extension to safely withdraw forces, but Congress must be notified.

The 60-day window will expire Friday, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a hearing Thursday, “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means, the 60-day clock pauses or stops.”

Meanwhile, a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said for purposes of the war powers law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb. 28 have terminated.” The official said the U.S. military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.

The administration is making that argument even though Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.

Democrats scoffed at the suggestion that May 1 is not the real deadline. “I do not believe the statute would support that,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine told Hegseth in the hearing.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., argued that the military is still operating warships and other military assets even though it has stopped bombing Iran during the ceasefire.

“Ceasing to use some forces while using others does not somehow stop the clock,” Schiff said.

Yet, the development came as little surprise to at least one House Democrat who oversees the military.

Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press: "Is the expectation that the Trump administration is going to follow the law? I do not have that expectation.”

He scribbles in a notebook, leaning back in an office chair while dressed in ill-fitting khakis and a baseball cap. His left foot rests on the one portion of a desk not covered with clutter — piles of notebooks, a newspaper, printed reports and a lanyard hanging from a stray photograph. What could be a calendar hangs askew on the wall behind him. The drab blue carpet has seen better days.

Hermes is fascinated by things that evoke a time gone by or are about to pass into history. She has photographed the last Morse code station operating in North America and department store photo booths. Lately, she's spent a lot of time in newsrooms like Haley's Rutland Herald.

The Brooklyn-based photographer has. brought her camera into some 50 newsrooms across the United States, many in smaller towns and cities, to document places and lives endangered by the industry's collapse over the past few decades. Already one of the newspapers she's photographed, in Alameda, Calif., has shut down.

And she's nowhere near done.

Photographer didn't expect it to turn into a passion project

Even as someone who spent time in newsrooms herself professionally — Hermes worked for several years at the Christian Science Monitor — she didn't anticipate it turning into such a passion project.

“I love these spaces,” she says. “I love spending time with these people. The more time I spent in newsrooms and hearing about their difficulties of life, it took on a different agenda. I couldn't have spent so much of my free time on this if I didn't enjoy it.”

Her photos dispel the notion that journalism is a prestigious job populated by elitists — certainly not at the local level. Here are working people in shabby surroundings, places that would make an office designer shudder. Post-it notes hang from a computer monitor. Pens, notebooks, boxes of paper are thrown into a bookshelf next to a half-empty bottle of whiskey. A carpet stain is left untended. A bottle of antacid pills sits on top of a microwave.

An empty metal organizer sits behind a sign saying, “stories to be written,” the product of a long-forgotten efficiency drive.

The New Yorker’s Zach Helfand captures it: “News people tend to pay their surroundings little mind. There’s too much to do and always a deadline looming. What you see hanging around these rooms isn’t designed but improvised, and more revealing.”

It's not just newsrooms in danger of becoming obsolete. How often do you see newspapers anymore, particularly with news outlets shutting their printing presses and going digital? Yet they're everywhere in Hermes' photographs. Stuffed into cubbies, yellowing with age. A jumble of them in the back of a van. Stacked in piles — some toppled over, others on the verge. Some need to be stepped around.

Still more are in newspaper “morgues,” the term becoming more appropriate by the day. Cut-out articles are stuffed into cardboard files, the destination for research before the day most information could be found with a few computer strokes.

The history of a community is in these morgues, however. And when they're gone, so are many of the memories contained within.

A belief in a civic duty — with maybe some fun

“This is really a love letter to local journalism,” Hermes says. “It's not a ‘gotcha’ piece.”

She's attracted to the “true believers” who stick with the line of work, putting up with the anger and ridicule of civic leaders who don't like their judgments questioned, and the business realities that have driven many of their friends into different lines of work.

“The rewards are diminishing in doing this job,” she says. “You have to really believe in the fundamental civic service that you are providing. Otherwise, why else would you do it? It's a really difficult job.”

Her work is available to see on her website, and she hopes one day to collect her newsroom photos in a book. She feels she's gone beyond capturing images and into an advocacy role; she wants to do exhibitions in some of the communities that she's visited to remind people about the importance of local journalism.

Hermes’ goal is to photograph 100 newsrooms: “I feel like I learn something new in every newsroom I visit."

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

But now they're looking at the possibility of losing up to four U.S. House seats in the midterms because of a new congressional map passed this week by the Republican-controlled legislature.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said redistricting will reflect Florida's population growth and political leanings. Democrats called it a power grab by Trump, who has been urging Republicans to redraw maps across the country.

The changes use both “packing and cracking,” the principal tools of gerrymandering. Packing involves concentrating like-minded voters into fewer districts, or into a single district, to minimize their overall impact across multiple districts. Cracking involves spreading like-minded voters across more districts, making it harder for them to influence any single district’s election.

Under the new lines, there are 24 districts where Trump won in 2024 by double digits, according to analysts from both parties. If Republicans win all of them, it will be a gain of four seats.

Although there will almost certainly be legal challenges to the map, here’s a look at how the new boundaries affect Florida’s current Democratic-controlled districts.

Cracking in Tampa Bay area could mean no Democratic seats

Pinellas and Hillsborough counties were, not that long ago, regarded as two of the most populous swing counties in U.S. politics. Voters in and around Tampa and St. Petersburg served as a bellwether in presidential contests.

Currently, the core metro area is split between the right-leaning district represented by Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and the left-leaning district represented by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor. The new map splits that into three districts, all of which tilt Republican, and Castor's seat now includes more conservative rural areas.

She called the new designs “blatantly illegal” because of Florida’s state constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering. But she said, “No matter how new districts are drawn, I will keep fighting for Tampa Bay families.”

Luna, a top Democratic target in November, picked up more Republican-leaning precincts, but Democrats in Washington said they could still win the seat given Trump’s lagging popularity.

Packing in Orlando turns two Democratic districts into one

Right now, Democrats Darren Soto and Maxwell Frost have adjoining districts in and around Orlando, with Frost’s concentrated in the city and Soto’s covering Kissimmee and extending south and east over much of Osceola County.

Now, the Orlando metro core will become a single district that is all but guaranteed to go Democratic. Meanwhile, other parts of Orlando will become part of a separate district that's more sprawling and more Republican.

Frost blasted the design for pairing city residents with voters who live a two-hour drive away. “That’s how hard DeSantis map-makers had to work to dilute the impact of voters in Orange County and make this district red,” he said on social media.

Soto, who is Puerto Rican and represents many Puerto Ricans now, lashed out at the governor.

“DeSantis declared war against Florida’s 1.3M Puerto Ricans,” he wrote on social media. “We are American citizens, our people served and died for this country, and we vote.”

Heavily Black district erased to reorder south Florida seats

The new map singles out a heavily Black south Florida district that had been represented by Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick before her recent resignation during a House ethics inquiry into her use of campaign funds. The district was drawn originally to comply with Voting Rights Act provisions that the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted on Wednesday.

DeSantis described the district as an egregious race-based gerrymander, with most of it located inland while two arms stretched toward coastal Democratic areas.

Now the district will essentially be erased, spread out across multiple districts.

Frankel’s and Moskowitz’s districts scrambled in Palm Beach, Broward counties

Reps. Lois Frankel and Jared Moskowitz currently have adjoining districts covering swaths of Palm Beach and Broward counties. Both lean slightly Democratic.

The new map creates a more Democratic district anchored by West Palm Beach, mixing some of Frankel’s voters and those formerly represented by Cherfilus-McCormick. It divides Moskowitz’s current territory across three districts, a more difficult blow for his reelection prospects than Frankel would face.

Parkland, where Moskowitz lives, will be in a more Republican district that reaches across the state to Naples. One of the national Republicans’ top targets even before redistricting, Moskowitz has not said what district he will choose for a reelection bid.

Wasserman-Schultz loses her district and Wilson’s is redrawn

Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, and Frederica Wilson currently represent neighboring districts to the south of Frankel’s and Moskowitz’s pairing.

Wasserman-Schultz has north Broward, including Weston, where she lives, along with Hollywood, Pembroke Pines and part of Miramar. Wilson, who lives in Miami Gardens, represents the second-most Democratic district on the outgoing map, with south Broward and parts of Miami-Dade.

Now, there will be just one concentrated Democratic district in Miami-Dade, with Wilson in position to stay in office there. Between that new Miami-Dade district and Frankel’s Palm Beach County base is a new heavily Democratic Broward district. Wasserman-Schultz does not live in that part of Broward. She will have to decide whether to run there or choose one of the new, more Republican districts that Moskowitz also is considering.

Wasserman-Schultz has called the redraw “a nakedly partisan scheme” that “breaks state law.”

In a possible bright spot for Democrats nationally, the south Florida changes did not substantially bolster Republican Reps. María Elvira Salazar, who lives in Coral Gables, or Carlos Giménez, another Miami-Dade lawmaker. Democrats plan to continue targeting them in this year's midterms.

Minnesota will face Presidents' Trophy winner Colorado in the second round. The Avalanche have not played since sweeping Los Angeles on Sunday.

The Wild won a playoff series for the first time in 10 tries since 2015. They lost to Dallas in the first round in 2016 and 2023.

“I see our fans when we scored our fourth goal, I looked back through the glass and I see someone crying in the stands," said Jesper Wallstedt, who made 22 saves. "I realize how big this is for our fan base. Not just us but there’s so many more people who are with us on this road and this journey. The excitement and joy to get past the first round is huge.”

After Hughes broke a tie midway through the third period, Matt Boldy scored his team-leading fifth and sixth goals of the series into empty nets to seal it. Vladimir Tarasenko also scored.

The fourth line of the Foligno brothers, Marcus and Nick, and Nico Sturm had 15 of Minnesota’s 32 hits.

“If you ask everyone in this team, in this group, and everyone feels something special," said Kirill Kaprizov, who had two goals and seven assists in the series. "We just build all season, and guys who came in for playoff did a great job. When the team wants to go long, long run, it’s all four lines that need to be in the game.”

Hughes, acquired from Vancouver in December in the biggest trade in franchise history, took a shot from the left dot that deflected off the skate of Stars defenseman Ilya Lyubshkin and past goalie Jake Oettinger. Hughes also had an assist.

“Big-time players step up in big-time games, and that is what he did,” fellow defenseman Brock Faber said.

All three Wild goals came at full strength. Minnesota outscored Dallas 17-5 at even strength in the series, including 12-4 at 5-on-5.

“Lots of you are going go to 5-on-5 scoring, but reality is, territory-wise in this series I think was pretty even," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. " I even give us the territorial advantage, but we didn’t defend well enough.”

Wyatt Johnston and Mavrik Bourque scored for Dallas. Johnston had the league-high 10th power-play goal of the postseason for the Stars. Minnesota had three power-play goals in the series.

Hughes opened the scoring in the first period, and Johnston converted a pass from Mikko Rantanen on the power-play goal to tie it second.

A fortuitous bounce off the end boards went to Bourque, who made a quick move before shifting to his forehand for an easy goal with 3:42 left in the second.

Tarasenko answered 54 seconds later for Minnesota. He tipped a redirected shot to himself, and while falling to his knees, and scored on a backhander for his 50th career postseason goal.

“Vladdy has won two Stanley Cups already," Kaprizov said. "He knows what you need to do in the playoffs.”

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

The nonprofit Midnight Golf Program hosted its annual gala Thursday (April 30) at The Hudson, bringing together supporters, students, and community leaders for a fundraiser focused on education, mentorship, and opportunity.

Organizers said proceeds from the event directly support high school students with mentoring, tutoring, and career training.

The program also includes golf instruction as a tool for teaching discipline, networking, and life skills.

Each year, Midnight Golf serves about 250 students selected from more than 2,000 applicants, according to organizers.

Actor, Detroit native, and University of Michigan alumnus David Alan Grier served as emcee for the evening, using humor and personal reflection to highlight the program’s mission.

“I will admit that I don’t golf, but I’m here to help benefit some young people, go to college, and change their lives,” Grier said.

Grier said he was drawn to the organization’s focus on exposing students to new opportunities and professional guidance.

“If you see it, go for it. If you want it, let’s try to get it,” Grier said. “Stand up, get out there and get involved.”

Grier said programs like Midnight Golf help fill a gap by connecting students with mentors who can guide them through education and career decisions.

“When I was their age, I wanted that attention and guidance and knowledge from people who were professionals in the field I wanted to go into,” Grier said.

Beyond the fundraiser, Grier also spoke briefly about his television work and his pride in returning to Detroit for community events.

“I love the company of actors I’m with and working with them,” Grier said.

The event underscored Midnight Golf’s broader mission of preparing students for life after high school through a combination of academic support, career readiness, and personal development.

FREEZE WATCH: All of Southeastern Michigan from 12 a.m. until 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

Temperatures in the 30s tonight in our Northeastern Communities will give way to temperatures that could dip below freezing by Saturday morning, potentially leading to patchy frost in the advisory area on Friday Morning and the potential for another freeze by the time we get to Saturday morning.

If you have plants outside, be sure to bring them in, and/or cover them up, as temperatures are potentially into the 30s the next few mornings.

THURSDAY NIGHT: Partly to mostly cloudy skies. A chance of rain showers South of M-59, patchy frost possible in our Northeastern Communities. Low: 36.

FRIDAY: Mix of sunshine and clouds, a chance of rain showers. Continued cool. High: 54.

FRIDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. A chance of a widespread freeze overnight. Continued cold. Low: 32.

SATURDAY: Mix of sunshine and clouds. Temperatures a little bit warmer. High: 52.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies. Low: 33.

After a little bit of cloud cover and a little bit of sunshine, and a few scattered rain showers throughout the day on Thursday, we will keep the chance of a few rain showers in the forecast for some of us overnight tonight, while some of us could be waking up to some patchy frost early on Friday morning.

We’re going to watch an area of low pressure work south of the region overnight tonight, too early on Friday morning.

This will bring the chance of a few rain showers late tonight into the overnight, along and south of M-59.

North and east of Metro Detroit, a frost advisory is in effect overnight into early Friday morning, as temperatures will drop into the low to mid 30s by the time you wake up tomorrow morning.

Once that area of high pressure moves east of the region, a northwesterly flow will continue, bringing cooler air into the forecast for the next few days.

This will also keep a few rain showers in the forecast for Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

We will keep some cloud cover in the forecast, along with a little sunshine.

High temperatures are remaining well below average, into the mid-50s by Friday afternoon.

Any rain shower activity will wind down by late Friday evening, and we will see some breaks in the clouds overnight Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Those breaks, along with the northwesterly flow, will continue to bring colder air into the region.

This will allow overnight lows by Saturday morning to drop to near or below freezing.

With that in mind, a freeze watch is in effect for the entire region from 12 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Saturday.

We will keep an extra supply of sunshine and clouds in the forecast looking ahead throughout the weekend.

The colder temperatures will persist to start the weekend, as high temperatures will only warm to the low 50s by Saturday afternoon.

Then, we’ll tack on around 10° by the end of the weekend on Sunday, with high temperatures warming into the lower 60s by Sunday afternoon.

Chances for showers and thunderstorms, rolling into the forecast late Sunday night and continuing into the start of next week on Monday.

High temperatures are expected to be above average by Monday afternoon, warming into the upper 60s to near 70°.

We will keep the chance of rain showers in the forecast through the middle of next week.

After a cold front moves through the region, we are expecting another dipping temperatures.

The 60s are in the forecast through Wednesday and will drop into the lower 50s by Thursday afternoon, with yet another round of colder air expected to move into the region.

Robert Morgan has not been seen or heard from since Sunday (April 25) in the 17600 block of Mound Road, and his mother is concerned for his well-being.

It is unknown what he was wearing when he went missing.

According to his mother, he suffers from bipolar disorder.

Anyone with information should contact the Detroit Police Department’s 11th Precinct at 313-596-1140 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak Up.

All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. Click here to submit a tip online.

READ: More Missing in Michigan coverage

Accompanying the announcement was a photo of the 80-year-old leader dressed in a traditional white blouse and skirt and sitting on a bench behind a low table facing unidentified men who wear military and police uniforms. Myanmar’s military information office and state television disclosed the move and shared the photo of her Thursday night, but when and where the photo was taken was not clear.

Suu Kyi was detained Feb. 1, 2021, when the army seized power from her elected government. She has not been seen publicly since then, and the last official photo of her was from a court appearance on May 24, 2021.

Earlier Thursday, authorities had announced Suu Kyi's sentence was being reduced as part of a prisoner amnesty marking a Buddhist holiday, the Full Moon Day of Kason honoring Buddha's birthday. The amnesty covered 1,519 prisoners and cut the sentences for those still in prison by one-sixth.

It's the second recent prisoner amnesty to apply to her

Prisoner amnesties are common in Myanmar for religious holidays and other important events, and the amnesty announced Thursday was the second in recent weeks to apply to Suu Kyi. Nearly two weeks earlier, a separate amnesty freed ousted President Win Myint, a longtime Suu Kyi loyalist who was arrested the same day as her.

The amnesties came after Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing was sworn into office as president April 10 following an election that critics say was orchestrated to maintain the military’s tight grip on power.

In his inauguration speech, he said his government would grant amnesties to promote social reconciliation, justice and peace. Actions including the amnesties and Suu Kyi’s transfer are widely seen as an effort to burnish his image.

The message announcing her transfer says she was moved from the main prison in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw to house arrest, with the action “made to celebrate Buddha Day, to show humanitarian concern, and to demonstrate the state’s benevolence and goodwill.”

It does not specify her exact location but says that by law “she will now serve the remainder of her sentence at a specific home instead of in prison.”

Her prison sentence was seen as an attempt to discredit her

Suu Kyi was originally sentenced to 33 years in prison in late 2022 for several offenses that her supporters and rights groups described as attempts to legitimize the army takeover that removed her from office, as well as to prevent her return to politics.

Thursday's amnesty would bring her sentence down to 18 years, with more than 13 years left to serve, according to the calculation.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres considered Suu Kyi's transfer “a meaningful step toward conditions conducive to a credible political process,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.

Guterres also called for all political prisoners to be released as a fundamental step toward a political process and solution that “must be based on an immediate cessation of violence and a genuine commitment to inclusive dialogue," his spokesperson said.

The human rights advocacy group Burma Campaign UK said the announcements were part of a strategy to project reform while maintaining power.

“Moving Aung San Suu Kyi isn’t about change or reform, it’s about public relations designed to preserve military rule,” Burma Campaign UK’s director Mark Farmaner said. “No-one should be fooled.”

Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government, the main group coordinating armed opposition to military rule, told The Associated Press on Friday that the move was aimed at diverting the opposition movement.

“It is important that we do not fall for these tricks. We will continue until the revolution achieves its six goals,” said Nay Phone Latt, referring to the group’s political roadmap to end military rule, including ending the military’s involvement in politics and placing all armed forces under the command of an elected civilian government.

Information about Suu Kyi is tightly controlled

Suu Kyi's legal team has not been allowed to meet her in person since December 2022. Reports of declining health, including low blood pressure, dizziness and heart problems in 2024 and 2025 could not be verified.

Kim Aris, her younger son living in London, and Myanmar democracy activists launched an online campaign named “Proof of Life” to demand evidence she is alive and well, following the last mass amnesty on April 17.

“Moving her is not freeing her,” Kim said in a statement posted on Facebook following the announcement of her house arrest. “My request is simple: verified information that my mother is alive, the ability to communicate with her, and to see her free. If she is alive, show verified proof of life.”

The 2021 army takeover triggered massive public resistance that was brutally suppressed, triggering a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of people.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization, 22,047 people had been detained for political reasons since the army takeover.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s martyred independence hero Gen. Aung San, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest between 1989 and 2010.

Her stand against military rule in Myanmar turned her into a symbol of nonviolent struggle for democracy, and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

The Knicks broke several NBA records by halftime. Their 40-15 lead at the end of the first quarter marked the largest of the shot clock era. Their 47-point halftime lead was the biggest in playoff history.

It was New York’s third straight win after falling to 1-2 in the series following back-to-back one-point losses.

“It speaks volumes on our team that we were able to bounce back from two disappointing losses,” Towns said. “We had to step up to the challenge of being down in the series — super proud of our guys for that.”

New York's 51-point win tied for the sixth-largest margin of victory in NBA postseason history.

Dyson Daniels and Mitchell Robinson were ejected after fighting following a pair of free throws from Anunoby that gave the Knicks a 50-point lead in the second quarter.

The Knicks exceeded 100 points with 8:21 remaining in the third quarter. New York's starters were done for the night with 2:45 remaining in the third.

“It was just a tough position to be in,” Atlanta's Jalen Johnson said. “We dug ourselves a deep hole from the start and it was tough to climb out of that.”

Anunoby scored 26 of his points in the first half. Mikal Bridges finished with 24. Towns, five days after becoming the fourth Knicks player with a playoff triple-double, had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Hawks were 12 for 39 from the field in the first half and 4 for 18 from 3-point range. Atlanta had 14 turnovers in the first half.

Johnson led the Hawks with 21 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, CJ McCollum and Jonathan Kuminga each had 11 points.

The Knicks will face the winner of the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers series in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

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

“They are a part of who we are and our sense of belonging here,” said Paul Ward, founder of the Capital Kiwi Project, a charitable trust. “But they’ve been gone from these hills for well over a century and we decided as Wellingtonians that wasn’t right.”

On a hill wreathed in mist above the dark sea that runs between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, Ward and others crossed rugged farmland late on Tuesday night, carrying seven crates in silence by dim red torchlight. Inside each one nestled a kiwi, including the 250th bird relocated to Wellington since the Capital Kiwi Project began.

Birds receive a quiet welcome to new homes

The kiwi gives New Zealanders the name by which they’re often known. It’s a shy and odd-looking bird with underdeveloped wings and a whiskery face.

Spiritually significant for many New Zealanders, the kiwi’s image appears everywhere, including on the tail of the country’s air force planes — curious for a bird with no tail which can’t fly.

It’s thought that there were 12 million of the birds roaming the landscape before humans arrived in New Zealand. Today only about 70,000 kiwi are left across the country, with the population dropping 2% each year.

In the hills where Wellington’s kiwi now live and breed, the only late-night sound on Tuesday was the whoosh of wind turbines. Ward and his friends set their crates down in pairs, slid them open and gently tilted the boxes.

Some in the small group of hushed onlookers were tearful. One man chanted a karakia, a Māori prayer.

From each crate, a long, curved beak eventually protruded as kiwi took their first tentative steps into the shadowed landscape, then sped to a run and disappeared into the darkness.

Kiwi make their first Parliament visit

One place kiwi had never set foot until this week was inside New Zealand’s Parliament. Hours before Wellington’s seven newest residents were transported to their hillside home, they were carried into Parliament’s grand banquet hall by handlers for a celebration of the 250th kiwi's arrival in the city.

Lawmakers and schoolchildren alike expressed whispered delight at seeing the timid, nocturnal birds up close, many for the first time, as conservation workers cradled the large birds like human babies, with their gnarled feet outstretched.

“This animal has given us as a people so much in terms of our sense of identity,” Ward told The Associated Press. “We want to challenge our civic leaders, our politicians and say this is a relationship we need to honor.”

Rare birds move from sanctuaries to urban life

New Zealand is home to some of the world’s strangest and rarest bird species. Some have only survived because of against-all-odds conservation programs, at times with uncertain funding.

Initiatives decades ago saw all surviving birds of some species moved onto offshore, predator-free islands or into sanctuaries where they could be carefully monitored and protected, but where few New Zealanders would ever see one.

Ward and his group had a different dream: that New Zealand’s iconic national bird could flourish alongside people in a bustling capital city, where human encroachment and introduced predators had wiped out the kiwi before.

“Where people are is also the places where we can bring them back because we’ve got the means to do that guardianship,” Ward said.

Thousands of traps protect capital’s kiwi

Although unmanaged kiwi populations are shrinking, their numbers have thrived in carefully managed wild bird sanctuaries — so much, in fact, that some of these protected areas have run out of room for them.

That’s prompted their relocation to places like Wellington, where groups such as Ward’s rally residents to embrace their new neighbors. Kiwi have been spotted by late night mountain bikers and on backyard security camera footage in the capital, he said.

“They’re living and calling and being encountered on the hills surrounding our city,” Ward said.

That's taken work. Over the past decade, efforts between landowners, the local Māori tribe and the Capital Kiwi Project have produced a sprawling, 24,000-hectare tract of land where kiwi can roam.

It’s dotted with more than 5,000 traps for stoats, the main predator of kiwi chicks. So far, the Wellington population has a 90% chick survival rate.

New Zealand aims to become predator free

The kiwi initiative is part of New Zealand’s quest to rid the island nation of introduced predators, including feral cats, possums, rats and stoats, by the year 2050. Since a previous government established the target in 2016 its chances of success have been debated, but community groups have taken up the work in earnest.

Parts of Wellington are now entirely free of mammalian predators apart from household pets, and native birds flourish. Volunteers monitor suburbs with military precision for the appearance of a single rat.

“When I think of endangered species globally, for the most part you can’t do much other than campaign or donate money,” said Michelle Impey, chief executive of Save the Kiwi. “But we have this incredible movement throughout the country where everyday people are taking it on under their own steam to do what they can to protect a threatened species.”

The Tacoma Fire Department took five people to hospitals from Foss High School, with four of the patients in critical condition and one with minor injuries, said Chelsea Shepherd, a spokesperson for the department.

A sixth person was in police custody and taken to a hospital with minor injuries, she said. All were in stable condition as of late afternoon.

All of those wounded were either stabbed or cut, said Shelbie Boyd, a spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department. The suspect was among those cut in the altercation.

The school went into lockdown at 1:38 p.m. after the violence began and students were safely dismissed at 2:45 p.m., Tacoma Public Schools said in a statement.

“The school is secure, and we are currently investigating," Boyd said, adding that a reunification area had been set up at the school for parents to pick up their students

School and after-school activities for Friday were canceled. The school will reopen Monday with counselors on site to support students and staff.

“We are grateful for the quick, calm action of our staff and our first responders,” the district said.

The suit, filed April 29, alleges Dr. Oumair Aejaz repeatedly entered Goldfish Swim School’s Rochester location and used a hidden camera to record employees and customers undressing.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, Morgan Dean, say she contacted the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and later learned she and her son were among those recorded.

“Think about what you do on a daily basis, like going to the restroom or a changing room or any of these types of facilities,” Dean’s attorney, Lisa Esser-Weidenfeller, said. “Now all of that is triggered every time she enters one of these spaces.”

Dean is listed as a class representative in a class-action lawsuit accusing Goldfish Swim School of negligence and inadequate security in the community changing area.

The lawsuit claims the business lacked policies and procedures to screen who entered the facility, and that no employees were assigned to monitor traffic in and out of the changing rooms.

“We know that Goldfish didn’t have policies and procedures in place at all to check in people that were coming in and out of that facility, to make sure that they were there for legitimate purposes, to make sure that they should be in dressing rooms,” Esser-Weidenfeller said. “There were no dressing room monitors, no one monitoring that area.”

In a statement provided by her attorneys, Dean said she’s bringing the lawsuit to protect other families.

“Goldfish Swim had every opportunity to protect the families and children in its facilities, and it failed.

A man walked into a children’s swim school dozens of times with a hidden camera, and no one ever stopped him.

I’m bringing this case so that real changes are made to protect the families and children who walk through those doors every day.

I want other families to know that they are not alone.

I encourage any families who attended Goldfish Swim in Rochester with their children to reach out to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office to find out if they were recorded.

Together, we can advocate to create lasting change for our children.”

Morgan Dean, plaintiff in lawsuit

Esser-Weidenfeller said investigators uncovered dozens of videos allegedly recorded at the swim school, estimating the number at roughly 60 to 100.

Aejaz was charged with secretly recording former patients and others, including minors, in multiple locations, including hospitals, private homes, and the swim school, and also faced an assault charge.

He pleaded no contest in October and was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison.

Goldfish Swim School declined to comment when contacted by Local 4, citing pending litigation. The lawsuit demands a jury trial.

Attorneys for Dean urged anyone who believes they may have been recorded at the Rochester location to contact the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, saying they are seeking reforms not only locally but across all of Goldfish Swim School’s locations.

“Goldfish has 150 locations across the nation and in Canada, and we’re hoping to make sure there’s changes put in place at not just this Goldfish facility, but all of these types of swim facilities to prevent this from happening in the future,” Esser-Weidenfeller said.

It was already decided when the scuffle took place. OG Anunoby extended the Knicks' lead to 50 points with a pair of free throws and 4:39 remaining in the first half.

Robinson boxed out Daniels and things got heated, with an official even taking a tumble as many people tried to calm them down. The Hawks' Onyeka Okongwu and the Knicks' Jalen Brunson held Robinson back as the fight inched toward fans sitting courtside.

“It’s tough because when you’re up that big, stuff happens," Knicks coach Mike Brown said after New York's 140-89 series-clinching win. “If somebody feels like something that shouldn’t happen to them happened, it’s hard to keep your composure in that moment.”

Nickeil Alexander-Walker and several coaches pulled Daniels away, including Hawks head coach Quin Snyder.

It was easy to understand why the Hawks were frustrated. Atlanta's 83-36 deficit was the largest at halftime in NBA playoff history.

“I couldn’t see the details of the situation, who did what to whom," Snyder said. “I know that both teams were competing and they were having their way with us on many, many levels — as evidenced by the scoreboard.”

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

Brent crude’s price held steady at $111.66 per barrel while U.S. benchmark crude oil added 46 cents to $105.53 a barrel.

Prospects for a deal to cement a three-week ceasefire in the Iran wa r remained clouded as Iran’s supreme leader said it will protect its nuclear and missile capabilities as a national asset.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% to 59,687.65 as the Japanese yen gained against the U.S. dollar.

The dollar bought 157.16 yen, up from 156.61 yen late Thursday. But that was well below the 160 yen level hit on Thursday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 surged 1% to 8,750.40.

U.S. futures were higher after U.S stocks motored to more records Thursday on strong profits for Alphabet, Caterpillar and other big businesses. The gains came after the latest whipsaw moves for oil prices, which surged toward their highest levels since the war with Iran began only to quickly regress.

The S&P 500 rallied 1% and topped its prior all-time high to close out its best month in more than five years. It closed at 7,209.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1.6% to 49,652.14, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9% to a record of 24,892.31.

