It is the latest step that President Donald Trump's administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and empower fossil fuels as a primary energy source to feed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers.

In its proposed rule, the EPA said a 2024 rule under President Joe Biden misjudged the effectiveness and cost of the regulation, and had the effect of shutting down coal-fired power plants at a time when energy demand is spiking.

Changing the rule is critical to making electricity more affordable and reliable, while advancing the economy, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.

“The AI and data center revolution is creating an electricity and baseload power demand that cannot be met under the overly restrictive policies of past administrations,” Zeldin said. “The Trump EPA will continue doing its part to address these burdensome regulations on the coal-fired power plant sector that hold American communities back from the new opportunities presented by this new 21st century energy reality.”

In 2024, the EPA strengthened wastewater rules over coal-fired power plants that keep coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal — in unlined, uncovered dumps that leach toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium into groundwater.

In the rule, the EPA required plant owners to report whether the groundwater was contaminated and, if so, pump and treat the contaminated groundwater before discharging it into streams and rivers, Thom Cmar, an attorney for environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, said.

The EPA initially had given power plant owners until Dec. 31, 2029, to meet the new limits.

The EPA said the rule proposed Thursday, if finalized, would reduce power generation costs by as much as $1.1 billion a year. Coal and power industry trade associations cheered the EPA's move. Environmental groups slammed it as a public health danger and giveaway to the coal-power industry.

Earthjustice said the lakes, rivers and other waterways that will see more pollution as a result of the EPA’s proposal are often sources of drinking water that tens of millions of people rely on. Coal-fired power plants are by far one of the largest sources of toxic pollutants in America’s rivers, lakes and streams, Earthjustice said.

“This plan would eliminate safeguards on hundreds of millions of pounds of wastewater with neurotoxins and cancer-causing contaminants. It would allow coal power plants to avoid cleaning up contamination that threatens our drinking water sources," Cmar said.

The proposal unveiled Thursday would exempt contaminated groundwater seeping into waterways from the mandatory treatment requirements, Earthjustice said. Power plant owners would only be required to treat the contaminated groundwater if they were already complying with the 2024 rule to pump it to the surface to treat it, Earthjustice said.

States could, however, still investigate whether power plants are polluting the groundwater and, if they are, try to force owners to treat the polluted groundwater under federal clean water laws, Cmar said.

“The problem is, at the state level, many states are reluctant to use that tool that they all have to hold up the permitting process and force the companies to do an adequate job of documenting and limiting the pollution,” Cmar said.

The EPA said dozens of coal-fired power plants — likely up to 104 — are polluting groundwater through the uncontrolled runoff. It found seven plants were complying with the rule to pump and treat the groundwater, it said.

The EPA had estimated in 2024 that its new rule that year would reduce pollutant discharges by 660 to 672 million pounds per year, provide $3.2 billion in public health benefits each year and especially benefit “low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by pollution from coal-fired power plants.”

It had projected that electricity bills for the average residential household would increase by less than $3.50 per year.

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Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter

Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP.

Ratcliffe was there "to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,'' the CIA official said.

An official statement from Cuba's government noted that Thursday's meeting "took place ... against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”

While the U.S. stressed that Cuba cannot continue to be a “safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere,” the Cuban delegation insisted that the island presents no threat to U.S. security. Cuban officials also took issue with the nation's continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rodríguez Castro previously secretly met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community summit in St. Kitts in February. While he’s never occupied a government post, he served as his grandfather’s bodyguard and later as head of Cuba’s equivalent of the Secret Service.

Thursday's meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed that it had recently met with U.S. officials on the island as tensions between the two sides remain high over the U.S. energy blockade of the Caribbean country and as Cuba’s power grid has collapsed and energy to its eastern provinces has been cut. The U.S. blockade of fuel to the island has heightened its economic woes, with reduced work hours and food spoilage as refrigerators stop working.

Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department reiterated that the U.S. will provide Cuba with $100 million in humanitarian assistance and support for satellite internet “if the Cuban regime will permit it.”

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. Though Trump also has threatened to intervene in the country, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said recently that his country was prepared to fight if that should happen, sources told the AP earlier this month that military action is not imminent.

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

___

Tucker reported from Washington, D.C.

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This version is corrected to show that the U.S. aid offer is $100 million.

Glossip wore a gray short-sleeved shirt and jeans as he walked out of the jail hand-in-hand with his wife, Lea Glossip.

“I'm just thankful for my wife and my attorneys. Just thankful,” he said. "It's overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time.”

Earlier Thursday, Judge Natalie Mai issued an order setting bond at $500,000. Glossip must wear an electronic monitoring device and will not be allowed to travel outside Oklahoma. He also must not contact any witnesses in the case, or consume any drugs or alcohol.

His attorney Donald Knight had suggested Glossip was counting on contributions to raise the money.

“Mr. Glossip has many supporters and we are hopeful those supporters can afford the bail,” Knight said.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction, and his longstanding claims of innocence have drawn support from Kim Kardashian and other prominent figures.

Glossip had been sentenced to death over the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, who was beaten with a baseball bat in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that prosecutors’ decision to allow a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false violated Glossip’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

Glossip has remained behind bars after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced the state would seek to retry him on a murder charge but not pursue the death penalty again.

“The court fully expects that the state will rigorously prosecute its case going forward and the defense will provide robust representation for Glossip,” the judge wrote in the order. “The court hopes that a new trial, free of error, will provided all interested parties and the citizens of Oklahoma, the closure they deserve.”

During his time on death row, courts in Oklahoma set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he ate three separate last meals. In 2015, he was even held in a cell next to Oklahoma’s execution chamber, waiting to be strapped to a gurney and die by lethal injection.

But the scheduled time for his execution came and went. Behind the walls of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, prison officials were scrambling after learning one of the lethal drugs they received to carry out the procedure didn’t match the execution protocols. The drug mix-up ultimately led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions in Oklahoma.

“Mr. Glossip now has the chance to taste freedom while his defense team continues to pursue justice on his behalf against a system that the United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious misconduct by state prosecutors,” Knight said.

Van Treese’s family had asked the Supreme Court to leave Glossip’s conviction and sentence intact. Attorneys for the family did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Glossip’s case attracted international attention after actress Susan Sarandon — who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean’s fight to save a man on Louisiana’s death row in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking” — took up his cause in real life. Glossip’s case also was featured in the 2017 documentary film titled “Killing Richard Glossip.”

“Both Richard and I are grateful for the court’s decision,” Glossip’s wife, Lea, said in a text to The Associated Press. “We have been praying for this day.”

“He was a ghost since ‘94,” a federal source told Local 4 Monday. “He was very cunning, very crafty while on the run.”

--> ‘Never thought this day would come:’ Murder victim’s daughter reacts to Detroit longtime fugitive’s arrest

Richard Werstine, also known as Joseph Alan Stavros, 56, is wanted in the Sept. 15, 1993, killing of his roommate, Rodney Barger, aka “Rawn Beauty,” 23, who was the lead singer of the punk rock band Cold as Life. Werstine was arrested by Detroit police days later but failed to appear for trial, and a warrant was issued in June 1994, the feds said.

In May 2022, the Marshals Service took over the case for failure to appear for a murder charge and found through its investigation that Werstine had been arrested multiple times over the years under different aliases but that his true identity was never known to authorities.

The agency said it used state-of-the-art investigative resources and techniques and devoted numerous hours to locating the fugitive. Over the previous year, DFAT developed leads that focused efforts on Panama City, Panama, and worked with the Marshals Service’s Office of International Operations and Panamanian authorities to find him.

“The U.S. Marshals Service takes crimes of this nature extremely seriously given the violent nature of the alleged offense and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution,” said Owen Cypher, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Michigan. “The dedication of all members of my staff who spearheaded the arrest of this fugitive who has been on the run for over 30 years is a testimony to their resolve. It sends a message to fugitives that there is no place you can hide that the U.S. Marshals Service won’t find you and bring you to justice.”

“The tenacity and commitment of the United States Marshals Service working to bring Werstine and those like him into police custody where they belong is at the forefront of our daily mission here in Detroit,” said Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmy Allen.

Multiple identities, no tips

“We kind of just took over this case and started from the beginning -- kind of took modern day investigative techniques to a really old case from the early 90s, and just kind of unwrapped that spider web,” Allen said.

It turns out that spider web was tight and large, and the USMS said they did not receive any tips on his whereabouts. Werstine also allegedly used multiple aliases, not only in Michigan, but Arizona, and other states. Werstine was also even arrested numerous times, locally and in other states, but under different aliases.

“Nobody ever got a return on who they actually had,” Allen said. “So, he eventually left, got out of custody, and made his way to Panama… where he was for about 20 years.”

On April 29, 2026, US Marshals traveled from Detroit to Panama and, working with Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations agents, arrested Werstine. Authorities in Panama City arrested Werstine at a local dog park and arrested him without incident, the Marshals Service said. When arrested, Werstine had fake IDs on him, but fingerprint analysis identified him as Werstine, officials said.

Werstine confessed to his identity and to being on the run, the feds said. He also admitted entering Panama illegally in 2005 and never obtaining legal status.

‘A whole new life’

Allen said that in Panama, Werstine said he was married down there, and “basically had a whole new life.”

“He had roots in Panama, and kind of just lived a new life,” Allen told Local 4. “I think he thought that he would never be caught.”

“I think when they got his fingerprints back, he couldn’t deny who he was.”

Reporter: “Even though he had fake IDs on him.”

Allen: “Yes.”

Reporter: “And he’s had multiple aliases and here and in other states.”

Allen: “Fingerprints don’t lie.”

Werstine was returned to the United States, where he will then be turned over to Wayne County authorities.

“He 100% thought he was never going to be found,” Allen said. “You could tell he really wanted to know how he was found and what happened.”

Message to Barger’s family

Allen said the effort to find Werstine was massive -- from the USMS headquarters in Washington DC to Michigan and Panama – and hopes the arrest “works toward bringing closure” to Barger’s family.

“It’s been 30 years and now they can at least rest their heads at night and have some justice,” Allen said. “That doesn’t change what happened, but you know, at least there’s some closure that someone’s going to pay for what they did.”

He said it demonstrates the Marshals’ promise to “pursue those who think they can prey on the members of our communities without being held accountable.”

Sources tell Local 4 Werstine is in the U.S. and awaiting extradition back to Michigan.

Ewing, who was promoted prior to the series opener Tuesday, hit a 405-foot shot off Keider Montero (2-3) leading off the third. He was 3 for 9 with three RBIs and four walks against the Tigers as the Mets recorded their first sweep since taking three straight from the Philadelphia Phillies in August.

Brett Baty hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Juan Soto laced a tie-breaking RBI single off Tyler Holton in the fifth, one pitch before Mark Vientos’ two-run shot.

Hayden Senger added a safety squeeze in the sixth and Soto and Marcus Semien went deep in the seventh and eighth.

Nolan McLean (2-2) gave up Gage Workman’s three-run homer in the first but lasted seven innings as he ended his winless streak at six starts. He allowed six hits, walked three and struck out seven.

Dillon Dingler homered in the eighth for Detroit.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch was ejected after a replay review confirmed Workman was thrown out at third trying to advance on Zach McKinstry’s bloop single in the fourth — one of four times a replay review didn’t benefit the Tigers.

Baty’s blast stood upon a crew chief review while the Mets successfully challenged a safe call on McLean’s pickoff of Wenceel Pérez in the fifth as well as a caught stealing call on Carson Benge just before Soto’s tie-breaking hit.

Montero gave up four runs and struck out two in 4 2/3 innings.

Up next

Detroit: RHP Ty Madden (0-0, 2.45 ERA) pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays and RHP Trey Yesavage (1-1, 0.68 ERA) on Friday at home.

New York: RHP Clay Holmes (4-3, 1.86 ERA) pitches in the Subway Series against RHP Cam Schlittler (5-1, 1.35 ERA) and the New York Yankees.

___

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

Barger was the original lead singer of the punk rock band Cold as Life.

The U.S. Marshals Service’s Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team arrested Werstine, a Detroit man they said had been on the run since the mid-1990s, two weeks ago.

“Oh wow,” the 34-year-old said quietly, looking at the new mug shot of Werstine from Texas.

“No, I haven’t seen that. He looks the same, but different,” she told the Investigators on Local 4.

The case has haunted Mendez nearly her entire life.

She was only 2 years old when her father was killed.

“I feel angry,” Mendez said. “I feel like something was stolen from me that I’ll never get back.”

‘My father was more than the headlines’

Mendez told Local 4 she wants people to understand what this has been like, especially as attention around the case spreads.

“My father was more than the headlines and more than this case,” Mendez told Local 4. “He was a real person with people who loved him, and this loss has affected our family for years.”

Mendez said watching people treat the case like “entertainment or gossip” has been painful, and she has felt “a lifetime of grief, confusion, and pain.”

“It’s not just a music headline,” Mendez added. “It’s literally something I have suffered through and through for 32 years.”

Mendez also said that after her father’s murder, it’s been difficult seeing people speak publicly as if they were always present, because “from my point of view, that was not my reality.”

Mendez described her father, Rodney Barger, as a complicated man, deeply loving, but also deeply troubled.

“My father loved my mother very deeply, but he also had a very dark side,” Mendez said.

Mendez said he had a reputation in Detroit as someone people feared. But to her, she said, he was simply “my father.”

“I know I was very loved,” Mendez said. “And I was a very important piece of his life.”

The years since her father’s death have been emotionally complicated, Mendez said, and she has often wondered what her life would have looked like if he had survived.

“He had an alcohol problem, and he was physically violent sometimes,” Mendez said. “So had I gotten older, maybe I would have gotten some of that.”

Still, she believes he was trying to turn his life around before he was killed.

“I do know he was trying to clean up his life toward the end,” Mendez said. “And that was right around the time he was murdered.”

Seeing the new mugshot of Werstine resurfaced waves of grief, anger, and questions she said she still can’t answer.

“Sadness,” Mendez said. “It’s heartbreaking for me to not know why. I don’t know why this thing occurred.”

The investigation into Werstine

“He was a ghost since ‘94,” a federal source told Local 4. “He was very cunning, very crafty while on the run.”

Officials said Werstine was arrested by Detroit police days after the killing, but later failed to appear for trial.

Federal sources provided The Investigators on Local 4 with an original arrest warrant issued back in 1994.

The warrant states that on or about June 14, 1994, a warrant was issued in the Detroit Recorder’s Court, Wayne County, Detroit, Michigan, charging Richard Werstine with Murder–First Degree, a felony under the laws of the State of Michigan.

Another warrant on July 29, 1994, states that two confidential informants swore that “Richard Werstine fled Detroit, Michigan, shortly after the crime to Greece.” The source knew this information “from personal knowledge of the defendant.”

In May 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service took over the case and said its investigation found that Werstine had been arrested multiple times over the years but had used different names, so his true identity was never known to the arresting authorities.

“We kind of just took over this case and started from the beginning, kind of took modern-day investigative techniques to a really old case from the early 90s, and just kind of unwrapped that spider web,” Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmy Allen said.

Officials said that the spider web stretched well beyond Michigan.

They said Werstine allegedly used multiple aliases in Michigan, Arizona, and other states for arson and gun charges.

“Nobody ever got a return on who they actually had,” Allen said. “So, he eventually left, got out of custody, and made his way to Panama, where he was for about 20 years.”

Over the previous year, the agency said the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team (DFAT) developed leads focusing on Panama City, Panama, and worked with the Marshals Service’s Office of International Operations and Panamanian authorities to find him.

“The U.S. Marshals Service takes crimes of this nature extremely seriously, given the violent nature of the alleged offense and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution,” said Owen Cypher, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Michigan. “The dedication of all members of my staff who spearheaded the arrest of this fugitive, who has been on the run for over 30 years, is a testimony to their resolve. It sends a message to fugitives that there is no place you can hide that the U.S. Marshals Service won’t find you and bring you to justice.”

‘Fingerprints don’t lie’

On April 29, 2026, U.S. Marshals traveled from Detroit to Panama and, working with agents from the Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations, arrested Werstine.

Authorities in Panama City arrested Werstine at a local dog park without incident, the Marshals Service said.

Officials said Werstine had fake IDs on him at the time of the arrest, but fingerprint analysis identified him as Werstine. Federal authorities said Werstine confessed to his identity and to being on the run, and also admitted entering Panama illegally in 2005 and never obtaining legal status.

Allen said Werstine told investigators he was married in Panama and “basically had a whole new life.”

“He had roots in Panama, and kind of just lived a new life,” Allen told Local 4. “I think he thought that he would never be caught.”

Reporter: “Even though he had fake IDs on him.”

Allen: “Yes.”

Reporter: “And he’s had multiple aliases and here and in other states.”

Allen: “Fingerprints don’t lie.”

Werstine was returned to the United States. Sources tell Local 4 he is in Texas and will then be turned over to Wayne County authorities. Sources tell Local 4 Werstine is still awaiting extradition back to Michigan.

Allen said the effort to find Werstine stretched from the USMS headquarters in Washington, D.C. to Michigan and Panama, and he hopes the arrest “works toward bringing closure” to Barger’s family.

“It’s been 30 years, and now they can at least rest their heads at night and have some justice,” Allen said. “That doesn’t change what happened, but you know, at least there’s some closure that someone’s going to pay for what they did.”

‘I never thought this day would come’

Mendez said the reality of the last three decades is hard to reconcile, including what federal authorities have said about Werstine’s living conditions.

“I definitely think it’s unfair,” Mendez said. “Especially when I have been living so uncomfortably for my whole life.”

At the same time, she expressed gratitude toward investigators and the U.S. Marshals who tracked Werstine down.

“I’m very thankful,” Mendez said. “I never thought this day would come.”

Mendez also said seeing people use her father’s name, image, and tragedy “for attention, fame, money, or public interest” without asking and without respect has caused her pain.

“For years, I’ve had to sit back and watch people speak for him, profit from him, or publicly attach themselves to him while feeling like I had no voice in any of it,” Mendez told Local 4.

“At the end of the day,” Mendez said, “I want the focus to stay on my father as a human being and on the impact his death had on the people actually living through it.”

Local 4 has been in touch with a bandmate from Cold as Life, who respectfully declined to comment at this time.

Despite everything, Mendez said she still talks to her father sometimes.

“I want him to know I miss him,” Mendez said. “I ask him for protection and strength.”

Then, fighting back tears, she added: “I think he would be proud of who I am.”

Today, Mendez said she has built a family of her own and remains close with her mother.

She acknowledged life has not been easy, but said she is working to heal from the past.

“I think I’m doing pretty well as a mother,” Mendez said. “Fixing my own demons and things from the past.”

As attention around the decades-old case grows, Mendez said she hopes people remember there are real families behind stories like hers.

“One thing I’ve learned through this whole process is, give people some respect,” Mendez said.

“If you see somebody going through some type of grieving process, leave them alone; we are processing it on a whole different level.”

Mendez said she plans to attend the trial.

On Iran, Trump said Xi told him that China wants to help negotiate an end to the war and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil — and Trump has hoped Xi would use that leverage to prod Iran into a deal on U.S. terms. Trump also said Xi assured him that China wouldn’t provide Iran with military equipment.

In a closed-door meeting, Xi warned Trump that differences over Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory, could bring the U.S. and China into clashes or conflict. In December, Trump authorized an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has not yet moved forward with delivery. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later warned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

Trump also hopes to focus talks on trade and deals for China to buy more agricultural products and passenger planes, setting up a board to address their differences and avoid a repeat of the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes.

Meanwhile, Adm. Brad Cooper, a top U.S. military leader in the Middle East, is testifying before the Senate for the first time since the Iran war began.

Here's the latest:

Trump says Xi wasn’t talking about him when he called the US a ‘declining nation’

Trump started his last day in Beijing with a defensive social media post, claiming that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was not talking about him when he “very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation.”

The U.S. president, who did not explain the origin of those remarks, said they referred to former President Joe Biden.

The U.S. president said that Xi had only been complimentary about Trump’s own actions after returning to the White House last year.

“In fact, President Xi congratulated me on so many tremendous successes in such a short period of time,” Trump posted.

Trump administration uses X. Lawsuit plaintiffs use court

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s X posting Thursday in which he released images of design plans for one of Washington’s historic golf courses has begat a court filing by the lawyers in a civil case against those plans.

Lawyers representing the DC Preservation League filed a plaintiff’s notice of factual development to alert the court that members of the Trump administration continue talking about design plans for one of the city’s most popular and historic golf courses even though the legality of its plans is tied up in court.

“As with every other public development since Plaintiffs filed this case, this announcement further confirms that Defendants ‘will’ be converting East Potomac into championship-style course at the expense of numerous existing features of East Potomac Park,” lawyers for the DC Preservation League wrote.

US Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill mifepristone, while lawsuit plays out

The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion, rejecting lower-court restrictions while a lawsuit continues.

The court’s order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining mifepristone at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.

The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail.

The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.

CIA director meets with officials in Havana, Cuban government says

The Cuban government says CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Thursday with counterparts from the

Caribbean country ’s Ministry of the Interior during a high-level visit to the island.

According to official reports, the meeting served as a platform for Cuba to present evidence asserting that the nation poses no threat to U.S. national security.

An official statement noted that the meeting took place “against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.”

Thursday’s meeting comes weeks after the Cuban government confirmed that it had recently met with U.S. officials on the island as tensions between the two countries remain high over the U.S. energy blockade of Cuba.

House Republicans barely defeat legislation to halt Iran war

A Democratic effort to pass legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch further attacks against Iran barely failed to pass the House in a tie vote.

The war powers resolution failed on a 212-212 vote tally. Three Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Tom Barrett of Michigan, joined with Democrats to vote in favor of the resolution. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine voted against it.

It was the first time the House has voted on the war since the close of a 60-day window in which presidents must gain congressional approval for such a conflict.

The House vote — and a close Senate vote the day before — showed how a small but potentially crucial number of Republicans are now standing in opposition to Trump continuing the war without congressional approval.

Justice Department accuses Yale medical school of illegally using race in admissions

The Department of Justice is accusing Yale University of illegally considering race in its medical school admissions. This is the second such DOJ allegation against a medical school this month.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter to Yale dated Thursday that data show Black and Hispanic students have a higher chance of admission to the medical school than white or Asian students, despite slightly lower grades and test scores. Last week, the DOJ notified the University of California, Los Angeles, of similar allegations.

The DOJ seeks a voluntary resolution with Yale but says it may take legal action if compliance isn’t achieved voluntarily. Yale officials haven’t commented yet.

▶ Read more

Trump administration aims to relax limits on toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to relax limits that require coal-fired power plants to prevent the release of toxic heavy metals into streams and rivers.

The EPA said Thursday that a 3-year-old rule was unduly costly for the energy industry at a time when energy demand is spiking, and that its new rule will lower the cost of power generation.

It’s the latest step that President Donald Trump’s administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power. Coal and power industry trade associations cheered the EPA’s proposal.

Environmental groups slammed it as a public health danger and giveaway to the coal-power industry.

“This is another example of the Trump administration endangering the health of Americans as a favor to corporate polluters,” Thom Cmar, an attorney for environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, said in a statement.

▶ Read more

In new lawsuit, Justice Department challenges efforts to sanction Trump administration lawyers

The Justice Department is challenging efforts to sanction attorneys from the first and second Trump administrations, asserting in a lawsuit that the District of Columbia Bar is unfairly playing politics with the legal disciplinary process.

The lawsuit represents a direct challenge to the authority of the office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys in the nation’s capital where several high-profile investigations of Trump-allied lawyers are playing out.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington. The D.C. Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

▶ Read more

House Democrats call for Lutnick to resign as commerce secretary

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are telling Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign following the release of his interview transcript in the House’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Lutnick was neighbors with Epstein for years in New York City. The commerce secretary has insisted he barely knew Epstein, a wealthy financier who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

But discrepancies have emerged between an interview that Lutnick gave on a podcast in 2025 and his later admissions that he had actually met up with Epstein twice after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s townhouse that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.

Demanding his resignation, Democratic lawmakers told Lutnick in a letter, “You lied to the American people and attempted to conceal your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in your public statements.”

Emails show FBI Director Kash Patel’s Hawaii trip included ‘VIP snorkel’ at a Pearl Harbor memorial

Government emails obtained by The Associated Press show that FBI Director Kash Patel went on a “VIP snorkel” session last summer at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

The FBI didn’t publicize the excursion or Patel’s return to Hawaii after official visits to Australia and New Zealand.

With few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are off-limits around the USS Arizona. The sunken battleship is now a military cemetery reachable only by boat. It has stood as one of the nation’s most hallowed sites since Japan bombed and sank the ship in 1941. It entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor.

A Navy spokesperson confirms the outing but says the service wasn’t able to track down who initiated it.

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US Border Patrol chief announces his resignation in a Fox News interview

The head of the federal agency that patrols the borders of the United States says he’s resigning.

Michael Banks of the U.S. Border Patrol told Fox News on Thursday that his resignation was effective immediately, saying, “It’s just time.”

In the interview, Banks said he believes he’s improved border security significantly.

“I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, disastrous, chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection had no immediate comment.

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US announces additional $1.8 billion in funding for UN humanitarian aid

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made the announcement at a press conference Thursday, saying the money will be earmarked for life-saving aid to victims of natural disasters, famine and “people who are truly in critical need.”

The $1.8 billion, to be allocated over the coming year, is in addition to the $2 billion the Trump administration announced in December.

President Donald Trump shut down the international aid agency USAID, throwing global humanitarian efforts into turmoil.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called his agency “overstretched, under-resourced and literally under attack” and reiterated its 2026 plan to reach 87 million of the world’s most needy at a cost of $23 billion — even though 300 million people need humanitarian help.

Before Waltz’s announcement, he said, the U.N. had raised about $7.4 billion. He said the U.S. is now “the single largest national donor” to the United Nations.

Top Democrat on Senate Foreign Relations Committee criticizes Trump’s China summit

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump’s visit to China has so far demonstrated a “lack of a coherent foreign policy” and that the U.S. is in a weakened position as a result of the war with Iran.

Shaheen told reporters that she had wished Trump had taken a stronger stance at his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, especially regarding Taiwan.

Trump in December authorized an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan — the largest weapons sale ever to the island — but has not yet moved forward with delivery.

Shaheen, who led a bipartisan group of senators on a visit to Taiwan in March, said the American president has “missed the fact that strong deterrence is the best way to have a stable relationship with China.”

Interior Secretary releases plans for historic DC golf course

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the design plans for one of Washington’s historic golf courses.

In a posting on the social platform X, Burgum promised local golfers in the National Capital Region would enjoy “championship-quality golf at affordable, highly discounted rates.”

Commenters were overwhelmingly critical, suggesting better uses for taxpayer dollars.

The golf course is the subject of a lawsuit by the nonprofit DC Preservation League. It is challenging the Republican administration’s takeover of the golf course and its use as a dumping ground for debris from the demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Democracy Forward, a national legal organization that is co-representing the league, did not respond to a call for comment.

The suit is one of several legal battles challenging Trump’s efforts to remake public spaces in the city, including plans to build a 250-foot-tall (76-meter-tall) triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial. Preliminary site work began there this week.

Vance talks up Sen. Susan Collins during Maine appearance

Vice President JD Vance used part of a speech in Bangor, Maine, to promote the state’s Republican candidates.

Sen. Susan Collins is in a tough reelection fight this year with progressive activist Graham Platner as the likely Democratic opponent. Vance praised Collins for her independence and lack of partisanship.

“Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins. I almost wish she was more partisan,” Vance said. “If she was as partisan as I wish she was she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.”

Vance also encouraged attendants to vote for former Gov. Paul LePage, who is seeking election to a congressional seat held by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is leaving office.

Senate hearing on Middle East ends with thoughts on disarming Hezbollah

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with the top U.S. military leader in the Middle East ended with a focus on the challenge of disarming Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the committee’s Republican chair, noted how Hezbollah has continually fired rockets into Israel, while Israel had launched a ground offensive into southern Lebanon focused on Hezbollah, displacing a million people.

Wicker asked Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command, if the offensive was necessary.

“It is an option among options, of which there are few to deal with the Hezbollah problem,” Cooper said.

Wicker later said, “It would be a tremendous achievement” for Israel, Lebanon and the United States “if Hezbollah could be eliminated.”

Senators approve withholding their own pay during government shutdowns

Senators have unanimously approved a resolution to withhold their pay during government shutdowns. Lawmakers said the measure approved Thursday would discourage future funding standoffs after a series of record-breaking shutdowns.

The proposal requires the secretary of the Senate to hold senators’ salaries during shutdowns and release the money once funding resumes. It’ll take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy, the bill’s sponsor, says the measure ensures lawmakers share the burden faced by unpaid federal workers.

“This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” said Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, in a floor speech Wednesday.

Two shutdowns in the past year created significant financial hardship for tens of thousands of federal workers, particularly at the Department of Homeland Security. The department reopened last month after a 76-day partial shutdown and a 43-day full government shutdown last year.

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Trump says Xi told him China would not give Iran ‘military equipment’

The U.S. president said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured him in their conversations that China would not provide weapons to Iran.

“He said he’s not going to give military equipment. That’s a big statement,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “He said that today. That’s a big statement.”

Trump has previously said that Xi has offered him this same assurance on weapon sales.

But the statement sidestepped questions about China providing Iran with intelligence, electronic components or revenues from the purchase of oil.

Trump said that Xi said China would like to continue buying petroleum from Iran.

“But at the same time, he said, you know, they buy a lot of their oil there and they’d like to keep doing that,” the president said.

Trump says Xi offered to help broker peace with Iran

President Donald Trump said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping told him in meetings that his country “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the Iran war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments.

“But he said, ‘I would love to be a help, if I can be of any help whatsoever,’” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “He’d like to see the Hormuz strait open. He said, ‘If I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.’”

Before leaving for the state visit in Beijing, Trump said the U.S. did not need China’s assistance on resolving the conflict.

US commander says reducing civilian deaths is a passion, but admits to job cuts

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military leader in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that reducing civilian casualties is a particular passion of his. But he admitted that an office in U.S. Central Command focused on civilian-harm reduction was cut from 10 employees to one.

Cooper said those people are still focused on reducing civilian casualties but are “integrated into other capacities.” The admiral added that dozens if not hundreds of people are focused on reducing civilian deaths.

Under questioning from Democratic lawmakers, he declined to estimate civilians casualties in the Iran war. He said the bombing of a school at the beginning of the war is still under investigation. He said there’s no evidence that corroborates reporting that several schools and hospitals were also bombed.

Elon Musk’s young son accompanies him in Beijing

His 6-year-old son was spotted in a Chinese-style outfit as he walked with his father in the Great Hall of the People, where Trump and Xi met in a high-stakes summit.

Musk is part of the U.S. business delegation that met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday in the same venue.

In a video posted by China’s state media, the boy is seen wearing a blue Chinese-style vest with golden-colored knot buttons on the side, drawing praise on Chinese social media.

Musk posted on his social media site X that the boy is learning Mandarin Chinese.

US commander says Iran can still strike targets in the region

The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East conceded that Iran still maintains a “very moderate if not small capability to continue strikes” in the region amid questions from lawmakers Thursday.

In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Cooper also said the U.S. has the military power to permanently reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

However, when Slotkin pressed on why Cooper hasn’t done so, especially amid rising gas prices rising for Americans, Cooper deferred to policymakers amid ongoing peace negotiations.

American forces battling Iran are adopting tactics from Ukrainians, US commander says

Adm. Brad Cooper told the Senate Armed Services Committee that American forces have learned a lot from the Ukrainian military, which is battle-hardened from its war with Russia.

“We adopted a large number of tactics, techniques and procedures that the Ukrainians have passed us that have helped us defend Americans,” Cooper said.