Alphabet led the way and rallied 10% after the owner of Google and YouTube reported profit for the latest quarter that almost doubled analysts’ expectations. Investments in artificial intelligence “are lighting up every part of the business,” CEO Sundar Pichai said.

It’s the latest company to deliver fatter profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected, even with very high oil prices and uncertainty about the economy.

Friday brought some calm to the oil market, where prices surged Thursday on worries over the potential long-term impact of the war on the flow of crude. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, keeping them pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide, while a U.S. Navy blockade is preventing Iran from selling its own oil.

Traders are buying and selling contracts for different kinds of oil, going out for many months. In the most actively traded part of the market for Brent crude, for delivery in July, the price rose as high as $114.70 per barrel, fell back toward $107 and settled at $110.40 on Thursday, nearly unchanged from the day before.

So far during the war, the peak price for the most actively traded Brent contract has been $119.50, which was set last month.

In a less actively traded corner of the Brent market, the price for a barrel to be delivered in June briefly went above $126 overnight before pulling back toward $114.

Brent’s price was roughly $70 before the war.

In share trading, Caterpillar soared 9.9%, Eli Lilly jumped 9.8% and O’Reilly Automotive leaped 8.4% after all delivered profits for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the track of corporate profits over the long term.

Meta Platforms tumbled 8.7% even though the company behind Facebook and Instagram made more profit last quarter than expected. Investors focused more on its increased forecast for how much it will spend on data centers and other investments as it builds out its AI capabilities.

Doubts are still high among some investors about whether all the spending on AI will produce enough profit and productivity to make it worth it.

Microsoft fell 3.9% after likewise raising its forecast for investments and other capital spending.

Amazon rose 0.8% after swinging between gains and losses through the day. It blew past analysts’ expectations for earnings in the latest quarter.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices fell back. Reports also suggested the U.S. economy’s growth accelerated by less in the first three months of the year than economists expected, while a measure of inflation worsened in March by about as much as expected.

A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication of fewer layoffs even though companies are announcing large cuts to workforces.

London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.6% after the Bank of England kept its main interest rate on hold. That followed similar decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of Japan on Tuesday to keep their rates unchanged.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Austin-based Infowars is facing liquidation because of the more than $1 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments Jones owes relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the Connecticut massacre a hoax. The proposed licensing deal would give The Onion temporary authority to use Infowars' trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property while a state receiver in Texas works toward liquidation.

A state judge in Austin had scheduled a hearing Thursday on whether to approve The Onion deal with the receiver. But the proceeding fizzled into a status conference because the Texas Third Court of Appeals late Wednesday approved an emergency motion by Jones’ lawyers that temporarily blocked the transfer of any Infowars assets. The judge set another hearing for May 28.

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families had asked the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling, but the high court did not issue a decision before Thursday's hearing.

“This newly insane, unprecedented legal stalling does nothing but delay our deal with the receiver to take control of InfoWars,” Ben Collins, The Onion's CEO, said in a social media post ahead of the hearing. “We now expect new traps in Alex Jones’ amoral war to deny paying the Sandy Hook families, but we’re freshly surprised by the U.S. legal system’s appetite to put up with it.”

The Onion already has been selling Infowars merchandise on its own website, including T-shirts and tote bags with an Infowars logo that replaces the “o” with its trademark onion image. It wants to turn the Infowars platforms into comedy sites that would include spoofing Jones, conspiracy theories and right-wing talking points, while giving revenue to the Sandy Hook victims’ relatives.

Jones declared victory in videos posted on his social media sites after the appellate court ruling. He called The Onion's plan illegal, citing pending appeals and his continuing personal bankruptcy case.

“I said days ago there’s no way the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas doesn’t overturn this — you know they’re all Democrats — because it’s so outrageous what you’ve done,” Jones said.

After Thursday’s hearing, Mark Bankston, a lawyer for some of the Sandy Hook victims’ relatives, accused Jones of delaying the liquidation of Infowars numerous times with court filings.

“As far as the world is concerned, Infowars is dead. Everybody knows that,” he said. “He’s trying to keep the bloated corpse of a media organization alive. It’s all a joke. Everybody knows where this is going.”

It’s not the first time The Onion has hit a legal setback in plans to take over Infowars.

In November 2024, the Chicago-based satirical outlet was named the winner of a bankruptcy court auction of the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, aimed at helping pay some of the defamation judgments. But a federal judge overturned the auction results, citing problems with process and The Onion’s bid.

Jones said on his show this week that he has a new studio nearing completion. He already has set up a new phone app and websites, including one that sells the dietary supplements, clothing and other merchandise he hawks on his shows. And his personal X account, where he posts videos of his shows and has 4.5 million followers, is not affected by any of the court cases.

On Thursday night, Jones toasted to his crew and viewers during a livestream on X as a clock ticked down to when he said his final moments in the building would hit.

“We’re not here anymore because they’re turning the power off at midnight,” he said.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Philadelphia trailed in the ninth inning of both games before rallying for two walk-off wins on the same day for the first time since July 24, 1998, a pair of 12-inning victories against the Florida Marlins.

Schwarber homered in the first inning of each game. Trea Turner launched a leadoff shot on Adrian Houser's first pitch in the nightcap, and Schwarber followed with a 446-foot drive to right-center for his 11th homer this season.

Jung Hoo Lee put the Giants ahead 5-4 in the ninth with a two-out RBI single against José Alvarado, but pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh doubled off Keaton Winn to open the bottom half. Garrett Stubbs walked and Turner grounded into a double play before Schwarber, who was 4 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, doubled to right field on a full-count splitter.

San Francisco had runners at the corners with none out in the 10th when Game 1 winner Chase Shugart (2-0), the seventh pitcher used by the Phillies in a bullpen game, struck out Matt Chapman. Bohm then made a diving grab of Luis Arraez's line drive to third base, and Casey Schmitt flied out.

In the bottom half, Bryson Stott’s sacrifice bunt moved automatic runner Adolis García from second to third. Bohm, batting .151 this year, won it with a sacrifice fly to center against Matt Gage (2-1).

After sweeping the three-game series, the Phillies (12-19) are 3-0 since interim manager Don Mattingly took over after Rob Thomson was fired Tuesday. Philadelphia won the doubleheader opener 3-2 when Stott's tying triple keyed a two-run rally in the ninth.

Shugart became the first big league pitcher to win both games of a doubleheader since Minnesota’s Brian Duensing at the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 9, 2013. The previous Phillies pitcher to accomplish the feat was Terry Adams at Cincinnati on Sept. 21, 2002.

Arraez tied it 4-all with a two-run single in the seventh, following a 24-minute rain delay in the sixth.

Up next

Giants LHP Robbie Ray (2-3, 2.70 ERA) pitches Friday at Tampa Bay.

Philadelphia begins a four-game series in Miami, with RHP Zack Wheeler (0-1, 3.60) tentatively scheduled for Friday night.

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

In a statement read by a state television anchor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters" and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region's history. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over as supreme leader following the killing of his father in the war’s opening airstrikes.

His remarks come as Iran's economy is reeling and its oil industry is being squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its tankers from getting out to sea. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil is transported. On Thursday, the global benchmark for oil, Brent crude, traded as high as $126 a barrel.

That shock to oil supplies and prices is putting pressure on Trump, who is floating a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by the U.S.'s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Under the plan, the U.S. would continue its blockade on Iranian ports, while coordinating with allies to impose higher costs on Iran’s attempts to subvert the free flow of energy, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

In a cable sent Tuesday, the U.S. State Department instructed American diplomats around the world — except those in Belarus, China, Cuba and Russia — to seek their host government’s support for the Trump administration's call for assistance in establishing a “maritime freedom construct” that would ensure free and unimpeded access to shipping through the strait.

“This commitment reflects broad international consensus on the need for coordinated action to counter Iranian maritime provocations and ensure navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz,” said the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The initiative, being led by the State Department and the Pentagon’s Central Command, “is a fundamentally defensive response to protect the rights of all countries to navigate international waters freely and safely and to hold Iran accountable for its aggressive and illegal actions to impede the free flow of commerce,” the cable said.

At the same time, Trump has also floated possible changes to U.S. troop presence in allied countries in Europe. The day after the president announced his administration was conducting a review on potentially reducing the U.S. troop presence in Germany, he was asked by a reporter whether he’d weigh pulling U.S. forces out of Italy and Spain — which have sparred with the United States over use of bases for Iran-related operations.

“Why shouldn’t I,” Trump answered. “Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.”

Ceasefire shaken as strait remains shut

The U.S. blockade — which as of Thursday has turned back some 44 commercial vessels, according to U.S. Central Command — is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has long maintained its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60%.

Pakistan on Thursday said it was still facilitating indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran aimed at easing tensions, but that Islamabad would also welcome direct communication between the two sides, even by phone.

“If the two parties can engage in real-time conversations, that could ease the sticking points,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tahir Andrabi at a weekly news briefing. He declined to share details of any Iranian or U.S. proposals.

Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei's remarks signaled that nuclear issues and Iran's ballistic missile program wouldn't be traded away.

“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities — as national,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei referred to America as the “Great Satan,” a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Khamenei signals strait will remain shut

In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly $2 million apiece to travel through the strait.

He said that Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz will make the Gulf more secure, and that Tehran's “legal rules and new management” of the strait will benefit all the region’s nations.

However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran's control of the strait as akin to piracy.

Crackdown intensifies in Iran

Iran announced Thursday it hanged a 21-year-old man over charges stemming from the nationwide protests in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

The agency identified the executed man as Sasan Azadvar, from Isfahan. It said he was hanged for the crime of “effectively cooperating with the enemy by attacking police officers” during the protests.

Activists and rights groups say a crackdown on dissent, including a wave of executions, has further intensified since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday at least 21 people have been executed since the start of the war.

Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face, rights groups say, warning that several other people remain at risk of execution.

Fighting continues in southern Lebanon

Despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon-based, Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, the group has continued to claim attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Israel's military said one of its soldiers was killed in battle there Thursday, raising the troop casualties to 17 since the Iran war started.

Air raid sirens sounded multiple times in border communities in northern Israel on Thursday, too. The Israeli military said it struck military structures used by Hezbollah, and the Lebanese Health Ministry said 9 were killed in strikes, including women and children.

Late on Thursday, the foreign ministry of United Arab Emirates — which has come under attack by Iran during war — announced a travel ban for its citizens covering Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, and urged those already in those countries to return home.

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Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Sarah El Deeb and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout.

The final score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 on Thursday night in Game 6 of the teams' Eastern Conference first-round series. New York won the series 4-2, after losing Games 2 and 3 by exactly one point apiece — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

“Just a really, really good night offensively," Knicks coach Mike Brown said. "We did the things that we were supposed to do. And our players were really, really good with their focus and attention to detail.”

A look at some of the stats of the night:

A 47-point halftime lead

The Knicks set an NBA playoff record by taking a 47-point halftime lead over the Hawks.

The Knicks led 83-36 at the break, after leading by as many as 51 at one point in the second quarter.

“It shows us what we're capable of defensively,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said.

Before Thursday, the biggest halftime playoff lead was 41 points. It had happened twice: Cleveland led in Boston 72-31 at the break on May 19, 2017, and Indiana led the Cavaliers 80-39 at the half of game on May 11, 2025.

The 47-point lead tied for the second-biggest — including regular-season games — in the NBA’s shot-clock era, which started in 1954. Dallas led the Los Angeles Clippers by 50 points at the break on Dec. 27, 2020, and Golden State led Sacramento by 47 at the half of their game on Nov. 2, 1991.

Points scored

With the 83 points, New York tied for the third-highest first-half point total in NBA playoff history.

Oklahoma City scored 87 against Denver on May 7, 2025; Cleveland scored 86 against Golden State on June 9, 2017; and Dallas scored 83 against Sacramento on May 8, 2003.

Atlanta actually had a 9-0 run in the early moments to take a 9-5 lead. The Knicks answered that with a 43-6 run. Yes, 43-6.

The 140 points scored over the full game was a Knicks playoff record.

Point differential

The 51-point margin tied for the sixth-largest in NBA playoff history.

It was the biggest playoff margin in a win for the Knicks — and the second-worst margin in Hawks playoff history, the worst in the Atlanta era.

The St. Louis Hawks lost by 58 to the Minneapolis Lakers in 1956. The biggest playoff loss, before Thursday, in the Hawks' Atlanta era was a 43-point defeat to Orlando in 2010.

Another 49-point win

When the calendar flipped to 2026, the Knicks — in their history — had never won a game by 49 or more points.

They now have three such wins, all in a span of about three months.

The Knicks beat Brooklyn by 54 points on Jan. 21, had the 51-point win Thursday and beat Philadelphia by 49 points on Feb. 11.

Before that, the Knicks’ record for margin of victory was 48 — done on three occasions, most recently 1994.

Biggest lead in this playoff era

New York led by as many as 61 points, which is the biggest lead in any NBA playoff game during the play-by-play era — which goes back to 1996-97.

Cleveland led a playoff game by 60 over Miami last season.

New York's biggest playoff lead in the last 30 years was 41 points against Boston last season. The Hawks' biggest deficit over the last 30 postseasons was 46 against Orlando in 2010.

A 4-shot triple double

Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns had a triple-double on only four shots. He was 1 for 4 from the field and still finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

The only player in NBA playoff history with a triple-double on fewer shots? Magic Johnson, who took three shots in a 13-point, 13-rebound, 13-assist game for the Los Angeles Lakers over Philadelphia in the title-clinching game in the 1982 NBA Finals.

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

The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb. 28 have terminated.” The official said the U.S. military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.

While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran's oil tankers from getting out to sea.

Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.

Democrats have pushed the administration for formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.

“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favor of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn’t given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close."

Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump's first term, said he has recommended to administration officials that they simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.

That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defense focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”

“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration’s “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who had asked Hegseth about the timeline, later told reporters that the defense secretary “advanced a very novel argument that I've never heard before” and “certainly has no legal support.”

Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.

“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.

Other presidents have argued that the military action they’ve taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump’s war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.

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AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

Instead, she gave the Indiana Fever and fans a scare Thursday night.

Clark crumpled to the ground early in the third quarter when Dallas forward Alanna Smith collided with her leg on a shot attempt, and then limped toward the bench as she walked off the injury during a replay review that resulted in a Flagrant 1 call. The two-time All-Star then made two free throws before departing and watching the rest of the game from the bench.

“I feel good. I just landed on my kneecap really hard,” Clark said after scoring 21 points in a 95-80 loss to the Wings. “I know there's a committee of people that really wanted them (the refs) to start calling things, and I thought they did a great job of that. Honestly, I thought the refs were great, and it's preseason so you're probably going to see more fouls called. I expect that number to drop. But I think overall, it's going to improve the product.”

Initially, it looked as if little had changed since Clark last suited up in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 13, when the Fever beat Dallas.

The pregame autograph line snaked through the seats, the No. 22 jerseys and Clark T-shirts were as fashionable Thursday night as they were during her record-breaking rookie season, and, naturally, Clark was greeted with the usual loud cheers during player introductions.

Sure, it was only a preseason game, but it did feature the league's last two Rookie of the Year award winners — Clark and Paige Bueckers. Yet Fever fans had been yearning for this moment since Clark went down July 15 with a right groin injury that forced her to miss the All-Star Game and the All-Star weekend festivities in Indianapolis, as well as Indiana's final 22 regular-season games and its incredible run to the WNBA semifinals.

The long absence only made Thursday's game an even bigger deal.

“This is the first (Fever) game I've been to — ever,” said Nikki Niccun, dressed in a No. 22 jersey. “I've seen every one on TV, but this is the first time in person. I know it's a preseason game, but I'm excited."

Clark first returned to the court for Team USA in the FIBA Women's World Cup qualifying games in early March, then helped the Fever open the preseason with a 109-91 victory at New York despite a 2-for-10 shooting performance.

This time, Clark looked more like herself. She scored 14 of her 21 points in the first quarter, had four assists, three turnovers and two rebounds while going 4 of 6 from the field and 11 of 13 at the free throw line in 16 minutes.

“We had planned for her to come out about that time anyway," coach Stephanie White said. “It was just an extra precaution getting her out in that moment, but the plan was for her to start the third quarter and then get her out quickly.”

White also held out All-Star center Aliyah Boston for the second straight game because of a lower leg injury. All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell finished with 10 points in 17 minutes.

Not everyone came to see Clark, though.

A smattering of fans also showed up in Bueckers jerseys, and she dazzled the crowd by scoring 20 points in 20 minutes on 8-of-12 shooting. Rookie Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 overall draft pick, added four points in 16 minutes as the Wings used a 22-5 second quarter run to seize control with a 53-26 lead. They never trailed again.

Whether that's an indication one of last season's 10-win teams could be headed for major improvement remains to be seen.

And though there were plenty of empty seats Thursday night, a rarity when Clark takes the stage, longtime Clark admirers welcomed the chance to get an early look at what they anticipate will be a big season.

“They're going to bounce back,” Niccun said. “We're going to be all right.”

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

Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.

“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”

The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.

The Supreme Court decision and Landry's move triggered a flurry of follow-up legal action. On Thursday night, the three-judge federal appeals court panel that heard the initial case that was appealed to the high court issued a brief order suspending Louisiana's House election until new maps are drawn — a move some legal experts said was premature. Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election attorney, announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging Landry's order.

The governor's order postponed the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature. The state's Republican House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new congressional voting districts — and set a new election date — before their regular session ends in a month.

President Donald Trump used his social media platform to praise Landry, who also is his special envoy to Greenland, for moving quickly to revise the state's congressional districts. He also urged Republicans in Tennessee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court's decision.

Democrats say the delay could cause confusion

While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court's decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.

“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.

The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.

“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters -- Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”

Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed the state's April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.

More states could join a national redistricting wave

Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

On Wednesday, Florida lawmakers became the latest to redraw U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.

The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.

Trump said he wants Tennessee to take up redistricting in response to the court's ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with the state's Republican governor, Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state's nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court's decision.

Louisiana has a history of redistricting challenges

After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black. A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act.

The following year, the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create a second congressional district that would be favorable to Black voters.

Federal judges permanently barred Alabama from using a congressional map drawn by state lawmakers and ordered the use of a plan that added a second district with a substantial number of Black voters.

On Thursday, Alabama filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court seeking an expedited review of its appeal. The state is seeking to lift the injunction blocking the use of the 2023 map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature that did not include the new district.

Louisiana’s legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.

After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.

“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.

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Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.

James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers.

The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

“Just to say goodbye to Joshua my friend. Thanks for all you’ve done,” Hitchcock said without elaborating.

As he spoke, a man in the witness room, raised his hand, and Hitchcock lifted his head to try to see.

Hitchcock blinked rapidly as the drugs began flowing and took several deep breaths. A minute later, his breathing became more shallow and quickly stopped. Minutes into the execution, the team warden briefly flicked Hitchcock‘s face and yelled his name twice and shook his shoulders. Hitchcock didn’t respond, his face slowly turning ashen.

There was no visible reaction from the 28 witnesses nearby. A doctor came in 11 minutes into the execution, checked Hitchcock with a stethoscope and shone a light into his eyes before nodding at the team warden, who declared him dead.

Several members of Driggers' family addressed reporters afterward. The victim's younger sister, Lynn Cobb, said she added life, fun and dreams for her family in the 13 years she was alive.

“I thank God for giving me the strength and courage all these years and shaping me even through this tragedy for the person I am today,” Cobb said. “We now close the door on this chapter of our lives. We will continue to remember Cindy by keeping her memory alive and always understanding that life is precious and time is valuable.”

One of Driggers' cousins, Ginie Meadows, said Hitchcock never thought this day would come, but he was wrong.

“For those of you that do not understand why this process is justified, I am certain that you have not known the agony and emotional torture of having someone you love brutally murdered,” Meadows said. “You have not had to sit in a courtroom and have the murderer smirk at your family.”

Another cousin, Chip Meadows, expressed relief that the execution was finally carried out.

“I’ve lived with this for 50 years,” Meadows said. “I can breathe today. I am loving life. Free at last, free at last. Our monster is dead.”

Court records indicated Hitchcock, then 20 and unemployed, had moved into his brother's suburban Orlando home weeks before the killing occurred. He told police following his arrest that after drinking beer and smoking marijuana with friends for several hours, he returned to the home, entered the girl's room and raped her, investigators said.

When the girl told Hitchcock that she had been hurt and planned to tell her mother, he tried to stop her from leaving the room and began choking her, court records show. Authorities said Hitchcock then took the girl outside, where he beat and choked her until she stopped moving, leaving her in nearby bushes. Hitchcock then took a shower and went to bed.

Hitchcock recanted during his trial and blamed his brother instead. Convicted of first-degree murder, he was sentenced to death in 1977. Years of appeals followed and he was resentenced to death in 1988, 1993 and 1996.

Thursday's execution was the sixth in Florida this year under death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Four of the other five Florida inmates put to death this year received death sentences in the 1990s. DeSantis also oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, far more than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

On Thursday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hitchcock's final appeal.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading the way. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each that year.

Texas carried out another execution on Thursday evening, putting to death a man for a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago. The man claimed he wasn't the shooter.

Florida has scheduled another execution on May 21. Richard Knight, 47, was convicted of the fatal stabbing of his cousin’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter.

James Broadnax was pronounced dead after receiving a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Houston.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Broadnax’s attorneys to stop his execution.

He was condemned for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.

Broadnax was defiant in a final statement in which he also sought forgiveness from the victims' relatives. Seven relatives, including parents of each of the victims, were present.

“I prayed to God for your forgiveness," he said, when asked by the warden if he had a final statement. “Despite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered. But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I’m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself. Period," he said.

The execution also was punctuated by screams of “I love you” from his wife, who also was among witnesses to the punishment. She was emotional at times during the procedure, leaning up to the death chamber window with arms spread, and had to be helped out of the prison.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Broadnax urged his supporters to keep fighting. “Don’t give up,” he said, and was stopped in another mid-sentence by a gasp. He shook his head briefly and all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later, at 6:47 p.m. CDT.

Prosecutors said Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting, telling reporters during jailhouse interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no remorse.

His lawyers had focused his final appeals on two issues: Cummings had recently confessed to being the shooter; and Broadnax’s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors eliminated potential jurors during his trial on the basis of race.

“I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swan,” Cummings said recently from prison in a video created as part of the efforts to stop Broadnax’s execution.

His attorneys also alleged prosecutors dismissed all seven potential Black jurors on the basis of their race, “utilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,” according to court documents. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax was Black.

In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Broadnax’s attorneys had argued in an earlier appeal that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using some of the rap lyrics he wrote to portray him as a violent and dangerous person in order to secure a death sentence. A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott,T.I. and Killer Mike, had filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.

Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, had asked that the execution proceed.

“This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,” Butler wrote in a post on social media.

Broadnax was the third person put to death this year in Texas and the 10th in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.

About an hour before Broadnax’s execution on Thursday, Florida put to death James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, for beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death.

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Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

“We put ourselves in a bad position, but we can still make history and come back one game at a time,” Houston big man Alperen Sengun said. “Play at home, come back here, just do the same thing we’re doing.”

That game is one of three Game 6 matchups in the NBA on Friday night starting in the Eastern Conference with underdog Orlando Magic trying again to close out its series against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons. The second game of the night features James Harden and the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers looking to wrap up their series against the fifth-seed Toronto Raptors.

In Friday’s nightcap the Rockets will try to get a win to become just the fifth team in NBA history to force a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a series. None of the 159 teams that were in a 0-3 hole have won the series.

They’ll likely do it without superstar Kevin Durant, who has missed the last three games with an ankle injury after sitting out of the series opener with a bruised knee. He's listed as doubtful for Game 6.

“You cannot take off days anymore,” Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. said. “If you lose, you go home, and on this team, nobody wants to go home. Everybody is here to fight.”

The Lakers couldn’t finish off the Rockets on Wednesday night despite the return of Austin Reaves, the team’s second-leading scorer in the regular season who had been out since April 2 with an oblique injury.

He scored 22 points on 4-of-16 shooting in 34 minutes off the bench in the 99-93 loss.

LeBron James expects him to be more dynamic on Friday night after shaking the rust off in Game 5.

“A few of his jump shots were short. That makes sense. He hasn’t played in a month,” James said. “He gives us another ballhandler, another attacking threat at the point of attack, so it’s great for us.”

In Toronto, the Raptors are also feeling confident despite their 125-120 loss in Game 5 and some injury concerns.

“I like our odds 100%,” Toronto’s Scottie Barnes said. “We’re going to go home and we’re going to get it done.”

They could have to do that without All-Star Brandon Ingram, who left Wednesday night’s game in the second quarter with right heel inflammation and is listed as questionable for Game 6. Ingram scored just one point before his early exit. Barnes is also not 100% after being kneed in the quadriceps while driving to the rim during the second quarter.

“Obviously, we need (Ingram) out on the floor,” Barnes said. “His playmaking ability and his defense and everything he brings.”

Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson knows another huge mental test is coming up for this group after rallying to win on Wednesday night.

“These are high pressure moments,” he said. “You’re down, you can feel the crowd getting nervous. So, I think we took a step (Wednesday). Now the big one is can you go and beat this team on the road? Can we go in there and go take this because we haven’t shown we can yet.”

The Pistons avoided elimination behind Cade Cunningham’s franchise playoff-record 45 points in a 116-109 win in Game 5.

Now the Magic will try and close it out again to win a playoff series for the first time since 2010. If they’re able to pull it off, they’ll be only the second No. 8 seed to win its first-round series after advancing through the play-in tournament and first since Miami in 2023.

Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime Video).

Series: Magic lead 3-2.

Betting line: Pistons by 3 ½

What to Know: Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, played like a franchise player should Wednesday night to allow the Pistons to extend the series. Now they’ll need another big performance from the 24-year-old to force Game 7 as they chase their first playoff series win since 2008. He has taken 23 shots in each of the last three games but was much more efficient in Game 5. Cunningham made 13 shots Wednesday after making just eight and seven respectively in the previous two games. Orlando’s Paolo Banchero, the top pick in the 2022 draft, also scored 45 points in Game 5 but missed 7 of 12 free throws. The Magic will have to depend on his scoring again in Game 6 with Franz Wagner out for a second straight game with a strained right calf. Wagner averaged 17 points and 5.5 rebounds in the first four games of the series as the Magic built a 3-1 series lead.

Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 7:30 p.m. (Prime Video)

Series: Cavaliers lead 3-2.

Betting line: Cavaliers by 3 1/2

What to Know: The Cavaliers look to close out the series by doing something that hasn’t been done in the first five games, winning on the other team’s home floor. This is the only first-round series where home court has held serve. A major point of emphasis for Atkinson is reducing turnovers. Cleveland railed from a 12-point second-half deficit for the win despite the Raptors scoring 28 points off 15 Cavaliers turnovers. The Raptors look to avoid elimination despite having Ingram and Barnes injured.

Los Angeles Lakers at Houston Rockets

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime Video).

Series: Lakers lead 3-2.

Betting line: Rockets by 3 1/2.

What to Know: With Durant out, the Rockets have relied on a balanced scoring attack to win the last two games with each starter scoring at least 12 points in both games. They know they’ll have to continue that to keep the series alive and they also must continue their strong 3-point shooting. The Rockets have made 26 3-pointers combined in the last two games after managing just 18 in the previous two games. The Lakers need to play much cleaner to end the series after they had 38 turnovers combined in their two losses. “You give credit where credit is due,” James said. “They played well the last two games, exceptionally well, and we’ve got to answer the call.”

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AP Sports Writers Greg Beacham and Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

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

On Thursday, Duke University Athletics and Amazon Prime announced a partnership that would include three of its men’s basketball non-conference games to be broadcasted by the streaming platform. One of those contests just so happens to be at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday, February 20th, 2027 against the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Like Duke, Gonzaga is considered a ‘blue blood’ in the college basketball world, as they have made the NCAA tournament in each of the last 27 seasons. These two schools have matched up five times in their history and each game has been played at a neutral site, with the last being at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in November of 2021.

Another game that’s a part of Duke’s deal with Amazon just so happens to be against the defending National Champions. Madison Square Garden will play host to the Wolverines and Blue Devils on Monday, December 21st, marking the second consecutive season the two heavyweights will meet. The Wolverines will be looking for revenge after falling 69-63 to Duke at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. this past February.

Coming this season, @DukeMBB is on Prime. 😈🏀 pic.twitter.com/SjYLmiVN8e

— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) April 30, 2026

The third of Duke’s three games to be broadcasted on Prime Video comes against the team Michigan had to defeat to become the defending champions. UConn will be waiting for them in Las Vegas on Wednesday, November 25th. Also a ‘blue blood,’ the Huskies defeated Duke in this year’s East regional final which allowed them to advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

Don’t be surprised if LCA adds more college hoops to its schedule in 2026 or 2027 as Duke vs. Gonzaga wasn’t the first game to be slated at the now ten-year-old stadium. Michigan State men’s basketball already called dibs on a Thanksgiving Day game against the Razorbacks of Arkansas. On a podcast appearance in late March, Tom Izzo announced his and fellow Hall of Fame coach John Calipari’s squad will meet around 4pm that Thursday, perfectly positioned after the conclusion of the Lions Thanksgiving Day classic.

The possibility emerged amid legal gamesmanship in the runup to a bench trial next week on allegations that Meta poses a public nuisance. It's the second phase of a case that already resulted in $375 million in civil penalties on a jury's determination that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Prosecutors are asking the court to order a series of changes to child accounts on social media aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

Meta executives have emphasized that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive social media use. The company says its being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use.

In a court filing unsealed Thursday, Meta said it was unfeasible for the company to meet a proposed requirement for 99% accuracy in verifying that child users are at least 13 years old, among other demands.

“As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,” Meta said in the filing.

Such a shutdown across a population of 2.1 million residents in New Mexico could silence personal communication on Meta’s immensely popular platforms, which also include Facebook and WhatsApp, and also impact their use for commercial advertising.

By withdrawing from New Mexico, Meta would satisfy any concerns about harm to children, but the message could appear intentionally hostile and might lead to unintended consequences, said Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.

Goldman noted that Canadian authorities accused Facebook in 2023 of putting profits over safety after the platform blocked local news content during record-setting wildfires and evacuations. Facebook was responding to a newly enacted law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.

A Los Angeles jury last month found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services, validated longstanding concerns about the dangers of social media.

New Mexico’s case against Meta is the first to reach trial among more that 40 state attorneys general who have filed suit against the company on claims it contributes to a mental health crisis among young people. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.

“I highly doubt that they’re going to be willing and able to turn the lights off for their product all over the country,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in an online news conference.

Torrez disputed Meta’s argument that proposed changes are impractical, describing “before times” in an ever-evolving social media landscape when “we didn’t have infinite scroll and we didn’t have auto-play.” Torrez, a Democrat running for reelection to a second term in November, said he won’t be “turning a blind eye to exploited children in the state of New Mexico because people have an advertising contract.”

Beyond the U.S., other countries have implemented — or are planning — a bevy of restrictions on children’s online activities, ranging from social media bans to requiring younger teens to link their accounts to a parent’s. New Mexico also wants all child accounts on Meta platforms to have an associated parent or guardian, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time.

Goldman said there are some countries that Facebook “doesn’t directly support in part because it’s just not worth it.”

"The cost of maintaining the separate service is greater than any value from that territory,” he said. “And that could be the case with New Mexico as well.”

The legislation, which will be challenged in court, indicates a weakening of Lula’s position in Congress ahead of his bid for reelection in the country’s October presidential election.

It’s unclear how much time Bolsonaro will serve for his conviction for leading a coup attempt, but analysts say the move could shave 20 years off his sentence. The former right-wing president, who began his sentence in November, is currently under house arrest.

The conservative opposition successfully drew centrist senators and federal deputies to comfortably override the leftist president's veto of last year's sentencing bill. Bolsonaro supporters expressed confidence in the outcome even before the voting began.

“This is a first and much awaited step by those who are afflicted. The next stage is full amnesty,” said Sen. Espiridião Amin, a Bolsonaro ally.

The bill that lawmakers passed last year reduces prison terms for several crimes, including those against the democratic rule of law and leading a coup when a person is convicted in both. The new legislation states that the sentence should be based only on the count carrying the highest sentence.

Ahead of the vote, the president of Brazil’s Senate said only cases similar to ones that led to convictions for Bolsonaro, his allies and supporters in the attempted coup trial would be eligible for the softer penalties, though legal experts say that claim will be questioned in court.

Pedro Uczai, the Workers' Party whip in Brazil's lower house, said he will appeal to the Supreme Court to annul the legislation, arguing that it was unconstitutional. The court is yet to receive his complaint.

Bolsonaro allies in Congress said the move benefits not only the former president, but also supporters who were sentenced for destroying government buildings in capital Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023, in a riot that mirrored the assault on the U.S. Capitol Hill two years earlier.

Alexandre Knopfholz, a lawyer and legal scholar, told The Associated Press the bill could reduce penalties for crimes committed by crowds, expanding legal benefits for many of those charged with the destruction of government buildings in Brasilia.

Knopfholz added that Bolsonaro “will not be automatically released” even if the new legislation withstands the Supreme Court's likely scrutiny.

The vote hands Lula another significant defeat in Congress months before his bid for a fourth nonconsecutive term. Wednesday evening he had his nominee to a seat in the Supreme Court rejected by the country's Senate, a first in 132 years.

“They want to release Bolsonaro, his jailed generals and stop federal police investigations that implicate them,” said lawmaker Lindberg Farias, a Lula ally. “This is a day of infamy.”

Several lawmakers voting on Thursday spoke on the podium about October's election. Four years ago, Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro by a narrow margin to return to the presidency. The president's rival in his bid for reelection will be Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of the former president.

“If it is God's will, I will govern this country,” Flávio Bolsonaro said during the vote. “I will hug you and take care of you, no matter what your political view is.”

Lula is yet to make public comments about his defeats in Congress.

Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, said Thursday's vote was a bad sign for Lula ahead of the election, though he noted that a lot could change in the coming five months, including attention being diverted to the upcoming soccer World Cup.

“This vote is another sign that Bolsonaro is not finished as a political actor, his son will be competitive against Lula," Melo said.

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

The group is led by Grant Gustavson, grandson of B. Wayne Hughes, the founder of Public Storage. The Whitecaps were put up for sale 16 months ago, but no potential buyers had emerged publicly until Thursday.

“In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to the opportunity to share more, however, out of respect for the league’s deliberations and community stakeholders, we are refraining from sharing details of our proposal,” Gustavson said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work for a positive outcome for the game, the fans, the league and Las Vegas.”

Gustavson said the investment group will privately finance the deal to buy the team and relocate it and it is “not connected to any of the recently announced arena ideas in Las Vegas.”

Major League Soccer has said it would "evaluate all options” for the future of the Whitecaps, including a possible move. The team currently plays at BC Place, which will host seven games of this summer's World Cup. But the league has said the lease situation with the stadium is untenable and would prefer a soccer-specific stadium for the team.

“It’s reaching a critical point,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday during a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York.

Garber cited strict schedule restrictions from the government entity that owns and operates the building and an inability to add premium seating.

British Columbia’s government said Tuesday it is working with the Whitecaps to help the team lower costs and generate more revenue at BC Place — but it won’t be buying the team to prevent it from moving cities.

The team's supporters were at Thursday's meeting of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, many waving signs that read “Save the 'Caps.” Posters with the words were plastered across downtown.

Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs and economic growth, said the team is now using the stadium at no cost, and any breaks that the team received this year could be extended for another year.

“Look, I think we should all be concerned,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said following the congress at the Vancouver Convention Center. “And that goes well before Vegas came into the picture. We've been concerned. We've been working on this for more than a year. We can't control what other groups that have an interest in our team, what they do. All we can do is control our destiny.”

Sim added that the city has identified a site where a new owner could build a stadium and entertainment district without taxpayer dollars. The next step would be a bridge deal with the province.

The Whitecaps and the provincial government — which owns BC Place through the provincial Crown corporation PavCo — signed a one-year lease earlier this year, which annually returns to the club about $1 million to $1.5 million that the province makes from hosting.

Garber has expressed hope the Whitecaps could find a way to remain in Vancouver and said expansion to Las Vegas could also be a possibility. Las Vegas is not necessarily the only city being discussed.

In a statement earlier this week, the Whitecaps said it had “serious conversations with more than 100 parties, and to date, no viable offer has emerged that would keep the club here.”

“The club has faced well-documented structural challenges around stadium economics, venue access, and revenue limitations that have made it difficult to attract buyers committed to keeping the team in Vancouver.”

A franchise fee that costs tens of millions of dollars to enter MLS 15 years ago is now worth hundreds of millions. In May 2023, a $500 million expansion fee was paid to secure the league’s 30th team in San Diego.

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

The changes come as FEMA prepares for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, both beginning in June.

Fourteen FEMA employees who signed a public letter of dissent last August sounding alarms about the agency's capacity to respond to disasters were told by email Wednesday that an investigation into the matter was closed and they were to return to work Thursday after being on paid administrative leave for eight months, according to two FEMA staff members.

“I feel pretty vindicated, and like we did the right thing,” said Abby McIlraith, a FEMA emergency management specialist who was among the suspended workers. Their reinstatement was first reported by NBC News.

FEMA leadership also told some employees this week that it will be extending certain term-limited employees’ contracts, according to documents seen by The Associated Press, in the midst of extended uncertainty over the future of those positions and a related lawsuit.

The actions are the latest indications that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving away from his predecessor Kristi Noem's harsher approach toward FEMA, before she was fired as DHS leader.

Soon after assuming the post, Mullin reversed Noem’s policy that her office approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000 and has released more than $1 billion in backlogged FEMA grants and reimbursements to states, tribes and territories since being sworn in last month.

A FEMA spokesperson told The Associated Press that while it does not comment on specific personnel actions, the agency is taking “targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness.”

“Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters,” the spokesperson said.

Dissent letter called out controversial policies

The reinstated employees were among over 190 current and former FEMA employees who signed the letter, known as the “Katrina Declaration,” but were the only active employees who included their names.

The statement called out multiple policy decisions by President Donald Trump’s administration that the signatories said risked a catastrophe like the one seen after Hurricane Katrina. It specifically named the $100,000 approval policy, along with DHS' decision to reassign some FEMA employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the administration's failure to appoint a qualified FEMA administrator as stipulated by law, and cuts to grants, training and the FEMA workforce.

The letter also called for FEMA to be taken out from under DHS and restored to a Cabinet-level agency.

One day after its Aug. 25 release, the 14 staffers were put on indefinite paid administrative leave. They were reinstated in early December only to again be placed on leave after one day. A DHS spokesperson at the time blamed “bureaucrats acting outside of their authority” for the reinstatement.

McIlraith, 24, said that experience left her feeling slightly tentative that their reinstatement would be permanent this time. Nonetheless, she was back at work at a FEMA office in Maryland Thursday, waiting to regain access to her work devices. She called her time away “a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Internal email indicates extensions for some term-limited employees

The expected contract extensions also announced this week will apply to some of FEMA's 10,000 term-limited disaster workers who make up roughly half the agency's staff.

Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, or CORE, work on two- to four-year assignments, though they traditionally have been routinely renewed, a system that allows the agency to build up and taper down its capacity as needed.

FEMA abruptly stopped renewing some of those CORE employees’ contracts at the start of 2026 as they expired, and extended others only 90 days at a time. An email to some staff this week said COREs with contracts ending between January and May who were previously extended for 90 days “may be reappointed for up to one year,” along with those whose contracts end after May.

The email also said that “eligible” FEMA reservists will be renewed for two years. The 7,000 reservists in the agency's surge workforce have contracts expiring May 2.

“Our readiness directly impacts our ability to help Americans in need,” the email said, “and every employee plays a critical role in meeting these challenges.”

While FEMA has not confirmed whether it will bring back CORE workers who were already dismissed, a FEMA employee who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity told The Associated Press they knew of at least one CORE who has been called back.

An ongoing lawsuit is challenging the dismissals of hundreds of CORE staff between then and late January, when FEMA paused the nonrenewals.

McIlraith said her apprehensions over FEMA’s future persist as the agency continues operating without a permanent administrator and recovers from the record-long DHS shutdown that ended Thursday.

Trump on Thursday signed a bill that funds all aspects of DHS besides immigration enforcement. The bill will replenish FEMA’s dwindling disaster fund with over $26 billion.

The president has repeatedly criticized FEMA and even threatened to abolish it completely. Next week, the Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council will present its highly anticipated and months-overdue recommendation report. It is expected to propose sweeping changes to the agency.

The three-foot-wide (1 meter) Bridger Pipeline Expansion would carry up to 550,000 barrels (87,400 cubic meters) of oil a day from Canada through Montana and Wyoming, where it would link with another pipeline.

The pipeline needs additional state and federal environmental approvals before construction, which company officials expect to start next year. Environmentalists hope to stop the project over worries that the pipeline could break and spill.

At peak volume, the 650-mile (1,050-kilometer) pipeline would move two-thirds as much oil as the better-known Keystone XL pipeline that got partially built before President Joe Biden, citing climate change, canceled its permit on the day he took office in 2021.

“Slightly different from the last administration. They wouldn’t sign a pipeline deal. And we have pipelines going up,” Trump said after signing his approval for it to cross the border between Saskatchewan and northeastern Montana.

Trump in his first term approved the Keystone XL project in 2020 despite concerns from Native American tribes about possible spills and environmental groups about fossil fuels' contribution to climate change. Its cancellation by Biden frustrated Canadian officials, including Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, after Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project.

Sometimes called “Keystone Light," the Bridger Pipeline Expansion would not cross any Native American reservations.

More than 70% would be built within existing pipeline corridors and 80% on private land, Bridger Pipeline LLC said in a statement. The line would carry various grades of crude, including from Canada's oil sands region, to be exported or refined in the U.S., company spokesperson Bill Salvin said.

The permit from Trump also authorizes other petroleum products including gasoline, kerosene, diesel and liquified petroleum gas. Salvin said including those fuels keeps the company's options open, but it remains focused for now on crude oil.

Bridger Pipeline could avoid a reversal by a future administration if it’s able to complete its project before Trump leaves office. It hopes to start construction in the fall of 2027 and finish it by late 2028 or early 2029, Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin said.

Trump’s term ends Jan. 20, 2029.

Bridger Pipeline and other subsidiaries of True Company have been responsible for several major pipeline accidents including more than 50,000 gallons (240,000 liters) of crude that spilled into the Yellowstone River and fouled a Montana city’s drinking water supply in 2015, a 45,000-gallon diesel spill in Wyoming in 2022 and a 2016 spill that released more than 600,000 gallons (2.7 million liters) of crude in North Dakota, contaminating the Little Missouri River and a tributary.

Subsidiaries of True agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty to settle a federal lawsuit over the North Dakota and Montana spills.

Salvin said Bridger Pipeline in the years since the Yellowstone spill developed an AI-based leak detection system that allows it to be notified more quickly when there are problems. It also plans to bore 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) beneath major rivers including the Yellowstone and Missouri to reduce the chances of an accident. The 2015 accident occurred on a line that was constructed in a shallow trench at the bottom of the river.

“We designed the pipeline with integrity and safety in mind. We have emergency response plans should something happen where oil happens to get out of the line, which is fairly rare,” Salvin said.

The Casper, Wyoming-based company operates more than 3,700 miles (5,950 kilometers) of gathering and transmission pipelines in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.

Environmental groups opposed to the project include the Montana Environmental Information Center and WildEarth Guardians.

“The biggest concern we see right now is the concern inherent in all pipeline projects which is the risk of spills,” said attorney Jenny Harbine with the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “Pipelines rupture and leak. It’s just a fact of pipelines.”

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced earlier this month he will be stepping down from the role, with Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, assuming the role later this year.

The January-March results announced Thursday reflect the continued momentum of iPhone sales. Cook said in a statement that it was the company's best March quarter ever, with "double-digit growth across every geographic segment."

The company earned $29.58 billion, or $2.01 per share, in the January-March period, up about 22% from the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose about 17% to $111.18 billion from $95.36 billion a year earlier. iPhone sales made up the bulk of revenue, bringing in $56.99 billion.

The Cupertino, California company beat analyst expectations this quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research forecast earnings of $1.95 per share on revenue of $109.46 billion.

In the previous quarter that ended in December, the company said it reached record-high iPhone sales, even though it still hasn’t delivered on its long-promised revamp of Siri assistance with AI. iPhone achieved a March quarter revenue record, fueled by strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup.

This March, Apple introduced the new iPhone 17e and the MacBook Neo, an entry-level laptop, the company’s most aggressive attempts at moving into the affordable market.

High demand has caused supply constraints, Cook said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. Those constraints have been driven by the availability of the advanced technology used to form what is essentially a device's brain. In the current quarter that runs through June, supply constraints will affect several Mac models, in part because the “customer response to Mac Neo has just been off the charts” with higher-than-expected demand, Cook added.

The company also saw higher memory costs in the recent quarter and expects “significantly higher” memory costs moving forward, Cook said, telling analysts that beyond the current quarter, “we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business, and we’ll continue to evaluate this.”

“Apple showed that even the best operators can’t fully escape the memory squeeze,” said Jake Behan, Direxion’s head of capital markets, in a statement. “Tim Cook’s warning of ‘significantly higher’ costs in the coming quarters tells you how real the AI-driven supply crunch has become for the entire industry.”

Cook did follow up on the Siri promise, saying that Apple will bring “a more personalized Siri” to users this year, but did not elaborate on timing. He also teased new software and developer tools and AI advancements. Apple's systems deliver “intelligence that is fast, personal and private,” Cook said. “This is not AI as a standalone feature, but AI is an essential, intuitive part of the experience across our devices.”

Cook has helmed Apple for 15 years, inheriting the CEO role from the late Steve Jobs. During his tenure at the head of the company, the company’s market value soared by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity.

Ternus will start as CEO on Sept. 1, and Cook will remain involved with the Cupertino, California company as executive chairman.

Ternus briefly joined a call with analysts after the results were posted Thursday, with Cook introducing him and emphasizing the confidence he has in his successor. Cook said he and Ternus will be working together closely over the next few months to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“This is the most exciting time in my 25 year career at Apple to be building products and services,” Ternus said. “There are so many opportunities before us, and I couldn’t be more optimistic about what’s to come.”

April is also National Pickleball Month, and players across metro Detroit say the sport offers more than just a workout.

It fosters a real sense of community.

At the Farmington Family YMCA, the courts stay busy several times a week as athletes grab their paddles and jump into games that move fast and keep people coming back.

Two of those regulars are playing partners, Gary Forhan and Michael Griggs.

Like many players at the YMCA, what started as a couple of games a week has become a steady routine.

When asked what makes the sport so appealing, Forhan pointed to both the health benefits and the social aspect.

“One, being an old guy, you get really good exercise,” Forhan said. “And, two, the people you meet are fantastic. Seems like everybody that plays pickleball is just a nice person.”

Nice, but competitive when it counts.

Pickleball’s growing popularity spans generations, but it’s especially common among people 55 and older, who say the sport is easy to learn and rewarding once you get the hang of it.

“It just takes coming and getting used to it,” said Debra George-Merritt, known by many as the “Pickleball Queen.” “Just eye-hand coordination. Just learning to hit the ball, learning the strategy and the scoring.”

YMCA staff say interest continues to climb, in part because people of all abilities can participate, whether they’re brand new or highly competitive.

For Griggs, pickleball became more than a hobby.

He and his wife of 46 years began playing a few years ago while both were dealing with health challenges, and he says the sport helped transform his health.

“I was diabetic. My A1C was 11. My A1C now is five,” Griggs said. “I was 305 when I started. I’m 230.”

Griggs said the pickleball community also watched his wife lose 100 pounds through playing the sport.

And the changes weren’t just physical, they became motivational, too.

“We’ve been married for 46 years,” Griggs said. “Pickleball gave us a goal to be married at 80.”

Because pickleball is social by design, many players, especially retirees, say the culture keeps them coming back.

It’s common to rotate partners, meet new people, and form friendships that carry beyond the court.

“I’ve got Marilyn. I’ve got Dave. I’ve got Mike. I’ve got Jeff. All of my family,” said Theresa Singleton as she pointed to and named her group of friends. “All pickleball family.”

Pickleball remains one of the most affordable sports to try, and many players say the hardest part is simply showing up for the first time.

Asked what he’d tell someone who’s curious but hasn’t tried it yet, Forhan didn’t hesitate: “Just do it. Like the Nike thing.”

You can find pick-up games and pickleball leagues at YMCA branches and local recreation centers across Metro Detroit. In many cases, you’ll need to be a member to drop in for open play times.

Check with your local branch for schedules and details.

Commissioner Charlie Cavell plans to introduce a resolution Thursday (April 30) night that would put a 12‑month moratorium on acquiring or deploying new surveillance tools in the county.

The proposal would also halt the recently approved “Project Prove It” pilot, which would allow Flock Safety drones to assist the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office on certain 911 calls.

“Hundreds of people told me to do it,” Cavell said, describing the response he received after the vote on the Flock program. “So,I feel like it’s my job as a commissioner who’s elected by the people for the 19th District in Oakland County to put this forward and make sure we get it passed.”

The Flock drone initiative was approved earlier this month, 13–4, during a tense board meeting.

The measure passed before public comment, a move that angered some residents who wanted a chance to speak before the vote.

Under the pilot, drones manufactured by Flock Safety would be used to help deputies respond to certain emergency calls, potentially arriving on scene ahead of patrol units and providing aerial video.

Residents who have contacted Cavell, however, say they are worried about how the drones will be used, what they will record, and how long data will be stored.

“I’ve spent a long time being concerned just about our rights for our privacy and data for tech for a long time,” Oakland County resident Sam Garin said. “We don’t really have enough protection on any level in this country for our privacy and data.”

While Cavell said he heard widespread frustration from constituents, not everyone is firmly against the technology itself.

One woman was on the fence.

“It’s kind of a double feeling, it’s hard to say,” said another woman, who lives in Oakland County.

Cavell said his resolution is meant to show residents that their concerns are being taken seriously and to give the board time to revisit how surveillance technology is approved and monitored.

Local 4 reached out to a few other commissioners for comment on this story, and we’re waiting to hear back.

Local 4 asked dermatologist Dr. Steven Grekin to meet us at a Meijer in Southgate and help build a simple, teen-friendly acne routine that makes sense without blowing the budget.

“I’ve got teenagers, they want products, but they always pick what’s popular. And I don’t know what necessarily works and I’m sick of wasting money,” said Local 4’s Karen Drew.

That set the mission: what’s effective, what’s hype, and what’s worth it.

Here are Dr. Grekin’s budget-friendly picks.

For active zits: benzoyl peroxide

If your teen is dealing with inflamed pimples, Dr. Grekin pointed to an old-school ingredient that still delivers: benzoyl peroxide. He explained it targets acne bacteria by bringing oxygen into the pore and that bacteria can’t survive in oxygen.

Budget pick: Zapzyt Acne Gel — $4.99

Zit patches: what they do?

Those little stickers are everywhere and yes, there’s real science behind them.

Dr. Grekin says they’re hydrocolloid patches. They help by absorbing oil/gunk and importantly keeping the area moist, which can help healing.

But the biggest surprise was price.

Dr. Grekin said the choice between patches that are $24 and the $5 Zapzyt product can be just as effective. His takeaway: patches can be useful, but you don’t have to buy the most expensive version to get the benefit.

What about blackheads?

If blackheads are the main issue, Dr. Grekin recommended Differin Gel (0.1% adapalene).

It’s a retinoid (a vitamin-A derivative) and he emphasized that this product used to be prescription-only, now it’s over the counter.

Pick: Differin Gel 0.1% — $27.99

Cleanser: gentle is the goal

Karen’s big concern: cleansers that strip teens’ skin and leave it dry.

Dr. Grekin agreed and also warned against harsh exfoliating scrubs, because the gritty particles can create microscopic tears in the skin, which can make irritation (and bacteria problems) worse.

He gave two budget-friendly options:

Option A: Unscented Dove bar soap — he says it works well and costs very little.

Option B: Meijer brand deep clarifying facial cleanser — he liked the ingredient list and noted it was on sale.

Pick we checked out with:

Meijer face cleanser — $4.49 (noted as $5.59 with 40% off in-store)

Dr. Grekin’s bonus “scrub” hack: baking soda

If your teen loves that “polished/extra clean” feel from a scrub, Dr. Grekin suggested a cheaper, gentler workaround:

Mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda into your regular cleanser and wash your face with it.

Karen’s reaction: that’s basically the scrub effect without spending an extra $15.

Grekin is the founder of The Grekin Skin Institute. Steven Grekin, DO | Advanced Dermatology

Here’s what we bought

At checkout, the cart had four core products:

• Zapzyt acne gel — $4.99
• Meijer face cleanser — $4.49
• Vanicream facial moisturizer SPF 30 — $14.49
• Differin gel — $27.99
• Total: $56.24

The quick action after weeks of political blame brought an abrupt end to the months-long standoff that began after Trump’s deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis launched a reckoning on Capitol Hill over the funding for the president’s agenda.

DHS has been without routine funds since Feb. 14, causing hardship for workers, though many of the immigration enforcement operations were able to keep running with separate funding sources. The White House had warned that temporary funding Trump had tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other agency personnel would “soon run out.” Some employees risked missed paychecks in May.

“It is about damn time,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the bipartisan bill more than 70 days ago.

The House swiftly voted by voice earlier Thursday, without a formal roll call, to pass the measure.

The movement in Congress comes as DHS is under intense scrutiny after Trump ousted Kristi Noem as the department's leader, installing Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin in the middle of the shutdown. The agency counts some 260,000 employees, across TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other operations.

Many workers have endured repeated turmoil with potential furloughs and pay lapses as the congressional stalemate dragged on. This shutdown came on the heels of last year's governmentwide closure, which itself had set a record at 43 days. Countless employees have struggled with bills or simply quit their jobs.

Trump's deportation strategy fueled the dispute

In the aftermath of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, by federal agents during protests against the immigration actions in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.

At the same time, Republicans would not go along with a plan pushed by Democrats to fund TSA and the other parts of DHS without the money for ICE and Border Patrol. They insisted that immigration operations must not be zeroed out.

After the shutdown intensified, with hourslong lines at airport security screening, the Senate unanimously approved the bipartisan package without the immigration-related funds in a middle-of-the-night vote a month ago. Then the bill languished in the House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., himself had called the legislation a “joke.”

To break the impasse, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate decided to tackle the immigration enforcement funding on their own through what is called budget reconciliation, a cumbersome weekslong process ahead.

By beginning that path with a separate vote late Wednesday night, adopting a GOP budget resolution to eventually provide $70 billion for immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of Trump's term in 2029, Johnson was able to unlock the broader bipartisan bill for the rest of DHS.

Johnson acknowledged Thursday that while he had trashed the bipartisan bill before, the new budget process ensure that the immigration enforcement money eventually will flow “with no crazy Democrat reforms.”

“We threw a fit,” the speaker said. “We had to.”

But not all Republicans were pleased. During the quick floor action Thursday, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said isolating the immigration-related money on a separate track is “offensive to the men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, and are serving this country every single day.”

White House warned paychecks were at risk, again

The White House had urged Congress this week to act, warning that the money Trump tapped to temporarily pay TSA and other workers through executive actions was drying up.

Immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through the flush of new cash — some $170 billion — that Congress approved as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill last year. Others, including at the TSA, have had to rely on Trump’s intervention through executive action to ensure their paychecks. Most of its employees are considered essential and have remained on the job.

But with salaries topping a combined $1.6 billion every two weeks, Mullin said recently that the money was dwindling.

On Thursday, he said in a social media post that the shutdown "NEVER should have happened."

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

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said while workers are "pleased that Congress finally stepped up to do their jobs and fund DHS, it is unacceptable that it took them this long to do so.”

He said "federal employees are not political pawns. They are not leverage. They are Americans -– and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Complicated budget strategy ahead

The go-it-alone strategy under the budget resolution process is the same that was used last year to approve Trump’s tax cuts bill, which all Democrats opposed.

With the budget resolution now adopted by the House and Senate, lawmakers will next draft the actual $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill, with voting expected in May.

Trump has said he wants it on his desk by June 1.

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

A tantalizing tripleheader of Game 6 action begins with the Tampa Bay Lightning's visit to the Canadiens and the Sabres' trip to Boston, followed by the Golden Knights visiting the Utah Mammoth in the nightcap.

While the Knights have had a wealth of postseason success — more than their share, most of their opponents would say — during their first nine seasons in the NHL, the Mammoth will look to stay alive for their first playoff series victory since moving to Salt Lake City last season.

Meanwhile, a series-clinching win would be nothing less than monumental for the Canadiens and the Sabres, whose hockey-hungry markets would love to see the second round again.

No fan base in the league has been hungrier for longer than Buffalo, which went 14 years without seeing a playoff game before these Sabres won their first Atlantic Division title this spring.

They've got an even bigger step to take now, however — learning to close out a playoff series. The Sabres barely failed in their first chance Tuesday, losing Game 5 at home in overtime to the resilient Bruins.

Then again, Buffalo’s lineup didn’t have a lot of experience, with just 10 players having previously appeared in an outing with a chance to eliminate an opponent.

“We trusted the process to get to this point,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “You’ve got to continue to trust it. It’s a team (that for) a whole year has won together and lost together, but embrace this moment -- and somebody for us is going to be a big time player. I can’t tell you who that is, but somebody will."

Buffalo’s power play continues to sputter: Rasmus Dahlin’s goal in Game 5 was the Sabres' first with the man advantage in 18 opportunities this series. Buffalo enters Game 6 having converted one of 20 power-play chances against Boston after going 0-for-22 to close the regular season.

The Sabres' last playoff series victory was in the second round in 2007 against the New York Rangers.

Vegas Golden Knights at Utah Mammoth

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, Friday, 10 p.m. EDT (ESPN).

Series: Golden Knights lead 3-2.

The Golden Knights are one victory away from advancing because of … special teams?

Vegas’ power play has remained a confounding problem for coach John Tortorella, who has tinkered with the first and second units to find some kind of answer for one of the NHL's best groups in the regular season.

But special teams carried Vegas in Wednesday night’s 5-4 double-overtime victory over the Mammoth. The first of Pavel Dorofeyev’s three goals came with the man advantage, and he forced OT with a six-on-five goal with 52.7 seconds left in regulation before Brett Howden’s short-handed winner.

The Golden Knights also killed all five of Utah’s power plays. The Mammoth have converted just one of 14 power plays this series.

“It really came up big for us tonight,” Tortorella said of the penalty kill. “It’s a skilled team, a very dangerous power play, really big in OT as far as the kill. It’s steadied itself. Utah gets a lot of momentum off their power play whether they score or not. I think we’ve done a better job as the series has gone on.”

The Golden Knights still need to find their own way on the power play. Dorofeyev’s first goal ended a drought of 13 power plays without scoring, and they are just 3 of 18 for the series.

Which makes it even remarkable Vegas is ahead. According to OptaSTATS, 29 teams have trailed in the third period of each of the first five games of a series, including the Golden Knights in this one. The other 28 teams trailed after five games or had been eliminated.

Not Vegas.

But it also gives the Mammoth plenty of hope as they try to stave off elimination. They have been right there, losing back-to-back games in overtime, or the Mammoth would already be preparing to face Anaheim or Edmonton in the second round.

“We’re a confident group and we believe in one another and our team,” Mammoth captain Clayton Keller said. “These are the most fun games to be a part of. Down 3-2, we get to go home and play in front of our fans. I’m fired up for that.”

Buffalo Sabres at Boston Bruins

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, Friday, 7:30 p.m. EDT (ESPN).

Series: Sabres lead 3-2.

David Pastrnak’s breakaway goal 9:14 into overtime sealed a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night to keep the Bruins’ season alive.

They’re now back in TD Garden to try to do it again, but it hasn’t exactly been a haven in this series: The Bruins were outscored 9-2 in their home losses in Games 3 and 4.