Ukraine has passed on expertise to the U.S. specifically regarding anti-drone warfare. Iran had launched swarms of drones against U.S. and allied forces, killing some Americans.

The new U.S. House districts, which still need House approval, would be used for primary elections poised to be postponed from Saturday until November.

The high court's ruling has led to a flurry of redistricting efforts in Southern states as Republicans seek to capitalize on a weakened federal Voting Rights Act. While most of those efforts are voluntary, Louisiana must redraw its U.S. House map in response to the ruling that it had illegally used race to gerrymander a majority-Black district.

The debate over the shape of Louisiana's new districts is playing out as South Carolina's governor ramps up pressure on lawmakers to also redistrict ahead of the midterms. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday called a special session on redistricting to start Friday.

President Donald Trump has encouraged numerous Republican-led states to redraw House voting districts to their advantage in a bid to hold on to control of the closely divided chamber in November.

Republicans think they could win as many as 15 additional House seats in seven states that already have adopted new voting districts. Democrats think they could gain up to six seats from two other states because of new House districts. But there's no guarantee those seats will turn out as expected. Litigation is continuing in some states, and voters will have the ultimate say on who wins.

Louisiana map scraps snaking district

Legislation in Louisiana seeks to address the Supreme Court ruling by scrapping a district that snakes over 200 miles (321 kilometers) northwest from the capital, Baton Rouge, to Shreveport, creating a voting bloc with a majority of Black residents. Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields represents the current 6th District.

Under the new plan, that district would instead be clustered around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

The new plan keeps a New Orleans-based, majority-Black district represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter while also adding a portion of Baton Rouge to it.

Fields, a Baton Rouge resident, said he won’t decide whether to seek reelection until the maps are finalized. But he said he won’t challenge Carter in a primary.

The newly proposed House map is similar to one used in 2022 that resulted in five Republicans and one Democrat winning election. Republican state Sen. Jay Morris said the new map packs Democrats into the 2nd District held by Carter to allow Republicans to prevail elsewhere.

“These maps are drawn to maximize Republican advantage for the incumbent Republicans that we have in Congress,” Morris said.

Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins suggested Republicans are “using partisanship as cover for discriminatory practices against a group of people, particularly Black voters and Democrats.”

“If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” Jenkins said.

“It’s not quacking,” Morris said.

“It’s quacking pretty loud, it’s quacking all over the state,” Jenkins replied.

Republican senators defeated an alternative from Democrats that would have kept two Democratic-leaning districts. Republicans opted not to pursue a 6-0 Republican map because it was infeasible, said Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, a Republican.

A federal judge struck down Louisiana's 2022 map for violating the Voting Rights Act. Then in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama had to create its own second largely Black congressional district. In light of the Alabama ruling, the Louisiana Legislature passed a revised map, creating a second majority-Black district that was used in the 2024 elections. That map also was challenged, leading to an April 29 Supreme Court ruling that Louisiana’s districts relied too heavily on race.

Louisiana House primary could shift to November

After the Supreme Court ruling, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry postponed Louisiana’s U.S. House primaries, which were scheduled for Saturday.

A bill given final approval Wednesday by the Legislature would shift the election to an open primary on Nov. 3. All U.S. House candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, would be on the ballot for voters in their district. If no one wins a majority outright, the top two vote-getters would enter a run-off on Dec. 12.

A new qualifying period for House candidates would run from Aug. 5-7.

The system is similar to how Louisiana's congressional elections previously occurred. Landry pushed the Legislature to end the state’s unique jungle primary system in 2024. Closed party primaries went into effect this year, and more than 250,000 votes already had been cast, according to the Louisiana secretary of state. The canceled congressional votes would be shielded from public records law.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, the bill’s Republican sponsor, said that with congressional redistricting, there would not be sufficient time for closed primaries and a primary run-off before the Nov. 3 general election.

A closed primary remains in place for Louisiana's U.S. Senate race, which has not been suspended and pits incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy against Trump-backed challenger U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow.

South Carolina to work overtime on redistricting

South Carolina's regular legislative session ended Thursday, but McMaster quickly called lawmakers back into session Friday to continue working on redistricting and other matters.

It could be next week before the House can finish the redistricting bill, which would also move congressional primaries to August, Republican House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said. All primaries are currently scheduled for June 9. Early voting begins May 26, and that’s likely the deadline to finish redistricting, he said.

The redistricting work “will be long. It will be boring. It will be confrontational,” Hiott told reporters.

If the proposal passes the House, it then heads to a more skeptical Senate, where Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin has said he will “demand the process” without elaborating. During the last regular redistricting at the start of the decade, Rankin’s committee held a month of meetings across the state and encouraged the public to submit its own maps.

Only one of South Carolina's seven U.S. House seats currently is held by a Democrat — longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. Some Republicans worry it is impossible to guarantee seven GOP districts in a state where the Democratic presidential candidate has gotten more than 40% of the vote every election this century. There are also concerns about holding two statewide elections in a little over two months. South Carolina’s elections leader said it may require employees to work 24 hours a day.

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Brook reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Collins from Columbia, South Carolina; and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri.

The nonbinding memorandum of understanding among the Rays, Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa outlines the costs of a stadium, which would include $967 million of tax dollars. Elected officials for the city and county are expected to vote on the deal at separate meetings next week.

“The Rays respectfully but resolutely encourage Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa to approve the MOU and make possible a Forever Home for our community’s Tampa Bay Rays, breathe new life into the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough College, and create a new privately financed neighborhood that will be an inviting and inclusive destination to work, live, learn, and play," Rays CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.

The Rays ownership reached an agreement earlier this year with Hillsborough College to build the stadium and mixed-use entertainment district on the college campus and to renovate some of the college's buildings. The property is located next to the New York Yankees’ spring training facility and across a highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Rays have said they hope to have the new stadium built within three years.

Since the team took the field in 1998, the Rays have played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, except for moving home games to the Yankees' Steinbrenner Field in 2025 following hurricane damage at the Trop. The Rays lease runs through at least the 2028 season. The team returned to the Trop last month for the start of this season.

A proposed $1.3 billion redevelopment deal for a new ballpark adjacent to the Trop fell through last year, raising new questions about the future of the team, which was bought last September by Patrick Zalupski’s ownership group.

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

The court’s order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the drug, mifepristone, at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. Access is likely to remain uninterrupted at least until into next year as the case plays out, including a potential appeal to the high court.

The justices granted emergency requests from makers of mifepristone, who are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that would require women to see a doctor in person and halt delivery of mifepristone through the mail. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved mifepristone for use in abortion in 2000, stopped requiring in-person visits five years ago.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, with Thomas writing that the two companies, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, are not entitled to the court's action to spare them “lost profits from their criminal enterprise.”

Anti-abortion groups, frustrated with President Donald Trump’s administration, are pushing the FDA to move faster with a review that they hope will result in restrictions on mifepristone, including blocking its prescribing via telehealth platforms. The Republican administration says the work takes time.

Earlier this week, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned after months of criticism from Trump’s political allies, including abortion opponents.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and similarly aligned groups had called on Trump to fire Makary over the slow pace of the mifepristone review.

The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed. The state claims that the policy undermines the ban there, and it questions the safety of the drug, which has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists.

Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe, agreed that the state's efforts have been thwarted by medical providers and private organizations that mail the pills to women in Louisiana, despite the abortion ban. Danco and GenBioPro “are obviously aware of what is going on yet nevertheless supply the drug and reap profits from its felonious use in Louisiana,” he wrote.

Thomas said those who mail the pills are in violation of the Comstock Act, a 19th-century law that has long gone unenforced and bans mailing any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion.”

Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out.

The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available.

Telehealth prescribers were prepared to switch to sending abortion patients a regimen that uses only misoprostol.

While Thursday’s ruling keeps the status quo in place for now, abortion-rights advocates warn that the case isn’t settled forever.

“We are relieved that access to mifepristone remains protected for now, but this should never have been on the table in the first place,” Serra Sippel, executive director of The Brigid Alliance, which helps coordinate and fund travel and other logistics to assist women traveling for abortion, said in a statement. “Patients and providers should not be forced to wait on court rulings to know whether people can access critical health care.”

The decision is “extremely disappointing” but not a defeat, said Gavin Oxley, a spokesperson for the anti-abortion advocacy group Americans United for Life. “The Supreme Court still has the opportunity to hear the case in full and bring justice to Louisiana,” he said.

The current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago, when the justices blocked a 5th Circuit ruling in a suit filed by anti-abortion doctors and kept mifepristone widely available, over dissents from Alito and Thomas.

Then, in 2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors’ suit, reasoning they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue.

In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval process.

Debate over the safety of mifepristone has churned for more than 25 years. The FDA has eased a number of restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety complications must be reported.

Despite those determinations, anti-abortion groups have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency, generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking safety issues with the pill.

Trump’s administration has been unusually quiet at the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at issue.

The case puts the administration in a difficult place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show Americans generally support abortion rights.

Both sides took the administration’s silence as an implicit endorsement of the appellate ruling.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report from New York. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J.

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

Edwards, serving his second term in the House, said he welcomed the inquiry and planned to fully cooperate with the committee.

“I am confident the investigation will expose the facts, not politically motivated fiction,” Edwards said.

The investigation follows an Axios report stating that three sources told the publication that they witnessed conduct by Edwards toward two female staffers in their 20s that they described as inappropriate. The sources said Edwards’ behavior crossed professional boundaries and created an uncomfortable work environment. Axios said the sources were granted anonymity to protect against retaliation.

The Ethics Committee said in its investigation announcement that it would make no further public comment on the matter and that disclosing the review does not, by itself, indicate that any violation occurred.

The committee's investigation comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of lawmakers’ behavior toward female staffers following the resignations of Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales. Both were facing calls for their expulsion before they stepped down.

New Mexico produces more oil than any other state besides Texas, and the state's revenue from taxes, royalties and lease sales helps cover the cost of college tuition, all school meals, health insurance and a new initiative for free universal child care.

Now that oil prices are surging from the conflict with Iran, money is flooding into the state treasury and creating an uncomfortable situation for Democrats who oppose the war and would rather reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

“It’s hard for people to think about, ‘Oh great, we have this windfall,’ and children are getting killed on the other side of the world,” said Deb Haaland, the former U.S. Interior Department secretary running for governor.

Haaland is one of two Democrats running to succeed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is wrapping up her second term in office. A former congresswoman and state party chair, Haaland worked to limit unfettered oil and gas exploration while serving in President Joe Biden's Cabinet.

Now she wants to use money amid the energy boom to increase New Mexico's child tax credit and boost the refundable working families tax credit, payouts that would most benefit people with low incomes.

“We have obligations to try to have a better world overall," said Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo who could become the first female Native American governor in the U.S. “I think we can do that.”

Her rival for the Democratic nomination, Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman, said he wants to offset inflation with one-time $500 checks from the state to residents making less than $200,000 a year. He also wants to waive personal income taxes on residents 65 and older.

“It is the resources of the people that’s generating that revenue,” he said. “We ought to give it back to the people."

For every $1 fluctuation in the average annual price of oil, New Mexico sees a roughly $59 million swing in state government income.

That means the state is likely to see a $850 million surge in annual state government income for the budget year ending in June alone based on war-time price changes — equivalent to 12% of annual general fund spending, according to the state Legislature’s budget and accountability office.

New Mexico sends much of its relatively heavy crude oil from its patch of the Permian Basin to Texas distribution hubs and refineries along the Gulf Coast. Prices could remain high with no end in sight for the war despite a fragile ceasefire.

A nest egg that moderates dependence on oil

In New Mexico, surges in oil income automatically flow into a series of trust accounts designed to gradually reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, helping the state generate investment income to underwrite Medicaid, early childhood education, infrastructure projects and an expansion of mental healthcare.

The strategy has tempered discomfort among many Democrats with dependence on oil income, in a state with entrenched swaths of extreme poverty and the nation’s highest enrollment rate in Medicaid.

“For New Mexico and New Mexicans and especially the progressive left — which sort of controls the state — it’s always something they really don’t want to admit or talk about or get angry about,” said Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor who has analyzed voting behavior in New Mexico and directs the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University. “Like, ‘We should not be funding our stuff with that money.’ I’ve heard those arguments."

The winner of this year's governor's race will take the helm of a state investment council overseeing a roughly $68 billion state nest egg, including investments that defray costs for K-12 public education.

New Mexico is not alone in reaping the financial benefits of the war. In Alaska, the state forecast an additional $1.05 billion for the current fiscal year and the one beginning July 1.

“It really is this small group of energy-reliant states like North Dakota, Alaska, New Mexico and Wyoming that are going be affected most directly,” said Justin Theal, who researches state fiscal trends as a senior officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts. He described the situation as “a double-edged sword.”

“It raises costs for households and businesses which can potentially dampen consumer spending and reduce sales taxes that almost every state relies on as well,” Theal said.

Wartime oil prices hold silver lining for New Mexico

Three contenders for the Republican nomination are advocating for even more aggressive tax relief while oil prices are riding high.

“Republicans are using the ‘e-word' — eliminate income taxes,” said Albuquerque-based pollster Brian Sanderoff, president of Research and Polling Inc. A Republican last won election to statewide office in 2016.

At the same time, they're questioning whether universal childcare will be financially sustainable.

The program is coming under direct fire in a lawsuit from cannabis entrepreneur and Republican candidate for governor Duke Rodriguez. He previously served as human service secretary under former Gov. Gary Johnson, a crusader for limited government who unsuccessfully ran for president as a Libertarian.

The lawsuit alleges the childcare program was implemented in November by Lujan Grisham without required authorization from the Legislature — though supporting legislation was passed this year. A court has ordered the administration to respond within 30 days.

Reflecting on the state’s oil income, Rodriguez says, “We don’t have a resource problem, what we have is a real results problem. We just spend and spend and spend with no accountability.”

Republican businessman Doug Turner describes wartime oil prices as an opportunity to overhaul the state tax code and wants means testing for childcare benefits. He lost the 2010 Republican primary to then-district attorney Susana Martinez, who went on to serve two terms as governor.

Gregg Hull, a former three-term mayor of Rio Rancho on the outskirts of Albuquerque, wants New Mexico to join the ranks of states with no personal income tax like Texas and Wyoming. Personal income taxes account for about $2.2 billion in annual state government income, offsetting about a fifth of annual general fund obligations.

Hull said he wants to double down on the oil economy by funneling budget surpluses to infrastructure projects in the state's main oil-production zone.

“This morning, when I was looking at a price of a barrel of oil, I said, ‘Well, that’s not great for consumers, but it’s awesome for New Mexico,'” Hull said.

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Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.

Musk, the world's richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, which started in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. His lawsuit filed in 2024 accuses OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his top deputy of betraying a plan to keep it as a nonprofit and shifting into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that increasingly has raised fears about its potential impacts on the economy, society and even humanity's survival. Scrutiny of Altman’s leadership comes at a crucial time for the company and its competitors, Musk’s own AI firm and Anthropic, formed by a group of seven ex-OpenAI leaders.

All three firms are moving toward planned initial public offerings that are expected to be among the largest ever. Musk is seeking damages and changes to OpenAI’s business structure, as well as Altman’s ouster from company leadership. If Musk wins, it could derail OpenAI’s IPO plans.

Timing of lawsuit is key question

One of the jury’s tasks is to decide if Musk filed his lawsuit in time. Much of the testimony has centered on OpenAI’s early years after its founding, but there’s a relatively short timeline to allege the claims Musk is making of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

OpenAI has argued that Musk waited too long and cannot claim harms that occurred before August 2021.

The judge wrote in a court filing last month that “if the jury finds that Musk failed to file his action within the statute of limitations, it is highly likely” that she will “accept that finding and direct verdict to the defendants.”

If the jury decides the lawsuit was filed in time, it then has to decide if OpenAI had a “charitable trust” that was broken by OpenAI and its executives. Musk's other claim means jurors must determine whether Altman, Greg Brockman — co-founder and president — and OpenAI unjustly enriched themselves at Musk's expense.

For Microsoft, a co-defendant in the trial, the jury has to decide whether the company aided and abetted that breach. Musk invested $38 million in OpenAI during its first years, and Microsoft became OpenAI's biggest investor after Musk's departure.

Musk lawyer focuses on Altman's credibility

Altman and Brockman were in the courtroom Thursday, while Musk was in China with President Donald Trump and other prominent tech executives.

Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, told jurors the Tesla CEO was “sorry he could not be here.”

In his closing arguments, Molo doubled down on claims of Altman's untrustworthiness, pointing to testimony from witnesses who called the OpenAI CEO a “liar.”

"I confronted Sam Altman with the fact that five witnesses in this trial, all people that he’s known for years and worked with, called him a liar under oath. Liar’s a very powerful word in a courtroom,” Molo said.

Those five people were Musk and another co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who was OpenAI’s chief scientist, as well as OpenAI’s former chief technology officer Mira Murati and two ex-board members, Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley.

“Sam Altman’s credibility is directly at issue in this case. He’s the defendants' main witness. The defendants absolutely need you to believe Sam Altman. If you cannot trust him, if you don’t believe him, they cannot win. It’s that simple,” Molo said.

Because Musk, Altman and Brockman never signed a contract that could show they had a charitable trust that OpenAI then broke, Musk's side has made the case that jurors should consider emails and other communication between them — along with everything from OpenAI's website to press interviews — as constituting such a trust.

A question of money

In a terse exchange while jurors were out of the room, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sharply criticized Musk’s attorney for suggesting to jurors Thursday that Musk wasn’t seeking any money in the lawsuit.

While Musk, before the trial, abandoned a bid for damages for himself, he is still seeking an unspecified amount of money to be paid to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI’s charitable arm.

Musk is seeking “billions of dollars of disgorgement,” the judge said, ordering Molo to either retract his statement or “drop your claim for billions of dollars.” They later agreed that the judge would correct the statement to jurors.

OpenAI says Musk has no evidence

Sarah Eddy, a lawyer for OpenAI, said it was Musk who has misrepresented details surrounding OpenAI's nonprofit founding and his subsequent falling out with the other co-founders.

“Mr. Molo says that Sam Altman can’t be trusted,” she said. “Mr. Musk is the one whose testimony is contradicted by every other witness.”

As OpenAI has argued throughout the trial, Eddy said Musk knew of and supported plans for OpenAI to form a for-profit company that would still support its mission to benefit humanity.

“Mr. Musk, he has tried to persuade you that his years-ago donations to OpenAI came with specific strings attached, that these strings were strong enough to last forever to tie OpenAI up in knots as it tries to pursue its mission, and that these strings gave Mr. Musk perpetual rights over OpenAI,” Eddy said. "But Mr. Musk has come nowhere close to making that case.”

She brought up testimony that Musk had discussed his children inheriting control of OpenAI.

“He wanted dominion over AGI,” she said, referring to artificial general intelligence, a term for advanced AI technology that surpasses humans at many tasks. “That’s why this was such a high stakes conversation. Mr. Musk wanted total control. Maybe, maybe he’d give it up over time, or maybe not. But it was up to him and that was the problem.”

Protesters outside court bash both sides

Outside the courthouse, more than a dozen protesters bashed both parties as billionaires who were eroding the environment, workforce and people’s mental health and whose industry would wipe out humanity.

There were signs that read “Stop replacing healthcare workers with chatboxes!” and “No future for workers in Musk-Altman fascist world.”

It doesn’t matter which side wins in court, said Saru Jayaraman, who is part of a campaign to push a $30 hourly wage on election ballots this fall.

“The thing is, we’re all losing, that’s the main point. Who’s really winning? The two of them,” she said, referring to Altman and Musk.

Phoebe Thomas Sorgen, a peace activist from nearby Berkeley, said there needs to be a global ban on artificial intelligence and used a slang term to say everyone is awful here, except for the jurors and activists.

“Both parties in this trial are completely hypocritical. They both claim that they’re developing AI for the benefit of humanity and that’s a lie. They’re developing it for greed.”

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Associated Press Writer Janie Har contributed to this story. O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against Emily Moreno, his one-time spouse, on Wednesday in Cleveland, citing “the considerable reputational and financial harm” caused to him by her accusations that he was “a violent and abusive husband and father.”

Miller, a two-term congressman up for reelection this fall, alleges that Moreno, her attorney Andrew Zashin and his law firm have engaged in a defamatory campaign against him by spreading knowingly false information about him to media outlets including The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, and the New York Post. The action contends that the resulting damage to his reputation undermines his chances of reelection.

Those outlets have “circulation measured in the tens of millions of print and online readership,” the complaint states, and their articles have been read, viewed or discussed by Miller's constituents, his congressional colleagues, ”his political supporters and donors, the media, and the general public.”

The suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages sufficient to deter future similar conduct and attorney's fees.

“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” his spokesman said in a statement.

Zashin declined comment.

The incident brings to mind a similar situation that played out as Miller, a White House aide to President Donald Trump during the Republican's first term, made his first run for Congress in 2021.

Miller's former girlfriend, one-time White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, raised allegations in her book and in a Washington Post op-ed at the time that a former White House staffer later identified as Miller had physically abused her while they were dating. Miller responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against her. He voluntarily dismissed the suit with prejudice in August 2023, just before the case was set to go to trial.

Moreno’s spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, cited the earlier lawsuit in a statement Thursday.

“Mr. Miller is upset because he’s tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham — and Emily won’t let him," he said, suggesting Miller is "running the same playbook against a woman with photographs of her bruises and burns.” He added, “Mr. Miller will not silence Ms. Moreno.”

Miller married Emily Moreno in 2022. They had a daughter in 2023.

He filed for divorce in August 2024, as her father, Bernie, was making a successful run for U.S. Senate backed by Trump. The abuse allegations — most recently, Moreno said Miller threw boiling water at her, an allegation he denies — come amid a messy custody battle that has included Miller seeking a restraining order against his ex-wife and subpoenaing the senator to testify. The divorce was finalized last June.

Miller's spokesperson provided documentation that several allegations that he had abused his daughter were investigated by the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services and deemed unsubstantiated.

Amid the drama, Democrat Brian Poindexter, a five-term local councilman and union ironworker, is looking to oust Miller and flip Ohio's 7th Congressional District in November.

“We can disagree on all sorts of things, but we’ve got to have something in common or we don’t have a country,” Thomas said at a judicial conference near Miami. “These documents, our founding documents, our founding history, whether we think it’s perfect or it shouldn’t be amended, or we might disagree about how far it goes, but we can say this is something that we all treasure.”

Thomas' remarks came in response to an interview with one of his former Supreme Court clerks, Kasdin Mitchell, who was nominated this month by President Donald Trump to serve on the federal bench in Dallas.

Thomas — who recently became the second longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history — looked back on his upbringing in the segregated South and his more than three decades on the high court.

But he gave no indication that, at age 77, he is looking to retire anytime soon and give President Trump the opportunity to further cement his influence on the Supreme Court and nominate his fourth justice, the most of any president in almost a century.

“Justice Marshall said you take a job for life, you do it for life,” referring to Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court's first African American justice, who Thomas replaced on the high court.

But he said his long tenure had given him a unique perspective on the cynicism that pervades so much of society and contributes to Americans' distrust in government.

He spoke about the example set by his grandfather, the son of a freed slave with barely any formal education, to describe his judicial philosophy in a limited form of government.

“One of the rods in this society versus so many of the others where the rights are parceled down by a government is that we were taught from the cradle that we were equal in God’s eyes, that was self-evident," said Thomas. "If you look at Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln, they all speak in terms of these transcendent rights beyond the ability of man to take away even though man had the power to infringe upon them.”

The case has drawn attention to Becerra in his bid for California governor, with voting underway and concluding June 2.

Dana Williamson entered the plea in court in Sacramento. In the agreement, she admits to three of the 23 counts of which she was initially charged. Williamson is a former top campaign adviser to Becerra and formerly served as Gov. Gavin Newsom's chief of staff. Neither have been implicated.

The plea deal says the maximum sentence for the bank fraud charge is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. But Williamson’s defense attorney, McGregor Scott, said he expected it to be no more than three years based on federal sentencing guidelines. He plans to argue for even less.

The federal indictment alleged that Williamson developed a plan with co-conspirators including Sean McCluskie, a longtime Becerra aide. The scheme was to siphon money from one of Becerra's dormant state campaign accounts to give to McCluskie to pad his salary after he accepted a job as Becerra's chief of staff in Washington.

McCluskie signed a plea agreement Oct. 30 in which he admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, according to court filings. He agreed to pay back the $225,000 he took from the account.

Scott said McCluskie dreamed up the theft scheme because he was facing financial difficulties and Williamson joined because she wanted to help him out of a tough spot.

“She was simply trying to help a friend in a pinch as best she could,” Scott told reporters.

Becerra is a former member of Congress who was appointed California attorney general in 2017 to fill a vacancy and reelected in 2018 with Williamson running his campaign. Former President Joe Biden later appointed him as secretary of Health and Human Services.

Becerra hasn't commented on Williamson's plea deal. In November, he said the “accusations of impropriety by a long-serving trusted adviser are a gut punch.”

Williamson is a longtime Democratic power player in Sacramento known for her savvy and aggressive style, often unafraid to spar publicly and privately with those who disagree with her. She was a Cabinet secretary for former Gov. Jerry Brown before opening her own political affairs firm and later rejoining state government as Newsom’s chief of staff.

The indictment accused Williamson of filing fraudulent tax forms for her business from 2021 to 2023 claiming more than $1 million in business deductions for personal expenses, including luxury handbags and jewelry; private jet travel; vacations in Mexico; installation of a home HVAC system; and several hundred thousand dollars paid to various relatives for fake jobs.

Lebanese officials are hoping that the two-day negotiations will yield a new ceasefire deal and pave the way for tackling a series of thorny issues, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.

A U.S. State Department official described the full day of discussions on Thursday as “productive and positive” and said the U.S. looks forward to day two on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door session and did not offer additional details.

The Trump administration has been pushing for a breakthrough between the two neighbors that have been officially in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.

Hezbollah, however, is not part of those talks and has been vocally opposed to Lebanon engaging in direct negotiations with Israel.

Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group have continued to trade near-constant fire across the border despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on April 17. Initially a 10-day truce, it was then extended for another three weeks.

Talks move to a higher level

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the first Israel-Lebanon meetings in Washington in April, was with President Donald Trump on a visit to China and did not attend Thursday's session.

The current round of talks represents a step toward more serious negotiations, with higher-level envoys from Lebanon and Israel taking part after the initial preparatory sessions were headed by the ambassadors of the two countries to Washington.

Lebanon's envoy heading up Thursday's talks, Simon Karam, is an attorney and well-connected former Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. who recently represented Lebanon in indirect talks with Israel over implementation of the ceasefire that preceded the latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hezbollah. On the Israeli side, Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin was set to attend.

There are still large gaps in what the two sides want from the direct talks. Israeli officials have focused on disarming Hezbollah and described the negotiations as a precursor to a potential normalization of diplomatic relations. Lebanese officials have said they are seeking a security agreement or armistice that would stop short of normalization.

Trump has publicly called for a meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Aoun has declined to meet or speak directly with Netanyahu at this stage — a move that would likely generate blowback in Lebanon.

Lebanon hopes for ceasefire

A senior Lebanese official familiar with the negotiations in Washington said Thursday Lebanon wants a complete ceasefire first and then would negotiate withdrawal of Israeli forces. The issue of Hezbollah’s weapons would be dealt with politically in Lebanon after that, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the talks.

He said Lebanon is “relying heavily on the U.S. administration” to provide it with leverage in the negotiations with Israel and believes that Trump is “sincere” in his desire to help Lebanon.

The official said that when Trump and Aoun spoke recently, Trump did not pressure Aoun to meet or speak with Netanyahu and was understanding when Aoun explained his reasons for declining. According to the official, Aoun told Trump that if he went to Washington and shook hands with Netanyahu and the talks later fell apart, it could have internal repercussions in Lebanon and discredit Trump.

Aoun told Trump that if the two countries are able to reach a security deal, he would come to the White House and “inaugurate” it and Trump responded by saying “I like that,” the official said.

If Israel agrees to a ceasefire and withdraws from the territory it is occupying in southern Lebanon, the official said, he believes Hezbollah would agree to an arrangement under which it would hand over its weapons to the Lebanese army, which could keep some of them and destroy others. Under this plan, Lebanon could consider allowing individual Hezbollah fighters to join the Lebanese army if they meet eligibility requirements, he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter in an interview with Israeli news site Walla News Thursday said Israel aims “to negotiate for full peace as if Hezbollah does not exist — borders, embassies, visas, tourism, everything.” Despite Lebanese officials’ assertions that diplomatic normalization is not currently on the table, he said he believes “it is possible to reach such an agreement within a few months.” But, he added, “it would be conditioned on the success of the second track — dismantling Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah and Israel trade fire

Thursday’s talks opened hours after a Hezbollah drone exploded inside Israel, injuring three civilians, two of them severely, according to the Israeli military and hospitals. It was the first instance of civilians injured by Hezbollah projectiles since the ceasefire, according to reports from Israel’s rescue service, Magen David Adom.

Israel has struggled to halt frequent Hezbollah drone attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and over the border in northern Israel.

Israel has also continued to carry out strikes in Lebanon. On Wednesday, Israel struck seven vehicles in Lebanon — three of them on the main highway just south of Beirut — killing 12 people including a woman and her two children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. Later strikes in southern Lebanon killed another 10 people, including six children, the ministry said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says that since the war began on March 2, 2,896 people have been killed — including around 400 since the nominal ceasefire was implemented — and 8,824 wounded. Eighteen Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians inside Israel and a defense contractor working in southern Lebanon have been killed on the Israeli side.

U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon have also been caught in the crossfire and six have been killed.

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Associated Press writers Joseph Federman in Jerusalem and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to set an all-time high for a second straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 370 points, or 0.7%, and finished above the 50,000 level for the first time since the war with Iran began, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to its own record.

Cisco helped lead the market after reporting better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The tech giant’s stock leaped 13.4% for its best day in nearly 15 years, and CEO Chuck Robbins said it saw “very strong, broad-based demand for our products.”

Big Tech behemoths in particular are pouring cash into artificial-intelligence technology, and Cisco gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that easily topped analysts’ expectations.

Such voracious demand for AI, and the big profits it’s producing, have been major reasons the U.S. stock market has set records throughout this year. Cerebras Systems, an AI processor company, raised $5.55 billion after selling its stock in an initial public offering, and its shares surged 68.1% in their debut on the Nasdaq Thursday.

Corporate earnings reported so far this season have “reinforced that this is still an AI-led market, but one where the impact is broadening quickly,” according to Gargi Pal Chaudhuri, chief investment and portfolio strategist at BlackRock.

“What started with a handful of companies is now driving earnings growth across semiconductors, infrastructure, and even parts of the industrial economy,” she said.

Outside of AI, other stocks rallying after delivering better-than-expected profit reports included StubHub Holdings, up 13.7%, Viking Holdings, up 5.5% and Yeti Holdings, up 6.2%.

All three companies sell products that aren’t day-to-day essentials, such as concert tickets, river cruises and insulated water bottles. Strong results from them could be an indicator that customers are still willing to spend even though U.S. consumers have been telling surveys they’re feeling discouraged about the economy.

Whether U.S. households will keep spending and support the economy is a big question because pressure has been bearing down on them due to high oil prices and inflation created by the Iran war. A report released Thursday said that shoppers overall spent less at U.S. retailers last month than economists expected. But the deceleration after factoring out gasoline and automobile sales wasn’t quite as bad as economists thought it would be.

A separate report, meanwhile, said more U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, which could be an indication of more layoffs. The number, though, remains relatively low compared with history.