It’s why coach Marco Sturm said the dramatic Game 5 victory doesn’t make them feel like they've cracked the code against Buffalo, even after some schematic changes that went Boston’s way.

The Bruins were 29-11-1 at home during the regular season.

“(Being home) should elevate your game,” Sturm said. “We’re against the wall, so home or away I see it more like we have to bring our A-game. Otherwise we go home, so we’re going to approach it that way. It’s a one-game mission again.”

Buffalo will be down one of its key contributors in this series as it looks to clinch its first playoff series victory since eliminating the New York Rangers in six games of a 2007 second-round series.

Rookie forward Noah Ostlund went down with a lower-body injury in the first period on Tuesday.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff didn’t reveal what the injury was, but said, “it doesn’t look good.” Ostlund had just returned to the lineup from an upper-body injury in Game 3, in which he had a goal and assist.

Tampa Bay Lightning at Montreal Canadiens

When/Where to Watch: Game 6, Friday, 7 p.m. EDT (ESPN2).

Series: Canadiens lead 3-2.

This series has been an absolute thriller, with five consecutive one-goal victories, three overtimes and a host of late-game heroics by both clubs. Montreal is one win away from its first playoff advancement in five years, and the Bell Centre will be appropriately frenzied.

The Habs got immediate help in Game 5 from Brendan Gallagher, who scored a goal in his first appearance of the series following four scratches. The veteran's grit and toughness around the net exemplified the way coach Martin St. Louis wants his players to approach the playoff-tested Lightning.

Tampa Bay is one loss away from its fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit, but coach Jon Cooper's club can build on its gritty Game 4 victory in Montreal when it faces down the hostile crowd once again.

___

AP Sports Writers John Wawrow, Mark Anderson and Kyle Hightower contributed to this report.

___

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

Harris, who goes by the nickname “King”, started his day at Nichols Elementary School on Detroit’s east side, and it ended at a McDonald’s in Lincoln Park.

It was the quick thinking of a DDOT bus driver and a group of Detroit police officers, who were honored on Thursday (April 30) morning by Mayor Mary Sheffield, that made sure he got back home.

“King got in trouble at school, and he knew he would be in trouble when he got home, so he just decided not to come home,” Mary Wynn, Harris’ mother, said on Thursday. “He went to what he would call his adventure.”

That “adventure” started that afternoon when he got off his normal school bus, cut through an alley, then hopped on a second DDOT bus that took him to the Rosa Parks Transportation Center in downtown Detroit.

“He’s never done this before,” Wynn said. “This is my only child. It was like a heart attack.”

“It was something kind of off on this, you know, I was just saying, like, why this kid is getting on my bus and by himself,” asked Thomas Burgan.

Burgan, who has driven for DDOT for six years, was driving the bus when he saw Harris board.

Surveillance footage from inside the bus shows Harris sitting in the back as the bus rolls along.

It starts to empty out as it heads to its last stop, where he spots Harris in the back, confused and holding a clear backpack.

That’s when word went over the radio to be on the lookout for a missing child.

“I said, ‘Man, that’s the kid,’” Burgan said. “He’s sitting in the back. I’m glad that he stayed on the bus until the end.”

Burgan can be seen asking Harris where he’s going. He quickly exits the bus and starts walking toward the nearby McDonald’s.

The bus cameras, along with Burgan’s cell phone, captured him walking away.

“When I took that last picture, I got back on the bus, and I called it in,” Burgan said. “I said, ‘Hey, this is the kid.’”

Harris eventually stopped at McDonald’s, where he was quickly arrested by police and returned to his mother.

While she was not happy about his little adventure, she was thankful to have him back.

“Thank God he was hungry, because if he wasn’t, there’s no telling how far, how much further he would have gone,” Wynn said. “I’m grateful for [Burgan]. I’m grateful that there were cameras on the bus.

“I never paid attention to the fact that there’s cameras on the bus,” Wynn added. “I thank the bus driver for going over and beyond.”

Jessica Mann straightforwardly answered questions about the missive, in which she described becoming “emotionally attached” to someone and wanting a loving partnership. Weinstein’s defense pointed out that she wrote nothing about having allegedly been raped.

Court wrapped up for the day, about 45 minutes earlier than planned. Mann is due back Friday for a fifth day.

Thursday's early end came after questions turned to the alleged assault in a Manhattan hotel room, and Mann said she was feeling “spacey” from the difficulty of testifying. The court took a break, but soon after Mann returned, she said she felt “dissociated” and sensed she wasn’t hearing properly because of stress. The 40-year-old later told the judge she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

It's the third time Mann has testified against Weinstein, 73. He was initially convicted in 2020, but an appeals court overturned that verdict for reasons unrelated to her testimony. The jury at his first retrial, last year, didn't decide the rape charge.

Mann, a hairstylist and actor, has acknowledged the two had a consensual, on-again-off-again sexual relationship. She alleges it degenerated into rape in New York in March 2013 and again some months later in Beverly Hills, California. Weinstein has never been charged with any crime related to the California allegation.

“He just treated me like he owned me,” Mann told jurors this week.

Weinstein’s lawyers maintain that everything that happened between the two was consensual and part of a supportive, caring relationship. They say Mann benefited from associating with an Oscar-winning producer, only later accusing him after allegations about him powered the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. He denies sexually assaulting anyone.

The sketchy, journal-like note that came up in court Thursday was written on March 20, 2013. Mann had just returned to her Los Angeles home from New York, where she says Weinstein forced himself on her. She had gone on to see him socially, at one point marking his March 19 birthday by having tea with him and his daughter.

In the missive, Mann mused about budding feelings of attachment in a nonexclusive relationship with a man she didn't name. She reflected on how she wanted a mutual and loving relationship and said her feelings toward the unnamed man were creating inner conflict for her. She talked about questioning the “woulds and would nots” she had set for herself.

After describing fears of rejection, and being a “'bad' person,” she appealed for God's guidance.

“I know that I was struggling with some of the decisions I was making that were different than what I was raised with,” Mann explained in court, adding that there was “a lot going on at this time in my life."

Emphasizing a passage about seeking love and freedom, she testified that “I was feeling very controlled.”

Through questions, Weinstein attorney Teny Geragos suggested that the note reflected Mann's feelings about being involved with the then-married Weinstein.

It's been clear through three trials that those feelings were complicated.

Mann testified Wednesday that despite the alleged rape, she loved “a part of him” because Weinstein could be kind and encouraging about her personal struggles and professional dreams, and that the two had “some pretty human moments” together.

“What did he do for you that made parts of you really love him?” Geragos asked.

“It was the validation,” Mann said.

When Geragos went on to ask about the “human moments," Mann said she once slapped Weinstein, thinking he was inviting it as sex play, but that he later told her, “Jess, that's not you.”

“So when you were talking about the validation that you received … and the human moments that you shared with Harvey, it was that you slapped him?” Geragos asked.

Mann said she instead was referring to his remark that “that's not you.”

Mann and Weinstein met at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013. At the time, she was a financially struggling but aspiring to make it big in show business.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.

York watched it soar like the Schwarbombs routinely hit across the street, only no one was really sure in the moment where it landed.

“I hope everyone's OK,” York said with a laugh. “Definitely don't want a lawsuit. Just honestly blacked out. I didn't know what to do. I was so excited.”

How does one celebrate a Flyers' playoff series victory?

York reared back like he was going to fling a boomerang. Flyers fans blew horns and whistles around the concourse and belted out on repeat the opening “oh oh oh” of the White Stripes' “Seven Nation Army.” Flyers forward Christian Dvorak's celebration hit a little too hard — a cut busted open above his right eye during the victorious on-ice party and blood streamed down his cheek.

Like he went a few rounds in a fight.

More like six grueling games against Sidney Crosby and a Penguins team that has hoisted Stanley Cups and kicked their cross-state rival to the curb so many times over the last 15-plus years that the matchups often felt less like a heated rivalry and the Flyers treated more like a pesky speed bump in a long regular season.

Not this season. Not in Philadelphia.

Not even when the resurgent Penguins threatened to make a run at playoff history and storm back from a 3-0 series deficit and crush the spirit of a Flyers' team that became the NHL’s first to make the playoffs after being 10 points out of contention with 22 or fewer games remaining.

York and goalie Dan Vladar with his 42 saves had other plans.

The Flyers' 1-0 Game 6 overtime victory over the Penguins on Wednesday night served as early validation that general manager Danny Briere was astute in orchestrating an overdue rebuild and the payoff was a first playoff series win in a full NHL season since 2012. The Flyers accelerated their postseason timeline — in large part due to the late-season arrival of teen sensation Porter Martone — and are essentially playing with house money as they gear up for a second-round series with the top-seeded Carolina Hurricanes.

“We played a great series,” Flyers forward Travis Konecny said. “Now we get a chance to play again.”

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet and the rest of the players said to a man when they held a 3-0 series lead that Crosby and the veteran Penguins were too good, too playoff-tested to go down without a fight. Crosby was everywhere in Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory in Game 5 and had the Penguins believing that they could become just the fifth team in NHL history to win a series after trailing 3-0.

Vladar, a journeyman turned Olympian voted the team's MVP this season, turned away everything the Penguins threw at him much of the series. He had his first shutout of the season (with 27 saves) in Game 2, shook off an unspecified arm injury in Game 3 and put the Flyers on his back in Game 6 — getting the better of a fantastic Arturs Silovs — to steady a position long an albatross for the franchise since the Stanley Cup championship days of Bernie Parent.

All Vladar did was shut out the NHL’s third-highest scoring team during the regular season.

“There was never a doubt,” Vladar said. “Good things happen to good people, and we are good people here.”

Vladar also gave a nod to the odds the Flyers faced just to reach this point of the season and pointed out teammates wearing their good-luck gear.

The Flyers celebrated wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Parent's 1970s mask with sleeves that had “3.8 percent” printed on them as a nod to their slim postseason chances a couple months ago.

Vladar — the fifth goalie in franchise history with a series-clinching shutout — also made the fourth-most saves in a series-clinching shutout win over the past 70 years. The only goaltenders with more are Patrick Roy (63 in Game 4 of 1996 Stanley Cup Final), Andrei Vasilevskiy and Carey Price.

“danvladar you are a BAADDDDD man!!” former Phillies World Series champion Jimmy Rollins wrote on social media.

The Flyers were still feeling sky high well after the final horn.

As for York's stick? Well, it did stick the landing and was gleefully grabbed by a man wearing a white Flyers sweatshirt. He high-fived fans around him and boasted one heck of a postseason souvenir.

The Flyers can only hope there's so much more fun to come in May.

___

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

In a social media post, Trump said he would nominate Saphier, whom he called “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. complimented the nomination, calling Saphier “a long-time warrior for the MAHA movement.”

But at least in one instance, she hasn't been in lockstep with Trump's thoughts on health policy, telling The Associated Press in September that his cautions about pregnant women taking Tylenol were oversimplistic and “patronizing.”

Means' withdrawal came after her tense exchanges with lawmakers of both parties threw into question whether she could secure enough votes to advance out of the Senate health committee.

In an interview Thursday, Means said her nomination fell apart after a “yearlong smear campaign against me,” which she said was a larger effort to impugn the MAHA movement and its focus on reforming food and healthcare.

She said she will continue to “help with progress on this movement how I can.”

Means pitched ideas popular with MAHA

In nominating Means last May, Trump sought to hire a close Kennedy ally as the nation’s doctor. The 38-year-old Means, a Stanford-educated physician who became disillusioned with the health care system and pivoted to a career as an author and entrepreneur, promotes ideas popular with the MAHA movement, including that Americans are overmedicalized and that diet and lifestyle changes should be at the center of efforts to end widespread chronic disease.

But Means, who did not finish her surgical residency program and doesn’t currently have an active medical license, also had faced scrutiny for her lack of experience and potential conflicts. On top of those concerns, senators grilled her in February about Kennedy’s effort to pull back vaccine recommendations — leading to some contentious moments as Means toed the line between support for vaccines and calling them a decision best made by patients and their doctors.

In her confirmation hearing, Means was repeatedly asked about the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending for all children late last year in a move criticized by scientific and medical groups nationwide and currently blocked during a lawsuit. Means has raised doubts about the birth dose, posting on social media in 2024 that giving the vaccine to a newborn whose parents don’t have hepatitis B was “absolute insanity.”

Means' nomination had languished since the late February confirmation hearing, even as activists from the MAHA movement orchestrated a push to support her bid by surging phone calls to Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. They had both indicated reservations with the pick.

Means told The Associated Press her understanding was that Murkowski wasn't going to vote for her, and Collins had serious reservations.

“I think there was some talking past each other,” Means said of her conversations with the senators, noting they seemed focused on vaccines when she “wasn't coming in with any agenda to impact the vaccine conversation.”

In post Thursday, Trump called Means “a strong MAHA Warrior” and also criticized the “intransigence and political games” from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the chair of the Senate health committee, who is facing a tough reelection this year and who interrogated Means about vaccines during the hearing.

Means' brother, Calley Means, a health adviser to the Trump administration, blamed Cassidy in a social media post, claiming his “constant delay tactics” sank the nomination because he didn't bring Means' nomination to a committee vote. Kennedy later piled on with his own post claiming Cassidy “did the dirty work for entrenched interests seeking to stall the MAHA movement.” Cassidy didn't respond to a request for comment.

Now Trump will try to fill the post a third time

Means is the second U.S. surgeon general pick whose nomination has been withdrawn in Trump’s second term. Trump withdrew his first nominee, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, after questions were raised about her academic credentials.

Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website. She has a doctor of medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, the profile said.

Like Means, Saphier has questioned whether every child needs to get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

“I don't necessarily think it's necessary,” she said on a podcast in September. “My opinion is if a woman recently tested negative for hepatitis B and they’re living a low-risk lifestyle, no IV drug use, not a sex worker, they don’t have a hepatitis B positive person living in the home, then the newborn probably doesn’t need this vaccine and we can have a conversation about whether or not they should get the vaccine later in life.”

She also has criticized COVID vaccine booster requirements, arguing on a radio show in September that they were not always rooted in evidence.

Saphier used the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” years before Kennedy popularized it. It was the title of a book she wrote in 2020 that criticized government handling of health care and the Affordable Care Act.

In at least one case, Saphier has diverted from Trump’s medical messaging. Last year, as Trump advised pregnant women, “Don’t take Tylenol” — promoting unproven and in some cases discredited ties between the medication, vaccines and autism — Saphier said that while pregnant women generally are advised to take acetaminophen only under medical supervision, when necessary and at the lowest effective dose, equally important was that untreated fever or severe pain can also pose serious risks to mothers and babies. She noted that part was missing from Trump's message, delivered at a press conference with top U.S. health officials.

“For decades, women have endured a paternalistic tone in medicine. We’ve moved past dismissing symptoms as ‘hysteria,’” Saphier wrote in an email to the AP at the time. “The President’s recent comments on Tylenol in pregnancy are a prime example. Advising moderation was sound; delivering it in a patronizing, simplistic way was not.”

On a podcast at the time, Saphier said the press conference was “full of hyperbole” and “really painful to watch."

Saphier did not respond to a request for comment.

___ Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.

Weaver gave up a go-ahead, two-run homer to CJ Abrams in the eighth inning that lifted the Washington Nationals to a 5-4 win Thursday and dealt the Mets their 17th defeat in 20 games.

“At the end of the day, this pursuit of perfection is just an ultimate pressurized failure mindset,” Weaver said softly during a lengthy postgame introspection. “Everybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad, and I just don’t think success lives in that realm. It just truly doesn’t and I think the freedom of which we play day to day is just kind of being suffocated a little bit.”

New York is a major league-worst 10-21. The team's .323 winning percentage through April is its fourth-lowest behind bad starts in 1962 (3-13), 1964 (2-10) and 1981 (4-10).

After overcoming a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead on MJ Melendez’s three-run homer in the third and Mark Vientos’ RBI double in the sixth, the Mets lost a game in which they were ahead for the 10th time this year.

Luis García Jr. singled on the first pitch of the eighth from Weaver, and Daylen Lile beat a relay throw to avoid a double play. Abrams drove a hanging changeup 403 feet to right-center.

“I want to do my job. It’s that simple. There’s moments that feel really close, and then there’s just one — mistakes that magnify our situation,” Weaver said. “And, so, of course I sit there and feel the weight of the world, and feel like I let the team down. But at the end of the day, I do feel like I'm in a good spot. It's just, we sit there and we just tell you guys, ‘It’ll come. This is the game. This is the law of averages' and all these things, but at the end of the day those words just don’t hold the same weight when you continue to go (lose) day after day.”

Much was expected from the Mets, whose offseason makeover saw Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Díaz depart, and Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien and Devin Williams arrive. Thus far, it's fizzled.

New York started the season with the major leagues' highest payroll at $358.4 million. A big league-best 45-23 at the start of play on June 13 last year, the Mets are 48-76 since.

They are 27th among the 30 teams with a .227 batting average, 29th with 106 runs and 30th with a .631 OPS.

“Typically we don’t see an entire kind of collective group at the same time not playing their best brand of baseball,” Weaver said.

New York's lone position players batting above .240 are $765 million slugger Juan Soto, whose 15-game absence because of a right calf injury coincided with a 12-game losing streak, and MJ Melendez, who opened the season in the minors but has batted third behind Soto the last two games.

One-third of the Mets’ opening-day lineup is on the injured list. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation) joined shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf) and first baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco (left Achilles, right wrist) on the shelf Thursday.

Weaver and Williams, imported from the crosstown New York Yankees by president of baseball operations David Stearns to rebuild the back of the bullpen, have combined for a 6.86 ERA and three blown saves.

Mets starters are averaging barely five innings per outing. Members of the rotation other than Clay Holmes and rookie Nolan McLean have a 6.04 ERA.

“It just feels like there’s a little bit of a culture that’s just kind of adapted to it unintentionally,” Weaver said. “It’s just how winning and losing goes. When you win, you feel like you’re on top of the world. When you’re losing, everybody wants to talk about the failures and the outcomes. And the magnification just becomes immense.

“Sleep is lost. The mind wanders and you just kind of get into a fixation that you don’t really need to be in.”

The Mets are 8 1/2 games out of the NL’s final playoff spot and 11 1/2 games back of the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. Only two teams — the 1914 Boston Braves and the 1981 Kansas City Royals — have made the playoffs after starting 10-21 or worse — and the Royals did so by winning the AL West second half crown in the split strike season.

“It’s hard for all of us,” embattled manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re in this together. It’s not easy. But we’ve got to keep going. There’s no other choices here. We have a responsibility and we have to turn this thing around.”

Perhaps by going all the way back to their first days as baseball players.

“It’s simplifying the process and maybe doing less,” Weaver said. “Maybe it’s less reps. Maybe it’s more about just enjoying why you do this for a living and trying to just find your inner kid and the joy of why you play the game and not trying to do it for other people.”

___

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

Over the last several weeks, the Saudis have bailed on a Winter Olympics-style sports festival and sold one of their best soccer teams, all while shifting the strategy of their multibillion-dollar investment fund that bankrolls it all.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, helmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recently delivered a new prospectus outlining its strategy for 2026-30. The strategy focuses on more internal investment while “maximizing financial returns, strengthening investment efficiency and increasing private sector participation.”

The ultimate goal is to fulfill the prince's “Vision 2030,” which seeks to enhance and overhaul Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure and make tourism a more focal point of an oil-based economy.

It follows an era in which the fund poured staggering sums of money into various sports ventures around the world. Soccer has been a centerpiece — the country is hosting the 2034 World Cup, while PIF owns a majority stake in Newcastle of the Premier League and bolsters the Saudi Pro League. The fund has also spent big on men's and women's pro tennis, Formula 1, boxing and more.

LIV Golf, though not the most expensive, is the highest profile among them; the fund has reportedly poured some $5 billion into LIV without receiving any return.

“For the past two years, we've seen the beginning of the scaling back of some of the mega projects that were announced in 2021, 2022,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a Middle East expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy “That's exactly when LIV Golf began, as well.”

LIV Golf has new leadership and a new business strategy

The PIF announced Thursday it would withdraw funding for LIV Golf after 2026, ending weeks of speculation and reporting that the Saudis were about to cut the cord. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who was behind the creation of LIV Golf, is no longer listed as chairman of LIV Golf amid reports he has resigned from that role.

Staff and players have been aware for the last two weeks the PIF was only going to support LIV Golf through the end of this year. LIV responded with a new board and a plan to diversify into an investment model with hopes of finding long-term partners.

The PIF's deep pockets were integral for LIV in prying some of the sport's best players from the PGA Tour. It spent $1 billion to land the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith and eventually Jon Rahm, the last big signing at the end of 2023.

In an interview earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said: “We’re interested in having the best players who can help our tour. Not every player can do that.”

Already, five-time major winner Koepka has moved back to the tour from LIV, and Masters champion Patrick Reed plans to return later this year.

In a sign of the times, Saudis scale back multibillion-dollar plans for super-city

About three months ago, Saudi Arabia scaled back plans for a futuristic super-city project called The Line inside a bigger project called “Neom” that was supposed to span more than 100 miles and run from the Red Sea across the desert mountains.

One feature of the project was a resort called Trojena, which was envisioned as a year-round ski resort that would host the 2029 Asian Winter Games (which themselves were moved instead to Kazakhstan). It could have served as a dress rehearsal for future Olympics or, at the very least, the 2034 World Cup that has already been awarded to the kingdom.

More recently, PIF sold 70% of its Saudi Pro League soccer club Al-Hilal to a company owned by Saudi royalty, a move that sent shock waves through that sport — namely raising questions as to whether the fund was still committed to Newcastle of the English Premier League, of which it owns about 85%.

"Whether due to the war or reasons related to economic feasibility, we continuously reassess our priorities,” Al-Rumayyan told the state-owned Al Arabiya news channel shortly after the Al-Hilal sale.

Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told The Associated Press “Saudi Arabia is constantly reassessing its priorities, and its investment strategy will shift accordingly."

“The PIF has always been a vehicle of national transformation first, global sports deals were part of that story, but so is pulling capital closer to home when the moment calls for it,” Soliman said.

War's impacts only add to questions about Saudi's sports future

There's a healthy debate over what impact the U.S. war in Iran is having on the Saudi decision-making.

Some of these decisions — such as the scaling back of the Neom project — were being made earlier in the year when a barrel of oil was selling for $60 — a lower price that can cause the country to endure budget deficits that might have to be financed by cutting into profits of Aramco, the country's national oil producer.

The war, meanwhile, raised oil prices to above $100 but reduced the Saudis' ability to sell it while Iran and the U.S. battle over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the key chokepoint through which up to 25% of the world's oil must pass.

“Ironically, the fact that the Saudis are still able to export maybe two-thirds of their oil at much higher prices over the last six weeks maybe actually means that their revenues may have gone up,” Ulrichsen said. “But this won’t be forever. The war has definitely heightened the element of uncertainty, and the closer it gets to 2030, the more they’ll want to deliver one or two key things, rather than maybe falling short on six or seven in general.”

Golf captures headlines, but soccer and World Cup hover over Saudi decisions

The Saudis have made major inroads into sports other than golf and soccer.

They are in the last of a three-year contract to host a $15 million season-ending tournament on the Women's Tennis Association. The PIF has naming rights for both the WTA and the men's ATP tour.

Saudi Arabia has hosted the Dakar Rally and an F1 event came to the country in 2021. (It was cancelled this year because of the war.)

It has shown interest in hosting the Summer Olympics, maybe as soon as 2036.

All that pales in comparison to its biggest sports undertaking — hosting the World Cup in 2034. That project calls for building 10 or 11 new stadiums across the country, including one in Neom that is planned to hover a quarter-mile above ground.

All those stadiums and all that investment make LIV's $5 billion look small. Still, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the vision LIV began with — as a league that would create teams, then sell them to make the endeavor profitable — hasn't materialized.

“The expense is not on the scale of what they spent on The Line or the (Asian) winter games,” Ulrichsen said. “But it’s significant, and I don't think there's an appetite for the prospect of losses continuing for at least another five or 10 years.”

___

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.

___

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

The decision, a striking reversal of the camp owners' determination to reopen, follows weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations. Those hearings laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency, reliance on poorly trained staff, and missed chances for an evacuation that came too late as floodwaters ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River in the early morning hours of July Fourth.

The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.

As recently as Tuesday, members of the Eastland family told state lawmakers the camp would be ready to open for business for nearly 900 campers on May 30. That swiftly changed with Thursday's announcement that the camp had withdrawn its application for a license renewal for 2026.

“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed Thursday that the camp has withdrawn its application.

The decision was praised by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who opposed the camp's reopening while investigations were ongoing.

“I am thankful to hear that, today, the Eastland family withdrew their application,” Patrick said in a statement. “Given the tragic circumstances, this is the correct decision to protect Texas campers and to allow time for all investigations to be completed.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not weighed in publicly on whether the camp should reopen, noted in a statement Thursday that the result of ongoing investigations into Camp Mystic by DSHS and the Texas Rangers “will be made public as soon as possible.”

Public hearings revealed cascading problems before and during storm

Several civil lawsuits have been filed against the camp and the Eastlands. The families of the victims have packed court and legislative hearings, often wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too late. The testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed for “help!” somewhere in the distance.

Edward Eastland, one of the camp directors, had offered a tearful public apology to the victims’ families on Tuesday.

“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters ... I'm so sorry, ” Eastland said, with the victims’ families sitting behind him.

“We are grateful that no child will be placed in the Eastlands' care this summer,” said Cici and Will Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cile remains the only victim still missing. The hearings proved the camp was not prepared for an emergency then or now, the Stewards said.

“But let there be no confusion about what happened today. Camp Mystic did not withdraw its application out of grace. It withdrew because the state of Texas was about to deny it,” the Stewards said.

The camp had seemed determined to reopen

Camp Mystic had been pressing hard to open in a few weeks. The camp invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp, promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated and impressed that hundreds of families wanted to return, underscoring how special a place it was for generations of Texans.

But last week, state regulators noted nearly two dozen “deficiencies” in its emergency operations plan for this year. They included problems with flood warning evacuation plans, use of an emergency warning and public address system, monitoring safety alerts and training for campers about safety. State regulators noted that hundreds of other camps were also found to be deficient as they try to meet new safety standards enacted after the flood.

Camp Mystic officials insisted they would made the necessary corrections and said at least 850 campers signed up to return this year. Reports that so many families were prepared to send their daughters back this summer caused divisions within the close-knit community of Mystic alumni.

Camp director Britt Eastland told lawmakers this week he believed that the camp community would ultimately be grateful it had reopened this summer. That comment prompted several families to leave the hearing in anger.

Ongoing investigations into the tragedy

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

Texas health regulators have said they are investigating hundreds of complaints against the camp's owners. The Texas Rangers are also looking into allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Safety, although the scope of the state’s elite investigations unit was not immediately clear.

“We never imagined a world without our daughters, and no decision made now can change that,” said Matthew Childress, father of 18-year-old counselor Chloe Childress who died in the flood.

___

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.

The decision came after Jansen’s third blown save in nine chances in Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to the Braves. Jansen gave up a two-run homer to Matt Olson in the the ninth inning.

Hinch turned to Finnegan one day after the right-hander threw 29 pitches in the eighth inning. Finnegan came through for his first save as he pitched around a one-out single by Mike Yastrzemski in the Tigers’ 5-2 come-from-behind win.

“We’re pretty beat up in the ‘pen,” Hinch said. “We’re going through a couple things. ... So, we’ve said we’re going to go different ways. I mean, I’m trying to stay smart with these quick turnarounds.”

Jansen has a 6.14 ERA in 10 games and has given up three homers.

Finnegan has a 0.57 ERA and has allowed only one homer in 15 games. He walked two batters and had one strikeout in a scoreless eighth inning on Wednesday night.

“I thought he threw the ball well last night,” Hinch said of Finnegan. “He probably could have had a punch-out looking back at it instead of a walk.”

Jansen ranks third with 482 saves and was expected to be Detroit’s closer when he signed an $11 million, one-year deal in December.

Finnegan, 34, has 112 saves that include 20 or more in three consecutive seasons with Washington from 2023-25. He also had four saves for Detroit last year.

Thursday’s save helped Detroit (16-16) avoid a three-game sweep and regain a share of the AL Central lead.

Drew Anderson threw two scoreless innings as the Tigers rallied from a 2-0 deficit. Left-hander Framber Valdez gave up two hits in six innings and retired his last 10 batters.

“I thought he got better and better as the day went on,” said Hinch of Valdez. “He settled in nicely. The changeup was very good today. He was able to keep him off-balance. He ended up missing some bats.”

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

Still, even the Pittsburgh Pirates ace knows no matter how his pregame routine goes, he's never really sure what kind of stuff he's going to have on a given day until he steps onto the mound and the leadoff hitter steps into the box.

Many times, such as last week in Milwaukee, it's nearly perfect.

Then there are afternoons like Thursday against St. Louis, when the command that seems to come so easily looks far more ordinary than extraordinary.

Skenes' third pitch of the game landed in the right-field seats at PNC Park courtesy of Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt. Three batters later, Jordan Walker turned on a sweeper that didn't sweep and sent it into the first row of bleachers in left to give the Cardinals the early momentum on their way to a 10-5 victory and a four-game sweep.

The loss dropped Skenes (4-2) to 0-5 against the Cardinals, though that number is a little misleading. His career ERA versus St. Louis sits at 2.95, even after allowing five runs, four earned, in his first rocky performance since a bumpy opening day in New York against the Mets.

That number is telling of the almost impossibly high standard Skenes has set for himself during his rapid rise from first overall draft pick to arguably the best pitcher in the game.

"Nobody expects more out of Paul Skenes than Paul does out of himself,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “I think when he has a game like today or the opener, we have to find a way to pick him, because he picks us up all the time.”

Yet given a chance to put a halt to Pittsburgh's first rough patch this season, Skenes didn't quite have it. He fell behind Wetherholt 2-0 before the St. Louis second baseman turned on a 95 mph fastball — a tick below the usual 98-99 range Skenes sits at — and laced it into the seats above the Roberto Clemente Wall in right.

Ivan Herrera followed with an infield single. Two batters later, Walker pounced on an 83 mph sweeper that caught the inside part of the plate. The ball sailed just over the glove of Pittsburgh left fielder Jake Mangum, sending the Cardinals on their way to their first four-game sweep at PNC Park since 2019.