Treasury yields flitted up and down in the bond market immediately after the reports, but they largely remained steady. The yield on the 10-year ticked up to 4.47% from 4.46% late Wednesday.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 56.99 points to 7,501.24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 370.26 to 50,063.46, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 232.88 to 26,635.22.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1%, while South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.8% to another record thanks to gains for AI-related stocks.

Stocks were virtually flat in Hong Kong and down 1.5% in Shanghai as Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing.

Some investors hope Trump could encourage Xi to use China’s close economic ties with Iran to get it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The strait’s closure because of the war has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide, which has driven up prices.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 0.1% to settle at $105.72 Thursday, and it remains well above its price of roughly $70 from before the war.

___

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The money will be allocated over the coming year and adds to the $2 billion that the Trump administration pledged in December. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said at a press conference that the new funding is just “the latest step.”

The new contribution brings total U.S. support for U.N. humanitarian programs to $3.8 billion across 21 countries, according to the State Department, which said the money would be prioritized for locally run projects that help the most vulnerable populations.

The department said the initial contribution delivered "life-saving assistance to 21.1 million people more quickly, more efficiently, and with greater focus on those facing the most acute humanitarian needs in less than four months.”

Still, the money is a fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past and reflects what President Donald Trump’s administration believes is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

The Trump administration has cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting U.N. agencies to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan also have reduced aid allocations.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called his agency “overstretched, under-resourced and literally under attack” and reiterated its 2026 plan to reach 87 million of the world’s most needy at a cost of $23 billion — even though 300 million people need humanitarian help.

Before Waltz’s announcement, he said, the U.N. had raised about $7.4 billion. He welcomed the new U.S. contribution and called the United States “the single largest national donor” to the United Nations.

Fletcher urged donors to reach the $23 billion goal this year, but also to provide more funding to help some of the 200 million-plus people worldwide not expected to get aid this year because of the financial crisis.

Waltz pointed to significant changes in U.N. humanitarian operations that the U.S. has pushed for to cut costs, including pooling warehouses, vehicle fleets and back-office operations among U.N. agencies.

He slammed what he called a narrative in the media that the U.S. has walked away from helping people in need, saying it’s “absolutely false.”

Under Trump, the U.S. has been taking an à la carte approach to paying dues to the United Nations, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and avoiding those that no longer serve U.S. interests. The State Department has said that “individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.”

Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world.

The United Nations says the U.S. owes $2.2 billion to its regular operating budget and $1.8 billion to a separate budget for its far-flung peacekeeping operations, though the Trump administration insists it owes less.

In February, the administration paid about $160 million to the regular budget. Waltz said Thursday that “we will have an additional substantial tranche towards the regular budget coming soon.”

The verdict, reached Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Chicago, resolves one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

Samya Stumo, who grew up in Sheffield, Massachusetts, had recently joined a nonprofit focused on strengthening health systems in developing countries. A 2015 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she was traveling to Uganda for what would have been her first major project with the organization when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019.

A spokesperson for UMass after the crash described her as someone known “for engaging others by earning their respect, friendship and trust.”

Jurors awarded $21 million for the pain and suffering and emotional distress that Stumo experienced aboard the doomed flight, $16.5 million for the loss of companionship suffered by her family and $12 million for their grief, according to attorneys representing her estate.

“We are gratified for the opportunity to try the compensatory damages case," attorneys Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford said in a statement Wednesday evening announcing the verdict.

It is the second verdict tied to the crash. Boeing has reached confidential pre-trial settlements in most of the dozens of wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines disaster and a similar 737 Max crash five months earlier off the coast of Indonesia that together killed 346 people.

The fatal crashes became a defining crisis for Boeing and the 737 Max program. Investigators found that a flight-control system repeatedly forced the nose of the then-new planes downward based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots in both crashes were unable to regain control.

The verdict follows a November 2025 jury award of $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, a United Nations environmental consultant who also died in the 2019 crash. That case marked the first civil jury trial stemming from the disaster, with jurors similarly tasked only with calculating damages because Boeing has accepted liability.

“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so," a Boeing spokesperson said Thursday in a statement.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash prompted a worldwide grounding of the 737 Max that lasted more than a year and triggered multiple investigations into Boeing’s safety culture and regulatory oversight.

Federal prosecutors later charged Boeing with misleading regulators about the Max's flight-control system, though in November, the federal judge in Texas overseeing the long-running criminal case approved a Justice Department request to dismiss it. Prosecutors reached an agreement with Boeing, requiring the company to invest an additional $1 billion in fines, family compensation and safety improvements.

Stumo’s family has been among the most outspoken relatives seeking accountability from Boeing and changes to federal aviation oversight. Her father, Michael Stumo, has publicly pressed Boeing, regulators and Congress over what families viewed as failures that allowed the 737 Max to keep flying after the first crash off the coast of Indonesia.

Tyler Brown, 46, who appeared in Cambridge District Court via video from a hospital bed, did not speak and appeared to have his eyes closed for most of the brief hearing. He nodded when the judge said not guilty pleas had been entered on his behalf to charges of armed assault with intent to murder and six other charges, including possessing a gun without a license.

Judge David Frank ordered him to remain in custody, either at the hospital or in jail, pending a hearing on May 21. Brown's attorney, Carolyn McGowan, declined to speak at the hearing other than answering the judge's questions about scheduling matters. The Committee for Public Counsel Services/Public Defender Division, where she is listed as a senior trial counsel, did not respond to a request for comment.

Brown is accused of opening fire Monday afternoon on a heavily traveled road along the Charles River in Cambridge. Panicked drivers abandoned their vehicles or hid under them seeking cover.

One man, who was struck in the back of the head, has since been released from the hospital, while another driver who was shot four times in the leg remains hospitalized, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain said.

About an hour before the shootings, Brown connected with his parole officer via video conference. Armed with a gun, he said on video that he had relapsed and wanted to end his life. The parole officer called police, who began searching for Brown and, using phone records, found him in Cambridge.

The complaint describes what led up to the shootings. According to investigators, Brown had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and had been released Friday from a psychiatric hospital.

According to the complaint, Brown is on parole and probation for offenses including armed assault to murder and other gun-related convictions. His parole was set to end this week, though his probation continued.

Meghan Kelly, a spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, said Brown was not licensed to carry a firearm.

Allain described Brown’s criminal history going back to 1994, when he was convicted of armed robbery in Michigan. He also was convicted of escape in Michigan in 1997 and drug offenses in New Hampshire in 2007.

In Massachusetts, he has been convicted of multiple assault and gun-related charges, most recently in 2021, when he was convicted of firing at officers.

Prosecutors said then that he should serve at least 10 years in prison, due to the “level of brazen violence” and because he was on probation for a 2014 conviction on assault and witness intimidation charges. A judge instead ordered Brown to serve five to six years in state prison and three years of probation with credit for nearly 18 months spent in custody.

At the time, the judge’s decision sparked outrage and criticism among local officials concerned that violent offenders were not being held accountable — concerns that have resurfaced. “Talk about a ball drop,” said the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association in a statement on social media.

During a 2021 sentencing hearing, a police officer who Brown shot at called him "a very dangerous individual who doesn't care who he hurts," according to an audio recording of the proceedings. A probation officer expressed concern that the incident he was on probation for and the one he was being sentenced for were similar and he was a “danger to the community due to his random acts of violence.”

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders told the court then that she considers factors like psychiatric issues and childhood trauma Brown endured in imposing a sentence. But Sanders seemed especially moved by the support expressed in letters from Brown's family and the community, including city officials, who were impressed with “his commitment to turn his life around.”

“Mr. Brown, I do realize I’m kind of taking a chance on you,” the judge told him. “When experienced officers, experienced probation officers tell me this guy is a danger to the community, I hear that. I can't look into a crystal ball and figure out what is going to happening once you get out. But I do understand I am taking a risk here. I just pray that you know my intuitions are right.”

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An earlier version of this report misattributed information about the suspect's background to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. It actually came from Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain.

Local 4 is teaming up with a family in Shelby Township to test their preparedness -- and they have no idea what we’re going to ask them to do.

All they know is we stocked their home with cameras and we’re going to ask them to do something live on TV. They’ll find out the details of the assignment while all of you watch live, and we’ll see how they handle it.

Then, an expert from the Southeast Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross will help us evaluate their response. Did they grab the right things before they got out? How did they prioritize? And, most importantly, what should you do if there’s a real emergency?

We have no idea what’s going to happen, but we do know it’s important to be prepared for emergencies like this, just in case.

You can watch the entire exercise play out in the stream posted above.

The latest numbers show Detroit rising from about 633,000 residents in 2023 to 644,000 in 2024, and roughly 649,000 in 2025.

While the year-to-year increases are modest, city leaders say the direction is significant after decades of population decline.

On Detroit’s west side near 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue, neighbors said they’re seeing signs of momentum, including new housing development around the historic Higginbotham School.

“You know, we had the housing crash, and things looked bad. Houses were empty. Vacant,” said Teresa Moon, who lives in the area. “A lot of new neighbors have moved into our area.”

Mayor Mary Sheffield said the new estimates reflect a broad-based trend across council districts, pointing to programs aimed at both attracting new residents and keeping current Detroiters in the city.

“Detroit has gained population for the third consecutive year,” Sheffield said during remarks that drew applause.

City officials have highlighted down payment assistance and other incentives as tools to boost homeownership and stabilize neighborhoods.

Sheffield also emphasized affordability as a key advantage.

“Affordability. To be able to buy a home, come here and have access to opportunity, I think, really separates us from other cities,” Sheffield said.

New resident Shauna Jones said multiple factors drew her to Detroit, including travel convenience and the city’s trajectory.

“A few things. I’m able to get direct flights,” Jones said. “Growth in this city, it’s a great time to invest and get in on the ground.”

Neighbors say continued growth could bring more opportunities to communities across Detroit.

On the west side around Higginbotham Art Residences, developers say about 100 new residents could soon call that community home.

“Detroit is no longer just a city people are watching,” Jones said. “It’s becoming a city people are choosing.”

Detroit is one of three communities in Wayne County to see population growth in the newest estimates.

The others include Canton Township and Sumpter Township.

Update: Residents escape as massive fire rips through Plymouth Township apartment complex

The fire happened at Hines Park Place Apartments near Wilcox and Haggerty roads on May 14.

It’s unclear if anyone was injured.

Smoke could be seen spreading through the entire building, and one side was fully engulfed in flames, leading to the roof collapsing.

This is a developing story.

Residents of Hines Park Place Apartments in Plymouth Township were forced from their homes Thursday after a fire tore through the complex, destroying several units.

“I was reading a book, and then I was going to take a nap, so to speak, and that’s when they banged on the door and said get out,” said Penny Striegel, a resident of the complex.

Crews from multiple departments responded to the blaze near Wilcox and Haggerty roads.

Within 30 minutes of the fire’s start, the building’s roof collapsed, and flames spread to an adjacent section of the complex.

“I’m not a firefighter, but it was really bad. Really frightening to look at,” said Theresa Valchine, who lives at the complex.

Investigation ongoing

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Plymouth Township Fire Chief Pat Conely said the blaze could be tied to an electrical issue and that some of the affected homes may be a total loss.

“Unfortunately, we don’t want to see anybody lose their homes, but at least no one was hurt,” Conely said.

One firefighter was injured during the response but returned to duty shortly after.

Pets, residents reunited amid the rubble

A handful of residents were away from home when the fire broke out and were unable to reach their pets.

Most animals were accounted for, Conely said. A firefighter was seen handing a rescued cat back to its owner, a brief moment of relief amid the smoke and destruction.

“Praise the lord that everything is okay,” Valchine said. “Our firefighters and our police are so brave, so in this terrible tragedy, there’s silver linings, I guess you’d say.”

Salvation Army Disaster Services was on scene to assist displaced residents with the next steps.

Police were dispatched to the 10300 block of West McNichols Road for a police run on Wednesday, May 13, at around noon.

Upon their arrival, officers found a man in his 20’s fatally shot.

Detectives are looking for a person of interest related to this incident, Toriano Jermaine Dottery II, 25.

If anyone has any information on the individual, please contact the Detroit Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 313-596-2260, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak Up, or DetroitRewards.tv.

Legislation passed unanimously by the Senate on Thursday would allow Capitol Police officers to apply to extend their service until age 62, while a bill passed by the House earlier this year would allow them to serve until age 65. That would raise the current age from 60 for officers who apply for waivers to work beyond the legal forced retirement age of 57 or after 20 years of service, whichever comes later.

Raising the age could help the Capitol Police force stem personnel shortages, which Chief Michael Sullivan told Congress earlier this year “span all operational units.”

“We have 300 officers right now that could say I’m done, I’m ready to walk away,” Sullivan told House, appropriators in March, as officers hit their age limit or 20 years of service. “That would be catastrophic for us.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, authored the bipartisan bill with Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Padilla said the legislation is a modest step as increased security measures are put in place to address the rise in threats.

By keeping older officers on the force, Padilla said, “we’re talking about officers who have served for a long, long time and have a tremendous amount of institutional memory, experience and expertise."

“After bicameral and bipartisan discussions, I hope to see this measure signed into law,” Padilla said.

Nearly 60 sworn officers are already working on a retirement waiver, according to the House Administration Committee, more than double the size of a typical USCP recruitment class.

“No officer should be forced to retire when they can still do the job,” said Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of that panel.

Capitol Police has struggled to maintain officers

The Capitol Police has made improvements across the board since widespread security failures on Jan. 6, 2021, when the force was overwhelmed by thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters who swarmed the grounds and broke into the building as they violently protested his defeat. Many officers left the department afterward, and retention and budget struggles remain.

The department’s budget request this year topped $1 billion for the first time as department leaders look to hire more officers and better protect members. Sullivan told lawmakers that the department has around 1,250 uniformed officers and needs 150 more to staff every post without paying overtime.

“I’m concerned with the overtime that we put on our folks every single day,” Sullivan said in the March oversight hearing. “There’s drafts on a consistent basis and it pushes the men and women that we have to the limit.”

Funding for the department’s protective intelligence, which protects members, is “very slim,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said a number of officers have left the force for other federal agencies that have better benefits.

“There’s nothing keeping folks here,” he said.

Huge spike in lawmaker threats taxes police force

Part of the reason for the shortages is the increased need for member protection. Threats against lawmakers have more than doubled in the last five years.

According to the department, almost 15,000 threats were investigated against members of Congress in 2025, a 58 percent increase from 2024. Sullivan said that the number of threats in 2026 is on track to be even higher.

The department has overhauled its security measures for members, boosting security for lawmakers and their families in districts around the country, and is working with local police departments that it reimburses. A January report said the force has seen an increase in reporting after a new center was launched two years ago to receive and process threat reports.

Lawmakers in both parties receive a “wide range of threats,” the report said.

All of that requires more personnel and experience, Sullivan said.

“While we focus on those individuals at the beginning of their career, we also need to focus on that experience that’s at the end of their career,” he told lawmakers.

During his nearly 30 years behind bars, Glossip came so close to execution multiple times that he was served “last meals” on three separate occasions in 2015. He has long insisted he is innocent in the murder of his former boss, Oklahoma motel owner Barry Van Treese. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence last year.

Here is a look at key events in Glossip's case and appeals.

Jan. 7, 1997: Barry Van Treese is beaten to death at an Oklahoma City motel that he owned. Two of his employees, Justin Sneed and Richard Glossip, are soon arrested in connection with the killing.

Aug. 14, 1998: Glossip is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Prosecutors argue at his trial that Van Treese was killed in a murder-for-hire scheme. Motel handyman Sneed testified that he killed their boss after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000.

July 17, 2001: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals throws out Glossip's murder conviction and orders him a new trial.

Aug. 27, 2004: Glossip is sentenced to death again after second trial ends with a new murder conviction.

April 29, 2014: Oklahoma uses the surgical sedative midazolam for the first time during the execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhes and groans on the gurney. The execution process gets halted, but Lockett dies 43 minutes later. The state later blames an improperly placed intravenous line, not the new drug mix.

Nov. 20, 2014: Glossip’s scheduled execution is delayed to allow Oklahoma to obtain drugs and train staff on a new protocol.

Jan. 28, 2015: After Glossip has been served what is supposed to be his final meal, the U.S. Supreme Court halts his execution and those of two other Oklahoma prisoners while considering their legal challenge to the state's use of midazolam in executions.

June 29, 2015: A divided U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oklahoma’s use of midazolam during executions.

Sept. 15, 2015: For the second time, Glossip is served what is supposed to be his last meal: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and a dinner roll, fish and chips, a bacon cheeseburger and a strawberry malt.

Sept. 16, 2015: Hours before Glossip is scheduled for execution, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals grants him a two-week reprieve to review claims of new evidence supporting his innocence.

Sept. 29, 2015: For the third time, Glossip is served what is supposed to be his final meal: a medium pizza, two orders of fish and chips, a bacon cheeseburger and a strawberry malt.

Sept. 30, 2015: Prison officials are preparing to execute Glossip when Oklahoma's governor stays the procedure because one of the lethal drugs being used didn't match the state's execution protocol.

Oct. 2, 2015: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, at the request of the state's attorney general, puts all executions on indefinite hold as officials review Oklahoma's execution procedures.

Feb. 13, 2020: Oklahoma announces plans to resume executions using a three-drug lethal injection protocol.

May 5, 2023: The U.S. Supreme Court again halts Glossip's execution, set for May 18, at the urging of Oklahoma's Republican attorney general, who has concluded Glossip's trial was “unfair and unreliable.”

Feb. 25, 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court throws out Glossip's murder conviction and death sentence, ruling prosecutors violated his right to a fair trial by allowing Sneed, their key witness, to give testimony they knew was false.

June 9, 2025: Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he plans to try Glossip again for murder. While agreeing his previous trial was unfair, Drummond says he doesn't believe Glossip is innocent.

May 14, 2026: An Oklahoma judge orders a $500,000 bond for Glossip, granting him a chance to leave jail while awaiting trial.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

In announcing the partnership, the kingdom's public investment fund (PIF) said sport was a “priority sector” and soccer was crucial to the “ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia.”

PIF announced this month that it was pulling the plug on future funding for LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that it has poured billions of dollars into, raising questions about its long-term plans for other sports after its enormous spending in recent years.

While the value of the World Cup deal, which covers North America and Asia, was not disclosed, it further strengthens ties between Saudi Arabia and world soccer's governing body FIFA.

The oil-rich kingdom has won the rights to host the 2034 edition of the World Cup and PIF was a commercial partner for last year's Club World Cup.

The PIF-owned SURJ Sports Investment also owns a stake online streamer DAZN, which broadcast the Club World Cup.

According to FIFA accounts, television broadcasting rights had contributed “the lion’s share” of its annual revenue in 2025, worth more than $1 billion.

Soccer has been a major focus for Saudi Arabia as it looks to move away from its heavy reliance on oil and explore other revenue-generating sectors.

That has included enticing some of the sport's biggest stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema to its domestic league and buying Premier League club Newcastle. Winning the right to host the World Cup is its standout achievement so far.

Investment in other sports includes hosting a number of world championship boxing matches, Formula One racing and tennis.

Critics have accused the kingdom of “sportswashing” — using sports to rebrand its public image in the face of its human rights record and the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The launch of the contentious LIV Golf tour in 2022 was a major disruptor for the sport, luring top players like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson away from the PGA. LIV Golf's spending is expected to exceed $6 billion by the end of the year.

While there has been a slowdown of top soccer players heading to the Saudi league after its earlier aggressive recruitment drive, PIF outlined its ongoing commitment to the world's most popular sport.

“PIF continues to expand its global footprint in sport, with football at the heart of this growth," head of corporate brand Mohamed AlSayyad said.

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

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

He struggled mightily off the tee, a recipe for trouble at Aronimink. He was tentative over his putts, with three misses from the 7-foot range that could have made him feel a lot better.

The result was a 4-over 74 that left McIlroy chasing the wrong kind of history as the Masters champion goes for the second leg of the calendar Grand Slam. Not since the late Payne Stewart in 1989 has a player started the PGA Championship with a 74 and gone on to win.

The question by a PGA of America moderator when it was over sounded innocuous: “How would you describe your opening round?” The response was one word. A four-letter stinky word.

McIlroy had said earlier this week at Aronimink that “strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent. It's basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there."

He never quite figured it out Thursday.

McIlroy was hanging around par for so much of the day, right there with Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm in his group, not bad golf given the testing conditions at Aronimink.

But he started missing fairways — a lot of them.

His lone bogey on his front nine came on the opening hole from the right rough — he managed to only get that scooting down the fairway. But the miss to the right on the par-4 fourth (his 13th of the day) cost him another bogey. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fifth. All was well.

And then it wasn't.

“I missed the fairway right on 4, the fairway right on 6, the fairway right on 7, fairway right on 9,” he said. "From there, it’s hard. I didn’t have great angles, either. Then obviously you start missing it just off the edges of these greens, it gets tricky.

“I just got on that bogey train at the end.”

McIlroy also opened with a 74 at Quail Hollow in the PGA Championship last year, his first round as the Masters champion. The frustrations were different. A year ago, he was irritated about learning the face of his driver had become too thin to conform to regulations (and then even more irritated when the news was leaked to the media without context).

This was simply a weakness in his game he thought he had corrected.

“I’m just not driving the ball well enough. It’s been a problem all year for the most part,” McIlroy said. “I miss it right, and then I want to try to correct it. And then I’ll overdo it, and I’ll miss it left. It’s a little bit of back and forth that way. So that’s pretty frustrating, especially when I pride myself on driving the ball well.”

He hit only five of the 14 fairways. He was in the short grass on No. 1 after making the turn. He played from the rough the rest of the round. McIlroy was in the hay right of the seventh hole and could only manage to hack that across the fairway into more rough on the left, leaving him 15 feet for par that he didn't convert.

His final hole was the par-5 ninth, another drive that sailed right. From there, he put it in the worst spot — a bunker 67 yards from the pin — and barely got that onto the green, leaving him 70 feet a way for birdie. He ran that 8 feet by and missed it coming back.

As for that blister causing problems, McIlroy offered another one-word answer: “No.”

This was about his driver, mainly, which McIlroy felt good about after his final round Sunday in the Truist Championship, and the 12 holes of practice at Aronimink he played this week.

“I honestly thought I’d figured it out,” he said. “Just once I get under the gun, it just seems like it starts to go a little bit wayward on me.”

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

Weinstein, who's 74 and has a history of heart trouble and other health woes, looked pale but alert as he was brought into court in the wheelchair he has used for years. He said he felt “good, fine.”

The ex-studio boss was in a courthouse holding area Wednesday when jurors, after a few hours of deliberating, sent a note asking to rehear some of accuser Jessica Mann ’s testimony and to review a lengthy prosecution timeline of emails and other evidence.

After defense lawyers, prosecutors and Judge Curtis Farber convened in court to decide how to respond, Weinstein attorney Marc Agnifilo said court officers had told him Weinstein was experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein wasn't brought into court at that point, and Farber ultimately sent jurors home Wednesday a bit earlier than planned, telling them there were “unforeseen reasons” for the early dismissal.

Jurors got the requested information Thursday, revisiting testimony that Agnifilo had highlighted in his closing argument: a moment when Mann said she was “spacing out” as a defense lawyer asked why she didn’t want a friend to know that anything sexual had happened between her and Weinstein. The defense was trying to suggest that she was worried about her reputation, not an alleged rape that Weinstein says never happened.

Jurors returned to their closed-door discussions. Over the ensuing hours, the jury asked to rehear Mann's testimony about the alleged rape and the lead-up to it, and to go over the judge's instructions on reasonable doubt. That's the legal bar that evidence must clear to justify a conviction.

Jurors ultimately went home for the night without reaching a verdict. Deliberations are to resume Friday.

Mann, 40, has testified that she willingly had some sexual interludes with the then-married producer, but that he subjected her to unwanted sex in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013 after she repeatedly said no.

Weinstein's lawyers maintain that the encounter was consensual. They have emphasized that Mann subsequently continued seeing Weinstein and expressing warmth toward him. Mann has said she was mired in complicated feelings about him, herself and what had happened.

Her viewpoint changed in 2017, when a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning Weinstein propelled the #MeToo campaign to hold people — especially powerful men — accountable for sexual misbehavior. Weinstein has said he “acted wrongly” but never assaulted anyone.

Some of those accusations generated criminal convictions against Weinstein in New York and California.

An appeals court overturned his 2020 New York conviction on charges that involved Mann and another accuser. At a retrial last year, jurors failed to reach a verdict on Mann's portion of the case, leading to this retrial. Weinstein is charged with one count of rape in the third degree.

The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, five days of it from Mann. Weinstein did not testify.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted. Mann, however, has agreed to be named.

Vance, dubbed the “fraud czar” by President Donald Trump, made an appearance in the state's politically competitive 2nd Congressional District to stump for former Gov. Paul LePage, a Trump ally who is vying to flip the U.S. House seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden.

He compared LePage to the current governor, Democrat Janet Mills, who has sparred with the Trump administration over the issue of transgender athletes in high school sports. Mills is prevented by term limit laws from running again and recently dropped out of a heated Democratic primary race for the Senate seat held by Republican Susan Collins, one of the most vulnerable candidates in the chamber.

“Let’s kick Janet Mills to the curb and let’s send Paul LePage to Washington to help us fight the fraudsters and protect all of you,” Vance told the crowd of a few hundred people at Bangor International Airport.

While Vance has mentioned the anti-fraud efforts in his stops around the country in recent weeks on behalf of Republican candidates, Thursday’s visit was the first expressly billed as a stop to talk about the fraud-fighting efforts rather than the economic-focused message he’s delivered in other visits.

The event showcased how the vice president is leveraging his high-profile role leading Trump's anti-fraud task force for Republicans as they face crucial midterm elections this year, especially as the administration’s economic message has been clouded by rising costs from the Iran war. Early voting is already underway in Maine for the state’s June 9 primary elections for offices including governor, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House.

The state has supported Democratic presidential candidates in consecutive elections going back to 1992, though Trump carried Maine's 2nd Congressional District in the last three elections, capturing one of the state's four electoral votes.

Vance could make fraud a centerpiece of a 2028 run

Vance’s message also provided a preview of how the vice president, seen as a likely 2028 GOP presidential candidate, could use the fraud crackdown as a central piece of his own political message in a future campaign.

“You are the first victim of fraud,” Vance told attendees as signs hung nearby that read “PROTECTING TAXPAYER DOLLARS” and “FIGHTING FRAUDSTERS.”

Vance went on and added a few minutes later, “My friends, this has gone on for far too long. You have been fleeced by your own government for far too long, and we are stopping it every single day.”

Mills said in a statement that Vance’s attacks were an attempt to distract from surging costs and the unpopular Iran war.

“Maine people deserved to hear about how the Trump Administration is making their lives better by lowering costs, improving health care, building housing, and fixing child care — but we got none of that because the President and Vice President don’t actually care about these issues or the hardships they are causing our state and people,” Mills said.

The visit to Maine came after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said earlier in the year that he was calling for corrective action on alleged fraud in government health programs in Maine, a request characterized by Mills as a “political attack.”

Mills recently dropped out of the Democratic primary race to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, effectively ceding the nomination to progressive activist and oyster farmer Graham Platner. The seat is critical to Democratic hopes of reclaiming control of the chamber in this year's midterms.

Vance, however, didn't mention Platner and instead focused much of his attention on Mills and LePage, the sole Republican vying for the nomination in Maine's 2nd Congressional District.

Republicans are bullish about their chances of the seat, which encompasses Bangor and which backed Trump for president in the last three elections even as the state itself supported the Democratic presidential candidate.

Vance portrayed LePage as a partner-in-arms with his anti-fraud effort and told the crowd Thursday: “Fraud has festered in Maine because this guy is no longer the governor of Maine.”

Collins draws praise from Vance for her independence

While Collins is not always a reliable vote for the Trump administration, Vance took pains to praise the longtime senator for her independence and lack of partisanship.

“Sometimes I get frustrated with Susan Collins. I almost wish she was more partisan,” Vance said. “If she was as partisan as I wish she was, she would not be a good fit for the people of Maine.”

Collins was in Washington on Thursday and not among the candidates who joined Vance for the trip.

Before Vance arrived, LePage told the crowd that if elected to represent Maine's 2nd Congressional District, he would work with the Trump administration to crack down on fraud in social safety programs, which he characterized as rampant in his state.

“The American people are done being taken for a ride. It’s time for the Maine people and the Maine taxpayer to be put front and center,” he told the crowd.

Maine Center for Economic Policy, a left-leaning policy group that advocates for low- and middle-income residents, said in a statement that the Trump administration's characterizations of fraud and social programs in the state were inaccurate.

“Fraud should always be investigated and stopped. But Mainers deserve facts, not political fearmongering designed to undermine health care for hundreds of thousands of people,” the statement said.

In the governor's race, seven Republicans, five Democrats and sevreal independents are vying to replace Mills. Vance noted that some of the candidates were in attendance at the rally but declined to endorse any of them when a reporter asked whether he would.

A few dozen demonstrators stood across the street from the airport holding signs denouncing Vance and the Trump administration. One held a giant caricature of the vice president’s head that has become a popular meme.

Nirav Shah, the former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director who is running for governor, said in an email to supporters and the media that Vance is visiting Maine as the costs of necessities such as heating oil and gas surge in the state.

“That is the record JD Vance is bringing to Maine on Thursday. That is the record the Maine Republicans hosting him are ‘honored’ to celebrate,” Shah said.

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Price reported from Washington.

Soto exited a 3-2, 10-inning win over the Tigers in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, four innings after he fouled a ball off his right foot. X-rays were negative and Soto batted third as the designated hitter in Thursday’s matinee.

“I wasn’t concerned, I’ve done it before,” Soto said Thursday. “It was getting swollen big time, so I just tried to make a smart move. I know how to handle it.”

Manager Carlos Mendoza said Lindor, who was injured April 22 while scoring from first on a double hit by Francisco Alvarez, underwent an MRI Wednesday that showed “signs of healing,” though the All-Star shortstop is nowhere near a return.

Mendoza said Lindor has been cleared to do more work in the weight room before beginning a running program.

“Positive sign,” Mendoza said. “We’ve just got to let it heal.”

Mendoza said there was no timetable for Lindor to begin baseball activities. Lindor has been sidelined for the Mets’ last 18 games — four more than he missed the previous four seasons combined.

Alvarez, who suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee while fouling off a pitch in Tuesday’s 10-2 win over the Tigers, underwent surgery Thursday morning. Mendoza said the Mets expect Alvarez to miss up to eight weeks.

Alvarez is the Mets’ 12th player currently on the injured list, joining Lindor as well as right-handers Reed Garrett (Tommy John surgery), Justin Hagenman (fractured rib), Tylor Megill (sprained right elbow), Dedniel Núñez (Tommy John surgery) and Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation); left-hander A.J. Minter (left lat surgery); infielders Ronny Mauricio (broken left thumb), Jorge Polanco (bruised right wrist) and Jared Young (torn left meniscus); and outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation).

In addition, Soto missed 15 games last month because of a strained right calf.

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

DeChambeau wasn't sure how to play that shot, telling officials, “I'm so confused right now.”

Confused by the lie, confounded by the course, DeChambeau is on the brink of missing the cut of his second straight major following his breakdown at the Masters.

DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion, was a disaster in his opening round at Aronimink Golf Club and shot a 6-over 76, about six weeks after Amen Corner put him through the wringer again at the Masters.

Take the eighth hole at Aronimink.

DeChambeau flubbed a pitch from the rough so badly that the ball landed short of the green and rolled right back to his feet on the closely mown area around the putting surface.

The initials on his yardage book seemed to sum up DeChambeau's day.

B.A.D.

This 76 is his worst score to par ever in the PGA Championship. This is the fifth time he shot 4-over or higher in the first round of a major. He made the cut in two instances, the 2018 U.S. Open and 2021 Masters.

His round over, DeChambeau headed straight to the scoring tent, and he then stormed through the parking lot and to the driving range.

DeChambeau pounded ball after ball, stopping after most shots to review his form on the mobile phone video shot by a member of his team. He did not speak to the media.

DeChambeau, one of the main players in LIV Golf, might not rush to add video from the range or the bulk of his shots at Aronimink to his YouTube channel. He's a hit on the platform, registering millions of views while he pals around on the course with Stephen Curry, Adam Sandler and Kevin Hart, and his Break 50 series has helped him earn more than 2.7 million subscribers and growing to his channel.

The good times haven't extended to the majors.

He's missed the cut in three of his last five Masters and is going to need a terrific rebound on Friday to have any shot at spending the weekend in suburban Philadelphia.

What hasn't faded is his popularity.

Not even his much-derided and debated departure to LIV has dampened the enthusiasm for DeChambeau and his lethal driver. His tee shot on No. 4 seemed to fly as high as the Goodyear Blimp that flew overhead the hole and had fans rooting him on — "He smoked that thing!" — as he walked to find his ball.

He averaged nearly 336 yards on his drives, yet the short game failed him.

On the 11th hole, he tapped a putt that rolled and rolled and rolled some more until it landed almost off the green. DeChambeau finished with one of his six bogeys on the round, including a double-bogey on eight.

DeChambeau had a bit of a wait on No. 8 for the group ahead of him to finish. He folded his arms, stared straight ahead and could only search for answers. He snacked on beef jerky but not even a quick snack could help him snap into a successful end to this hole.

Funny thing, DeChambeau actually two-putted after his ball found the bottom stair of the staircase off the second hole and he saved par.

He couldn't save much else, though he finished the round with his lone birdie of the day on the par-5 ninth.

DeChambeau is in the final year of his LIV contract and the rival league to the PGA Tour faces a murky future now that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has pulled its financial backing. Even if the league doesn't fold, could it find another investor willing to scrape up the cash needed to keep a talent like DeChambeau?

DeChambeau said earlier this month that “egos would need to get dropped” by the PGA Tour and LIV officials if there was going to be reconciliation in the golf world.

DeChambeau, who won LIV Golf events in Singapore and South Africa earlier this year, could simply step back and focus on social media content and playing the four majors if he fails to re-sign with LIV or find a path back to the PGA.

Ratings for the LIV Tour have been anemic, meaning most people see DeChambeau four times a year — at the majors.

DeChambeau gears his content toward a younger audience, and Aronimink fans packed the tee box area and lined the ropes rows deep to catch a rare glimpse of him in the Northeast, though one grumbled after the end of the round, “I hope he can fist bump better than he can play golf.”

His future in limbo, DeChambeau could find himself with two extra days to film content for his YouTube channel — he posted a PGA practice round to social media — if he can't figure out a way into the weekend.

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

Riddle, who transferred to Georgia from East Carolina ahead of the upcoming season, was observed weaving through traffic at roughly 95 miles per hour on Friday night in an SUV, according to the report. Glynn County police officers stopped Riddle and noted nervous behavior and an odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.

The report detailed Riddle's compliance as police discovered a bag inside a backpack containing “a large amount of multicolored packaging, some with a leafy substance stating marijuana, and some containing vapes stating THC.”

Riddle was charged with two felony counts related to marijuana and controlled substances, according to the report.

The Glynn County Police Department didn't immediately respond to an information request from The Associated Press.

“We are aware of the charges and are actively gathering additional information," a spokesperson for the football team told the AP. "As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be providing further comment at this time."

Riddle had 133 total tackles, 10 pass deflections, and six interceptions, including one pick-six, over two seasons at East Carolina.

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In a letter to a lawyer for Yale, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said a DOJ investigation found that Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to the medical school than white or Asian students, despite having lower grade-point averages and lower test scores.

“Yale has continued its race-based admissions program despite the Supreme Court and the public’s clear mandate for reform,” Dhillon said in a statement. “This Department will continue to shed light on these illegal practices, and demand that institutions of higher education comply with federal law.”

Yale officials and the attorney named in the DOJ letter, Peter Spivack, did not immediately return email messages seeking comment.

Since President Donald Trump returned to office last year, his administration has been putting pressure on universities to stop using race as a basis for admission, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination. And a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, in cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Last week, the Justice Department notified the University of California, Los Angeles, that its medical school illegally considered race in admissions.

In the letter to Yale, Dhillon alleged the New Haven, Connecticut, school was violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination and said the DOJ is seeking to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement with the university. She also noted in the letter that the agency has the authority to take the school to court to enforce Title VI if it cannot obtain compliance through voluntary means.

The DOJ cited differences in grade-point averages and standardized test scores as evidence of racial preferences in the incoming classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025. In Yale’s most recent class, Black students had a median GPA of 3.88 and a median MCAT score in the 95th percentile, compared to Asian students who had a median GPA of 3.98 and white students with a 3.97 median GPA. Both Asian and white students of that class had median MCAT scores in the 100th percentile.

“Based on our preliminary review of the applicant-level data, Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials,” Dhillon's letter said.

The Justice Department also described Yale’s use of a holistic admissions process as a means for the school to consider race.

The letter also cited Yale’s amicus brief in the Student for Fair Admissions lawsuit that led to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, where the school said it would not be able to maintain diverse classes without explicit consideration of race. The department said the fact that Yale was able to maintain similarly diverse classes despite that brief as evidence that the school had engaged in race discrimination.

Dhillon wrote that the lack of any change in Yale's admissions outcomes after the Supreme Court ruling showed "a willful failure to comply with that decision.”

In March, a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy that requires higher education institutions to collect data showing they aren’t considering race in admissions.

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Associated Press writer Annie Ma in Washington contributed to this report.

Mathers was arrested Tuesday (May 14) night by Chesterfield Township police, according to jail records.

Police said she was booked into the Macomb County Jail and later released.

Officials have not yet released details about the circumstances surrounding the arrest or any potential charges.

The arrest comes just days after Mathers pleaded no contest in connection with charges stemming from a hit-and-run crash involving a parked vehicle.

Mathers pleaded no contest on Monday (May 11) in the 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore.

The hit-and-run incident occurred on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026, when she was driving a white Range Rover and struck a silver Dodge Ram pickup truck parked on a street.

Police said the truck was pushed approximately 50 feet from where it was parked.

It is alleged that Mathers was impaired at the time of the crash.

Mathers was charged with:

• Operating – impaired, a 93-day misdemeanor
• Failure to stop after a collision is a 90-day misdemeanor

After the arraignment, Mathers immediately pleaded no contest to operating while impaired and to failing to report an accident.

Mathers is scheduled for a sentencing hearing at the 42-2 District Court on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at 9 a.m.

As for her recent arrest in Macomb County, multiple calls were placed to the Chesterfield Township Police Department seeking comment, but officials had not responded as of Thursday, May 14, afternoon.

Update: Eminem’s ex-wife, Kim Mathers arrested again in Macomb County days after no-contest plea

Mathers pleaded no contest on Monday (May 11) in the 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore.

The incident occurred on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026, when she was driving a white Range Rover and struck a silver Dodge Ram pickup truck parked on a street.

Police said the truck was pushed approximately 50 feet from where it was parked.

It is alleged that Mathers was impaired at the time of the crash.

Mathers was charged with:

• Operating – impaired, a 93-day misdemeanor
• Failure to stop after a collision is a 90-day misdemeanor

After the arraignment, Mathers immediately pleaded no contest to operating while impaired and to failing to report an accident.

Mathers is scheduled for a sentencing hearing at the 42-2 District Court on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at 9 a.m.

The 41-year-old man slipped unnoticed past motion detectors in a remote corner of Denver International Airport, which sprawls across open plains and covers an area twice the size of Manhattan. He quickly scaled an 8-foot perimeter fence topped with barbed wire, then walked unobstructed onto the runway where he was fatally struck by a Frontier Airlines jet as it attempted to take off late Friday night.

Surveillance video showed the man getting pulled into an aircraft engine that instantly burst into flames, forcing the pilot to abort the takeoff and evacuate the 224 passengers and seven crew members. Twelve people had minor injuries.

Aviation and risk experts said the Denver runway collision represents a clear security failure. They noted it could have been far worse if the pilot didn't safely stop the aircraft that was traveling 150 miles per hour (241 kph).

“People ought to be concerned. This was really an unprecedented risk. But now there is precedent,” said Eric Chaffee a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and an expert on risk, including in the aviation industry.

“The individual ended up with a bad result. But having somebody basically damage a plane is really quite concerning because of all those lives aboard any given aircraft,” Chaffee added. “There ought to be new measures put into place to prevent this type of tragedy."

15 seconds to scale the fence

Some aviation experts disagreed that new regulations were needed. They said installing blanket surveillance or impregnable defenses around airports was cost prohibitive, given the relative rarity of dangerous events like Friday's collision.

The Denver medical examiner ruled the intruder's death a suicide.

Officials from the city-owned airport promised a review of their protocols and defended their perimeter security program. During a Tuesday news conference, Denver airport CEO Phillip Washington said the airport received “perfect scores” following federal inspections of airfield safety and perimeter integrity.

Airport officials said in response to questions from The Associated Press that annual inspections by the Federal Aviation Administration found two discrepancies over the past decade, both from 2019. One was a response vehicle that got delayed 20 seconds during an aircraft rescue firefighting drill, and the other was a problem with driver training records.

The airport did not answer questions about inspections of the perimeter fence and whether any problems have been found. Those fences are under oversight from a separate federal agency, the Transportation Security Administration.

The FAA referred questions about the perimeter security to TSA. The AP sent emails to TSA seeking comment on Denver’s inspection results and documents detailing its security protocols.

“Safety is something we take very, very seriously,” Washington told reporters Tuesday. He added that making the perimeter fence taller or topping it with razor wire wouldn’t necessarily have made a difference, because someone who was motivated could still find a way in.

During Friday's breach, an alarm from a ground detection sensor was triggered shortly before the intruder entered the airport along its eastern boundary, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the terminal. An airport worker watching video surveillance cameras attributed the alarm to a herd of deer — and missed the intruder.

It took the man about 15 seconds to scale the fence and two minutes more to reach the runway, Washington said. Airport officials didn't know he was on the runway until the pilot notified the control tower that the plane hit somebody.

Airport perimeter breaches are a regular problem, with perhaps dozens annually nationwide, said security expert Jeff Price, who managed security at the Denver airport in the 1990s. Denver International Airport is surrounded by about 36 miles (58 kilometers) of fence, which officials say is patrolled by security workers and continuously inspected.

The vast majority of airport trespassers don’t pose a real threat to others, according to Price and other experts. A man died at the Austin airport in 2020 after a Southwest Airlines jet struck him on a runway. Police later ruled it was a suicide.

Worries about copycats

Two law firms notified Denver officials Tuesday that they are preparing to sue on behalf of Frontier passengers, seeking in excess of $10 million in damages. The firms alleged “multiple failures” in the airport perimeter security system, without providing specifics, and said their eight clients suffered mental and physical injuries.

Steven Wallace, former director of accidents investigations at the Federal Aviation Administration, described the Denver fatality as a “one-off event” that would not justify costly improvements to airport perimeter security programs nationwide.

Wallace acknowledged that some perimeter fences can easily be breached. There are no set rules for their construction, and their primary role is to keep out wildlife that could interfere with flight operations, he said.

“I just don’t see how you’re going to think of and deal with every possible way a human could get into an airport,” he said.

Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, suggested there is now a higher likelihood for a repeat of Friday's collision given the potential for copycats. Hall said Denver should consider adding more personnel and surveillance to properly monitor its fence.

“With the amount of cameras and technology that is available, they need to address the problem,” he said. “They've had a failure, and they don’t need to have another one."

Michael Banks' decision, announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, is the latest leadership shake-up of officials implementing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to its centerpiece policy of mass deportations.

“It’s just time,” Banks was quoted as saying in a report on the Fox News website, which said the resignation was effective immediately. “I feel like I got the ship back on course," he said, referring to what he described as previous chaos at the southern border. Banks said it was “time to enjoy the family and life."

In a statement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Rodney Scott, thanked Banks for his service “during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”

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

It was not clear who will replace Banks. He led an agency at the forefront of Trump's high-profile immigration enforcement efforts but kept a lower profile than some other officials such as Gregory Bovino, a now-retired commander who became a public face of the immigration crackdown.

Border Patrol participated in immigration enforcement operation in US cities

CBP is one of the federal agencies that participated since last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations, carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats — an effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Banks' resignation takes place two months after Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became homeland security secretary. DHS oversees CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE.

Banks is stepping down at the same time that ICE is also going through a leadership transition. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, is leaving later this month and will be replaced by David Venturella, who worked for years for private contractors before returning to government service.

CBP was established in 2003 and handles customs, immigration, and agricultural regulations to secure U.S. borders. It has a workforce of over 20,000 agents assigned to patrol the more than 6,000 miles of land borders, and an operating budget of $1.4 billion, according to information from its website.

As head of CBP, Banks became a pivotal figure in the Trump administration’s hardline policy to reconfigure immigration law enforcement in the United States. He oversaw the expansion of prosecutions for illegal border crossings, intensified coordination between the Border Patrol and ICE, and supervised the implementation of broader internal enforcement operations within the country’s borders.

Banks had a long career at Border Patrol

Banks returned to the Border Patrol last year after a long agency career that had never landed him in its senior ranks. His star had risen as border czar to Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, during a period when illegal crossings reached record highs and the state launched a multibillion-dollar enforcement surge that led to turf battles with the Biden administration.

Banks kept a relatively low public profile as arrests for illegal crossings that have plunged to their lowest levels since the mid-1960s, a trend that began toward the end of that Democratic administration.

Banks did not appear publicly at the Border Security Expo this month in Phoenix, an annual conference at which government officials update contractors on the state of the border. Scott, who was Banks’ supervisor, is a close ally of Trump border czar Tom Homan and has acted more as the agency’s public face.

Banks, who grew up in a small town in Warner Robins, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, has said his first job was picking peaches at an orchard when he was 14 years old. He worked with migrant farm workers and learned “compassion and humility,” he said, in an interview published last year on the CBP website.

Banks, in the interview, said he was “honored” to have returned to the agency.

“The United States Border Patrol will be unapologetic in its enforcement of our nation’s laws,” he said.

——-

Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.

That's unnerving workers across sectors, with many fearing what the rapid adoption of AI will mean for their job prospects. Even if AI isn't replacing people directly, some businesses have announced reductions as they redirect money to the technology or tout new ways to streamline operations — raising alarm about what might be left over for payrolls and future openings.

But corporate explanations are often very vague. AI is rarely the sole reason companies cite when taking layoffs, with most still pointing to wider corporate restructuring or macroeconomic headwinds. Some executives have also suggested that, while they’re making cuts to move around resources now, AI and its demand could open up new roles down the road. Still, it’s hard to know if that’s the real driver or just the message a business wants to tell Wall Street.

Regardless, here are some companies that have announced layoffs recently while at least nodding to the role of AI along the way.

Cisco

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced plans to cut under 4,000 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce. The announcement arrived the same day the tech giant unveiled record revenue for its third fiscal quarter, amid soaring demand for its AI tools and infrastructure.

CEO Chunk Robbins told employees in a memo that “the companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment" — and that meant “making hard decisions.” But he said Cisco would also help employees impacted by the cuts find new opportunities, “whether internal or external.”

Block

Financial services provider Block in February moved to lay off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees. And the parent of payment platforms like Square and Cash App was vocal about reconfiguring to capitalize on AI.

“The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” CEO Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders at the time. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better."

Dow

Not only tech companies have pointed to AI when initiating layoffs. In January, chemicals maker Dow, Inc. announced plans to cut about 4,500 jobs — as part of broader push to “streamline” operations. That included putting more emphasis on AI and automation.

Pinterest

Also in January, Pinterest said it would lay off under 15% of its workforce as the company pivots more of its money to AI. The image-sharing platform said the cuts were part of broader “transformation initiatives” — which included reallocating the company’s resources to AI-focused roles and prioritizing AI-powered products.

Lufthansa Group

Last fall, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of AI, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.

Cuts at Meta and other big names arrive amid broader AI ramp-up

While perhaps not explicitly mentioning or tying the technology to recent layoff announcements, a host of other big names — including Meta, Microsoft and Amazon — are also cutting thousands of jobs while investing billions of dollars toward AI.

Meta, for example, plans to lay off about 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, starting next week. When announcing the cuts last month, the Facebook owner more broadly cited the need to offset certain investments and broader efficiency.

Still, the move arrives as Meta continues to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure and highly-paid AI expert hires. And earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2026 will be when, “AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work.”

The top-ranked Sinner landed shots on the lines repeatedly in a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over No. 14 Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals Thursday and move past Novak Djokovic with a record 32nd consecutive victory in Masters 1000 events — the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.

“I don’t play for records. I play just for my own story. And obviously at the same time it means a lot to me,” Sinner said.

The last Italian man to raise the singles trophy on the red clay of the Foro Italico was Adriano Panatta in 1976. Panatta will present the title to this year’s champion on Sunday, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella also slated to attend the final.

“It’s a special tournament for me,” Sinner said.

Sinner’s semifinal opponent will be 2023 Rome champion Daniil Medvedev, who came back to beat Spanish qualifier Martin Landaluce 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.

The other semifinal will feature Casper Ruud of Norway against Luciano Darderi, an Argentine-born Italian.

With nearly everyone inside the 10,500-seat Campo Centrale cheering for Sinner, many supporters wore hats and T-shirts in orange — his theme color.

One group of fans held up a sign that said, “Sinner, Facce Sogna” — “Sinner, Make us dream.”

Sinner lost last year’s final in Rome to Carlos Alcaraz, who is now sidelined due to a right wrist injury, while Jasmine Paolini in 2025 became the first Italian woman to raise the trophy in 40 years.

Sinner broke serve in the opening game for a third straight match and never lost control against Rublev, who was once ranked as high as No. 5.

Rublev noticed there were “many points where he played really well or close to the line or in a line. But he’s No. 1 and it’s normal. You need to force him to miss and it takes a lot of focus to be able to play at that level.”

Sinner had only one brief lapse when Rublev broke him late in the second set.

“It was a bit breezy, a bit windy, so it was very tough conditions,” Sinner said. “I felt we both didn’t play at our best today.”

Sinner said he felt fatigued toward the end.

“I’m going to be all right. It’s normal that one day in the tournament you are slightly tired,” he said. “It has been very long days for me.”

Sinner hasn’t been beaten in a Masters event since he retired with cramps in extreme heat against Tallon Griekspoor in Shanghai in October.

Djokovic won 31 straight Masters matches in 2011.

Including all tournaments, Sinner’s winning streak reached 27 matches. He was last beaten by Jakub Mensik in the Qatar Open quarterfinals on Feb. 19 — and he hasn't even dropped a set since his opening match of his previous tournament, the Madrid Open.

Sinner is also aiming to become the second man after Djokovic to triumph at all nine Masters events. Djokovic has won each event at least twice.

The Italian Open is the only Masters event that Sinner hasn’t won.

Coco Gauff back in final

In the women’s tournament, Coco Gauff beat 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3 to reach the final for a second straight year.

Gauff saved a match point in a three-set victory over Iva Jovic in the fourth round and then came back from a set down to defeat Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals.

Against Cirstea, Gauff got 78% of her first serves in and had only one double fault.

“I'm just happy to be through in straight sets today," Gauff said. "It's been a marathon week.”

Gauff was beaten by Paolini in the 2025 Rome final, then went on to win the French Open.

In Saturday's final, Gauff will face three-time Rome champion Iga Swiatek or two-time winner Elina Svitolina, who were playing later.

___

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

Health Secretary Wes Streeting became the first senior minister to quit Thursday in what was seen as a precursor to challenging Starmer's leadership. He said he had lost confidence in Starmer, who should not serve out the rest of his term.

“You have shown courage and statesmanship on the world stage — not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran,” Streeting wrote in an excoriating resignation letter. “But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”

But Streeting stopped short of saying he was the best candidate to lead the party at the next election due by 2029, suggesting Starmer should step aside to allow a “broad” field of candidates to debate the future of the party.

Starmer is under growing pressure to step down after disastrous results for his Labour Party last week in local and regional elections. The election drubbing cemented doubts among many party members about Starmer’s judgment, vision and leadership ability — a brutal indictment on a leader who returned Labour to power in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition.

Starmer responded in a generous letter to Streeting, saying he was “truly sorry” to see him leave the government and praised his stewardship of the state-run National Health Service.

Making no reference to Streeting's criticisms, Starmer laid out his hope the two “can work together to show that Labour in power can address the problems our opponents exploit, can install hope where they want despair, and can bring people together where they want division.”

Starmer moved quickly to replace Streeting, appointing James Murray, formerly a Treasury minister, to the health portfolio.

If Starmer doesn't step down, any challenger would need support from a fifth of Labour lawmakers, or 81, to trigger a leadership contest.

For days, Streeting had been expected to launch a bid Thursday, but the wording of his statement stoked speculation he doesn't have enough votes yet, or that he is giving Starmer a chance to announce his resignation on his own terms.

Another likely challenger, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said Thursday that she had reached an agreement with authorities to clear up questions about her taxes that forced her to leave the Cabinet last September. Rayner told the Guardian newspaper that Starmer should “reflect on” his position, adding that she was ready to “play my part” in any leadership election if Streeting triggered a contest.

A third rival, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, is ineligible for the leadership because he doesn't have a seat in Parliament, but on Thursday afternoon a Labour lawmaker said he would step aside to make room and Burnham said he would seek permission from party to enter a special election. He could then mount a leadership challenge if elected.

“I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years,” Burnham said on X. “I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics.”

Race to unseat Starmer heats up

Pressure for Starmer to step aside has intensified since Labour suffered heavy losses in local and regional elections last week, underscoring voter frustration with a government that has failed to deliver on pledges to boost economic growth and improve living standards for working people.

A stagnant economy and stubbornly high inflation have made it difficult for Starmer’s government to deliver on the promises it made when winning a landslide election victory less than two years ago.

Starmer has vowed to remain in office, warning lawmakers that any leadership contest would destabilize the government when it should be focused on issues like the cost of living crisis and war in the Middle East.

The leadership wrangles overshadowed some positive news for the government.

Official figures showed the British economy grew 0.6% in the first three months of the year — more than had been anticipated and larger than the previous quarter, despite the negative impact from the Iran war. More growth means more tax revenues to fund Labour’s priorities and potentially lower borrowing.

Treasury chief Rachel Reeves said the figures showed her policies were working and the party shouldn't put hard-won economic stability at risk “by plunging the country in chaos at a time when there is conflict in the world.”

Streeting himself hailed figures showing that waiting lines for NHS appointments — one of his signature priorities — fell for the fifth straight month, an achievement he is likely to point to if he runs for leader.

Streeting comes from a faction of the left-leaning Labour Party that sees itself as the modernizing wing, as does Starmer. Rayner is a favorite of members who think the party has strayed too far from its working-class roots and those who want the party to do more to boost the minimum wage and raise taxes on the rich.

Efforts to depose a Labour leader are relatively rare

Unlike the Conservative Party, Labour has never ousted a prime minister in midterm.

“They don’t do ruthless on their leader,’’ said Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool. “They don’t tend to depose their leader. The Conservatives, they readily do ruthless.’’

Even if Starmer survives this current bout of jitters, he will likely face another challenge in a few months given the level of fragmentation in British politics, he added.

“He’s got a huge parliamentary majority, he’s got more than 400 MPs, and yet his prime ministership may be on the brink of disintegration,” Tonge said.

Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee and Ryo Hisatsune mixed in enough birdies to offset mistakes, each of them at 67.

Xander Schauffele, who set the major championship scoring record in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla with a 21-under 263, opened with a 68 and was pleased.

“I think really, really thick rough and wind and really difficult greens and tucked pin locations is why you’re seeing what you may feel like are higher scores,” Schauffele said.

That also was the recipe for McIlroy, a bad mix for the Masters champion. He struggled out of the damp, dense rough. He struggled on the greens. He closed with four straight bogeys and described his round in one word that translates loosely to doo-doo.

Some overnight rain only dampened the course, but did little to soften it. And the greens on this Donald Ross original design lived up to the fears with its massive undulations.

Potgieter, a big-hitting South African, put himself in a good position on the severe greens and an even better position when he finished his round. He was in the first group off the 10th tee and the first to post 67, a round with six birdies.

Hisatsune was even better with his seven birdies — four of them immediately after making bogey. Jaeger ran off three in a row on his front nine.

The damp air gave way to clearing skies by mid-morning, and then the wind arrived, enough to make a strong test even tougher. McIlroy hit one approach on the 15th that shot forward some 20 feet on its second hop.

“I think I hit it on the right spots on the golf course, especially on the greens,” Potgieter said. “I didn’t feel like I had to putt over some of these big slopes we had. So I definitely left myself in really good positions on the green.”

No one struggled quite like Bryson DeChambeau, who didn't make a birdie until he ended on the par-5 ninth. That kept him from matching his highest score in the PGA Championship. He shot 76 and now has to work toward avoiding a second straight missed cut in a major.

Garrick Higgo had the worst start imaginable — a late one. The South African was seconds late getting to the first tee when his group was announced. He was assessed a two-shot penalty before he even hit his opening drive. He still managed a 69.

“Unfortunately golf has these situations where we get penalized for things,” Higgo said. “But it is a rule and I obviously broke the rule. I would love to have 3 under. Hopefully, I can make a good story out of it.”

The main story Thursday morning was Aronimink, which hasn't hosted a major championship since Gary Player won the 1962 PGA Championship. It hosted two PGA Tour events in 2010 and 2011, and then another in 2018 after a restoration project.

But this is major — an old slogan the PGA Championship once used — and while this one is famous for creating a firm but fair test, this was everything the players could have wanted.

“There was a couple pins that were on hills and they were tough,” Lee said. “I think they did a really good job on putting them in tough positions, enough to think about it coming into the greens. It’s a course where you don’t want to leave it in bad positions just because it can bite you in the butt pretty quick.”

Among those at 69 was Jordan Spieth, who lacks only the PGA Championship for the career Grand Slam. This is his 10th shot at that feat, and he's rarely been in the mix on the weekend. For one round, he raised hopes with great control off the tee and enough good putting.

Spieth was tied for the lead late in his round until a long three-putt on the seventh, missing the green well to the right on the par-3 eighth and failing to get up-and-down for a birdie chance on the par-5 ninth. He was hoping for better.

“Just didn’t quite finish the way I wanted to the last three holes, but under par was a good score,” Spieth said. “It was blowing really hard, and it was cold this morning. The course played very, very difficult. It was a good start. I’m going to need to improve on it, I think, each day.”

Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, played in the afternoon along with Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Jon Rahm was headed for another rough start in a major until he holed out for eagle from the 11th fairway, chipped in for birdie on the tough par-3 eighth and got up-and-down for birdie on his last hole for 69.

He was told some people thought scoring would be better in the morning. This surprised him.

“People thought it would be lower?” he replied. “Have you been out there? Have you seen this course?”

Rahm said the numbers — width of fairways, for example — can be misleading. The subtle slopes can put decent shots into the rough. And that was enough to make it tough to get it close to the hole. Throw in some wind, and it was no picnic.

“So I can see how in appearance it might be easier, but it’s not,” he said. “You need to play really good golf to shoot lower than 3 under. And then on top of that, those pin locations today are good ones. I mean, they’re tucked. They’re not easy.”

___

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

The crash happened on Featherstone Street at Martin Luther Kind Jr. Boulevard in the city of Pontiac around 11 p.m. Sunday.

Police say the SUV has an uncommon front end with the turn signal mounted under the headlight that could lead to the identification of the vehicle type and the driver of one of the two vehicles that struck a 60-year-old Pontiac man.

Investigators say the suspect’s SUV is a smaller car, possibly dark blue and should have minor damage near the passenger side headlight.

They have not yet identified the vehicle make.

The Pontiac man was found dead in the middle of Cameron Avenue, north of Featherstone.

The victim’s family has not yet been notified of the death.

Investigators say the man was crossing Featherstone at the crosswalk when he was struck by an SUV.

The driver appeared to pull off to the side of the road but did not report the crash.

A second SUV struck the man and continued east on Featherstone.

Neither driver reported the crash nor stopped to aid the Pontiac man, according to police.

Police say one of the SUVs dragged the man’s body a half mile west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Anyone with information on this crash is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 248-858-4950 or Crime Stoppers of Michigan at 1-800-SPEAK-UP

Newsom is eager to safeguard programs that have defined his tenure as the leader of the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies. As he gears up for a possible presidential run in 2028, Newsom is promoting the budget as fiscally responsible because it protects California's progressive programs but also builds up the state's rainy day funds, a pointed rebuke to critics who say the state spends more than it has. The state’s spending has grown more than $100 billion since 2020, according to the legislative budget analysts.

“We’re cutting deficits. But we’re not cutting corners,” Newsom said.

Newsom can’t seek a third term and will leave office in January.

Revenues, driven mostly by the booming stock market and artificial intelligence industry, are $16.5 billion higher than projections in January, according to Newsom's office. That will help the state avoid a $2.9 billion deficit Newsom projected in January, guarantee no budget hole next year and cut the shortfall the following year in half, his office said.

It is a welcoming change for the state where revenues have not kept up with spending. California faced tens of billions in budget deficits several years in a row, forcing painful cuts last year such as a rollback on a promise to provide free health to low-income immigrants without legal status. Nonpartisan budget analysts projected the state will see budget holes upward of $20 billion each year in the next few years.

Still, Democrats are bracing for federal funding cuts in healthcare and the impacts of high costs on everything from gas to energy because of the war in Iran. State officials repeatedly said California can't backfill all the federal monies.

Republican lawmakers said Newsom's plan didn't go far enough to address future budget problems. Republicans are largely excluded from budget negotiations because Democrats have a super majority in both chambers.

“Governor Newsom appears to define fiscal success narrowly: if the budget doesn’t collapse on his watch, it’s a balanced one,” Assemblymember David Tangipa said in a statement.

Newsom used his presentation to blast President Donald Trump and his policies. Trump “doesn’t particularly give a damn about the financial situation of the average American," Newsom said.

The May budget proposal will officially kick off the final stretch of negotiations between Newsom and Democrats in the Legislature, who have to pass a spending plan by the end of June.

State lawmakers this year have pitched several proposals to increase taxes on corporations to help with budget problems, but Newsom has largely opposed the idea, arguing such proposals could drive businesses and wealthy people away. He has instead proposed to cut fees for new small businesses and limit some tax credits starting 2027. He is against a ballot initiative for a one-time tax on billionaires that will likely go before voters in November.

California has a progressive tax system that relies on rich people, meaning it gets about half its revenues from just 1% of the population. When the economy is good, rich people pay more in taxes and revenues can soar quickly. When the economy is bad, they pay less and revenues can drop just as fast.

The state could also see a revenue boost from expected upcoming initial public offerings by several major AI companies, which are expected to be the largest IPOs in history. But legislative budget experts warned last year of a potential AI bubble that could worsen the state's finances.

Newsom’s Thursday proposal also includes a $300 million plan to backfill some of the loss of government-sponsored health subsidies, a $5 billion education grant for teacher training and $100 million to help Los Angeles-area homeowners rebuild after the devastating wildfires last year.

This marks the day we are safe to plant!

A much more noticeable warmup arrives this weekend.

Highs will be in the mid-80s Saturday and Sunday, with even warmer weather possible early next week.

However, several rounds of showers and thunderstorms could develop from the weekend into early next week.

Aliyah said she has difficulty focusing, and she finds it hard to concentrate when she’s learning from a screen. She’ll watch Netflix in class on her school laptop, hiding her earbuds behind her long, curly hair.