Asked why St. Louis might have his number — relatively speaking — the 23-year-old Skenes responded with his typical mix of sarcasm and blunt truth.

“They score more runs than us," he said.

Skenes settled in — his nine strikeouts were a season high — but when the Cardinals were able to make contact, they made things happen. They added a run in the third after an infield single by Alec Burleson and a throwing error by rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin led to an RBI single by Nolan Gorman. In the fifth, Burleson flipped his bat at a changeup well off the plate and dumped it into left field to drive in Wetherholt.

“I think that sometimes teams go up there, try to work his pitch count, try to get that up,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t seem to be the case. They’re going up there swinging and trying to get their swing off. ... They put some good swings on the ball today.”

The Pirates fell to 16-16, hardly the horrific start of a year ago that cost former manager Derek Shelton his job, but it also has them off the pace a bit in the hyper-competitive NL Central with first-place Cincinnati coming in for the weekend.

“I mean, every team is going to have skids,” Skenes said. "Just got to get back to who we are and just play our game. Not try to do too much. Just think we’re trying to do too much a little bit, especially today. Just got to be us.”

Pittsburgh second baseman Brandon Lowe said the quiet part out loud about how spoiled the Pirates have become when Skenes' familiar No. 30 is standing on the mound.

“It’s pretty difficult when you sit there and you’re saying, ‘Oh, he struggled’ and he gave up three (runs),” Lowe said.

Lowe, one of a handful of veterans acquired in the offseason to surround the Pirates' young core that includes Skenes and the 20-year-old Griffin, is not concerned about the last week snowballing into something that would put a damper on the positive vibes created during a season that began with plenty of promise.

“When you’re in the training room, you’re in the tubs and stuff like that, showers, you just kind of have conversations and talking with these guys for a long time,” said Lowe, who hit his eighth home run of the season in the seventh. “They have a pretty good head on their shoulders and the way they look at things. ... So it’s just one of those things, you kind of flush the bad ones and focus on the next one.”

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

Venter’s death was announced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a genomics research group with locations in La Jolla, California, and Rockville, Maryland. The institute said he died in San Diego after being hospitalized for side effects from a recent cancer treatment.

In the 1990s Venter bet that he could use a different sequencing technique to speed up the process of decoding the human genome and beat an enormous government effort called the Human Genome Project. And in 2000, Venter’s private company Celera Genomics announced, along with Human Genome Project leaders, that they had decoded the 3.1 billion sub-units of DNA, the chemical “letters″ that make up the recipe of human life. Three years later, in April 2003, the project declared the genome complete.

“Some have said to me that sequencing the human genome will diminish humanity by taking the mystery out of life,” Venter said at a White House event in 2000 about the breakthrough. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

And his work did reveal even greater mysteries — even as it helped scientists understand the genetic causes for rare diseases and more common conditions such as heart disease and cancer, as well as what mutations or shifts may put people at higher risk of disease.

Venter, who served in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam, said the experience taught him how fragile life could be and made him curious about how the trillions of cells in the human body conspire to create and maintain life.

He also worked at the National Institutes of Health, where he helped develop a technique to quickly identify large swathes of human genes.

Later, he was the first to publish his own sequenced genome with the hope that researchers could scan it to learn what was inherited from each parent and where vulnerabilities to disease might lie, opening doors to one day tailor future treatments to a person's genes. He and his team also made a breakthrough in synthetic biology by creating a bacterial cell with lab-synthesized DNA.

—-

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.

The 44-year-old pop star was charged with a single misdemeanor count of driving under the combined influence of alcohol and at least one drug, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said.

A Spears representative had no immediate comment.

The criminal complaint does not specify what kind of alcohol or drugs, or what amount, Spears is accused of having used.

Spears, who has since entered substance abuse treatment, was arrested March 4 after she was pulled over for driving her black BMW fast and erratically on U.S. 101 near her home, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of field sobriety tests, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs and was taken to a Ventura County jail, the CHP said.

She was released on bail the following day. Police completed their investigation and presented it to prosecutors on March 23.

A representative at the time called Spears’ actions “completely inexcusable” and said it would ideally be “the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”

Spears voluntarily checked into a substance abuse treatment facility just over a month after the arrest, her representative said.

Spears’ arraignment is set for Monday. Because it is a misdemeanor charge, she will not be required to appear in court, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the case will be handled according to their standard protocol for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road and a low blood-alcohol level.

In court on Monday, Spears will be offered what is commonly known as a “wet reckless,” allowing a defendant to plead guilty and get a year of probation, credit for any time served in jail, a required DUI class and state-mandated fines and fees, prosecutors said.

The offer is common especially for defendants who have independently shown motivation to address their problems and seek treatment, the district attorney’s office said.

The singer has a home in Ventura County just outside the Los Angeles County line. Her arraignment will be held in the city of Ventura, a seaside community of about 110,000 people about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of downtown LA.

The onetime teen pop phenomenon and “Mickey Mouse Club” alum became a defining superstar of the 1990s and 2000s with hits like “Toxic,” “Gimme More” and “I'm a Slave 4 U.” Most of Spears' albums have been certified platinum, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, with two diamond titles: 1999’s “ … Baby One More Time” and 2000's “Oops! … I Did It Again.”

Spears became a tabloid focus in the early 2000s, and a source of public scrutiny, as she battled mental illness and paparazzi documented the details of her private life.

In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and financial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021.

Since then, she has married and divorced, and released a bestselling, tell-all memoir, “The Woman in Me.”

She has essentially been retired as an artist in recent years, releasing only a few collaborative singles since her last full album in 2016.

Hegseth seemed to emerge with solid Republican support over his leadership and handling of the war. But a few GOP lawmakers questioned his dismissal of a top Army general, while some sought assurances that the Pentagon is doing everything possible to prevent civilian deaths.

The hearings Wednesday and Thursday before the House and Senate Armed Services committees delved into the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and other Pentagon officials stressed the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.

While Republicans focused on the details of military budgeting and voiced support for the Iran operation, Democrats grilled Hegseth about the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children.

Here are some takeaways from the hearings:

Hegseth clashes with Democrats over strategy of the Iran war and its economic impact

The hearings were the first time a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet has defended the war publicly on Capitol Hill since it entered the conflict without congressional approval two months ago.

Hegseth did not hold back in his criticism of anyone who questioned the war.

“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth said on Thursday as he opened the second day of hearings.

He cast the conflict as a historic victory by a president who, unlike his predecessors, is backing up his tough talk on Iran. Yet even Hegseth’s timeline for the war included a tacit admission that it has dragged on much longer than Trump’s initial pledges of only a few weeks.

Democrats relentlessly questioned Hegseth on end-goals for the war and sought to highlight the steep economic repercussions being felt through high prices for gas and other goods.

“I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad for them because you betrayed them,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, told Hegseth as he questioned the war costs during a nearly six-hour hearing Wednesday.

Sen. Jack Reed, the Senate committee’s ranking Democrat, argued Thursday that the war has left the U.S. in a worse strategic position, with 13 American troops killed and more than 400 injured.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical sea route for global oil shipments, remains closed, sending fuel prices skyrocketing. Iran still has highly enriched uranium and enough combat capabilities to keep the conflict locked in an impasse.

“I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear,” Reed said.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is coming under growing pressure from Republicans on Capitol Hill to find an end to the conflict, especially as a 60-day legal window expires for the president to conduct the military campaign without permission from Congress.

That deadline is Friday, but Hegseth claimed that because a fragile truce is in place, "the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, responded, “I do not believe the statute would support that,” adding that he had “serious constitutional concerns.”

The Iran war has cost $25 billion so far

Pentagon officials informed lawmakers that the cost of the war to date is $25 billion, with most of that being spent on munitions. Operations and equipment repairs also have contributed to the costs.

Still, that number was met with some skepticism on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been expecting an eventual request for war funding from the White House to run closer to $100 billion.

There is also concern that the bombing campaign against Iran has depleted America's supply of weapons, such as crucial missile defense systems, potentially leaving the country vulnerable if conflicts break out in other areas of the globe.

Hegseth contended that the Pentagon is not in any danger of running low on munitions, yet he also blamed any challenges on President Joe Biden’s decision to assist Ukraine as well as on an aging U.S. defense manufacturing industry.

“On the munitions front, we’re in really good shape, but we need to accelerate,” Hegseth told senators.

He presented the Pentagon’s budget request as vital to the goal of multiplying munition production rates and said he plans to bolster the industry so that it can quickly replace any munitions used in the Iran war.

The budget request would amount to a record boost to defense spending that would increase the Pentagon’s budget by over 40% from the previous year.

Pentagon firings rankle Democrats and some Republicans

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

Houlahan said George was deeply respected by members of the military and Congress and asked why Hegseth fired him. Hegseth’s response that “new leadership” was needed failed to satisfy her.

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

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa also spoke out about George, saying she was “disappointed” to see his retirement “hastened."

Ernst said George “pulled the Army out of its worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam era” and trimmed “nonessential” positions. George had held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023.

“He had 38 years of honorable service. He achieved the greatest Army recruitment and modernization effort in a generation,” Ernst said.

Bombing of Iranian school still under investigation

Hegseth told lawmakers in the House that a deadly strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed more than 165 people, including many children, is an “unfortunate situation" that is still under investigation.

The Associated Press has reported there was growing evidence that pointed to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Iran. Experts, citing satellite image analysis, said the school was probably struck as bombs were dropped on the compound in quick succession.

Senators wanted to know what the Pentagon is doing to prevent deaths of civilians.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York asked Hegseth: “What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut by 90% the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians?”

Hegseth responded that the Pentagon has an “ironclad commitment” to do more than other countries to prevent civilian deaths. ___

Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.

Amazon and Duke announced Thursday they had reached a multiyear agreement to broadcast three of the Blue Devils' neutral-site nonconference matchups per season. This marks the first college partnership for Prime Video, which has aired NFL and NBA games among other sports.

This fall's broadcasts include a Nov. 25 matchup between Duke and UConn in Las Vegas, a rematch of the Huskies' comeback from 19 down to win on a last-second shot in the NCAA Elite Eight. Next is a Dec. 21 matchup against reigning NCAA champion Michigan in New York's Madison Square Garden. Finally, Duke will face Gonzaga on Feb. 20 in Detroit.

“Duke basketball games transcend the schedule," said Charlie Neiman, Prime Video's head of sports partnerships, "and the creation of this all-new offering gives fans more of what we all want, marquee matchups featuring the most successful programs in the nation.”

In its release, Duke said the Blue Devils have also agreed to participate in additional events owned and operated by ESPN across the 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons “in exchange for the flexibility” to schedule the Prime Video events. Those come as part of ESPN's partnership with Duke's Atlantic Coast Conference home.

In a statement, Duke athletic director Nina King said the deal “expands the global reach” for the program that has won five NCAA championships.

___

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Both approaches were optimal in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship.

Young shot a bogey-free round of 8-under 64 on Thursday, taking a one-shot lead over Spieth and Alex Smalley at Trump International Doral to open the $20 million signature event — the first PGA Tour event at the course in 10 years.

“I think you can be pretty aggressive into a lot of the greens,” Young said. “They’re not particularly firm. I feel like the ball’s sitting when you need it to. So, it’s more just about avoiding some of the big mistakes. There's a couple spots where the rough’s a little longer and obviously there’s tons of water out there.”

Young made some putts — about 98 feet worth, to be exact — and his round got rolling with barely any putt at all. He hit his approach from 154 yards to about an inch on the par-4 second, and he went on to make three birdie putts from 25 feet or more before the day was done.

“I feel like I made a billion feet of putts, which I think works most places,” Young said. “It’s just one of those days that each mistake I made I was not penalized as much as I could have been. And every time my ball got near the hole it seemed to want to go in today.”

Spieth chipped in for eagle on the par-5 eighth hole and survived a pair of bogeys on the back nine. He said he relied on notes he took in the Wednesday pro-am — “nerdy stuff,” he called it — and generally stayed in control of his round.

“I didn’t love some of the swings I made,” Spieth said. “But I was able to kind of put them in the right spot and I made some really good swings as well.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had a slightly different opinion after his opening round.

He made three birdies in the first five holes, then didn't get another the rest of the day. Back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11 dropped him to 1 under, and that's where he stayed — with a highlight that might have been a par save on the par-4 14th after he sprayed a driver way right and had the club come out of his hands on the follow-through.

It's the sixth time in his last eight starts that Scheffler — who, to be fair, almost always finds a way to contend — has been no better than 20th after an opening round.

“I just wasn’t capitalizing on a lot of stuff today,” Scheffler said. “Felt like I could have holed a few more putts. Couple more fairways. Felt like when I got a touch off I wasn’t able to get it back and didn’t really steal any shots today.”

Nick Taylor (66) was in fourth, two shots off of Young's lead, while Nico Echavarria — a winner of the Cognizant Classic, about a 90-minute drive north of Doral at PGA National earlier this year — was three shots back after an opening-round 67.

Most of this week's field is playing Doral for the first time, at least as pros. The course held LIV Golf events from 2022 through 2025, but the PGA Tour stopped using the course — a longtime highlight of the Florida Swing — when President Donald Trump bought the facility.

Adam Scott was the most recent PGA Tour winner at Doral, prevailing in the World Golf Championship-Cadillac Championship in 2016. He shot a 76 on Thursday, two shots worse than Justin Rose — a winner at Doral in 2012.

Young proved to be a quick study.

“I think most of the tee shots are pretty apparent, which is what good courses give you,” Young said. “I think it doesn’t try to hide anything. So, learning the course wasn’t a huge deal, I wouldn’t say.”

___

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

The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that the USCGC Tampa was found about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom, at a depth exceeding 300 feet (90 meters) deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The cutter's wreckage was located and confirmed by the British technical-diving team Gasperados.

Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement that the courage and sacrifice of the Tampa's crew reflected the legacy of the Coast Guard, which has defended the U.S. during every armed conflict since its 1790 founding.

“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service," Lunday said. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures.”

The Tampa was lost after being torpedoed by a German submarine in the Bristol Channel, officials said. The vessel sank in less than three minutes, resulting in the death of all 131 people aboard. That included 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians. It was largest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I.

Gasperados Dive Team conducted 10 trips to possible dive locations.

“This discovery is the result of three years of research and exploration," team leader Steve Mortimer said in a Facebook post. "TAMPA is of huge importance to the United States and the relatives of everyone who died that day. Their final resting place is known at last.”

The all-volunteer team first contacted the Coast Guard Historian's Office in 2023 regarding the Tampa.

“We provided the dive team with historical records and technical data to assist in confirming the wreck site,” Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian William Thiesen said in a statement. “This included the archival images of the deck fittings, ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry, and archival images of the Tampa.”

The Coast Guard is now developing plans for underwater research and exploration.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton enters the race as a potentially formidable candidate, though it appears likely that at least a few of the eight other, lesser-known Democrats who previously launched campaigns would remain in the Aug. 4 primary. The winner will face incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, who aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump in his first run for the Senate in 2020.

Hamilton, 61, has a national following among mainline Protestants, and he’s built his Church of the Resurrection over the past 35 years in the Kansas City area with about 22,000 members — giving him a base from which to tap volunteers and donors.

Hamilton weighed an independent run first

He had considered running as an independent, telling his congregation that he could bridge partisan divides in a highly polarized political climate. However, many Democrats believed that would simply split the anti-Marshall vote, giving Marshall a second term.

“Every week, it seemed there was another news story in the last year where I would find myself shaking my head and thinking, we have to do better,” the self-described fifth-generation Kansan said.

While Democrats and Republicans have traded off the Kansas governor’s office for the past 60 years, Republicans haven’t lost a U.S. Senate race in the state since 1932. Democrats gave Marshall a vigorous challenge in 2020, but he still prevailed by more than 11 percentage points, even as Democrat Joe Biden ousted Trump and his party won control of both houses of Congress.

In some ways, Hamilton’s candidacy would be similar to that of the Democratic nominee in Texas, state Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian minister in training who speaks often of his faith and how it guides his positions. However, Hamilton is a generation older.

Hamilton has been registered as both a Democrat and a Republican previously, according to voter records, but switched to unaffiliated in February. He has registered as a Democrat again, his campaign said Thursday.

Run greeted with skepticism on both sides

The Kansas Republican Party quickly signaled that it plans to portray Hamilton as liberal and out of step with the state, however he identifies himself.

“His so-called ‘independent’ exploration was little more than a political marketing strategy to mask a radical left agenda,” its executive director, Rob Fillion, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, two Democratic primary opponents were skeptical of Hamilton's return to their party.

A spokesman for state Sen. Patrick Schmidt of Topeka noted that Hamilton registered as a Republican for the August 2020 primary and argued that the pastor was not a Democrat “when it counted most.”

Noah Taylor, a Wichita-area veteran who served in Afghanistan, said Hamilton's return was “not a conversion.”

"That's a calculation,” he said.

Hamilton started massive church from nothing

But other Democrats — and Marshall — must reckon with Hamilton's ability to attract followers and raise money.

Hamilton was a graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa and then Southern Methodist University in Dallas when his denomination tapped him at age 25 to start a church in suburban Kansas City for nonchurchgoers.

Worshippers initially met in the small chapel of a local funeral home and now gather at nine campuses. The main one, on 76 acres (30 hectares) in an affluent suburb, resembles a small college. The Christmas Eve offering — devoted to mission work — sometimes tops $2 million.

Hamilton also has written and published dozens of books, and his video-based lessons are popular for Sunday school classes in churches across the country. In 2013, he preached at the National Prayer Service.

He's running in what promises to be a challenging midterm election year for Republicans. Polling shows most Americans believe the U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far and voters are increasingly worried about what they see as Trump’s failure to address affordability issues.

Hamilton’s home of Johnson County is the state’s most populous, with 643,000 people, more than one in every five Kansas residents. Once overwhelming Republican, it has grown increasingly blue, voting against Trump in the last two presidential elections.

The county is a key reason why a state with an overwhelmingly GOP Legislature has a Democratic governor.

Hamilton's views shaped through decades as a pastor

How voters view Hamilton’s politics is a key question, because he’ll need to win over disaffected Republicans as well as unaffiliated voters — the formula for Democrat Laura Kelly’s successful bid for governor in 2018 and narrow reelection win in 2022.

Hamilton’s congregation is a nearly equal mix of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and he describes himself as “a liberal conservative and a conservative liberal.”

Although Hamilton hasn’t run for public office before, he isn’t a blank slate, with decades of sermons, and more recently podcasts and Facebook videos.

Following a surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, for instance, Hamilton cited an Old Testament verse that commands Israelites to treat foreigners with love and fairness.

On abortion, the father of two married to his high school sweetheart said during the final stop of a listening tour earlier this month that he voted in 2022 against a state constitutional amendment that would have cleared the way for tougher abortion restrictions or a ban in Kansas.

He said lawmakers should not be “the ethicists and the spiritual guides” for women and that he has counseled rape victims. However, he also said his mother considered an abortion when she got pregnant with him as a teenager.

“I feel both of these things at the same time,” he said.

But Taylor said Hamilton “couldn't decide he was pro-choice until last week,” and Democratic state Rep. Alexis Simmons, of Topeka, focused on abortion in a Facebook post and reacted to Hamilton's announcement with, “Why would we go backwards?”

“Sorry but no," she posted. "It’s 2026.”

___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

Dorothy Carey, 71, who moved to Canton Township in November, said the encounter happened early last week while she was home watching television.

“He come up on the porch and I went outside to talk to him,” Dorothy said. “He said, ‘I’m from DTE,’ and here’s my ID.”

The man showed what appeared to be an employee badge featuring a photo and the DTE logo. Dorothy said he also wore an orange safety vest and a shirt with what looked like a DTE patch.

“It looked normal -- looked like a regular DTE logo,” she said.

The man told Dorothy that DTE had discovered residents in the area were being overcharged and said he needed to see her utility bill to verify the charges.

Dorothy went inside to look for her bill but couldn’t immediately find it. She then mentioned that her DTE charges might be bundled with her lot payment.

“He says, ‘Oh, okay then, thank you,’ and he left real fast,” she said.

At first, Dorothy said she didn’t suspect anything unusual, but later realized the whole encounter felt odd.

“Why would he ask to see the bill if they overbilled me,” she said. Dorothy also said the man told her he was going door-to-door, but said she never saw him go to any other homes.

The next morning, Dorothy contacted DTE and described the interaction. She said a representative checked the area.

“She said, ‘Ma’am, no, nobody was scheduled to be in that area at all,’” Dorothy said. “And I said, ‘Well, he looked like he was from DTE.’ And she said, ‘Oh, believe me, they are good. They are good now. They’re scammers.’”

Local 4 also contacted DTE and they confirmed “This is certainly not a DTE employee.”

The whole encounter has left Dorothy shaken.

“I was scared,” she said. “My God, I’m outside with him. My door is unlocked. He could’ve just pushed me inside.”

Dorothy described the man as tall, African-American, with short, curly hair. She said she never saw a vehicle and believed he was walking/cutting through the neighborhood.

DTE and Canton Township police said scammers impersonating utility workers are continuing to target residents across Michigan and the country, often focusing on seniors, new homeowners and people living alone.

DTE officials said customers should always ask for identification before speaking with anyone claiming to be a company employee. While scheduled work is often announced ahead of time, unscheduled visits can happen if crews are working nearby or filling gaps between projects.

The company said it is rare for employees to need access inside a home, though it can happen for indoor meter work, pipe inspections or relighting appliances.

DTE employees will never request payment at a home, ask customers to purchase prepaid debit cards, threaten immediate shutoffs, sell solar panels or request to see billing information at the door, according to the company.

Neighbors who are uncertain about a worker’s identity are encouraged to keep their doors locked and call DTE directly at 800-477-4747 to verify whether crews are in the area.

Anyone who refuses to show identification, acts aggressively or behaves suspiciously should be denied entry and reported to police.

Dorothy now hopes others will learn from her experience.

“If anybody comes to your door -- DTE, a gas company, whatever — keep them outside,” she said. “You call the place they say they’re from to make sure they got somebody at your house.”

Looking back, she said the situation is still unsettling.

“You don’t know what he’s trying to do,” Dorothy said. “He could’ve had a gun or something. I don’t know.”

Local 4 spoke further with DTE and they said it would be a violation if anyone -- even other gas companies -- were to present themselves as a DTE worker. DTE stressed that even aggressive salespeople go after seniors and lower-income residents.

“It’s a common thing and it’s happening every day,” a spokesperson said. “It’s actually the time of year, where it’s ramping up — in the summertime.”

Additional information:

• Natural gas customers in Michigan have the option to choose who supplies their natural gas through the Gas Customer Choice program.  
• You can select the natural gas supplier of your choice or do nothing and continue to get your natural gas supplied by DTE under regulated rates. Regulated rates are those that the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) must review and approve on behalf of customers. The rates of alternative gas suppliers are not regulated. Unregulated rates are whatever the supplier chooses to charge, with no MPSC review or approval.  
• DTE will not contact you to offer special deals on rates – like lower rates for a limited time – and we do not solicit by phone or at your door. If you receive a call or encounter a door-to-door salesperson detailing a discount, please know that this is not DTE and may be an alternative gas supplier offering an unregulated rate.  
• Alternative gas suppliers sometimes offer promotional rates at the onset of your contract; but remember, promotional rates may not last for your entire contract. For instance, you may be offered free natural gas for a few weeks or months – perhaps during the summer when you may not use much natural gas anyway – and the normal, unregulated rate could start as temperatures drop and you begin using more gas.  
• If you wish to use an alternative gas supplier, you should shop around just as you would for any product. Look at the MPSC’s comparison site at Michigan.gov/compareMIgas, which compares unregulated rates with DTE’s regulated rate. Call suppliers and get their prices and contract terms. Read all information provided by the supplier before you sign the contract.  
• Do not give your DTE account number over the phone to an alternative gas supplier until you are sure you are signing up.  
• If you use an alternative gas supplier, regularly review your bill and gas choice rate. Alternative gas supplier rates are unregulated, so they are subject to change.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the team isn't releasing details of Nix's cleanup performed by Dr. Norman Waldrop III, who operated on Nix after Denver's quarterback broke a bone in his right ankle on Jan. 18 during the AFC playoffs.

The Broncos will probably be conservative with Nix following the follow-up surgery, which was either going to take place this spring or after next season.

Nix has been working out at the team's suburban Denver headquarters but backup Jarrett Stidham and No. 3 QB Sam Ehlinger will in all likelihood share snaps ahead of training camp in late July when Nix is expected to return to action.

Other than their rookie minicamp next week, the Broncos have pushed their on-field workouts during OTAs and minicamp to June.

Coach Sean Payton confirmed Nix's follow-up with his surgeon after the Broncos concluded the NFL draft Saturday but didn't go into any details about the cleanup operation.

“He had a recheck that was scheduled,” Payton said. “He’s doing great. We’re excited about his progress. Nothing to report.”

Nix got injured while leading the Broncos to their game-winning field goal in overtime against the Buffalo Bills in the divisional playoffs. Backup Jarrett Stidham started in his place the following week in the AFC championship, which Denver lost 10-7 at home to the New England Patriots in a blizzard.

Team owner and CEO Greg Penner told reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Arizona that Nix was “ahead of schedule, no concerns at all for OTAs and games." Payton echoed those sentiments, saying Nix would be a full participant in OTAs.

Those plans changed recently when Nix and his surgeon, in consultation with the team, opted to do the cleanup now rather than waiting for next offseason.

Nix is 25-11 in his two NFL seasons after being the 12th overall selection in the 2025 draft out of Oregon.

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

The move now thrusts political newcomer Graham Platner, an oyster farmer almost no one knew a year ago, as the expected Democratic front-runner against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose seat Democrats are targeting in their effort to win control of the closely divided Senate.

“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else – the fight – to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources," Mills said in a statement. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”

Mills, a two-term governor and longtime Maine politician, was seen as one of Democrats' top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race last year. She had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and prominent left-leaning advocacy groups hoping to unseat Collins in the chamber, which has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.

But Mills struggled to outshine first-time candidate Platner, her opponent in the June 9 Democratic primary. Platner has maintained strong popularity despite facing controversy over past comments he made online and a tattoo he had that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.

Mills did not endorse Platner in her campaign suspension announcement, but she said in a follow-up statement that she would “continue to hear and watch how Graham Platner works to earn the support of Maine voters.”

Meanwhile, Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York, said they would work with Platner to defeat Collins.

“Our North Star is winning a Democratic Senate majority, and over the past year, Senate Democrats have carved out multiple paths to do that,” their statement said.

Democrats debate how to win back some power

The contest between Platner and Mills was part of a broader debate within the Democratic Party over how best to defeat Republicans and win back some power in President Donald Trump's Washington, where the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

While Schumer backed Mills, his caucus did not fall in line.

Platner is backed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

Platner held a series of events Thursday thanking Mills for her service and acknowledging he's going to face potentially millions of dollars in attack ads from Republicans in the coming months.

"The Republican Party is going to come after us with everything they’ve got,” Platner said. “The way we break through that is by connecting with people directly.”

Mills had tried to convince voters that she was the best candidate to stand up to Trump, repeatedly noting she told the president she would see him in court, a reference to Maine officials' lawsuit against the Trump administration over federal funding and a dispute over transgender athletes in sports.

Yet the message appeared at times drowned out by the popularity Platner attracted on the campaign trail. His events have attracted thousands of supporters as he pitched his populist message and flooded airwaves with his ads. He consistently outraised Mills every step of the way, raising $4 million while Mills raised $2.6 million in the latest fundraising quarter. Collins raised $3.1 million but has $10 million in the bank.

Age also became an issue in the race, as some Democrats want younger candidates to lead the party going forward. Mills is 78, while Plater is 41. Collins is 73.

“I’m sure this was a difficult decision for Governor Mills, and I thank her for her decades of service to the people of Maine,” Collins said in a statement.

So far this year, Democrats have largely avoided messy internal fights in their bid to retake the Senate. The Maine race was an exception, and with Mills’ decision, the Michigan Democratic primary could be the most heated campaign this year. Abdul El-Sayed, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow are locked in a competitive race there ahead of the August primary.

Many political observers initially anticipated that it would be Platner, not Mills, who would be forced to bow out of the race.

Questions about Platner

Platner has been dogged by questions about the skull-and-crossbones tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol that he said he got on his chest during a night of drinking while on military leave in Croatia. He has said the tattoo has been covered to no longer reflect that image. Additionally, there have been lingering questions about inflammatory comments he made in old online postings, which he has since disavowed.

Yet, Platner's willingness to talk about his past mistakes has helped propel his favorability.

Republicans had already begun attacking Platner ahead of Mills' campaign suspension announcement, pointing to his old social media posts that were dismissive of sexual assault. Among the posts, Platner once wrote on Reddit that people shouldn’t get so drunk “they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”

“Now with Chuck Schumer‘s reluctant support, Platner’s attempt at the Senate will be yet another fantasy that will end when Susan Collins grinds this fraudster into dust,” said Alex Latcham, executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, in a statement.

___

Kruesi reported from Providence. R.I. Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed from Washington.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The company has been considering the policy change since at least early this year, after being pressured by Trump administration officials to ease restrictions on transporting weapons, two people familiar with the proposed plan told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about it publicly.

They said the railroad hasn’t abandoned the proposal despite Saturday’s arrest of a man who authorities say traveled by Amtrak from California to Washington, D.C., with his firearms intent on killing President Donald Trump and other administration officials at Saturday's event.

Cole Tomas Allen was arrested after authorities say he tried to race past security barricades near the hotel ballroom that was hosting the dinner, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents. A Secret Service officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest and survived.

Authorities say Allen was armed with a shotgun and semiautomatic pistol that he brought with him by rail from his home in Torrance, California. Amtrak declined to say if he followed the company’s existing rules, which would have required him to declare he had guns and allow the railroad to lock them up with his checked bags. A lawyer for Allen has said he has no criminal record and is presumed innocent.