“It’s very hard to get into the mindset of being in school,” Aliyah said.

Aliyah’s mother saw her grades were falling and asked the school to take away her laptop. But she was told that wasn’t possible.

Across the country, parents are voicing concerns about excessive screen time in schools and lobbying educators to go back to pencil and paper. In places like Lower Merion Township, where Aliyah goes to high school, some are taking it even further. Over 600 people in the affluent Philadelphia suburb have signed a petition asking to preserve parents' ability to opt their children out of using digital devices during the school day. The public school district has pushed back, saying it’s not feasible to let hundreds of students opt out of technology that is essential to the curriculum.

Disagreement over how tech is used in the classroom

At a meeting Monday night, school board members said they were considering many ways to respond to parental concerns about technology, but allowing opt-outs was not one of them.

“There is not an option for us to not have technology in schools,” said Lower Merion School Board member Anna Shurak.

The board was meeting to discuss updates to the district’s technology policies, including repealing a policy that allows opt outs. Over 100 people showed up to protest, many wearing buttons that said “Screens Down, Pencils Up.”

Many emphasized they’re not anti-tech — in fact, most parents agree that learning how to responsibly use computers is an essential life skill. They just don’t want tech to dominate the classroom.

“Teaching how to use technology is not the same thing as using technology to teach everything else,” said Sara Sullivan, a parent.

Technology has become inescapable at schools

The debate in Lower Merion raises the question of whether technology has become so intertwined with learning that it’s impossible to opt out. Kids use devices to play educational games, submit their homework, access online resources and write essays — but parents are questioning the value of gamified edtech software.

Subashini Subramanian said the software her second-grade daughter uses for math, DreamBox, incentivizes rushing through levels to gain points. When she encouraged her daughter to think through the problems methodically, the 8-year-old said, “If I go through all the steps, it’s slowing me down. I have to click, click, click.”

At the school board meeting, many parents said they were exhausted from battling their kids over screen time. Adam Washington says his son struggles with screen addiction, so sometimes he takes away his phone or TV — only to find him watching YouTube on the school laptop instead.

“The screen is killing him. It is killing me, and him, together with our relationship,” Washington said.

Another parent at the meeting questioned what students would do instead of using their computers.

“Opting out is not a solution. It’s avoiding the hard work of finding a solution,” Seth Ruderman said.

Parental pushback on edtech has led to change

The pushback on technology in the classroom has gained steam around the country. At least 14 states have proposed laws to limit screen time in schools, according to Ballotpedia, with four states — Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Iowa — passing such legislation.

In Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district said it will ban screens until second grade, require daily caps for screen time per grade, ban YouTube and require an audit of all education technology contracts.

In Vermont, proposed legislation would allow not just parents but also teachers to decline to use classroom tech. Democratic State Rep. Angela Arsenault, a bill co-sponsor, said she’s responding to parents' worries about edtech.

“Parents in many districts and states just aren’t being listened to or not being heard when they ask that their students not be forced to use these products,” Arsenault said.

The Lower Merion school district said it’s listening to community concerns and has already made changes, including blocking some problematic websites flagged by parents.

“We have wonderful teachers who have continuously prioritized human interaction and relationships,” Superintendent Frank Ranelli wrote in a letter to parents. He declined to comment to the AP for this story.

The district said it is looking into possible changes, including stronger cellphone restrictions, not allowing the youngest students to take devices home and installing software to monitor students in class.

However, surveillance software can bring its own problems and poses risks to student privacy. In 2010, the Lower Merion School District paid $610,000 to settle lawsuits by two students who alleged the district had spied on them via the webcam on their school-issued laptops.

Kids want ways to hold themselves accountable

High school student Mia Tatar, 16, raised concerns at the board meeting that there’s been an unintended consequence to the anti-tech backlash. The internet filters on school computers are now so strict, she said she’s been blocked while doing research on appropriate topics for school, like breast cancer.

Mia said students need to learn how to responsibly use technology, and adding filters or getting rid of laptops won’t do that.

“It doesn’t teach kids how to hold themselves accountable and how to be responsible for regulating their own screen time once they’re in the world,” Mia said in an interview.

Her friend Elliot Campbell, 15, said there should be strict limits on screen use in the youngest grades, but students should get more freedom as they get older.

“If we lose our laptops or if we lose the partial freedom we have on them, it’s not going to prepare us for college,” Elliot told board members at the hearing.

Fellow high schooler Joaquin Imaizumi takes a different view. He said it’s “completely unfair” to expect children to regulate their usage of devices that even adults find addictive.

“This isn’t about learning to constrain yourself,” he said in an interview. “We don’t give someone drugs and say, ‘OK, now learn how to deal with this.’”

His biggest concern is that devices make it far too tempting to access AI tools like ChatGPT, which he sees eroding his classmates' ability to think for themselves.

“I’ve seen the atrophy of my peers’ thinking, which is existentially concerning,” Joaquin said.

The influence of AI starts early. A second-grader named Lillian Keshet, who got up to speak at the board meeting, said Google Docs will give her “suggestions” about what to write in class.

“I’m a pretty good writer by myself,” Lillian said. “I don’t need your suggestions, Google!”

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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report from San Francisco.

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“Lamine Yamal chose to incite hate against Israel while our soldiers combat the terrorist organization Hamas, an organization that massacred, raped and burned Jewish children, women and the elderly on Oct. 7, (2023)” minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Thursday.

The 18-year-old Yamal waved a large Palestinian flag from an open-top bus during a victory parade by Barcelona’s team through the city on Monday. The parade drew some 750,000 people to celebrate the league title clinched the previous day, local authorities said.

Yamal, who is Muslim, posted pictures of him holding the flag on his Instagram account.

Spain’s government and a large part of its population have been highly critical of Israel’s military operations that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in response to the 2023 Hamas surprise attack.

There has been a global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, which has spread to sport and culture. Protests have been seen in soccer, cycling and basketball. Last year's Spanish Vuelta was repeatedly disrupted by protesters angry with the participation of an Israeli-backed cycling team.

Spain is also one of five countries boycotting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to protest Israel’s inclusion.

Yamal is set to star for Spain at next month’s World Cup to be played in North America.

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

FIFA has announced that, for the first time, the final at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19 will include a Super Bowl-style concert.

Soccer's governing body said the show would support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is raising $100 million to help children access education and soccer.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said it would bring together “music and football on the biggest stage in sport for a very special cause.”

“Every child should have the opportunity to dream, and together we can help make that possible,” he posted on Instagram.

The show will be curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin.

The Super Bowl is famed for its halftime show, attracting the world's biggest stars for spectacular performances. This year featured Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny.

Previous headliners included Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Rhianna.

But halftime shows are not commonplace in soccer, with events such as the Champions League final featuring a pre-match concert. On May 30, the Killers will headline European club soccer's biggest game between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest.

It is not known how long the World Cup halftime show will last, but the interval in soccer is not supposed to go beyond 15 minutes.

FIFA describes it as “a singular moment at the intersection of sport, culture and purpose, broadcast live around the world.”

The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and runs through June and July.

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

Edward Harold King, who left the bench at the end of last year, and Yechiel “Sam” Sprei, a politically connected real estate developer, were arrested by IRS Criminal Investigation agents on wire fraud conspiracy charges after federal prosecutors say they duped a pair of investors into forking over $6.5 million for a bogus property bid and then failed to return all but a fraction of the money.

The allegations are similar to claims made against King in civil lawsuits and in complaints to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, whose investigation precipitated his resignation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Wang told a judge at the men’s initial court appearance on Wednesday that the transaction described in the criminal case was “one of several schemes that the government has been investigating." Discussing Sprei's finances, the prosecutor said “it’s safe to say many, many millions of dollars” have moved through his bank accounts in the last few years.

King, 72, and Sprei, 37, were released on bail and are scheduled to return to Brooklyn federal court on Monday to finalize their bond arrangements. King and his lawyer, Michael Vitaliano, declined to comment as they left the courthouse. The former judge cut through trees in a nearby park to avoid reporters and photographers. Sprei's lawyer, Ezra Lent, declined to comment.

In court, Wang said that during Sprei’s arrest, the developer lied to federal agents that he had no electronic devices on him other than his cellphone. Agents executing a search warrant seized the phone and then found a second phone while patting Sprei down, Wang said.

If convicted, King and Sprei could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

“As alleged, the defendants stole millions of dollars from investors by cynically leveraging King’s position as a sitting judge to lend false legitimacy to supposed investment opportunities,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement.

King resigned on Dec. 31, 2025, just three years after becoming a judge, after the Commission on Judicial Conduct informed him that it was investigating complaints mirrored in his criminal case.

Among the complaints, the commission said, were that King was involved in a scheme to defraud real estate investors and that he continued to act as a lawyer — including by accepting funds into his own attorney escrow accounts — despite rules barring full-time judges from practicing law, acting as fiduciaries or engaging in business activities. King denied the allegations.

According to federal prosecutors, King and Sprei pitched investors on fictitious investment opportunities with false promises that their money would be kept safe in attorney escrow accounts and returned on demand if the investors decided to end their involvement.

In November 2024, prosecutors said, Sprei and King offered two investors an opportunity to buy commercial real estate in Freehold, New Jersey, through a bankruptcy auction. In order to proceed, Sprei told them, all bidders first needed to show “proof of liquidity” and that they could do so by depositing $6.5 million in King’s escrow account, prosecutors said. Sprei told the investors that King was both an independent escrow agent and a judge, according to prosecutors.

The investors wired the money to King's account, where they were told it would be left untouched and not spent or transferred without their permission, prosecutors said. Within days, prosecutors said, King and Sprei transferred several million dollars to a bank account in Sprei’s name.

Later, when the investors exercised their right to have the money back, King offered up excuses and alternatives, at one point saying he would have his lawyer deposit the funds with an unspecified court, prosecutors said. King and Sprei eventually returned $1.5 million to the investors, but have yet to cough up the rest, prosecutors said.

King became a judge in 2023. He won a seat on the New York City Civil Court in Brooklyn and was appointed to the state’s main trial court in June 2024.

Prior to that he was in private practice and, according to news articles about his campaign, was appointed by courts to manage assets in real estate disputes. He also served as an administrative law judge for the city's Parking Violations Bureau and as legal counsel to the state assembly.

When the state commission accepted King's resignation, its administrator Robert Tembeckjian called the allegations "so egregious as to warrant his permanent departure from the bench.”

Higgo arrived on the first tee box at what he estimated to be 30 seconds after his listed tee time and was assessed a two-stroke penalty. His first swing of the championship turned out to be his third because of the penalty.

The South African still managed a 1-under 69, even though he could only wonder how easily that could have been a 67, the low score of the morning wave.

“I was there on time,” Higgo said. “But the rule is if you’re one second late, you’re late.”

Due to tee off at Aronimink Golf Club at 7:18 a.m., he was told as he arrived he had been penalized. The rules state a golfer must be on the tee box and ready to play at the assigned time, regardless of the order. He was third to play.

Higgo said it's the first time he's been penalized for being late to the tee box. The good news? If he had been five minutes late, he would have been disqualified.

“It wasn’t a surprise,” he said. “I was late. I mean, my caddie was yelling at me to get to the tee.”

The 27-year-old kept his composure and went on to “par” the opening hole, but his 4 became a 6.

“Obviously, it wasn’t great,” he said of being penalized. “I knew that I firstly had to get a driver, and I have to hit a tee shot. It was OK. I just kind of focused on what I need to do. ... I wasn’t going to give up and shoot 80. There was only one thing that I could do, and that was make birdies and pars and hit it where I wanted to hit it.”

Higgo said the whole episode made him focus on making birdies in the first round. He did just that, finishing with four birdies and a bogey for a 69.

He attempted to argue his case to officials after the round, to no avail. He even had the support of his playing partners. He said he believed he was within the time limit, yet conceded he might have been a bit tardy and grudgingly accepted his fate.

He attributed it to his casual approach to being late, though he's not the type who arrives 10 minutes early. He said he could have added time for his walk from the range to the putting green and ultimately the first tee.

“I was obviously too casual,” he said.

Higgo managed to erase the two-stroke penalty on the front nine. He rolled in a birdie putt from about 35 feet on the par-4 third hole and made a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-5 ninth to get back to even par.

After a bogey at the 10th, Higgo made birdie on the two par-3 holes on the back nine, with a 27-foot putt at the 14th and hitting to just over 5 feet and making the putt at the 17th.

“I played great, made a lot of good swings, made some good putts,” said Higgo, who has two PGA Tour victories and six international wins. “Did everything that I could do.”

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

Fouls are up so far in the first week of the WNBA season with teams averaging 21.6 fouls — that's up just under two per game from the same point last year (19.9). That number dropped over the course of the year with 17.5 fouls on average per game for each team.

“Fouls are up. I don't think if we are going to get rid of rough play that we saw in previous seasons there is any other outcome other than at the beginning fouls will be up," said Monty McCutchen, who is the head of WNBA officiating, on a Zoom call with The Associated Press. "That's a fairly safe assumption.”

The increased fouls aren’t really leading a major increase in free throws with 21.9 being attempted this season to 21.4 last year at this point. By the end of the year, 18.2 free throws were attempted by each team on average.

The WNBA formed an officiating task force in the offseason as part of the “state of the game” group that included players and coaches. The hope was to clean up some of the league’s growing concerns around physicality.

“What came out of our meetings was we didn’t really change any rules or change an interpretation,” said Sue Blauch, who is the head of referee performance and development for the WNBA. “When we drilled down to the nitty gritty, it came down to we needed to strictly enforce our current guidelines. So that’s what you’re seeing more of. A more stricter enforcement of freedom of movement. That will allow the game to open up and the players to showcase their talents.”

McCutchen said the taskforce spent many hours discussing what players, coaches and the league wanted from officials.

“That amount of hours gives clarity to Sue on the day-to-day portion for teaching our staff," he said. "There will be some over calibration when we try to impart freedom of movement. I think we’ve experienced a little bit of that.”

McCutchen said the officiating group will continue to meet frequently to make sure that “our alignment can become finer and finer as we move into our best parts of our season.”

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve is on the task force and knows it will take a little bit of time to get everyone on the same page.

“Obviously, we’ll continue to work with the league on getting right because we’re not the only team sitting here wondering why everything is a foul,” she said.

Increased fouls also lead to longer games. The New York Liberty’s overtime win over Washington went for 2 hours, 41 minutes.

“It disrupts everyone’s flow,” Liberty star Breanna Stewart said. “This game was 2 hours and 41 minutes long. That’s insane. … I know it’s going to take time of, like, figuring out what’s the standard of what’s going to be called, but there’s calls that are being called that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there’s no flow.”

Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale also noticed a difference so far.

“I guess we just have to adapt, because that’s going to happen," she said. "It’s been a long time since I had three fouls in the first half and almost fouling out. I guess show our hands and see what we can do.”

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark got a technical foul during the team's win over Los Angeles on Wednesday night. After the game, she praised the officials for their efforts.

“I think the refs are doing a tremendous job. I deserved the technical they gave me. But it’s great for the game," she said. 'They’re going to keep the hands off; they’re going to make the play be good. Obviously they called a lot of fouls tonight but it’s going to even out. So, you’ve got to give them credit. They’re doing the right thing.”

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

The Kirk Gibson Foundation for Parkinson’s was formed by former professional Detroit Tiger, Kirk Gibson, after his diagnosis with the disease in 2015.

The Center opened in Oct. of 2025 and is located at 31440 Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills.

KGC currently offers over 140 classes per week with 38 coaches and serves more than 1,000 members.

The Center provides completely free of charge evidence-based programs for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Since opening KGC‘s activities and programs have been at or near capacity.

The donation will fund more coaches, and and increase the number of classes and programs

The donation will mostly fund the PWR! Moves® (Parkinson Wellness Recovery) program.

The program focuses on improving mobility, balance, strength, and everyday movement through Parkinson’s-specific exercise.

The new gym will allow additional classes to be offered including Tai Chi, yoga and dance.

Construction on the 2700 sq. ft. gym, has begun and is expected to be open to members in Aug.

“Exercise and movement is crucial and being able to bring more opportunities and programs to the center because of their generosity is going to help so many in our Parkinson’s community,” said Kirk Gibson.

“My father lived with Parkinson’s for more than a decade, and there was no place like the Kirk Gibson Center for him” said Dan Loepp, President of The Daniel J. Loepp Family Foundation “This gift is our family’s way of honoring my dad.”

For more information about The Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness you can look at their website

Expect a mix of sunshine and clouds through the day. Lows drop back into the seasonal 40s tonight.

A stray shower is possible Friday morning, but otherwise skies stay mostly cloudy with warmer temperatures nearing 70 degrees. This marks the day we are safe to plant!

A much more noticeable warmup arrives this weekend. Highs will be on either side of 80 degrees Saturday and Sunday, with even warmer weather possible early next week. However, several rounds of showers and thunderstorms could develop from the weekend into early next week.

The lawsuit represents a direct challenge to the authority of the office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys in the nation’s capital. where several high-profile investigations of Trump-allied lawyers are playing out.

“The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive executive branch deliberations and target executive branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official, said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington. An email seeking comment to the D.C. Bar's Board on Professional Responsibility, among the defendants named in the complaint, did not receive an immediate response.

The complaint chiefly concerns the ethics case against Jeffrey Clark, a senior lawyer in the first Trump administration Justice Department who was deeply engaged in legal efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election that President Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

A disciplinary panel hasrecommended that Clark be stripped of his law license, but the lawsuit seeks to bring an end to those proceedings, calling them “unlawful” and tainted by politicization.

Clark, who has denied any wrongdoing, applauded the lawsuit on X on Wednesday evening, saying, “This is an important step to vindicate the separation of powers.”

In an attempt to bolster its claims of bias in the disciplinary process, the Justice Department asserted that bar authorities had treated Clark more harshly than a former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to doctoring an email during the investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The lawsuit also backs Ed Martin, an ardent Trump loyalist who now serves as the Justice Department's pardon attorney. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel accused Martin in March of professional misconduct for a threatening letter that he sent to Georgetown Law School’s dean last year, when Martin was the top federal prosecutor for Washington.

Martin was the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia when he warned the Georgetown dean that his office wouldn’t hire the private school’s students if it didn’t eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“The Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Board on Professional Responsibility, as D.C. institutions, have no authority to decide whether a federal government attorney — no less the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — is upholding his oath of office or whether his official acts comport with the Constitution," the lawsuit states.

The Justice Department last week filed what's known as a statement of interest in support of Martin, who had earlier complained about “uneven behavior” by the disciplinary counsel who filed the ethics charges against him.

The festival will be in Troy June 12 to June 14 and will be located at 760 West Wattles Road, Troy.

There will be free parking ad a shuttle service from Boulon Park on Crooks.

The festival is the largest ongoing Greek festival in the Metro Detroit Area.

The event will take place on Friday from 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11p.m. and Sunday from 12p.m. to 8p.m.

Admission for the event is $5 for adults.

Children 12 and under can enter for free.

Attendants are asked to bring canned goods to donate to Gleaners Community Food Bank.

Food options

The Pastry Shop: Home-made, honey-drenched baklava is just one of many delectable temptations available. Try the other five varieties too, all made by our own festival bakers: kourambiethes, fenekia, koulourakia, sesame cookies, and paximadia.

Classic Greek Cuisine: Lamb shank platter, gyro (seasoned lamb and beef, thin-sliced from a vertical rotisserie), souvlakia (chicken kebobs), dolmathes (wrapped grape leaves), keftethes (Greek meatballs) and pastitsio (layered pasta, ground sirloin and cheese, topped with creamy béchamel sauce) and lamb sliders are all homemade.

The Kafenio (Greek Coffee House): Greek coffee, a cold frappe, and loukoumades.

Food Events

Live Greek cooking demonstrations – Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Iron Chef Competition – Saturday, 8:00 p.m. between Nativity Greek Church-Plymouth and St. Nick’s, Troy

Cooking Competition – Sunday, 2:30 p.m. between St. Nicholas Greek Church-Ann Arbor and St. Nick’s, Troy

Entertainment

Greek marketplace – T-shirts, jewelry, arts & crafts and more

Presentations on Greek culture and religion

Greek dance performances – Traditional Greek folk dances performed by over 200 dancers

Daily dancing to live Greek band – “Oneiro”

Kids’ area – Games

Raffles & Prizes – Throughout the festival

A visit and tour of Saint Nicholas Church

For more information you can visit the St. Nicholas Church’s website

While the authors did not blame the USAID cuts for the increase in violence, they said the findings demonstrate that “large-scale, sudden aid cuts can destabilize fragile settings.” They, however, added that this is not evidence that more aid reduces conflict, instead it only shows “the effect of a sudden and unexpected disruption.”

For many years, USAID had provided crucial support to African countries wrecked by conflict and violence. By eliminating more than 90% of foreign aid contracts, the Trump administration effectively cut some $60 billion in funding.

The study by researchers from several universities in Europe and the United States said the abrupt withdrawal of USAID resources also interrupted contracts, staffing and aid procurement.

“The abrupt withdrawal of USAID led to a significant and sustained increase in conflict across Africa’s most USAID-dependent regions,” said the study, published in the Science journal.

The researchers said they examined whether the abrupt shutdown of USAID was followed by an increase in violence in regions of Africa that had historically received the most support and found that there was a correlation.

Africa is facing a threat from jihadis more than any other region in the world, conflict experts say. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, or ACLED, said Wednesday in a new report that jihadis in the region have been more involved in violence across the board and have been increasingly targeting civilians in the last four years.

USAID had long been the key funding partner for many African countries, helping to provide funding that helped governments and aid groups respond to multiple crises across different sectors.

In Nigeria for example, USAID support had helped victims of the militant Boko Haram group, which emerged in 2002. In Ethiopia's fragile Tigray region, officials relied heavily on U.S. funds as full-scale recovery efforts were yet to start after the war there killed hundreds of thousands.

And in northern Ivory Coast, a front line of the global fight against extremism, USAID had made significant financial commitments to counter the spread of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

The findings from the study underscore the lasting impact of funding cuts, said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, who was not among the authors of the study.

“The lasting problem with the shuttering of USAID is likely going to be that for much of its conflict prevention work, even if you put back all the money ... the experience is gone,” Raymond said.

Also, some USAID programs may have helped prevent spillover from conflict zones, said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst at ACLED.

“We now see increasing insurgency and spillover, so some of those programs may have supported these communities from insurgent threats, and now they are no longer active,” said Serwat.

JeDonna Dinges and her daughter, India Dinges, filed a civil rights claim against their former Grosse Pointe Park neighbor after he hung a KKK flag in his window, directly facing the Dinges family’s dining room in February 2021.

Previous coverage --> Grosse Pointe Park man who displayed KKK flag facing Black neighbor won’t face charges

Before the flag was placed, the man complained to police about JeDonna having a camera pointing into his home. JeDonna said she did have cameras, but none are pointed in his home, rather the perimeter of her property, after a full gas can was found in her recycling bin.

The lawsuit accused the neighbor of engaging in a pattern of racial intimidation before and after the flag was hung at the window.

After years of litigation, both parties agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also heard arguments from a government attorney who urged them to reverse lower-court decisions in favor of four law firms. The panel didn't specify how or when it would rule after Thursday's two-hour hearing.

Paul Clement, who represented the law firms, said Trump impermissibly punished the firms because of their relationships with clients and attorneys who “raised the president’s ire.”

“The executive orders here strike at the heart of the First Amendment and the ability of lawyers to zealously represent their clients,” he said. “Lawyers cannot zealously represent their clients while walking on eggshells for fear of reprisals.”

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli accused district court judges of rushing to judgment and overstepping their authority because they “clearly didn't like the content” of Trump's executive orders.

“President Trump is not beneath the law," Kambli said. "He is entitled to the benefit of the Supreme Court and this court's precedent on his authority to decide matters such as security clearance determinations and investigating anti-discrimination.”

District court judges in Washington, D.C., consistently ruled that the White House cannot enforce Trump's executive orders against the firms of Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey and WilmerHale. Trump sanctioned firms with attorneys who had done work that Trump opposed or had been associated with prosecutors who investigated the Republican president.

Trump ordered the suspension of security clearances for attorneys at the targeted firms, the termination of federal contracts and the barring of employees from federal buildings. Other major firms sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that required them to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes supported by the Trump administration.

Motown Sports Group Holdings, Inc. is behind the project, called Motown Sports Village, which would rise in Romulus on a site chosen for its access to one of the Midwest’s busiest travel corridors.

The scale of the ambition matches the industry opportunity, according to TaMyra Boyd, a principal with the group.

“The youth sports tourism market is booming with $47.1 billion in direct spending in 2024. Families alone spent $40 billion on youth sports,” Boyd said.

Plans for the 1.15-million-square-foot complex include a 9,000 to 11,000-seat arena, 12 basketball and volleyball courts, four hockey rinks convertible into indoor soccer fields, a half-mile indoor running track, and a 450,000-square-foot indoor water and surf park. The development would also include a 96-tee golf center, outdoor football and soccer fields, and three hotels totaling 2,000 rooms.

Eric Turner, who is working on the project’s financing, said the group has enlisted global real estate giant JLL to help bring the development to life.

“JLL is helping Motown Sports Group secure funding for the $3 billion Motown Sports Village project,” Turner said. “We’re very excited to be partnering with JLL.”

The financing includes raising $40 to $50 million in pre-development and land costs. JLL, a Fortune 500 company with over 113,000 employees operating in more than 80 countries, brings institutional investor relationships the project will depend on.

Dr. Sivena Taylor, also of Motown Sports Group Holdings, said the Romulus location was a deliberate choice.

“Romulus is in close proximity to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 33 million people travel through this airport every single year. Many of these people will visit our facility once it opens,” Taylor said.

The site also sits near Interstate 94, providing a direct corridor from Chicago and other Midwest markets.

Romulus Mayor Robert A. McCrate has publicly endorsed the project, calling the city “the ideal site” for the development given its proximity to the airport.

Boyd said construction is set to begin in early 2027, with phased openings beginning in 2029.

The project is led by CEO and Chairman Kenneth Wayne Bardwell and draws on advisory expertise from AECOM Sports and Legends Global in addition to JLL.

More information is available at motownsportsgroupholdings.com.

The new inductees into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress include Swift’s blockbuster 2014 pop album “1989,” Beyoncé’s era-defining 2008 anthem “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Khan’s genre-blending hit “I Feel for You,” Vince Gill’s emotional ballad “Go Rest High on That Mountain” and The Go-Go’s groundbreaking debut album “Beauty and the Beat.”

They were among the 25 recordings entering the archive in the class of 2026, acting Librarian of Congress Robert Newlen announced Thursday. The selections were chosen for their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”

“Music and recorded sound are essential, wonderful parts of our daily lives and our national heritage,” Newlen said in a statement. “The National Recording Registry works to preserve our national playlist for generations to come.”

Other recordings entering the registry include Ray Charles’ groundbreaking country crossover album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,” Reba McEntire’s “Rumor Has It,” Rosanne Cash’s “The Wheel” and Weezer’s self-titled debut known as “The Blue Album.”

Classic singles from Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Byrds, José Feliciano and Paul Anka also earned inclusion.

Among the more unconventional selections are the soundtrack to the influential 1993 video game "Doom" and the radio broadcast of “The Fight of the Century,” the legendary 1971 heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

The oldest recording in this year’s class is Spike Jones and His City Slickers’ 1944 single “Cocktails for Two.” The newest is Swift’s “1989.”

This year also marks the first recordings by Swift and Beyoncé selected for the registry. The Library of Congress said more than 3,000 public nominations were submitted for consideration this year.

The “Make the Cut” Carpenter Combine - hosted in partnership with Olympia Entertainment and the Detroit Tigers - opens the ballpark’s front lots to anyone curious about a career in the skilled trades. No experience required.

“Instead of trying to sell yourself to a contractor that you can be a great carpenter, now you can show them what you can do on a course,” said Steve Purchase of the Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters. “Just like a tryout for a sports team, we’ve got a skills course where you drive nails, and you scribe drywall and you do other things to stand out and get a job.”

The event is shaping up to be a major draw. Rian English-Barnhill, also with the Council, said organizers are “trending towards 1,000 RSVPs” and have deliberately moved the event into the heart of District Detroit to maximize reach.

“This is open to everyone,” English-Barnhill said. “We firmly believe in access to opportunity, particularly for our youth. That’s how we move the city, the state, and the region forward.”

Younger attendees will find hands-on activities through the Schools and Tools program, including virtual welding and framing a mock wall - all aboard an on-site semi-truck turned mobile learning lab.

For those ready to make a career move, John Perkins of the Council said the bar to entry is intentionally low. “This event is for anyone, all ages, with experience or no experience. We want to make sure that the opportunities are not just exposed but accessible,” he said.

As for preparation, Perkins kept it simple: “Show up with a great attitude, ready to go to work and enjoy the day.”

Purchase added that work boots are the only real requirement - the Council supplies the rest, including high-vis vests, hard hats, safety glasses, and gloves. The day kicks off with an orientation inside Comerica Park and a ceremonial first nail drive.

The payoff, Purchase said, goes well beyond the event itself.

“These are great family-supporting careers. You can earn a really good living with benefits and a pension,” he said. “You get to turn around and point back at your work and say, ‘I built that.’ How cool is that?”

The Make the Cut Carpenter Combine takes place May 23 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

For more information, or to register, visit nmrcc.link/hired.

Local 4 has undertaken an initiative to elevate and celebrate skilled trades careers - and help people find work in the industry. Follow our stories here.

The justices ruled unanimously in favor of Shawn Montgomery, whose parked vehicle was hit by a speeding truck driver on an Illinois highway in 2017. He wants to sue C.H. Robinson, the country’s largest freight broker by size, over its role in putting the driver on the road despite what he called “serious red flags.”

The decision does not mean Montgomery will necessarily win the lawsuit, which the company is contesting. But the ruling opens the door to increased liability for freight brokers, a key part of the industry.

The Trump administration and companies such as Amazon had argued that letting the suit go forward would expose logistics companies to liability under a “patchwork” of state laws.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association, an industry group, said the decision was “deeply disappointing.”

“This is like asking travel agents to evaluate the safety of a given airline despite the fact that the airline has been licensed to fly by the federal government,” said Chris Burroughs, the group's president and CEO. “We are working with our members to assess potential next steps to mitigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision."

Montgomery's lawyers say the trucker had been cited for careless driving in another crash months earlier and that the carrier he worked for had been involved with at least three crashes in a span of about five months. Montgomery's lawsuit said C.H. Robinson should share liability because it hired the carrier despite those problems.

Montgomery's appeal was backed by more than two dozen states. They said a win for him would help bolster safety in an industry that moves billions of tons of goods across billions of miles every year.

The company argued the suit, filed under state law, must be tossed out because brokers rely on the federal government to regulate carriers and federal law trumps state law.

But in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court disagreed. The justices found Montgomery's claims can move forward because they fall under an exception for safety regulations. The high court overturned a lower-court ruling in the company's favor.

The decision could increase insurance costs for freight brokers that eventually “cascade through the economy" and result in higher prices for consumers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito.

Still, “truck safety is a matter of life and death," Kavanaugh wrote.

C.H. Robinson, which is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, pointed to another part of his concurrence, where he said the decision does not mean brokers will be “routinely subject” to lawsuits.

“We will keep working with policymakers, advocates, carriers, our customers, and others across the industry to strengthen the national safety system and advance practices that reduce accidents on America’s roads," said Dorothy Capers, the company's chief legal officer.

The ruling could have far reaching effects if brokers can be held liable for the actions of the trucking companies they hire, said Brian Watt, who runs a freight logistics company in Florida.

Brokers will now have to focus more on the safety records of the truckers they contract with to haul all kinds of goods, including hazardous materials, instead of just looking for the cheapest and fastest option.

“More than 28,000 federally licensed brokers currently operate in the United States with virtually no meaningful federal safety oversight regarding how they select carriers,” Watt said in a post on LinkedIn. He said there are tougher standards for brokers that arrange shipments out of ports and on railroads, but that highway shipments face fewer restrictions.

The Transportation Department has been cracking down on the trucking industry over the past year by trying to force unqualified drivers, trucking companies and schools out of the industry.

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Associated Press writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

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The bipartisan support for the measure comes at a time when federal closures have become longer and more frequent, frustrating lawmakers who say there should be punishment when Congress fails at its most basic legislative duty.

Under the resolution, senators’ pay would be withheld by the secretary of the Senate whenever a government shutdown affects one or more agencies, then released once funding is restored. It will take effect the day after the Nov. 3 general election and does not apply to the House.

“Shutting down government should not be our default solution to our refusal to work out our issues and our differences,” said Sen. John Kennedy, the bill’s sponsor, in a floor speech Wednesday.

“This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” said Kennedy, R-La.

Two shutdowns in the past year created significant financial hardship for tens of thousands of federal workers, particularly at the Department of Homeland Security. The department reopened last month after a 76-day partial shutdown, the longest agency funding lapse in history.

The DHS shutdown came just a few months after a 43-day lapse of the entire federal government, which was the longest such closure on record.

The Constitution stipulates that lawmakers must be paid so they have received salaries during shutdowns even as federal workers went without paychecks. When the full government shutdown began in October amid a dispute over health care subsidies, Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a constitutional amendment to require members to forfeit their paychecks when the government is closed.

“If members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham, R-S.C., said at the time.

Graham said his legislation was the most “constitutionally sound” way to deal with the problem, but the process would have been much more laborious as three-fourths of states must ratify an amendment.

Lawmakers in previous shutdowns have often pledged to forgo their paychecks while federal workers went unpaid. Senators earn an annual salary of $174,000, but many are independently wealthy.

Kennedy told reporters Wednesday that he pushed his measure to ensure there is “shared sacrifice” during shutdowns. He added that it does not go as far as he would like, but that it’s a start.

Asked why it does not extend to the other chamber of Congress, Kennedy said “the House’s business is the House’s business” while also touching on the tensions between the Senate and House.

“There’s a very strong undercurrent of animosity among some of my friends in the House,” Kennedy said.

“It’s quickly becoming like two kids fighting in the back of a minivan,” he said.

Imagine what that can do to a human body. Now, imagine that it’s almost completely exempt from gun regulations.

How can that be? Well, under federal and most state laws, many antique or replica guns aren’t technically considered firearms. In most places, even convicted felons can own them.

“I suspect the average judge would be surprised to find that out,” says Second Amendment scholar and gun-rights attorney Dave Hardy, himself the proud owner of two Civil War-era long guns.

During a National Rifle Association event back in 2000, the late actor Charlton Heston famously hoisted a flintlock — the single-shot weapon that won the Revolution and was still in wide use a half century after Congress debated the Second Amendment — into the air and said the Democrats would have to take it “from my cold, dead hands.”

He needn’t have worried.

A blast from the past

During debate over the Gun Control Act of 1968, Sen. John Goodwin Tower argued that flintlocks and many other antique or replica guns should be exempt from regulation.

The Texas Republican said it was needed “to relieve an unnecessarily burdensome problem for serious collectors of antique firearms and for historians and museums.” Treating all weapons the same, he argued, would unfairly target collector items “which have little, if any, practical use as a firearm in the modern connotation.”

The provision defines an antique as any weapon “with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system” manufactured “in or before 1898” — as long as it hasn't been modified to fire modern ammunition. This generally means muzzleloaders that use black powder or a black powder substitute, though some early cartridge guns are included.

You can even own and fire a cannon.

Don't go off half cocked

Most states have adopted that language either verbatim or by direct reference to the federal provision. But, as military historian Patrick Luther says, “it’s a patchwork.”

“I live in NY (New York) and bought a civil war musket,” Luther, a Marine veteran with the website milsurpia.com, said in an email. “It was very similar to buying a regular firearm. Buying the blackpowder for the rifle felt not much different than buying a T-shirt.”

At least three states — Hawaii, Ohio and North Dakota — treat a smoothbore musket the same as an AK-47 or AR-15. Reenactor Jason Monhollen, an officer in the U.S. Army, says that’s “comparing apples and oranges.”

“It seems silly to put restriction on something that would be such a terrible weapon if you wanted to, you know, kill people,” says Monhollen, who portrays a private and carries a French Charleville musket in the 2nd North Carolina Regiment. “There’s just much better things. You can kill more people quickly with a car than you can with a musket.”

But these weapons are still deadly.

Not just a toy

Maryland changed its law after a convicted sex offender killed his ex-girlfriend with a six-shot, .44-caliber cap and ball revolver purchased on the internet.

“It may have loaded like an 1851 weapon, but it fired like a 2017 manufactured modern handgun that was capable of lethal force,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told reporters at the time.

Shadé's Law, passed in 2019, now prohibits people convicted of certain violent crimes from buying or possessing such weapons. But many states allow convicted felons to have these weapons; West Virginia makes an exception for people under an active protective order.

Some states’ laws are confusing or vague.

Montana law mentions “antique or replica arms” in a code regulating firearms and ammunition manufactured in the state. But nowhere in the code are those weapons defined.

Wisconsin uses the federal definition, but the only reference comes in a law regarding “look-alike” firearms.

And, of course, many local ordinances, like the one in Wake County, North Carolina, prohibit the firing of any “barreled weapon capable of discharging projectiles.” In many jurisdictions, it’s illegal to brandish even a toy gun at someone.

“Federal law does not exclude antique firearms from location-based restrictions,” Austin Gunderson, counsel for the North Dakota Legislative Council, said in an email.

Stray bullets

Sometimes, attempts to strengthen gun laws have had unintended consequences.

The attorney general of New Jersey, one of the 13 original states, recently had to offer guidance when a new law targeting ghost guns seemed to require all firearms — including antiques and even air guns — to have serial numbers.

When New York toughened its gun laws in 2022, it required background checks for transfers and purchases of antique guns, and barred firearms of any kind from certain “sensitive places” like parks and museum sites — just the kinds of places reenactors appear most.

An exemption was later carved out for people “lawfully engaged in historical reenactments, educational programming involving historical weapons of warfare, or motion picture or theatrical productions.” But that hasn’t stopped out-of-state reenactors from worrying their muskets will be confiscated at the George Washington Bridge, says Justin Costantino, adjutant of the Long Island Companies of the 3rd New York Regiment.

“If the New York State Police department wants to charge me with weapons possession while I’m wearing a cocked hat and carrying around a Charleville ’66,” says Costantino, a graduate student in history, “then please, don’t call my lawyer. Call the New York Post!”

Then again, Costantino hates to hear a mother at a reenactment tell her child, “Oh, no. Don’t worry, sweetie. It’s not real.”

“It’s not really loaded, but it is really a weapon,” he says. “It’s really gunpowder. And if you stand close to it, you’ll feel the kind of breath of hot air ... They’re still things that we have to take very seriously, and you have to be safe with.”

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AP Writer Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy's Wednesday ruling is the latest setback for the U.S. Department of Justice, where at least seven other federal courts have agreed to quash or limit the expansive civil subpoenas sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals last summer.

McElroy's decision also echoed similar concerns raised by judges surrounding the expansive scope of the subpoenas, describing the Justice Department as having “immense prosecutorial authority and discretion” but no longer trustworthy it will enforce its power fairly and honestly.

“DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case,” McElroy wrote.

A DOJ spokesperson said Thursday that they would appeal and continue with their investigations.

“The Rhode Island court’s attack on the professionalism and integrity of DOJ attorneys is outrageous and unjustified,” the department said.

According to the subpoenas, the DOJ had demanded Rhode Island Hospital hand over the birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of every patient who received transgender care over the past five years. It also included instructions to provide all documents detailing adverse side effects in minor patients who received gender-related care, assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy, as well as patient intake forms and guardian authorization.

The Justice Department has repeatedly argued that the information sought in the subpoenas is needed to investigate possible fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs. Most recently during a hearing in Rhode Island, the DOJ said that the investigation was taking place in the Northern District of Texas, where the court's chief judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital to comply with the subpoena before McElroy's decision voided the subpoena.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brantley Mayers told McElroy during the hearing that the DOJ is investigating potential “misbranding” of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as puberty blockers for young people. While off-label prescribing is legal, Mayers said that the DOJ is concerned that pharmaceutical companies are providing “financial incentives” to Rhode Island doctors to prescribe the drugs.

The subpoenas were crucial in getting the names of children and their families so the DOJ could interview them.

McElroy rejected that argument.

"The administration has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign," McElroy wrote.

The Rhode Island decision is the latest development in the fight over transgender youth health records. Earlier this week, 11 families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the DOJ from obtaining the documents. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland’s federal court, is backed by families with transgender children who have received care from hospitals across the U.S.

And separately, a New York hospital announced that it received a grand jury subpoena from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking information about children who received gender-affirming care and the medical providers who administered it.

NYU Langone is the first hospital system to publicly acknowledge receiving a subpoena for such records as part of a federal criminal investigation. But the institution said in its statement Tuesday it was one of several that received a subpoena out of the Northern District of Texas on May 7. It said it was deciding on how to respond.

“The government cannot use its subpoena power to intimidate families out of seeking lawful medical care. To trans and gender-diverse children and their families, we want you to know that you are valued, you are not alone,” Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee of Rhode Island, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries to transform chests and genitals, although those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors, while several others have adopted laws or policies protecting access to transgender health care.

The exchange at a highly anticipated summit in Beijing underscored just how far apart Trump and Xi still are on thorny issues, including the war in Iran, trade disputes and Washington's relations with Taiwan, which is self-ruled but which China claims as part of its territory.

It also suggested that Trump’s three-day visit to China is likely to be longer on pageantry and symbolism than substantive political or economic breakthroughs.

The pair met for about two hours behind closed doors at the Great Hall of the People after an elaborate welcome ceremony featuring booming cannons, a band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and China’s national anthem, and hundreds of schoolchildren jumping and waving flowers and American and Chinese flags.

According to a post on X by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations.”

"If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” she wrote.

That comment followed a brief public exchange before the meeting began in which Trump told Xi: “You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”

“It’s an honor to be your friend,” Trump said before promising that the U.S.-China relationship "is going to be better than ever before.”

Trump later told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an interview that Xi said during their conversations that he “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the Iran war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments.

Xi was far more stark in his opening public remarks, expressing hope that the U.S. and China could avoid conflict and asking “whether the two countries can transcend the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new model for relations between major powers.”

That's a term, popular in foreign policy studies, referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. Xi has used the term for years, but using it as Trump offered optimism was noteworthy and foreshadowed his closed-door comments on Taiwan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said U.S. policy toward Taiwan was “unchanged” but warned that it would be “a terrible mistake” for China to take Taiwan by force.

“They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” Rubio, who is traveling with the president, said in an interview with NBC News.

Both emphasized the importance of China-US relations

After their meeting, Xi took Trump on a tour of the Temple of Heaven, then hosted a state banquet for him. The Chinese leader used his evening toast to note that he and Trump had kept U.S.-China relations “generally stable” in a turbulent world.

“Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand,” Xi said, referring to Trump’s political movement. “We can help each other succeed and advance the well-being of the whole world.”

In his toast, Trump said his visit had been “a great honor” punctuated by a “fantastic" day. He said matters “all good for the United States and China” were discussed.

Trump also said Xi would make a reciprocal visit to the White House on Sept. 24 — a date not previously announced.

The positive tone was reflected in the White House assessment of the earlier meetings, which said both leaders had touched on ways to enhance economic cooperation, including expanding market access for American businesses in China and increasing Chinese investment into U.S. industries.

The White House readout did not mention Taiwan directly, but, in relation to Iran, said both sides had agreed that the strait must remain open. The strait’s closure has stranded tankers and caused energy prices to spike, threatening global economic growth.

The war is dominating Trump's domestic agenda and stoking fears about the prospect of a weakening U.S. economy as November’s midterm elections — when Republicans hope to maintain control of Congress — approach.

China is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil, and Rubio said in an interview with Fox News that Trump would make the case for Beijing to exert its influence on Iran, noting that administration officials would underscore that “economies are melting down because of this crisis,” which means consumers are “buying less Chinese product.”

It's not clear if Trump persuaded Xi to wield his influence. The White House instead said Xi opposed any implementation of tolls on vessels crossing the strait — as Iran has proposed — and expressed interest in China potentially purchasing more U.S. oil to reduce Chinese dependence on Gulf oil in the future.

When asked Thursday at a congressional hearing whether China is providing intelligence to Iran to help it target U.S. forces, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, would not discuss intelligence but said the Iranian military "is largely made up of Russian and Chinese equipment.”

Taiwan issues remain contentious

Xi's warning about Taiwan reflects China's displeasure with a U.S. plan to sell weapons to the island. The Trump administration has approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has yet to begin fulfilling it.

The U.S. has a longstanding commitment to help the island defend itself if attacked, but Trump has shown greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, fueling speculation about whether the president could be persuaded to dial back American support.

Taiwan said after the Xi-Trump meeting that it was grateful for Washington's “long-term support.”

“The government views all actions that contribute to regional stability and the management of potential risks from authoritarian expansion positively,” Michelle Lee, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s premier, told reporters. She added that the U.S. “has also repeatedly reiterated its firm and clear position of support for Taiwan.”

US still hopes to secure trade wins

The White House has insisted that Trump would not be making the trip without an eye toward securing concrete results, suggesting there could be coming announcements on trade.

That likely includes a Chinese commitment to buy U.S. soybeans, beef and aircraft. Trump told Fox News that Xi had indicated a commitment to buying 200 jets from Boeing.

Trump administration officials also want to work toward establishing a board of trade with China to address commercial differences between the countries.

Trump and Xi discussed trade on Thursday, with Xi saying that China’s door of opportunity will open wider. Xi also met with a collection of U.S. business leaders who accompanied Trump.

The U.S. and China reached a trade truce last year that calmed each side’s threats to impose steep tariffs on the other. The White House says there have been ongoing discussions and mutual interest in extending the agreement.

The leaders also discussed further stemming the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States and increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, according to the White House.

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

The owner of Theory & Thread, a resale shop in Auburn Hills, appeared on “Live in the D” to share some tips to help save money during prom season. Watch the video above to see the segment.

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Raymond Johnson, 52, was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. Thursday following a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said.

He was sentenced to death for killing 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, in June 2007.

“To Brooke and Kya and your family, I want to apologize for my actions and the pain I caused you,” Johnson said while strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber. “I hope people can speak your names without my name attached to it. I hurt you. One day, I hope you can forgive me.”

Johnson's spiritual advisor, Kurt Borgmann, read Scripture in the chamber during the execution, which lasted about 11 minutes. A tear rolled out of Johnson’s left eye as Borgmann began to speak. A doctor entered the room and declared Johnson unconscious about six minutes after the first drugs began to flow.

Oklahoma uses the sedative midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide to halt breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Angie Short, one of Whitaker's aunt, criticized the delays in an execution originally scheduled for May 2024, saying Whitaker's mom died about five months after that.

“Because of the delays, my sister didn't get to witness justice,” Short said. “This couldn't bring them back. But we'll no longer have to see his face on TV. He's no longer associated with Brooke and Kya. Now I think we can finally begin to heal after 20 years.”

Prosecutors said Johnson and Whitaker had been arguing at her home in Tulsa before he repeatedly hit her over the head with a metal claw hammer. Whitaker’s skull was fractured and she had more than 20 lacerations on her face and scalp. But she was still conscious and begged Johnson to spare her and Kya, who was sleeping in a bedroom, prosecutors said in documents prepared for Johnson’s clemency hearing in April.

“She begged him to call 911. She begged him to let her mom come get baby Kya. She begged him to think of her children,” the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said. Whitaker had three other children.

Johnson retrieved a gas can from a tool shed in the backyard, doused Whitaker and the house with gasoline, lit a dish towel on fire, threw it at Whitaker and left, the attorney general’s office said. Whitaker died from head injuries and smoke inhalation while her daughter died from severe burns.

“I pray that Brooke’s and Kya’s family find some measure of peace today after enduring unimaginable pain and grief for nearly two decades,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement.

Johnson’s attorneys did not file a last-minute appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution. His attorneys unsuccessfully argued in earlier appeals that Johnson’s arrest was illegal, police coerced his confession from him and that his trial lawyer conceded his guilt in Whitaker’s death without his permission.

In April, Oklahoma’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously to deny Johnson clemency. During that clemency hearing, Johnson apologized to the victims’ family and asked for forgiveness, saying he was a changed person.

“I apologize. No excuses, no justifications, a sincere apology. And to know that it’s sincere, look at my actions. Look at my life. Look how I’ve changed. I’m living a remorseful life. I’m living it,” Johnson said in an interview with Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group.

Whitaker’s family members asked for the lethal injection to proceed.

“Executing him will not give me my mom or sister back, it will not take away almost 20 years of pain. What it will do is finally stop him from continuing to hurt us,” Logan Kleck, Whitaker’s oldest daughter, said in a letter to the board. Kleck did not witness the execution.

In addition to his first-degree murder conviction, Johnson also served nine years of a 20-year sentence after being convicted of manslaughter in 1996.

Johnson was the second person put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 11th in the country.

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

Local 4 Lifestyle Editor Jon Jordan talked about the trend on “Live In The D.” Watch the video above to see the segment.

Named Psyche like the asteroid it’s after, the robotic explorer will slingshot past the red planet at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph) on Friday.

It will be an especially close flyby, with Psyche passing within 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) of Mars, equivalent to the distance between the U.S. east and west coasts. Then it will barrel toward the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that is home to its enticing target.

All of the spacecraft’s science instruments will be on for the Mars pass. NASA’s two Mars rovers along with a small fleet of U.S. and European orbiters will make surface and atmospheric observations at the same time for comparison.

Psyche's cameras already are photographing Mars, appearing as a crescent on approach and a nearly full sphere once it’s in the rearview mirror. The different views will serve double duty, allowing operators to fine-tune their instruments while providing “just plain beautiful photos,” Arizona State University’s Jim Bell, the imaging team leader, said in a statement.

While the asteroid belt is swarming with millions of objects, most are made of rock or ice. Only a small percentage are thought to be metal-rich like Psyche, a potato-shaped asteroid roughly 173 miles long and 144 miles wide (278 kilometers by 232 kilometers).

Scientists suspect the asteroid may be the exposed nickel and iron core of a fledgling planet that was stripped down by cosmic collisions. Studying such an object up close can yield information about the dawn of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago, and why and how Earth spawned life.

Launched in 2023, the spacecraft is midway through its six-year roundabout journey to Psyche in the outer fringes of the asteroid belt, three times farther from the sun than Earth. It should arrive in 2029, slipping into orbit around the asteroid for two years of study. The van-sized spacecraft runs on solar electric propulsion, using xenon gas thrusters.

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

The two-time World Series MVP shortstop is hitless in his last seven games for the Texas Rangers. That is part of a longer 0-for-27 span, also a career long, that includes 11 strikeouts.

“You're obviously still working on things and you'd like to see some better results, but you're not getting them,” Seager said after going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a wild 6-5 comeback win over Arizona on Wednesday night.

While he has started 42 of the Rangers’ 43 games, the 32-year-old Seager said physically he feels “completely fine.” He has played 24 in a row since his only game off April 16.

“It’s one of those things that you’re going to figure it out out there,” Seager said. "It’s always been like my focus, right, you’re going to figure it out swinging. So right now, I want to keep going out there and trying to figure it out.”

The Rangers had a day off Thursday, when his .179 batting average ranked 167th out of 174 qualified MLB hitters. Seager, in the fifth season of a $325 million, 10-year deal, has 28 hits and 22 walks but 50 strikeouts account for 27.5% of his 182 plate appearances. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs.

His last hit was an RBI single in the fourth inning at Yankee Stadium on May 6. Seager's solo homer in the first inning put Texas ahead to stay in that 6-1 win over New York, but strikeouts in his final two at-bats started his hitless span. He is 6 for 61 (.098) with 23 K's over his last 16 games.

This is the latest in any of his 12 seasons that Seager, a .285 career hitter in 4,500 at-bats over 1,173 games, has been below .200. He never finished a game under that mark in eight of those seasons, including three times he went 1 for 5 (.200) in openers (2016, 2020 and 2024) before having at least three hits in the second game.

“Corey still feels good to go,” first-year Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “I like him in the lineup. So I’m going to continue putting him there if his body feels good and his mind is right. And it is, so that part is good."

Schumaker did acknowledge that there is a date picked for Seager to sit out a game around one of the team's off days. The manager didn't say if that would be Friday at Houston, or coincide with their only remaining scheduled off day this month, next Thursday between road series against Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels.

Texas sat slumping first baseman Jake Burger for two games last weekend. He went 3 for 3 on Tuesday night, then matched a career high with four RBIs on Wednesday, a three-run homer and then a tying RBI single in the ninth inning.

Seager was hitting .194 after 10 games last year, which had been his latest sub-.200 mark, then went 14 for 30 (.467) his next eight games. He finished the season at .271 with 21 homers and 50 RBIs, even with an 0-for-25 span over six-plus games in June. He was limited to 102 games overall because of hamstring issues and an appendectomy.

“Someone told me a long time ago ... that when you are in a funk, it just means you’re going to get really, really hot,” Schumaker said. “There’s some really big names right now that have had tough months, and that’s OK to start the season. And that just means, in my opinion, that he’s going to have a really good five months.”

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

His ninth studio album — and his first since his extravagant loss in a very public feud with Kendrick Lamar — arrives Friday.

The beef between two of hip-hop’s biggest stars erupted in the spring of 2024, with the pair trading a series of vitriolic tracks that culminated with Lamar’s release of “Not Like Us.” The hit song was a direct attack on Drake, spurring Drake’s defamation lawsuit against their shared label that was dismissed. Drake’s appeal of the dismissal is pending, but in hip-hop spaces, Lamar’s victory over Drake is undisputed.

The Canadian rapper is at a crossroads. He's still one of the most popular artists on the planet, and a successful entrepreneur with businesses spanning music, fashion, sports, online gambling and beyond. But he hasn't had a smash single in a few years.

In hip-hop, where reputation is central to cultural clout, where does he stand?

Drake after Lamar

“The Kendrick battle absolutely dethroned Drake. Up until then, he was considered the leader of the pack, insofar as sales and hit records,” says Sowmya Krishnamurthy, author of “The Blueprint: Inside the Business of Roc-A-Fella Records.”

“He also just hasn’t been able to recover with a hit record. I often like to say all is forgiven with a hit,” she said.

Since the feud began, Drake has had only a few modest successes: “Nokia” and “What Did I Miss?” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Peter A. Berry, a music journalist with work in XXL and Complex, takes it a step further: “People have beefed in rap before and people have lost public rap battles. But the loss that Drake took to Kendrick Lamar on a national and global stage is probably the biggest loss any rapper has ever taken in a big rap conflict.”

He points to “Not Like Us” taking home record and song of the year at the 2025 Grammys, a first for a rap diss track. The victory lap concluded with Lamar performing the chart-topper onstage at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Not only did Drake lose the battle, but he was struck by his own weapons: “Not Like Us” is a rap song so catchy it bordered on pop, fueled by meme-able lyrics — the kind of thing Drake has long been known for. (See: “Kiki, Do you love me?” from 2018's “In My Feelings,” or even “YOLO” from 2011's “The Motto.”)

And yet, he's still one of the most popular artists of the 21st century. Just last month, Spotify named him the third-most streamed artist in the history of their platform, globally, just behind Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny.

“He remains this kind of immutable pop culture force,” says Berry, even though he hasn't had a long-lasting, multiweek No. 1 hit since 2018's “Nice for What,” “God's Plan” and “In My Feelings.”

“Drake's music hasn't evolved,” Krishnamurthy adds. The lack of innovation, she says, in addition to fractured, algorithmic listening habits has made Drake less successful than in years past.

His 2021 album, “Certified Loverboy,” is largely considered a turning point, where the ubiquitous hits and critical praise slowed.

“It just feels very sort of scattered and disorganized. It’s almost like he’s throwing things at the wall and hoping for something to stick,” says Krishnamurthy, analyzing Drake's lack of huge singles.

That's why “Iceman” feels so pivotal. “Let’s say it doesn’t perform to certain standards. It will get harder and harder to see him as a viable artist,” she said.

What does Drake need ‘Iceman’ to accomplish?

Drake's album rollout seems to reflect the pressure of the moment.

“Iceman” is no surprise release. He's been teasing it for weeks, with livestreams and themed YouTube skits. He covered his favored courtside seats at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena in ice and turned a parking lot in downtown Toronto into a massive ice block installation. Fans used blowtorches, sledgehammers and pickaxes to reveal the album’s release date.

“Drake has been a genius-level marketer,” says Matthew Ismael Ruiz, a culture critic. “He’s masterful at commanding attention. The ice block was smart because it forced people to talk about it. It was a physical impediment to anyone in that community — and that instantly goes viral.”

“Of all the things he’s done in the last few years, this ‘Iceman’ album rollout has been unambiguously great,” says Berry. “It’s reminding people that he can be kind of unpredictable.”

But inventive promo can only do so much. Ultimately, Drake would benefit from a massive hit. “We’re about to go into the summer. If he can come out with a song of the summer, I think that would be really great for him,” says Krishnamurthy.

Reputationally, Ruiz believes the collaborations on “Iceman” will be revealing — and that keeping the track list closely guarded could be telling. “The features will be the best indication of his pull in the industry,” he says — concrete proof of who supports him after the Lamar beef.

This could be his comeback album, Krishnamurthy says — and not just in terms of streams. “Reputation, culture, these are things that cannot be quantified,” she says. “Maybe he does spectacular commercially and that is great, but that doesn’t mean that the music is good or has any lasting impact.”

Because ultimately, “Drake is very concerned with his own mythology,” says Berry.

Even if “Iceman” goes No. 1, if it doesn't stay there, if it doesn't improve Drake's reputation with hip-hop fans, if it isn't met with acclaim — it may very well be a disappointment.

The Inkster Police Department responded to a false child kidnapping 911 call.

The call was made on May 14.

Investigators say the call was made as a deliberate prank by juveniles.

False calls divert police resources from real emergencies and waste taxpayer money.

The Inkster Police Department says they have zero tolerance for false calls.

police plan to hold juveniles who prank call and their parents/guardians accountable and punish them for doing this.

The Inkster Police Department urges all parents to speak with their children about the importance of 911 and the legal consequences of abusing it.

“That one was,” the coach said, “something.”

Something, indeed.

The Avalanche advanced to the Western Conference final for the eighth time since relocating to Denver courtesy of a Brett Kulak goal in a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild in Game 5. It's just the second time in the last nine playoff appearances the Avalanche have made it past the second round.

On the other occasion, in 2022, the team went on capture the Stanley Cup championship.

With a team led by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, it's always a Cup-or-bust scenario. This team especially, given a regular season with captain Gabriel Landeskog on the ice, their depth — the Avalanche had 16 different players score in the Wild series — and the play of their stars.

Stanley Cup favorite

Among the preseason favorites, they led the NHL most of the regular season in capturing their fourth Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the team with the best record.

Like Carolina, the Avalanche are rolling into the conference finals. The Hurricanes advanced with a pair of sweeps while the Avalanche required nine games, including a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings. As of Thursday, Colorado is a slight favorite over the Hurricanes to win the Cup.

Next up for Colorado is either Vegas or Anaheim. Colorado was 2-0-1 against both the Golden Knights and the Ducks in the regular season.

Bednar understands the lofty expectations year in and out, given his talented roster. Criticism comes with the territory.

“It's hard to win,” Bednar said. "But I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't think our players would want it any other way.

“People are going to get on you because you didn't win the Cup. I'd still rather be fighting for that, having earned that type of reputation because of the way you play through the regular season and the group that you put together as an organization and the high expectations, rather than, “Let’s just try and make the playoffs.'”

Not much rattles the Avalanche these days. Not even a three-goal hole, which set up a frantic finish and the overtime winner from Kulak, who took a pinpoint pass from Martin Necas and lined it into the net to send the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

It was Kulak's first goal since Jan. 19 when he was with Pittsburgh before being traded to Colorado the following month. It was also the first time the Avalanche won a series on home ice since 2008, when they beat the Wild in Game 6 of the conference quarterfinals.

“In an environment like this, where the building felt like it was going to start shaking at any moment, it was exciting," said Landeskog, who played in his first regular season since 2022 after being sidelined with a knee injury. “Now, it’s kind of a sigh of relief.”

Banged-up Avalanche have chance to heal

The Avalanche have a few days to heal. They were without forward Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Malinski the last two games of the Wild series due to upper-body injuries. Makar momentarily left Wednesday's game after a collision, but returned.

“The playoffs are a long grind and you want to keep your focus narrow," said Kulak, who made the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton last season. “We can get some rest.”

Colorado has a 3-4 record in the conference finals since arriving in town before the 1995-96 season. All three times the team has advanced, though, a banner has followed — 1996, 2001 and 2022.

“They’re a really good team,” Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes said.

Depth on display

A strength of Colorado has been its depth. The 16 different players to score in the second round is tied for the most in a singles series, according to NHL Stats.

“The depth is what's going to win, coming down the stretch here in the playoffs,” Landeskog said. “Guys are stepping up all over the place.”

In net, too, even if a goalie dilemma may now be a storyline.

Scott Wedgewood took over in the second period after Mackenzie Blackwood surrendered three first-period goals. Wedgewood stopped all seven shots he faced in the second and third periods (he saw none in OT).

“Just proud,” Wedgewood said of making the conference final. "Proud of our group ending it and finding a way to do that because we knew going into the series, it wasn’t going to be an easy out. There’s a long road ahead, a lot of stories to write and just preparing for that.”

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

Disasters -- both natural and human-caused -- can happen suddenly, at any time, and anywhere. When they do, everyday routines change fast -- power can go out, roads can close, and emergency responders might be delayed.

The American Red Cross says there are three practical steps everyone can take now to be safer later: get a kit, make a plan, and be informed.

Get a kit (and make it easy to grab)

Think of your emergency supplies in two ways: what you need to shelter at home and what you need if you must leave quickly.

The Red Cross recommends keeping supplies in an easy-to-carry emergency preparedness kit you can use at home or take with you if you evacuate.

Start with the basics. At minimum, include:

• Water -- one gallon per person, per day
• 3-day supply for evacuation
• 2-week supply for home
• Food: non-perishable, easy-to-prepare items
• 3-day supply for evacuation
• 2-week supply for home
• Flashlight
• Battery-powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio if possible)
• Extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Medications: 7-day supply plus essential medical items
• Multi-purpose tool
• Sanitation and personal hygiene items
• Copies of personal documents (medication list and key medical info, proof of address, lease/deed, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
• Current digital photos of loved ones (update every six months -- especially for children)
• Cellphone with chargers
• Family and emergency contact information
• Extra cash
• Emergency blanket
• Maps of the area

Add what your household needs. A kit works best when it matches real life.

Consider adding:

• Medical supplies (glasses/contacts, hearing aids + extra batteries, syringes, cane)
• Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
• Games/activities for children
• Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)
• Two-way radios
• Extra car and house keys
• Manual can opener

Depending on the disasters that could happen in your area, the Red Cross suggests items like a whistle, N95/surgical masks, rain gear, work gloves, plastic sheeting, duct tape, scissors, household liquid bleach, blankets, sleeping bags, sunscreen, and insect repellent.