Amtrak's proposed rule change, which the railroad could begin testing soon, calls for adding lockboxes to its trains to allow passengers throughout the country to bring guns aboard, instead of only allowing guns on trains that have locked baggage cars, according to the people who spoke to the AP.

The change would open up more than 1,500 trains a day to allowing guns aboard — including the routes that roughly 750,000 people travel every day in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor — instead of the current rule that only allows guns on a couple dozen mostly long-distance trains that have locked baggage cars.

John Feinblatt, president of the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, said doing this would decrease safety.

“Just days after a man took an Amtrak train to Washington with a shotgun and pistol and tried to assassinate the president and other federal officials, the Trump Administration is trying to open the floodgates for firearms on every Amtrak route, while also moving to hollow out the agency responsible for enforcing gun laws and preventing gun trafficking,” he said. “This will only make Americans less safe and Congress must step in before the next tragedy.”

Officials at Amtrak and the Transportation Department didn't immediately respond to questions about the gun policy.

How this would change the rules

Currently, Amtrak requires passengers to declare they are bringing firearms aboard and secure them unloaded in a hard case. The guns must meet certain size and weight requirements. Such weapons are only allowed in checked baggage, similar to policies for firearms being transported on commercial flights.

This proposed change would still require guns to be locked up aboard trains, and only the conductor would have the key, according to the two people who spoke to the AP. But the plan would be to add lock boxes to every train.

It's unclear how Amtrak would determine who is legally allowed to carry a gun and whether local laws at their destinations would permit it. In some places, including New York City, there are restrictions on who can carry guns and a permit might be required. But other places have looser gun restrictions.

Despite Amtrak's current gun policies, it's possible that some passengers are already armed or have carried guns on board. Unlike airports, which screen passengers and their luggage, train passengers aren't screened and Amtrak doesn't run passenger names through a criminal database to identify possible threats. That's true at crowded terminals such as Washington's Union Station and the tiny unstaffed stations throughout the country where trains stop in the middle of the night to pick up passengers.

In those sleepy unstaffed stations, passengers routinely board and the train starts moving again before the conductor ever makes contact or scans their tickets. So there would be at least several minutes before a gun could be secured under the proposal.

Security expert Sheldon Jacobson, whose research contributed to the design of the TSA PreCheck system used in aviation, said railroads should do more to screen their passengers ahead of time by collecting more information when they sell the tickets and checking passengers' backgrounds. But he said it's not possible to eliminate guns on trains when there is no way to enforce the rule.

“The initial condition is that there’s almost 400 million guns in this country,” he said. “Then work from there as opposed to trying to create a utopian environment where there’s not guns and we’re going to keep it that way.”

Rail travel poses fewer risks than air travel, so it wouldn’t be worth the investment needed to create a strict passenger screening system at every train station similar to what TSA does at airports, Jacobson said. But he acknowledged that calculation could change if there ever were a major tragedy on a passenger train.

“You have to weigh the risks and rewards. And you have to say, where are we going to put our money to get the greatest risk reduction for the greatest benefit with the least inconvenience to people?” he said.

Unions have sought worker protections for years

Unions have been fighting to strengthen passenger rail workers' protections for nearly a decade, after several incidents like the 2017 shooting of a conductor by an enraged passenger at the train station in Naperville, Illinois.

Two bills in Congress would give rail workers similar protections to what airline crews have by making it a federal crime to interfere with or assault a rail worker performing their duties. The unions have also had some success getting states to pass laws.

Amtrak and many other ground transportation companies barred weapons on trains and buses after 9/11, but none put security measures in place to detect or screen every passenger for firearms. In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring Amtrak and other companies to allow firearms to be transported as long as they are checked.

The country's official terror threat level was raised from substantial to severe after Wednesday's stabbing attack in London, which police have called an act of terrorism with potential links to Iran. Severe is the second-highest rung on a five-point scale and means intelligence agencies consider an attack highly likely in the next six months.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his government “will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out” after two Jewish men, ages 34 and 76, were seriously injured in a stabbing in Golders Green, an area in north London that is an epicenter of Britain's Jewish community. Both men are in a stable condition.

But some in the community turned their anger on the government, which they say is failing to tackle antisemitism. Starmer was heckled by about 100 protesters holding signs saying “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer” when he visited Golders Green on Thursday.

The prime minister said in response that “I absolutely understand the high levels of anxiety and concern that there are.”

“Antisemitism is an old, old hatred. History shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back," he said during a televised statement at 10 Downing St. “Yet far too many people in this country diminish it.”

Police have arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder over the attack. Detectives are working to determine a motive and whether there is any link to Iranian proxies.

The suspect, whose name hasn’t been released, had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues,” police said. In 2020, he was referred to the government’s Prevent program, which tries to steer individuals away from extremism. The police force said that his file was closed later the same year, and didn't disclose the reason for the referral.

Stabbing follows arson attacks

Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000 people, has faced growing attacks online and in the streets.

The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community Security Trust charity.

In October, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and fatally stabbed one man. Another man died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.

Since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, there have been a string of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London as well as on opponents of the Iranian government.

Police say that 28 people have been arrested over those attacks, which did not cause any injuries. A handful have been charged and one teenager has been convicted after pleading guilty.

Police investigate potential link to Iran proxies

Several arson attacks have been claimed online in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Israel’s government has described the group, whose name means the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy” that has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

An online post under the same name also claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s stabbing. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that authorities were investigating whether that claim is credible or “opportunistic.”

Security experts say its claims should be treated with caution, but the U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting Iranian opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year ending in October.

The government said the increased threat level was not solely a result of the Golders Green attack, but also due to increased danger “from Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K.”

The threat level stood at severe for much of the time between 2014 and February 2022, when it was lowered to substantial.

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of counterterrorism policing at the Metropolitan Police, said "we are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the U.K. We’re also working against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state linked actors.”

Government under pressure to tackle antisemitism

Starmer pledged that the attacks would bring a “swift and visible” criminal justice response. Mahmood said that she's treating antisemitism as “an emergency,” describing it as the top security issue she faced.

The government announced 25 million pounds ($34 million) for more police patrols and protection around synagogues, schools and community centers, and Starmer said that the courts would speed up sentencing on antisemitic attacks as a deterrent.

But some Jews and others say the government has allowed an atmosphere of antisemitism to grow. They say pro-Palestinian protests, held regularly since October 2023, have gone beyond criticism of Israel's actions to foster an atmosphere of intimidation and hatred against Jews.

The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, but some say chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” incite anti-Jewish hatred. Some protesters have been arrested for displaying support for Hamas, a banned organization in the U.K.

Jonathan Hall, the government’s reviewer of terrorism legislation, called for pro-Palestinian marches to be temporarily banned, saying they had helped “incubate” antisemitism.

The government hasn't backed a ban, but Starmer said that protesters who used the phrase “globalize the intifada” — seen by some as a call for attacks on Jews — should be prosecuted.

Starmer said that the government would fast-track powers “to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran — because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews."

Florida's Republican-led Legislature is latest to act, approving new House districts that could help the GOP win several additional seats in this year's elections. That could offset Democratic gains in Virginia, where voters recently approved a new U.S. House map designed to flip several seats to Democrats.

Next up could be Louisiana, where Republican state lawmakers plan to revise congressional districts in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But President Donald Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.

Republicans believe they could win up to 13 additional seats from new congressional districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain up to 10 seats from new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But that presumes past voting patterns hold in November. And that’s uncertain, especially since the party in power typically loses seats in the midterms and Trump faces negative approval ratings in polls.

Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, potentially allowing them to obstruct Trump’s agenda.

Next up: Louisiana

Current map: two Democrats, four Republicans

New map: Republican state lawmakers will be working in May to revise U.S. House districts in response to an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a majority Black congressional district.

Challenges: Time is short. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has postponed the May 16 congressional primary to allow for new districts to be drawn.

Where new House districts were approved

New U.S. House districts have passed in eight states since last summer. Six took up redistricting voluntarily, one was required to by its state constitution and another did so under court order.

Texas

Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in December cleared the way for the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It has since overturned a lower-court ruling that blocked the new map because it was “racially gerrymandered.”

California

Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in February allowed the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It denied an appeal from Republicans and the Department of Justice, which claimed the districts impermissibly favor Hispanic voters.

Missouri

Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A Cole County judge ruled the new map is in effect as election officials work to determine whether a referendum petition seeking a statewide vote complies with constitutional criteria and contains enough valid petition signatures. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit claiming mid-decade redistricting is illegal. It's scheduled to hear arguments in May on claims the new districts violate compactness requirements and should be placed on hold pending the potential referendum.

North Carolina

Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A federal court panel in November denied a request to block the revised districts from being used in the midterm elections.

Ohio

Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: None. The state constitution required new districts before the 2026 election, because Republicans had approved the prior map without sufficient Democratic support after the last census.

Utah

Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat. The court ruled that lawmakers had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters when adopting the prior map.

Challenges: A federal court panel and the state Supreme Court, in February, each rejected Republican challenges to the judicial map selection.

Virginia

Current map: six Democrats, five Republicans

New map: Voters approved a constitutional amendment on April 21 authorizing new U.S. House districts backed by Democrats that could help the party win up to four additional seats.

Challenges: The state Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed, but it has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a Tazewell County judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.

Florida

Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led Legislature passed revised House districts on April 29 that could improve the GOP's chances of winning four additional seats.

Challenges: The state constitution says districts cannot be drawn with intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.

Where redistricting efforts were denied

Governors, lawmakers or partisan officials pushed for congressional redistricting in numerous states. In at least five states, those efforts gained some initial traction but ultimately fell short in either the legislature or court.

Maryland

Current map: seven Democrats, one Republican

Proposed map: The Democratic-led House in February passed a redistricting plan backed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore that could help Democrats win an additional seat.

Challenges: The legislative session ended in April without the Democratic-led Senate voting on the redistricting plan. The state Senate president said there were concerns it could backfire on Democrats.

New York

Current map: 19 Democrats, seven Republicans

Proposed map: A judge in January ordered a state commission to draw new boundaries for the only congressional district in New York City represented by a Republican, ruling it unconstitutionally dilutes the votes of Black and Hispanic residents.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in March granted Republicans' request to halt the judge’s order, leaving the existing district lines in place for the 2026 election.

Indiana

Current map: two Democrats, seven Republicans

Proposed map: The Republican-led House passed a redistricting plan in December that would have improved Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: Despite pressure from Trump to adopt the new map, the Republican-led Senate rejected it in a bipartisan vote on Dec. 11.

Kansas

Current map: one Democrat, three Republicans

Proposed map: Some Republican lawmakers mounted an attempt to take up congressional redistricting.

Challenges: Lawmakers dropped a petition drive for a special session on congressional redistricting in November, after failing to gain enough support.

Illinois

Current map: 14 Democrats, three Republicans

Proposed map: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in October proposed a new U.S. House map that would improve Democrats’ chances of winning an additional seat.

Challenges: The Democratic-led General Assembly declined to take up redistricting, citing concerns about the effect on representation for Black residents.

The discovery prompted the closure of Wells Hall through May 1 and left students, many of whom were preparing for final exams, scrambling for answers.

Suspicious person prompts police response

MSU officers were dispatched to Wells Hall after receiving reports of a suspicious person, an odor, and substances on the floor.

Officers located Xin Tong, 31, and identified him using an expired MSU ID.

They seized several bottles of chemicals from bags he was carrying, chemicals authorities say are commonly used to make meth.

The chemicals caused roughly $20,000 in damage to Wells Hall, specifically to doors and flooring.

Student reaction

Students received an alert on their phones on Monday notifying them of the situation.

Sophomore Mohita Katta was among those trying to make sense of what happened.

“It’s going to be weird coming back to the building in the fall, and I feel like it will have a lasting reputation for years to come,” Katta said.

Senior Colin Koot said the incident caught him off guard.

“Since Wells Hall, there’s not really any science labs, I figured it wasn’t something like that, but it was just very strange,” Koot said.

Charges, bond

Tong faces felony charges, including operating or maintaining a methamphetamine lab and causing more than $20,000 in damage.

He is being held at the Ingham County Jail on a $500,000 bond. His next court appearance, a pretrial hearing, is scheduled for May 8.

Police say the investigation remains ongoing and that there is no risk to the campus community.

On Thursday morning, visitors snapped photos as the Steller sea lion flopped on the pier, surrounded by dozens of much smaller California sea lions that call the docks home.

“He’s like a Volkswagen! He’s so huge!” said Oluwaseyi Akinbobola, a visitor from Los Angeles who had an extra half hour so she ran down to the pier for a hopeful peek of the elusive sea lion. “I have heard everywhere about this big giant sea lion, and I like to look at things, so just thought I’d check it out.”

Chonkers likely came from up north off the coast of Washington or Oregon and is estimated to weigh between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds (680 and 907 kilograms), said Laura Gill, public programs manager at The Marine Mammal Center in nearby Sausalito. Chonkers has been one of the few Steller sea lions to venture to the pier, which is protected from predators and crashing waves while providing a fish-filled buffet.

“There's plenty of food in San Francisco Bay for them, so the fish, the rockfish, the anchovies, the herring, there’s a lot of easy prey for them,” she said.

The giant sea lion, which was first spotted on the pier last month, has brought the community together, said San Francisco resident Danielle Ovadia. “He’s so precious, and he’s quite literally humongous," she said.

Sea lions have become synonymous with the popular tourist pier, but they didn't start gathering there until after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, according to the marina. One lone male was quickly joined by dozens more and by February 1990, the pinniped population had grown to more than 300.

Chonkers has been spotted at the docks early in the morning but is harder to pin down during the rest of the day, Gill said. She said it is endearing to watch him try to snuggle with the regular sea lions for warmth and it will be interesting to see if other Steller sea lions follow suit.

“He's trying to fit in, but he sticks out like a sore thumb,” she said.

Consumers are paying for the Iran war 's disruption of global energy production as the conflict enters its third month. Steeper gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices are making driving and air travel more expensive.

Many companies warn there's more to come: the cost of fuel and of materials derived from petroleum could drive up prices for food and for household items.

Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, keeping them pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide, while a U.S. Navy blockade is preventing Iran from selling its own oil. Prices surged overnight on worries that the war will affect the flow of crude for a long time.

Here’s how the growing cost of oil and gas is impacting consumers.

Gas surges to highest level since 2022

As the cost of crude climbs, so do the prices of gasoline and other fuel that keep equipment, cars, buses, delivery trucks and airplanes running.

Across the U.S., gas prices are at their highest level since 2022. The national average hit $4.30 a gallon on Thursday, compared with $2.98 before the war started, according to AAA. That's a 44% increase since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

Diesel prices are making shipping cost more

Steep diesel prices are making it more expensive to haul everyday goods. Diesel is now at an average of nearly $5.50 a gallon, up from $3.76 before the war, AAA says.

Shippers have started adding surcharges to cover the cost. The U.S. Postal Service implemented a temporary 8% charge on some of its services, including Priority Mail, to help blunt the impact of rising transportation costs. Amazon added a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on third-party sellers using its platform to offset fuel prices as well.

Shoppers may see more sticker shock for clothing, cosmetics, furniture and other goods.

"Diesel’s the one that you want to watch out for for prices of consumer goods,” said Peter Zaleski, professor of economics at Villanova University.

Plane tickets are getting pricier

After jumping to $209 a barrel in early April, the global price of jet fuel eased last week to around $179, still well above the roughly $99 at the end of February.

Fuel is one of the largest expenses for airlines. Its prices are pushing up airfares, baggage fees and add-on charges.

Major U.S. carriers including Delta, United, American and Southwest have raised checked baggage fees. United is expanding its “pay for what you want” model from economy to premium cabins, charging separately for options like seat selection. American is adding fees for seat assignments in basic economy, even for its elite-tier loyalty members.

Outside the U.S., carriers in Asia and Europe have added or raised fuel surcharges, in some cases tacking on hundreds of dollars to long-haul tickets.

Many airlines also have trimmed flight schedules, cut less profitable routes or reduced seat capacity. The Lufthansa Group has said it plans to cancel about 20,000 flights across its network over the next six months.

Consumer goods makers may raise prices

Procter & Gamble, the maker of such household products as Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper, estimated last week the war could cause a $1 billion hit to profits during its next fiscal year if Brent crude were to stay around $100 per barrel. Many of P&G’s products and packaging are made of resin or other petroleum-based material, Andre Schulten, P&G’s chief financial officer, told reporters on April 24. He said the company may have to pass on some of the costs to shoppers.

London-based Unilever, which makes everything from Dove soap to Hellmann's mayonnaise, plans to raise prices around 2% to 3% in “small doses,” CFO Srinivas Phatak said in an earnings call on Thursday.

Groceries could be next

Grocery prices have yet to be affected, according to government figures. But they are expected to rise with tightening supplies of fuel and fertilizer.

Fuel accounts for roughly 15% to 30% of the total cost of food, according to the Independent Grocers Alliance, a grouping of 7,500 global supermarkets. Fertilizer is also essential to farmers, and about 30% of the world’s fertilizer shipments typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Ken Foster, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said there is typically a 3- to 6-month lag between an energy price shock and an increase in retail food prices. The lag can be up to a year for packaged foods with a longer shelf life.

Increased hunger in Asia and Africa is possible

The U.N. World Food Program estimates that 45 million additional people — the majority of whom live in Asia and Africa — could tip into hunger if the war doesn’t ease by the middle of this year. That would bring the global total of people facing food insecurity to 363 million, the highest level on record.

“Delays and higher transport costs push up food prices, and families who spend 50% to 70% of their income on food are the first to go without,” Corinne Fleischer, the program’s supply chain director, said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writers Cathy Bussewitz and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk. It pits the world’s richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit.

Tempers have flared on both sides of the high-stakes trial, as the morning began with an existential discussion about the future of humanity — complete with references to “The Terminator” movies — and how much witness testimony would focus on AI safety.

“Your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Musk's lawyers, referring to the billionaire's xAI, which launched in 2023. People, she said, “don't want to put the future of humanity into Mr. Musk's hands,” and instructed the parties not to discuss the dangers of AI to humanity during the course of the trial.

“This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity,” she said. “It could be one day in a federal court in this country that we may have that trial. That is not this trial and we are not going to get sidetracked on that issue in this trial.”

On the stand, Musk has taken issue with the cross-examination by opposing attorney William Savitt, accusing him of asking misleading questions designed to trick him and the jury. At one point Thursday, Savitt asked Musk about earlier testimony where he said that as long as investor profits were capped, OpenAI wasn’t in violation of agreements to keep it a nonprofit.

“It depends on how high the cap is,” Musk replied. Savitt then said that “wasn’t your complete answer yesterday right?” In response, Musk said “few answers are going to be complete, especially if you cut me off all the time.” He added that if the cap is “super high,” then OpenAI is “really a for-profit at that point.”

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

The trial in federal court in Oakland, California, is scheduled to continue through late May. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers excused Musk from the witness stand Thursday, but he may be called back later.

During the cross-examination, Savitt also asked Musk about his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X — and whether they were all for-profit. Musk replied yes, and affirmed that he believes all of these companies are “socially beneficial.”

Savitt then asked why Musk hasn't started a nonprofit himself, eight years after he left OpenAI.

“I thought I had started a nonprofit with OpenAI but they stole it,” Musk replied, adding that this is “the entire basis of this lawsuit.”

“It happened overnight, and we are light ouch,” said Lynnette Rodgers, owner of the Nacho Grill.

Rodgers runs both a fixed location at 9 Mile and Livernois and a mobile truck for events.

“Just doing my best behind the scenes like the Wizard of Oz, not to pass the prices on to the customer,” Rodgers said.

In Cadillac Square, food trucks line up nearly every day during the summer months -- a staple of Detroit’s downtown lunch scene.

But behind the scenes, operators say the math is getting harder to work out.

Richard Zemola has owned Hero or Villain since 2013 and says this latest fuel surge is a tough one.

“It hurts. Every time we go, I’m playing that game of like, do I put a quarter tank in?” Zemola said.

He recently had no choice but to bite the bullet.

“After avoiding it for as long as I possibly could, we were at about a quarter tank left. I filled up this truck, and it was about $120. We are going to sell a lot of sandwiches today and hopefully make some of that back,” Zemola said.

Kaylah Polidori, senior manager of Impasto, says her team is spending anywhere from $80 to $160 per fill-up, depending on which rig they are running.

For now, Impasto is not passing those costs on to customers — but the margin for flexibility is shrinking.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate to be able to maintain, but it’s definitely something we have to factor a lot more now,” Polidori said.

Still, these operators say they are not going anywhere. The trucks will keep showing up, and the food will keep coming -- but they are asking for a little extra support from their loyal customers.

“We need the help just like anyone else,” Zemola said.

“The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!” Trump posted on social media.

Trump said people had wanted this change, especially with regard to the wooden barrels in which the spirits of Scotch and bourbon can be aged. His post left it unclear if the tariffs were being lifted on bottles of Scotch or on the materials used to produce alcohol in both countries.

“I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon,” Trump said.

The White House did not respond to emails seeking clarification about the details of what Trump announced, though the post was interpreted in Scotland and by industry lobbyists as removing the tariffs on Scotch.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later said in a Thursday statement that the U.S. would give “preferential duty access for whiskey produced in the United Kingdom.” The administration did not immediately respond to questions about whether that meant eliminating the tariffs or lowering them.

The Trump administration in 2025 reached a trade framework that put a 10% tax on most goods imported from Britain. The Scotch Whisky Association said its export volume to the U.S. fell 15% after the tariffs were announced in April of last year.

The president, answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office, said the tariffs were lifted to specifically enhance the trade of barrels between Scotland and Kentucky, which produces almost all of the world's bourbon. The barrels are used to age the alcohol.

“I just took all the restrictions off so Scotland and Kentucky can start dealing again,” said Trump, who added that he's “not a big drinker."

Still, John Swinney, Scotland's first minister, interpreted the president's statement as a removal of tariffs on Scotch itself, calling it a “tremendous success” for his country.

“People’s jobs were at stake. Millions of pounds were being lost every month from the Scottish economy," said Swinney, expressing gratitude to both Trump and King Charles III.

Trump has used alcohol as a pressure point in his tariff threats. Last year, he threatened a 200% tariff on European wine — a major potential blow to French and Italian vineyards that never came to fruition.

Foreign countries have responded in turn with threats on bourbon and other American products.

In the end, the Trump administration exempted cork from tariffs, a huge relief to Portugal, the leading supplier of the material used to cap wine bottles.

Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council in the U.S., also interpreted Trump’s post as a removal of the 10% tariff on whisky from the United Kingdom.

“We applaud President Trump for working to restore a proven zero‑for‑zero model of fair, reciprocal trade between our two nations,” Swonger said in a statement. “This action strengthens transatlantic ties, brings much‑needed certainty to our industry and allows spirits producers on both sides of the Atlantic to grow, invest and support jobs at a critical time.”

___

AP correspondent Jill Lawless contributed from London.

Coe's wife, Kimberly Hastings Coe, confirmed his death to Rolling Stone on Wednesday.

She described him as one of the best singers and songwriters of our time.

“My husband, my friend, my confidant and my life for many years. I’ll never forget him and I don’t want anyone else to ever forget him either,” she wrote to the publication.

A statement from a Coe representative to People said he died around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The cause of death wasn't disclosed.

Whether he was labeled outlaw or underground, Coe was clearly an outsider in Nashville's music establishment, even throughout his successes as an in-demand songwriter and singer, eventually developing a core following around his raw, often obscene lyrics and a checkered, somewhat mysterious past.

His wife posted on Facebook in September 2021 that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19, and he made few appearances after that.

Coe toured over the years with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Neil Young and others. He wrote “Take This Job and Shove It,” a hit by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, and “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone),” a hit by Tanya Tucker in 1974. He was also the first country singer to record “Tennessee Whiskey,” penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, which has since become a genre standard and a hit for both George Jones and Chris Stapleton.

Coe also appeared in a handful of movies, including “Stagecoach” and “Take this Job and Shove It,” which was named after his song.

“Spent so much time with David over the years, touring, writing songs and just hanging out,” Kid Rock wrote Thursday on X. “I knew a side of Dave most people never got to see. He was such a deep thinker, kind and about as real as an outlaw can get!”

Coe, born in Akron, Ohio, spent time in reformatories as a youngster and served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967 for possession of burglary tools. He also said he spent time with the Outlaws motorcycle club, but some tales about his prison time and his personal life have been wildly exaggerated over the years.

“I’d have never made it through prison without my music,” he said in a 1983 interview with The Associated Press. “No one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do, but I could still make up a song in my head.”

He recorded his first album, a blues album called “Penitentiary Blues,” using songs he wrote in prison. He later told reporters that he tried not to lean too heavily on prison as a song topic because of similarities to Merle Haggard's backstory, but that his criminal history was all people seemed interested in.

Coe recorded next for Columbia Records and made the album “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” which became his nickname after he performed in a rhinestone suit while wearing a mask.

In his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Coe performed “Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands” and “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.”

During the outlaw movement heyday, Coe placed himself at the center of the scene with songs like “Longhaired Redneck,” which featured lyrics about performing in dive bars, “where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they’ll get out of here alive.”

He was featured in the acclaimed documentary about the outlaw country movement called “Heartworn Highways,” in which he performed a concert at a Tennessee prison.

Coe, himself heavily tattooed and sporting long hair, claimed a diverse fan base that included bikers, doctors, lawyers and bankers. His last record, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Dimebag Darrell and other former members of the heavy metal group Pantera.

He released two R-rated albums, 1978′s “Nothing Sacred” and 1982′s “Underground Album,” that he sold via biker magazines. The songs on these albums have been criticized for being racist, homophobic and sexually explicit. He told “Billboard” magazine in 2001 that author and songwriter Shel Silverstein convinced him to record the songs he had written, something he had come to regret.

“Those were meant to be sung around the campfire for bikers, and I still don’t sing those songs in concert,” he said.

David Wade, a friend who worked on several projects with Coe, said the singer wanted people to be talking about him.

“He always said any press is good press,” said Wade, who runs music management company Neon Deuce.

They met in 1988 and Wade said he began working occasionally with Coe in 1996. Wade said a close family friend of Coe's told him of the singer's death.

“I learned a lot from David,” Wade said of Coe. “He was very complicated. I never found him to be racist. I never found him to be any of those things.”

They collaborated on a documentary about Coe that’s still in the works, according to Wade, who said he's producing it along with actor Johnny Knoxville.

“David did hours of interviews for it,” Wade added. “It all comes down to money and getting the rights and clearances and everything for the songs.”

The documentary looks at Coe “being in prison, to being a biker gang member to being a songwriter,” Wade said.

In 2016, Coe was ordered to pay the IRS more than $980,000 in restitution for obstructing the tax agency and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Court documents say Coe earned income from at least 100 concerts yearly from 2008 through 2013 and either didn’t file individual income tax returns or pay taxes when he did file.

The House sent the extension to President Donald Trump’s desk Thursday after the Senate cleared it earlier in the day. The move comes despite passage through the House of a longer three-year extension, with lawmakers needing more time to negotiate a final agreement. The temporary patch extends the program through June 12.

“I don’t like kicking the can down the road. Not my jam. But that’s where we are,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Trump and intelligence officials have for weeks urged Congress to renew a key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows agencies like the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets without a warrant.

But negotiations have stalled over concerns that the program can incidentally sweep up Americans’ communications. Critics want a warrant requirement when those communications are accessed.

The short-term extension was passed Thursday by unanimous consent in the Senate. In the House, it received bipartisan support, with many Democrats joining the Republican majority in the 261-111 vote.

“I won’t oppose this short extension, but only because it is my fervent hope and determination it will give us the time to work together across the aisle to implement meaningful reforms,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Some House Republicans did speak against it ahead of the vote. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has been among the Republicans pushing for a warrants requirement.

“A short term infringement of the Constitution is still an infringement of the Constitution,” Massie said on the House floor.

Thune said Thursday he believed the extension into June would allow Congress to work with the White House on reforms to the program.

“We’ll get to work in earnest and try to find something you actually are able to do a long term extension of the authorization with,” Thune said.

Concerns about warrantless surveillance have made passage of a long-term renewal a heavy lift for Republican leadership. Earlier this month, lawmakers approved a short-term extension through April 30 after a chaotic late-night session.

House GOP leaders appeared to make headway Wednesday, clearing a key procedural hurdle on a three-year renewal after flipping several Republican holdouts. The bill later passed with bipartisan support.

But House leaders added separate legislation banning a central bank digital currency to win more votes. Senate leaders made clear that provision would not pass their chamber.

Thune said he told Johnson Wednesday that “what they sent us, we weren’t going to be able to process over here.”

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed.

The time off gave the FIA time to make changes to the regulations that drivers heavily criticized after the first three races of the year because of how the electrical battery power has changed the cars and competition.

Will it help?

“It's a tickle,” said Max Verstappen, who has been so vocal about his dislike of the current cars that he's openly considering leaving F1.

“It's not what we need yet to really make it flat out. It's complicated to get everyone to agree,” he continued. “I just hope for next year we can make really big, big changes. Like I said, it's a tickle, but it needs to be more than a tickle, for sure.”

Drivers won't be able to truly get a feel for the changes until Friday when practice begins, so everything they have learned so far has been limited to simulator work. While the drivers were able to offer opinions on how the FIA should attack the complaints about the car, they aren't sure how much influence they really had.

“The fact is, we don’t have a seat at the table. We do engage with the FIA and F1 more often,” said seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. "We’re not stakeholders. I say to them, when I was doing the early tests, I was like, ‘You guys should come and speak to us and collaborate with us.’

“We’re like, ‘Speak to us, we’ll work, and we can work together.’ We want this sport to succeed. It’s like small baby steps each time.”

Verstappen acknowledged that the drivers did have quality conversations but there is room for a stronger relationship moving forward.

“The positive thing about it is we have had some nice meetings with Formula 1 and the FIA and I think that’s probably like a starting point,” Verstappen said. "In a few years time, where maybe I’m not here anymore, I’d really hope that for the future drivers as well, there’s more input to come from the drivers to the organizers in general. I do think that most of the drivers here, we have a good understanding and a good feel of what is needed to make Formula 1 a good product, a fun product.

“I think everyone has tried their best to at least do something. But of course, it won’t change the world.”