Make a plan (then practice it)

An emergency plan is basically a set of decisions you don’t want to make under stress. The Red Cross recommends meeting with your family or household members to talk through the emergencies that are most likely to happen where you live, learn, and work, then assign responsibilities so everyone knows how you’ll work as a team.

Plan for being separated:

One of the simplest, most important parts of planning is deciding how you’ll reconnect if you’re not together when something happens.

Choose two meeting places:

1. Right outside your home for a sudden emergency (like a fire).
2. Outside your neighborhood in case you can’t return home or are asked to evacuate.

Also, choose an out-of-area emergency contact. In major events, local phone lines can be overloaded or out of service -- sometimes it’s easier to reach someone long-distance.

Make sure everyone:

• Memorizes key numbers
• Has contacts written down
• Has them saved in their phone

Plan for communication when systems fail. Talk through backup options: text, email, calling, mail, or contacting through a third party. The key is agreeing ahead of time what you’ll try first, second, and third.

Plan evacuation routes -- then test them.

If you might need to evacuate:

• Decide where you’d go (hotel, friends/relatives, or an evacuation shelter, if necessary)
• Decide which route you’d take
• Identify alternate routes in case roads are impassable
• Make sure everyone knows the primary and backup plan

The Red Cross suggests practicing evacuating your home twice a year, driving your planned evacuation route, and plotting alternate routes on your map.

Plan for pets and household needs:

If you have pets, plan ahead by keeping a list of pet-friendly motels/hotels and animal shelters along evacuation routes.

If anyone in your household has access or functional needs, including a disability, the Red Cross recommends creating a comprehensive evacuation plan in advance with family and care providers, doing a personal assessment of needs during/after an emergency, and building a support network to help.

If a family member is in the military or travels frequently for work, discuss how your plan works if they’re away.

Be informed (so you know what to do when alerts come)

Preparedness isn’t only supplies -- it’s understanding what’s most likely in your area and how you’ll get reliable information fast.

The Red Cross recommends:

• Learning which disasters/emergencies can happen locally (from home fires and medical emergencies to community-wide events like floods or earthquakes)
• Knowing how authorities will notify you (local radio/TV, NOAA Weather Radio)
• Understanding the difference between weather “watches” and “warnings” and what actions you’ll take for each

Also: If you travel or have recently moved, learn what to do in disasters that might be common in those places (for example, what to do during an earthquake if you’re not used to them).

Extra steps that can save lives

When a major disaster happens, loved ones could be hurt and help might be delayed. The Red Cross encourages households to ensure at least one person is trained in first aid and CPR and knows how to use an AED.

They also recommend the Red Cross Emergency App, which provides expert advice on how to prepare and respond, plus a map of open Red Cross shelters.

Finally, consider printing emergency contact cards for each household member and carrying them -- especially for kids.

Are you already prepared?

Are you prepared for an emergency if you have to evacuate or shelter-in-place? We want to see your set up! Reach out to us at news@wdiv.com.

Shelby Township Fire Department

The Shelby Township Fire Department also sent us some recommendations.

Basic Disaster Supplies Kit:

To assemble your kit, store items in airtight plastic bags and put your entire disaster supplies kit in one or two easy-to-carry containers such as plastic bins or a duffel bag.

• Water (one gallon per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation)
• Food (at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food)
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
• Flashlight
• First aid kit
• Extra batteries
• Whistle (to signal for help)
• Dust mask (to help filter contaminated air)
• Plastic sheeting, scissors and duct tape (to shelter in place)
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties (for personal sanitation)
• Wrench or pliers (to turn off utilities)
• Manual can opener (for food)
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

Additional Emergency Supplies:

• Soap, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to disinfect surfaces
• Prescription medications. About half of all Americans take a prescription medicine every day. An emergency can make it difficult for them to refill their prescription or to find an open pharmacy. Organize and protect your prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, and vitamins to prepare for an emergency.
• Non-prescription medications such as pain relievers, anti-diarrhea medication, antacids or laxatives
• Prescription eyeglasses and contact lens solution
• Infant formula, bottles, diapers, wipes and diaper rash cream
• Pet food and extra water for your pet
• Cash or traveler’s checks
• Important family documents such as copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records saved electronically or in a waterproof, portable container
• Sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person
• Complete change of clothing appropriate for your climate and sturdy shoes
• Fire extinguisher
• Matches in a waterproof container
• Feminine supplies and personal hygiene items
• Mess kits, paper cups, plates, paper towels and plastic utensils
• Paper and pencil
• Books, games, puzzles or other activities for children

Maintaining Your Kit:

After assembling your kit, remember to maintain it so it’s ready when needed.

• Keep canned food in a cool, dry place.
• Store boxed food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers.
• Replace expired items as needed.
• Re-think your needs every year and update your kit as your family’s needs change.

Click here for evacuation guidelines and tips.

Sheltering in place recommendations:

Whether you are at home, work or anywhere else you frequent regularly, there may be situations when it’s best to stay where you are and avoid any uncertainty outside.

Here are some indicators and steps to take if the situation arises:

• Use common sense and available information to assess the situation and determine if there is immediate danger.
• If you see large amounts of debris in the air, or if local authorities say the air is badly contaminated you may want to take this kind of action.

Here are some tips for sheltering in place:

• Local authorities may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do.
• Pay attention to local media outlets for official news and instructions as they become available.
• Bring your family and pets inside.
• Lock doors, close windows, air vents and fireplace dampers.
• Turn off fans, air conditioning and forced air heating systems.
• Take your emergency supply kit unless you have reason to believe it has been contaminated.
• Go into an interior room with few windows if possible.
• Seal all windows, doors and air vents with thick plastic sheeting and duct tape. Consider measuring and cutting the sheeting in advance to save time.
• Cut the plastic sheeting several inches wider than the openings and label each sheet.
• Duct tape plastic at corners first and then tape down all edges.
• Be prepared to improvise and use what you have on hand to seal gaps so that you create a barrier between yourself and any contamination.

“Sealing a room” is considered a temporary protective measure to create a barrier between you and potentially contaminated air outside. This type of sheltering in place requires pre-planning, by purchasing plastic sheeting and duct tape that you would keep in your emergency supply kit.

It wasn't immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the U.S.

The turmoil in the strait, which a fifth of the world’s oil passed through before the war, has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the U.S. and Iran to end the conflict. Iran's grip on the vital waterway has jolted the world economy and spiked fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

The ongoing instability in the region comes as U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. The White House said both sides had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

Just last week, tensions flared in the strai t when U.S. forces fired on and disabled Iranian oil tankers that it said were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Seizures and attacks in Hormuz ongoing

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said it received reports that the ship seized Thursday was taken by unauthorized personnel while anchored 38 nautical miles (70 kilometers, 44 miles) northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, an important oil export terminal that has been repeatedly attacked during the war with Iran.

The U.K. maritime center did not name the ship seized Thursday and said it is investigating. The British military said the vessel is heading toward Iranian waters.

Indian authorities said Thursday that an Indian-flagged cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman after an attack sparked a fire aboard the vessel while it was en route from Somalia to Sharjah, another UAE port. They did not say who attacked the ship.

The attack on the Indian-flagged cargo ship Haji Ali occurred Wednesday, according to Mukesh Mangal, a senior official in India’s shipping ministry. He said all 14 Indian crew members were rescued by Oman’s coast guard and were safe.

India’s foreign ministry called the incident “unacceptable” and condemned continued attacks on commercial shipping and civilian mariners. The ministry did not identify who carried out the attack.

Seizures come at tense diplomatic moment

Iranian semiofficial news agencies reported that Chinese ships began passing through the strait Wednesday night under new Iranian protocols. According to the reports, Tehran agreed to facilitate the passage of several Chinese vessels after requests from China’s foreign minister and Beijing’s ambassador to Iran. The ships began their passage as Trump arrived in China.

The seizure of a ship off the coast of the UAE happened hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had quietly visited the country during the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran, though the UAE swiftly denied it.

The Gulf nation normalized relations with Israel in 2020. Iran has criticized that agreement and has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the UAE.

Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the sensitive meeting was likely an effort to drum up support for his flagging party ahead of Israeli elections, said Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“It’s amazing, it’s the deepest cooperation we’ve ever had … that during a war, Israel is defending an Arab state against Iran. It shows how complicated the Middle East is,” he said.

The UAE is trying to highlight its cooperation with Israel but not with Netanyahu and his government, Guzansky said, because many in the UAE are against Israel’s policies in Gaza.

“They’re trying to differentiate between security cooperation and cooperating with this government,” said Guzansky, who previously worked for the national security council within the Israeli prime minister's office.

Iran sets demands for new talks

Iran said it will not enter more talks with the United States unless five conditions are met, including paying reparations for the war and accepting Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported, citing an informed source.

The White House is again unlikely to accept those demands, which would essentially formalize Iran's control over a waterway that was open to international traffic before the war.

Iran’s senior vice president, Mohammadreza Aref, said Thursday that the strait belongs to Iran and that Tehran would not give it up “at any price,” state TV reported. “It has always been our property,” Aref said.

Iran defends right to seize ships

Iran’s judiciary spokesperson told the state-owned Iran Daily newspaper on Thursday that Iran has the legal and judicial right to seize oil tankers in the strait that are connected to the U.S. because the U.S. has violated international maritime laws and committed piracy. The spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, did not explicitly refer to the tanker seized on Thursday.

Iran seized a number of ships, including a tanker identified as the Ocean Koi, last week, saying it was attempting to disrupt oil exports and Iranian interests, according to the official IRNA news agency. It said the tanker was seized in the Gulf of Oman and carrying Iranian oil when it was taken to Iran’s southern coast.

The U.S. sanctioned the Ocean Koi in February as part of a “shadow fleet” transporting Iranian oil.

Top US military leader says Iran's threats impact shipping

The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Thursday he believes Iran’s military capabilities have been “dramatically degraded,” but its leaders are impacting shipping in the strait with rhetoric alone.

“Their voice is very loud, and the threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and the insurance industry,” Adm. Brad Cooper told lawmakers in Congress.

He said the U.S. has the military power to permanently reopen the strait and escort ships. But he deferred to policymakers about the best path forward amid a “time of sensitive negotiations.”

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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

“To have someone mauled, and then to uncover all of these other allegations afterward, it’s very concerning,” Plymouth Township Police Chief James H. Knittel Jr told Local 4.

The Investigators on Local 4 obtained reports surrounding the cases against Kelita Yolanda Jackson-Holland, 56, and her boyfriend, Edward Alan Turner, 56, who are now facing multiple felony charges, including first-degree child abuse, torture, drug charges, and felony firearm.

Related --> Charged in dog’s jogger attack, Plymouth couple now also accused of zip-tying teen, chopping off hair

“This neighborhood has really been jarred by this situation,” Knittel said. “It’s a very quiet neighborhood, and all of a sudden you have all these negative issues developing.”

The violent dog mauling

The investigation into the couple began after a brutal dog mauling on March 28, then escalated into two separate cases, police said.

Dispatchers received multiple 911 calls around 6:30 a.m. reporting that a jogger was being attacked by three dogs, two Cane Corsos and a Pitbull.

Police said this was the second time the dogs had gotten loose from the home on Beacon Hill Circle.

“The callers said the man was lifeless, not protecting himself,” Knittel said.

Police said one dog was shot after allegedly lunging at officers.

A second dog was captured safely.

A third dog escaped and was later shot after police said it charged at an officer.

Investigators later determined the dogs had escaped from the same Beacon Hill Circle home the previous day, had been returned by their owners, and had gotten loose again the next morning.

The victim, a man in his mid-60s, suffered severe injuries and remained hospitalized for an extended period.

Knittel said he personally visited the victim in the hospital and has continued checking in on him throughout his recovery.

“[His injuries were] mostly to the arm region, but also injuries from being knocked to the ground,” Knittel told Local 4.

Following the investigation, prosecutors charged Jackson-Holland with three counts tied to dangerous animals causing serious injury and Turner with one count related to ownership of one of the dogs.

Knittel said the pair had been cooperative during the dog-attack investigation, only for an entirely different situation to unfold weeks later.

Child abuse investigation

Police told Local 4 the child abuse investigation began around 6:45 a.m. May 7, after dispatchers received a slew of 911 calls. Some had been from inside the home, and others had been reporting a disturbance and fighting outside.

According to police reports obtained by The Investigators at Local 4, the initial dispatch was a 911 hang-up call.

The verified offenses later included felonious assault on a family member, domestic violence, weapons offenses, and narcotics violations.

Officers arriving at the scene found two brothers physically fighting in the driveway area while family members yelled nearby.

One officer said a teen was “extremely emotional and crying” while holding dreadlocks in his hand.

Police also noted visible injuries, including a bloody mouth.

According to the report, Jackson-Holland yelled toward officers that the teen had stolen her 9mm handgun and “needs to go to jail.”

At first, police believed the incident centered around a missing firearm and a fight between siblings.

But investigators said the story changed dramatically once the teenage victim was interviewed.

‘She cut it:’ Teen describes alleged torture

According to the report, the teen later told officers he had been asleep in a bunk bed when his grandmother, identified as Jackson-Holland, whom he referred to as “Nana,” woke him up. He said she was holding a machete.

The victim told police Jackson-Holland scraped and hit the bed frame repeatedly with the knife while yelling, “Where is the gun?”

“He said Kalita was trying to poke his face with the knife but was unable to reach due to the position of the blanket,” the report said.

Investigators said the teen described Jackson-Holland as “slashing” at the bed frame hard enough to leave marks in the wood. Police later documented large slash marks and knife impressions on the bed railing that they said were consistent with the teen’s story.

The victim also said Jackson-Holland slapped him repeatedly, and at one point threatened, “I’m gonna cut off the hand you took it with!” She then allegedly ordered Turner and another child to get her some zip ties.

According to police, Turner returned with black and white zip ties, which Jackson-Holland then used to restrain the teen to a chair.

The victim told officers he had a rope wrapped around his waist at one point during the encounter.

Police said they later found broken white zip ties from a blue chair in one of the bedrooms, along with “red climbing-style rope” found underneath a vanity in the primary bedroom.

Investigators also said the teen described Jackson-Holland trying to cut off his braids with the machete.

“He said Kelita became visibly frustrated, likely due to the machete having difficulty cutting his braids,” the report said, because it was “likely too dull.”

The teen said Jackson-Holland then returned with another knife and continued cutting his hair while threatening him. Police later recovered four severed braids as evidence.

“She cut it. She cut it,” the teen allegedly said while crying uncontrollably.

When officers asked who cut it, the victim allegedly responded: “Nana.”

According to the report, the teen then pulled braids from his pocket and told officers, “She cut these off too.”

Police documented injuries including cuts to the lip and face, bruising, scratches near the eye, marks on the wrists and arms, and hair that had been cut off.

“When we spoke with the teens, it was very concerning,” Knittel said. “We were able to substantiate not only through statements, but through physical evidence, child abuse, to include torture and false imprisonment.”

Because dispatchers received reports of multiple weapons and firearms, Plymouth Township Police called in the Western Wayne Special Operations Team, a SWAT-style unit, to assist in their search of the home.

“Yeah, I put a zip tie on him”

According to the report, Jackson-Holland later admitted to threatening the teen.

“She stated, ‘Yes, I threatened him a little bit. Look, I shook him up,’” the report said.

Police said Jackson-Holland also admitted to putting zip ties on the teen but claimed they were loose.

Jackson-Holland: “Guess what? If it was tight, he couldn’t have got it off, right?”

The questioning ended after that, however, because police said Jackson-Holland requested an attorney.

Police said several teenagers were staying at the home at the time and are now safe with other relatives.

In the child abuse case, Jackson-Holland and Turner are both charged with First-degree child abuse, Torture, Unlawful imprisonment, Assault with a dangerous weapon, and Domestic violence.

They were both given $25,000 cash bonds with conditions prohibiting contact with minors and possession of firearms.

Guns, cocaine and another search warrant

There’s still a third case against the couple.

While searching the home regarding the abuse allegations, investigators said they discovered evidence of narcotics trafficking in plain view, leading detectives to obtain a second warrant for the home, also last week.

According to police reports, investigators found suspected cocaine stashed throughout the primary bedroom, along with digital scales, packaging materials, and dozens of unused dime bags.

Police said they seized approximately 9.2 grams of suspected cocaine from a dresser drawer, along with a kitchen sifter containing narcotics residue, multiple small containers with white residue, and “more than 100” unused small Ziploc-style bags.

Investigators also found psychedelic mushrooms, additional hallucinogens, including suspected DMT, mescaline, and peyote, as well as glass vials containing residue and a digital scale.

During the search, police said they also found multiple firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle and a Maverick Arms shotgun with a defaced serial number that investigators said were stuffed under a mattress in the primary bedroom.

Police said they also found ammunition, seized multiple cell phones, and more narcotics paraphernalia.

“We observed evidence in plain view of narcotics trafficking,” Knittel said.

In this narcotics and weapons case, Jackson-Holland and Turner are charged with Delivery/manufacture of a controlled substance involving cocaine under 50 grams, two counts of felony firearm, and Safe firearm storage violations involving minors.

Both received $25,000 personal recognizance bonds in this case, with the same restrictions.

What happens next?

Knittel said investigators worked day and night gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses as the case rapidly expanded into three cases.

“These are difficult cases because they involve family members,” he said. “Our investigators did a phenomenal job. We worked pretty much straight for four days pulling everything together.”

Jackson-Holland and Turner are scheduled to appear for preliminary examinations at 11 a.m. on May 29 in 35th District Court in Plymouth.

Kelita Yolanda Jackson-Holland and Edward Alan Turner are facing numerous charges, including distributing drugs, felony firearm and first-degree child abuse.

Related --> Teen says he was zip-tied, tortured in couple’s Plymouth Township home linked to dog mauling

They are already facing charges after their three dogs got loose in March and attacked a jogger.

Local 4 obtained the police reports on Jackson-Holland and Edward Alan Turner’s arrests through the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the police report, Jackson-Holland allegedly zip-tied one of her grandsons, cut his hair off with a knife and waved a machete in his bedroom.

Police respond to fight

According to the police report, Plymouth Township police responded to a 911 call on May 7 at around 6:45 a.m. in which Jackson-Holland reported her two grandsons were fighting in the front yard.

The grandsons, confirmed to be brothers, were separated by police.

One of the grandsons was holding a phone and pieces of hair, and appeared emotional and crying. While police were trying to gather information, Jackson-Holland yelled to the officers that one of her grandsons had stolen her 9mm handgun, and he needed to go to jail.

Jackson-Holland told police that one of her grandsons had a photo of her stolen handgun on his phone, leading to her grabbing the phone from him. Then the grandson took his brother’s phone and began arguing, leading to the fight outside.

Grandson zip-tied, threatened

According to a police report, one of the grandsons told a detective in an interview that Jackson-Holland woke him up at knife-point with a machete. She allegedly hit the wooden bed frame with the machete, in which he said left marks on the bed. She asked her grandson where her gun was while wielding the machete.

In the police report, Jackson-Holland allegedly yelled, “I’m gonna cut off the hand you took it with!” at her grandson.

At one point, she allegedly tried to tie him up with a rope, but ended up zip-tying his wrists and cutting his hair with a gold and green knife after the machete was unsuccessful in cutting his hair.

The mother of Jackson-Holland‘s grandsons told police that she and Jackson-Holland have a history of abuse between them, but did not elaborate. She said she wished to press charges on behalf of her son.

Teen’s injuries

According to the police report, Jackson-Holland’s grandson, who was allegedly zip-tied, had multiple apparent injuries to his face, cuts on his hands, ligature marks on his wrists and his hair was cut off. The teen declined medical attention and was turned over into the care of his sister.

Police search home

Police executed a search warrant at the Plymouth Township home.

During the search, police found slash marks on a bunk bed, along with broken zip ties and a gold and green knife.

In the police report, officers said Jackson-Holland and Turner are in a dating relationship and had been living in Jackson-Holland’s home, based on finding numerous medication bottles labeled under their names.

Police continued the search in Jackson-Holland and Turner’s bedroom and found hallucinogenic mushrooms, suspected cocaine and 100 small dime bags.

Police said they also found a loaded S&W M&P 15 rifle loaded with 50 rounds of live .223 ammunition and an unloaded Maverick Arms 12-gauge underneath a dresser in the bedroom with the serial number scraped off.

Officers also found a small metal jewel container filled with a large amount of loose suspected cocaine in the basement.

What Jackson-Holland said happened

When police interviewed Jackson-Holland, she allegedly admitted to threatening her grandson because she said he had stolen her gun. She said, “I threatened him a little bit. Look, I shook him up.”

“I put a zip-tie on him because I didn’t want him running,” she allegedly stated. “I told his brother to put one on his legs.”

Jackson-Holland said her son found the handgun stashed in a closet. She said she put the gun back in her nightstand, where she initially kept it. Police said it wasn’t in the nightstand when they searched the home, and she did not offer more information on where the gun could be.

She then asked for a lawyer and stopped talking to police.

Child abuse, drug charges

Jackson-Holland and Turner were charged with first-degree child abuse, torture, unlawful imprisonment, felonious assault, and domestic violence. Both were given a $25,000 cash bond -- no contact with any minors or possession of any weapons.

They were also charged with distributing and manufacturing controlled substances, two counts of felony firearm and firearm safe storage violation.

Both are scheduled to appear in court on May 29 for preliminary examinations.

Celina, Princeton, Melissa and Anna — all part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — were the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of 20,000 residents or more from mid-2024 to mid-2025, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fulshear, in metro Houston, was the second-fastest growing U.S. city. The five Texas cities' year-over-year growth rates ranged from almost 15% to almost 25%.

In pure numbers, Celina, with only 64,000 people, grew by more residents — 12,700 — than Seattle and Houston, cities that are 12 times and 37 times larger respectively.

Small- to medium-sized cities hit a sweet spot between the largest U.S. cities, which were most impacted by the loss of immigrants from the crackdown started last year during the second Trump administration, and anemic growth in small towns, according to Matt Erickson, a Census Bureau statistician.

Texas cities dominate

Nine out of 10 of the largest population gainers in pure numbers were cities in the South because of a healthy job market and its comparative affordability. The biggest numeric gainers were Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Celina.

Fort Worth leaped over Jacksonville last year as the 10th most populous U.S. city, putting four Texas cities in the nation's top 10 most populous, with the other cities being Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

Austin skipped over San Jose for the 12th most populous spot, as Texas’ capital city surpassed 1 million residents for the first time. It is now one of a dozen U.S. cities with 1 million residents or more.

Seattle makes a comeback

Seattle was the only non-Southern city to crack the top 10 in numeric population gains last year, at the No. 5 spot.

Like many large cities, particularly on the coasts, Seattle lost population during the height of the pandemic a half-decade ago. But recent construction of new housing has helped ease the city's affordability, making it more attractive for residents to stay in the core city rather than move to farther out suburbs in the metro area, according to the Washington State Office of Financial Management.

The growth was driven by immigrants, particularly from China and India. International migration accounted for almost three-quarters of the area's population gains, according to county-level population estimates released in March.

Tight housing market and natural disasters drive population losses

The two cities with the greatest rates of population loss last year — Twentynine Palms, California, by Joshua Tree National Park and Key West at the southern tip of Florida — were in places with tight housing markets. Their losses ranged from -2.4% to -2.9%.

In Twentynine Palms, a large chunk of the housing stock has been converted into short-term rentals for tourists heading to the national park. Just under 40% of its housing is occupied by its owners, compared with the national average of 65%, according to Census Bureau figures.

Hemmed in on all sides by water, the limited housing stock in Key West, as well as some of the highest home insurance rates in the U.S., have driven up housing costs for the Conch Republic. The median price for a home in Key West was $1.3 million at the start of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Other cities that had some of the biggest rates of population loss last year were hit by natural disasters.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida’s Gulf Coast within weeks of each other in late 2024. Remnants of Helene blew through western North Carolina, leaving behind damaging tornadoes and flooding. Among the cities with the greatest rates of loss were Asheville, North Carolina, and several cities on Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Largo and Clearwater.

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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.

The season kicks off on Sept. 9 when the Seattle Seahawks raise their Super Bowl banner. It’ll be the second time the NFL season opens on a Wednesday — the Giants hosted the Cowboys on Sept. 5, 2012.

Several games already were announced, including a record nine international games across four continents. The San Francisco 49ers face the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne on Sept. 10 in the first international game of the season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers play the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 25 in Paris in the NFL’s first regular-season matchup in France.

Sixteen of the league’s 32 teams will play at least one of their 17 regular-season games outside the United States. The 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars each have two international games. San Francisco also faces Minnesota in Mexico City in Week 11. The Jaguars have consecutive games in London in Weeks 5 and 6 against the Eagles and Texans. The Colts-Commanders also face off in London in Week 4.

The Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens go head-to-head in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3. The Bengals-Falcons are in Madrid in Week 8 and the Patriots-Lions play in Munich in Week 9.

Other highlights already announced include the Cowboys-Giants in the first Sunday night game and the Broncos-Chiefs in the first Monday night game.

The Packers-Rams are playing on Thanksgiving Eve and it’ll be the Lions-Bears and Eagles-Cowboys in two of the Thanksgiving Day games.

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

Two weeks after Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner with Golden Tempo and after Jenna Antonucci won the 2023 Belmont with Arcangelo, Russell has the chance to complete the Triple Crown sweep of female trainers when she saddles Taj Mahal in the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

“It would sort of feel probably a little fairytale-like," Russell said. "Jena opened the door just a couple years ago with Arcangelo, and Cherie got it done in the Kentucky Derby. The fact that I feel like I have a live one in the Preakness here, look, there’s some pressure and I certainly hope we can do it, but it would mean an awful lot.”

Where the race is taking place and who will be aboard could make it mean even more. The Preakness is being run at Russell's home track, Laurel Park, for the first time, and husband Sheldon is the jockey. They would be the first married couple, at least as trainer and jockey, to win a Triple Crown race.

“The dream, the goal was always to get one that would take us to one of the big races, and he’s sort of taken us there,” Sheldon Russell told The Associated Press. “Just like a normal day, really.”

Most weekends, the Russells take their children to Laurel Park, which is just off I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and 6-year-old daughter Edy and 4-year-old son Rye are expected to be in attendance.

They were a little younger when they went to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in Southern California, in the fall of 2024 when Post Time, trained by their mother and ridden by their father, finished second in a world championship mile-long dirt race. It was a cross-country introduction to the sport.

“That was a big event for them,” Sheldon Russell said. “They didn’t really understand what we were doing there until we sort of got there. (This time) it’s not like we have to travel.”

And, unlike the usual Maryland-based horses who go into the Preakness as long shots, Taj Mahal is right in the mix of contenders in the wide-open field of 14 that does not include Golden Tempo. He opened at odds of 5-1, just behind morning line favorite Iron Honor.

Taj Mahal is unbeaten in three races, all at Laurel Park, including going wire to wire to win the Federico Tesio Stakes on April 18 by more then eight lengths.

“Immediately everybody started talking, just the way that horse won it,” Maryland Jockey Club president and CEO Bill Knauf said. “To have Brittany as our leading trainer for many years now here, she’s obviously one of the best in the country, and Sheldon has done an unbelievable job.”

Brittany Russell called it a dominant effort, and she hopes the home track advantage could be a major one. Her husband rides most of her horses, and that's another relationship edge they have over everyone else as they watch replays together and discuss strategy.

“Most of the time, it’s great,” Brittany said. "Now, look, does everything go to plan? Is everything always perfect? No, and it can be a little tricky. But at the end of the day, it’s horse racing and some things are out of our control. In this particular instance, I think it’s great. He knows the horse. He’s won on it three times. He knows the racetrack better than anybody. I think it’s a good thing.”

This is Brittany Russell's first Preakness horse in her eighth year of training. It's her husband's fourth chance to ride in the middle leg of the Triple Crown after finishing fifth aboard Chase the Chaos in 2023, sixth aboard Excession in 2020 and 10th aboard Concealed Identity in 2011.

This is different, though Sheldon Russell said he has not pondered the big-picture ramifications. His thoughts keep coming back to the little things, like, “We have a chance.”

“I guess if it happened, it’s going to be something,” he said. "We both know that he has a decent chance of showing up on the big day.”

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

Still, economists worry that spending will fall off more dramatically in the coming months as benefits from the refunds dissipate, and shoppers continue to grapple with the cumulative impact of rising gas prices at the pump.

Retail sales rose 0.5% in April, a slowdown from the revised growth level of 1.6% in March, according to Commerce Department data released Thursday. March marked the largest one-month increase in retail spending in more than three years, largely because gas prices spiked higher rapidly.

Excluding sales at gas stations, retail sales in April were up 0.3%. That's a slowdown from the 0.7% pace, excluding business from gas stations, in March.

Elsewhere, shopping was uneven.

Sales at department stores fell 3.2%, while sales at furniture and home furnishings stores slipped 2%. Business at building material and garden equipment had a modest 0.1% increase. But online retailers and electronics and appliance stores both posted solid sales gains.

The snapshot offers only a partial look at consumer spending and doesn’t include things like travel and hotel stays. The lone services category – restaurants – registered a solid 0.6% increase.

The so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth—rose 0.5%. That offered a good sign of solid spending by consumers, economists said.

The Iran war that began in late February has led to the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose again overnight to $4.53 on Thursday. That’s $1.35 more than it cost a year ago, according to motor club AAA.

Economists had believed that larger tax refunds from President Donald Trump's tax cut legislation would kick start spending at the start of the year. But soaring gas prices are taking a bigger slice out of American paychecks, leaving less for things like dining out, new clothes or other treats.

Oliver Allen, senior economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, estimated in a report published Thursday that individual income tax refunds in April were $22 billion higher than in the same month in 2025, equivalent to around 3% of monthly retail sales and slightly bigger than the hit to households from the jump in gas prices over the same period.

“Some of this money will have been saved, but much of it has been spent,” he wrote. “But the flow of refunds will taper dramatically in May, leaving consumers far more exposed to the surge in fuel costs. ”

Allen expects a “meaningful pullback” in discretionary spending in the second half of the second quarter.

Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, estimates that higher tax refunds have offset the impact of gas prices by a ratio of around 2 to 1.

“With refund season behind us and gas prices still creeping higher, that will flip in the months ahead, putting downward pressure on spending growth,” he wrote Thursday.

Still, U.S. employers have so far defied the economic shock from the war and last month added a surprisingly strong 115,000 jobs. And Thursday the Labor Department reported weekly applications for unemployment benefits of 211,000, within a historically low range.

But concerning data about rising prices has arrived in waves this week.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that the U.S. producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — shot up 1.4% in April, the biggest monthly gain in more than four years. A day before that, the closely watched consumer price index jumped 3.8% from April 2025 — the biggest year-over-year increase in more than three years. Those price hikes, again, largely do to soaring energy prices, have begun to show up in everything from plane tickets and baggage fees, to soap and toothpaste.

A clearer picture of how inflation is impacting Americans may arrive next week when major U.S. retailers like Walmart and Target begin to release quarterly financial results.

Some companies are already seeing warning signs.

Coulter Lewis is the co-founder of Sunday Lawn and Garden, a Boulder, Colorado-based vendor of lawn care products like fertilizer. Lewis noted that from January through the end of April sales soared 70% compared to a year ago. But underneath that growth, he’s seeing growing financial strain from customers dealing with higher prices from the gas pump and elsewhere.

Its wholesale business is faring well, but shoppers are leaning away from committing to the company’s subscriptions, which cost $300 a year. At the same time, Sunday Lawn and Garden is benefiting from shoppers trading down from professional lawn services, which could cost $1,000 a year, to its products and services for do-it-yourself projects.

“They’re spending more money on fewer things,” he said. “That trade-down from pro service is like, ‘okay, well we’ve got to make room for these other increases in our life, and so I’m going to try to do this myself.’”

As dawn broke on a clear day in Kyiv, a scene of devastation came into focus in the capital’s leafy Darnytsia neighborhood, located between a suburban forest and the Dnieper River.

Wisps of smoke rose from the collapsed nine-story apartment block, where emergency workers dug under concrete slabs and took people away on stretchers. The building's entrance was smashed in the strike, preventing residents from escaping.

All 18 apartments in the building were destroyed, officials said. Among the dead was a 12-year-old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Nine people were killed, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. About 20 were people believed to be missing.

Klitschko declared Friday to be a day of mourning for the victims.

Ukrainian officials noted that the attack coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to China. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have sufficient leverage to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his 4-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

“At the very time when leaders of the most powerful countries are meeting in Beijing, and the world hopes for peace, predictability and cooperation, Putin launched hundreds of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles at the capital of Ukraine,” Sybiha wrote on X.

“Only pressure on Moscow can make him stop,” Sybiha said of Putin.

Massive aerial assaults on Ukraine this week

Russia fired ballistic and cruise missiles in the attack, Zelenskyy said, adding that Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday. In all, some 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings, he said.

British Defense Secretary John Healey called Thursday's attack “shocking” and said he had accelerated U.K. deliveries of air defenses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the military aimed at Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, including air bases and fuel and transport facilities, claiming it hit all its targets. Among the weapons deployed, it said, were Kinzhal missiles, which Moscow says can fly 10 times the speed of sound.

Russia has hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks following a May 9-11 ceasefire that Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Putin to heed. Fighting continued over those 72 hours, although reportedly at a reduced intensity.

The attacks undercut recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war, which began with Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor in 2022, is nearing its end.

Residents describe '

a terrible night’

More than 30 people were injured in the apartment building collapse, while emergency workers rescued 28 residents, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Lyudmila Hlushko, 78, said she heard explosions and the sound of rockets about 3 a.m. “Then the house shook violently and there was a loud bang, breaking the glass in my house,” she told The Associated Press.

The blast shattered windows throughout the neighborhood.

“It was a terrible night,” said another resident, Nadiia Lobanova. “We’re used to this. Well, it’s impossible to get used to this, but somehow we held on.”

Damage was reported in six districts of the capital, Tkachenko said.

The Kyiv office of defense contractor Skyeton, specializing in reconnaissance drones, was destroyed in the overnight attack, although the company said it had anticipated such a development and had relocated its production.

Russian drones also struck a vehicle carrying U.N. staff who were delivering aid to residents of Kherson in southern Ukraine, Sybiha said. The vehicle was marked and was attacked twice, in two different locations, but nobody was hurt, he said.

Russia's biggest attacks since its full-scale invasion

The Ukrainian cities of Kremenchuk, Bila Tserkva, Kharkiv, Sumy and Odesa also were bombarded, officials said.

“We are now experiencing the largest strikes since the start of the full-scale invasion,” air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

Ukraine’s air defense forces are under severe strain, he said. Even so, the interception rate of drones and missiles was over 93%, Zelenskyy said.

Air defenses shot down or jammed 693 Russian targets overnight, including 41 missiles and 652 drones of various types nationwide, the air force said.

Fifteen missiles and 23 drones scored direct hits across 24 locations, it said. Debris from downed drones fell in another 18 locations.

Strikes on energy infrastructure left customers in Kyiv and 11 other regions temporarily without power, national grid operator Ukrenergo said.

On Wednesday, a rare daytime attack on Kyiv killed at least six people, Zelenskyy said. That assault, which involved 800 drones, struck about 20 regions and was among the longest such attacks of the war.

In other developments Thursday:

— The Hungarian government summoned the Russian ambassador over a drone attack near Hungary’s border with Ukraine. The step marked a stark shift in tone by new Prime Minister Péter Magyar toward Moscow after years of cozy relations with the Kremlin under former leader Viktor Orbán.

— Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina resigned after her government’s coalition partner withdrew its support and left her without a majority. The government has been under pressure over its handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine crossing into Latvian territory.

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Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The singer, songwriter and actress also performed the anthem before the 2015 and 2024 races. This year's “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is scheduled for May 24.

“Jordin knows how important the national anthem performance is to the pre-race ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500, and we have been moved by her two previous renditions,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles said in a statement released by track officials. "This year’s performance will be a special moment as we mark the 250th birthday of our nation and prepare for another incredible edition of the world’s greatest race.”

Boles announced Wednesday that reserved seats for the race have been sold out, though there are still general admission tickets available. Although race officials do not announce attendance figures, the grandstand capacity is estimated to be 275,000 and the world's largest single-day spectator sporting event typically has an estimated 350,000 fans in attendance.

Sparks became the youngest winner of “American Idol” in the television show's sixth season. Since then, her singles have generated more than 10 million digital tracks sales in the U.S. Sparks also co-wrote Ariana Grande’s smash single, “The Way.”

She has toured with superstars such as Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, The Jonas Brothers, New Kids on The Block and Backstreet Boys in addition to headlining her own tours. Sparks owns two BET Awards, one American Music Award and one People’s Choice Award and was twice nominated for Grammys.

Sparks also has performed on Broadway, made her film debut by paying the lead role in the film “Sparkle,” opposite the late Whitney Houston, and has most recently worked on network news programs.

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

The added flights will depart Nov. 11 with return service on Nov. 16.

The added flights are designed to give fans a more seamless way to travel overseas during a high-demand period.

You can find more details, including flight schedules and onboard experience, in Delta’s full announcement.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in a new assessment that of the nearly 19.5 million people facing this level of food insecurity, 135,000 people were in Phase 5, which is characterized by “extreme food gaps, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition, and death due to disease or acute malnutrition.”

“Conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the upcoming June–September lean season,” the IPC assessment statement read. It warned that an estimated 825,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026 amid limited access to medical treatment, marking a 7% increase compared to last year and a 25% increase compared to prewar levels.

More than 98,500 children received treatment for severe acute malnutrition between January and March, according to the IPC.

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into a full-scale armed conflict. At least 59,000 people have been killed, some 13 million displaced, and many parts of the country have been pushed into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The IPC said Thursday that it found that no area is in famine, but warned that 14 areas in the provinces of North Darfur, South Darfur, and South Kordofan are at risk of famine if conflict intensifies, food access worsens, healthcare and sanitation decline, and displacement increases.

Last year, famine was confirmed in el-Fasher, a major city in the western Darfur region, and in the town of Kadugli, in South Kordofan.

Farmers in Sudan are bracing for an expensive planting season as costs of fertilizers, gasoline to power farm equipment and diesel for irrigation pumps increase due to the conflict in the Middle East.

The Gulf region, where hundreds of commercial ships have been stranded for weeks because of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, provides over half of Sudan’s fertilizer that’s imported by sea. Fuel prices have shot up by around 30%.

French authorities had initially ordered over 1,700 passengers and crew on The Ambition cruise ship to remain on board, but then decided late Wednesday to let those unaffected disembark. One passenger was spotted raising his arms in triumph while leaving the vessel.

It was not immediately clear how many left the ship, but the British operator of the ship said Thursday that passengers are able to disembark “with all scheduled shore excursions operating as planned today.” As of Thursday morning, 60 passengers and four crew members were experiencing gastrointestinal illness, according to Ambassador Cruise Line.

French authorities said there is no link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch vessel that has put European health authorities on alert in recent weeks.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool, with scheduled stops in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast. It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening.

The boat will remain in Bordeaux overnight before continuing its journey on a revised itinerary from Friday to avoid bad weather.

“This will allow the ship to avoid forecast unsettled weather conditions in the Bay of Biscay this evening which would be less than ideal for guests and crew recovering from gastrointestinal illness while also providing valuable additional time for crew who have worked exceptionally hard in challenging circumstances over recent days,” Ambassador Cruise Line said.

Samples analyzed at Bordeaux University Hospital confirmed an outbreak of norovirus. Local authorities said at this stage no serious cases have been reported and that sick passengers were cared for onboard by the ship’s medical team.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks outbreaks on voyages that call on U.S. and foreign ports, recorded 23 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships last year. Most were caused by norovirus, including a new strain.

Ambassador Cruise Line, a British operator catering to passengers over 50, was founded in 2021.

The operator said a 92-year-old male passenger died on Sunday but did not report any symptoms consistent with gastrointestinal illness.

Knoblauch coached the Oilers to the playoffs three times since taking over as a midseason replacement when Jay Woodcroft was fired following a bad start in November 2023. They won 166 of their 286 total games behind the bench, and Knoblauch's .623 regular-season points percentage ranks sixth among active NHL coaches.

The Oilers are now set for their sixth coach since Connor McDavid entered the NHL in 2015 and became the best player in the world, skating alongside fellow MVP Leon Draisaitl. The two still have not won a championship, now going into their 12th season together.

Moving on from Knoblauch comes in the aftermath of a report earlier this week that Edmonton had sought and were denied permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to speak to Bruce Cassidy, whom they fired as coach in late March but is still under contract. Teams making offseason changes typically wait until there is a vacancy before reaching out about prospective candidates.

General manager Stan Bowman getting to make this move seems to indicate he will keep his job, along with president of hockey operations Jeff Jackson, who joined the organization in August 2023. Jackson took over control of hockey operations following the team’s first trip to the final in 2024 and hired Bowman as GM that summer. Assistant coach Mark Stuart was also fired.

“Following a thorough review of this past season, we believe these changes are needed,” Bowman said. “We are grateful for the contributions both Kris and Mark have made to our organization and we wish them the best moving forward.”

The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in their first final matchup against Florida before pushing the Panthers to a Game 7 and losing by a goal. They made it back the following year and had home-ice advantage but seemed to regress in a six-game series defeat that could be blamed on poor defense and goaltending.

Those problems continued this season, before and after Bowman made a goalie swap to get Tristan Jarry and send Stuart Skinner to Pittsburgh. It made the situation worse, as Edmonton ranked 29th out of 32 teams in the league in save percentage at .883.

McDavid late in the season heaped praise upon Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper after the Lightning beat the Oilers 5-2. Even if it was not meant as criticism of Knoblauch, it stood out from a player who usually speaks more about taking responsibility for losses.

Edmonton was eliminated by the less-experienced Anaheim Ducks, when he was unable to find someone to stop the puck between Jarry and backup-turned-starter Connor Ingram. They combined for an .880 save percentage, worst in the playoffs, and the Oilers’ 4.33 goals allowed also ranked last.

The three-year contract extension the Oilers signed Knoblauch to in October kicks in next season and runs through 2028-29. They are obligated to pay him until another team hires him and would be on the hook for any differential in salary over that time.

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

According to authorities, Jada Hudson was last seen Wednesday, May 13, on Woodland Street, just south of Oakland Avenue. Police said she left home and has not been heard from since.

Her family said Hudson has schizophrenia.

Anyone who has seen Jada Hudson or knows of her whereabouts is asked to contact the Detroit Police Department at 313-596-1340 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.

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

More: Missing in Michigan

An Associated Press reporter saw Ambassador Evgeny Stanislavov leave the Hungarian Foreign Ministry less than 30 minutes after he arrived to speak with Foreign Minister Anita Orbán about strikes that hit the Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia on Wednesday. The region is home to a sizable Hungarian minority.

“I told the Russian ambassador that it was completely unacceptable for Hungary that they were now attacking Transcarpathia, home of the Hungarian minority," Anita Orbán said on social media. “I stressed that Russia should do everything for an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful and lasting end to the war as soon as possible.”

Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage Wednesday targeting about 20 regions of Ukraine. At least six people were killed and dozens were wounded, including children. Lasting hours, it was one of the longest-lasting attacks by Moscow in the war now in its fifth year.

The attacks continued Thursday, killing seven in Kyiv alone including a 12-year-old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

After the meeting, the Russian embassy issued a statement saying the Russian attack on Wednesday only targeted installations and infrastructure used by Ukraine’s army and not civilian sites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said called the summons in Budapest an “important message” and thanked Magyar for his comments.

“Moscow has once again shown itself to be a common threat not only to Ukraine, but also to neighbouring countries and Europe as a whole,” Zelenskyy said.

The summons marks a stunning change after years of close relations between Hungary — both a member of the European Union and NATO — and Moscow, even following the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

When the ambassador left the Foreign Ministry building on the banks of the Danube, an activist yelled at him in Hungarian, “Comrade, it’s over!”

After defeating Orbán in a historic vote in April, Magyar has vowed to undo much of the legacy built during Orbán’s 16 years in power, with a particular focus on alleged corruption.

Magyar announced Thursday that he was ending two crisis governing structures in Hungary set up in response to the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic.

Orbán had declared a “ state of danger ” in 2022 in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and his Fidesz party granted him extraordinary executive power during the COVID pandemic in 2020. Both enhanced his powers and led to widespread allegations of democratic backsliding.

"We are returning to normality," Magyar said in a social media post. “As of today, after four years, the wartime state of emergency in Hungary is ending, and with it we are also putting an end to the decree-based emergency rule introduced by the Orbán government six years ago.”

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McNeil contributed from Brussels.

Dropbox has no plans to return its workers to offices. After adopting a “virtual-first” staffing model in 2020, the San Francisco technology company met all of its financial goals and remains committed to making remote work the norm for the vast majority of its employees, according to Chief People Officer Melanie Rosenwasser.

“The pandemic tested our assumption that we have to be in person in order to be productive,” she said.

Allowing employees to work from anywhere helps Dropbox retain talent, said Rosenwasser, who leads the cloud storage provider's human resources teams. Over time, the company refined scheduling practices, meeting protocols and employee well-being programs to better meet the needs of its “distributed” workforce, she said.

“It’s especially important to us to maintain this posture as so many other companies across many, many industries are mandating return to office," Rosenwasser said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rosenwasser reflected on the ways Dropbox thrives with remote workers and creates in-person events to build community. Her responses were edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Why did Dropbox choose a virtual-first model?

ROSENWASSER: We are explicitly not hybrid. We think this is the worst of all worlds, where employees suffer through long commutes only to sit on Zoom because most of our colleagues are distributed. We really believed in this creation of an even playing field. The rules of that are, largely, individual work is done remotely by everyone, but we still come together in person at least quarterly for strategy setting, connection, team building and bonding.

The model is fundamentally built on this notion that flexibility and agency are these new currencies of modern work. We see benefits in recruiting, engagement, employee retention and cost savings.

AP: How does it work?

ROSENWASSER: We put a lot of intention behind how we would bring this to life. We are asynchronous by default, which means we do a lot of our communication and even decision-making in writing. We have a structure called core collaboration hours. These are four-hour blocks for meetings that overlap by time zone. The rest of the time is yours for deep work, answering emails, continuing individual work on projects.

We’re also really obsessed with meeting hygiene. When we do come together and meet, we want to be really intentional on the rules of engagement. We focus on something that we call the three D's: discuss, debate or decide. If none of those things are on the table, then a meeting is not required.

AP: Outside core collaboration hours, can people set their own schedules?

ROSENWASSER: The core collaboration hours are great because everyone knows that this is when you’re meeting with colleagues. Outside of that, you design your workday according to your preferences. Some people log off earlier in the afternoon because they have things they need to do with their children, but they log on later on at night because that is the way that they want to work. We allow for that, and every team contracts on these things so everyone knows what each other’s working schedule is and accommodates.

AP: What challenges do you face with the virtual-first model?

ROSENWASSER: The first is around burnout and the importance of setting boundaries. When you’re working from home, your personal and professional life blur, and that’s why we wanted to intentionally put into place non-linear workdays which are very much based on personal preferences.

When you’re working remotely, you’re very sedentary. We piloted a program called "Meet & Move." We took a set of employees, and all of the meetings they took for the week were on the phone and they were moving. They could take a walk outside or move throughout their house, but they were not sitting in front of a camera.

We have this companywide meeting-effectiveness initiative. It’s not actually the number of meetings that’s the problem. It’s the fragmentation of these meetings. For example, you have a couple of meetings in the morning, then you’ve got a 15-minute break, then you've got another hour-and-a-half, and you’ve got a 30-minute break. When this happens, you can’t really do anything meaningful in those 15- or 30-minute breaks between meetings.

On the HR team, we eliminated all legacy meetings that no longer served us. We built our meetings where we would batch them. Mondays and Wednesdays are for one-on-ones, Tuesdays are for team meetings, Fridays are for interviews. We all tried to adhere to the same schedule. We had more efficiently restructured meetings, more focused time. Now we’re thinking about rolling this out more broadly to the company.

AP: How do you build community?

ROSENWASSER: There’s a relationship tax when you work remotely. Because you’re not in person every day, you don’t have these natural moments of connection. Quarterly off-sites are one of the best ways to build teamwork and strengthen sense of belonging. We have an off-site team that is dedicated to helping leaders put together an agenda, guest speakers, location and hotels.

We had to be really intentional about onboarding because it takes place remotely. Everyone gets an onboarding buddy, which is somebody likely on their team. They show them the ropes, meet with them every day, and eventually it turns into weekly meetings. They also get a mentor, and this could be someone that sits within their team or outside of their team.

People who live in and around the same city come together every week, every other week, for various events. It could be a volunteer event. When we have executives in town in certain cities, we’ll do fireside chats with them and invite all the folks (who work in that area) to come. Everything is basically subsidized, and they’re not mandatory.

AP: What did Dropbox leaders need to unlearn to make this work?

ROSENWASSER: There is a perception that when you’re in the office and you can actually physically see the people on your team, you can just assume they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But I think we all know from working in offices that’s not necessarily true. There are tons of distractions. You’ve got gyms and on-site yoga and all kinds of things that are distracting, let alone the number of people that can walk by your desk to start a conversation when you’re midthought.

Today, every single person at Dropbox can see what every team’s responsible for, every item on the roadmap, when things are going to be done, how those things are going to be done. We’re extremely transparent about our goals and what teams are doing.

We don’t have to micromanage their presence because we set these goals and either they hit them or they don’t hit them, so this has become a really important aspect of our operating model, is assertive goal-setting and clarity.

All of our meetings start with a written document. People will, for the first five or 10 minutes of the meeting, read it and then they come on camera, and then we discuss it. It's been really great for clarity of thought because clear writing is effectively clear thinking, so it forces you to put your thoughts and your proposal into a format that can be digested.

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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

The giveaway includes 500 free pizzas from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on May 14.

The location of the Buddy’s Pizza involved with the giveaway is 1565 Broadway Street, Detroit.

The event is a part of Ally Financial’s “Life Today” campaign.

Bridget Sponsky, Ally Executive Director, Brand, Sponsorship and Creative, joined Local 4 Live to talk more about the event and why Detroit was chosen for this big giveaway.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

But some critics call the Rededicate 250 event an effort to “hijack” U.S. history with a false, Christian nationalist narrative — one they say fuses American and Christian identities and threatens a constitutional separation of church and state.

The daylong program is being organized by a nonprofit called Freedom 250. Its website describes it as a public-private partnership “leading the presidential programming for America's 250th anniversary,” which culminates with the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

Congressional Democrats have questioned the organization's structure and finances, which they see as a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.

Top Republican officials promote event

Organizers expect thousands of people to attend Rededicate 250, which will include worship music, prayers and speeches from Cabinet heads and other Republican officials, along with religious leaders and others. Trump and several other speakers are addressing the crowd by video, while others will speak in person. The scheduled participants include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

"Our founders knew two simple truths," Hegseth said in a promotional video for the event featuring a montage of Cabinet secretaries.

"Our rights don’t come from government, they come from God. And a nation is only as strong as its faith,” added Hegseth, whose use of Christian rhetoric to justify the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran and in other official settings has drawn scrutiny.

Another promotional video for Rededicate 250 blends various Christian and American imagery — scenes of a cross laid on an American flag, a robed choir, people raising their hands in worship — along with a brief scene of a man praying while wearing a Jewish skullcap. Voices of prominent preachers are heard, one proclaiming, “Faith in God is the value that most shaped America.”

Religious leaders on the Rededicate 250 program include several longtime Christian supporters of Trump, among them evangelist Franklin Graham and pastors Paula White-Cain, who heads the White House Faith Office; Robert Jeffress; and Samuel Rodriguez. Also scheduled are Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron and Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, the only faith leader on the program representing a non-Christian faith.

Musicians on the program include Grammy-winning contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin.

Some leading participants portray Rededicate 250 as a Christian gathering.

“I believe it’s a moment when the Body of Christ, the church, comes together and will boldly declare that America still needs God,” said Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin in a social media video posted on X. “This is an opportunity for believers to stand together as one nation under God. ... I’m honored that they’ve asked me to speak and share the Gospel.”

Johnson noted that the event comes 250 years after Congress declared May 17, 1776, a “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” on behalf of the Revolutionary cause.

Critics say event 'hijacked’ by Christian nationalism

Critics say Rededicate 250 is shaping up to promote Christian nationalism — whose adherents typically believe that the United States was founded as and should be a Christian nation.

“What should be a broadly unifying celebration has been politically hijacked and wrapped up in this MAGA narrative that tries to rewrite our history and promote the president’s agenda,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Huffman said the movement erases the diversity of America’s religious and nonreligious populations throughout its history and threatens the constitutional protections against government-established religion.

The event "would have the founders rolling in their graves,” said Huffman, a California Democrat. He co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which emphasizes separation of church and state.

“They have narrowly defined what it means both to be American and to be Christian, and they are wrapping that in the official sanction of the U.S. government," Huffman said.

He said it's a movement that doesn't speak for all Christians, noting Trump's recent sparring with Pope Leo XIV.

Conservative Christians cheer multiple Trump initiatives

The Rededicate 250 event is occurring in tandem with other White House initiatives appealing to Trump’s loyal base of conservative Christians, particularly white evangelical Protestants.

Several participants — including Graham, White-Cain, Dolan, Barron and Soloveichik — also serve on the Religious Liberty Commission. That Trump-appointed panel is preparing a report on its findings after a year of hearings, many of which were focused on conservative Christian and right-leaning political grievances. Its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, repeatedly denies that the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state.

Several participants in Rededicate 250 joined with Trump himself in a Bible-reading marathon.

And a separate Trump administration task force recently alleged discrimination against Christians under Democratic President Joe Biden — a report criticized by progressive groups as “advocacy dressed up as investigation.”

That report alleged that such a bias resulted in heavy fines imposed on two Christian colleges — Grand Canyon University for allegedly deceiving thousands of students over program costs, a decision later reversed, and Liberty University for its handling of crime statistics and sexual assault cases. Choirs from both colleges are performing at Rededicate 250.

Beliefs about Christian nationhood

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults and about one-quarter of Republicans, said the federal government should declare Christianity the official religion of the nation, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April.

Some 43% said the government should not do so, but should promote Christian values, while 38% said it should do neither. The report said 13% of U.S. adults and 18% of Republicans said the government should stop enforcing the separation of church and state.

Historians generally agree that the founders’ religious beliefs varied, that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t establish an official religion and that it was significantly influenced by Enlightenment thinkers.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, hopes to stage a demonstration elsewhere in Washington on the day of the rally.

“This is the government putting on a Christian nationalist event,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation's co-president. “Even if it is accepting private money for it, it’s still putting it on. It’s outrageous.”

Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor and president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way, a progressive site covering faith and politics, said that while the Continental Congress did call for a day of prayer, the founders crafted the Constitution to prevent the establishment of religion. Two early presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, thought such official events were harmful to religion, he wrote.

The event "simply doesn’t represent what type of nation the founders later decided to create,” Kaylor wrote.

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

Some of the other ripples, though, aren't as obvious. They're the ones we carry inside us — grief over lost loved ones, chronic health conditions, the sense of lives interrupted. And in recent days, another one has made itself known in the wake of a rare hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship: the fear, despite official reassurances, that it might be happening again.

But the flourishing of fear, whether on a personal or societal level, can also be an indicator that something else is missing. Perhaps there's no post-pandemic reality more entrenched than the damage done, in the U.S. and globally, to the bonds that in the before times, many would have considered secure — science, government, information itself.

“COVID undermined our trust in what most of us used to trust,” said Elisa Jayne Bienenstock, a research professor and sociologist at Arizona State University. “When general trust goes down, when there’s a lot of cynicism, who are people looking to, to explain what to do and how the world works?”

What it used to be and what it is now

Before 2020, the outbreak of some illness somewhere didn't usually cause massive concern outside of the specific areas impacted, even as some epidemics caused significant numbers of deaths.

Some of that was complacency in the face of a world where widespread travel wasn't as accessible to the masses as it has become, which was a key part of COVID-19's spread.

In fact, there have been outbreaks of the current strain of hantavirus in some South American countries through the decades, like one in 1997 in Chile. Other countries have had epidemics of a range of illnesses from cholera to dengue to SARS, and the U.S. has seen West Nile, Legionnaire's and more.

But in a post-COVID-19 world, it didn't take long before questions and concerns surfaced about disease spread in the days immediately following the first reports that three people had died from hantavirus on the ship. Since then, there have been reports of 11 hantavirus cases around the world linked to the cruise, according to the World Health Organization, and that includes the deaths. Lab testing has confirmed eight of the cases.

Health experts have repeatedly emphasized that even though the virus can cause serious illness in those infected, the risk of spread in the general public is low. Despite that, when ship passengers were taken to the Spanish island of Tenerife to disembark, residents like Samantha Aguero were concerned.

“We feel a bit unsafe. We don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it," she said. “This is a virus, after all, and we have lived this during the pandemic.”

Institutions are diminished for many

Bienenstock points to three institutions that have suffered from the public's loss of trust: government, media and science itself. But government officials and journalists were dealing with issues of public mistrust well before the pandemic.

The mistrust of science got ammunition not because scientists were making mistakes in their processes but because nonscientists didn't have the same understanding, she said.

“Most people don’t think of science as a process. In their mind, science is an answer, it’s a fact. And so when those facts showed that they weren’t 100% reliable and assured, it started undermining trust in the science,” she said.

“One of the problems with COVID is it undermined that confidence in science for people who don’t understand how science works. It showed the process. And it showed that scientists don’t always have the answer,” Bienenstock said. “A lot of people in crisis, when they fear things, don’t care what the answer is, as long as there’s a definitive answer. And science doesn’t provide that when it doesn’t know."

Now what?

It's not just about the issue at the forefront of people's attention at the moment. There are ripple effects as well.

“COVID ... didn’t just heighten people’s sensitivity to health threats. It did so unevenly, in ways often disconnected from actual risk,” said Michele Gelfand, professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “As trust in institutions has weakened, people have lost a key way to navigate uncertainty together. Without trust, people rely more on rumor, fear, and emotion, which can lead them to overreact to small risks and underreact to serious ones.”

Karlynn Morgan, a 76-year-old retired nurse-anesthetist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has seen that heightened attention, with more people without a medical or science background talking about health issues than before the pandemic.

She has also been disturbed by the increase in what looks to her like a lack of trust in science, as seen in falling vaccination rates and rising instances of diseases like measles.

“I think people are far less trusting because people used to take their children and just get the vaccine," she said. "When I was a kid, there was no question you were going to go get your shot.”

If trust is going to be rebuilt, Gelfand said in an email, then leaders have to get involved.

“They set the threat signal. They determine whether people get accurate information about the level of danger or distorted information that serves a political agenda. When leaders send clear, honest signals, people can calibrate in the face of threat. When leaders manipulate threat for their own purposes, norms erode and and trust collapses,” Gelfand said.

“Strong, reliable institutions have historically been our superpower as a society. They’re what allow millions of people to coordinate under uncertainty without knowing each other personally," she said. "Without that institutional backbone, we lose the very capacity for collective action that has helped human groups survive for millennia.”

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Follow the AP's coverage of the hantavirus outbreak at https://apnews.com/hub/hantavirus.

On May 16, the foundation will host their Tyrone E. Winfrey Hall of Fame Alumni Gala.

The Gala honors distinguished DPSCD alumni who have made a major impact in our community and beyond.

The night is a celebration of Detroit’s success stories and a fundraiser to create new opportunities for the next generation of students.

Organizers say there will be a major live announcement aimed at helping Detroit High School students build brighter futures.

Kerrie Mitchell, the president and CEO of the DPSCD Foundation, joined Local 4 Live to talk more about the gala, the foundation’s mission and what the announcement could mean for students across the city.

You can watch the full interview in the video at the beginning of this article.

No games were scheduled for Thursday — the league's first day with no games in a month — meaning the playoffs will resume Friday with two games.

Detroit, trying to keep its season alive, will play in Cleveland. And Minnesota, trying to keep its season alive, will play host to San Antonio.

The Cavaliers and Spurs hold 3-2 leads in those series. If Game 7s are needed, they would be Sunday in Detroit and San Antonio.

Thursday's schedule

— No games scheduled.

Friday's schedule

— Game 6, Detroit at Cleveland, 7 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: Cleveland leads 3-2.

Odds: Cleveland by 3.5.

The Pistons are already 3-0 when facing elimination in these playoffs, with one of those wins coming on the road — the one where they rallied from 24 points down in the second half to beat Orlando in Game 6 of Round 1.

— Game 6, San Antonio at Minnesota, 9:30 p.m. EDT (Prime)

Series: San Antonio leads 3-2.

Odds: San Antonio by 4.5.

Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs are one game away from a showdown with Oklahoma City. Minnesota let Game 5 get away in a hurry in the second half, but remains alive in the chase for what would be its third consecutive appearance in the Western Conference finals.

Wednesday's recap

— Cavaliers 117, Pistons 113, OT for a 3-2 series lead. The Pistons are in trouble.

Conference finals schedule

The NBA Finals will start on June 3. And there is a chance that we won't know where Game 1 of that series is going to be until June 1.

Conference finals schedules are out, with start dates contingent on Friday's results. Here are the scenarios:

— If Detroit-Cleveland ends in six games, then the Cleveland-New York series (with the Knicks having home-court) would be played May 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31.

— If Detroit-Cleveland ends in seven games, then the Cavs/Pistons winner-New York series (with either the Pistons or the Knicks having home-court) would be played May 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31.

— If San Antonio-Minnesota ends in six games, then the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series (with the Thunder having home-court) would be played May 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, and 30.

— If San Antonio-Minnesota ends in seven games, then the Timberwolves/Spurs winner-Oklahoma City series (with the Thunder having home-court) would be played May 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and June 1.

Awards watch

A breakdown of this season's NBA awards:

— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.

— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.

— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.

— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.

— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.

— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.

— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.

— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.

Among the announcements still to come:

— Most Valuable Player: Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver's Nikola Jokic.

— Coach of the Year: Johnson, Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston's Joe Mazzulla.

Betting odds

Defending champion Oklahoma City (-165) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+320), New York (+550), Cleveland (+4000), Detroit (+5000) and Minnesota (+12500).

Key dates

— Through Sunday: NBA draft combine.

— Sunday or Tuesday: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— Monday or Wednesday: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft.

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft.

Quote of the day

“It was preparing for moments like this. I knew that I was going to come back this season. I knew that this team was good enough to make a run and I was just preparing myself, preparing my body, preparing my mind for these moments, to be the best player that I can be to help us win.” — Cleveland's Max Strus, on how he handled missing 70 regular-season games but was ready for the playoffs.

Stats of the day

— Cleveland's James Harden is up to 4,144 career playoff points, three away from tying Golden State's Stephen Curry for 10th on the all-time playoff list. Harden would move into third among active players if he passes Curry, behind only LeBron James (8,521) and Kevin Durant (5,008).

— San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama is up to 14 3-pointers and 38 blocks so far in these playoffs. Every other player with that many 3s and blocks in a single postseason — Rasheed Wallace in 2004 and 2005, Draymond Green in 2016 and Myles Turner and Chet Holmgren last year — saw their teams reach the NBA Finals. (Wembanyama is the first player to have that many 3s and blocks in just the first two rounds of the playoffs.)

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