Upgrades everywhere

The break allowed the 11 teams in the paddock to assess their season after three races and update their cars ahead of Sunday's race. That's another uncertainty the field is attempting to navigate.

“It’s going to be pretty unusual to see so many upgrades on so many different teams,” said Charles Leclerc. “I’m pretty sure most of the people will have kind of new cars for here. Whether it will change significantly the pecking order that we have seen since the beginning of the year, I doubt so.”

The Ferrari driver believes Mercedes will still have the early season control over the rest of the field. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli combined to win the first three races of the season and Antonelli is the current points leader.

“I think the package will make a difference on that, hopefully for us better, but at the point of going and get Mercedes, I think they are, they were too ahead for us to actually get them only with what we are bringing here,” said Leclerc.

Weather concerns

And then there's the added threat of heavy rain on Sunday and the forecast is so unpleasant that it dominated conversation three days before the race.

The National Weather Service is calling for thunderstorms for all of South Florida throughout Sunday, while AccuWeather is showing a 55% chance of thunderstorms on race day. It could disrupt the event because conditions must be stable enough for a medical helicopter to be able to fly when cars are racing, plus the NWS recommends seeking shelter if the delay between thunder and lightning is shorter than 30 seconds.

The NWS recommends waiting at least 30 minutes before leaving shelter and cited Florida as the state that "specifically leads the U.S. in lightning deaths, injuries, and casualties.” The weather service also says lightning is Florida's number one “weather killer.”

“In the wet we are really passengers,” said Leclerc. “In the rain, it’s not about being brave or not. You stay flat out and you hope that no cars in front of you are slower than you and you just assume they are on the same speed as you. So it’s not such a nice feeling.”

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

The announcement from Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, cited searches by federal agents on Tuesday at childcare and learning centers and other sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that receive federal Medicaid funding.

“Minnesota state-run programs have raised serious red flags,” Oz said in a video statement on social media.

Gov. Tim Walz called the action part of the Trump administration's retribution campaign against Minnesota.

Vice President JD Vance notified Walz in February that CMS was temporarily withholding $243 million because of fraud concerns that have dogged the Democratic governor's administration. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families. A judge declined to grant a restraining order.

The deferral of $91 million comes in addition to the funds Vance said were being withheld earlier this year.

Of the latest tranche, $76 million is tied to 14 service categories that are considered highly vulnerable to fraud, Oz said. Another $14 million involves program integrity concerns, such as payments for ineligible individuals, including those who might be in the country illegally, he said.

Right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video in December that said members of Minnesota’s large Somali community were running fake childcare centers to collect federal subsidies. The video caught the eye of the administration and conservative activists, though state inspectors discounted the allegations. Oz cited the video Thursday.

Walz — the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024 — dropped out of the governor’s race in January, promising to devote his energy to fighting fraud rather than seeking a third term.

“While Minnesota is working to stop fraud, the Trump Administration is working to exploit it," Walz said in a statement. "This is a transparent effort to cut funding for the same working people and rural Minnesota hospitals they’ve had in their crosshairs for months. Minnesota will not stand for this continued campaign of retribution.”

But Oz said the action was about protecting taxpayer money.

“This isn’t about punishment, it's about partnership and accountability,” Oz said. “We’re offering Minnesota the support they need to fix these problems. But at the same time, we cannot and will not pay claims that don’t meet federal standards. So we’re asking for additional documentation to verify these charges.”

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers Medicaid in the state, defended its record, saying it has been taking “aggressive action” for more than a year to stop fraud and recoup improper payments.

“We have been reporting to our federal partners and the public about those efforts,” Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said in a statement. “We are disappointed to learn that CMS will extend deferrals of needed funds for another quarter. Nonetheless, the department will continue to fight against the criminals who target Medicaid programs.”

CMS approved the state’s corrective action plan in March but has yet to free up any of the $243 million it withheld earlier.

The announcement comes a week after Oz said CMS would require all states to explain their plans to revalidate some of their Medicaid providers in an escalation of the Trump administration's anti-fraud campaign.

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Associated Press reporter Ali Swenson in Washington, D.C., contributed.

The order is intended to help more people gain access to retirement plans before next year, when the federal government will start matching retirement contributions made by lower-income workers.

That new matching contribution, known as the Saver’s Match, comes from 2022 legislation passed under Democratic President Joe Biden. Starting in January, it will offer a match of up to $1,000 for workers who make less than $35,000 a year.

Trump’s order is meant to help make the match available to roughly 50 million people who do not have retirement plans offered by their employers. The Republican president directed the Treasury Department to launch TrumpIRA.gov, where workers will be able to compare private-sector retirement plans.

“For millions of Americans who lack employer-sponsored plans, this will be really revolutionary, because they’ll be covered,” Trump said at an Oval Office signing ceremony.

He is not offering a new government retirement plan but helping match workers with existing plans from private companies.

Details of the order were first reported by the news outlet Semafor.

Trump discussed the idea during his State of the Union address in February, when he noted that about half the people in the country do not have access to employer-provided retirement plans with matching contributions.

“To remedy this gross disparity, I’m announcing that next year my administration will give these often-forgotten American workers — great people, the people that built our country — access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker,” Trump said.

The Saver’s Match program will offer a maximum match of $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples who file jointly. The maximum will be limited to single filers earning less than $20,500, with smaller matches offered for those earning up to $35,500. It applies to contributions made toward 401(k) plans, IRAs and Roth IRAs.

Trump said he wants to take the match “to the next level” by asking Congress to expand it to those with incomes higher than $35,000 a year. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said many middle-income earners also lack access to employer retirement plans.

“We’re working with Congress to significantly expand this program and are looking forward to legislation this year,” Hassett said at the ceremony.

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This story has been corrected to show that the income threshold for the Saver’s Match benefit is $35,500, not $46,000.

According to DPPS on Thursday (April 30), officers did not locate a methamphetamine laboratory inside the building during their investigation.

However, the suspect, Xin Tong, 31, was found to be in possession of chemicals and equipment that could be used in the production of methamphetamine.

Officials said the materials were contained within the individual’s personal property.

Police also stated that the felony charge of malicious destruction of a building stems from allegations that the suspect intentionally damaged or destroyed property within Wells Hall between April 10 and April 26.

While law enforcement has identified Tong, university officials said no additional information about him is being released at this time.

The investigation remains ongoing.

The resumption of a nonstop commercial flight between the two countries comes months after the U.S. capture of then President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January.

It also comes a month after the U.S. formally reopened its embassy in Caracas following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

“I'm very excited to go and see the family and I'm looking forward to see the country,” said passenger Lennart Ochoa of Miami shortly before boarding. He said that he was “ready to go" and got his ticket as soon as they were available. “Just to go and see the family on a direct flight from Miami to Caracas is priceless.”

The director of the U.S. National Energy Dominance Council, Jarrod Agen, was among the passengers on the inaugural flight. Agen is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan officials and executives from energy and mining sectors as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to facilitate the entry of U.S. companies into the South American country, reported the Venezuelan government.

At Miami International Airport, American Airlines staff handed passengers small Venezuelan flags. Balloons with its colors — yellow, blue and red — adorned the gate door leading to the plane.

Flight AA3599 operated by Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American Airlines, departed Miami at 10:11 a.m. EDT (1411 GMT), five minutes ahead of its scheduled time, according to Miami International Airport flight departure information. It arrived around three hours later in the Venezuelan capital, returning to Florida later in the afternoon.

Earlier, the airline said that a second daily flight between Miami and Caracas will start on May 21.

In late January, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he informed Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez that he would open up all commercial airspace over the country, allowing Americans to visit.

“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there,” Trump said at the time.

The flights mark the resumption of nonstop travel between the U.S. and Venezuela for the first time since diplomatic ties were severed in 2019. For the past seven years, passengers have relied on international airlines and indirect routes through neighboring Latin American countries.

In January, when the airline announced the resumption of flights, it said it would give customers the opportunity to reunite with families and pursue new business opportunities.

American Airlines was the last U.S. airline flying to Venezuela. It suspended flights in 2019 between Miami and Caracas, as well as flights to the oil hub city of Maracaibo. Delta and United Airlines pulled out in 2017 amid a political crisis that forced millions to flee the country.

“Parents will be able to connect with children, grandparents with grandchildren, and entire families with a home that shaped and raised them,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference before boarding started. “Miami-Dade is home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States.”

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

The S&P 500 rallied 1% and topped its prior all-time high to close out its best month in more than five years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 790 points, or 1.6%, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9% to its own record.

Alphabet led the way and rallied 10% after the owner of Google and YouTube reported profit for the latest quarter that almost doubled analysts’ expectations. Investments in artificial intelligence “are lighting up every part of the business,” CEO Sundar Pichai said.

It’s the latest company to deliver fatter profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected, even with very high oil prices and uncertainty about the economy.

Wall Street’s strength followed manic swings in the oil market, where prices surged overnight on worries that the Iran war will affect the flow of crude for a long time. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, keeping them pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide, while a U.S. Navy blockade is preventing Iran from selling its own oil.

Traders are buying and selling contracts for different kinds of oil, going out for many months. In the most actively traded part of the market for Brent crude, for delivery in July, the price got as high as $114.70 per barrel overnight. It then fell back toward $107 before settling at $110.40, nearly unchanged from the day before.

So far during the war, the peak price for the most actively traded Brent contract is $119.50, which was set last month.

In a less actively traded corner of the Brent market, the price for a barrel to be delivered in June briefly went above $126 overnight before pulling back toward $114.

Brent’s price is still much more expensive than its roughly $70 level from before the war. But the morning’s easing in prices and the continuing flood of better-than-expected profit reports from U.S. companies helped keep Wall Street at its records.

Caterpillar soared 9.9%, Eli Lilly jumped 9.8% and O’Reilly Automotive leaped 8.4% after all delivered profits for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. That’s big because stock prices tend to follow the track of corporate profits over the long term.

Still, a better-than-expected result isn’t always enough to boost a stock’s price if it’s already shot much higher.

Meta Platforms tumbled 8.7% even though the company behind Facebook and Instagram made more profit last quarter than expected. Investors focused more on its increased forecast for how much it will spend on data centers and other investments as it builds out its AI capabilities.

Doubts are still high among some investors about whether all the AI spending by Meta and other companies will produce enough profit and productivity to make it worth it.

Microsoft fell 3.9% after likewise raising its forecast for investments and other capital spending. But analysts also said accelerating trends at its Azure business were encouraging.

Amazon rose 0.8% after swinging between gains and losses through the day. It blew past analysts’ expectations for earnings in the latest quarter.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 73.06 points to 7,209.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 790.33 to 49,652.14, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 219.07 to 24,892.31.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after oil prices gave up their big overnight gains. Reports also suggested the U.S. economy’s growth accelerated by less in the first three months of the year than economists expected, while a measure of inflation worsened in March by about as much as expected.

A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication of fewer layoffs even though companies are announcing large cuts to workforces.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.38% from 4.42% late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.6% after the Bank of England kept its main interest rate on hold. That followed similar decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of Japan on Tuesday to keep their rates unchanged.

Germany’s DAX returned 1.4%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5% after the European Central Bank also held its own interest rates steady.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.3%, while stocks added 0.1% in Shanghai after a report said China’s factory activity slowed slightly in April but remained in expansion territory for the second month.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

He just didn’t yet know her name.

“He goes, ‘you know the young girl from ‘House of the Dragon’? The young queen or princess? That’s how I picture it, like a young punk rock girl who is just totally badass and tough,’” Safran told The Associated Press. “I was like, yeah, that sounds fantastic, and we haven’t seen that before.”

Milly Alcock, now 26, had just started to break out playing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (later portrayed by Emma D’Arcy) in the “Game of Thrones” prequel, when she got a request for a self-tape for the secretive Supergirl project. Alcock had been working in her native Australia since she was a teenager, but her world was suddenly getting bigger very quickly.

A few weeks later, she was summoned for a screen test (her first ever). She boarded a 24-hour flight from Sydney to Atlanta and gave it her best shot.

“I kind of had a feeling, I remember I like got back to my hotel room and I like sat down and I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna, something’s gonna happen,’” Alcock said. “I just had like an intuition that like, this is going to be a very exciting challenge if it goes in my favor.”

‘This is crazy, what have I done?’

Ten days later, Gunn texted her an article in the trade publication Deadline: “‘Supergirl’: New Woman Of Steel Is ‘House Of The Dragon’s’ Milly Alcock.” No phone call. No context. And all she could think was, “This is crazy, what have I done?” A few days later, she was back on that 24-hour flight to film her cameo in “Superman.”

And things have not slowed down. If shooting the film was a marathon of stunts and action and emotion, the promotion of new DC’s second major film is going to be its own non-stop ride.

When Alcock spoke to the AP earlier this month, she had just arrived in Las Vegas from Kyoto, where she was filming another movie, and on just two hours of sleep had to muster the energy to get up on stage in front of thousands of movie theater owners to hype “Supergirl,” which is out June 26.

“It’s a really original and unique take on a superhero movie,” Safran said. “I think it’s just a great movie for audiences. It’s not just for superhero fans.”

‘She’s just that girl’

The character might be less widely known than her famous cousin, but the response to her appearance in “Superman” was encouraging.

“She’s in the ‘Superman’ movie for, you know, 12 seconds, yet one of the things audiences wanted to see ... more of was her,” Safran said. “And Milly in real life, she’s just that girl … she is authentically a badass.”

Perhaps part of the intrigue is that she’s not straightlaced Superman, who got to be raised by loving and gentle parents on Earth. Supergirl saw her planet destroyed and everyone she knew killed and had to fend for herself.

Directed by Craig Gillespie, best known for two other films about complicated young women, “I, Tonya” and “Cruella,” this film finds the jaded Kara on an intergalactic odyssey with Krypto the Superdog and a young woman seeking revenge against the murderous Krem of the Yellow Hills.

“Kara surprisingly reminded me a lot of myself, which I never thought I would get from playing like a superhero, from playing someone who isn’t human. There’s a lot of humility in her and that kind of made me fall in love with her immediately,” Alcock said. “Sometimes you can get swept up in what other people expect, and then you kind of lose your intrinsic you-ness. And that’s why people hire you in the first place, because of what you bring to something just innately being who you are.”

‘Why would someone have a toy of my face?’

Alcock didn’t grow up a big film fan, but in acting found a lifeline and an outlet to communicate feelings that she struggled to in real life. It helps her exist as a person, she said.

Recently, Alcock has been living in London, where she said she has a great group of friends, none of whom are actors. And she’s adjusting to the reality that her face is going to be everywhere for a bit.

“It’s been kind of disorientating,” she said. “I do this job because it gives me the ability to disappear. So then to like suddenly be so visible and so exposed is a very vulnerable experience. I’m just trying to learn how to deal with that relationship. But I mean, it’s exciting. Of course it’s exciting. But like anything exciting, it’s also terrifying.”

When she was on the “Superman” set, she remembered talking to David Corenswet briefly and realizing that they had very different perspectives about the experience.

“I remember him being like, ‘We’re gonna have action figures, isn’t that cool?’” she said. “And I was like, ‘That’s so weird. Why would someone have a toy of my face?’”

The Treasury and State departments announced Thursday that they had targeted Kabila, who served as Congo’s president from 2001 until 2019, with a freeze on all assets he may have in the United States or that transit through financial institutions in U.S. jurisdictions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that Kabila had been supporting the Rwanda-backed M23 and Congo River Alliance rebel groups, which are seeking to topple the current Congo government.

Congo and Rwanda agreed last year to a U.S.-mediated peace deal aimed at ending the long-running conflict in eastern Congo. President Donald Trump has often referred to his success at negotiating the deal, but the agreement has been hindered and brought near collapse by numerous violations.

“President Trump is paving the way for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and he has been clear that those who continue to sow instability will be held accountable,” Bessent said. “Treasury will continue to use its full range of tools to support the integrity of the Washington Accords.”

The State Department issued its own statement, saying, “The United States stands with the Congolese people and calls on all regional leaders to reject those who perpetuate violence and instability. Today’s action sends a clear message: we will hold accountable anyone who obstructs peace efforts in the DRC."

The Biennale said in a statement that the jury, made up of the president, Solange Farkas, and Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi, had resigned. The brief statement didn't provide an explanation for the highly unusual move.

It came just days after the jury had announced it would not award prizes to countries charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. That includes Israel and Russia, whose participation in the first Biennale since its 2022 Ukraine invasion has been opposed by the Italian government.

The Russia participation has been a particular sore point, with Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli saying he would not attend previews of the exhibition next week or the May 9 opening day.

The Biennale's director, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, has refused to back down from allowing Russia to participate, even in the face of a visit by cultural ministry officials Wednesday to gather information about the reopening of the Russian Pavilion.

The Culture Ministry said the officials' visit was aimed at collecting documents to respond to an EU request for information after it cut 2 million euros last week in funding to the Biennale over Russia's participation. It added that the ministry had no role in the jury's resignation.

Giuli, meanwhile, has demonstrated strong support for Israel. The minister had a phone call Wednesday with the Israeli Pavilion's artist, Belu-Simion Fainaru, to express solidarity in the face of “recent attacks.”

The minister also “confirmed the Italian government's commitment against every form of discrimination and antisemitism in Italian cultural institutions,” his office said in a statement.

Fainaru said in a statement that he opposes “discrimination, racism, and boycotts in all their forms. I believe in the fundamental principles of freedom of creation and freedom of expression, which must remain at the core of any artistic platform.”

The jury was due to select winners of the highly prestigious Golden Lion for the best national pavilion and best participant in the main curated show on the official opening day, May 9.

Instead, the Biennale announced that visitors will select winners of two awards: Best Participant in the 61st Exhibition “In Minor Keys,” curated according to a plan by the late Koyo Kouoh, and the Best National Participation among the 100 national pavilions. It will be awarded on the closing day, Nov. 22.

Premier Giorgia Meloni, asked about the resignations, reiterated that the government didn’t agree with the Biennale’s decision to allow the Russians to participate, but acknowledged the Biennale's autonomy. Her government appointed Buttafuoco.

She said that she didn’t know if the resignations were connected to the Culture Ministry’s decision to send inspectors to Venice.

Cabinet Minister Matteo Salvini backed the decision to have visitors award the winners.

“So it will be an autonomous and democratic Biennale,” he said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The Biennale has in the past refused pressure to exclude countries, including Iran and Israel, from participating and this year reiterated that it “does not have the authority to prevent a country from participating. Any country recognized by the Italian Republic may request to participate.’’

Since Russia owns the pavilion built in 1914 in the historic Giardini, it was required only to send notification of its request to participate, the Biennale said.

Russian artists withdrew their participation in 2022, and Russia did not present an exhibition in 2024 for its permanent pavilion, which it instead lent to Bolivia. Russia last participated in the International Art Exhibition in 2019.

The Biennale contemporary art exhibition is the world’s oldest and most important, comprising a main curated exhibition alongside national pavilions, which are curated separately by the participating nations.

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Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome.

For the first time in almost five decades, there will be a former chair on the central bank's board, potentially creating an alternate center of power. And on Wednesday multiple officials dissented from the Fed's statement, a sign they won't easily roll over for a new chair who has sharply criticized recent policy. Outgoing chair Jerome Powell — who announced he will remain on the board of governors for a “period of time, to be determined” — has also shown a new outspokenness since the White House launched an unprecedented legal investigation into a Fed building renovation.

Warsh “is inheriting an institution that will fight for independent, consensus-driven decision-making, a potential obstacle to his vision of wholesale ‘regime change,’” said Jon Hilsenrath, a senior advisor to StoneX and visiting scholar at Duke University.

It's all a sharp contrast to the previous three Fed chairs — Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and Powell — who were all Fed governors before becoming chairs in relatively smooth transitions.

At a news conference Wednesday, Powell indirectly acknowledged the unusual nature of his decision, when asked how it would work to have a current and former chair on the board: “I don’t know what the exact specifics of it will be," he said.

He also said he would move to the background as a governor, yet his presence could make it a bit harder for Warsh to cut the Fed's short-term rate, as Trump has loudly demanded. While Powell is considered by economists to generally favor lowering rates, he said inflation is “misbehaving” and signaled it could be months before a cut is considered.

“We no longer anticipate a rate cut in December,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, but expect the Fed to stay "on hold through the remainder of the year.”

On Wednesday, Powell emphasized that he is staying at the Fed to protect its political independence from the White House's legal attacks, rather than to push for any particular interest-rate policies.

“These legal actions by the administration are unprecedented in our 113-year history,” Powell said. “I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors.”

Trump has sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, in what has become a test case regarding how much power the White House has to remove Fed governors. Should Trump succeed in firing Cook, he would be able to fill her seat and have much more sway over the central bank's interest rate decisions.

Three of the seven governors are already Trump appointees. So far, courts have allowed Cook to remain in her position and the Supreme Court in January appeared to lean in her favor.

By staying on as governor, Powell will also deny Trump an opportunity to appoint a new governor. The president won't have another shot at filling a seat on the Fed's board until Powell leaves. While his term as chair ends May 15, he can serve as a governor until January 2028.

On Thursday, Trump said he didn’t care if Powell remained at the Fed: “If he stays on, he stays on,” the president told reporters. “I just wanted to make sure that Kevin became the head.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday criticized Powell's decision on Fox Business, calling it “highly unusual” and “a violation of all Federal Reserve norms.”

Powell, however, rejected the notion that his decision has injected politics into the Fed.

“I’m literally staying because of the actions that have been taken,” he said Wednesday. “I had long planned to be retiring and the things that have happened really in the last three months have left me no choice but to stay.”

Still, Powell said he planned to keep a “low profile” in his remaining time on the board, and would not be a “shadow chair.”

“That's just something I would never do,” he said. "There is only ever one chair of the Federal Reserve board. When Kevin Warsh is confirmed and sworn in, he will be that chair.”

The Senate is likely to confirm Warsh on a narrow, party-line vote the week of May 11. In a sign of the increasing politicization of the Fed, when Powell was confirmed for a second four-year term in 2022, the Senate vote was 80-19 in favor.

Warsh told a congressional committee last week that he would be an independent chair, but Trump has continued to say he expects his choice to reduce the Fed's key rate.

Yet on Wednesday Powell said the “center” of the committee was moving away from a bias toward cutting rates toward a more neutral stance. Three policymakers dissented from Wednesday's statement because they wanted to make that shift more explicit. A fourth official, Stephen Miran, voted to cut rates immediately, but he will be replaced by Warsh.

The four dissenting votes were the most since October 1992.

"A 34-year high in dissents is not exactly the welcome mat Mr. Warsh was hoping to see upon his arrival," Stephen Douglass, chief economist at NISA Investment Advisors, said in a note to clients. “He might want to wear a hard hat at his first meeting, and not only because the (Fed building) is still under construction.”

Update: Man found with meth-making materials inside MSU’s Wells Hall during finals

On Monday, April 27, Wells Hall was evacuated for a chemical leak. Police then found Xin Tong, 31, with substances used to make meth.

Investigators said he bought it illegally in stores and online. He was arrested and is now facing charges.

The building is closed while crews make sure it’s safe.

Camara was killed during last weekend's coordinated militant attack in the West African nation, the largest in over a decade.

His death, and the major setback endured by the Malian army and its Russian mercenary allies, risk creating divisions within the junta and could lead it to reconsider its partnership with Moscow, analysts say.

After two days of national mourning, a funeral ceremony for Camara was attended by junta leader Gen. Assimi Goita and broadcast live on national television. The coffin was draped in the green, yellow and red of the Malian flag while large portraits of the former defense minister lined the ceremony hall.

Camara was born in 1979 in Kati, the same garrison town near the capital Bamako where he was killed when a car bomb exploded outside his home on Saturday.

As a field officer, he was deployed to northern Mali in the late 2000s, amid a rise in rebellions by armed groups, some linked to Al-Qaeda. After graduating from a military academy, he went abroad on several training assignments, including at a military academy in Russia.

Malians first became familiar with Camara when, as a colonel, he appeared on national television in August 2020 among a group of five officers who had overthrown President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The officers accused Keita of being propped up by France and not doing enough to contain the rampant militant attacks in the country. They pledged to provide more security.

Following the coup, the new junta turned to Russia as its new security partner, expelling French troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

Camara quickly came to play a central role in establishing Russia as Mali's main security partner. He served as defense minister under both of Mali’s successive military governments — first following the 2020 coup and then reappointed after a second coup in May 2021 which brought Goïta to power.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Germany-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Camara was the “architect of cooperation with Russia,” proposing the deployment of Russian mercenaries in 2021 and the expulsion of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA.

Camara, who made frequent trips to Moscow, played a key role in the coups and his stewardship of the war effort made him an indispensable figure for the junta despite a deteriorating security situation, according to Laessing.

On Monday, the recently created Africa Corps — a Russian military unit that reports to the defense ministry in Moscow, estimated to have around 2,000 troops in Mali — said its fighters had withdrawn from Kidal, two days after separatists said they had taken the key northern city.

Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank, said Camara's death and a growing frustration from the population and military leadership over the Russian mercenaries inability to curb the insurgencies, could result in the junta reconsidering its partnership with Moscow.

Goita, who met with the Russian ambassador to Mali on Tuesday, “seems open to collaboration with some Western countries, such as the United States,” said Laessing.

The analysis by the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how insurers are paying out less on claims after an accident, natural disaster or other misfortune than they did decades ago. For every $1 collected in premiums, insurers reimbursed 62 cents for claims in 2024, down from an average loss ratio of 80 cents in the 1980s and 1990s.

The analysis wades into a thorny set of economic and political questions as insurance companies are managing the potential risks of climate change when the cost of groceries, gasoline and housing are a frustration for many voters. Insurance companies say they have hiked premiums because of rising prices for homes and autos and the expenses of fixing them.

“The fact that the loss ratios are so low means that the insurance industry is charging too much,” said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt University think tank and a former senior adviser at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The insurance industry said its current loss ratio reflects the costs for insurers in recent years and the steps deemed necessary for ensuring that insurance funding is stable and solvent.

“Current loss ratios reflect the impact of enormous financial losses over the last several years and the steps insurers have taken (to) maintain and restore financial strength so funds are available to pay future claims," Don Griffin, vice president for policy and research at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said in an emailed statement. “Loss ratios in the 1990s were driven to nearly unsustainable levels by Hurricane Andrew in particular.”

After reviewing the analysis, Griffin added in a statement that the “state-based regulatory system is best suited” for overseeing the insurance industry as opposed to the federal guidelines in the report. He also said that mandates on loss ratios would harm customers.

“We have seen what happens when government limits insurers’ ability to appropriately price policies: markets deteriorate and policyholders are left with fewer options for coverage at higher prices,” he said.

While President Donald Trump won a second term on the promise to contain inflation, he has also gutted institutions such as the CFPB that sought to find potential savings. Housing costs have been particularly acute. Average mortgage rates remain above 6%, and an executive order by Trump to increase construction of new homes would still take years to bend the curve on housing prices.

When Trump, a Republican, signed the order on housing regulations in March, he emphasized that he was eliminating the heightened standards to protect homes against damage from natural disasters and improving energy efficiency because he said they were increasing construction costs.

“We will slash many of these pointless regulations that do nothing for safety and add lots of costs,” he said at the signing.

Research by the economists Benjamin Keys and Philip Mulder found that average premiums for home insurance climbed an inflation-adjusted 28% between 2017 and 2024 to an annual cost of $2,750. Their research found reasons for the increases: Roughly a third came from higher construction costs, and another 20% came from greater disaster risks. But it also noted the higher costs for financial instruments such as reinsurance, which insurers purchase to protect them from catastrophic financial losses.

The Vanderbilt analysis by contrast looks at the gap between what insurers charge and what they pay out to customers. By returning to the loss ratio of 80 cents paid out for each $1 collected, it estimates that households and businesses could have saved roughly $150 billion from the $1 trillion-plus paid in premiums in 2024.

The analysis includes proposed legislative language for the federal government to set a higher loss ratio for insurers. Currently, state governments primarily regulate insurance, but a federal mandate would be harder for companies to challenge.

The analysis further argues that insurers are using the premiums “to pay for corporate perks, corporate jets, stock-buy backs, excessive executive compensation, excessive dividends, excessive advertising, and excessive agent commissions.”

“Companies are competing against each other, not based on price but just based on brand awareness,” said Shearer, the author of the analysis, arguing that too much money is spent on marketing.

Hospitals are consolidating. Technologies are reshaping workflows. Staffing shortages persist. Patients are more informed, more frustrated and more demanding of transparency.

Meanwhile, the population is aging, chronic disease rates are climbing, and mental health needs continue to surge.

In the middle of all that revolution, one thing remains consistent: health care systems rise or fall based on leadership.

For students and professionals thinking about what comes next, health care leadership offers something rare in today’s job market: impact that’s tangible and stable, and a sense of purpose that goes far beyond the typical definition of a career.

“Health care is one of the few industries where your work affects quality of life every single day,” said James O’Neill, Interim Dean of Lawrence Technological University’s College of Health Sciences. “The most meaningful leadership roles are the ones that improve outcomes for patients while also strengthening the teams who care for them.”

The backbone of modern care

Few leadership roles carry as much direct influence as health care leadership.

Managers, directors and executives shape everything from staffing models to patient safety. Leaders are responsible for translating big-picture strategy into day-to-day operations. Their decisions influence not only outcomes, but also workplace culture and team resilience.

And as workforce challenges continue, the importance of health care leadership is only growing.

“Health care leaders are at the center of what makes health care work,” O’Neill said. “When health care teams are supported, patient care improves. When leadership is strong, entire organizations become more resilient.”

This is one of the most stable leadership pathways in the field because health care leadership is foundational. Every care setting depends on it.

Operations: Keeping care accessible

Health care is mission-driven and complex. Leadership isn’t just one role -- it’s a wide range of career paths, each with a distinct impact.

Operations leaders -- such as clinic administrators, hospital operations managers, service line directors and practice managers -- ensure care systems run efficiently and remain financially sustainable.

These roles are sometimes misunderstood as being “behind the scenes,” but in reality, their decisions are some of the most important that get made. Operations leaders determine how patients move through a system, how quickly they can be seen and how efficiently resources are used.

“Good operations leadership isn’t about cutting corners,” O’Neill said. “It’s about building systems that allow clinicians to focus on care, not chaos.”

As health care grows more complex, strong operations leaders will remain in demand. They are the people who turn good intentions into reliable execution.

Quality and safety: Protecting patients

There is no such thing as a health care organization that can afford to treat quality and safety as optional. This is one of the fastest-growing areas of leadership because the stakes are high and the public expects accountability.

Leaders in quality improvement, patient safety, infection prevention and risk management focus on reducing harm, strengthening protocols, improving outcomes and ensuring compliance with standards. Their work might not always be visible, but it is often the reason patients receive safer, more consistent care.

“Health care runs on trust,” O’Neill said. “Quality and safety leaders protect that trust. Their work is what keeps systems honest, consistent and safe.”

As health care continues to face pressure from regulators, insurers and public expectations, these roles will only expand.

Public health: Solving problems early

Some of the most impactful health care leadership happens long before a patient ever reaches a hospital.

Public health leaders focus on education and prevention, addressing issues like vaccination, maternal health, chronic disease management, substance abuse prevention and health equity. They often collaborate across government, nonprofits, schools and health care systems to reduce the root causes of illness and improve long-term outcomes.

“The future of health care will depend on who is willing to lead outside the hospital walls,” O’Neill said. “Community health leadership is where we address the upstream issues that shape entire populations.”

As the U.S. health care system increasingly shifts toward value-based care and prevention, these roles are becoming central, not secondary.

Behavioral health: Meeting a growing need

Mental and behavioral health has become one of the most urgent challenges in health care today.

Leaders in this space -- including program directors, mental health administrators, crisis response coordinators and leaders who integrate behavioral health into primary care -- work to expand access, improve coordination and integrate care across systems.

“Behavioral health is one of the areas where leadership can make the most immediate difference,” O’Neill said. “It’s not just about treatment; it’s about access, coordination and creating pathways where people can get help before they reach a breaking point.”

This is one of the most purpose-driven leadership tracks in the industry, and one of the most urgently needed.

Patient experience: Shaping how care feels

Health care isn’t just clinical -- it’s personal. It’s about the experience of navigating a system when you’re vulnerable, stressed or in pain.

Leaders in patient experience focus on improving communication, reducing barriers, streamlining scheduling, improving service recovery and building trust with diverse communities. These roles matter because patients judge health care not only by what happens clinically, but by how they are treated as human beings.

“Patients remember whether they were listened to,” O’Neill said. “They remember whether the system respected their time and their dignity. Patient experience leadership is really about leading compassion at scale.”

Preparing the next generation of leaders

As demand grows, so does the need for professionals who understand both care delivery and the systems behind it.

LTU has developed a range of academic pathways designed to prepare professionals for these evolving leadership roles in health care, including:

• Associate of Science and Bachelor of Science in Allied Health Sciences
• Associate-to-BSN completion pathway for registered nurses
• Master of Healthcare Administration
• Doctor of Health Sciences

Together, these programs reflect the evolving nature of health care -- where leadership requires a blend of clinical care, operational expertise and strategic thinking.

A career built around purpose

Some careers rise and fall with the economy. Health care leadership is different.

It’s built on something more constant: human need.

The most effective leaders balance complexity with clarity and urgency with long-term thinking. And right now, that kind of leadership is in short supply.

“Health care needs leaders who can think strategically, communicate clearly and lead with integrity,” O’Neill said. “When you step into these roles, you’re not just building a career -- you’re building a system that people depend on.”

For those seeking a path defined by impact, stability and purpose, health care leadership remains one of the strongest options available. Not because it is easy, but because it matters. And because the people who do it well don’t just fill roles -- they shape the future of care.

Advance into health care leadership at Lawrence Technological University.

Add into it that this weekend's race is in Miami — traditionally one of the most-viewed of the season not only in the U.S. but worldwide — and hopes are high that casual viewers of the sport will be able to increase audiences.

“I think it’s a relaunch in a way. We’re treating it and we were treating it in a huge way anyway, and we’ve kind of probably even done a little more, but we’ve got a lot of things coming up for the race, so we’re very excited about it,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services.

Apple reached a five-year deal with the global motorsports series last fall, averaging $150 million per year. ESPN, which had carried F1 races since 2018, paid nearly $90 million during a three-year extension signed in 2022.

Miami is the first race since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29. The Iran war forced F1 to call off April's races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Apple is showing the races in 4K Dolby Vision with immersive 5.1 surround sound. Viewers can watch up to four live feeds at once during practices, qualifying and races via multi-view displays. In addition to in-car cameras, there are timing and scoring channels.

Viewers can also choose either the commentary team from F1 TV or Sky Sports. ESPN used the Sky Sports feed when it aired the races.

“I think the first feedback that we’ve gotten in general is how good the video quality is because we do Dolby Atmos and we do 4K and we really don’t compress at the levels that all of the others do. The first time you watch a race, you’re like, ‘Wow, this looks amazing.’ The video and sound quality is just really, really good,” Cue said. "We’ve had almost a third of the people that are watching the race are taking advantage of multiview, because we’ve made it easy to do that where you can watch the key feed and watch your favorite cars."

Apple TV is also adding two shows before and after race weekends.

“Circuits in Focus” debuted on Thursday and features 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg and creator Emelia Hartford previewing the circuit where the race will be run heading into the weekend, including strategy and key areas of the track that could define the race. Rosberg and Hartford will use the EA Sports F1 25 video game to take viewers into the driver's seat to show where there will be chances for drivers to overtake or defend their position.

“POV” will take place after races. It features former Red Bull Racing senior technician Calum Nicholas as well as content creator and engineer Christina Roki as they react and analyze key points from the weekend from a technical point of view.

Apple is also adding an on-demand, 10-minute recap of qualifying to join its race reviews.

In addition to content in its sports app, Apple also offers detailed circuit layouts in its Maps app, driver-curated playlists in Apple Music, and content in Apple News and podcasts.

Besides the content on Apple, Sunday's race will be shown nationwide from 50 IMAX locations. The race will also be shown in Times Square in New York.

The Tubi streaming “The Fast Lane: Miami” altcast features YouTube influencers Michelle Khare and Jeremiah Burton along with F1 expert Scott Mansell.

Apple is not part of Nielsen’s ratings system, and the company has not released ratings on the first three races. Cue said they have been pleased with viewer figures.

“I think fans have in some ways been surprised by how good everything’s turned out. We haven’t released any numbers yet or anything. We’ve been very happy with it and you’ll soon see more about that,” Cue said.

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

Japan is pouring tons of money into everything from breeding to training and racing, with a turn to dirt-track runners over the past decade or so after turf was the focus for so long. Following a near miss with Forever Young in 2024, the investment could soon pay off in the form of a Kentucky Derby winner, with Danon Bourbon and homebred Wonder Dean the country's hopes in the race this year.

“We are getting closer,” racing manager Hiroshi Ando told The Associated Press outside the Japanese horses' barn Thursday. “For Japan, I think we’re able to change Japanese racing history again, like we did with Forever Young in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Our ambition is the Kentucky Derby right now, if possible.”

The ambition for a longer period of time has been the Arc De Triomphe on grass in Paris, because Japan's roots in racing are on turf. The Japanese Racing Association launched the Japan Cup in 1981 to promote the sport and get more national interest in it, and it has become the richest turf race in the world with a purse of $8.2 million.

“We tried to learn a lot of things from the techniques and lots of things from foreign countries, not only U.S. — from European countries,” said Tom Hashimoto, general manager of the JRA's New York Representative Office. “Developed not in a short period, (but) we make it. It took step by step and learn from other countries, and now we are very lucky to have so many good thoroughbreds.”

That history of quality thoroughbreds there dates to the early ‘90s, when 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sunday Silence drew little breeding interest in the U.S. and was exported to Japan to stand as a stallion. He was Japan's leading sire for 13 consecutive years from 1995-2007, and his ancestors have won races all over the world.

Interest in mainstream dirt racing ramped up a little after that, around the time Victoire Pisa delivered Japan's first Dubai World Cup championship in 2011. American Pharoah, who won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 2015 to end a 37-year Triple Crown drought, is in Japan breeding until July.

“Obviously he produced a lot of good horses in Japan, too, so Japanese people love American Pharoah babies,” Ando said. "I’m really interested to see how his babies perform because we have many good Japanese mares."

While the result of his stay in Japan won't be evident for a few years, the country is churning out strong horses on a regular basis, coming a long way from its debut Ski Captain finishing 14th in 1995. Master Fencer in 2019 and Derma Sotogake in '23 each were sixth, and Forever Young was a very close third two years ago when Mystik Dan beat Sierra Leone by a nose.

The post time just before 7 p.m. at Churchill Downs makes the Kentucky Derby a first Sunday morning in May event in Japan, and all the horses coming from there running in it is making fans take notice.

“Last couple years, Japanese racing people understand the Kentucky Derby,” Ando said. “Even the public knows the Kentucky Derby now, which is great for betting, great for the industry.”

Ando just wants to keep experiencing the Derby, which he called the best atmosphere in racing — and addictive. The chance to have a Japanese presence almost annually is certainly no accident, given how intentional Japanese stakeholders have been about getting to the elite level of the sport.

“The important thing is, how does the money fund the horse racing industry as a whole?” Hashimoto said. “Not only the racing: breeding, training, training, training and racing and back to breeding. We have to invest the money to all the aspects of horse racing.”

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This story has been updated to show Sunday Silence was Japan’s leading sire from 1995-2007, not 2008.

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

Traveling different paths, they all got to the Kentucky Derby this year, where Father's Day is coming early at Churchill Downs. The Delgados have The Puma, the elder Mott is looking to go back to back with Chief Wallabee, and his 34-year-old son has his first two Derby horses in Albus and Incredibolt.

“You always want your children — you hope they’re better than you,” Bill Mott told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “And I think that’s probably the case. We’re very proud of him.”

Bill Mott has two Kentucky Derby titles already, though Country House getting elevated to first in 2019 when Maximum Security was disqualified made Sovereignty's triumph feel more like his first. A competitor in his own right, he acknowledges it would be quite special to see Riley do it.

That's the goal, now.

“It was extremely special for Sovereignty because I’m still part of the family, part of the team,” Riley said. “But to do it on my own, this is my baby — our stable, our business. It’s my brainchild, my baby. It’s like my life’s work, so naturally to do it on your own would be tenfold special.”

The Puma is set to be the Delgados' fourth horse in the Kentucky Derby and their first since winning it with Mage in 2023. The horse, named for Gustavo Sr.'s nickname for his resemblance to popular Venezuelan artist José Luis Rodríguez, occupies the same stall as Mage did, and the occasion has the father-son training duo reliving all the delightful memories from three years ago.

“It feels great just to be back to Churchill at this time of the year with a horse going to the Derby,” Gustavo Jr. said. “I'm happy to be back here.”

They own part of The Puma, along with Ramiro Restrepo and others, and jockey Javier Castellano is riding again after Mage was his first Derby win on his 16th try. The Deglados' partnership has reached a stage where they don't even argue with one another and see things the same way.

“My dad and I, we work so (well) together and we share the same passion,” Gustavo Jr. said. “We are also best friends. When you have that kind of chemistry, everything works so well, especially when a good horse comes around.”

A lot of good horses came around for Bill Mott since Riley began working for him full time out of college in 2014, so much so that it looked like he'd train for the rest of his life.

“He’s never going to retire: He’s going to die in his boots, so to speak,” Riley said of his dad, who's 72. “I knew it was never going to be a situation where he’d retire and I’d take over. He loves the game, he’s passionate about the horses and he’d probably get very bored if he retired.”

Through Country House, Tacitus and Sovereignty, it has not been boring for Bill, who doesn't believe he specifically taught his son particular lessons along the way.

“There would be things I needed him to do, and he would carry out the whatever it was that we needed to have done, but I never drilled anything into him,” Mott said. “He just picked it up. Like a sponge, he just absorbed everything on his own. He’s a good horseman who knows what’s going on.”

Naturally, the credit goes to pops, who's most proud of how Riley treats everyone from grooms to executives with respect and maintains the same even-keeled demeanor.

“I’ve learned almost everything that I know about horses, about life,” Riley said. “My lifetime’s worth of knowledge comes from him.”

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

Activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla said Israeli forces stormed their vessels overnight, smashing engines and detaining some of those onboard while they were sailing in international waters near Greece, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Gaza and Israel.

Israel officials said they needed to take early action against the flotilla before it reached Israeli waters because of the high number of boats involved.

The flotilla set sail earlier this month from Barcelona, Spain. Organizers have said more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world would be participating, with more vessels joining the original boats as the flotilla sailed east across the Mediterranean.

Flotilla organizers condemned Israel’s interception as “a dangerous and unprecedented escalation," describing it in a news release as "the abduction of civilians in the middle of the Mediterranean, over 600 miles from Gaza, in full view of the world."

In a separate statement late Thursday, organizers said 31 of the 53 vessels had reached safe waters and would continue their attempts to "break the illegal siege of Gaza.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry originally said in a post on X that it was taking about 175 activists from more than 20 boats participating in the flotilla to Israel. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later wrote on X that the activists would be transferred to Greece in coordination with Greek authorities.

The Greek foreign ministry issued a statement saying it had asked Israel to withdraw its ships from the area and has offered its “good services” for the activists to disembark in Greece and be repatriated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Israeli Navy in a statement saying the mission to keep the flotilla away had been a success. “They will continue to watch Gaza on YouTube,” he said.

Protests, condemnation in support of detained flotilla activists

Protests in solidarity with the flotilla were called across several capitals. In Rome, crowds gathered outside the Colosseum holding Palestinian flags. In Athens supporters chanted in support of the flotilla outside the Greek foreign ministry.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned the seizure as “an act of piracy." Spain summoned the Israeli charge d’affaires in Madrid “to convey its strongest condemnation of the detention of the flotilla,” which included Spanish citizens, the ministry said in a statement. Italy and Germany said they were following developments with “great concern."

In a post on Telegram, Hamas also condemned the interception, accusing Israel of committing a crime without accountability and calling for the release of those detained.

Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

Israel had thwarted previous efforts to break its blockade

The activists' attempt comes less than a year after Israeli authorities foiled a previous effort by the group to reach Gaza. That attempt involved about 50 vessels and around 500 activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several European lawmakers.

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

The Israeli action had raised questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters. Several world leaders and human rights groups had condemned Israel, saying it violated international law.

Previous efforts to breach the blockade have also failed. In 2010, Israeli commandos raided the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara, which had been participating in an aid flotilla attempting to reach Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American on board were killed. The last time an activist boat succeeded in reaching the strip was in 2008.

Activists say Israeli forces boarded and disabled the boats

The Sumud Flotilla described the interception as a “violent raid in international waters.” In a social media post, the group said that “after smashing engines and destroying navigation arrays, the military retreated— intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm.”

It also said the vessels' communications had been jammed, hindering them from signaling for help. Asked about the accusations, the Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oren Marmorstein said that “early action was required in accordance with international law” due to the large number of vessels in the flotilla. “The operation was carried out in international waters peacefully and without any casualties,” he said.

Marmostein accused the Hamas militant group in Gaza of being the “driving force” behind the flotilla, “with the aim of sabotaging (U.S.) President (Donald) Trump’s peace plan transition to its second phase and intended to divert attention from Hamas’ refusal to disarm.”

Flotilla aims to draw attention to the situation in Gaza

A fragile six month-old ceasefire in Gaza has halted the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants in the Palestinian enclave. Around 2 million Gaza residents are still living in ruins with shortages of food and medicine, and only limited aid entering through a single, Israeli-controlled border post.

Flotilla organizers have said they hope their latest attempt to reach Gaza will help highlight the living conditions endured by Palestinians in the territory, particularly as global attention has shifted its focus to the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran.

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Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Mitzpe Hila, Israel, Cinar Kiper in Istanbul and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

The law, which goes into effect in July, is the strictest bathroom ban in the nation, subjecting people to time behind bars if they knowingly enter a bathroom, locker room or changing area that does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth — even if the bathroom is in a privately owned business. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to a year in jail for a first offense, or a felony with up to five years in prison for a second offense.

The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, say the law forces them to either stay at home or risk harassment, assault or arrest when using public restrooms.

“I’ve been enjoying life as a man and using the men’s restrooms hasn’t been a big deal,” Diego Fable, one of the plaintiffs, said in a news release. “But this law would force me to use the women’s facilities, and doing so would only invite suspicion, questions, and raised eyebrows. I would have to face tough choices every time I leave my home: Do I know the restroom situation when I go out to eat with my friends? Do I know the restrooms available when I go to public parks to go birding? What do I do while I’m at work all day?”

Republican Sen. Ben Toews, one of the sponsors of the legislation behind the law, said in March that the law was needed to protect women and children. He suggested that transgender people could simply find and use a single-occupancy gender -neutral restroom if they wanted.

Few gender-neutral restrooms available

But in the lawsuit, Fable said the only restrooms available at his work, local grocery stores and some restaurants, conference centers and gas stations are multi-occupancy gendered facilities. Other people also perceive Fable as a man, according to the lawsuit — and he is worried he will face violence if he goes into a women's restroom facility as required by the new law.

“Ultimately, complying with this law would be extremely isolating,” Fable said. "The only safe option truly available is to just stay home –- or leave the state entirely, leaving my treasured friends and community behind.”

The other plaintiffs expressed similar concerns. Peter Poe is a transgender man with a beard, and said using a women's restroom would be disruptive. Amelia Milette, a transgender woman, says her job requires her to assist clients at their own offices, and most of those offices only do not have gender-neutral restrooms. She said she will have to limit her food and liquid consumption to reduce the need to use the restroom in public places if the law goes into effect.

At least 19 states, including Idaho, already have laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender in schools and, in some cases, other public places. The LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project’s tracking of the laws shows that three other states — Florida, Kansas and Utah — have made it a criminal offense in some circumstances to violate the bathroom laws.

Idaho's law applies broadly to private businesses

But none of the others apply as broadly to private businesses as the Idaho law, which covers any “place of public accommodation,” meaning any business or facility that serves the public. The legislation includes nine exceptions for situations like performing janitorial work, responding to emergencies, helping children or cases when someone has “dire need” of a restroom.

The plaintiffs say the ban will cause emotional harm, exacerbate gender dysphoria and could lead to medical problems like kidney and urinary tract infections caused by being forced to avoid using restrooms. They contend the law is overly vague, that it discriminates based on sex and transgender status, and that it violates their constitutional right to privacy because it will force them to disclose their transgender status.

“This law is a dangerous and discriminatory effort to push transgender people out of public life,” said Barbara Schwabauer, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project.

Schwabauer said they would try to have the law completely blocked. “If you cannot use the restroom at work, you cannot go to work. If you cannot use the restroom at school, you cannot go to school," she said.

Attorney General Raúl Labrador is named as a defendant in the case along with multiple county prosecutors.

“We look forward to defending the law,” Labrador’s office said in an email to The Associated Press.

Trump then posted on his social media platform Truth Social congratulating Ali al-Zaidi and wishing him “success as he works to form a new Government free from terrorism that could deliver a brighter future for Iraq.”

“We look forward to a strong, vibrant, and highly productive new relationship between Iraq and the United States," the post said. "This is the beginning of a tremendous new chapter between our Nations — Prosperity, Stability, and Success like never seen before.”

The call and post signal that Washington has given its blessing to al-Zaidi, a businessman and political newcomer, after Trump had announced his disapproval of a previous leading candidate for the post.

Iraq’s dominant parliamentary bloc, the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Shiite parties allied with Iran — on Monday nominated al-Zaidi to be the country’s prime minister after weeks of internal debate among its member parties.

The coalition had previously said it would back former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who the U.S. administration views as too close to Iran. Trump publicly announced his opposition to al-Maliki and threatened to cut off aid to Iraq if he was appointed.

While al-Maliki remained defiant after Trump’s intervention, the bloc decided to shift to a compromise candidate.

Al-Zaidi, who is chairman of Al-Janoob Islamic Bank, emerged in the final stages of discussions as one of the leading candidates — bolstered by his economic background and business and investment connections. He hasn't previously held political office.

In 2024, Al-Janoob was one of a number of banks that were banned by Iraq’s central bank from dealing in dollars amid pressure from the U.S. to crack down on money laundering and funneling of funds to Iran. However, neither the bank nor al-Zaidi are under U.S. sanctions.

Following his nomination, al-Zaidi promised to focus on making Iraq “a balanced country, regionally and internationally.”

“This appointment comes at a sensitive time that requires concerted efforts from all political and social forces,” he said.

Under the constitution, the designated prime minister has 30 days to present a Cabinet lineup to the parliament, which requires 167 votes to secure a vote of confidence.

The next government will have to deal with the political and economic fallout of the Iran war, which spilled over into Iraq, while the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted the oil exports on which Iraq’s economy depends.

Watch the video above to hear about some of the events Happening Around the D.

A Michigan native plays one of the disciples on the hit series. Giavani Cairo takes on the role of Thaddeus on “The Chosen.”

Watch the video above to see Cairo’s appearance on “Live In The D” where talks about the series and what’s next.

It was a period of painful rejection that is familiar to exonerees. Some see their own struggles reflected in Calvin Duncan, who won elected office in New Orleans after clearing his name but likely won't serve. Louisiana lawmakers sent a bill to the governor's desk Wednesday abolishing his job.

“We’re still kind of like looked at as an inmate that did a particular crime. It further deteriorates our ability to believe that the system can heal itself,” said Miles, who eventually found a job through a minister at his church. “When cases like in Louisiana occur, it just shows us that the system is not healing itself.”

The fight in Louisiana has touched a nerve among exonerees in the U.S. who see Duncan's plight as reflective of the biases and stigmas they have to confront as they try to rebuild their lives.

Duncan served nearly 30 years in prison before his murder conviction was vacated in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers had lied in court. He was elected to become the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court in November, vowing to fix the system that failed him. He had been set to take office May 4.

Louisiana Republicans who want to dissolve the office say it isn't about Duncan's past but a necessary step toward government efficiency.

“Even if they are seen as somebody who is exonerated, there is still a stigma as somebody who has been in prison,” said Jon Eldan, the founder and executive director of After Innocence, a California-based nonprofit.

On Wednesday, Duncan sued Gov. Jeff Landry and other state officials, accusing them of conspiring to prevent the “Black exoneree and supporter of racial justice" from taking office. Duncan asked a federal judge to let him take office as scheduled on May 4.

A spokesperson for Landry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying Murrill “had nothing to do with the bill.”

Nonprofits and others offer help to exonerees

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, more than 3,800 people have been exonerated in the U.S. since 1989.

But unlike those released on parole or probation, exonerees don’t have access to government-provided services such as employment or housing assistance and mental health services.

“I was turned down by many prisoner reentry organizations because they said, ‘Look, you’re not on parole, you’re not on probation,'” said Jeffrey Deskovic, who was wrongly convicted of rape and murder in Peekskill, New York, and spent 16 years in prison before being freed in 2006.

Thirty-eight states compensate wrongfully convicted people, although that process can take years.

After Innocence works directly one-on-one with exonerees nationwide, helping them to get healthcare and dental services, and providing them with financial and job counseling and resume prep. It also tries to clean up their records to accurately represent what happened in their criminal cases, Eldan said.

Miles, who spent more than 14 years in prison, now runs Miles of Freedom, a nonprofit in Dallas that helps formerly incarcerated individuals, including exonerees, rebuild their lives.

The challenges Miles faced as an exoneree looking for employment — including a lack of work history, viable skills and training — are not unusual, but it also appears some employers simply don't want someone who has been behind bars on their workforce.

There are no government statistics that track the employment rate of exonerees. Multiple studies have shown the unemployment rate for people who were in prison is much higher than the national rate. A 2018 study from the Prison Policy Initiative found that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27%. A 2021 Bureau of Justice Statistics study found that 33% of federal prisoners released in 2010 did not find employment for four years. Nationally, the unemployment rate in March was 4.3%.

Finding employment remains a challenge

Deskovic used the compensation he received five years after his 2006 release from prison to start the Deskovic Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit that helps free wrongfully convicted people. He later got a law degree so he could represent them in court.

Exonerees tell Deskovic little has changed since the years following his release when he applied for jobs, including as a doughnut shop worker and a weekly newspaper reporter, but could never find consistent work.

Supporters of exonerees point to Duncan as someone who has rebuilt his life and won elected office but still faces pushback about his innocence and post-incarceration accomplishments.

“If he wasn’t an exoneree, would they be doing this to him? I’m sure that they would not,” Deskovic said.

Groups push for legislative help for exonerees

Eldan's organization worked with a state senator to help write and pass a law in Delaware that provides compensation for wrongful imprisonment, as well as a stipend and help with housing, food benefits, and health and dental insurance. It also provides exonerees with a certificate from the state saying they were wrongly incarcerated and found innocent.

Eldan said his group is working with legislators in several other states, including California and New Mexico, where lawmakers are focused on passing bills to provide similar innocence certificates and update exonerees' criminal records.

More states should fund programs to help exonerees after their release, Eldan and Miles said.

“But it’s hard to write into a statute, something that actually translates into real benefit for these people,” Eldan said. “It's not because the state is bad, but because the state just is not well-suited to deliver those services.”

Ben Spencer spent 34 years in prison for a murder in Dallas he didn’t commit before being exonerated and released in 2021. He applied for jobs at an Amazon warehouse and as an airport baggage loader but failed to secure a position.

Eventually, someone who had taken an interest in his case helped get him a job as a facilities engineer, doing repairs for a company. He’s worked there five years.

“I think I’m kind of settling in a little more now. I’m still trying to figure out the cellphone and computers,” Spencer said. “When I walked out of the jail, it was like waking up out of a coma or a bad dream. And of course, I still had to try to get some financial stability. I guess I won’t say I’m there now, but I’m closer to where I wanna be now than I was.”

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Associated Press writer Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

He and another officials with the group accused Ankara of failing to enact legal and political reforms needed to move the process forward, contradicting recent optimistic statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Murat Karayilan, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and one of its most senior leaders, said in an interview with the PKK-linked ANF news outlet that his group had taken major steps as part of the peace effort, including declaring a ceasefire and an end to its armed struggle.

“The process is currently frozen. That’s what we’ve been able to see and what has been reported to us," the outlet quoted Karayilan as saying. “We, as a movement, have fulfilled our responsibilities at this stage. It is clear that we have done everything necessary for the government to take action.”

There was no immediate reaction from officials in Turkey to Karayilan’s remarks.

Last year, the PKK declared that it would disarm and disband as part of the new peace effort with Turkey, following a call by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK then staged a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, and later announced that it was withdrawing fighters from some key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

Earlier this year, a Turkish parliamentary committee recommended a series of reforms to advance the initiative, including the reintegration of PKK members who renounce violence, while stressing that legal steps should be tied to state security institutions verifying that the group has surrendered its weapons.

Karayilan said that Turkish government and ruling party officials had set April as the month in which legislation advancing the process would be brought to parliament, a deadline that has now passed with no bill introduced.

He accused the Turkish government of failing to implement even basic measures recommended by the committee, including releasing opposition politicians and activists from prison.

Ocalan himself also remains imprisoned. Karayilan said that the PKK’s decision at its 12th Congress to end its armed struggle and dissolve itself was approved on the condition that Ocalan personally manage the disarmament process, meaning, he said, that the group’s own internal mandate can't move forward while its leader remains in prison.

In a separate statement to The Associated Press, Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Communities Union, a political organization linked with the PKK, said that the organization had taken several steps in line with Ocalan’s call. But Hiwa said that Turkish forces continue to operate in parts of northern Iraq, government-appointed administrators still occupy the seats of elected Kurdish mayors in Turkey and that thousands of Kurdish and Turkish political prisoners remain jailed.

“The Turkish state has taken no legal and political steps towards peace and has been continuing war-time policies under new rhetoric,” he said, adding that Ocalan remains under solitary confinement on Imrali island off Istanbul, where he has been imprisoned since his capture in 1999.

Hiwa accused the Turkish government of “instrumentalizing” the process to consolidate the governing party's grip on power and boost its standing in upcoming elections, rather than seeking a genuine settlement.

“What happens next totally depends on the attitudes of the Turkish state,” Hiwa said. He warned that the impasse could carry “precarious implications.”

The PKK officials' suggestion that the peace process has stalled contradicted a statement by Erdogan, who a day earlier told legislators from his governing party, that the peace efforts were moving in a positive atmosphere.

“The process is proceeding as it should,” Erdogan said. “Those who write pessimistic scenarios about the process are acting entirely on their delusions, not on facts.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency since 1984, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into neighboring Iraq and Syria. It's designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted to demands for autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.

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Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.

The stabbing happened near Greenfield and Nine Mile Road at around 9:30 a.m. on April 30.

Police said the 28-year-old Detroit woman got into a fight with a 24-year-old Taylor woman, whose children share the same father. The fight led to the Detroit woman being stabbed in the back and side. She tried to drive away, but crashed into a tree.

The Detroit woman was taken to a local hospital and is expected to be okay.

The women’s children’s father, who lived in an apartment in the area where the stabbing happened, was not involved in the altercation, police said.

The suspect was later found in Detroit and was taken into custody. The investigation is ongoing.

The measure that passed unanimously by voice vote Thursday was written as a change to the Senate’s rules, so it will go into effect immediately. It comes a week after a U.S. special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to bet on the January capture of Venezuela's then-president, Nicolas Maduro, and as lawmakers increasingly voice concerns about who might be making public wagers on the war with Iran.

“United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who sponsored the resolution. An amendment by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., broadened the measure to include staff.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the move was a “no-brainer.” He encouraged the House and Trump administration to do the same.

“We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises or elections,” Schumer said. “That would destroy the very principle of representative government.”

Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have introduced a bill to ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to make prediction market bets. Young said the resolution was “a good first step” and he encouraged the Senate to take up their bill.

Prediction markets, including the betting platform Polymarket and its chief rival Kalshi, have come under scrutiny as the business has expanded. Polymarket has received particular criticism as a venue for offshore trades that are beyond the reach of U.S. regulators.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the United States and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.

The administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, is an adviser for both Polymarket and Kalshi. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.

“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” Trump said this month.

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